87: Chapter 87 Opening Up Trade Routes

Before the sky had darkened, Pei Qingyun left the ancestral home.

Last night, he had received news from the Evil Suppression Bureau that the commercial route to the Prefecture City was now open.

This put him in a great mood, and he had risen early.

Opening his attribute panel, Pei Qingyun observed his current status.

[Name: Pei Qingyun]

[Lifespan: 9 years, 11 months]

[Cultivation: Five Viscera Realm Perfection (1280 / 2000)]

[Cultivation Technique: Pei Family Evergreen Art Perfection (Yellow-grade Peak), Thousand Blade Slash Perfection (Yellow-grade High-tier), Blazing Sun Art Perfection (Yellow-grade Peak)]

[Family Luck: 20 (400) (Note: Family Luck can be recovered; it can naturally recover 20 points every day.)]

Over these past two months, he had successively added Family Luck to his cultivation, which had caused the accumulated experience to already exceed half.

In another month or so, he would be able to step into the Six Bowels Realm.

Starting from the Five Viscera Realm, the path of martial arts gradually entered the path of longevity.

Five-Viscera Martial Artists could extend their Lifespan by ten years, while Six Viscera Grandmasters could extend it by another twenty years on that foundation.

Twenty years might not seem long, but for a Six Viscera Grandmaster, these twenty years were crucial.

These twenty years were equivalent to an extension of their Peak.

By the time a Five-Viscera Martial Artist broke through to the Six Bowels Realm, they were already over fifty.

At this time, the Qi and blood within their bodies were already on the verge of decline.

However, one of the characteristics of a Six Viscera Grandmaster was that their Qi and blood would not decline.

They would only experience a decline in Qi and blood when they were about to die.

In other words, a Six Viscera Grandmaster would not have their combat power affected by age.

Naturally, the saying "fists fear the young and strong" did not apply.

But Six Viscera Grandmasters could not defy the laws of nature; they would die of old age, and their body's vitality would decline.

This was like a basin of water; the total amount would not change when reused.

But the Impurities mixed into the water would increase more and more, eventually making the water muddy and unbearable.

And the twenty-year Lifespan extension from breaking through to the Six Viscera Grandmaster realm was equivalent to purifying a portion of the Impurities in the water.

Thereby allowing the physical Peak period of a Six Viscera Grandmaster to be extended to eighty years of age.

For the vast majority of Six Viscera Grandmasters, there was still a possibility of breaking through to the Opening Meridians realm before eighty.

But once past eighty, there was no possibility at all.

Thinking of this, Pei Qingyun recalled his own age.

He was already eighty-two.

The Perfection of the Pei Family Evergreen Art had allowed him to possess the characteristics of a Six Viscera Grandmaster in advance.

But once he broke through to the Six Bowels Realm, the characteristics of the Pei Family Evergreen Art seemed to become useless.

Would the age shackles of the Six Viscera Grandmaster affect him?

This made Pei Qingyun somewhat curious.

But before he could ponder deeply, a scout arrived at his small courtyard.

The scout said, "Old Ancestor, Director Chen has sent someone to notify you, saying that honored guests have arrived, and requests that you go to the Evil Suppression Bureau."

Pei Qingyun frowned, "It seems the people from the Chen Family and the He Family have arrived. The commercial route was only opened last night, and the two families have arrived today; this speed is very fast."

Pei Qingyun knew very well the Prefecture City's thirst for grain.

But the two families arriving so quickly still surprised him.

Generally speaking, after a commercial route to the Prefecture City was initially opened, there was still a lot of follow-up work to be done.

It usually took three to five days to conduct large-scale sweeps of Demons to ensure the safety and smooth passage of the commercial route.

As a result, the Chen Family and He Family had arrived early the next morning.

Pei Qingyun had sufficient reason to suspect whether the two families had sent advance personnel.

However, he did not dwell on it.

Since the Chen and He families could come early, then the Qian and Lv families could naturally do so as well.

Before going to the Evil Suppression Bureau, Pei Qingyun specifically gave instructions to Pei Tianrong.

On how to respond if the Qian and Lv families came knocking.

Actually, even if Pei Qingyun hadn't said anything, Pei Tianrong would have known what to do.

Between aristocratic families, there always existed a competitive relationship.

In Jinhuai Prefecture, competitive relationships existed among the four major families: Qian, Chen, He, and Lv.

The Qian Family's influence was the most powerful in Jinhuai Prefecture.

The Chen Family ranked second, the He Family ranked third, and the Lv Family ranked fourth.

To counter the Qian Family's influence, the Chen Family and the He Family formed an alliance.

The Qian Family was not to be outdone and followed suit by forming an alliance with the Lv Family.

Thus, Jinhuai Prefecture was divided into two major camps.

On this point, the major forces of Jinhuai Prefecture had basically reached a consensus.

The Pei Family doing this undoubtedly indicated that they were joining the Chen and He camp.

Initially, Pei Qingyun had also thought about neutrality.

But he quickly rejected this idea.

Neutrality was actually similar to being a fence-sitter.

If the Pei Family just held onto Wuyang County and was content being the local tyrant of Wuyang County, then neutrality would naturally be best.

But if the Pei Family wanted to go further, then the Pei Family's reach would inevitably have to extend toward Jinhuai Prefecture.

As a mere outsider force, if the Pei Family wanted to gain a firm foothold in the Prefecture City, the fastest way was to join one of the camps.

If it were only that, Pei Qingyun might not have done so.

Pei Qingyun also had his own confidence.

Perhaps other forces would worry that, under the collision of the two camps, something would go wrong sooner or later.

But Pei Qingyun did not have this worry; he believed that he would soon be able to gain a firm foothold in the Prefecture City, and even occupy an important position within the two camps.

Ever since the Pei Family took down the Li Family, the Pei Family's prestige had resonated throughout all of Wuyang County.

All forces were very clear that the Pei Family would be the king of Wuyang County.

This also caused the population of Shiming Street, where the Pei Family was located, to surge by thirty percent in two months.

Among them, ten percent had moved from Houli Street, and the other twenty percent had migrated from various towns.

Although two months had passed since the incident in Yuyang Town, the impact brought about by the destruction of Yuyang Town had not disappeared because of it.

Every day, there was still a steady stream of outsiders entering the city.

This also made Wuyang County increasingly prosperous.

Of course, this inevitably affected the economy of the various towns.

But this was not something Pei Qingyun needed to be concerned with; it was a matter that the prefectural government needed to be concerned with.

For this, Magistrate Tang Mu had also thought of many ways.

But it was of no use.

People who did business were naturally not stupid.

At the same time, they were also more afraid of death.

In Wuyang County, competition was a bit higher, but it was also an opportunity.

The more prosperous a place, the more opportunities there were.

On the premise of ensuring their own safety, they were actually more willing to stay in the county seat.

With all this back and forth, the Pei Family's revenue on Shiming Street had also increased quite a bit.

But with too many people, the result was that the roads were somewhat congested.

Originally, it only took a quarter of an hour to get from the Pei Family estate to the Evil Suppression Bureau, but Pei Qingyun had spent a full half hour.

Of course, this was because he chose to ride in a horse-drawn carriage.

Looking at the pedestrians on Shiming Street, Pei Qingyun's memories seemed to return to the past.

Heavy traffic and an endless stream of people.

If he were to renovate Shiming Street, it might not be impossible to form the prototype of a modern society.

But he quickly rejected this idea.

The things that needed to be changed were secondary.

More importantly, this Wuyang County did not belong to his Pei Family.

Unless the Great Jing Dynasty split, it was impossible for the Pei Family to carve out territory and rule it.