An Ominous Premonition

Three thousand taels of gold!

Seven thousand taels of silver!

Several antiques and paintings, valued at twenty thousand taels!

Hearing Dong Qingsheng's report, Shen Changqing could not help but stare blankly, then sighed. "As expected—ten years as a clean prefect, and ten thousand snowflake taels of silver!"

Three thousand taels of gold was equivalent to thirty thousand taels of silver.

Just like that,

there was already fifty-seven thousand taels.

Shi Qingsheng said, "Aside from these, the Zhao Family also owns several shops and some properties within Lin'an City. Their current estimated value is a little over one hundred and fifty thousand taels. Together with the previous gains, the total comes to around two hundred and ten thousand taels."

Two hundred and ten thousand taels!

Shen Changqing took a deep breath.

For an ordinary household, a year's expenses would amount to no more than one or two taels of silver.

The Zhao Family of Lin'an City alone was worth two hundred and ten thousand taels. One could well imagine how much of the people's lifeblood Zhao Fang had scraped away.

Moreover,

the Zhao Family in Lin'an City was merely one of the Zhao Family's main branches. In truth, the family had spread its branches and leaves across many places.

If calculated seriously,

the various branches combined might well break through the five hundred thousand tael mark.

"According to your orders, my lord, those antiques, paintings, and properties will begin to be sold off tomorrow. They will be converted into cash and deposited in the government treasury. When spring arrives tomorrow, they will be escorted to the capital together with the tax revenue!"

As he spoke, Shi Qingsheng handed the ledger in his hand to Shen Changqing.

"These are the detailed records. Please inspect them, my lord."

"Mm."

Shen Changqing took the account book and examined it carefully.

After a long while,

he handed the ledger back.

"Then proceed as planned!"

"Yes!"

Shi Qingsheng accepted the order and withdrew.

After a simple lunch, Shen Changqing did not go anywhere else. He remained in the government office and devoted himself to cultivating his Heavenly Martial Astral Qi.

Inside the bedroom,

he sat cross-legged, took out a Meridian-Passing Pill, and swallowed it directly.

The pill entered his stomach and immediately transformed into a powerful warm current.

With a thought, Heavenly Martial True Qi rose from his dantian, merged with that warm current, and then charged toward one of his meridians.

Rumble!!

A thunderous roar echoed from within his body.

A meridian that would originally have taken an entire night to break through was now pierced with effortless ease.

Time passed.

Every so often, after waiting for the Meridian-Passing Pill's effects to wear off, Shen Changqing would swallow another.

Just like that,

he swallowed one Meridian-Passing Pill after another.

When he reached for another Meridian-Passing Pill, he abruptly discovered that the porcelain bottle was completely empty.

"Gone!?"

Shen Changqing looked stunned, but quickly accepted it.

A bottle of Meridian-Passing Pills contained only eight pills at most.

Normally, martial artists only swallowed one when they encountered a bottleneck. The rest depended on the accumulation of arduous cultivation. Someone like him, who relied on Meridian-Passing Pills throughout the entire process, was exceedingly rare.

However,

once the Meridian-Passing Pills had all been consumed, the results were gratifying as well.

The Heavenly Martial True Qi in his dantian had grown considerably. Though it still could not contend with Pure Yang True Qi, it was no longer crushed into immobility within his dantian as before.

Two powerful streams of true qi

faintly showed signs of conflict.

Yet Heavenly Martial True Qi was still too weak. For now, it had no way to devour Pure Yang True Qi.

He looked at the panel again.

Heavenly Martial Astral Qi had leaped directly from the first level to the third.

"A superior martial art that points directly toward the Innate Realm rose from the first level to the third in just half a day. Borrowing external aid really is far faster than cultivating bitterly on my own!"

Seeing the data on the panel, Shen Changqing quietly drew in a breath.

If Meridian-Passing Pills could be supplied without limit, then perhaps he could reach the Innate Realm within a month even without using the panel.

That thought

was merely a passing fancy for Shen Changqing.

First, Meridian-Passing Pills were astonishingly effective, and their preciousness went without saying. They would certainly not be easy to obtain.

Furthermore,

no matter how good pills were, they carried side effects: pill toxins.

When he swallowed the Meridian-Passing Pills, Shen Changqing had already noticed quite a few impurities accumulating in his body.

Fortunately,

those impurities had all been refined away by Pure Yang True Qi.

If the impurities had been one or two times stronger, then even Pure Yang True Qi would absolutely not have found them easy to refine.

"Forget it. Cultivating entirely by swallowing pills is not something I can consider for now. Still, raising Heavenly Martial Astral Qi to the third level has saved me quite a bit of time.

Once I obtain more Slaughter Value, I can fully raise Heavenly Martial Astral Qi."

Judging by the usual pattern that higher levels required greater consumption, Shen Changqing felt that raising Heavenly Martial Astral Qi by two levels had saved him at least eight or ten points of Slaughter Value.

Killing a strange creature on the verge of breaking through to the Wraith Rank had only given him fifteen points of Slaughter Value.

In other words,

an ordinary Specter Rank strange creature could contribute, at most, around ten points of Slaughter Value—perhaps not even that much.

At this moment,

the night had already grown deep.

Shen Changqing had specifically instructed that no one was to disturb him while he cultivated, which was why no one had come knocking.

By the time he emerged from cultivation, the surroundings were already pitch-black.

Getting out of bed,

Shen Changqing lit the oil lamp in the bedroom, immediately driving back much of the darkness.

Yet for some reason,

as the light drove away the darkness, an uncomfortable feeling rose in his heart.

That feeling

made Shen Changqing instinctively furrow his brows.

"What is this?"

He felt that there was something wrong with this inexplicable sudden intuition, but for the moment, he could not say what exactly was wrong.

"It is said that the deeper a martial artist's cultivation, the more accurate their unseen perceptions become."

"I am now in the Innate Realm. If something bad is truly about to happen, perhaps I really might sense it."

At that thought, Shen Changqing immediately became vigilant.

He had no choice but to be vigilant.

On the surface, Lin'an City appeared quite stable, but beneath it, undercurrents were already surging. Who knew when they might erupt?

Especially since they had only just detained the Zhao Family members during the day. The commotion had not been small—

"Wait!"

"The Zhao Family!"

At the thought of the Zhao Family, Shen Changqing's expression changed slightly.

Could it be—

that someone was truly coming to break them out of prison!

With that thought, he immediately walked outside. The full moon now hung high in the sky, and it was not like usual, when one could not see one's hand before one's face.

Especially within the inner hall of the government office,

most areas had stone lanterns. At nightfall, the constables would light them, so it was not utterly dark like elsewhere.

Yet even so, his heart could not settle.

"Someone come!"

Shen Changqing shouted loudly.

Before long,

a constable hurried over.

"What are your orders, my lord?"

"Have all the Zhao Family members been detained in the prison?"

"They were all taken into custody during the day."

"Have there been any unusual occurrences in the prison or the government office?"

"—None have been discovered for the time being!"