Chapter 451: Money Has to Be Spent Where It Counts

Bai Jingtang was indeed deeply tempted.

Su Wangchuan had invited her twice in total.

The first time he invited her, she had only just gained a foothold in Weihai Commandery and had not yet sorted everything out. She had still believed that, so long as she slowly adapted to the identity of a studio boss and finished integrating her resources, she would eventually be able to move with the same ease as Yan Tiannan and rise to another level altogether.

Unfortunately,

things had not gone as she had hoped.

Not only had she wasted a great deal of time in Weihai Commandery, but after the Blood Moon Incident, the increasingly fierce competition between the major studios had begun to produce casualties. In the turmoil, many people had even lost their jobs and were living from one day to the next. Even she herself had been forced to go out and take escort missions to subsidize the studio’s expenses.

By the time Su Wangchuan invited her a second time, she was already tempted.

She had only clung to one final thread of hope, thinking that perhaps the coastal auction at the end of the year might offer some way to break the deadlock.

But now—

seeing that even her younger male cousin was about to break through to the Fourth Rank, while Su Wangchuan had already broken through to the Fifth Rank and left her far behind, she finally could not sit still any longer and decided to move her entire studio over.

Bai Jingtang accepted Su Wangchuan’s invitation!

Within three days, all four hundred-plus members of her studio would be transferred to Sanhe Commandery.

At that point, Su Wangchuan would hand over part of Qingfeng Escort Agency’s business for Bai Jingtang to manage.

As the Deputy Chief Escort Leader of Qingfeng Escort Agency, Bai Jingtang would be responsible for handling the difficult heavy-consignment escort missions on the agency’s behalf. In normal times, she would only need to focus on cultivation.

Fei Zai had already expanded Qingfeng Escort Agency’s branch offices into every county and major town in Sanhe Commandery. At present, each branch did not earn much per month—only a few dozen to a little over one hundred taels of gold—but all together, they could still turn in more than three thousand taels of gold, because the water routes were indeed much easier to work than the land routes.

Qingfeng Escort Agency’s greatest advantage was that it did not need docks. A branch office could be established in any county or major town, and it could quickly secure merchant orders.

Bai Jingtang would be stationed in Rongcheng County, responsible for extending the agency’s reach into the counties toward Weihai Commandery, planting Qingfeng Escort Agency’s branch offices inside Weihai Commandery and steadily increasing its profits.

And with Caobang disciples and Bai Jingtang, a fourth-rank martial artist, pushing matters from behind the scenes, it would not be difficult to seize the escort business from the existing agencies in those counties.

Bai Jingtang could see Su Wangchuan’s ambition, and she could also see Qingfeng Escort Agency’s future through its current development. The profits from this business would definitely surpass those of a single hall, so she naturally accepted gladly. Even if she only kept one-third of Qingfeng Escort Agency’s earnings, the future was still full of promise.

Bai Yuhui was the happiest of all!

His elder female cousin was joining them!

One person would be looking after him in the waterways below;

Senior Brother Su Wangchuan would be sheltering one whole region from the hall;

and Heilong County would become even safer.

Now he could focus all his energy on breaking through to the Fourth Rank!

Beaming, Su Wangchuan immediately instructed Chen Ergou on the spot to make Bai Jingtang an identity token.

“Captain Bai, you are a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect, so you cannot join the Caobang, but you can be listed as an Offering Master of the Caobang. For the time being, you’ll have to make do with the identity of an Offering Master attached to my Sanhe Commandery Hall...”

“With that status, you can enter the Armory Manual Vault whenever you like. I’ll instruct Zhao Heiniu’s side to grant you the same authority as a Deputy Hall Master. You’ll be allowed to study every martial arts manual in the Armory Manual Vault, though you may take out at most one manual per day.”

...

Bai Jingtang’s eyes lit up, and she nodded almost unconsciously. A faint smile even appeared at the corner of her lips.

With that kind of authority, she would soon be able to charge toward the Fifth Rank.

Su Wangchuan then said to Wang Yuehui,

“Bring out a set of Thousand-Forged Battle Armor for Captain Bai. When carrying out missions outside, having a suit of battle armor will make things much safer.”

“Yes!”

Bai Jingtang immediately witnessed the Caobang’s extravagance!

A set of Thousand-Forged Battle Armor worth several hundred taels of gold, and they actually had spare stock lying around.

And that was not all.

Su Wangchuan took an exquisite box from his robes and placed it before Bai Jingtang.

“This is a Lesser Rejuvenation Pill.”

...

Bai Jingtang hurriedly shook her head.

“No, I can’t take this. It’s far too precious, and I still owe you one thousand taels of gold...”

Su Wangchuan smiled and explained,

“Now that Captain Bai has joined my hall, and you also rendered merit in the spring departure mission, I was already planning to distribute one Lesser Rejuvenation Pill to every martial artist of the Third Rank and above in the hall to help all of you raise the realm of your internal cultivation methods. Captain Bai naturally has a share as well.”

Hearing him put it that way, Bai Jingtang was both surprised and delighted, and her eyes grew even brighter and deeper.

“It seems there are quite a few third-rank martial artists in the hall. For you to be able to produce so many Lesser Rejuvenation Pills in one go now, Su Wangchuan... you really are different.”

Even Yan Tiannan in his prime probably would not have been able to produce this many Lesser Rejuvenation Pills.

Su Wangchuan smiled.

“That’s thanks to Zhuang Xuyan, who personally delivered them to my door.”

“But I’ve already used up my share of Lesser Rejuvenation Pills for the Fifth Rank. Keeping these in my hands doesn’t do much for me, whereas they can help all of you a great deal...”

“A wise decision.”

Bai Jingtang nodded and praised him.

“If you lack the strength to protect it, hoarding too much gold and too many treasures only invites disaster. So many studios spent all their effort piling up wealth, only to end in complete ruin.”

She looked around at Chen Ergou, Wang Yuehui, Bai Yuhui, Su Yun, Su Qi, and the others, and the more she looked, the more she felt that Su Wangchuan’s way of thinking was the right one.

Only by turning all those resources into strength could true power be forged.

And Su Wangchuan had done that exceptionally well!

When she had first come to Sanhe Commandery, Yin Xingtian had only had a mere handful of third-rank martial artists and a few dozen second-rank martial artists under him.

But now?

The Hall Master of Sanhe Commandery was himself a fifth-rank martial artist;

counting herself, there were now three fourth-rank martial artists;

at the Third Rank there were Chen Ergou, Zhao Heiniu, Lin Jiahe, Bai Yuhui, Wang Yuehui, Ye Baiyi, Chen Gang, Li Xiangyang, Hong Kaibao, Monk Dalong, Old Yuan, Old Qiu, Lin Xun... casually counting them already produced more than a dozen, nearly twenty!

Bai Yuhui, Lin Jiahe, and the others were all preparing to break through to the Fourth Rank;

and beyond them, there was another whole batch of second-rank martial artists—Cui Mingjue, Li Qing, Zhang Yao, Chen Hong, Sister Yuan, and more—getting ready to break through to the Third Rank!

On the waterways, Su Wangchuan held absolute control through the Caobang hall;

on land, he was about to seize full control through Qingfeng Escort Agency;

officially, he had close ties with a whole group of Constable Captains from the Six Gates and could call on official escort protection whenever he wished;

Divine Physician Shen of Medicine King Valley was an honored guest of Su Wangchuan;

and through business, he maintained close ties with all the great families.

The more deeply Bai Jingtang came to understand the current Sanhe Commandery Hall, the more unbelievable it felt.

In less than a year, Su Wangchuan had already built the Sanhe Commandery Hall into something like a full-fledged local gang power, the ruler of the underground order in Sanhe Commandery.

The look in Bai Jingtang’s eyes when she looked at Su Wangchuan could not help but change.

On his side, Su Wangchuan smiled and said,

“Captain Bai is absolutely right.”

“Resources must be spent on our own people!”

“Yuehui, notify everyone of the Third Rank and above to gather in the council hall.”

“Today, each of them will receive one Lesser Rejuvenation Pill. We’ll first help all of you push 《Xuanwu Art》 to Entry-Level Mastery.”

“Yes!”

Overjoyed, Wang Yuehui cupped his fists and departed.