After a day's sailing, the Cangming arrived at Miaochong Prefecture City.
Qing Chen was in no hurry to appear in public. Instead, he went straight into the core secret chamber of the City Lord's Mansion, protected by layer upon layer of formations.
At the center of the chamber, an incomparably intricate fourth-tier mid-grade Communication Array, inlaid with several high-grade spirit stones, was activating.
Qing Chen waved a hand and cast a Magic Formula. The array hummed, and spiritual light gathered.
A quarter of an hour later, several indistinct figures gradually solidified within the radiance.
The first figure to become clear was Lin Changsheng.
He was at the Demon Lotus Sect's Main Altar in Wind-Splitting Gorge County, with what appeared to be a council hall behind him.
He bowed first in greeting. "Master! You're back! All is well in Wind-Splitting Gorge. This year, the Demon Lotus Sect gained four Foundation Establishment disciples and over six hundred Qi Refining disciples.
"It's just... unidentified cultivators have recently been snooping around a third-tier yin baleful stone mine that originally belonged to Black Miasma County. It looks like...
"Like the methods of Infinite Extremity Devil Palace disciples. I've stationed more men there, but they're slippery and have escaped several times."
Next, Xu Jiuling's projection appeared in the warehouse district of Firepit County.
A small mountain of jade slips lay piled before him, and he looked somewhat exhausted:
"My lord! Following an audit, the initial count of everything in the treasury and everything seized in the county cities has been completed, and it has all been placed in storage. The amounts are staggering!
"But... compensation for the wounded and fallen, rewards for military merit, rebuilding the cities-money flows away like water every day!
"The Qian Household, which steers the Qiongzhou Merchant Alliance, has been ambiguous in