Once I enter the pass, great Confucian scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

After hesitating for a long time, Master Chen clasped his hands in a respectful bow and said in a flattering tone, "My lord, the successful construction of Yong'an City is entirely due to your reputation and good fortune. Without you, Yong'an City would not have been established."

"Then, thanks to Miss Shuiyao's wisdom and bravery, she led troops to defend the city and repel bandits and demons."

"Old Su was a master strategist, in charge of finances and supplies, and played a central role in coordinating operations."

"He was meticulous in handling his duties, worked hard without complaint, and made great contributions."

"I have only done some minor things and dare not claim credit or reward."

These words made Old Man Su, Su Shuiyao, and Zhiqi, who were present, very happy.

Zhou Qingfeng watched Chen Fuzi's performance with a smile in his eyes.

If Master Chen decides to stop here, fine, then we'll just give him a small reward to get rid of him.

In the future, Master Chen will be squeezed out of the core circle of the Zhou family and will continue to do hard, dirty, and dangerous work here. From now on, he will stay in Yong'an City for the rest of his life and should not think about promotion.

Being humble and yielding credit, knowing one's place, and having a good attitude are all signs of knowing when to advance and retreat, and being sensible and having a sense of propriety.

But if someone has toiled here for ten years and made great contributions, and then fails to fight for what they should, then they are as stupid as a pig or a dog.

They are either people without desires or wants, and if they are such people, then they are terrifying.

These kinds of people are very difficult to control, and it's impossible for them to be tied to the Zhou family on the same pirate ship.

No matter what kind of person he is, he cannot be allowed to remain in the core of the Zhou family's power circle.

“But…” Master Chen paused, organizing his thoughts slightly, and subtly invited the reward, but left half of his words as room for maneuver, so as not to displease the lord.

"However, I dare not refuse Your Excellency's generous reward, and can only humbly request it."

“My lord, I have been trapped in the Devouring Fiend Realm for one hundred and sixty-nine years.”

"I only hope to make further progress in my lifetime." At this point, Master Chen maintained his bowed posture and remained silent, observing the situation calmly.

Master Chen spoke very subtly, not directly asking for anything, but giving directions for the bestowal of favor. If the lord was willing to reward him, he would give him a satisfactory reward; even if he was not satisfied, Master Chen would still have to accept it with joy.

There is no room for negotiation on this matter. If you dare to say no or express any dissatisfaction, you will surely be rejected.

The shrewd and experienced Master Chen was extremely adept at understanding human relationships and social interactions.

Why is it that he, despite being a multi-talented individual, has such a low profile?

He never took the initiative to do any work; he was unassuming, never competed for anything, and readily accepted good advice.

He is very steady in his work and good at taking shortcuts, like a clever old mudfish, slippery and cunning.

He gives the impression of being a capable but lazy old man, extremely laid-back.

Is that what he really wanted?

That's not the case.

In the Zhou family, he couldn't afford to offend any of them.

Su Shuiyao, the sworn sister of the Duke; Old Su, Zhou Qingfeng's savior and elder in the family; Jin Wei, Zhou Qingfeng's trusted lieutenant and henchman, a former member of the personal guard and also a trusted confidant.

Looking around the scene, he was the only disciple who had "come to the sect halfway through" and was just asking for trouble by vying for it. Any one of these people could make things difficult for him until he felt comfortable. He had no choice but to stay a nobody.

But when the opportunity comes his way, he won't miss it.

When the lord specifically requests him to handle a task, he will do his job diligently and responsibly, not seeking great merit but only avoiding mistakes, working hard just to keep his job as a retainer.

There's no way around it; the competition for jobs within the Sword Tower area is just too fierce now.

The high-paying, low-stress, and close-to-home jobs are all occupied by people with connections, resources, and powerful backers. The remaining jobs are all dirty, tiring, and difficult, and they are all dangerous, low-paying, and demanding.

Many cultivators in the realm of food disaster have been reduced to selling their body parts for money.

With his cultivation level at the Devouring Fiend Realm, it would be as difficult as ascending to heaven for him to secure a bright future in the Sword Tower.

Now that you've climbed the social ladder by joining the Zhou family, you'll have a stable income of six thousand coins a month, good benefits, and being a retainer of the Zhou family is a sign of status and prestige. Your future career prospects are even brighter.

As long as you seize the opportunity to do things well, you can earn merit and be rewarded, and you can also obtain some valuable cultivation resources to further improve your realm. At the same time, you can also get a minor official position.

Then a bright future and wealth and honor will come your way.

It should be noted that in Sword Tower City, the average income per person is three thousand magic coins.

Most people can't even afford to live, barely managing to stay at the subsistence level. Even cultivators at the Food Demon Realm are constantly facing a shortage of cultivation resources, just barely enough to meet their daily cultivation needs.

This is a carefully crafted system of rule by the powerful and wealthy. They will not allow their subordinates to become wealthy. If they do become wealthy, they will try to raise the price of cultivation resources, causing cultivators in the Food Fiend Realm to fall back into poverty and continue to work hard as lackeys for the powerful and wealthy.

Cannibalism is not just about bloodshed, cruelty, skinning, and bone-removing; that's too backward and barbaric.

Cannibalism can be disguised as civilized eating, and done in a refined and elegant manner.

Do cultivators and mortals know this? Perhaps a very small number of intelligent cultivators and mortals do, but what good does knowing do? They are powerless to change anything, powerless to resist, and will instead be tormented by endless pain and despair.

Master Chen had lived for so long and had seen things very clearly, but he was helpless and could only compromise.

Over the years, has he, a multi-talented individual at the Food and Kill Realm, never considered becoming a lackey for other powerful and wealthy individuals?

Having been stuck in the Devouring Fiend Realm for over a hundred years, he also considered becoming a lackey of the powerful and wealthy.

However, in the eyes of the powerful, he is old, cunning, and has a complicated network and background. Even if they take him in, they will not allocate core resources to cultivate him, and he will always remain outside the core power circle. He has no future.

Small-scale forces are willing to accept him, but Master Chen is unwilling to go. It has no future and is unstable. Small-scale forces can collapse at any time. It's a lot of work, little money, and dangerous. It's more reliable to make money by refining pills and array plates.

That being said, not everyone is qualified to be a lackey of the powerful and wealthy.

That depends on one's identity, background, talent, personality, and age. After background checks and a series of tests and assessments, one is selected through multiple rounds of screening. Once selected, one starts from the very bottom.

According to Master Chen's understanding of the powerful and wealthy, they have a particular fondness for people who have come from humble backgrounds.

Ideally, these people should be young refugees who are literate and have lost their families, suffered all kinds of hardships, have nothing, are helpless and have no connections in the local area. They have a simple and clean background and can only rely on their master.

To gain merit, they will spare no expense; give them some resources and a little training, and they can be used as weapons immediately.

If talented individuals emerge, further investment and training can be made to bring them into the family to serve.

But refugees are rare and hard to come by; it's not like every day there are refugees who die in the fall of a city.

Secondly, they purchased slave children and trained them from a young age. These slaves were extremely loyal, devoted to their families, and were practically like death squads.

However, there are two problems.

First, the training cost is too high and the return period is too long, mostly producing a group of mediocre loyal servants. Only top-level nobles and aristocratic families with hundreds of years of history have the capital to do this.

Secondly, they are too deeply involved with people within their own family, creating a complex and intertwined network. If the blade is pointed outwards, it might be fine, but once it's pointed inwards, things will be hampered, and they will hesitate and be prone to engaging in clandestine dealings.

The former is rare and hard to come by; with a little training, it can become a sharp knife.

The latter has high training costs and a long payback period; it is a sharp knife to the outside world, but its blade will become dull internally.

Secondly, those who are married with children and have families, preferably locals, and are between twenty and thirty-five years old, are the most suitable candidates. Such people are easy to manage and extremely useful.

Master Chen is an old and wise man who has lived for three hundred years. He is a local with a wife, children, and a large family. However, his age is a major obstacle for him, and he has no choice but to let his years slip by.

However, the rise of the Zhou family gave him hope.

The rise of a new elite means a redistribution of power and resources.

Those who join early are generally able to infiltrate the core circle and enjoy core resources that only the most powerful and wealthy can access.

Otherwise, how could Zhou Qingfeng have kept him with the six thousand coins he paid?

How could anyone willingly work like a slave to build this city for ten years?

Over the course of ten years, he set up hundreds of formations of varying sizes in Yong'an City.

He was also responsible for training junior alchemists for the Zhou family.

He devoted himself wholeheartedly to the prosperity of Yong'an City, and his contributions were indispensable.

Zhou Qingfeng has thoroughly understood Chen Fuzi's contributions over the past month and is fully aware of them.

At this moment, Master Chen subtly expressed his desire for advancement.

Although he didn't explicitly express what he wanted, Zhou Qingfeng already had a clear idea in mind.

How to best reward someone requires careful consideration.

Master Chen clearly wants to advance to the Poison Eating Realm, but should we provide him with the necessary materials and ritual for this advancement?

Zhou Qingfeng didn't have any of the Five Great Poison Hearts either. These things were too rare; only one in a million would produce one Poison Heart. The market price had long been maintained at tens of millions of magic coins per Poison Heart. Even if you paid to buy one, you still had to wait. It would take at least three months and as long as a year for the Poison Heart to be delivered to your hands. It wasn't something you could just buy immediately by paying money.

Gathering a complete set of materials for advancing to the Poisonous Eater Realm would cost at least 50 million magic coins. No lone cultivator could afford that. Even small, independent forces would have to sell everything they own to acquire such a set.

However, in Zhou Qingfeng's view, it was not difficult to handle; if he wanted to use it himself, there were many ways.

One is to receive a reward for meritorious service, which is then distributed by the city lord's mansion.

One option is to pay out of pocket and purchase from the first supplier at cost price.

Finally, you should shamelessly plead poverty and beg your mother and master for help; they will not refuse.

Moreover, there are also sacrificial rituals, many of them. These rituals were mostly seized from the Xi Yi Secret Realm, and can be said to be the core resource for the Zhou family to cultivate experts in the Poison Eating Realm.

The question is, is it worthwhile to use my connections and resources to cultivate Master Chen?

It might not mean much to other top nobles, but for a newly rising family like theirs, high-end combat power would be elevated to a new level.

Rewards are certainly necessary, but before that, we must first get Master Chen on board and ensure that he is completely bound to the Zhou family, so that they will share both glory and ruin, to prevent Master Chen from becoming uncontrollable.

Moreover, it cannot be bestowed all at once.

Otherwise, what will be the reward for the next meritorious service?

We must reward him slowly, keep him engaged, and let him continue to contribute to the prosperity of the Zhou family.

Zhou Qingfeng slowly spoke: "Master Chen, in recognition of your outstanding contributions to the Zhou family over the past ten years, I, this lord, grant you permission to freely choose a book on sacrificial rituals from the storeroom, and bestow upon you a heart of great poison."

Upon hearing this, Master Chen was extremely excited, because Zhou Qingfeng's reward of materials for advancing to the Poisonous Realm meant that he could obtain core resources. As long as he made further contributions, he would definitely be able to collect all the materials for advancing to the next level.

After ten years of painstaking effort, he finally received a reward. Master Chen knelt down and bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you for your generous reward, Your Excellency. I will never forget your great kindness and virtue, and I am willing to die for you."

Zhou Qingfeng smiled and helped Master Chen up: "No need for formalities, please get up."

Master Chen was so excited that his mustache was trembling, and he was so happy that he couldn't say a word.

Zhou Qingfeng looked at Jin Wei and said with a smile, "Jin Wei, arrange a mansion for Master Chen's family next to the City Lord's Mansion. Starting today, Master Chen's family can live there. It will be convenient for us to visit each other in the future, hahaha."

Upon hearing this, Jin Wei clasped his hands in a fist and replied, "Yes, young master."

Master Chen was flattered and quickly declined, saying, "Your Excellency, I have already received a generous reward. I am unworthy of such a favor. Besides, moving my whole family to Yong'an City is such a big decision, I must discuss it with my family first."

Zhou Qingfeng smiled gently, his face full of kindness. He patted the back of Chen Fuzi's hands and said earnestly and affectionately, "Old Chen, the future of Yong'an City will depend on your efforts. I'm doing this for your own good."

"With your family moving to Yong'an City, you won't have to live apart anymore. The whole family can be reunited in the future. Isn't that a wonderful thing?"

"Besides, we'll be living close by from now on, so our families can visit each other more often, and I can also drop by whenever I want. Are you perhaps afraid that I'll come to your house for a free meal?"

Looking at Zhou Qingfeng's smile, Master Chen felt no warmth, but rather a bone-chilling cold. He smiled bitterly, took a half step back, bowed, and clasped his hands: "I dare not refuse Your Excellency's gift. This old man thanks Your Excellency for bestowing this residence upon me."

The old man was shrewd and knew perfectly well what the Duke's true intentions were.

The Duke intends to bring his entire family to his fiefdom. Once they arrive in Yong'an City, their lives and deaths will be decided by the Duke's whim. If Master Chen dares to harbor any disloyal intentions, his entire clan will be wiped out in an instant.

Someone with a guilty conscience would certainly not dare to let their family move here.

However, as long as you have nothing to hide and are willing to stand with the Zhou family through thick and thin, then there is nothing to fear. On the contrary, you will gain the capital for promotion and completely enter the core of the Zhou family's power.

This is a power transaction, something every outsider must go through to enter the core leadership.

Master Chen agreed, and from then on their interests were intertwined, sharing both honor and disgrace. He could no longer expect to escape unscathed; he would either ride the waves with Zhou Qingfeng or perish with him.

"Hahaha~~~ That's right, Old Chen." Zhou Qingfeng laughed heartily and patted Master Chen's arm: "In the future, we'll need your help to build Yong'an City."

Master Chen clasped his hands and said, "I would gladly die for you, my lord."

Zhou Qingfeng nodded in satisfaction and said, "Su Shuiyao, from today onwards, I appoint you as the garrison general of Yong'an City, in charge of all military affairs. Uncle, I trouble you to serve as the governor and assist me in managing the internal affairs of Yong'an City."

Uncle and Sister, one skilled in literature and the other in martial arts, have made a name for themselves in the territory. They also have Zhou's reserve guards at their disposal, and Master Chen is there to assist them. So there's no need to bring them back to Sword Tower.

Let the two of them continue to manage the overall situation in Yong'an City and contribute to the future of the Zhou family.

After all, this is my home base, and I feel more at ease letting my family manage it.

"Uncle, sister, I entrust Yong'an City to you."

"I have been here for over a month, and there are still important matters to attend to in the Sword Tower. I must return tomorrow."

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