The Tides of Time, Young Patriarch!
The path of cultivation does not keep count of the years.
Five rounds of spring and autumn were merely a flick of the finger, hardly worth mentioning to outsiders...
Compared to five years ago, Bayi Town had expanded quite a bit, making the already narrow canyon plain appear slightly cramped.
Large swathes of cultivated fields were replaced by houses and courtyards.
Many large and small factions would set up one or two properties in the town as outposts for waterborne trade between the two regions.
Trade flourished, and so the population thrived.
With the population soaring and demand growing greater, it grew all the more prosperous.
The Ba River had grown deeper and wider, too.
To cater to the waterborne trade, the Qin Family had undertaken massive water conservancy projects over the past few years.
They had forcibly widened the Ba River, which was originally no more than three or four zhang wide, to ten zhang, and used mountain stone to build giant river dikes on both banks.
During this period, countless amounts of manpower and material resources were mobilized to provide work in place of relief.
Low-realm martial artists were even called upon to help excavate the river mouth.
To the Qin Family of today, mundane silver and copper coins were already external possessions-merely a pile of dirt, spent without a second thought as it mattered little...
As for those low-realm martial artists,
some were Jianghu travelers who, having no one to lean on, came to earn resources.
Others had arrived with their entire clans to become vassal families under the Qin Family's banner, turning into new Bayi people with Bayi household registration...
The dilapidated wooden bridge that had originally connected the two banks was now replaced by a magnificent arch bridge, five zhang wide and capable of letting three carriages pass abreast!
Along the new bridge, tall buildings rose from the ground on both banks, flourishing and prospering in their wake.
There were peddlers hawking wares along the streets and shop clerks shouting to pull in customers, a scene of prosperity that was unexpectedly not the least bit inferior to Yingchuan County City.
Walking south along the riverbank-
one could see the semi-circular deep-water port at the southern end of Bayi Town, which was now the most famous port in Yingchuan County...
Qianlong Port!
Its scale had expanded by who knew how many folds, with numerous ships coming and going; just the sand-ships several zhang long numbered no fewer than several dozen...
Large and small boats were even more numerous as hairs on an ox, countless!
Among them, the majority carried grain and clothing.
Ever since Bayi grew at breakneck speed, its cultivated land had decreased accordingly, and it no longer produced much grain, relying entirely on imports from outside.
Who would have thought the Wang Family would become the biggest beneficiary?
Aside from this-
many spiritual items also gathered here. Quite a few martial artists who found high-age herbs or peculiar objects would bring them to this place to trade...
The Qin Family had opened specialized shops in the port to purchase these spiritual items.
Naturally, most transactions were conducted with silver and copper coins.
Some martial artists of humble origins who roamed the Jianghu-
their pockets were cleaner than their faces. Wanting to put down roots in a place required money; buying land took money, and building houses to enclose plots also took money!
A single coin could defeat a hero.
Not everyone was like Qin Lu, possessing a specialized skill.
Families like the major ones of the past in Bayi Town farmed and collected rent every year, only earning a grand total of several dozen or one to two hundred liang of silver after a whole year.
This was the norm for ordinary martial artists.
Without money or land, how much could one earn by one's own strength?
Aside from greater speed and strength, the gap between low-tier martial artists and mortals was not boundless either; at the very least, a...
well-trained hundred-man troop of soldiers was enough to encircle and slaughter the vast majority of low- and mid-realm martial artists...
Silver and copper coins were dirt to the Qin Family.
Yet this did not apply to all martial artists...
If one walked north along the riverbank,
one could gaze into the distance at Muxuan Mountain, which was often veiled in rosy mists and clouds, adding a touch of immortal-realm ambiance.
At the foot of the mountain were the East, West, South, and North Villages.
Those who could live here were loyal supporters of the Qin Family, and at the same time, the residences of the military households under the Qin Family's rule, following a system similar to a military residential compound.
Its Township Army had now expanded to five hundred men.
Every single one was clad in black armor, wielded a bronze long halberd, wore a hundred-refined bronze sword at the waist, and had a black armor mask over their face...
While not claiming every man could fight a hundred, each one was a meticulously selected elite, capable of slaying a wolf single-handedly!
Five men could encircle and suppress a ferocious tiger, and ten could trap and kill a savage bear!
Wang Jian and Zhao Zhen-
the former managed the military while the latter handled civil affairs. Moreover, under Qin Lu's backing, both stepped into the True Martial Four Realms, holding down the fort in Bayi!
Over the years, they had also gained modest renown within the county.
Wang Jian in particular, all alone and young as he was, had reached the True Martial Four Realms. He enjoyed Qin Lu's deep trust and could be called a loyal pillar of the Qin Family.
The Wang Family in the county had even tried to pull strings several times, wishing to forge ties through marriage.
Yet they were refused one after another, earning him the description: iron-faced and merciless!
As for that old fox Yan Quan,
he had been promoted to the new county assistant of Yingchuan County, acting as the Qin Family's representative to safeguard the Qin Family's interests in the prefectural yamen. Along with him...
was Qin Lu's fourth son, Qin Wen, who also went to the prefectural yamen with Yan Quan to study the Dao of governance.
They were grandfather and grandson, as well as master and disciple.
Qin Wen also served as Qin Lu's eyes and ears to keep watch on Yan Quan...
As for whether that Yan Quan...
would embezzle money or secretly collude with external parties-the possibility existed, but presumably he would not be so foolish...
Stealing a bit of money was human nature, but if he betrayed the clan,
then congratulations to him on winning a joyous nine-familial extermination package; his Yan family's old and young were all held hostage in Bayi.
He surely dared not!
Furthermore, Qin Wen flowed with his, Yan Quan's, blood. With this acting as a pivot, presumably that old fox Yan Quan was unwilling to commit the act of betraying the clan...
Bayi Town: Prefecture Pavilion.
This was the center of Bayi Town, akin to a government agency like a county yamen.
At this moment-
a youth sat upright in the main hall. Just a distant glance was enough to reveal his extraordinary valor, clad in a dark robe with eyes like those of a tiger or leopard...
The youth was none other than Qin Xiao, who was only thirteen years old.
Compared to five years ago,
he had matured even more, and even exuded a trace of the demeanor of someone long accustomed to a position of authority; a mere movement of his could make subordinates' hearts flutter with fright!
The True Martial Four Realms-this was Qin Xiao's current cultivation base.
As he finished reading the logbook and merely glanced over it, Zhao Zhen at the side stepped forward and bowed his head, listening respectfully...
"Uncle Zhao, you've had a hard time during this period."
"Now that people are coming and going and dragons and snakes are mixed together, it's good that no trouble arose on Uncle Zhao's watch here."
"Unlike certain rough-hewn deer-herding fellows who eat on both sides and bite the hand that feeds them, hard to make anything of themselves."
Qin Xiao's iceberg face finally revealed a trace of a smile.
Zhao Zhen, however, broke out in a cold sweat in his heart. The little nephew of the past had ultimately grown into a great Buddha, or even a sharp blade...
As the eldest son of the Qin Family's second generation, he could already prop up half the sky for the Qin Family.
The two were uncle and nephew, as well as superior and subordinate.
Thank heavens that this patrol and covert investigation had not run into any mishaps, given Qin Xiao's disposition where he talked of killing at age six and dared to do it hands-on at seven.
If he truly uncovered something, let alone someone like him, Zhao Zhen, an uncle bearing a different surname,
even a biological uncle of the same surname would have his head lopped off in the street!
This eldest son of the Qin Family was a downright slaughter-embryo, and among the second generation of the Qin Family, the one with the heaviest killing might, while simultaneously possessing the handling style most resembling Qin Lu's...
He could treat people with warmth, or draw his blade to hack people down.
"To be able to serve the Qin Family and work for the Young Patriarch is my fortune, Zhao Zhen's; how would I dare be careless?"
Hearing Zhao Zhen's reply,
Qin Xiao nodded slightly, shook his robes, put down the logbook, and strode away.
Just as he stepped out of the Prefecture Pavilion's gates-
dozens of black-armored soldiers quietly appeared, escorting Qin Xiao away...