Chapter 1941: The He Clan's Predicament

In the great hall, lingering fragrance curled in the air.

On an exquisite small table of green divine wood sat a set of tea ware.

Zhou Qingmei, wearing a sleeping robe, was carefully and seriously preparing tea.

He Pingsheng, meanwhile, sat on a cushion, watching her with great interest.

"What is Young Master looking at?" Zhou Qingmei's face flushed red.

He Pingsheng said: "Looking at you... didn't expect it, Zhou Qingmei... you're actually this skilled!"

Zhou Qingmei said: "Does Young Master despise this servant? You also know, this servant once had a husband!"

That's right!

Back when Zhou Qingmei was in the Spirit Realm, she had a relationship with the human Great Emperor Zhao Xiangdu.

But that's all in the past.

"Hehehe... you misunderstand!" He Pingsheng chuckled: "I'm happy... your cultivation has improved nicely, almost catching up to me!"

Zhou Qingmei is now at the eighth layer of the Divine Control realm.

Just a thread away from catching up to He Pingsheng's tenth layer.

"The He clan has recruited many disciples these years, tens of thousands, and quite a few have directly signed contract divine talismans with the He clan, becoming its temporary servants!"

"These people pray day and night, and I've also created divine idols!"

"So absorbing everyone's incense power, cultivation naturally grows fast!"

"Not just this servant, hmm... Lady Su, Sister Kong, and Bing Yao and the others, their cultivation has also grown rapidly one by one, Lady Su has even reached the Divine Spirit realm!"

"Ah?" He Pingsheng was utterly shocked.

But thinking about it, it made sense.

Not to mention other things, just this trip returning from the Heavenly Ancient Ruins, he alone spent thirty-seven yuan in seclusion.

If calculated in years, that's already over four million years.

Moreover, before that He Pingsheng even gave Su Zhenzhen a Four-Fan Hell!

"How are the children?" He Pingsheng asked again.

Zhou Qingmei said: "The children are fine... their cultivation has also broken through in various ways, most have reached the Divine Control realm too!"

Speaking to this point, Zhou Qingmei added: "Later I'll control it so I won't conceive, and I won't bear children!"

"Ah?" He Pingsheng flipped around and stood up in one motion: "Why?"

Zhou Qingmei tilted her head up, looking seriously at He Pingsheng: "No why? Just feel there are too many children, Young Master has a headache too, and I don't want to give birth either, too troublesome!"

He Pingsheng nodded: "Up to you then, anyway, everything goes by your own peace of mind!"

"Want to give birth then give birth, don't want to then don't force yourself!"

"Has the He clan encountered anything these years?"

Zhou Qingmei said: "Thank you Young Master for understanding, the He clan hasn't had any external enemies these years, but... uh... seems like some internal problems have appeared!"

"Internal?" He Pingsheng frowned: "What internal problems?"

Zhou Qingmei said: "Not a big problem, I just occasionally hear Old Cao say, saying our side here, as clan disciples increase and clan strength expands, expenses have become a problem giving him quite a headache!"

"If Young Master has time, you can personally look into it!"

He Pingsheng didn't seclude himself anymore, instead pulling Zhou Qingmei out of the great hall and heading straight to find Old Cao.

"Young Master, we do indeed have this problem now!" Old Cao said with a worried face: "Before, our He clan's industries mainly relied on alchemy!"

"Also selling some alchemy materials!"

"But now, it doesn't work!"

"Now the yearly expenditure is huge, already unable to make ends meet!"

He Pingsheng asked: "Why?"

"Sigh..." Old Cao sighed: "More and more people on the He clan side... more and more disciples to support down below!"

"Expenses grew large, inevitably encountering this kind of problem!"

"This old servant has been considering expanding new business channels, but currently there's no idea at all!"

He Pingsheng asked: "Then... how do those other big clans maintain their expenses?"

"This..." Old Cao thought a moment, then looked seriously at He Pingsheng: "This varies widely!"

"Some rely on clan star promotion, then exploit smaller clans below to amass wealth!"

"For example our Tianze Mountain side, the only four-star clan is the Lu clan, the Lu clan has dozens of three-star clans below, and under each three-star clan are dozens of two-star clans!"

"Like this, it's equivalent to the Lu clan directly managing dozens of three-star clans, over a thousand two-star clans!"

"They just need to exploit a little to gain quite a lot of resources and divine gold!"

Old Cao paused here, seemingly letting He Pingsheng digest these matters; after several breaths he continued: "The second is industries!"

"When someone in the clan raises their cultivation, they can go make higher-grade divine pills, divine artifacts, divine talismans, divine arrays, and so on..."

"Thus they can participate in part or all of commodity production!"

These things Old Cao spoke of, He Pingsheng also understood.

For instance the Xia clan when he first entered the Divine Realm, they relied on selling a divine liquid used for alchemy to generate income.

Of course, best is to produce finished goods, like divine pills, divine artifacts, etc.

If lacking that ability, can also produce semi-finished goods, like providing herbs needed for alchemy, or talisman paper, talisman ink, artifact refining materials, arrays, etc.

And industry management is the foundation of sustaining a clan; so-called high-grade clans exploiting downward is nothing but draining the pond to catch fish.

Sooner or later they'll go bust.

"Then... for our He clan's situation, what ideas do you have?" He Pingsheng asked Old Cao.

Old Cao said: "This old servant feels the first step should be star promotion; now Lady Su's cultivation has reached the Divine Spirit realm, the clan's star rating can be raised, from a two-star clan to a three-star clan!"

"Next, we need to build a bigger business!"

"The advice I gave was to make third-tier Shuang Shen Dan, but refining third-tier Shuang Shen Dan requires a lot of high-quality materials, so we must secure a steady supply of divine herbs for the family!"

"Also, if possible, I suggest selling some of our family's 【Three Zhang Valley】!"

He Pingsheng's eyelid twitched: "Are you crazy? Three Zhang Valley?"

"Hehehe..." Old Cao said: "Young Master, don't rush, listen to me!"

"Our family is different now—not only do we have top-grade divine veins supporting us, but we also have two 【Earth Order Binding Slaughter Grand Formations】; divine power and yin evil are sufficient, and every ten thousand years we can produce tens of thousands of Three Zhang Valley stalks!"

"These things are enough for us in the short term; I suggest we can take some out to sell externally!"

"Moreover, our family also has God King Realm protection—even if we sell Three Zhang Valley, no one would dare say anything!"

He Pingsheng still shook his head and said: "Wealth not revealed is safest; even with God King Realm protection, it would still be troublesome afterward!"

"Forget about Three Zhang Valley!"

"Hmm... but I do have a suggestion!"

Old Cao looked expectant: "Young Master, please speak!"

He Pingsheng said: "I still have a servant who is an artifact refiner... you take Rain Thought to Shui Shui City and call Old Tong over; I'll see if we can establish an artifact refining family!"