Ancestor Above

It was precisely because of their existence that the Lu clan had been able to sort out the situation in the Imperial court in the past few years, formulate many policies, and push them forward.

Redundant officials and local garrisons had been reduced. Other than restoring the military supplies in Pingzhou, the construction expenses had basically stopped. Just like that, the dynasty’s expenditure was greatly reduced in the next few years.

At the same time, due to their control over the area, they had gradually increased through the efforts of various parties. The taxes and industrial income that they should have received were also in place.

In the first and second year, the Lu clan had to transfuse blood from the Feiyun state to the Imperial court. It was a tough life, and the reconstruction of the Imperial Army had been delayed time and time again. Moreover, the Northern Territory had also suffered from the disaster of the White ghouls in the South.

For the past two years, the Lu family had been tight on money.

However, by the third year, the Imperial court would be able to break even. In the fourth and fifth years, not only would they be able to break even, but they would also be able to make a profit.

The profits could even be used to feed the Lu family.

In fact, the Lu family itself was already considered quite rich. All kinds of industries were developing well. The two major industries of weapon refining and elixir making had the best production capacity in the entire Feiyun state. Moreover, after the demon race in the North barren forest in the West and North were destroyed, the Lu family was still leading the development and exploration of the Feiyun state in the Northwest direction.

In this aspect, there were already some results.

Anling Prefecture used to be the Northwest-most Prefecture of the Feiyun state, but it was no longer the same.

The newly established divine deer Prefecture became the fifth Prefecture in the Feiyun state.

The planned land area for Shenlu Prefecture was the largest. It was even half the size of the original Feiyun state. Of course, even though that was the case in name, most of the land in divine deer County was still barren land and there were not many people there.

In fact, they had been doing this for a long time. However, in the past, the development of the divine deer County was mainly done by the Feiyun state itself. The Lu clan led this matter and mobilized the major clans of the anling Prefecture to explore and excavate their businesses. They migrated mortals and took root on the spot, and sent cultivators to guard the fruits of their labor.

However, this process was still somewhat slow.

In the last five years, after the Imperial court had some spare power, it began to increase its investment in Shenlu County.

According to the plan, if the development of the divine deer Prefecture was successful in the next few decades, the entire Feiyun state would benefit from it. The Feiyun state was second to last in terms of both prosperity and resource production among the seven states of the Yan Kingdom. However, when the divine Deer Forest was fully developed, it was hard to say how prosperous it would be. At the very least, the production of resources would increase by a large margin. The profits it would bring would at least not be worse than in Jin Zhou.

Of course, this increase in income would not have much to do with the Imperial court. It would become the Lu clan’s income.

But this was the world. To a certain extent, the Lu clan’s profits could be seen as the palace Treasury of the Great Yan Dynasty. Of course, it was separated from the National Treasury. It was mainly used for the royal family. However, when the country needed it, it could be taken out to help.

But to put it bluntly, one thing was certain when the Lu clan became the imperial family of Great Yan: They strengthened themselves with the identity of the National clan and led the Yan Kingdom to become stronger in passing, not the other way around.

The Lu family was not here to work for the country of Yan, and they did not consider using their own blood to nourish the country of Yan. If there was a need in the short term, he could do so, but in the long run, it was definitely impossible. Although it looked great, it was actually a very stupid act. Even though the Lu family was doing quite well, it was impossible for them to replenish the blood of an entire country on their own.

All in all, everything was going well within Yan.

Of course, there were also a lot of bad things.

The internal problems were being resolved one by one. Lu chaoxi was gradually stabilizing his position as the Emperor. The Lu family’s aura as a member of the royal family was also becoming more and more prominent. However, the external pressure that the entire Yan Kingdom was facing was not small at all.

They were mainly from the Wei Kingdom.

Big Wei’s evil intentions did not give up. After the war a few years ago, the Wei Kingdom’s main Army, General Xia Cang, had withdrawn. However, they still had an Army stationed at the southern side of the Pingzhou defense line. From time to time, they would send some Scouts across the National border to Pingzhou to investigate and carry out some sabotaging missions.

By right, the two countries were still in a state of war. After all, after the war, the two sides did not sign any truce agreement.

The local Pingzhou Garrison had received orders to expel and annihilate these small scout teams. However, the scout team they sent in could be considered elite. The Imperial court’s Garrison was very difficult to deal with. Often, after paying a high price, they would still let the enemy escape.

Only the Yunxiao sect cultivators stationed at the defense line in Pingzhou could truly achieve some results.

In the past five years, it had almost become a daily routine at the front line of Pingzhou. The two sides fought all over Pingzhou with such small teams.

The overall number of deaths and injuries was not too high. Moreover, the Wei country would not and would not dare to risk the world’s taboo by ordering a small team of cultivators to slaughter mortals. However, such infiltration and destruction were still annoying.

The three counties to the South of Pingzhou were all hit by the disaster. The local small sects and local forces were in a miserable state. The production of various resources had been greatly reduced. This had caused the production capacity of the entire Pingzhou to drop by at least 30 to 40 percent.

Although the Imperial court did not collect taxes in Pingzhou, and the production of Pingzhou was basically taken away by Yunxiao sect, the Imperial court was still not satisfied. However, Yunxiao sect lost this sum of money and still had to bear the pressure from the Wei Kingdom at the front line. They would not bear the price alone.

The Imperial court had been allocating funds to the front line in Pingzhou for the past few years, and the expenditure was increasing day by day. It was hard to tell when it would end.

More importantly, the Yunxiao sect Army at the front line in Pingzhou did not dare to attack. Perhaps, they had the ability to organize a surprise attack and spread the flames of war to the neighboring Wei state’s Hezhou. However, they could only attack the northern side of Hezhou with the help of the natural moat of the big River. Secondly, if the war reignited again and the Wei Kingdom recovered its Army, it was still a question whether the Yan Kingdom could withstand it.

In fact, in the past few years, other than the small-scale confrontations on the front lines, the two countries had clashed more than once or twice on the diplomatic level. Mo Chengdong, the newly appointed official of Honglu who was in charge of diplomatic matters, was working hard to push for the peace process between Great Yan and great Wei according to the wishes of the Imperial court and Yunxiao sect.

However, the Wei Kingdom’s request was too much. On one hand, they demanded the ceding of territory. On the other hand, they also demanded a very high amount of war reparations. He also wanted Yan to hand over the Li family’s Kasaya.

Of course, it was impossible to agree to these conditions. The two sides wrangled on these matters, and Pingzhou was still burning with small-scale Wars.

However, the faceless society’s incident had caused some changes to the situation.

After Bai Yuan’s death, the faceless society was annihilated. A large amount of information was obtained by the Lu family, which recorded many things about how the Wei Kingdom’s Secret camp secretly supported the faceless society.

In addition, when they were besieging Bai Yuan, five of the ghost-faced God’s doppelgangers had unexpectedly appeared, which made them particularly angry.

After the Imperial court communicated with Yunxiao sect, they sent a diplomatic note to the Wei Kingdom using the official of the great Honglu who was in charge of the country’s diplomatic work to denounce their actions.

The Wei Kingdom, of course, denied all of these accusations.

However, this denial seemed powerless. On the one hand, they couldn’t come up with anything to deny the materials they found from the faceless society. On the other hand, they could only use excuses such as ‘this is a disguise’ and ‘pure slander’ to justify the appearance of the ghost-faced God.

That would be bullshit.

If it was only Yan and Wei, and they denied it, it would be difficult to do anything else.

However, the Wei and Yan kingdoms were not the only two kingdoms in the cultivation world.

The nine great immortal empires weren’t a joke. The Wei Kingdom was considered one of the more powerful kingdoms among the Nine Kingdoms. However, it was still far from unifying the world. The Wei Kingdom and the Yan Kingdom were at war and did not have a good relationship. However, their long-time enemy was the Qi Kingdom in the East.

Da Qi’s strength was not bad.

To be honest, if it weren’t for the fact that he was worried about Qi stirring up trouble in the East, Xia Cang wouldn’t have retreated in a hurry in the war eight years ago. It was not impossible for the Wei Kingdom to exert more strength and go north to destroy the Yan Kingdom.

And this time, after being caught red-handed, mo Chengdong, the Minister of Honglu of Great Yan, had also made many moves, contacting the Qi state to exert pressure on them. The country of Jin had a good relationship with the country of Yan all year round and was also controlled by the sect Alliance. Under Yunxiao sect’s active contact, the country of Jin also helped in the diplomatic battlefield.

The kingdom of Liang to the West of the Wei Kingdom was also within the scope of their alliance. However, because the Yan and Jin Kingdom had attacked the northern wilderness forest, the Liang Kingdom had a very strong tradition of co-existence between humans and demons. They were already very dissatisfied with this, so they did not say anything this time. In the South, the Wu State and the Chu State, which were at the border of the Wei State, also joined in the fun.

Of course, there were many transactions behind the scenes. The Yan Kingdom had paid a lot of practical things in exchange for the support of so many parties.

...

However, the price of these things was still valuable.

Under the pressure, the Wei Kingdom had no choice but to restart the peace negotiations with the Yan Kingdom.

On the negotiation table, mo Chengdong appeared tough on the surface, but he was actually relatively soft.

The instructions given to him by the Lu clan and Yunxiao sect were actually very unified. The Yan Kingdom, which had experienced civil strife, war, and the natural disaster of the White ghouls, needed time to recuperate and accumulate strength. The matters in his own country had not yet been dealt with clearly. It was really not appropriate to maintain a long-term hostile state with such a powerful enemy like big Wei outside.

Handing over the Li clan was something that couldn’t be discussed. They could not cede their territory either. Otherwise, it would be unacceptable if the Pingzhou defense line they had set up had a nail embedded in it.

As for the war reparations, the Yan Kingdom could give in.

After two years of tough negotiations, the peace agreement was finally settled.

The Yan Kingdom had to compensate the Wei Kingdom with four million spirit stones, which would be paid over three years.

This was not a small sum of money. The court’s finances, which had been slightly improving, suddenly had a heavy burden on them. Yunxiao sect’s intention was also very obvious. They did not intend to fork out this sum of money, and the Imperial court had to find a way to squeeze it out of their own finances.

When this matter was spread back, the entire Yan country was very aggrieved.

Of course, the peace-loving faction, which was eager to calm the war, welcomed them. However, the jingoists and the middlemen were all disappointed. The Lu royal family, which had gradually built up its prestige in the past ten years, also felt some pressure from within the Yan Kingdom, and its prestige was on the verge of falling.

...

No matter what, they had not lost the war, but they still had to pay reparations. This was something that many people could not accept emotionally.

However, there was nothing they could do about this matter. The only thing the Lu family could do was to guide the public opinion internally as much as possible. On one hand, they could push the blame to the Li consortium. This incident was caused by li Shiwen back then. On the other hand, it was to direct the hatred towards the enemy, great Wei.

In short, let me rest and recover. After a few years, we’ll see whose wrist is thicker.

......

No matter what, the peace agreement was a good thing.

The military expenditure on the front lines could be slowed down, and the Imperial court would have more energy to focus on the unified management of the internal affairs. The entire Great Yan was gradually recovering its strength.

There was also another good thing.

In the Lu clan, three months after the negotiation, a new special descendant was added.

The Lu family’s population wasn’t too small now, and there were always newborns. However, the reason why this one was special was mainly because of his parents.

This child, who was named Lu tingwan, had the two most respected people in Great Yan as her father and mother.

He was the son of Lu chaoxi and Li Yanling.

Lu chaoxi and Li Yanling had been together for forty years. However, the two of them had not given birth to any new offspring until today.

More importantly, Lu Qing saw the child’s talent through the system interface the moment he was born.

She was born with a wind-type spiritual root!

No matter what, this was considered a very good talent. However, in the Lu family, a single spiritual root was not that great. There were already many of them.

However, Lu Qing was overjoyed by this.

The cultivators with a single spiritual root that the Lu clan had produced in the past were basically all born with double spiritual roots. It was just that they had been born after Lu Qing had used the exchange option [ spiritual root enhancement ] to push them up to the level of a single spiritual root.

To upgrade from a single spiritual root to a heaven spiritual root, one would need a five-star [ spiritual root upgrade ]. Even if the five-star exchange option was not rare, Lu Qing did not have many of them.

However, [ spiritual root enhancement ] was an exception.

For an exchange item like [ spiritual root enhancement ], even if a high star-class person wanted to use it, the person who used it had to be born with a single spiritual root. Lu Qing had a few of these things in his hands, but he had wanted to use them but had no place to.

Now, he could finally use it!

Without any hesitation, he exchanged for a five-star spiritual root enhancement bullet. Lu Qing took a look again and saw that Lu tingwan, his newborn grandson, had already become a cultivator with fire heaven spiritual roots!

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