Chapter 416: First, Fence Off the Fertile Land

A soul flame entered the body of Duke Fivo; Duke Fivo Rhine VI's body tensed violently, convulsing wildly for a while before calming down—the soul flame had merged into him.

"This… this is all it takes?" the Rhine family asked in disbelief.

Nagris scoffed: "What else do you want? It's not even a difficult task—you just hired incompetent fools, which is why it got so messy."

Then Nagris shooed them away: "Go, go, go—we're about to perform a secret rite to accelerate the Undead Offering; otherwise, it'll take seven or eight days to complete, too slow."

After driving all the Rhines out, Du Luo each marked one of them with a sigil as they left, smiling: "A tiny curse—if you say anything you shouldn't outside, it'll activate and turn you into ugly rotting corpses, your souls forever trapped in your flesh."

Everyone fell silent as if frozen, nodding or shaking their heads frantically, clamping their mouths shut tight.

Nagris leaned over and asked: "There's a curse like this? Never heard of it—what's it called?"

Du Luo whispered back: "Made it up. Just a detection sigil."

After driving all the living out of the tomb—including Ji Li—Ange took out the Death-Quickening Ring's stone and poured divine power into it; the Death-Quickening Ring spread outward.

The corpse of Duke Fivo, which had looked like it was in deep sleep, began rapidly dehydrating, drying, and toughening.

Under normal circumstances, the corpse would swell and secrete fluids until the soul flame fully merged, at which point the bloating would vanish.

But the Death-Quickening Ring accelerated the entire process, causing all cells and bacteria to die before swelling could even begin. The corpse was already dead—the Death-Quickening Ring accelerated the 'death' of bodily vitality.

The seven-day 'death' process was completed in half a day; Duke Fivo slowly opened his eyes.

The Undead Offering succeeded perfectly; Duke Fivo retained most of his memories—he even remembered some events after his death.

After a person dies, the brain doesn't die instantly; hearing and touch persist for a while, so he could hear voices beside his ear, seemingly his wife saying: "My love, I'm sorry—your second son isn't yours, he's the groom's…"

Duke Fivo jolted awake in shock.

But what met his eyes wasn't his wife—instead, a crowd of unfamiliar faces crowded before him; even the closest figure wasn't human, but a Huang Tong dragon.

After spending over ten minutes accepting his situation, Duke Fivo realized he'd intended the Undead Offering anyway—he just never imagined the necromancer he hired was so incompetent that he'd drawn the attention of the Necromancer Council.

Well, even he believed Ange and the others were from the Necromancer Council—only ancient monsters could turn a corpse into a lich within a single day.

Yinbi had specifically instructed: don't animate him yet—wait until he wakes up.

Watching Ange summon a pure white light that restored vitality to his withered skin and flesh, Duke Fivo immediately knelt down, obedient to the extreme.

"My lords, give any orders you wish—the Fivo and Rhine families will obey. But please wait a moment." Duke Fivo bowed respectfully, then slipped away cautiously.

Not long after he left the tomb, the estate erupted in commotion; a crowd rushed over to gawk, seeing Duke Fivo leading his guards to drive two men and one woman into the stable at the estate's corner.

Ji Li returned with gossip glowing in her eyes: "Duke Fivo locked his wife, second son, and groom in the stable—he says it's for family reunion, hehehe."

"Hehehe…" Nagris and the others exchanged knowing grins.

…

Though bidding for mayor sounds difficult, in truth, Ange doesn't even need to show up—Yinbi can handle it all from behind the scenes.

Over the next few days, Yinbi and Duke Fivo actively pushed the bidding process; the one million from selling Flame Seals had cost less than two hundred thousand, leaving eighty thousand remaining.

Add the sixty thousand Yinbi earned during this time, they now had one hundred forty thousand magic crystals to spend.

Duke Fivo also contributed sixty thousand.

"Why so little?" Nagris asked in confusion: "Only sixty thousand magic crystals—and you dare bid for mayor?"

Duke Fivo stared in shock: "Sixty thousand is little? That's cash! Who in the city can pull out sixty thousand magic crystals in cash?"

Yinbi laid out the card holding one hundred forty thousand magic crystals.

"Uh… this humble duke dares not compare with your lordships," Duke Fivo chuckled nervously.

After further discussion, Nagris finally understood just how enormous sixty thousand in cash magic crystals truly was.

For a noble from a remote city, his assets were substantial—but his liquid cash was scarce, due to underdeveloped commerce; Duke Fivo's sixty thousand in cash was already among the top two in the entire city.

"So does that mean we now control two million magic crystals in cash—the most liquid of any bidder? I was even thinking of bringing in strategic investors." Yinbi said.

"What's a strategic investor?" Yinbi's words left everyone stunned.

Yinbi explained: "The mayor holds ownership of the entire city, but the core powers are only three: personnel, finance, and military. Other roles—city administration, law enforcement, commerce, agriculture—still require appointing others, and who gets appointed? Ultimately, it's still the nobles."

"Rather than winning ownership of the city and then being forced to appoint them to manage it, why not sell the positions to them from the start—use their money to fund the bid?"

"For example, the Construction Officer, Chief Judge, Administrative Officer, Governor, Finance Officer, Commerce Officer—so long as we control the Governor, the People's Advocate, and the Finance Officer, we can sell the rest."

Everyone sucked in a breath: "Ssshh—can you even do that? Aren't you afraid they'll cause trouble?"

"Hehe, if we control personnel, finance, and military, why fear their mischief?" Yinbi chuckled.

Nagris felt uneasy: "We have money—we don't need this. Holding every position ourselves is safer."

Yinbi shrugged: "Maybe. But can we even find enough people to run a whole city?"

Duke Fivo looked pained—he thought of the necromancer's family, helpless after his death. Manage a city? They'd be sold off before they knew it.

"If we can't find enough staff, we'll still have to turn to those nobles. If we deny them advancement, they'll leave—and without them, the region will decay." Yinbi said.

This wasn't a world of universal equality and education—illiteracy here exceeded ninety percent; those who could read and write were almost exclusively nobles and wealthy merchants—the backbone of society. If all literate people left, the city would never develop.

Nagris groaned, exasperated: "Fine, forget it—do whatever you want. Just first, mark out the fertile land with water access—that's the most important."

Ange, who had nearly fallen asleep from boredom, snapped awake instantly, fully alert.