73: The power of family

"My Lord, your Spiritual Tea is ready."

In the small courtyard, Huo Zhongshan carried a steaming pot of Spiritual Tea and walked softly to Zhou Yan's side.

Zhou Yan heard him and raised his hand to take it; his fingertips brushed against the warm surface of the pot, and he took a small sip.

"Mmm."

A long sigh of satisfaction escaped his throat, and his brows relaxed.

"Not bad. To have such a pot of Spiritual Tea after lunch is truly a rare pleasure."

Zhou Yan took another sip, his gaze sweeping over the tidy stone paths and elegant landscaping of the courtyard, then he shook his head slightly.

"The officials of Jiangzhou Prefecture are still too good at 'being flexible.' Do they not know that I, Zhou, have always been upright and incorruptible since I began serving as an official?"

"Using this residence to test a Censor? Looking across the imperial court, which Censor could withstand such a 'test'?"

"My Lord, you jest."

Huo Zhongshan chimed in at the right moment, tactfully smoothing things over for the officials of Jiangzhou Prefecture.

"Jiangzhou is naturally wealthy, so it is only natural for the officials to have some extra money to acquire residences. Besides, this is also a gesture of goodwill from them."

He had not joined Zhou Yan's team for long, and he did not want his master to stir up a huge commotion right from the start, resulting in heads rolling; at the very least, he needed to give his old heart a chance to buffer.

This courtyard was the residence specifically arranged by Prefect Qiao Wenze after Zhou Yan had buried his "Family" and returned to Jiangzhou Prefecture to reveal his identity, under the pretext that "Censor Zhou is weary from his travels and should rest here for a few days."

As for the actual purpose, Zhou Yan was not sure.

He had no permanent place to stay in Jiangzhou to begin with, and now that he held the Rank of a seventh-Rank Censor, staying in an inn was indeed inappropriate, so he accepted this favor for the time being.

As for the maids and stewards sent by Qiao Wenze, he kept none of them, only allowing Cui Zhongshan and his apprentices to come over and help tidy up a bit.

After all, he was a cultivator; he did not need anyone to serve him in his daily life, and if he really needed someone, he could hire them later.

Having watched too many political dramas, Zhou Yan always felt uneasy keeping people sent by local officials around him.

Regarding Zhou Yan's claim of being an "upright official," Huo Zhongshan was genuinely convinced.

In just one morning, there was a steady stream of officials coming to visit; some brought money, others brought spiritual items, but Zhou Yan refused to see any of them and returned all the gifts.

After all, what they brought was not as much as what he had acquired yesterday, so Zhou Yan naturally looked down on them. However, since Cui Zhongshan had left before the chaos in the black market started, he naturally did not know this.

Therefore, this behavior made Huo Zhongshan feel very reassured.

After being unlucky for half his life, he had finally met a reliable noble person.

"My Lord, I just saw another official arrive at the gate; it looks like Judge Chen of this prefecture."

"A judge? What Rank?" Zhou Yan asked nonchalantly, not paying much attention.

"Proper seventh Rank. Although his Rank is not high, behind him is Assistant Prefect Qiao Wenbin of Jiangzhou."

Huo Zhongshan knew that Zhou Yan did not want to see guests right now, but because this person had a special status, he offered a reminder.

Zhou Yan was indeed interested and raised his eyes to ask further.

"What is the relationship between Qiao Wenbin and Qiao Wenze?"

"Reporting to you, My Lord, Assistant Prefect Qiao is the younger brother of Prefect Qiao. There is a significant age gap between them, so Prefect Qiao treats him like his own son."

"Assistant Prefect Qiao is also quite capable; after passing the imperial examinations, he worked his way up to Assistant Prefect. He is now a junior sixth Rank, two levels higher than you."

Zhou Yan rubbed his chin and pondered for a moment.

Junior sixth Rank, and closely related to Prefect Qiao.

Since he was temporarily staying in a residence arranged by them, refusing to see them immediately after receiving a favor was indeed a bit unreasonable.

"Go out and pass on a message: say that it is truly inconvenient for me to receive guests today, and ask him to return tomorrow afternoon, when we can have a good chat."

"Yes."

Huo Zhongshan filled Zhou Yan's teacup with Spiritual Tea and turned to walk toward the gate.

Watching his departing back, Zhou Yan rubbed his hands, flicked his finger to open the System panel, and as his gaze swept over the gains, a smile unconsciously curled at the corners of his mouth.

It had been one day since he buried his "Family members."

In this one day, he had done more than just inherit the Family legacy.

The scene shifted, and before his eyes appeared Zeng Ze, who had long since transformed into the form of a large bat.

Zhou Yan was once again grateful for this version update of the game; if it were the old version of the System, those chibi characters would have completely disappeared after Zhou Yan physically deleted them—how could it be as cost-effective as it was now?

At this moment, the chibi Zeng Ze was standing in front of the forging table, his face full of anger.

Seeing this, Zhou Yan put on an expression of frustration at his failure to meet expectations.

"You have only worked for 24 hours, and you are already this lazy?"

When Zeng Ze became his "Family member," he was at the Pseudo Foundation Establishment Realm, so the chibi character was also a Pseudo Foundation Establishment template.

At the moment, the Alchemy station still could not do without Huo Zhongshan.

There was no more suitable candidate for the forging task for the time being, so naturally, he, having the highest Rank, had to take it on.

Ever since he was thrown onto the forging table, he had been perfectly arranged by Zhou Yan's ruthless exploitation mode.

Zhou Yan first dismantled his bed and set up a makeshift floor mat next to the forging table.

The result of this was that it would shorten his sleep time and increase a large amount of resentment.

It seemed like a drawback, but in reality, it allowed him to recover more stamina in less time.

As for the resentment?

Just grab him and throw him into the water to soak for a while; after triggering the "sick" status, the resentment would naturally be cleared.

Then feed him a Medicinal Pill that Cui Zhongshan had obtained from AFK Alchemy, and he would recover immediately.

Once the sickness was cured, his work attitude would briefly improve, and even the time cost of being sick and taking medicine could be made up for at once.

However, seeing that he had entered an angry state again this time, Zhou Yan did not continue to exploit him; instead, he set up a bed for him again and let him rest properly.

It was not that Heavenly Venerable Zhou had suddenly developed a conscience; it was purely because the current forging task was finished. If he continued to exploit him and accidentally worked Zeng Ze to death, he wouldn't find such a useful NPC next time there was work.

Opening the forging table, two soft blue lights appeared.

【Metal Spiritual Root】

Quality: Excellent

Effect: Cultivate speed + 80%

Potential Points: 0

Success rate for continued forging: 40% (Potential Points are 0, cannot be upgraded for now)

【Wood Spiritual Root】

Quality: Excellent

Effect: Cultivate speed + 80%

Potential Points: 1

Success rate for continued forging: 40%

This was the result of Zeng Ze's hard work over these two days: two Excellent quality Spiritual Roots.

In the area of Spiritual Root forging, there was the concept of potential. Aside from Zhou Yan's own Spiritual Root, which had been strengthened by the Perfect foundation establishment pill and possessed more potential points...

...it was this Metal Spiritual Root, which was originally of common quality, that had relatively high potential points.

So Zhou Yan simply melted down the other Spiritual Roots and used them as Materials to upgrade them.

Originally, the Metal Spiritual Root was of higher quality and had 6 potential points, so logically it should have been easy to upgrade to Epic.

As it turned out, after upgrading it to Excellent in one go, that 40% success rate was like a lie, failing several times in a row.

But his own Wood Spiritual Root, which originally only had 4 potential points, actually had one point left after being upgraded to Excellent in one go.

It was truly a case of great ups and downs.

Perhaps this was also the effect of the Perfect foundation establishment pill?

In any case, Zhou Yan dared not use this point of potential casually.

He put the Metal Spiritual Root into his backpack and clicked to equip the upgraded Wood Spiritual Root.

In an instant, Zhou Yan's spiritual platform became clear, and even his Dao Foundation showed signs of expanding.

"Is this the power of Family?"

Zhou Yan looked at his own hands and couldn't help but clench his fists.

"Family, I have felt your power. I will carry your share, walk on strongly, and fulfill the promise I made to you."

"Let us together break through the Nine Heavens and control the universe!"

After being moved for a short while and observing a moment of silence for his "Family,"

Zhou Yan continued to calculate his gains; this time, the gains were indeed substantial.

Although because his Rank had increased, except for the Pseudo Foundation Establishment Zeng Ze who still counted as an elite monster, other "Family members" were treated as roadside mob monsters, and the rewards after killing them were meager, the overall earnings were still considerable.

If these guys were placed in the Langqi Village from back then, every single one of them would count as elite monster level.

How times have changed; the power creep is severe.

Huh?

Speaking of power creep, Zhou Yan seemed to remember someone.

Didn't Xiao Sheng say he was going to come find me? It's been two days; why is there no news at all?

At this moment, Xiao Sheng was in the outskirts of Jiangzhou.

"Xiao Sheng, hand over the flood dragon egg!"

"Are you kidding me, again? Where the f*** would I get a flood dragon egg!"