Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 772 - Chapter 772 Chapter 772 Wealth Moves People

Chapter 772: Chapter 772: Wealth Moves People Chapter 772: Chapter 772: Wealth Moves People The income of the Mu Family can be converted into Earth Realm currency.

Calculating at the rate of one gram of Gold for three hundred Huaxia currency, one hundred thousand taels of Gold is five million grams, which is one and a half billion Huaxia currency.

However, the Mu Family has close to one hundred thousand people; even if the peripheral clan members spend less, the thirty thousand core clan members consume eight billion Huaxia currency, averaging less than thirty thousand per person per year.

In the Earth Realm’s Huaxia Country, a family of five with an annual income of one hundred twenty or thirty thousand just makes ends meet–you certainly can’t expect to buy a house in a third-tier city.

Of course, Donghua Country here is not like Huaxia; materials are relatively scarce. For example, grains and vegetables are generally produced by oneself, so they don’t cost much.

But the crux of the issue is that most of the Mu Family’s offspring are martial cultivators, and even Earthlings know that to practice martial arts, one must first have adequate nutrition, or else you’ll ruin your health.

A martial cultivator, not to mention pills and natural treasures, needs a diet that, at the very least, surpasses that of five ordinary people.

But as a member of the Family Alliance, when the offspring of the Mu Family practice cultivation, how could they possibly not use pills or even natural treasures?

Therefore, an annual income of one hundred thousand taels of Gold may seem immense, but once averaged among one hundred thousand people, it’s really not much–of course, it’s definitely more than ordinary people, even the peripheral members of the Mu Family are better off than average households.

So the annual income of three to five thousand taels of Gold pioneered by Mu Fengtang appeared very attractive in everyone’s eyes, and his Long Branch was first to express the desire to take control of this financial path exclusively.

The reason is simple; when Mu Fengtang went out for exploration, the clan only gave him fifty taels of Gold, the Long Branch contributed one hundred fifty taels, and his own family gave another one hundred taels, making up the total of three hundred taels.

Of course, his family being able to contribute an equivalent of one and a half million Huaxia currency to support his travel and business ventures also counted as a wealthier family in the Mu Clan, definitely ranked among the top twenty percent of core clan members in terms of income.

No matter what, he now had a way to make money, and the Long Branch wanted to take back this path, but they wouldn’t do so for free; going forward, Mu Fengtang himself would be entitled to thirty percent of the profits from the Dew Fragrance Water.

After all, he was a member of their Branch; they wouldn’t be too greedy. The Long Branch didn’t know exactly how much his family had given him; they just made a rough estimate.

The clan also stated that they wanted to take over this business path, and they wouldn’t take it for free either–they offered two thousand taels of Gold for it, along with ending the assessment early.

In fact, if one passed the assessment, the Mu Family had a series of support mechanisms for outstanding offspring; the better you develop, the greater the support. By the time you truly reached the Innate level, they could even help you obtain the key item for entering into Martial Enlightenment: Spirit Stones!

So, it’s not to say that the Mu Family was hellbent on taking advantage; the clan wanted to reclaim resources and allocate them properly to the offspring in the clan. If you’re truly strong, you’ll naturally stand out.

Of course, in the process of allocation, there would inevitably be some unspeakable occurrences.

The Long Branch would definitely gain some advantage, and descendants like Mu Fengtang eligible for support had no choice but to go out and prove their worth through exploration; none of these actions were considered too outrageous…

However, Uncle Dan and the old servant indicated that Mu Fengtang had said that during his travels, he received some support from the public funds of the clan. Now that he had found a way to wealth, he was grateful for the clan’s help and willing to repay double to the public funds.

Mu Fengtang also said that for the offspring of the Mu Family who go out for exploration, the assessments are very difficult, so he has no issues with giving up the success in name of the assessment.

In fact, his message was clear–since you invested so much, and I succeeded, you want to take my financial path; what about those who failed? Are they simply using the public funds for nothing? Isn’t this a bit inappropriate?

This left the people of the Mu Family in an awkward position…

In fact, it has been a tradition for several hundred years for the Mu Family’s descendants to go out for exploration, and there have been no shortage of successful explorers, some of whom even experienced the good fortune of finding a secret manual after jumping off a cliff.

However, it was quite rare for someone like Mu Fengtang to find a stable and lucrative business path.

There were descendants of the Mu Family who could find ways to make wealth too, but mostly they were involved in contraband which they couldn’t handle themselves–if you’re likely to encounter gunfights in smuggling, do you plan to take on the entire operation alone during such combat?

Therefore, such financial paths had to be shared with the clan to ensure profit.

At that moment, news came from the Southern Division of the Tiantong Commerce Alliance that our Dew Fragrance Water was on sale here for only three Silver Yuan per bottle.

The selling price at the Southern Division was slightly more expensive than the Eastern Branch, which was normal since Dew Fragrance Water was produced on the turf of the Eastern Branch. Without a doubt, there was stronger demand for Dew Fragrance Water here at the Southern Division.

Three Silver Yuan per bottle was even cheaper than the Mu Family’s external selling price, but in Tianfeng County, the number of people qualified to buy or sell at the Tiantong Commerce Alliance could be counted on one’s fingers.

Like when Lang Zhen’s younger sister dug up the Immature Spirit Green Bamboo Shoot, Lang Zhen didn’t even consider selling it to the Tiantong Commerce Alliance because the item was too inexpensive to meet Gold transaction standards, but more importantly, he didn’t have the qualifications to transact with Tiantong!

The Mu Family’s people immediately found an excuse to act out; what Mu Fengtang found can hardly be called a financial path. Without our Mu Family’s support, you wouldn’t even be able to sell it in Tianfeng County, let alone possibly having Tiantong coming to inquire about a crime.

This alarmed even the Mu Family’s Long Branch–facing inquiries from the Tiantong Commerce Alliance is a burden not even families within the Family Alliance could bear.

At the critical moment, an old servant stepped forward to explain on behalf of the young master: the young master obtained the goods from a higher-tier supplier of Tiantong with their permission.

Nevertheless, the Mu Family was still in a state of utter panic, even sending someone from the clan to take the old servant to the torture chamber for questioning–Who allowed you to talk nonsense?

Don’t be surprised, for a clan that counts its members in hundreds of thousands, having a torture chamber is really not excessive. In a society where clans are the bond, even smaller clans of five or six thousand members have their own torture chambers.

In their view, it’s not about setting up a private court; it’s more about–a misbehaving family member is better dealt with by the family itself rather than the authorities. It’s better to dispose of them quietly than to bring shame upon the clan name.

The old servant calmly stated that the perfume, Dew Fragrance Water, is only the least expensive kind they cooperate with Tiantong on. The other two kinds? One supplies the Royal Family and the nobles, the other is for that place… you know, that place!

Truth be told, he wasn’t as familiar with Mount Zhige as Mu Fengtang–he simply didn’t have access to as much information given his position.

However, he was certain that Young Master Feng Tang’s actions must have been tacitly approved by Tiantong Commerce Alliance, and that Tiantong wouldn’t resort to any adverse measures against the Mu Family over such a trifle.

With such words said, the Mu Family couldn’t help but take it seriously–if Mu Fengtang really did have an understanding with Tiantong, it would be inconvenient for the clan to interfere with his financial ventures.

However, considering the gravity of the situation, the Mu Family couldn’t just blindly trust an old servant’s words; an investigation was essential.

Visit the Southern Division to inquire? Don’t joke, that would just invite others to remember how the Mu Family took over Tiantong’s market, wouldn’t it?

The proper course of action would be to take a trip to Fushan County, not only to investigate this matter but also to find out what’s going on with Tiantong’s higher-tier supplier.

It was high time for the Mu Family to restock on Dew Fragrance Water, as their current supply was almost sold out.

The delegation to Mount Zhige would no longer consist of just members from the Long Branch. The party included an elder from one of the four branches, as well as a Patron from the clan.

This lineup was disadvantageous to the Long Branch. The four branches were closer to the ruling third branch than to the first, and as far as the family Patrons were concerned… generally, Patrons were neutral, but those in charge of allocating resources always found it easier to influence them.

Upon seeing this lineup, the Long Branch couldn’t be satisfied but had no choice but to comply. Given that this was a clan investigation to prevent corruption, it was normal for the Long Branch to recuse itself.

Fortunately, members of the Long Branch heard from another clan member that Mu Fengtang had taken a fancy to a girl from a humble family at Mount Zhige and was currently pursuing her vigorously.

A fair maiden is a gentleman’s preferred match — the Mu Family’s rules may be strict, but young people will be young people… who hasn’t been youthful once?

However, they were disturbed by the fact that Mu Fengtang’s interest didn’t seem to be a fleeting youthful impulse, but rather, it looked like he intended to marry her and bring her home.

The Long Branch members couldn’t accept this. It was one thing for a young man to have a fling, but marriage was out of the question. Mu Family marriages had to be equitable matches–at least, accepted and agreed upon by the clan.

In fact, given Mu Fengtang’s outstanding accomplishments during his travels, the clan already had certain plans for his marriage.

After all, a child from a humble family could never become the official spouse of a core member of the Mu Family. Even if Mu Fengtang wanted to take her as a lesser wife, that was unacceptable–how could one take a concubine before getting married? Where would the Mu Family’s dignity be?

Mu Fengtang’s mother insisted on accompanying them, but the Long Branch felt it wasn’t appropriate for her to go alone–after all, she wasn’t a Mu by birth.

Thus, the Long Branch sent along a High-Rank Martial Master who, by seniority, was Mu Fengtang’s uncle.

Because they were guided by the old servant, they encountered no trouble on their journey and arrived at Mount Zhige smoothly.

Along the way, as everyone listened to the old servant’s roundabout tales of Mu Fengtang’s inquiries to get here, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of pathos, and many acknowledged that navigating the martial world truly wasn’t easy. Mu Fengtang’s mother’s eyes even reddened with emotion.

As they neared Mount Zhige, the howling knights appeared once again. However, after recognizing the old servant, they let out a cry and dispersed.

The Mu Family understood that these were the protectors of Lord Beiyuan, who occasionally engaged in bullying. They shook their heads at the thought–it’s tough to survive in the martial world.

Indeed, the members of the Mu Family didn’t regard Lord Beiyuan highly, but Mu Fengtang was merely a traveling member of the Clan, not able to reveal his identity. Faced with such a force, he would have had to engage seriously.

Upon finally seeing the Tiantong Commerce Alliance’s compound, they were hardly shocked anymore.

Mu Fengtang was still residing in that same adobe house, but when the Mu Family members arrived, he was not there. According to a female attendant, he had gone out.

The elder thought the place unsuitable for living. After inquiring around, he learned that the Yu Family had brick houses nearby, so he went there to stay. As an elder, he was entitled to display the Mu Family name openly, unlike Mu Fengtang, who had to keep his profile low.

(A friendly recommendation: Check out the new book by renowned author Silent Pastry, “The Mightiest Son-in-Law Ever”–perhaps a tribute to the classics? Read to find out.)