Chapter 43

Three thousand taels of gold!

Seven thousand taels of silver!

Several antiques and paintings, valued at twenty thousand taels!

Listening to Dong Qingsheng's report, Shen Changqing's expression changed, and he couldn't help but sigh, "Indeed, ten years as a clean prefect yields a hundred thousand taels of silver!"

Three thousand taels of gold is equivalent to thirty thousand taels of silver.

Just like that.

It already amounts to fifty-seven thousand taels.

Shi Qingsheng said, "Apart from these, the Zhao family also owns several shops and some real estate in Lin'an City, currently estimated to be worth a little over one hundred and fifty thousand taels. Combined with the previous amount, it totals around two hundred and ten thousand taels."

Two hundred and ten thousand taels!

Shen Changqing took a deep breath.

For an ordinary family, the annual expenses would be at most one or two taels of silver.

The Zhao family in Lin'an City alone is worth two hundred and ten thousand taels, which gives an idea of how much they have squeezed from the people.

Moreover,

The Zhao family in Lin'an City is just one of their main branches. In reality, the Zhao family has spread its branches in various places.

If calculated seriously,

The total value of all the branches combined might exceed five hundred thousand taels.

"According to your instructions, the antiques, paintings, and real estate will be sold off tomorrow, and the proceeds will be converted into silver and deposited into the government treasury. When spring comes, they will be transported to the capital along with the tax revenue!"

As he spoke, Shi Qingsheng handed the notebook in his hand to Shen Changqing.

"Here are the specific records, please review them, sir."

"Um."

Shen Changqing reached out to take the ledger and read it carefully.

After a while,

He handed the ledger back.

"Proceed as planned!"

"Yes!"

Shi Qingsheng accepted the order and left.

——

After a simple lunch, Shen Changqing did not go anywhere else. He stayed in the government office and focused on cultivating his Heavenly Martial Aura.

In the bedroom,

He sat cross-legged, took out a Meridian-Opening Pill, and swallowed it directly.

The pill entered his stomach and immediately transformed into a powerful warm current.

With a thought, the Heavenly Martial Qi rose from his dantian, merged with the warm current, and then rushed towards a meridian.

Rumble!!

A thunderous sound echoed in his body.

A meridian that would normally take a whole night to break through was now easily breached.

Time passed.

Shen Changqing would wait for the Meridian-Opening Pill's effects to wear off before taking another one.

Just like that,

He swallowed one Meridian-Opening Pill after another.

When he wanted to take another pill, he suddenly realized that the porcelain bottle was empty.

"Out of pills!?"

Shen Changqing's expression was surprised, but he soon calmed down.

A bottle of Meridian-Opening Pills only contains eight pills at most.

For a normal martial artist, they would only take one pill when encountering a bottleneck, and the rest would rely on their own hard training. It is rare to use Meridian-Opening Pills throughout the entire cultivation process like he did.

However,

The results of digesting the Meridian-Opening Pills were very promising.

The Heavenly Martial Qi in his dantian had grown significantly, although it still couldn't match the Pure Yang Qi, it was no longer compressed and unable to move in the dantian.

The two powerful Qi energies

Were already showing signs of conflict.

But the Heavenly Martial Qi was still too weak to absorb the Pure Yang Qi for the time being.

Looking at the panel,

The Heavenly Martial Aura had jumped directly from the first level to the third level.

"An advanced martial art that leads directly to the innate realm, breaking through from the first level to the third level in just half a day, using external aids is indeed much faster than self-cultivation!"

Seeing the data on the panel, Shen Changqing also took a deep breath.

If the Meridian-Opening Pills were supplied without limit, he might reach the innate realm within a month without relying on the panel.

This thought,

Shen Changqing only entertained for a moment.

First, the Meridian-Opening Pills are extremely precious and hard to obtain.

Second,

No matter how good the pills are, they have negative effects, such as pill toxins.

When swallowing the Meridian-Opening Pills, Shen Changqing noticed that his body had already accumulated a lot of impurities.

Fortunately,

These impurities were refined by the Pure Yang Qi.

If the impurities were twice as strong, even the Pure Yang Qi would find it difficult to refine them.

"Never mind, continuous cultivation using pills is not feasible for now. Reaching the third level of Heavenly Martial Aura has saved a lot of time.

Subsequent killing points can be used to comprehensively enhance the Heavenly Martial Aura."

Based on the higher the level, the higher the consumption, Shen Changqing felt that the two levels of Heavenly Martial Aura improvement had saved him at least ten to twelve killing points.

Killing a nearly breakthrough-grade Grudge Beast only gave him fifteen killing points.

In other words,

A regular Ghost-grade Grudge Beast can contribute at most ten killing points, maybe even less.

At this moment,

It was already late at night.

Shen Changqing had specifically instructed that no one should disturb him while he was cultivating, so no one had knocked on the door.

When he finished cultivating, the surroundings were already pitch black.

He got out of bed and lit the oil lamp in the bedroom, instantly dispelling much of the darkness.

But for some reason,

A feeling of discomfort arose in his heart when the light dispelled the darkness.

That feeling,

Caused Shen Changqing to instinctively frown.

"What's going on?"

He felt something was amiss with this inexplicable premonition, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong.

"Rumor has it that the deeper a martial artist's cultivation, the more accurate their intuition becomes."

"I am now at the innate realm, so if something bad happens, I might really have a premonition."

Thinking of this, Shen Changqing immediately became alert.

He couldn't afford not to be alert.

On the surface, Lin'an City seemed stable, but beneath the surface, there were already undercurrents, and it might erupt at any time.

Especially after the Zhao family was arrested today, which caused quite a stir—

"Wait!"

"Zhao family!"

Thinking of the Zhao family, Shen Changqing's expression changed slightly.

Could it be—

Someone is planning to break them out of jail!

With this thought, he immediately walked out of the room. The full moon was high in the sky, and it wasn't as dark as usual.

Especially in the inner hall of the government office,

Most places had stone lanterns that were lit by the constables at night, unlike other places that were completely dark.

But even so, his heart couldn't calm down.

"Someone!"

Shen Changqing shouted.

Not long after,

A constable hurried over.

"What are your orders, sir?"

"Are all the Zhao family members locked up in the cells?"

"They were all detained during the day."

"Is there any abnormality in the cells or the government office?"

"——No abnormalities found for now!"