The change of ownership of Moonwheel City caused a minor stir in the Indigo Prefecture and its surrounding areas. While a city lord was indeed among the strongest in the Infernal Realm, Moonwheel City, being a very ordinary city, did not receive much attention.
However, the leaders of the various forces within the Indigo Prefecture sensed an unusual shift because of this event. This shift wasn't due to the significant change in the Moonwheel City Lord, but rather because the implications behind it were far too chilling—
After becoming the city lord, Jason's first two tasks were to hunt down the remnants of the former Moonwheel City lord's faction and to receive visitors from the surrounding major powers.
For the former, both the realignment of interests within the city's jurisdiction and the prevention of future retaliatory harassment are necessary;
The latter, in a sense, is to declare that they are Beirut's people, and at the same time, to express Beirut's attitude towards the major forces within the manor—from now on, no one in the Indigo Prefecture is allowed to secretly interfere in the war between the Four Divine Beasts and the Eight Great Clans.
Six months have passed since I became the city lord.
Jason has received envoys from thirteen cities. Among them, eight cities within the Indigo Prefecture, including Indigo City, have sent people to visit, while envoys from the other five cities come from other palaces. Many powerful forces in the surrounding area have also come to visit, and even the Four Divine Beasts Clan have sent people. Except for some who clearly sided with the Eight Great Clans and were turned away, Jason has received the rest.
Only the Aurore City did not send anyone, nor did any of the Eight Great Clans.
Jason had anticipated this, since he had clearly stated that he was from Beirut, so the Eight Great Clans had no reason to lower themselves for a mere city lord like himself. After all, the Seven Star Fiend was just an elder to the Eight Great Clans, and the trade route through Moonwheel City was not indispensable to them.
After the guests from outside the city left one after another, Jason held a banquet at the city lord's mansion, mainly to entertain the major forces around the city.
Previously, Airding's only son was killed on the spot by Delisha, and his stubborn subordinates have been wiped out and driven out by Bessalie's team.
Bessalie received a mission from Beirut to eliminate some "rebels" within the manor. Coincidentally, Moonwheel City had been in turmoil recently, so she took the initiative to maintain order in the surrounding area.
Currently, all major factions within the Moonwheel City territory have at least publicly declared their support for Jason.
Delisha naturally returned to her family to take charge of the work, and Freya, who was close to her, followed her; Alpa and Maisiji, who had been stationed in the city in the Netherworld, were arranged by Delisha to assist Jason.
Jason, the city lord, was not good at management, a fact he had already confirmed on the Yulan Continent, and he had no intention of spending time improving his abilities in this area. Maisiji, as the city lord's father, was qualified for the position of "Grand Steward of Moonwheel City" in terms of both status and ability; while Alpa was assigned to be in charge of liaison between the city and the Rhine Clan.
Sitting in the main seat, Jason said a few words briefly. Communication between Deity-level is less complicated than that between people below the Saint-level. Many schemes and tricks are difficult to use in the face of the infinite lifespan of Deity-level.
Jason summoned these people merely as a formality, and also to redistribute the interests of Moonwheel City. Jason's only requirement was: as long as they adopted the right attitude and didn't cause any trouble behind the scenes, everything else was negotiable.
The distribution of profits was a complicated matter, but fortunately, Maisiji was very good at it. Jason, wanting to get through the turbulent years ahead, handed over all the affairs to Maisiji.
The areas vacated by the exterminated or relocated families will be re-divided, and Jason's rule will be consolidated by winning over some small, innocent factions; at the same time, the areas surrounding the Rhine Clan will be cleared out to leave enough room for development.
Maisiji had planned all of this long ago; Jason just had to follow his instructions.
The banquet lasted for a day and a night, and the leaders of the various factions finally achieved a satisfactory result and left one after another.
Jason breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're the city lord, there are some things you still need to learn." As Jason's father, Maisiji was much more easygoing with him.
Jason leaned back in his chair, looking helpless. "I'm not good at this. I'd rather waste time training and improving my strength."
"You haven't reached your bottleneck yet?" Maisiji, somewhat surprised.
His Death Clone is Highgod Refine Divine Spark, while his Destruction Clone is still Lowgod and has already encountered a bottleneck, having made no progress for over a hundred years.
"I have six clones, so surely one or two of them will have inspiration."
Even Maisiji, who didn't particularly enjoy cultivation, clicked his tongue in envy.
Maisiji changed the subject. "Lucy and her family are coming to town; she's already Lowgod. Hmm, I'd like to bring Aiweier along too."
Aiweier was Maisiji's fifth child, born after she and Anya came to the Infernal Realm.
Jason didn't have any feelings for Aiweier, after all, there was a big age gap between them. Of course, he didn't actually have much affection for Lucy either, so he just nodded casually. "It's good that you're in the city, the conditions are better there."
After discussing a few more details, Jason and Maisiji went back to their respective residences.
Jason returned to the city lord's bedroom, where he had another very important task to complete—to take stock of the wealth.
After Airding's belongings fell into Jason's hands, he received a large amount of wealth over the next three months. Some of these belongings were from the rebels wiped out by the city guards, who skimmed off a portion of their wealth before handing the rest to Jason. Others were gifts from various factions, given to demonstrate their loyalty or to sever ties with Airding.
Among Airding's belongings, the amount of Inkstone was less than Jason had expected. Jason counted them and found that there were only about 20 billion Inkstone, plus 10 billion various supplies.
"It seems Maisiji was right; that Airding has already used most of his wealth to develop his family." Jason, somewhat disappointed.
Maisiji had roughly tallied up Airding's expenses over the past ten thousand years, so he had already told Jason that Alding probably didn't have much wealth left.
As for the "Airdin Clan," because multiple forces were involved in the purge, Jason didn't end up with much Inkstone.
"This armor is quite good." Jason took out the jet-black armor that Airding had worn before. "It has destructive properties, the materials are top-grade, and it seems to have been forged over only about 100,000 years. Was it specially crafted after someone reached a certain level of strength?"
Jason had previously been crafting Divine Artifact in the Netherworld, but he was short of materials with destructive attributes, and was missing a Defensive Divine Artifact with destructive attributes.
Wearing the armor named "Dark Cloud," Jason nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad, saves me the trouble of collecting materials."
Jason then tallied up the remaining gifts and combat supplies. The amount of Inkstone alone was only 7.3 billion, while the majority of the gifts were presented as personal items, with a total value of approximately 5 billion.
"It's quite generous." Jason felt it was a bit little, but he wasn't too disappointed, since wealth wasn't very important to him right now.
(In the original work, a single Divine Spark Weapon is worth over a trillion, and the old servant of the Boyi Clan, who is also Bebe's brother-in-law, has about 10 billion in liquid assets.)
"Leave 10 billion Inkstone as reserves. The rest, give the Inkstone to Maisiji and the supplies to Delisha." Jason knew that Delisha had killed Airding's only son and had most likely seized a lot of Inkstone, so she shouldn't be short of funds.
"What's next?" Jason reviewed the recent events. "Oh, right, we need to collect the materials for the Deathgod Golem."
With the Rhine Clan in dire need of rebuilding, Delisha naturally had no time to devote to this matter. Furthermore, only Jason and Delisha knew the method for creating the Deathgod Golem; as for Jenny, Jason had only asked her to help modify the magic circle, without teaching her the method itself.
"This is a stable source of income; we need to get it sorted out as soon as possible." Jason got up and headed towards Bloodridge Castle to see what the shops in Moonwheel City sold.