Jing Tao sat in Jing Hesheng's old office chair, poring over the documents in front of her and rubbing her brow.
"Puxi has developed well over the years, and its commodity economy has grown increasingly prosperous. Lingtong Hall's gross profit keeps rising... It's already more than five times what it was in my father's day.
But the workers' wages haven't gone up.
Not only that, those bastards have kept cutting the workers' benefits.
The workers have resisted a few times, but the security team has crushed them every time... It's been brutal."
Watching Jing Tao, Xu Yi felt a pang of sympathy.
He didn't know the first thing about business, but he understood a little about the state of the world.
This was a time of great upheaval. In Puxi City, where different ideas and ideologies clashed and mingled, the poor were getting poorer while the rich grew richer.
Someone like Jing Tao, born into an affluent family and raised with universal moral principles, hadn't inherited the older generation's vicious ruthlessness. Her conscience had been nurtured instead.
That said, conscience was partly shaped by one's upbringing, but it was mostly inborn.
Someone born rotten could never become a bodhisattva who saved people from suffering.
Jing Tao continued reading the documents, speaking softly to Xu Yi, though most of all she seemed to be explaining things to herself.
"Lingtong Hall is doing very well financially. The wage increase I promised the workers today is entirely affordable.
Many of them have been with the Jing Family for years. When we bring in new people and expand production, once everything is running smoothly, I'd like to improve their benefits further, if possible...
Ideally, we can establish a proper benefits policy, so the other workers can see that if they work hard for my Lingtong Hall, they'll be rewarded."
Listening to her, Xu Yi felt deeply moved.
That night outside the Zhang Family residence, he'd already realized that Jing Tao had a conscience.
Whatever else might be said, sharing profits with employees was the first step toward success.
Xu Yi firmly believed in the principle that wealth scattered among the people brought them together.
At around two in the morning, the machines on the first floor of Lingtong Hall were still running. In the factory district, mechanical rumbling mingled with the bubbling of boilers. Of the familiar noises that usually accompanied one another, only the steam train's whistle was missing, making the night feel strange.
Fortunately, the Big Factory District stretched far enough, and the residents of the 38th Shop District were already used to the noise. So when the frogs and crickets began calling again, people drifted off to sleep as usual.
Jing Tao had dealt with most of the problems left over. She leaned back in her office chair, propping her head on her left hand as she spun a fountain pen between the fingers of her right.
She wasn't tired at all. If anything, she felt a little exhilarated.
She'd never imagined she could take back the family business so easily.
For the past few years, she'd always had to be ready to face those vicious relatives. Every day, she trained her divinity, risked being consumed by the evil spirits as she refined them, made sure her father had food to eat, and kept up with her studies...
She felt like a spinning top, whirling from the moment she woke until she was utterly exhausted.
She'd long since accepted the fate her father had laid out for her—
Study hard, learn to speak fluent foreign languages, and hopefully meet a noble boy at a school social. A foreigner would be best, but a local aristocrat would do. Ideally, she'd get pregnant before graduating. That would give her a real chance of marrying into a wealthy family...
When Xu Yi first appeared, she hadn't realized that her fate was quietly beginning to change.
Seeking his help had been no more than a spur-of-the-moment experiment.
—or perhaps some hormonal flutter had made her entertain a few unrealistic fantasies.
But who could have guessed that a boy barely past childhood would actually deal with the vicious relatives at the factory and take it back for her?
Who could have guessed that he wouldn't just help her reclaim the factory, but would also return control to her?
It all felt like a dream. Even now, it seemed utterly unreal.
Jing Tao fell into a daze.
Then she heard the measured tap of footsteps on the stairs outside the office and recognized Xu Yi's step.
She looked at Xu Yi, who had just come up the stairs from the first floor.
"Have you used the censer my master gave you?"
Only then did Xu Yi realize that the old man from that morning had been Jing Tao's master.
"I have."
Since Jing Tao wasn't afraid of him knowing about her relationship with her master, Xu Yi saw no reason to hide his own situation from her. He spoke plainly.
"I smelled the scent inside the censer. Does that mean I've become a Night Roaming God?
But this ability is just so..."
Jing Tao finished his sentence for him.
"...strange."
She'd known all along that once Xu Yi turned his spirituality into divinity, it probably wouldn't be suited for combat.
Xu Yi nodded.
"Exactly. It's strange."
Jing Tao gazed out at the deep darkness beyond the window, her voice as soft as the evening breeze.
"Violence can be very effective, but most of the time, Night Roaming Gods don't solve problems through violence.
There are only so many problems that fighting can solve.
Night Roaming Gods rely far more on their strange, uncanny divinities to solve problems.
So even if you think your divinity is mediocre, you don't need to sell yourself short.
Often, what determines how powerful a divinity is isn't the divinity itself, but the person who uses it."
Her words opened up a new way of thinking for Xu Yi. He didn't quite understand it yet, but it was still immensely helpful.
Jing Tao said seriously,
"My master said that once you turned your spirituality into divinity, he'd look for a legacy for you." (Chapter 22)
She paused.
"But..."
Thinking of all Xu Yi had done for her, she decided to tell him the truth.
"There are many Night Roaming God legacies, and they're all over the place... some of them are downright uncanny.
Some have been passed down from ancient times.
Some were created by people in the present day after they became gods.
Some were created by the Hundred Night Miasma... Those are more unusual, and you're unlikely to come across them by chance.
Many legacies were lost amid war and dynastic change.
To restore a lost legacy, a Night Roaming God of the present day has to rely on their own insight and make sacrifices while experimenting... In short, it's extremely difficult."
Xu Yi understood what she meant.
"That censer's legacy was lost."
Jing Tao found it easy to talk to Xu Yi.
She nodded and explained.
"The censer originally came from an extremely ancient hidden sect. My master had it in his possession for many years, but he still couldn't figure out exactly how it worked."
Xu Yi thought it over.
"His divinity wasn't suited to using that censer."
Jing Tao confirmed it.
"That's right. My master is a Ferryman, one rank above a Ghost Messenger. His divinity lets him use incense, but the incense he uses isn't the same as what's inside that censer."
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