Chapter 162: Taking Stock of Family Assets

This wasn't about whether he was the culprit, but rather the underlying nature of the Demonic Dao, which everyone understood.

What a perfect excuse for me to exploit them.

Just because you say it's unrelated doesn't make it so. Even the innocent are guilty! Deacon Xu, who was detained and had all his assets confiscated back then, knew this feeling all too well.

"City Lord, you are truly magnanimous. It would be a great blessing for the Guan family's descendants to become your disciples. Are there any numerical requirements? Our Guan family still has a hundred young cultivators at home."

"The Jiang family also has a hundred individuals for the City Lord to select."

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow.

"No rush. The formal establishment of the manor and acceptance of disciples will take place in half a month. Two individuals per clan will suffice."

Having said this, he then looked at the representative from Yunmeng Pavilion.

"Before I entered the city, I met Fellow Daoist Zhao from your esteemed Pavilion, and she rendered me great assistance."

"For the North City area, I will trouble your esteemed Pavilion to help maintain order for now. Formal documents will be issued once matters here are properly established."

"Oh? Me!"

The envoy from Yunmeng Pavilion was petite and delicate, a beauty of the demure and charming type. Her cultivation was only at the second level of Foundation Establishment, on par with Wang Yu's, and her status was likely below that of Zhao Yunniang.

Suddenly bestowed with such significant goodwill and authority by the new City Lord, she felt both joy and apprehension.

Because Wang Yu had stated publicly that Zhao Yunniang assisted him before he entered the city, and considering the nature of Yunmeng Pavilion's business, it was immediately obvious that the assistance was intelligence.

Once this news spread, Yunmeng Pavilion would effectively be sailing in the same stormy, solitary boat as Wang Yu.

To accept or not to accept? That was the question.

Yet, she seemed to have no other choice.

The woman sighed inwardly, but her face displayed a joyful expression. "Xiangxiang thanks the City Lord for his trust. I will certainly not fail your expectations and will diligently maintain order in the North City area."

After all, the deaths of so many minor faction leaders in North City—forces that only possessed a single Foundation Establishment cultivator each—would undoubtedly lead to considerable unrest.

"In that case, I shall not see you out. I request that you all return to this location in half a month's time."

Only then did everyone suddenly realize: they were expected to return here?

With the formation active, this place became a death trap. Wouldn't they be completely at his mercy? Though their hearts were filled with trepidation, their words of agreement came easily.

Wang Yu knew that for their next meeting, they would at most send a representative, and would never dare to come in person.

It was all because of that damn Tuoba Lei, who even in death, had managed to cause them trouble.

—Serves him right!

The storm within the City Lord's manor had subsided, but the storm outside was set to rage for a considerable time. Wang Yu saw everyone off, sealed the gates, and began to inventory the manor's wealth.

He summoned the Three-tailed Snow Fox and gave it instructions.

"Snow Jade, freeze all these minced remains and body parts and stack them in that corner."

"Yip~"

With no subordinates available, he had to handle the cleanup himself.

The spoils of war, over five hundred storage bags, were piled into small mounds before Wang Yu. Checking each one meticulously required considerable effort, but the final count of his gains was enough to significantly replenish his depleted finances.

"Over 110,000 spirit stones, more than six hundred first-tier magical artifacts, and eighteen second-tier magical artifacts, predominantly low-grade. Only Tuoba Lei and the Head of the Bai family possessed high-grade second-tier magical artifacts."

One was the horse-severing saber he had just observed, and the other was a sword.

After examining them, Wang Yu discovered they were inferior to the Azure Water Sword he had confiscated from Old Lan. As expected of a Sword Sect product, its quality was far superior to ordinary magical swords.

As for cultivation techniques and spells, there was a significantly larger collection.

This was arguably the largest haul Wang Yu had ever acquired since he began cultivating.

*Azure Dragon City-Linking Art*, *Blazing Fire Burning Body Art*, *Green Wood Nourishing Core Art*, and *Jade Maiden Cleansing Heart Scripture*.

These were all dropped by the Foundation Establishment leaders of North City. While the cultivation paths themselves were complete, the accompanying spells, secret arts, and magical artifact inheritances were all fragmented.

By the standards of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect, these could not be considered complete inheritances. However, for rogue cultivators, simply having the operational route of a cultivation technique was complete enough.

Different perspectives naturally led to different criteria for judgment.

These were not particularly useful to him, but they could enrich the City Lord's manor's collection and would be beneficial for training subordinates in the future. Foundation Establishment cultivation techniques already possessed significant value.

As for spells, only one proved useful to him.

The *Cleansing Heart Spell*, as its name implies, has the effect of purifying the mind and calming the spirit. This was precisely what he needed, as he planned to use the opportunity of malevolent spirits devouring his body to temper his spiritual sense.

Using this spell as an auxiliary would make the process much safer.

Ultimately, this group of people was too low-tier, possessing few valuable items. Even the higher-tier individuals, such as the Head of the Bai family and Tuoba Lei, did not have inheritance jade slips in their storage bags.

The Tuoba family had also risen from the ranks of rogue cultivators, experiencing rapid development only in the last century. Their foundation was too shallow, thus they did not possess many valuable items.

With the war spoils inventoried, it was time to assess the City Lord's manor itself.

The treasury, the storeroom, the scripture pavilion, and the high-grade medicinal garden.

These four were of utmost importance. Possessing the City Lord's token meant Wang Yu had supreme authority throughout this area and could access any part of it.

The medicinal garden within the manor appeared to be the Tuoba family's private property, predominantly cultivating common second-tier spirit herbs. Only a scarce three or four rarer types were present, though they were sufficient for Wang Yu's daily needs.

Not bad!

The manor's storeroom was likely prepared by the Tuoba family for their clansmen and those who served them. It contained a vast and varied assortment of items, including magical artifacts, pills, talismans, and formation flags—everything imaginable.

Unfortunately, all of these items were only first-tier, making them useless to him.

Ordinary.

The treasured vault contained the entirety of the Tuoba family's prized collections. Only their two Foundation Establishment cultivators had the right to enter. Upon arriving, Wang Yu was nearly blinded by the dazzling spiritual radiance.

Box after box of storage containers, crafted using techniques similar to storage bags to expand their internal space, each with the capacity of a room, were filled entirely with spirit stones. These included not only low-grade but also mid-grade spirit stones. After a careful tally, Wang Yu found a total of 1.36 million, which, when converted to mid-grade spirit stones, still amounted to over 136,000.

Excellent!

After his initial surge of delight, Wang Yu composed himself.

"Wait, no, these are tributes destined for the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect."

That's right.

The territory of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect spanned four entire states, boasting far more than ten thousand cities built upon spiritual veins!

Depending on the grade of the spiritual vein, tribute was required every five years: 100,000 spirit stones for a first-tier spiritual vein, and 500,000 spirit stones for a second-tier spiritual vein.

Gui Ling City, being situated on a third-tier spiritual vein, required a tribute of one million spirit stones every five years. While this might seem like a large sum, it varied by location, and for a city like Gui Ling, accumulating the tribute was quite easy.

"This means that out of the 1.36 million, only 360,000 belong to me. Still, that's acceptable; it's better than nothing."

Wang Yu counted the days on his fingers. This year marked the exact end of a five-year tribute cycle. No wonder the spirit stones were piled in the treasury. With the Tuoba family wiped out and him having no subordinates, who would he send to deliver the tribute this year?

This was a problem.

There was no time to dwell on it; more treasures awaited his inspection.

Aside from the spirit stones, there were naturally other collections. Shelves were embedded directly into the walls, with linked restrictions that appeared to be derived from the main formation.

Still under his control, he examined them one by one, and Wang Yu was met with another pleasant surprise.

A third-tier precious material: Blood Dragon Essence!

Legend claimed it was a gem naturally formed from the vital essence and blood of a deceased flood dragon with a potent bloodline. It was entirely blood-red and exuded a faint dragon's might.

For his Yin Nether Demonic Flood Dragon Spine, this was a supreme treasure for strengthening its foundation, capable of forcibly elevating his cultivation in the path of body refining.

This piece of Blood Dragon Essence was the size of a fist. Even a small amount of its powdered form would be sufficient for him to refine dragon blood secret medicine. Wang Yu carefully put it away.

Next item.

A third-tier spirit herb: Golden Qi Root!

This item was quite rare, found only in treasured lands of the Metal element where its energy was incredibly dense but had remained dormant for years, thus losing its sharpness.

This item had a relatively narrow range of applications. Given the Tuoba family's foundation, they likely did not know how to utilize it at the time, which explains its presence in the treasury.

Wang Yu, however, happened to know an ancient pill formula.

It was called the Exquisite Treasure Pill, and Golden Qi Root was one of its primary ingredients. However, the formula itself was recorded among a collection of ancient secret texts he had acquired from the Central Law Enforcement Hall.

He only possessed the general information; to obtain the actual pill formula, he would need to return and exchange for it. He carefully put this treasure away as well.

Subsequently, almost all the remaining items in the treasury were second-tier spiritual objects.

Wang Yu left only one million spirit stones in the treasury, converting the remainder into his personal assets. As he departed, he mumbled under his breath.

"Poor... truly impoverished!"

"A dignified City Lord's manor in such a place, yet it possesses nothing!"

He then turned and entered the Scripture Pavilion.

This place contained not only the Tuoba family's century of accumulated knowledge but also some cultivation techniques and secret manuals acquired by Zhuo Kuangsheng during his term. The collection was substantial, yet not excessively large.

It primarily consisted of first and second-tier texts, with no third-tier ones at all.

Among them, one escape technique made Wang Yu realize something. Named the Purple Dragon Earth Travel Art, its very name suggested it was an inheritance from Purple Dragon Mountain.

No wonder Zhuo Kuangsheng had once battled the Purple Dragon Mountain Master.

The so-called "Purple Dragon" refers to a loach. This Earth Travel Art was a secret transmission of Purple Dragon Mountain, akin to a true inherited profound art, and a relatively advanced earth evasion technique.

Capable of burrowing through the ground, passing through walls, and moving through rocks, it was an incredibly versatile spell. As Wang Yu possessed an Earth spiritual root, he could also learn this technique without his efforts being halved due to elemental incompatibility.

With the inventory of the City Lord's manor's resources complete, which included the accumulated wealth of the Tuoba family, Wang Yu's personal fortune surged to nearly 500,000 spirit stones.

While this amount seemed substantial, it would only be 50,000 if converted to mid-grade spirit stones. If converted to high-grade spirit stones, it would be equivalent to a mere 500—still a paltry sum.

There was only a tenfold difference in value between low-grade and mid-grade spirit stones.

However, between high-grade and mid-grade spirit stones, there was a hundredfold difference.

Furthermore, high-grade spirit stones circulated exclusively among Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators, as only those at such realms could "conjure" them. Generally, they served as an equivalent currency for a different tier of resources.

It was almost unheard of for low- or mid-grade spirit stones to be exchanged for high-grade ones.

Next, Wang Yu proceeded to the City Lord's manor's archives.

He retrieved the ledgers detailing the manor's past revenues and expenditures, along with Gui Ling City's development records, the distribution of benefits from surrounding resources, and more.

This portion of the wealth rightfully belonged to the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect.

Wang Yu, as the City Lord, functioned as a manager, overseeing the local industries. The sect had set a standard of one million spirit stones every five years, and anything exceeding that amount naturally became his own.

Firstly, income was divided into three main categories.

1. Taxation.

This included taxes from the three major families within the city, cultivators in the various market districts across the five urban areas, external rogue cultivators, merchant caravans, and more.

It encompassed five major types of taxes: commodity tax, tribute tax, public order tax, management tax, and transit tax.

This single category alone could generate nearly 300,000 spirit stones in annual revenue for the City Lord's manor, totaling 1.5 million over five years. However, the accounts couldn't be calculated so simply, as there were numerous expenditures.

City maintenance, formation upkeep, personnel expenses, and unforeseen casualties were all significant costs.