I have the best bloodline

A tap in the morning means you're on your way to work; a tap at noon means you're on your lunch break; and a tap in the evening means you're off work.

It's still lunch break, so wouldn't the third tap let the people know that the magistrate is about to leave court?

Who! Who is trying to steal my perfect attendance award!

However, when the magistrate and his entourage ran out and saw the Golden Core cultivator in fine clothes opposite them, their initial anger gradually turned into compassion, and their harsh words instantly transformed into soft, gentle inquiries:

"Uh, four Golden Core cultivators, what is the reason you've struck the drum?"

The officials of the border city of Xia Yu were not highly skilled, so when they saw the Golden Core cultivator and the Foundation Establishment cultivator, the magistrate's tone immediately changed. He did not want to be punished here for speaking carelessly.

Although they could report it to the Red King's army afterward, they were the ones who were beaten and suffered the pain.

"Are you the magistrate of the Flower and Plant Bureau?"

Seeing the disheveled fat man rushing out of the back room in a panic, Princess Luanming frowned involuntarily, wanting to reprimand him. However, she thought that this was the fiefdom of the Red King, and since the king didn't care about these people who were just drawing salaries without working, she shouldn't cause trouble by talking about irrelevant topics.

Princess Luanming took out a letter from her hand, walked up to the magistrate of Huahui County, and said, "We have come from Xia Yu Academy to temporarily take over Huahui City. The letter inside is a letter of appointment certified by the Grand Tutor and the Red King."

Upon seeing the official title on the envelope, the magistrate was startled and quickly said, "Please wait a moment, please wait a moment. I will freshen up and then come to receive the letter."

Faced with a letter from Xia Yu's second-in-command, the county magistrate read the letter with more affection than he would his own mother.

The county magistrate and the registrar were also startled. They followed the county magistrate back to the back hall to wash and dress themselves up, making themselves look shiny and clean. They, along with the yamen runners, all ran to the front hall of the government office and lined up in a welcoming manner.

"We respectfully welcome the letters from Grand Tutor Jin and King Chi!"

Led by the county magistrate, all members of the Flower and Flower Bureau stood before Princess Luanming, bowing deeply. The county magistrate extended his hands to Princess Luanming, ready to receive the letter.

"."

Although Princess Luanming was speechless, she still handed the letter in her hand to the Magistrate of Huahui County.

The magistrate, as if he had found a treasure, bent over his desk and carefully opened the envelope, reading its contents. He was sometimes surprised, sometimes delighted, which made the officials and yamen runners very nervous, fearing that they would receive a letter of angry rebuke from their superiors.

"That's it!"

After reading the letter, the magistrate shouted with great joy, slammed his hand on the table, and said:

"Old Chen has everything sorted out. The leave has been approved, and it's been approved for more than half a year. As long as we finish handing over our current official duties, we can go on vacation!"

"Such a good thing?"

The top two officials of the Flower City government couldn't contain their elation: "You're not kidding me, are you?"

As he spoke, the county magistrate also stepped forward to look at the contents of the envelope.

Su Yan: "."

Are you two slacking off too much? You're nothing like Xia Yucheng and his team who work themselves to the bone!

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 164 It's just a job, why risk your life!

"You guys really have it tough, getting assigned to our Flower City for training."

The magistrate, looking refreshed after removing his official robes, turned to Su Yan and his group with a face full of regret, saying, "Our only job here every day is to clean the city and collect the bodies of those who have died violently on the roadside. There's nothing of merit you can claim for yourself."

"Alright, alright, let's not dwell on those unpleasant things. Today is your first day in Flower City, so let me personally lead you all to experience the local customs!"

"Are clans and tribes really that powerful?" Su Yan asked, his face full of doubt and uncertainty.

"Fellow Daoists, this way please."

The magistrate invited everyone to sit in the inner hall, and then ordered his yamen runners to go to the street market to get some local specialties. He planned to hold a banquet at the government office that evening to entertain all the fellow Daoists who had come from the main city of the Xia Yu Dynasty to be taken advantage of.

"It's not that they have that much power. Within the Red King's fiefdom, the Red King is the true ruler. It's just that you, sir, are busy waging war against the Eternal Life Cult and the Southern Frontier tribes, so you don't have time to manage these newly built cities."

After everyone was seated, the magistrate spoke with a wry smile, "We are the outsiders, and not only that, but also outsiders with weak cultivation. How could the local clans and tribes possibly look up to us?"

"As long as you pay the exorbitant taxes on time every year, the Red King will treat our flowers well. In short, you are just rich young masters who come here to make a living. Don't get into serious conflicts with the local clans one day."

"I don't want to know your background. We are just passersby who have met twice. No matter how powerful your family is, you will be the ones who get beaten up in the next second. No matter how ruthless the revenge afterward, it can't stop the pain in your body."

The situation in Flower City is particularly complicated. As a border city in the southeast of the Red King's fiefdom, it is frequently harassed by the Eternal Life Cult and the Southern Barbarians. The Red King's army is currently fighting on two fronts and is in dire need of manpower. Therefore, he has given the clans and natives of the border city a great deal of autonomy and ordered the natives to defend their cities on their own.

The natives here are armed to the teeth, and the Flower City government has only three main positions.

1. Repair the city walls and keep them clean.

Second: Supervise the production of the flower market, as Xia Yu's small portion of artificial plants and most of his flowers come from here.

Finally, various taxes were levied on the cities.

"These are our official duties. I just finished sweeping the streets with the constables this morning, and I was almost exhausted. If it weren't for you taking over..."

The magistrate paused, then a gloating expression appeared on his face as he said, "Then the county magistrate and I may have to lead the way to the countryside to plant rice seedlings next week."

As a county magistrate in an agricultural region, in addition to basic city management skills, one also needs to have common sense about farming and understand the procedures.

It's impossible for people in Flower City to get promoted through management, so the county magistrate and assistant magistrate are both studying agriculture, trying to increase the productivity of the flower area and make the tax accounts look good. Only in this way can they get promoted and leave this lawless place as soon as possible.

"Does a county magistrate have to sweep the streets and farm?" Su Yan asked the fat man with a strange look on his face.

“Generally speaking, it’s not necessary, because the Red King’s Mansion provides a salary specifically for the cleaners. But since sitting idly in the government office is pointless anyway, it’s better to earn an extra salary. Being the magistrate of Flower City is already embarrassing enough, so it’s better to earn more to give as a bribe to the higher-ups.” The magistrate explained to everyone with a nonchalant expression:

"Of course, as the magistrate of an agricultural county, it's my duty to set an example for the people, but you don't need to do those things."

The county magistrate was an expert in agriculture. Every year during the rice planting season, he would go to guide the tenant farmers. The landlords were happy to see the increased yield and would cooperate with the county magistrate's work.

After hearing the magistrate's description of his jurisdiction, everyone was speechless.

"What about the Cult of Immortality and the tribes of Southern Xinjiang?"

Seeing that everyone was starting to doubt their lives, Su Yan, full of resentment, pressed the magistrate for answers about other matters.

If we can't get any political achievements in management or production, it shouldn't be too difficult for us to get some credit for maintaining public order.

"The Cult of Immortality and the tribes of Southern Xinjiang?"

The magistrate poured Su Yan another cup of tea before speaking slowly and deliberately: "That is the demonic path that has developed in the southern state over the past hundred years. They, well, how should I describe them to you? You probably can't find a single normal living being in the entire sect, can you?"

"Or you can come with me, and I'll show you that thing in the storeroom."

Seeing Su Yan's curiosity about the Eternal Life Cult, the county magistrate made no attempt to hide anything. In a previous letter, the magistrate had been specifically instructed to provide more intelligence assistance, so he naturally answered all questions without reservation.

As the magistrate opened the warehouse door, he took his official seal from the flower market district from beside the metal gate, opened the second metal gate, and led everyone into a cage made entirely of silver, with gold-threaded patterns inlaid on the walls.

"It is the formation of the Cult of Immortality."

After glancing at everyone, the magistrate handed the official seal to the seemingly most composed and oldest county magistrate.

In the secret cell of the warehouse, there was a wooden sculpture with a greenish-blue body. The wooden girl's features were lifelike and quite vivid, and the pair of fox ears on her head made her look lively and mischievous. However, the greenish-blue substance on her body, which resembled moss or mold, caused the wooden figure to smell of mud and fish.

It even made the air in the cell stuffy.

The magistrate covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, raised his hand and used a dagger to lift the green moss on the wooden figure's chest, exposing its chest completely to everyone's eyes. He said, "Seeing the wound on its chest where a sword blade pierced through, I think you all know what it was in its previous life, right?"

The lifelike wooden carving of a fox-eared girl in front of me was actually a living creature three years ago.

The wooden girl was once a member of the Immortal Demonic Path. After her death, she turned into a decaying wooden sculpture. If it weren't for the prison formation that kept her body in place, she would have rotted away long ago.

"The Eternal Life Sect originated from the Nightmare Suppression Sect. It is an evil technique that can mutate living beings. She was originally a maid in a rural landlord's house. Later, she fell into the hands of the Eternal Life Sect and became a Golden Core cultivator in less than two years. Then she infiltrated Flower City to assassinate the Flower Clan." The magistrate shook his head and said, "The brutality of the Eternal Life Sect is beyond what I, the magistrate, can imagine with my salary."

"I've said everything I need to say. As students trained at Yongle Academy, you are probably more intelligent than all of us in the government combined. I won't go on and on advising you to be careful. Just think for yourselves whether it's worth it."

"Let's go outside for tea. Our flower tea is a specialty of Xia Yu."

The flower-growing region under the Red King's jurisdiction is a war-torn area, frequently frequented by the Eternal Life Cult and the Southern Frontier Barbarians.

Moreover, this area belongs to a clan autonomous region, and the influence of the Xia Yu government is relatively small. Clans of all sizes chose to live here because they feared the Red King. Over the past hundred years, intermarriage and annexation have created several powerful families with Earth Immortals presiding over their clans.

The Flower City government office belonged to the Xia Dynasty; otherwise, those clans would have razed it long ago and built a kiln in this prime location to make money off the city's residents.

The local power can be described as terrifying.

These are things the county magistrate didn't say, but his words were all meant to convey the truth.

Don't be foolish here. After the Red King's army eliminates the Eternal Life Cult and the Southern Barbarians and annexes their lands, they will naturally restore order to their fiefdoms and crack down on the local indigenous clans.

This is not something you need to interfere with too much. You can't just recklessly try to gain political achievements like this!

Horrible! There was an earthquake near my home too!

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 165 is difficult, but not impossible.

Evening - the kitchen of the Flower Office.

"I told you to go to the market and order some local specialties, what did you come up with? A whole family of field mice stew? You even brought bamboo rats to my table, if you're so capable, why don't you just kill and braise the old oxen in the fields too?"

"Look what you've done for me!"

The county magistrate, who came to urge the food to be served, saw the county clerk and the registrar arguing in front of the kitchen door. At first, he didn't know what was going on and went up to ask them what had happened.

When the magistrate learned of the special dishes prepared by the registrar and the yamen runners, he flew into a rage. He grabbed a fire poker and chased after the registrar, hitting him on the head while cursing him.

"Don't you know what dishes are presentable and what dishes are not? You've even brought out toads, how am I supposed to host a banquet now?"

"Boss, didn't you tell me to go to the market and buy some specialty ingredients from the flower market? I'm doing just that, aren't I?"

The young clerk covered his head and fled in panic, but he didn't forget to give a pitiful explanation.

The flower area is an agricultural area, and the large farmland is inevitably infested with pests and field mice that steal crops. Ordinary field mice can grow to more than a meter in length, and if left unattended, they can easily cause rodent damage and crop losses. Later, the people in the flower area discovered that field mice seem to taste quite good.

Thus a saying arose in the flower area: "One field mouse is worth three chickens." It's normal to eat field mice here. If you don't eat them, they will eat crops and flowers and even snatch your children and foxes away.

Therefore, in the clerk's eyes, he hadn't done anything wrong!

The field mouse stewed with old soybeans is sweet and delicious, an absolute must-try. The small field mice are cleaned and fried until golden brown, and when dipped in the sour and spicy sauce, it's heavenly. Not to mention the large bamboo rats, whose meat is taken clean and stir-fried with asparagus. He usually wouldn't even spend money on such a luxurious dish as large bamboo rats when drinking.

"Get the hell out of here! Go to the restaurant right now and buy some decent dishes!"

Although the magistrate had a broad and imposing physique, his Foundation Establishment cultivation was undeniable. With a kick, he sent the registrar flying out of the back door of the government office, saying, "Walk slower, or I'll break your legs!"

You don't even know what level we are at, compared to the level of the students at Yongle Academy!

Those are all rich kids, and you serve them several plates of rats at their welcome banquet! Is that appropriate?

The county magistrate was so angry with the young registrar that he trembled.

………………