Lighting Lanterns in the Mountains and Seas

Watching Young Master Nan complain incessantly, Shi Chun, who was learning to savor tea slowly, didn't see any problem with it. He even thought what the Heavenly Court did was quite good. From the standpoint of a manager of such a populous place, wages that are too low are not conducive to stability or local prosperity. Only with prosperity can more powerful merchants be attracted, allowing him to collect taxes for maintenance in the future.

Of course, standing from Young Master Nan's perspective, it can be understood, after all, quite a bit of money would be lost.

As for the matter of merchants from Manxi and Dongguo Shou's side coming to his place to poach workers, he was indifferent to it, since they could only poach people to work. It's not easy to lure people away.

Meanwhile, a distinguished guest also arrived at Dingdong Mansion; Fan Qingfeng, an elder from the Carefree Sect, came.

Fan Qingfeng was the youngest elder of the Carefree Sect, with hair and beard like ink, a slender and upright figure, appearing youthful but actually not young in age.

Upon arrival, he directly had Dongguo Shou take him on a trip to Dingnan Prefecture. Both traveled with their followers in plain clothes, as Fan Qingfeng wanted to personally inspect a few cities within Dingnan Prefecture, primarily to see those houses given away for free to attract population.

Dongguo Shou understood at once; the Sect might have considered learning from Shi Chun.

The small building was not large. Fan Qingfeng after looking at the outside asked to knock on the door to enter. The homeowner opened the door with a puzzled look. The disciple below immediately pulled out a handful of Sandalwood Gold for the homeowner, explaining the reason for the visit, to which the owner gladly accepted and allowed entry.

The small courtyard was about seven or eight pings in size, with only two rooms and a small hall inside, and the back area was the kitchen and such, giving a sense that though small, it had all necessary parts.

The main structure of the house, including the courtyard walls, were mostly built with stone, while doors, windows, and beams were wooden, likely sourced from outside, as well as the roof tiles of gray and yellow-brown, probably also from elsewhere.

The stone colors of similar houses in the city were also not uniform, likely related to the quarrying site.

There were also slightly larger houses, quite rare, which Dongguo Shou explained to the elder were for the few families among the population.

In short, these basic configurations were quite complete and sufficient for the poor at the bottom, who felt living in such independent homes was quite good, as mentioned by the owner, feeling very satisfied.

When looking down from a small hill in the city, Elder Fan Qingfeng asked, "How much does it cost to build a house like this?"

Dongguo Shou said, "The people sent by Young Master Nan are very tight-lipped, but I had our city's construction personnel estimate, stating it's over thirty thousand gold per set."

Fan Qingfeng exhaled and said, "Impossible, the Sect sent people to thoroughly evaluate Namo Yu's net worth. If this price is true, then at a billion sets, all of Namo Yu's industries wouldn't be worth that much."

Saying this, Dongguo Shou didn't know what to say. After pondering for a moment, he tentatively asked, "Elder, is the Sect planning to emulate this?"

Fan Qingfeng: "Those guys are grabbing land on a large scale, undermining us, forcing us to follow suit. Now, the problem is, following suit seems like helping Shi Chun solve population livelihood issues, which indirectly helps Shi Chun attract population. If you lose competition in the future, wouldn't you be forced out? With everything like this, the Sect naturally needs to evaluate to see if we can simply do it ourselves, and if it's possible, then we'll imitate. The issue of face is minor."

Dongguo Shou pondered for a moment, then sighed, "Shi Chun, that guy, is indeed very powerful. I am not his match."

This was genuine admiration from the heart. To cause a headache for his entire Carefree Sect, compelling an elder to personally inspect, was already astonishingly formidable.

Some formidability has nothing to do with force, nor does it require fighting or killing.

And reality seemed like a slap in Dongguo Shou's face, as a figure swiftly approached from a distance, a disciple from the Carefree Sect hurried to deliver a Jade Scroll with both hands, "Elder Fan, there's news about 'Wuyu Bank' that you wanted."

Fan Qingfeng immediately took the Jade Scroll, carefully reading it, then slowly lifting his head while handing it to Dongguo Shou, "Gathered from various inquiries and summarized, the estimated average cost here is around four thousand gold per set."

"Ah?" Dongguo Shou exclaimed in surprise, quickly taking it to examine. It included the material procurement prices for construction by Young Master Nan's business in various places, with a final summarized estimation. Clearly, the Sect also put in effort to acquire this information.

After reading it, he returned the Jade Scroll and sincerely admitted, "It was reckless of me, I didn't expect it to be this cheap."

Fan Qingfeng took back the Jade Scroll and felt a sense of emotion: "It's not your fault, the Sect also invested a lot of effort to find out, so it's normal you couldn't see any clear details in the Heavenly Domain. However…" he looked back at the dusky sunset and sighed, "Four thousand gold per set is still too high."

Dongguo Shou curiously asked, "Could it be our Carefree Sect's financial ability is less than that of Young Master Nan?"

Fan Qingfeng turned to him, "Can you mobilize a hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to be free laborers?"

"This…" Dongguo Shou was choked, then immediately understood the meaning, with a face full of bitterness, "The disciple cannot, nor are there those people to mobilize."

Fan Qingfeng: "Four thousand per set is just the minimum cost, not to mention labor costs, that Wuyu Bank can work for Shi Chun for nothing and make no profit, but where would we find people to help without compensation? Who else can help us at such a massive scale for free?"

Dongguo Shou thought and replied, "Isn't it said that Wuyu Bank operates by sharing mortgages…"

"Mortgages?" Fan Qingfeng directly interrupted, "In terms of financial strength, Wuyu Bank is certainly not comparable to my Carefree Sect. And about mortgages, even several trillion can be mortgaged by my Carefree Sect, but there is no logic of infinite mortgages. Afterward, we have to come up with several trillion in cash securely, and if we can't, the entire Carefree Sect would collapse. Wuyu Inn operates with a group of people in partnership, dealing with things case by case, reaching that point for the Carefree Sect would mean it becomes a big piece of fat meat."