85: Chapter 85 A Chance Encounter Leads to Prosperity for Blue Moon

When the battleship left Xuangui Island, Lu Changyuan only took Lu Hu and twenty Sword Ray Cavalry who were still capable of long-range travel.

The remaining people were split; half escorted the first batch of supplementary personnel and the fleet, following behind Commander Tie Zhan, while the other half stayed at the stern to help transport the wounded and sealed cargo.

After traveling the sea route for only half a day, the outline of the outer reef of Blue Moon Island appeared from behind the mist.

Lu Changyuan had originally expected that what would greet him would be a tense, gloomy, wartime island where repairs were being made everywhere.

As it turned out, looking from afar, what he saw first was not blood or smoke, but a long line of spirit boats stretching out beyond the floating bridge of the Outer Port.

There were those from small merchant houses.

There were some from collateral branches of families, flying old flags but with new seals.

There were even a few ships that hadn't even had time to repaint their hulls, having only hastily nailed wooden signs to their bows reading "Urgent Sale," "Transfer of Mortgage," or "Seeking Refuge."

Lu Hu squinted his eyes for a long time, completely unable to understand: "Master, what is Blue Moon Island doing?"

Lu Changyuan did not speak either.

Because he had already seen that under the newly erected temporary inspection shed at the Outer Port, dozens of accountants, stewards, and soldiers holding talismans were divided into three lines.

One line for inspecting people.

One line for inspecting deeds.

One line for inspecting goods.

Signs were hung outside the shed.

The characters were not large, but they were extremely clear.

"For urgent sales of property, inspect old debts first, then determine the discounted price."

"For docked fleets, pay the docking protection fee first, then calculate storage by the day."

"For wartime Evil-warding, Evil-Suppressing, and purification materials, cash only, no credit."

Beneath the characters was a secondary seal.

The Blue Moon Island Lord's secondary seal.

Lu Hu opened his mouth, and after a long while, he spat out a sentence: "She really didn't raise a new flag."

Indeed, she hadn't.

Su Qingli held the line firmly.

She did not use the chaotic situation at the front lines to swallow other islands, nor did she send troops out to raid anyone's home. She simply took all the panic, urgent sales, and severed business contacts that arrived at the doorstep of Blue Moon Island and recorded them into the books according to the rules.

As soon as their ship approached the Outer Port, the port guards recognized the Spiritual Pressure and the flag signal.

After a shout of notification, there was soon movement from the direction of the long shed.

Su Qingli did not rush out with people.

She simply raised her head from the long shed, glanced this way, confirmed that it was Lu Changyuan who had returned, gave a few instructions to the steward beside her, and continued to finish reading the deed in her hand before walking over, carrying a thick ledger.

She still had that pale, calm appearance, as if she hadn't closed her eyes for three days.

Only, beneath that trace of exhaustion in her eyes, there was a layer of brightness that could not be suppressed.

"You've returned."

"I've returned."

Lu Changyuan looked at the ledger in her hand, "You've made quite a stir here."

"It doesn't count as making a stir."

Su Qingli handed the ledger to him, "Everything is within the rules. You should look at the general ledger first, then the detailed accounts."

Lu Changyuan didn't stand at the port to slowly flip through it; he went straight into the long shed with her.

Inside the long shed, there was an air mixed with the smell of the sea, the scent of ink, and the charred smell of spiritual paper.

A dozen booklets were spread out on the table.

In one corner, over a dozen family seals were piled up.

In another corner, a few maps were weighed down; on the maps, several small island chains and broken reef belts around Blue Moon Island had all been circled with red lines.

Lu Changyuan looked at the general ledger first.

He only read a dozen lines before his eyelids twitched.

It wasn't an exaggeration.

It was truly ruthless.

After the demonic tide overflowed, three small clans and two Loose Cultivator merchant teams around Blue Moon Island simultaneously ran into trouble.

Some had people pulled to the front lines and couldn't defend their islands.

Some had prepared too few anti-demonic supplies and were afraid of being completely cut off later.

There was even one family whose Old Ancestor had taken people to the Zhenhai Fortress, and the remaining collateral branches couldn't suppress the people's hearts and began secretly selling off ancestral property in exchange for cash.

Su Qingli did not go to swallow the islands.

She did three things.

First, docking protection.

Whoever's ship wanted to dock at the Blue Moon Island Outer Port to avoid disaster had to pay Spirit Stones first and sign the wartime rules: no bringing in human-caused disasters, no private fighting in the port, and no touching the Blue Moon Island military warehouse or Workshop lines. On this item alone, in three days, the port tax and docking protection fees collected amounted to 370,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Second, trusteeship.

For those small spiritual fields, small fishing Piers, and small docks that they couldn't defend themselves and feared being swallowed by neighboring islands, she didn't buy them outright; she only signed three-to-six-month wartime trusteeship deeds. Blue Moon Island provided men and formations to watch over them, splitting the profits 60/40. If the other party survived this round, they could redeem them according to the deed; if they didn't survive, Blue Moon Island had priority to take over.

Third, accepting collateral.

Evil-warding Talismans, Evil-Suppressing Sand, purification powder, old thunder-patterned talisman paper, and a batch of anti-moisture Formation Plates that Blue Moon Island had stockpiled early on but hadn't had time to use up were divided into small batches by her and released bit by bit at wartime prices. It wasn't clearing out the warehouse, but selling them while keeping to the bottom line of Blue Moon Island's defensive line. If the other party didn't have cash, they would put up island deeds, mining deeds, old warehouse deeds, dilapidated fleets, or three-year rental rights for spiritual fields as collateral.

Lu Changyuan flipped through page after page, becoming quieter the more he read.

Su Qingli sat opposite him and said in a calm voice: "You said before you left: defend the island, do not raise a new flag, do not empty the main warehouse. My actions have not crossed the line."

"You haven't."

Lu Changyuan closed the general ledger, "The detailed accounts."

This time he read for longer.

The detailed accounts were written more clearly.

The cash Spirit Stones openly collected by Blue Moon Island totaled over 2,864,000 Low Grade ones.

Of that, 1.2 million were proceeds from the wartime supplies and Formation Plates sold in batches over the three days.

Over 600,000 were from docking protection, warehouse rent, and ship repair fees.

The remaining over 1 million came from trusteeship income, discounted old debts, and down payments for a few urgently sold island deeds.

And beyond the books, there was even more stuff being held as collateral.

Six months of exclusive mining and fishing rights for two broken reef mining spots.

A three-year trusteeship deed for a small Pier near a shallow sea undercurrent.

Use rights for forty-seven Outer Sea warehouse sheds and two short docking lanes.

A 50% island deed for a small salt marsh island that was originally about to be abandoned.

Three micro-Spiritual Veins were not on the table, but there were two small spiritual springs that were almost dried up and one shallow mine pit that hadn't been fully explored yet being held under Blue Moon Island's accounts.

Lu Changyuan saw this and finally looked up: "You didn't touch their ancestral main island veins."

"If I touched them, it wouldn't be trusteeship; it would be annexation."

Su Qingli said, "You are not on the island, so I will not open that kind of door for you."

"I only take the things that are currently least valuable to them, but will become valuable again after surviving this round."

"And I only take what Blue Moon Island can use immediately."

Lu Hu, listening from the side, became more and more confused.

He could understand Spirit Stones.

He could also understand that a few docking lanes and warehouse sheds were valuable.

But with the series of accounts piled up, it still made his head spin: "This... this was just two or three days?"

Su Qingli finally glanced at him: "Three and a half days."

"The first day, people came to the door themselves."

"The next two days, I had people hang out the price tags, and then had the outer patrols left by Leng Feng spread the word: 'Blue Moon Island only accepts business with deeds and collateral, no empty talk.'"

"The more chaotic things are, the more people want to find a place where they can temporarily tie down their lives and their goods."

"Blue Moon Island just happened to be here."

Lu Hu swallowed his saliva.

After a while, he whispered: "If you had said earlier that it was such a 'big deal'..."

Su Qingli did not respond to his exclamation and only pushed another page of the account to Lu Changyuan.

"This is not the most important thing yet."

Lu Changyuan looked over.

That page was written with grain, housing, ship berths, and people.

The first batch of 6,400 battle-loss replacements he brought back from Xuangui Island could not just be herded onto the shore to settle down; it wasn't that simple.

Blue Moon Island's existing housing was not enough.

The freshwater line needed to be expanded.

The Outer Port cranes needed to be added.

Quarantine camps, short-term worker sheds, and temporary porridge stations all had to be set up immediately.

Su Qingli had already cleared out three areas.

The old shipyard on the east side of the Outer Port would be the temporary quarantine camp.

The open space on the west slope outside the main city would be the family resettlement sheds.

The shallow docking lane near the small salt marsh island that had been newly taken over would be converted into a second unloading port, specifically for receiving sea-beast carriers and old cargo ships.

She had even listed which batch of people would go on the island first, which batch would stay overnight on the outer floating sheds, which batch needed to have their old deeds inspected first, and which batch could be directly incorporated into the Workshops and shipyards.

"You had already guessed there would be population replacements?"

Lu Changyuan asked.

"I didn't guess there would be this many."

Su Qingli said, "But you held Xuangui Island; what you brought back in exchange would definitely not just be battle merits on paper. What Blue Moon Island lacks most right now is not Spirit Stones, but people who can turn the Spirit Stones, docking lanes, warehouse sheds, Workshops, and the newly mortgaged deeds into living money."

She paused here.

"So I opened the door to swallow people first."

Lu Changyuan looked at her.

This sentence was spoken coldly.

But it was absolutely correct.

What Blue Moon Island would face next was not making a windfall, but how to prevent this windfall from backfiring on itself.

He closed the ledger and tapped his knuckles lightly on the table: "Where is Leng Feng?"

"On the outer reef."

Su Qingli said, "Last night, two merchant teams tried to sneak into the secondary docking lane during the chaos, but he led people to seize both the ships and the cargo. This morning, he took people to check if the two small spiritual springs taken as collateral could be connected to the Outer Port's secondary water line."

"Where is Ye Zhe?"

"Still at the Thunder Bamboo Garden."

"Shi Jian hasn't returned?"

"The accounts at the Zhenhai Military Warehouse are still being held, and he can't get away for the time being."

After asking about them one by one, the picture in Lu Changyuan's mind became clear.

Blue Moon Island after the war had not fallen into chaos because he was not there.

Nor had it shrunk into a ball because of the high pressure from the front lines.

What Su Qingli did was not to bet on expanding after the front lines won.

She was betting that the first to collapse in the chaotic situation would certainly not be the poorest, but the ones who were least prepared and couldn't let go of their old airs.

Blue Moon Island was prepared.

So now, it was Blue Moon Island's turn to collect.

Lu Changyuan suddenly smiled.

Su Qingli looked at him: "Is there a problem?"

"No problem."

"It's just that I realized that before I left the island, I only thought about not letting you open doors recklessly."

"As it turned out, you didn't open them recklessly."

"You were holding a ruler, measuring inch by inch the places where others couldn't hold on."

Su Qingli did not respond to this, only saying calmly: "Therefore, Blue Moon Island can accept the replacements you brought back."

"But there is a prerequisite."

"Speak."

"Accounts are accounts, people are people, and ships are ships."

"The 6,400 newcomers cannot all be stuffed into the island register at once. First, divide them into four categories: foreign temporary register, worker register, shipyard register, and pending identity verification. Whoever has old debts, whoever has an old master, whoever has wartime entanglements, pick them out first, otherwise, it will explode later."

Lu Changyuan nodded: "Do as you say."

"Also."

Su Qingli pushed the last page over.

On it was written only one line of text.

"Byproducts of the Demon-Cleansing Garden can now be used to trial-produce the first batch of Low Grade purification liquid."

Lu Changyuan's gaze narrowed.

"It's not touching the living roots."

Su Qingli explained quickly, "It's the old sand washed out from outside the roots during this period under the Seal-Breath Restriction, the thunder-struck wood shavings soaked in thunder intent, and a few small, naturally shed outer skins. I had Chen Mo take a look when he returned last night; if we only make the lowest-grade purification liquid, it won't harm the roots."

"The quantity isn't large."

"But it's enough for the first batch of a small Workshop."

"If it succeeds, what Blue Moon Island sells in the future won't just be old inventory."

Lu Changyuan stared at that line of text for two breaths before looking up.

This time, what Blue Moon Island was truly going to grow was not just the thickness on the books.

It was the ability to repeatedly generate money, people, and defensive lines within the demonic tide.

Just then, someone outside the long shed suddenly shouted a notification.

"Lord Island Lord, Chief Steward Su."

"A ship from the Jubao Pavilion has just docked at the outer berth."

"The person who came claims to be the Chief Steward of the Eastern Route of the Outer Sea, saying they want to discuss a buyout."

Lu Changyuan and Su Qingli looked up at the same time.

"Buyout of what?"

The port guard swallowed his saliva: "He said he wants to take a look at that pot of purification liquid that Blue Moon Island just trial-produced."