Chapter 32

……

Leaving the Tiandou Imperial Palace, Nan Feng and Yue Guan returned to the Spirit Saint Hall.

"I only made a slight move, and Xue Ye offered five million Gold Spirit Coins..."

The more Nan Feng thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

It was too easy!

This was five million Gold Spirit Coins! Funds sufficient to build a small sect!

There are no more than five forces on the entire continent that can take out so much money at once!

However, Xue Ye didn't even bargain! He just gave it! "A slight move?" The corner of Yue Guan's eye twitched slightly.

"You think this is called a slight move?"

You've already threatened the survival of the Tiandou Imperial Family, and you still call this a slight move? This five million from Xue Ye is life-buying money!

"But he took it out so easily, I always feel like I asked for too little," Nan Feng said.

"But this is five million Gold Spirit Coins, isn't that enough?"

"Of course it's enough!" Yue Guan looked speechless.

"Do you know how much the Tiandou Empire's annual tax revenue is?"

"How much?" Nan Feng asked in confusion.

He really hadn't paid attention to these things.

"Less than ten million," Yue Guan said.

"Ten million?" Nan Feng frowned.

"So you're saying I only asked for about half a year's income from him?"

"I lost out!"

Yue Guan covered his face. This kid really has no common sense at all! "Listen well, ten million is the figure on the books, the total amount reported by the several kingdoms and duchies under the Tiandou Imperial Family. But more than 50% of this ten million is needed to maintain the basic maintenance of the entire country, and another 10% is used to subsidize low-level Spirit Masters and is handed over to the Spirit Hall, which is about one million every year. The remaining three million or so is the final amount that can go into the national treasury," Yue Guan explained.

"Then, this three million or so has to support not just Xue Ye, but the entire Tiandou Imperial Family. Do you know how many people are in the Tiandou Imperial Family? Do you know how much money it costs for the palace to operate normally for one day?"

"You robbed him of five million at once, enough to make his heart ache for several years! The expenditure budget for the Tiandou Imperial Family will likely have to be significantly reduced."

Nan Feng really has no concept of money at all! He talks about millions as if it's nothing. You have to know that the family fortune of a Titled Douluo like him is less than one million!

Although Spirit Masters have high incomes, their expenses are also high.

The only people on the entire continent who can talk about millions are the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

As a Spirit Master force that started in business, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect has relied on its powerful commercial ability over the past thousand years to corner nearly half of the wealth on the entire continent!

The term "wealth rivaling a nation" is already an understatement to describe the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect! All the Spirit Master forces on the continent, both openly and secretly, have varying degrees of interest entanglements with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. They are able to rank second among the Upper Three Sects with an auxiliary-type martial soul, not only because of the two Titled Douluo, Chen Xin and Gu Rong, but more because of their terrifying interest network!

This auxiliary-type sect never makes enemies with anyone and always stands in the middle, so no one treats them as enemies. In the Elder Hall meetings, regarding the part of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect in the Spirit Hall's future plans, the attitude of most elders is inclined toward winning them over. After all, the cost of winning over this sect is vastly different compared to destroying it!

Even if you rely on the Spirit Hall's powerful Spirit Master strength to directly attack the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's mountain gate, a centipede dies but never stiffens.

The strongest power of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is not in the front, but in those invisible places.

If you really want to fight this sect to the death, the price the Spirit Hall would have to pay would be even far greater than that of the Clear Sky Sect! "And the money spent has returns. Xue Ye's five million today is equivalent to being thrown away directly; it's completely different," Yue Guan said.

"Anyway, you behave yourself and don't stir up trouble recently. If you drive Xue Ye crazy, it won't be good for anyone."

"Oh." Nan Feng nodded and walked away, holding the little rabbit.

The corner of Yue Guan's eye twitched. Oh? Whenever Nan Feng uses this modal particle to answer a question, it means this kid didn't listen at all! ……

"You are Salas?"

"Returning to the Elder, I am Salas."

An old man with graying hair, looking to be sixty or seventy years old, stood opposite Nan Feng.

"Please sit." Nan Feng was still quite kind in his attitude toward his colleagues.

"Thank you, Elder." Salas breathed a sigh of relief.

He was really afraid of this favorite of the Pope Palace!

"What do you think of the situation in Tiandou City?" Nan Feng asked.

Salas was stunned. "Which aspect is the Elder referring to?"

"Of course, it's that bunch of freeloaders in the Tiandou Imperial Family," Nan Feng said.

"I went to the Tiandou Imperial Palace today and found that the corruption of the Spirit Hall is truly a small witch compared to the Tiandou Imperial Family!"

Salas felt a chill down his back.

A small witch compared to a big witch? What does that mean? Is the new Pope taking office and wanting to reorganize the Spirit Hall?

That shouldn't be, right? Isn't that what the Spirit Hall relies on to grow and become strong?

Otherwise, why would those Spirit Masters be full and bored enough to run to a ghost place like the Spirit Hall, where there is no guarantee of reward for merit and punishment for faults?

Isn't it because the Spirit Hall's invisible benefits are good? Let alone the two great empires, even the Seven Great Sects and the Eight Great Families don't dare to easily have a direct conflict with the Spirit Hall. Therefore, the regional Spirit Halls can basically be called local emperors.

They don't even need to be corrupt themselves; people will consciously send things over.

Take him, for example. Every year, apart from the normal salary of the Spirit Hall, the various tributes add up to nearly 200,000 Gold Spirit Coins, which is several times his salary! If he were an elder in another sect, he would only have some status in his own territory, but serving in the Spirit Hall, reaching his height, apart from Wuhun City and the sect headquarters of those big sects, where on the entire continent is he not the center of attention? Fame and fortune!

With this, why not join the Spirit Hall? But if the Spirit Hall engages in some clean government, that's stabbing itself! "Don't worry, I still understand some things," Nan Feng said.

"I'm not an idiot who wants the horse to run but doesn't give the horse grass."

Salas gave two dry laughs. "I've made the Elder laugh."

Why are most civilian Spirit Masters willing to join the Spirit Hall? Isn't it to get rid of their original status and become people above others? Being above others depends not only on strength but also on status.

A loose Spirit King compared to a Spirit King of the Spirit Hall—the former wouldn't dare to let out a fart in front of the latter! Once you have status, you must be decent, and decency needs to be maintained by wealth. Relying only on that little normal salary, what kind of decency is there?

If the Spirit Hall cut off these invisible incomes and forced everyone to be clean, wouldn't the lower and middle levels of the Spirit Hall be full of complaints?

Especially those grassroots Spirit Halls—no money, no benefits, nothing. Are people's brains broken to go all over the mountains and plains to awaken martial souls for those small villages?

Awakening martial souls, it is no exaggeration to say, is the foundation of the Spirit Hall! The Spirit Hall can have its current power because it has taken on the great cause of awakening martial souls, which has low investment and high returns.

Even if only one person out of a hundred has spirit power and can become a Spirit Master, it is a political achievement! Huge profit! Spirit Masters are also human; only a fool would do things without benefits. These people with spirit power found all over the mountains and plains are the political achievements of the grassroots Spirit Masters of the Spirit Hall, and they are also the foundation of the Spirit Hall.

The number of Spirit Masters in the Spirit Hall is the first on the continent because they can absorb these people immediately after they awaken their martial souls.

If the Spirit Hall has a problem with this, it will be a big trouble.

(Note: In Douluo 1, Spirit Masters are people above others. The total population of the continent is at least hundreds of millions, but the Spirit Hall statistics show there are less than 100,000 Spirit Masters. Even if they are only level 10 Spirit Masters, they are still people above others. Civilians and civilian Spirit Masters are two different concepts; Spirit Masters are all noble lords.

And the Spirit Masters of Douluo 2 can almost be described as being everywhere. The most obvious change: Douluo 1: The legendary Titled Douluo! Douluo 2: Oh, it's a Titled Douluo.

Douluo 3: You are also a Titled Douluo?

Douluo 4: Tsk, a mere Titled Douluo.) (End of chapter)