Strong Return! Unifying Bayi!
As Qin Lu calmed down.
He only then realized the abnormality of the spiritual light.
Logically speaking, the Willow Wood Cultivation Method should only be able to boost spiritual light by half a point...
Yet he had rawly boosted it by a full two points, which could not help but make Qin Lu feel puzzled, and recalling the records of the Willow Wood Cultivation Method, there was no explicit mention of it either.
It only said that the higher the human pill talent, the better the effect...
In most cases, it would barely boost spiritual light by half a point.
Thinking about the senior expert who created the Willow Wood Cultivation Method.
He probably never imagined that someone would use an immortal seedling with two inches of spiritual light to fulfill a pseudo-immortal seedling with less than an inch of spiritual light.
After all, who would be so foolish!
No matter how one looked at it, this bargain was not worth it.
Back then, that senior created this cultivation method originally to give a sliver of hope to those with nine-tenths of a spiritual light, after all, the threshold was quite harsh.
Wanting to achieve it was also relatively difficult.
Those with spiritual light lower than nine-tenths could not use it, and those with spiritual light higher than one inch had no way to use it.
Disciples of major lineages, even if they used it, would not use this kind of method to increase their aptitude, for although methods that could increase aptitude in this world were few.
They still existed-
Disciples of major lineages naturally did not bother to use this kind of method that harmed others and benefited no one.
Thinking about it, this was also a loophole in the Willow Wood Cultivation Method.
After all, the Willow Wood Cultivation Method was merely a First-Tier Dharma inheritance, so how brilliant could it be; in this world, there might even be more heaven-defying Dharma Sects...
Thinking of this-
Qin Lu was also relieved; no matter what, he possessed the opportunity to break through the Condensing Qi Realm.
This was enough!
And that Qi Bailing, right then, completely breathed her last...
Seeing this, Qin Lu let out a soft sigh:
"I will order people to rebuild a graveyard for your Qi Household, so that you and your family can reunite down below. If Lady Qi hates me,"
"If there is an afterlife, come seek me out for revenge, and I, Qin Lu, shall accept it all!"
"Right and wrong in this matter..."
"Are all for the Dao Path, for longevity!"
Three days later-Qin Lu returned to the mountain!
His tyrannical aura made everyone who harbored disloyal thoughts thoroughly extinguish that trace of a thought that should never have appeared.
What?
You say we have rebellious intentions? Eat shit!
Clearly we are worried about the Patriarch, and we are simply the Qin Family's most loyal "Wangcai"! Stop spitting blood and defiling our innocence!
Thus-
The Zhao, Chu, and Yan households submitted as vassals, the Wei and Qi lineages were exterminated and their clans wiped out, and the Han fell apart, no different from destruction...
A month later-
Yan Quan made the decision to marry one of his granddaughters to Qin Lu as a concubine, and this woman turned out to unexpectedly have some talent as well.
It was merely extremely meager, with only a sliver over three parts of spiritual light.
By the month the marriage was completed-
Madame Qin Yan already had conception, and closely following that, Qin-Zhao Clan and Qin-Chu Clan successively conceived as well, as if they were competing...
As for that placed-under-arrest Lady Han...
Qin Lu originally wanted to use her as a human pill, but after the affair with Qi Bailing.
Lady Han naturally escaped disaster, but Qin Lu could not possibly let her go either. For her Han household up to this point, he, Qin Lu, could be credited with a great contribution.
This could not possibly be released, lest it leave behind root causes of trouble.
Therefore-
Qin Lu forcibly compelled Lady Han to cultivate, and once she broke through to the True Martial First Realm...
He placed her under solitary house arrest in a small courtyard, serving as a caulron for cultivation. After all, the Azure Wood Scripture followed the path of absorbing the three Qis of heaven, earth, and man.
Qin Lu could not bear for his wives and concubines to become consumables...
Naturally, he had Lady Han moonlight in the role.
Regarding this.
Qin Lu did not feel a shred of burden. The victors were kings and the losers were bandits; he fought for it with his life, so these things were deservedly his to obtain, and it naturally suited his Dao heart!
Instead, Qin Lu vaguely understood the reason why the Cangnong Qi Clan was exterminated...
Most likely, that old ancestor of the Qi lineage sucked that major lineage's female disciple dry to her death, ultimately inviting disaster down upon them...
If that were the case, it indeed was quite possible.
Of course, Qin Lu did not believe it, and merely regarded it as a kind of conjecture.
A year later.
The disturbances in Bayi Town gradually subsided, returning to their past tranquility.
The only change was that from being ruled by six families, it had become the dictatorship of a single family. All kinds of industries and cultivated fields in the town now belonged entirely to the Qin Family.
The Qin Family had henceforth become the sole landlord in the town!
Achieving a true sense of swallowing Bayi like a whale, sitting upon more than a thousand mu of large and small fertile fields, and over seventy shops of all kinds for clothing, food, housing, and transport...
Today-
Only a single lineage garrisoned the town, and that was the Yan Family acting as township officials.
They mainly maintained order in the town on behalf of the Qin Family.
The Chu Household had moved out of the town, settling down in Muxuan Mountain's West Village, and together with the East Zhao, North Wang, and South Han, the four households guarded Muxuan Mountain.
The South Han referred to those scattered households of the Han.
Those two Han households that had originally planted tea for Qin Lu, because they submitted early on, had now also become upper-class people in the town, turning into the new Han masters!
Gradually, the South Village became dominated solely by the Han.
Of course, this Han was not that Han; it was already a completely brand-new Han family...
The scale of the four villages below the mountain was beginning to show, and coupled with Qin Lu's policies, a large number of surrounding mountain folk began to gather toward Bayi Town.
Thus it formed a situation where, although Bayi was a town, it was a place where commoners lived.
Beneath Muxuan Mountain, although it was a village, it had become the foothold for great and prominent households. Living here, one's status was a cut above those in the town!
A trend of vertical stratification had abruptly formed.
With the soaring population, the surrounding wild mountains were gradually developed to their limits.
People began to expand along the mountain ravines, and one dwelling after another spread out across the mountains, resembling a spiderweb stretching in all directions...
With the development of new mountain peaks, herb-gatherers grew increasingly numerous.
Incidents of beasts harming people also occurred repeatedly.
Later on-
At Qin Lu's instigation, Wang Jian began to form a Township Army of about two hundred men, maintaining the order of their jurisdiction daily and clearing out beast afflictions...
The jurisdiction was flourishing with vitality!
Muxuan Mountain-Qin Estate
In the great hall, the four people of Chu, Yan, Zhao, and Han were reporting the revenue and expenditure for the first year since the reforms...
First was Yan Quan, who presided over civil administration:
"Reporting to the Patriarch, through the reforms of the past year."
"Presently in the town and under the jurisdiction of the various villages, there are a total of twenty-three hundred-odd households. Calculated at five people per household, there are approximately: eleven thousand nine hundred-odd people..."
"The main family's land yields twelve hundred mu, with a per-mu yield around three hundred catties. Deducting the annual fifty percent tax, the remaining nearly two thousand dan, when sold off at five dan for one liang of silver, can yield four hundred liang of actual silver..."
"Added to the bribes up and down, the shops of various trades for clothing, food, housing, and transport can net a clear profit of two hundred fifty liang of silver annually."
"Subtracting the ruling lineage's annual expenses, this year five hundred seventeen liang of actual silver can be entered into the treasury. The ledger has already been prepared, and the Patriarch may inspect it at any time."
Subsequently-
Came the consolidation from the Zhao, Chu, and Han households. The three households focused primarily on providing various resources, which was what Qin Lu valued the most.
Zhao Zhen: "This year, the medicinal fields have been initially completed, dividing out fifteen mu of medicinal fields, focusing mainly on mountain ginseng, sealwort, pseudo-ginseng, and fleeceflower root."
"Among them, ten mu of fields can harvest a batch of low-age medicinal herbs annually from now on, while the remaining five mu cultivate high-age herbal medicines. Currently, their growth is thriving..."
Chu Shan: "Through last year's domestication, seventy-three mountain deer are now herded, producing three pairs of antler velvet, which have already entered the estate treasury for acceptance..."
Han Fei, acting as the head of the new Han family, said:
"The twenty mu of tea gardens, after a year of growth, have had quite remarkable effects, far exceeding expectations. A few individual plants have already grown into tea bushes."
"Their leaves even sprout blood lines..."