I have the best bloodline

"I, Su, am in excellent health!"

"What happened?"

The wailing of the yamen runners drew Zhou You and Princess Luanming, who were originally in the accounting office, out as well.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 167 Spring and Autumn Societies (Seeking votes and subscriptions)

"Huh? Foxes have such privileges here?"

Princess Luanming looked at the still-shocked yamen runners with a face full of astonishment. The runners glanced at Su Yan with lingering fear and nodded frantically, proving that the foxes in the Crimson King's fiefdom did indeed have special privileges.

Foxes may not be treated well while alive, but after their death, it's a bloodbath. The foxes in the Red King's fiefdom are no different from the soul-stealing immortals.

Ordinary people would avoid foxes if they could, and if they couldn't avoid them, they would obediently offer them food and water and then immediately run away, for fear that a wild fox might die suddenly in front of them and attract the attention of the Red King's army.

The Red King's army's visit can lead to anything from utter ruin to the extermination of nine generations of one's family.

Living in a small border town, they were already poor, and they couldn't withstand the Red King's army's torment. When they saw a fox, they would naturally stay as far away as possible, for fear that the fox would stick to them and refuse to leave, making them raise it until it died.

"Absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing."

Zhou You looked at Su Yan with a face full of amazement and couldn't help but say, "Brother Su's status has risen again!"

In Xia Yu's main city, Su Yan had already made a living by using his fox-like looks to eat and drink for free, becoming a fox-faced man. He even won first place at the fox appreciation event and received a reward from the emperor.

In the Red King's territory, it's even more extreme; they've become protected animals.

Seeing Su Yan, a true winner in life, Zhou You couldn't help but recall a saying his brother Wen had once made:

"Brother Zhou, are you going to hang yourself? Let's hang ourselves together and be brothers in the demon race in the next life. Hmm, Xia Yu the Fox Demon."

………………

Because the fox's treatment was so outrageous, Su Yan was teased by his companions, his face full of surprise.

"Go! Go! Go"

Su Yan rolled his eyes, shooed away his companions, and said, "At least in Xia Yu we could make money by performing, but coming to Chi Wang Territory has turned us into a plague. How are we supposed to earn money now? Everything is difficult at the beginning. We can't do anything if we can't raise start-up capital."

With the easy path to making money through performing blocked, Su Yan now has no choice but to rely on gambling to raise start-up capital or improve his life. Unlike Xia Yucheng, who has his aunt looking after him, Su Yan never intended to earn spirit stones this way in the first place.

Because the risks are too great, who wouldn't be tempted by a fox that always wins at gambling, is cute, and can take care of itself?

As for using the status of an animal protector for extortion, Su Yan only thought about it briefly before dismissing it from his mind. The status of an animal protector was a last resort for survival, and it should not be used unless absolutely necessary.

Such behavior is akin to cheating. There are many ways to deal with scoundrels. If Su Yan were to engage in extortion, the local clans would have plenty of ways to make him disappear. They wouldn't even need to kill him personally; they could simply throw him into some remote mountain forest or war-torn area.

It doesn't matter whether Su Yan lives or dies, as long as I can make sure I don't see you for decades.

"So, Brother Zhou, let's go to the flower market and see if there's any way to make money!"

After weighing various ways to make money, Su Yan decided to first stroll around the streets and then go to the gambling house to earn some living expenses so he could buy bedding, furniture, and other necessities for himself and his friends.

"You guys come up here too, and protect us, so that we can show off our rich kids' style."

As he said he was going out, Su Yan made sure that the constables followed behind him as his guards.

With the yamen runners present as guards, it was as if they were wearing the skin of an official government office. Although the flower and plant office had no real power, no one dared to openly and violently confront the office.

Having yamen runners following behind you can reduce at least 80% or 90% of the trouble, or get the gambling den to readily open a fast payout channel for you.

………………

Su Yan and Zhou You left the government office and came to the streets of Flower City.

This place is very different from Xia Yu City. There is no lively scene on the streets, and the width and smoothness of the roads cannot be compared with the main urban area. It is even slightly inferior to Su Yan's hometown city. There is nothing new or interesting here.

"Why aren't there any street vendors?" Su Yan asked the constable behind him.

"Boss, you don't know this, but our flower area is different from other areas. The big boss strictly forbids street vendors from setting up stalls. No matter who you are, you have to set up your stall in the designated area to prevent any possible tax evasion," the constable said.

"The tax rate is different for peddlers and shopkeepers."

The flower-growing region under the Red King's jurisdiction did not prioritize humane practices. They prioritized tax collection in whatever way was convenient for them, and even if they couldn't collect taxes, they still needed to earn a stall fee from the peddlers.

"Oh, I see. Does our Flower City have a Wan Hua Ge?" Su Yan asked after thinking for a moment.

"Uh, we don't have top-tier pavilions like the Myriad Flowers Pavilion here. They're not located in chaotic cities."

The Wan Hua Ge (万花阁) earns spirit stones, and a city like Flower City, which is not large in size and has a high war index, simply cannot attract Wan Hua Ge to open a shop here.

"Brother Su, have you come up with a way to make money?"

Seeing that Su Yan was asking the yamen runners some questions in a targeted manner, Zhou You asked Su Yan if he had any good ideas for managing finances.

Although everyone was busy with the accounts last night, they did other things as well.

Xia Yu's performance evaluation was divided into several categories, with city management, people's livelihood protection, and tax revenue accounting for the largest share, followed by the reputation of local officials and the increase in productivity.

Or discovering a cultivation genius could also be considered a political achievement.

The management of the city and the protection of people's livelihood were basically in the hands of the various clans, which Su Yan and his group could not seize. Therefore, the only thing they could achieve was in finance. Only by producing beautiful financial statements and accounts could they open their hands and ask Grand Tutor Jin for what they desired.

"I can't think of a good way! I don't know anything about the products in Flower City. The only way I can think of to make the agricultural area generate efficient revenue is to process agricultural products into finished products and increase the price per item."

"As for the Myriad Flowers Pavilion, I just wanted to establish some connections so they could send me a letter," Su Yan said, shaking his head.

After contacting Wan Hua Ge, they obtained more information through Hua Yu Zhenren's intelligence network.

However, this approach was clearly not feasible, as Grand Tutor Jin always chose cities with unstable regional situations for his spring outings.

That old dragon in the South China Sea is as cunning as a devil; there's no loophole for it to exploit on the surface.

"By the way, boss..."

Just as Su Yan and Zhou You were discussing whether they could take advantage of information asymmetry to sell goods, or process agricultural products into semi-finished or finished products for export, the yamen runner beside them seemed to remember something and said, "In seven days it will be the Spring Festival in our flower region. You'd better not try to engage in trade rashly."

"There will be quite a few people coming to cause trouble."

Spring Festival and Autumn Festival are festivals in flower-growing regions. The Spring Festival, also known as the Land God Festival, is a grand festival with a long history in agricultural areas. It is a festival to worship gods and spirits in the coming year, hoping for favorable weather and a bountiful harvest.

After the Spring Festival, the people of the flower-growing region will begin farming in the fields.

The Autumn Festival, also known as the Harvest Festival, is a celebration held by the local people after the harvest to thank the land and mountain gods for their blessings on the bountiful harvest.

The days before and after the Spring Festival are far from peaceful. Those forces that are fighting against the Red King's army will do everything they can to sabotage the Spring Festival, that is, to prevent sowing or to delay planting and farming in flower-growing regions, which will directly affect the harvest of grain for the Autumn Festival, and thus affect the financial revenue and livelihood of the Red King's fiefdom.

The flower-growing region is not peaceful around the time of the Spring Festival. So when the yamen runner heard that Su Yan was planning to start a business, he kindly reminded Su Yan not to rashly invest a lot of money. In previous years, the Eternal Life Cult had caused many disturbances, resulting in the Red King's fiefdom having no harvest and needing to ask the big boss for disaster relief grain.

If the Eternal Life Cult succeeds this year, or if the Southern Barbarians complete their plunder, the Red King's fiefdom will be impoverished.

Su Yan could lose so much money investing here that he'd have to become a male concubine.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 168 The Fox Mother Far Away in Her Hometown

"Why didn't the magistrate inform us about such an important event as the Spring Festival?"

"Perhaps the boss is already used to it? We're all native flower growers; I wouldn't have even thought of it if you hadn't mentioned preparing for trade."

The constable explained to Su Yan with an embarrassed expression.

"That"

Upon learning that alien races and cults might attack the Flower Region during the Spring Festival, Zhou You's expression turned serious, as it concerned her personal safety: "We..."

"Of course we're going to the gambling den!" Su Yan said to Zhou You with a completely matter-of-fact expression.

"Eat and drink as you please. What do we commoners care about the things that the immortals need to worry about? Instead of worrying about those things, we should worry about the money for tonight's drinks."

"That's true."

Zhou You thought about it and agreed with Brother Su's words. The heavy expression on his face faded, and he said with a wry smile, "I almost forgot my status as a commoner. Brother Su is right, those things really shouldn't be our concern."

He is no longer royalty, nor is he a powerful figure. Rather than worrying about the long-standing problem of attacks from other races, he might as well earn a couple more spirit stones. Perhaps when the immortals in the flower region start fighting each other, he can take a celestial boat and escape.

........................

Su Yan was quite open-minded about the Spring Festival. There was nothing he couldn't do by running away. If he really couldn't outrun the other party, he would fight the Immortal Ship. Su Yan's willingness to hand over his storage ring so readily was not without reason.

Besides the red jade hairpin sword that wasn't fully sacrificed, Su Yan actually secretly hid something else.

There was a restriction placed on it by Master Huayu, and Su Yan would not touch it unless there was a reason.

Over the next few days, Su Yan gave all the constables a day off. They no longer needed to do their cleaning duties; all they had to do was accompany him and Zhou You as they strolled around the streets and gambled.

Princess Luanming also participated in the field investigation. Each of them led their local yamen runners to look for business opportunities that could generate financial benefits in the city or the countryside.

………………

Just as Su Yan was busy going up and down the mountain to find business opportunities and political achievements, a figure who should have been busy stopped in the Kingdom of Qingqiu.

"North is up, south is down, west is left, and east is right."

Ao Renlin held a compass in his hand, a bead of cold sweat gradually trickling down his cold, stern face.

"Where in Qingqiu is the Su clan of foxes?"

He met Su Qing in the City of Ten Thousand Demons, and their marriage was arranged without the consent of either family. Naturally, Ao Renlin did not come to the Su clan's territory. Now, his main body had just returned from the cosmos and, after resolving matters with Su Yan, he immediately rushed to Qingqiu Kingdom to visit Su Qing, who was under house arrest.

But where is the ancestral home of the Su clan?

After much deliberation, Ao Renlin had no choice but to reveal his true form and slip into Qingqiu Kingdom to investigate the residence of the You Su Clan's Nine-Tailed Foxes. He secretly made his way to Jishan in the west, arriving at the foot of the mountain where the You Su Clan's Nine-Tailed Foxes lived.

This place is not only inhabited by nine-tailed foxes, but also by strange and bizarre trees that grow everywhere, inhabited by countless mountain spirits.

Even the flowers and trees that I see and hear are spirits and monsters.

Ao Renlin casually uprooted a large tree, the force of which nearly crushed the trunk: "Where is Su Qing?"

The tree demon, its throat being squeezed and pulled up, was nearly scared to death by the fierce, azure vertical pupils staring at it. It quickly raised its hand and pointed to the top of Jishan Mountain: "Immortal Su has been living on the top of the mountain since he came back. My mouth is really wide open."

Ao Renlin ignored the tree demon's nonsense and directly pinched it unconscious. He then looked up at the top of Jishan Mountain and his figure completely dissipated, merging into the Jishan ecosystem like mist.

In the next instant, Ao Renlin's figure re-formed in a pool of water atop Jishan Mountain.

This method is a water escape technique, which can ignore distance and move silently to a place tens of thousands of miles away.

It is also the first technique that all water-elemental cultivators learn when they enter the sect. However, for weak cultivators, the Five Elements Escape Technique is only used to escape in life-or-death situations. After using it, even a Nascent Soul stage cultivator will be seriously injured and on the verge of death.

Only Earth Immortals who have transcended the Transcendental Realm can freely use escape techniques of the corresponding attributes.