By noon, several rotund monks with large ears had performed half a "two hours" of rituals, costing Gu Wen dozens of silver pieces.
Only then did the household settle down, but for safety's sake, Gu Wen still didn't plan to spend the night at home, and he could sense that these rotund monks lacked any transcendent powers.
"Mr. Wen, why do you need so many accounting ledgers?"
Jiang Fugui struggled to carry over nearly half a box of account books, placing them one by one onto the table. These were the royal estate's account books over the years, specifically, they were from Dragon Bridge's Water House.
If it were someone else, they would have to worry about being held accountable for embezzlement, but Gu Wen had made it clear when he caught himself embezzling for the first time, that taking silver wasn't the problem, the problem was absolutely not to screw things up.
Gu Wen picked up the ledgers and flipped through them quickly, without looking up he asked, "Can you get the royal estate's ledgers?"
"How could I possibly get the royal estate's ledgers?" Jiang Fugui laughed and cried, "My lord, although we provide the most silver to the royal estate, we are still but servants, we only get the expenditure ledgers at most."
"Bring them."
Jiang Fugui took out two account books, saying, "This one is from the most recent year, and the other one is from the year before."
[In the eleventh year of the Daqian era, a total of 380,000 silver pieces were handed over to the royal estate....]
The Daqian, the current dynasty's era name, very much in the style of the self-proclaimed Lord Emperor.
And Dragon Bridge's Water House contributed 380,000 silver pieces a year to the royal estate—in every confrontation with Gu Wen, one would have to lament that Daqian was finished.
You should know, the cost of one imperial guard soldier, including food, clothing, special expenses, and suburban grants, is about 30 silver pieces a year, that is, 35 strings of cash. The Water House's 380,000 pieces of silver a year could pay for at least ten thousand imperial guard soldiers' annual military pay.
And all these were actually in silver, not calculated in grain, oil, fabric, or other goods, which means the actual value is one-third higher.
That might not be much considering the 300,000-strong imperial guard, but this is merely the revenue from supplying water to Dragon Bridge's vendors and accounts for less than one-tenth of Dragon Bridge's total. Furthermore, this doesn't even include brothels and gambling houses.
What place is Dragon Bridge? A playground for the nobility, and it's outrageous that a place of entertainment can pull out military pay from its revenue.
But Gu Wen didn't check these ledgers out of concern for the country or its people; he wanted to know the source of the Heavenly Marrow. The only known source was from the elixirs in the hands of the immortal Yu Hua, which he clearly couldn't obtain, so he had no choice but to turn his attention to Zhao Feng.
Since the Zhao family had been in contact with the Immortal Sect from an early time, it was unreasonable to assume Zhao Feng didn't practice martial arts. Martial practice inevitably required consumption of pills, and buying pills would inevitably require taking silver from the Water House.
As Gu Wen quickly flipped through page after page of the ledger, he discovered another benefit of martial practice: his senses had become much sharper than before.
The so-called endless cycle of life may not be limited to the physical body, the spirit seemed to be fortified as well.
Indeed transcendent, merely beginning the path led to all-around enhancement.
Suddenly Gu Wen's movements paused, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: "Got it."
[On the third day of the third month, the royal estate's chief eunuch Feng Xiang withdrew 20,000 silver pieces to purchase replenishing medicines]
While the Water House and royal estate's accounts were separate, the royal treasury wasn't always stocked with reserves every moment. Sometimes, it was necessary to directly take from the Water House, and to prevent embezzlement, each transaction had to be clearly recorded.
One always leaves grease behind after eating meat—it was unheard of to take the fatty meat directly. Even if Zhao Feng himself came, there would still be a record. After all, an account without a record is a discrepancy, and countless things could leak out from such a gap.
The destination, the purchase of Lin Chuan medicinal fruit.
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Lin Chuan, one of Daqian's thirteen counties, located in the southwest, is a place of more mountains than flatlands and poor water quality.
Owing to its numerous forests, it's rich in mountain treasures, animal skins, and medicinal materials. Among them, the most famous is the Lin Chuan medicinal fruit, reputed to nourish yin and yang and prolong life, making it sought after by many nobles so much so that it has been designated a tribute by the court.
Every year, Lin Chuan County is required to offer a large quantity of its medicinal fruit to Bianjing.
Bianjing, or rather Daqian's top nobility and prominent families, seem to be keen on all manners of pills, even someone like Zhao Feng who fancies himself the Virtuous Prince, often spends a fortune on medicinal concoctions.
The nobility's pursuit of longevity is understandable; since ancient times, through every dynasty, that's been the norm, since wanting to live longer is human nature. But if martial practices really exist in the world, then the nobility are the most likely to have access to them.
The various medicinal materials they consume could very well possess miraculous properties, and their seemingly extravagant diets might not be idle folly.
Information about the medicinal fruit flashed through Gu Wen's mind—that's all he knew about it. After all, he was in the well-monopoly business, and for something outside his industry to be known to him, it must be extremely famous.
"Fugui, go buy some Lin Chuan medicinal fruit."
"My lord, this is a tribute, it might be difficult to obtain."
Jiang Fugui was somewhat troubled; he had heard of the Lin Chuan medicinal fruit as well, rumored to have medicinal properties comparable to ginseng.
"In the past few years, it was still negotiable, a medicinal fruit averaged one string of cash, but it's been getting steeper by the year. And after it was designated as a tribute by the court, most of the medicinal fruit flowing into Bianjing is managed by the Taifu Temple; they seldom sell it to outsiders."
The Taifu Temple, the place that managed tributes. Due to Daqian's vastness and richness in resources, the quantity and variety of tributes are immensely vast. There's generally only one way to acquire tributes, and that is to receive a reward from the Emperor.
"All the good stuff has been taken by the Zhao family."
Gu Wen internally cursed that Daqian would sooner or later be doomed, then said, "If you can't find it legally, you look for it illegally."
Grains leave husks, meat leaves grease; even items from the royal palace can be stolen and sold, so there are definitely tribute items for sale.
-----------------
It had been five two-hour intervals since Jiang Fugui had left, and the sun had already set. Gu Wen, using the excuse of continuing to entertain his trusted aides, took a carriage once more to the brothel.
This time he didn't need to attend to them, as the trusted aides themselves picked a beaut and went upstairs.
Thump thump thump.
"Who is it?"
"Mr. Wen, it's me, I've found the item for you."
Jiang Fugui entered with a box in hand, placing it on the table with a pained expression, saying, "Oh dear, my good mother, these things are too expensive, they're worth more than Gold. Just a few of these medicinal fruits, and they dared to charge me a hundred taels of Silver."
Gu Wen opened the box, and a faint bitter scent entered his nostrils. Inside were ten red fruits the size of a thumb, with crystal-clear skins.
He picked one up and examined it closely, asking, "How did you manage to buy these?"
Jiang Fugui, sitting beside Gu Wen, poured himself a drink, took a sip to quench his smoking-hot throat, and said, "Although they are tribute items, big pharmacies secretly sell them, just in small quantities. If you want more, you might have to go to Old One-Arm at the black market."
Old One-Arm, the biggest slave trader in the black market of Bianjing. Only Gu Wen was a man of the straight path, whereas Old One-Arm tread the path of darkness.
Gu Wen had seen him a few times, a nearly fifty-year-old, one-armed old man with an eye gouged out, radiating a lethal aura as if he'd crawled out of a pile of dead soldiers, his yellow teeth exposed when he smiled.
No one knew his name, nor was it clear who backed him; this was normal as those in the underworld couldn't afford to be blatant.
Gu Wen took a medicinal fruit, then slowly placed it in his mouth. He had eaten this type of fruit at some banquets; it was non-toxic.
But, much like the local delicacies of his previous world—such as fermented bean juice, virgin boy urine boiled eggs, or ear-shaped herb—the taste of these medicinal fruits was hardly compliment-worthy.
Bitter at first, then numbing to the tongue, followed by a spice that burns the throat. The only praise-worthy aspect was the scent, which possessed a peculiar, extraordinary fragrance.
He chewed it carefully, as usual.
Inside him, the glint of gold representing his Fate Diagram vibrated slightly.
His Heavenly Marrow did increase, but not by a year's worth.
It worked!
Gu Wen's spirits lifted, proving his guess correct; the path of cultivation wasn't as unreachable as it seemed, and the elites of Daqian had long since come into contact with it.
And there were no walls in the world that didn't leak air.
He swallowed the remaining nine medicinal fruits in quick succession, the intense bitterness and extraordinary fragrance spreading.
Jiang Fugui looked confused; he remembered that Mr. Wen never used to eat these things. Could it be that with his newfound noble title, even his interests and tastes had transformed to those of a person of high status?
The Fate Diagram only trembled slightly; the Heavenly Marrow had not increased.
Not enough, nowhere near enough.
Gu Wen asked, "Can we obtain more Lin Chuan medicinal fruits?"
Jiang Fugui answered, "Old One-Arm didn't say, but they're deadly expensive, a hundred taels for ten. I've heard that if you go to Lin Chuan and buy from the mountain folks, they sell it by the weight."
"It's normal for the black market prices to be high, after all, it's illegal business. Besides, Lin Chuan is a land of poverty and dangerous terrain, one has to face bandits when going into the mountains to collect them, and then there's the journey transporting them back to Bianjing over water and land. There's also the need to ensure the medicinal fruits' skins are unbroken. A hundred taels for ten isn't expensive,"
said Gu Wen, shaking his head.
As long as it could increase what his Fate Diagram needed, no amount of money was too much. Copper, Silver, Gold, after all, were external possessions, neither brought upon birth nor taken after death.
Ten taels per fruit; that was half a year's living expenses for an ordinary citizen in Bianjing, a year's for a citizen of Daqian. Yet for Gu Wen, that was affordable, as he had tens of thousands of taels in ready cash, equivalent to a thousand medicinal fruits.
Moreover, Gu Wen owned a Water House, and from it, skimming off another ten or twenty thousand Silver was easy. It had been unnecessary before, he couldn't take it with him, but now that had changed.
"Go find Old One-Arm again. Whatever amount of medicinal fruits he has, I'll take five thousand taels' worth... no, start with five thousand."
"Ah? Sir, what do you need this stuff for?"
"For dealing with some nobles, but ultimately it's reselling tribute items, so make sure the operation is clean."