Having the genes of a demon king, I never intended to be a kept man.

"..."

Ye Ge was still in a daze.

Good guy...

They actually launched a sneak attack!

"Xiaoye, Xiaoye!"

At that moment, Xia Xiyao happily ran in from outside. (Picture)

Upon learning that Ye Ge had emerged from seclusion at the academy, Xia Xiyao rushed to the Ye family home immediately.

"Xi Yao?" Ye Ge saw a graceful and beautiful young woman appear at the door of the room and gave her a gentle smile: "Why are you here? Haven't you been helping your father manage the resource territory within the Second Ring Road of the Great Wall lately?"

Xia Xiyao leaped onto Ye Ge, clinging to him like a koala, her face buried in his shoulder. She mumbled, "I don't care! I haven't seen you in a year! Let Dad handle it! Waaaaah, Ye Ge, I miss you so, so, so much..."

......

"Ah sneeze..."

Xia Xun, who was checking accounts in a notebook, suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason.

"Lord, what's wrong?" the steward asked in confusion.

Even a powerful being in the Asura Realm can sneeze?

"It's nothing, I just feel a little cold for no reason." Xia Xun pulled his robe tighter and muttered softly, "Why does this coat feel a bit drafty..."

......

"Xiyao, you're hugging me too tightly."

Ye Ge gave a bitter smile.

Compared to Gao Shenxue's tall and slender figure after she grew up, Xia Xiyao, although not as tall, was obviously more "chubby." He was hugged tightly by her like a koala for a full fifteen minutes, making it hard for him to breathe.

"Hehe." Xia Xiyao then released her arm and let Ye Ge go.

"Hey, Xue'er, what's wrong? Why are you always turning your back to us?"

Xia Xiyao tilted her head, feeling a little strange.

Gao Shenxue: "..."

Night Song: "..."

"It's nothing, I just had a bug here." When Gao Shenxue turned her head, she still had that signature calm expression, as still as a lake.

She untied her ponytail, letting her soft, black hair, like raven feathers, fall down to cover her ears, which were still red and burning from the heat.

Xia Xiyao shifted her knees on the tatami mat, came to Gao Shenxue, stretched out her arms and hugged her neck, closing her eyes: "Xue'er, I missed you so much too... I've been so busy lately. I'm such a slow learner, yet I have to manage so much every day. My brain is about to overload, waaaaaah..."

Gao Shenxue gently stroked her back, her voice tender: "You're not stupid at all. After taking those bottles of 'Intelligence Enhancement Elixir' that Xiaoye gave you last time, you're already much smarter than most people."

"But I'm still far behind you guys..." Xia Xiyao paused after saying that, then added, "Hehe, but it doesn't really matter, I have you guys anyway..."

“Oh right, Xiao Ye.” Xia Xiyao looked at Ye Ge: “My dad said he has a business deal to discuss with your Ye family.”

Night Song: "Business?"

Xia Xiyao: "Yes, it's the No. 3 Magic Energy Stone resource mine that your Ye family occupies in the Great Wall Third Ring area. He heard that your Ye family has been selling off Magic Energy Stone mines recently, so he thought, since you're going to sell anyway, why not sell what you already own? It's better to keep the profits within the family... So he asked me to come and ask how much your Ye family plans to sell it for."

"..." Ye Ge paused for a moment after hearing this, then smiled faintly.

Since the Ye family became the rulers of the Southern Territory, the Southern Territory has developed at an astonishing pace, like a rocket taking off.

Under the influence of the team of extraordinary researchers—scientists, rune writers, and alchemists—led by Gao Shenxue and Yu Li, the technological level in all fields of the Southern Territory has risen sharply. Whether it's weapons, medicine, commerce, transportation, the internet, or maritime transport, the pace of evolution each year can be described as leapfrog!

In just eight years, the cities in the southern region have become completely unrecognizable, and have become more prosperous than ever before. Their GDP index has even almost caught up with the value during the reign of the late emperor!

While the Night Clan helped the Southern Territory develop rapidly, Night Song also ordered the construction of more than a dozen high-speed rail lines outside the Southern Territory, connecting the first and third lines of defense and traversing the southern wilderness of the human territory.

While constructing the high-speed railway, the Ye family "unexpectedly" discovered and mined large quantities of mineral resources, including white iron ore, red stone ore, and light gold ore, in the wilderness area outside the second and third lines of defense.

At first, the imperial family and the northern, eastern, and western borders didn't pay much attention to this matter, because the mineral resources discovered by the Ye family were originally not worth much. White iron, red stone, and light gold were actually a bunch of white-quality extraordinary mineral materials, which were things that only the lowest-level adventurers would collect.

It's roughly equivalent to a penny dropped on the street in modern times. Even if there were pennies scattered all over the ground, wealthy people would find it too much trouble to pick them up.

However, later on, the Ye family's superhuman research team suddenly mastered an amazing technology!

They discovered that these low-grade white materials, with the right refining methods, could be synthesized into high-grade materials of purple or even pink quality!

For example, cheap materials like white iron, red stone, and light gold that nobody wants can actually be refined into soul steel after undergoing a certain level of processing and refining!

You must know that it is the most important material for building the main structure of the Great Wall, without exception! Originally, to refine soul steel, you must have soul iron, but this refining method using white quality materials can save hundreds of times the cost compared to the original method of refining soul steel!

By the time this news reached the ears of the royal family and the other three dukes, the Ye family had already occupied dozens of resource gathering points in the wilderness and had already mined a large amount of mineral wealth!

Seeing this, the royal family and the three dukes could not sit idly by and immediately sent troops out of the Great Wall to reclaim wasteland and establish mining bases in the wilderness.

Thus, the Ye family seemed to have started an era of mining and land reclamation for everyone. The wilderness that was originally despised by everyone suddenly became a coveted treasure.

In an instant, all the major and minor factions, sects, and companies throughout the Qin Empire dispatched their forces to the wilderness to seize territory. Even individual adventurers risked their lives to seek opportunities to make a fortune in the wilderness...