I run a casino in the immortal realm.

Seeing Liu Zhengyi's shocked expression, Zheng Yifei chuckled inwardly, but put on a tired and relieved look on his face: "Sir, I was lucky and won quite a bit at the gambling den. At least I didn't mess up your business."

"You won ten million?"

"Yes, I've always had good luck with bets."

"Okay! Okay! Okay! As long as we can get the money."

Liu Zhengyi said "good" three times in a row, and the shock in his eyes gradually turned into ecstasy. He gripped the storage bag tightly in his hand, as if afraid that it would fly away.

He stood up, walked around the desk, and patted Zheng Yifei's shoulder forcefully, his smile incredibly warm: "Yifei, I knew I hadn't misjudged you! I trust you to get things done!"

"It is my honor to be able to share your burdens."

Zheng Yifei lowered his head accordingly.

"Rest assured, now that the money has arrived, I will take your matter to heart."

Liu Zhengyi put away the storage bag, patted his chest, and assured them, "I will immediately send a message to the family. In ten days at most, I will personally deliver the official document for a seventh-rank patrol inspector to you!"

"Thank you for your guidance, sir! I am willing to go through fire and water for you!"

Zheng Yifei bowed and loudly expressed his opinion.

As Zheng Yifei left the magistrate's office, he breathed a long sigh of relief. The money had been spent, and his official position was secure.

Next, he just had to wait for the official robes to be issued so that he could openly and legitimately raise his own troops in Yuanyang Prefecture.

With the matter of buying an official position handed over to Liu Zhengyi, Zheng Yifei was completely free.

However, he did not spend all his time cultivating in the courtyard.

Since I'm just killing time anyway, and the four major gambling dens in the prefecture have deep roots and huge daily turnover, it would be a shame not to take advantage of them.

So Zheng Yifei continued to take Night Owl out early and return late every day, frequenting various gambling dens.

However, he no longer frantically amassed wealth like he did a few days ago, stopping after winning a few hundred thousand gold coins each day, treating it as pocket money for daily expenses.

More importantly, gambling dens, where all sorts of people gather, are the best places to gather information.

While pretending to be an ordinary gambler placing bets, Zheng Yifei also pricked up his ears to listen to the lively conversations of the people around him.

After a few days, he gained a clear understanding of the power distribution in Yuanyang Prefecture.

In the officialdom of Yuanyang Prefecture, the prefect is a cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, and he has absolute power.

The office below it was the Tongpan Office, the Tongzhi Office, the Jingli Office, and the six clerks. Liu Zhengyi was a sixth-rank Tongpan, whose power was second only to the fourth-rank Zhifu and the fifth-rank Tongzhi, and he also had the power to submit memorials to higher authorities.

In the common people's world, besides the various chambers of commerce and gangs, the three most dangerous families to mess with are those with a history of cultivation spanning over a thousand years: the Wang family, the Zhao family (which shares the same lineage as the Zhao family of Liuhua County but is more powerful), and the Lin family.

These three families not only control the spiritual mines and medicinal herb businesses in the prefecture, but also have patriarchs at the Void Refinement stage in their ranks.

"It seems that we need to be more cautious in the prefectural city than in the county town."

Zheng Yifei secretly memorized this information.

Meanwhile, everyone in the courtyard houses of Huai Shu Hutong was also busy.

Li Jianfeng has transformed into a supervisor these past few days.

He spent a lot of money to hire several discreet bricklayers from the city to completely renovate the underground secret room under the dry well in the backyard.

The space of the secret room was doubled, and the walls on all sides were completely rebuilt with heat-insulating granite.

Most importantly, following Zhao Ling's request, Li Jianfeng spent a lot of money to buy a fire-inducing array plate, forcibly drawing out a wisp of pure earth fire vein from the depths of the earth, and built a sturdy alchemy stone platform in the center of the secret chamber.

"Ling'er, are you satisfied with this alchemy room?"

Li Jianfeng dusted off his hands and pointed to the stone platform, asking a question.

Zhao Ling circled the stone platform twice, feeling the stable temperature of the earth fire, and nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad, not bad at all. It's much better than the one in Liuhua County. With this earth fire, my success rate in refining fifth-grade pills can increase by at least 20%!"

After the alchemy room was set up, Wang Changsheng began his work.

Zheng Yifei gave him a large amount of spirit stones and high-level array materials.

Wang Changsheng spent three whole days setting up an extremely complex fifth-order composite formation around the walls and underground of the courtyard.

This formation not only includes a concealment formation to isolate divine sense detection, but also incorporates a top-tier fifth-order defensive formation called "Xuanwu Yutian".

Once activated, it can withstand attacks from three or five late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators for a full day and night.

In addition, Wang Changsheng also set up a small spirit-gathering array in the backyard.

Once the formation was complete, the wandering spiritual energy from the surrounding streets was silently drawn over, instantly increasing the concentration of spiritual energy in the courtyard more than three times.

"Phew, it's finally done."

Wang Changsheng wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked at the array patterns hidden in the void, and let out a long breath.

With this formation, their new home was finally truly safe.

In terms of internal affairs, Su Wanqing demonstrated a decisive and efficient approach.

Everyone needs to cultivate or go out on errands, so it won't do to have such a big courtyard without someone to sweep and cook.

Su Wanqing personally went to the largest brokerage firm in the city. Instead of buying from those rogue cultivators with cultivation levels, she carefully selected five women who only had Qi Refining cultivation levels but were quick and agile and had impeccable backgrounds.

These five maids were all sixteen or seventeen years old and had decent looks. Su Wanqing directly spent five hundred gold coins to buy out their death contracts.

"From now on, you will be working in this courtyard."

Su Wanqing sat in the main seat in the front hall, looking at the five maids kneeling below. Her tone was gentle but authoritative: "There are only two rules: First, do your assigned tasks of washing clothes, cooking, and cleaning."

Second, watch your mouths and eyes; don't look at what you shouldn't look at, and don't ask what you shouldn't ask.

As long as you behave yourselves and behave yourselves, you'll not only receive a generous monthly allowance, but I'll also ensure you're well-fed and clothed when you're old. Do you understand?

"This servant understands! Thank you for your kindness, Madam!"

The five maids kowtowed repeatedly. To have such a generous master was already an immense blessing for them.

Having resolved the issues of daily life, Su Wanqing then set about dealing with Zhao Ling's troubles.

Zhao Ling's current alchemy tasks are extremely heavy. Not only does she have to refine pills for everyone's daily cultivation, but she also has to stockpile high-grade pills for the future opening of a branch of Duobaoge in the prefectural city.

If she were to handle all the processing, purification, and furnace management of the medicinal herbs by herself, she would be overwhelmed even if she worked herself to death.

Su Wanqing posted a recruitment notice at the independent cultivator market in the north of the city, offering extremely tempting conditions.

A generous reward will surely attract brave men. In just two days, hundreds of rogue cultivators with some knowledge of pharmacology came to apply for the job.

Su Wanqing and Zhao Ling personally conducted the interviews, and after several rounds of screening, they finally selected five clever alchemy apprentices and two low-level alchemists who had been stuck at a bottleneck for many years due to a lack of resources.

Su Wanqing not only offered these people high salaries, but also promised that as long as they performed well, Zhao Ling would occasionally give them guidance in alchemy.

In exchange, these seven people had to sign an extremely strict secret covenant with the Heavenly Dao, and they had to eat and live in the back room of the courtyard house, and were not allowed to go out without permission.

Those two low-level alchemists were originally rogue cultivators, so receiving guidance from a fifth-level alchemist was something they couldn't ask for, and they signed the contract without hesitation.

With these seven helpers, Zhao Ling's pressure was greatly reduced.

She only needed to intervene at the crucial moment of final pill condensation; all the other complicated work was left to the apprentices and low-level alchemists.

In the underground alchemy room, the furnace fire burned day and night, continuously refining high-quality pills and sending them into Zheng Yifei's storage ring.

The entire team quickly and firmly established themselves in Yuanyang Prefecture. Everyone was busy in their own positions, operating quietly and efficiently like a sophisticated machine.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

That evening, Zheng Yifei had just returned to his courtyard house after "getting off work" at the gambling den. He had just taken a sip of the spiritual tea that the maid had prepared when there was a rapid knocking at the door.

Li Jianfeng walked over and opened the door, where he saw a yamen runner from the Tongpan yamen standing respectfully outside.

"Master Zheng, Lord Liu requests that you go to the yamen immediately."

The constable lowered his voice and said, "The magistrate's exact words were, 'Your clothes are ready.'"

A glint flashed in Zheng Yifei's eyes. He put down his teacup and a smile appeared on his lips.

"It's finally here."