Chapter 34: Chapter 34 – From the Ashes.

Bai Meirong was far more kind-hearted than Xiulan would have been. When the Bai Clan was pulled out of the rubble of their panic space, she chose to have their cultivation crippled then set them free. Including the venomous Madam Bai.

Xiulan could not have made the same choice, but she appreciated Meirong’s temperament. Only merchants and cultivators needed to be ruthless. Administrators could afford to be lenient. With crippled cultivation the Bai Clan could not make too much trouble for Xiulan now. They might still have some connections to the Capital but not enough to stir up any real threat to the Combine or Xiulan’s lovers.

The overthrowing of the Bai Clan forever shifted the dynamics of the city, and it happened almost overnight. Now that a foundation establishment cultivation was backing Xiulan she did not have to exercise caution with the local markets.

Under Meirong’s leadership the Combine quickly became an engine of efficient commerce. Xiulan fed a constant stream of information on market prices to Meirong and handed over most of the spending capital into her administration.

Xiulan only had Meirong agree to move over any profits that did not have to be invested into infrastructure to her.

The profits from all of her collective investments rolled in like water. Pretty soon Xiulan had so much money she did not know what to do with it all. She estimated that at the current rate of sales she would be earning upwards of one hundred thousand gold a month. Her cultivation was skyrocketing, and she had already reached the third level of Foundation establishment.

Xiulan, as a poetic gesture, had bought the land the Bai Clan used to occupy and started construction on a lavish palace. The cost of the construction was still nowhere near bankrupting her. Out of the ashes of the old established Temple Gorge system a new dynamic, commercially driven city was emerging.

While that all sounded very exiting Xiulan was incredibly bored. Her lovers all had crafts and businesses to run every day, but she was reclining and watching gold accumulate every day.

It was not unpleasant, but she had come such a long way from her beginnings as a desperate slave in a backwater mountain town that she did not know what to do. It felt to her that she had already achieved everything that the system had wanted her to. She was surrounded by capable people who were all working for her, and she had more gold than most merchants in the kingdom would ever make.

A harsh buzz sounded, and the system sounded out, “the host has failed as a merchant! You have already given up when you barely control the wealth of one city let alone the wealth of the world! The most important quality of a merchant is greed and Ambition. A new mission has been issued. Earn 10 million gold coins to unlock a reward.”

Xiulan sat bolt upright. The system had not offered a reward since she had started to use the shop feature.

On that note the system sounded again, “the shop has also been closed to undergo some changes. We hope that our loyal customer can be patient as we redecorate.”

Xiulan choked in anger. The system was blatantly making things more difficult, to punish her lack of ambition. Now she had to make 10 million gold without further help from the shop.

This was an outrage! After calming down Xiulan began to ponder the future and how she could earn more. Temple Gorge was a large city as far as the interior was concerned but there was much more business to be done on the coasts.

The Sects would not be as easy to deal with as the Clans of Temple Gorge had been though. It was better to finish taking over the economy of the interior before she moved to the Capital. The only problem with that was that the Kingdom was essentially bifurcated.

Humanity had expanded from the coasts inland following the major rivers. There were two such navigable rivers in the Kingdom the problem was that they were not connected in any way. The west interior had always been somewhat cut off from the east as it was cheaper to ship goods from the western side of the Kingdom to the east by sea as opposed to hauling them over land.

Xiulan paused for a second. There was a way that she could use this to earn a fortune. If she created a canal between the two major rivers of the kingdom, then she could ship goods directly to the Capital instead of going through the seaports.

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There was a city centre along the western river that played a similar function to the function Temple Gorge provided to the eastern interior. If Xiulan could establish a branch of the Combine, there and then connect the two rivers she would truly control all of the food trade in the Kingdom.

There was an additional benefit to confining her operations to the interior of the Kingdom. Xiulan could largely avoid taxation. The royal family only taxed the interior by selling property and mineral rights. There was no income tax. It was an incentive to have at least some commerce establish itself in the qi scarce region.

The plan was ambitious, but all Xiulan would need to do was purchase the rights to construct such a canal from an administrator. Administrator Dai had the authority to sell her such rights and was most likely still grateful to her for getting rid of the Kang Clan.

Besides the royal family only really cared about the interior to the extent to ensure that food and minerals continued to flow down river.

Xiulan immediately took her plan to Meirong who simply responded with, “are you crazy? A canal of that size would be incredibly expensive not to mention that the land rights for so much land would be ludicrously expensive as well.”

Xiulan rolled her eyes and retorted, “I am not saying we do this tomorrow we should set up the Combine branch on the western river first. Besides we have access to extensive labour. At the moment how many people do we turn away from the Combine because they do not have goods to sell”

Meirong bit her lip and slowly responded, “perhaps one in three people are not involved in any kind of farming. They are mostly labourers.”

Xiulan swept Meirong into her arms and kissed her. Xiulan laughed at Meirong’s blushing face and said, “you, see? We can recruit from them. Cultivation in return for labour working on the canal.”

Meirong sighed, “you have just given me a lot of work. One branch is hectic enough as is. Two is going to be a nightmare to organise.”

Xiulan chuckled and chided, “you have to learn to delegate. Besides we will only leave to establish the new branch in a couple of months. I have to have a luxury boat built for us. I cannot stand to leave any of you behind and we will need a large custom boat to house all of us and our personal. Fu Jinjing will probably want a mobile workshop and little Ling will need a lab as well.”

Meirong paled at the expense, and stammered, “but… but… we are already building a palace here in Temple Gorge.”

Xiulan tutted and shrugged, “just give me whatever funding can be spared from the Combine and the Zhao Clan iron sales. I am in charge of the big picture remember? I will work on the grand projects. It will take a lot of money and time, but this move could make us real powers in the Kingdom. You have to spend big to earn big.”

Meirong rolled her eyes but smiled as she saw the gold coins in Xiulan’s eyes. “Fine let’s do it. I for one will follow our fearless leader,” joked Meirong.

Xiulan stuck her tongue out at her.

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