I have the best bloodline

Although Su Yan had never seen his mother give him any money, she did provide food and lodging for the cultivators she rescued.

"A net?"

My aunt was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled and said, "That does fit your mother's style quite well. After all these years, she's still so unsteady and has such a spoiled princess attitude."

Su Qing was not a steady person, and her personality was rather erratic and mischievous. Her aunt genuinely believed that Su Qing was capable of randomly catching cultivators from the streets with a net to use as labor.

After all, foxes can get angry very easily.

"By the way, Auntie, have you seen any plans to renovate the brothels recently? I have some small donations and ideas."

Su Yan sat down next to her aunt, hugged her arm, and tried to persuade her to install underfloor heating in the brothel.

Underfloor heating is not some mysterious magic; things like kang beds also exist. Of course, Su Yan doesn't like those kang beds for heating because foxes are canines with a highly developed and sensitive sense of smell, and burning charcoal can easily make their noses sting.

Su Yan plans to install water heating in the brothel because there is a large amount of natural gas underground in Xia Yu. Wealthy families can use natural gas at will by paying a fee to the court for a fire well.

The brothel is made entirely of wood. All that's needed is for craftsmen to connect the pipes and create something like a waterwheel to continuously circulate and heat the water, which will keep the brothel at a relatively high temperature. This way, Su Yan doesn't need to reveal his true form or be afraid of the harsh winter.

"Moreover, once the brothels are warm, the ladies of Xia Yu won't need to keep warming themselves by the fire at home, suffering from both the cold and the heat. Wouldn't that make our business better?"

"My idea is absolutely brilliant, and it won't have the explosive smell or burning ash that comes with a heated brick bed," Su Yan assured confidently.

"But, in winter, those ladies usually warm themselves with the bodies of their maids, and hold a fox in their arms to warm their hands and stomachs. They don't burn charcoal to keep warm, as you said, where the front of the chest is hot and the back is cold."

Auntie jokingly teased Su Yan about the phenomenon she mentioned, saying that the lives of the Xia Yu nobles were much more comfortable than Su Yan imagined. Some of the ladies who were afraid of the cold had already gone to the western or southern states to escape the cold before the snow fell, so they were not cold at all.

"Uh"

Su Yan looked surprised: "You can do that? Why use maids to keep warm?"

"Well, this is too vulgar, so I can't show it to you. Just use your imagination."

I'll update again later. I should be able to update four times today. Please vote!

Also, thank you to the experts who helped me find the bugs. I have read your comments and will correct any typos immediately.

The Empress would like to express her sincere gratitude to all the experts for their help and wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year's Eve.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 51 Outrageous (Four chapters today, please continue reading)

"Alright! If you like it, then there's no problem."

After listening to Su Yan's suggestion about circulating water heating, Auntie pondered for a while, then glanced at the talented women sitting in the lobby warming themselves by the fire, and agreed to Su Yan's request. She decided to renovate the brothel, since there was hardly any business in winter anyway, so it was better to just let it rest.

Of course, the repairs wouldn't require Su Yan to pay for them. Although his aunt claimed to be poor every day, even writing "poor" on her name, poverty is relative. His aunt belonged to the type of poor who had enough money for small things but no big money.

It's easy for her to collect a few hundred or a thousand pounds of spirit stones, but her aunt really can't collect tens of thousands of spirit stones. Two rounds of betting on the outer perimeter of the martial arts examination have crippled her savings. Now, the entire aunt is paralyzed in the brothel and doesn't want to move.

The repairs won't cost much, so if Su Yan has any ideas, let him have his fun.

Active, lively, and mischievous children grow up to be intelligent!

"According to your requirements, ordinary bamboo pipes may not be able to withstand several years of alternating hot and cold temperatures. My suggestion is that you spend two thousand catties of spirit stones to replace ordinary bamboo with spirit bamboo for the pipes, which will ensure that they will still be there even when the building collapses."

After deciding to repair the brothel, Su Yan's aunt took her to a carpenter she knew. Su Yan explained her ideas to the carpenter. After pondering for a while, the carpenter expressed his concerns:

“Bamboo is generally not a big problem when used as a pipe for hot water, but you said that it is a big problem when it is only used in winter. Bamboo absorbs a lot of water when it is constantly soaked in water. It may mold during the air-drying process. Then, without moisture to nourish it for many years, the bamboo will eventually dry into a brittle shell.”

"Simply put, it won't last long, and it's not worth using spirit bamboo as a material. You might as well go to Old Zhang's place and see if he makes these kinds of iron pipes."

The carpenter thought for a moment and then recommended Old Zhang from the blacksmith shop next door to Su Yan and her aunt, suggesting they go and take a look.

Although bamboo processing is not difficult, Su Yan frankly said that it requires thousands of bamboo tubes and curved joints. The only difficulty for carpenters is that they don't make any money!

Collecting so many uniformly sized materials would already be a costly task, and the craftsmanship of that thing wasn't particularly difficult, so he couldn't charge too much for it. He would also need to spend a lot of time polishing it. Unless he used spirit bamboo as the material, the old carpenter would lose a fortune.

The carpenter considered the deal and felt it wasn't worthwhile, so he suggested they change their materials and approach.

If you think iron pipes are unsightly, can't I just make a suspended ceiling to cover them up?

The overall labor cost is actually cheaper.

"Iron pipes and connectors? Of course I can make them! Do you need refined steel, bronze, or brass? As long as you pay the deposit, I can forge anything. My forging speed depends on how quickly you pay."

The young man sitting by the furnace was taken aback, then smiled and said to Su Yan, "Of course, the installation fee is separate."

"You're that capable?"

Su Yan looked incredulous. She had only just begun to speak and hadn't even mentioned the pipe diameter yet, so how could he have done it all?

"You do not believe?"

The young man chuckled, lifted his shirt, revealing a meteorite iron forged token hanging from his waist: "Is this my guarantee? Forget iron pipes, as long as the silver notes arrive, I can hammer a pair of iron shorts to cover your ass within ten minutes!"

The Meteorite Iron Refined Token is a distinctive symbol of a sect in the cultivation world renowned for its weapon crafting. Because meteorite iron contains a large number of impurities, smelting and forging it is inherently a very difficult task. However, the entry standard for disciples of the Weapon Crafting Sect is to forge a Hundred Refined Token from meteorite iron.

The young man in front of me is a disciple of the 'Weaponry Sect' who is out on a training mission.

Let alone a thin sheet metal pipe, if that young man from the Weapon Sect angered, as long as his aunt didn't interfere, he could forge a ligature in two minutes and then spend another three minutes ligating Su Yan directly.

"You're amazing."

Upon seeing the token from the Weapon Sect, Su Yan hesitated for a long time before finally managing to utter a powerful statement: "I'm entrusting everything to you."

"However, I don't want iron pants or anything like that. I probably won't need such a thing."

Su Yan recognized the Weapon Sect token. The Weapon Sect emblem could be seen in ordinary households, such as on high-grade kitchen knives made of refined steel or some other weapons.

Throughout the long history of cultivation, from birth to death, people will inevitably use the artifacts forged by the Artifact Sect.

After the young man finished showing off his strength, Su Yan also took out twenty catties of spirit stones to show off his strength.

"It'll be done in half a month!"

Forty catties of spirit stones.

"Ten days!"

Fifty catties of spirit stones.

"If the matter couldn't be resolved in five days, Zhang committed suicide by drowning!"

六十

"Stop, stop, stop. We can't manage this if we add more, unless we increase it to 100 jin of spirit stones. I'll ask my senior brother to help."

Su Yan: "."

As expected of Yu the Great, who was obsessed with money, even the residents living here have become obsessed with money.

………………

The price of fifty catties of spirit stones is really not too expensive compared to the price of two thousand catties of spirit stones quoted by the carpenter. Moreover, the disciples of the Weaponry Sect use high-grade forging materials, such as hundred-refined steel, to forge ordinary utensils.

So-called "hundred-times-refined steel" refers to pig iron that has been forged once, folded once, and then forged again, and so on, until it is folded and forged continuously. A hundred refinements is just the beginning; a highly skilled blacksmith can easily forge steel that has been refined five hundred times or even a thousand times.

This stuff can't be faked because after acid leaching, special patterns will appear on the steel. The more times it's forged and folded, the more complex the patterns become, and you can even customize the patterns.

The vessels produced by the Qizong sect are made from refined steel, because they really love to show off their skills.

Of course, Su Yan's acquaintance with the Weapon Sect could also be attributed to his mother.

When Su Yan was almost two years old, Su Qing and Ao Renlin prepared to follow local customs and have a set of pure gold longevity locks made for him. However, the master craftsman refused Su Yan's parents' request because he was too proud to accept.

That day, Su Yan saw the ground shake as the hand slammed its hand on the table.

Su's mother shouted at the master, and the master knelt down and immediately crafted a longevity lock and a golden anklet. The master of the artifact crafting sect also gave Su Yan an extra storage ring as a belated hundred-day gift.

That evening, he even used his precious little furnace to roast a monster for his family of three.

The taste was truly delicious. Although Su Yan's teeth hadn't fully grown in yet, her father tore off a piece and let Su Yan suck on the aroma of the roasted meat.

From then on, Su Yan remembered the Weapon Sect. In Su Yan's mind, the name Weapon Sect was like a barbecue stand.

………………

On the morning of the sixth day after returning to the brothel, Old Zhang, as promised, completed the pipes and connections within five days. He then spent spirit stones to hire some minor cultivators in the Body Refining and Qi Refining stages to install the water heating pipes and circulation pool in his aunt's brothel.

"Anyway, it's just laying a layer on the ground, then laying another layer on top, covering everything, right? Then connect two large pipes as the outlet and inlet to the circulation pool." Old Zhang threw the blueprints in front of Su Yan for him to look at.

Su Yan went there empty-handed with only his mouth. Within five days, Old Zhang not only forged the hundred-refined steel pipe, but also set up the circulation pool that Su Yan wanted, using the high and low pressure of the building to circulate the water in the pipe.

The professionalism of the blueprints left Su Yan completely stunned.

"That's normal! We don't just forge weapons, we also have to deal with mechanical engineering, otherwise how could we forge unusual weapons or unique warehouse doors?" Old Zhang smiled and said dismissively, "How can you make a living in a big city like Xia Yu without some skills?"

"Brother Zhang is amazing."

Su Yan was speechless again when faced with Lao Zhang, and after holding it in for a long time, he finally blurted out something impressive.

23333 While writing, I accidentally dozed off because of the cold weather, and almost an hour has passed since I fell asleep.

Fortunately, I slept on a chair, otherwise I wouldn't have slept soundly.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 52 The Brothel Reopens!

With the help of disciples from the Qi Sect who were away on training, Su Yan's renovation of the brothel progressed quickly. Apart from the first day when everyone was restricted from moving around because the main hall needed to be pried open, the rest of the work involved laying pipes on the ceiling and installing a pressure circulation pool on the roof.

It doesn't affect the lives of the dozens of people in the brothel; it just means the construction area needs to be temporarily cleared out, and some sawdust needs to be cleaned up afterwards.

Because the repairmen were all monks, they worked for about six hours a day. They completed the installation of all the metal pipes in four days. In the remaining two days, Lao Zhang also redesigned the ceiling. After that, he arranged for a carpenter to install the ceiling. Except for the ceiling height being slightly reduced by one foot, it was no different from the original.

"Three days were used for installation, one day for testing the water circulation tightness, and the remaining three days were used for constructing the ceiling and fire connection well. Almost all the functions you mentioned have been implemented."

Inside the brothel where the water heating was running, Old Zhang, beaming with pride, stuffed a stack of papers into Su Yan's arms, ready to settle the final payment with him.

The fifty catties of spirit stones covered the cost of the pipes and pool. An additional labor fee was required for the repairs. These were agreed upon before the work began. Now that the repairs and the inspection were complete, Lao Zhang felt they were perfect, so he arrogantly came to Su Yan to settle the final payment.

"Absolutely fantastic!"

Su Yan sat in the lobby of the brothel. She had taken off her two heavy coats and was wearing only a thin summer dress. She did not feel the slightest bit cold. Outside the window, the temperature was probably below zero because of the snow.

The advantage of wooden buildings is thus demonstrated: no additional insulation layer is needed inside or outside the brothel.

The talented women, who usually wore fur shawls and rubbed their hands together, have now changed into silk skirts of various colors and move about in the hall as if they are dancing gracefully.

………………

"Hey"