Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 330 First Visit to Western Liaoning
When Zhang Chengdao first took Murong Ruyan as his disciple, his mindset was: "Oh my? A gold card, I can't let this opportunity pass me by!"

In reality, he neither liked nor disliked this disciple. He neither looked down on Murong Ruyan's aloof and profit-driven persona like Xu Ying did, nor was he captivated by Murong Ruyan's stunning beauty at such a young age—he had plenty of wives prettier than Murong Ruyan in his phone before he transmigrated!

Undeniably, Murong Ruyan did bring great convenience to Zhang Chengdao, whether in the initial negotiations with the Northern Xiao Kingdom or in her actions that were half deception and half assistance when Chang Ping'an was not yet fully established.

Zhang Chengdao couldn't bring himself to curse as soon as he put down his bowl, and besides, "profit-driven" isn't necessarily a completely derogatory term to some extent.

Just like now, although helping Murong Ruyan with her fiefdom of Liaoxi would bring her considerable benefits, from another perspective, the White Stone Immortal Sect could also benefit greatly from it!
why not?

Therefore, Zhang Chengdao decisively abandoned the troublesome Southern Chu Kingdom and chose to let his second disciple drink this hot soup.

"Since your second senior sister has this intention, then that's perfect."

Just as he nodded in agreement, Ye Shuyun continued, "The reason why Senior Sister Ruyan didn't tell you about this herself is firstly because her suggestion was made on behalf of the Northern Xiao Kingdom. If she were to tell you, it wouldn't be appropriate, whether as your personal disciple or as an avatar of the Northern Xiao Kingdom's princess. Therefore, she believes it's better to communicate with you formally through a letter first, and then let you consider it from the perspective of the White Stone Immortal Sect."

As Ye Shuyun spoke, she handed over a letter. The seal on the letter belonged to the Grand Princess of Xiao Kingdom.

Murong Ruyan was certainly not qualified to write a "letter of state" on behalf of Murong Zhen, but time was of the essence. She was afraid that if she sent a message to the palace and then sent the letter of state over, she would miss the opportunity. If the stubborn envoys of the Southern Chu Kingdom suddenly came to their senses, she would miss out on the first bite of the meat.

Therefore, she hastily wrote a letter, using only her own seal, which could barely be considered an official letter to an official.

Zhang Chengdao was deeply moved.

Ye Shuyun truly lives up to her character of Hua Qitong. Not only is she perfect in handling affairs, but she is also very understanding. She was worried that she would dislike Murong Ruyan's snobbish behavior, so she made a special explanation for her.

However, this also shows that Murong Ruyan is indeed shrewd and has gradually become more prudent in her actions. At the same time, this is also a way of "showing goodwill" to me, which shows that she has a strong sense of "boundaries".

"Yes, she's thoughtful."

Zhang Chengdao nodded slightly, took the letter, and casually opened it to read it.

The letter was no different from what Ye Shuyun had said; it simply expressed the wishes of the Xiao Kingdom behind her, especially the wishes of the Grand Princess of Xiao Kingdom, proposing that her Liaoxi region could be used for cooperation with the Baishi Immortal Sect.

At the same time, she also very childishly stomped on the Southern Chu Kingdom, thinking that the entire Southern Chu Kingdom was really—utterly ungrateful!
Zhang Chengdao could hardly contain his laughter when he saw this.

He didn't care about the attitude of the Southern Chu Kingdom. Apart from not expecting that such a mutually beneficial cooperation would be rejected at the beginning, after Ye Shuyun explained what was going on, he was actually unmoved and really wanted to eat braised chicken rice.

To put it bluntly, while the Southern Chu Kingdom may not be willing, many other countries are. Take, for example, Jiannan Road, which was recently established by the Tang Clan next door. If Zhang Chengdao were to give a hint, the entire Tang Clan would surely be overjoyed and shout, "I'm willing!"

Of course, Zhang Chengdao's goal was not only to find a production and supply base for low-level spiritual materials.

This thing is important, but not that important.

Having experienced the productivity levels of modern industrial society, Zhang Chengdao deeply understands that as long as "technology" keeps up, even if the production base is only a small area, it can definitely reach the point where the output is so large that it needs to find dumping grounds.

This "technology" certainly doesn't refer to modern scientific disciplines like science, engineering, and chemistry from the timeline before the time travel, but rather to all technologies that can improve social productivity, regardless of whether their driving force is steam, electricity, or atomic energy, or even "spiritual energy" represented by spiritual energy.

Therefore, Zhang Chengdao's true purpose has never changed: to restore the spiritual energy of this world as soon as possible and to reach a point where the world barrier can be broken through.

From this perspective, Zhang Chengdao prefers to provide "targeted assistance" in more distant places, even if it means he has to spend a lot of peach blossom stones to exchange for various spiritual herbs and plants in order to nurture the local spiritual energy.

Anyway, it's been over a year, and with the peach blossom stones given away by permanent members every day, I've already accumulated a bunch that I don't know what to do with. If I go to the Liaoxi region to carry out "targeted assistance," I can cash in the peach blossom stones and use them to cultivate a low-level spiritual material production base. It's better than letting them lie in my backpack collecting dust.

After reading it, Zhang Chengdao smiled and waved the letter in his hand. He said to Ye Shuyun and Xu Ying, "Alright, then you two draft a letter and send it to the residence of the Grand Princess of Xiao Kingdom. Once the official letter from Xiao Kingdom arrives, reply according to its contents. Ruyan and I will go ahead and pack our things in the next couple of days to go directly to Liaoxi to see how to make arrangements."

This signifies acknowledging Murong Ruyan's ulterior motives and deciding to handle the matter in a formal, official manner.

Ye Shuyun and the other person quickly bowed and accepted.

Soon, with the "civil servant craze" sweeping the underworld, He Yu gained a few more laborers, and the affairs of the underworld gradually returned to normal, even clearing the atmosphere in the ghost city—

Since there was enough time to judge and deal with each of the new ghosts, there was no need to cram them all into the ghost city.

Meanwhile, Chang Ping'an's Immortal Alliance was also gradually improving. It is worth mentioning that less than a month after the Immortal Alliance was officially established, three more forces came to the door one after another, requesting to join.

One is the Peach Blossom Sect, whose outer disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect privately taught them how to plant and care for spiritual herbs and plants; another is the Great Changhe Kingdom, which eventually established the "Cultivation Bureau" and encouraged its subjects to cultivate immortality; and the last is the Lingwu Kingdom, which worships the Four Altar Gods.

These three forces have indeed produced cultivators to varying degrees. In particular, the Lingwu Kingdom, thanks to the "Lingwu Soul Condensation Technique" obtained from He Yu, actually has more cultivators than the Tang Sect, Da Changhe Kingdom, and Xichou Kingdom combined, second only to the Kunmi Kingdom.

Indeed, the former Bai tribe, now the Kunmi Kingdom, has seen hundreds of cultivators emerge. Some of these cultivators have switched from their incomplete cultivation methods to the "Spiritual Witch Soul Condensation Technique," while others believe that the White God who bestowed divine power upon them was not dead, but was merely murdered by the "Evil God" King Qin, so they insist on sticking to their original cultivation methods.

This is mainly because the base number of the White Tribe is so large. Since the beginning of the uprising under the instigation of the false White God, the White Tribe has had the most people who have been "rewarded" by the false White God. Although many of these people have died in the war, the number of those who remain is still quite considerable.

As long as the fake White God doesn't reappear to manipulate those who have signed contracts to become "puppets," they remain free for the time being, still considered members of the White Clan, and therefore, cultivators of the White Clan. However, apart from the Lingwu Kingdom and the Dachanghe Kingdom, neither the Xichou Kingdom nor the Kunmi Kingdom has contacted the Immortal Alliance. It's unclear whether this is due to a lack of information or because they feel guilty after having previously encountered Zhang Chengdao, the sect leader of the White Stone Immortal Sect.

In short, after review by Chang Ping'an and others, the Peach Blossom Sect, the Great Changhe Kingdom, and the Spirit Witch Kingdom also joined the Immortal Alliance one after another.

Looking at it this way, the entire Immortal Alliance has reached eight members in just two months, and the number of people has increased considerably, which is truly gratifying.

Seeing that everything was going better and better, Zhang Chengdao finally took Ye Shuyun and Murong Ruyan to Liaoxi after registering and plundering a lot of spiritual materials from the warehouse.

Oh, the reason for bringing Ye Shuyun is to make "bookkeeping" easier.

Since the development of western Liaoning is considered "targeted assistance," shouldn't the costs and future benefits be calculated at least?

There are also expenses for spiritual materials from the White Stone Immortal Sect that need to be registered and filed. These trivial matters certainly cannot be left for Zhang Chengdao to handle himself.

He knows absolutely nothing about accounting!
Bringing Xu Ying along is unrealistic, after all, Xu Ying is now the sect leader of the White Stone Immortal Sect. To put it bluntly, the White Stone Immortal Sect can do without Zhang Chengdao, but it really cannot do without Xu Ying!
Therefore, after considering all the people he could use, Zhang Chengdao had no choice but to bring Ye Shuyun over.

As for Xu Ying's mournful little eyes, we can only ignore them for now.

When the three set foot on the land of western Liaoning, the northern wind was still a bit chilly.

It was early June, a time when it would be too hot to wear light clothing in the south, but in western Liaoning...

You still have to wear a fur coat.

Fortunately, Zhang Chengdao, Ye Shuyun, and Murong Ruyan were all cultivators, so the slight cold had no effect on them. One of them was dressed in a simple disciple's outfit, another in a luxurious palace dress, and the third in a flowing, ethereal robe.

Despite being a master and his two disciples, they somehow managed to create three distinct styles, as if they weren't even on the same level.

However, what they all had in common was that they were all dressed very lightly, especially Murong Ruyan. Although her dress was elaborate, it exposed a large area of ​​skin, and her arms, which were as white as mutton fat jade, even shone with a soft light, making her look even more stunning.

"Achoo!"

Just as the three of them arrived, the old man, White Mountain Black Wolf, whose face was beaming like a chrysanthemum, couldn't help but sneeze. His eyes, which were filled with bright envy, looked at the three of them.

Baishan Heilang was the prefect (governor) of Guangning Prefecture in western Liaoning. There were several places in western Liaoning, including Yizhou, Jinzhou, Jizhou, Xingzhong Prefecture, and Guangning Prefecture. Originally, it was assigned to Beijing Road (Dading Prefecture, now Chifeng).

However, because these places belonged to both the "land of the dragon's rise" and the sphere of influence of the Baishan clan, and were effectively controlled by the Baishan clan, a powerful maternal relative, they had always been managed in a perfunctory manner. It was not until recently that Murong Zhen took the opportunity to allocate them to Murong Ruyan as her fiefdom that they were separated from Beijing Road and became a separate place. Together with the Liaodong region that Murong Zhen had promised Murong Ruyan, they were called "Liaoguo Road".

Among them, Guangning Prefecture, as the administrative center that was "elevated", had already been promoted several months ago because of this accident. However, after learning the identity of the new master, he was trembling with fear for a long time. It wasn't until he was ordered by the court to bring the Grand Princess to Liaodong that he breathed a sigh of relief, as if a shoe had been dropped.

As someone from the Empress Dowager's maternal clan, Bai Shan Hei Lang had never actually seen the face of the Empress Dowager.

But his background and his name naturally led him to this position, and naturally made his honor and disgrace depend entirely on Empress Dowager Baishan. His own abilities and talents were the least important.

Even if a dog were tied up in this position, as long as the dog's surname is "Baishan" and it is a member of the main branch of the Baishan clan, then the dog could sit comfortably in the position of Prefect of Guangning Prefecture.

Before being ordered to fetch the Grand Princess, he had even made ample preparations—

Since this Grand Princess has just arrived in the territory, she will surely dislike those people with the surname "Baishan," so he may soon lose his official position.

If you're lucky, you might survive.

If you're unlucky, you'll become a victim of the power struggles among the elites, ending up in jail for some inexplicable "mistakes" and eventually being beheaded in the street.

Of course, there is also the worst-case scenario: if the nobles are too ruthless in their power struggles and pin many frightening charges on themselves, then the entire Baishan clan will be doomed, and they might even be tortured when they are finished, which would be extremely unlucky!

However, none of the things he had predicted happened. This legendary princess, who had once single-handedly punished and killed the people of an entire county, did not immediately eliminate her opponents or place her own people, despite her haughty demeanor. Instead, she only inquired about which place was the poorest.

Which village is the poorest and most shabby?

Bai Shan Hei Lang was dumbfounded. He frowned and pondered for a long time before slapping his thigh and exclaiming, "That's our Guangning Prefecture!"

He said in a loud voice, "Back then, Jinzhou, Jizhou, and Xingzhong Prefecture were all richer than us. Our Guangning Prefecture is the northernmost and has the worst climate, so we can't get anything. That's why we're the most pathetic!"

Murong Ruyan pondered for a moment and realized that Guangning Prefecture was indeed the northernmost and closest to the border of the Xiao Kingdom in the entire Liaoxi region, and it was also the poorest.

There are countless mountains and forests here, as well as endless cold, making life extremely difficult for the people.

Further east and north, the situation became even worse. Those areas were inhabited by wild mountain people. Before the Mohe people migrated south, they could barely maintain some contact with these wild mountain people—mainly by exchanging grain, cloth, salt, and iron for goods that could be sold, primarily furs and pearls, which were then sold southwards. The difference in price was the first pot of gold the Mohe people earned when they established their kingdom.

(End of this chapter)