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As his thoughts fluttered, the water beside the boat suddenly churned. With a swoosh, a head emerged from beneath the water, followed by a delicate hand grasping the edge of the boat. With a strong tug, a skinny bald man flipped into the boat from the water.
Wrapped around his waist were several loops of dark green aquatic grass, each seven to eight feet long and as thick as a finger, shimmering with specks of blue light on the surface.
Zhao Tai, seeing the newcomer board the boat, was greatly annoyed and said, "Zhao Xiaoqi, why have you come up again? You've dirtied the boat—can you afford that?"
"Brother Xiao Tai, don't be angry. Next time, next time I'll definitely be careful," Zhao Xiaoqi pleaded with a grin, continuously bowing and scraping, apparently unafraid of Zhao Tai's threats to complain to the young master.
Zhao Sheng, jolted out of his conversation by the two men, looked up to see Zhao Xiaoqi with Ethereal Bluegrass and his eyes lit up. He waved him over and said, "Xiaoqi, come here."
Upon hearing the young master's summons, Zhao Xiaoqi quickly scrambled to Zhao Sheng's side, and as he unwound the Spirit Grass, he boasted, "Hey, Grand Elder, look at these stalks of Ethereal Bluegrass, they're of enough age, aren't they?"
Zhao Sheng pinched the sticky surface of the Ethereal Bluegrass and sniffed it, nodding in satisfaction and said, "Good, they all have a century's worth of maturity. Xiaoqi, you've done well. You truly deserve to be called the current 'White Dragon of the Waves' of the Zhao family."
"Oh, I can't accept such high praise from the Grand Elder, I'm not worthy," Zhao Xiaoqi responded, pretending to be overwhelmed by the compliment, yet a broad grin revealed all his teeth.
Unlike the strength of cultivation sects, some less powerful cultivation families often fully utilise the power of their mundane kin.
Just like the Zhao family of Dragon Carp Lake, there were only about thirty cultivators within the family, but the total number of family members had already exceeded fifty thousand.
There were many mortals within the Zhao family like Zhao Xiaoqi, who served the cultivators. They undertook tasks within their capabilities, seeking to spare the family's cultivators from mundane chores.
Such as diving to gather medicinal herbs, rowing boats to catch spirit fish, simply processing medicinal herbs, making raw materials for talisman paper, and so on.
Seeing Zhao Xiaoqi being praised, Zhao Tai quickly presented a Red Carp, two feet in length, sleek and strong, with scale armor shining like blood and eyes like jade pearls, to Zhao Sheng.
"Young master, what do you think of this Red Carp?"
Zhao Sheng took a look and shook his head, "It's not even three feet long, not old enough, let it go!"
Zhao Tai, displeased with the response, walked to the side of the boat and reluctantly released the Red Carp back into the lake.
He didn't understand why they had to let go of a spirit fish that was so hard to catch, nor did he understand why the ancestor had established such a strange rule.
Even if it wasn't three feet long, it was still a spirit fish! A pound of its meat could sell for a Spirit Stone.
Zhao Tai didn't know the principle of sustainable development, so naturally he didn't understand the reasoning behind Zhao Sheng's rule.
Seeing Zhao Tai coming up empty-handed, Zhao Xiaoqi snickered and obsequiously said, "Grand Elder, are these Ethereal Bluegrasses enough? If not, I'll dive down again."
Zhao Sheng, placing the Ethereal Bluegrass into his storage bag, shook his head, "No need. These are enough for some time. After you get back, go to the Good Deeds Hall to claim your merit."
Zhao Xiaoqi was delighted to hear this, as the good deeds from the Good Deeds Hall were precious and could not be bought with gold or silver. One could exchange for many worldly treasures like Magic Talismans, treasure medicine, advanced martial arts, and so on.
"Grand Elder, please wait, I'll fetch a few more for you," he said, and with that, he turned and dove into the water with a splash, quickly disappearing from the surface.
Zhao Sheng didn't even have the chance to stop him.
Seeing this, Zhao Sheng shook his head somewhat helplessly.
Perhaps this was the aftermath of becoming the head of the Zhao family!
Since being pushed into the position of Family Head, although Zhao Sheng had little real power, couldn't speak for family affairs, nor manage them,
there were still some privileges that came with the position. For example, he could designate good deeds missions, had the authority to manage the mundane kin, and most importantly, one of the twelve Water Vein Cultivation Rooms was reserved for the Family Head's exclusive use.
Especially the exclusive right to a Water Vein Cultivation Room.
His reason for fishing at Dragon Carp Lake for spiritual carp was to evade the "harassment" of some of the elder cultivators.
It couldn't be helped,
the number of Cultivation Rooms on the Spirit Vein was limited while the number of family cultivators was far greater, creating a situation where demand far exceeded supply.
Especially since elders like Zhao Jinding and Zhao Jingang occupied two rooms, making the remaining Cultivation Rooms even more scarce.
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Twelve hours a day, every cultivation room was packed full.
Therefore, the cultivation rooms managed by Zhao Sheng had become a particularly coveted commodity.
Following Zhao Chongwei's successful use of the cultivation room, cultivators from the main branch of the family flocked in succession, each clamoring to "borrow the cultivation room".
But on this matter, Zhao Sheng was very steadfast, adhering to the principle of fairness and impartiality.
He wouldn't favor one side over the other, the main and secondary branches must be treated equally.
Aside from reserving six hours for his personal use, the remaining six hours would be rotated between one person from each branch every day.
Because of this, he faced numerous grievances and criticisms from the elders of his own branch, but Zhao Sheng remained unswayed.
If the Zhao family wanted to grow and strengthen, unity was of utmost importance.
The collapse of any vast power often starts with infighting.
It was fortunate that Zhao Sheng was reincarnated just in time—had it been a decade or two later,
the Zhao family would likely have already fallen apart.
From the day he became the family head, Zhao Sheng had begun trying to gradually resolve the rifts and conflicts between the two branches.
And the first thing he did was propose to back-pay the clan members' spiritual salaries for the past two years.
In Zhao Jinfu's storage bag, aside from Foundation Establishment Pills and the Jade Void Talisman Scripture, there were also some mid and lower grade spirit stones, talismans, magic artifacts, elixir pills, and other treasures.
All in all, there were over forty thousand spirit stones.
Meanwhile, the annual spiritual salary for the thirty-one cultivators of the Zhao family added up to just over eight thousand seven hundred spirit stones.
After setting aside seventeen thousand spirit stones, the rest of the difficult-to-sell treasures like magic artifacts were placed in the family's treasury as reserves.
Zhao Sheng's proposal was exquisite; both branches of the Zhao Family nodded in agreement, with not a single voice of opposition.
The issue of back-paying the spiritual salaries greatly eased the tension between the two branches.
Add to this the fact that two of the family elders entered the cultivation room to begin three months of secluded nurturing,
and without their lead, the tense atmosphere in the Zhao family, which was as if drawn swords stood ready, became much more relaxed under Zhao Sheng's skillful rhetoric.
When they occasionally met, members from both branches even greeted each other.
Zhao Sheng saw very clearly that the Zhao family had become what it was because, in a word, they were "poor".
So,
they needed to find every way to increase income and reduce expenditure, ah!
Zhao Sheng sighed inwardly, his thoughts turning to the Spirit Medicine Garden on the shady side of Heavenly Pillar Mountain.
Now was not yet the time.
At the very least, he would wait until he advanced to the Qi Refining Middle Stage before attempting to enter there.
The profound lessons of his previous life were still fresh in his memory, and he would never underestimate the dangers of the Death Treasure Land.
Three days later, at the Zhao Family Territory,
in the talisman making room of Harmony Courtyard, Zhao Sheng stood seriously in front of a curly maple wood desk, holding a First Order Middle Grade Embroidered Fox Talisman Brush, as he fluently drew a Spring Breeze and Rain Talisman.
Suddenly,
he frowned as he noticed a wisp of blue water vapor rise from the talisman paper on the desk, instantly blurring the entire paper.
A clear mist quickly condensed in the air, swiftly enveloping the entire room.