As it turned out, I was being a bit rash. Lord Hao was not, in point of fact, Lord Hao. Grandmaster Hao had yet to reach such a lofty position.


    This was unfortunate, but I wasn’t going to allow it to delay us. After conferring with Yan, I chose to purchase the title to NanLu City, located on the south bank of the YaLu River. The north side of the river had been Lord Hao’s domain in the previous timeline and was owned by a separate kingdom, though it was still within the same empire. This meant that border raids were allowed and kingdom-level interference was unlikely.


    In truth, I had no interest in pillaging Lord Hao’s city and hurting his people. The general plan was to improve the prosperity of my domain and encourage people to leave the surrounding lands for mine. This would no doubt anger the Lords of those lands, and they would strike out to pull me down. We would then need to respond swiftly and decisively to their aggression.


    Ultimately, our actions would cause innocents in the area to suffer as their Lords dragged them into fruitless wars, but I had to accept that. In this world, in this sect specifically, everything had been designed to make it easier for the people at the top to step on those below them. I could only try to direct the damage I caused onto those who deserved it as much as possible.


    <hr>


    Upon arriving in NanLu City, I was shocked by the state that it had been left in by the previous steward. Walls were crumbling, less than half the houses were still standing, and the city was under severe food shortage.


    If I could only use one word to describe the scene, it would be ‘perfect.’ I couldn’t understand why any Lord would leave the city in such a state unless they were completely incompetent. NanLu City was a karmic energy goldmine.


    Of course, we hadn’t picked NanLu randomly. We had wanted a place we would be able to quickly transform so that we could rapidly generate a large amount of karmic energy, and Yan’s information had indicated that this city was an ideal candidate. It was just far worse than anything we had expected.


    I looked at Yan, and we nodded at each other. We had a lot of work to do, but if we could get this place back in shape, we would be able to earn contribution points at an astonishing rate. We wouldn’t even need to harass the surrounding Lords to do so.


    Before anything else, we had to set up our base of operations, so we walked directly to the lord’s manor in the center of the city. In the past, this building would have been a grand sight. It was a large three-story complex with several outbuildings for the different branches of the city’s governance. The sight that greeted us, however, was a ghost of its former glory.


    The manor’s roof had several holes in it, and one section was completely caved in. The paint on the walls was flaking, and the wooden boards underneath had developed a deep rot. When we entered the manor’s main hall, the only thing there to greet us was a large empty room with a cold stone floor.


    Not letting the sight slow me down, I pulled a large, round table and several padded chairs from my storage bag and set them up in the center of the room. After everyone took a seat, I started the meeting.


    “This city is in a bit worse shape than I had imagined, but that only makes things better for us. Yan, any idea on how things got so bad?”


    “Aside from simple neglect, the surrounding Lords must be more active than I had believed. This might be because my information was… outdated, and the current Lords were not in the area at that time. It could also be because a powerful force was nearby to keep them in check. Either way, I would say this city’s current state is a result of no Lord being able to survive an onslaught from one or more of our new neighbors.”


    I nodded, accepting this explanation. “That makes our job more difficult but far more rewarding. I had expected the city to already have a group of ministers in place, but as they have not greeted us, I will assume they do not exist. Seeing the state of things, I wouldn’t necessarily trust their judgment anyway. For now, Yan will be the Grand Chancellor. If any of you notice any issues, you can bring them to either of us.”


    I turned to LiTing. “I want you to be the Minister of Public Works. We don’t want to show off your refining skills, but I’m hoping your knowledge of materials and general craftsmanship will provide insights into how we can fix this place.”


    She seemed a bit unsure about this position but gave a short nod.


    “Meng LuYao… I haven’t asked before, but it could be important. Are you willing to share any information about your blessing?”


    “It’s…” Her eyes wandered around the room nervously. “It lets me… assess people. It’s not very informative, but it tells me a bit about a person’s natural talents. When I first saw you, you…”


    I waved her off as casually as I could. “So, you saw me as an alchemist, LiTing as a refiner, and JiaQi as a fighter?”


    “Ye… Yes. LiTing’s and JiaQi’s abilities are at a level I’ve come to recognize as being from blessings. If I concentrate, I can also pick up more normal talents in other areas.”


    “Thank you for sharing.”


    That kind of blessing was a potential landmine since she would see my improving ‘talents’ over the course of several lives. At first, this might be chalked up to a result of self-improvement over the course of several loops, but as time passed and others didn’t progress in the same way, it would raise questions I didn’t want to have to answer.


    I added this to my list of future problems and returned to the present.


    “Miss Meng, would you please assume the position of Minister of Personnel? Your blessing should make you an excellent fit for such a position.”


    She nodded silently.


    “JiaQi—”


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    “Minister of War.”


    I blinked at her.


    “I’ll be your Minister of War. Don’t try to rope me into rituals or, gods forbid, merchant talk.”


    “Alright… that’s fine… But we still have three more positions to fill. Minister of Revenue, Minister of Rites, and Minister of Justice. Any suggestions?”


    Yan was the first to voice his opinion. “I would recommend XiaoYu as Minister of Justice. She’s still only a Martial Disciple, but she’s advancing as rapidly as she can. While she can’t join the sect yet, LuLu can give her a ride here and she can start working with us. Things will get easier after she advances to Grandmaster, but with there not being any strong cultivators in the city, she shouldn’t have too many problems even as a Disciple.”


    “That might work… Any other suggestions?”


    This time, it was JiaQi who spoke up. “What about Jin’s granddaughter? You gave her an orb, right? Might be a good idea to bring her into the fold.”


    It was a solid suggestion. Jin ZiHan had a mathematics-related blessing. It might not be useful for a cultivator, but it could make her a powerful Minister of Revenue.


    “I’ll have to talk to Jin about that.”


    Hearing this, LiTing raised a hand. “Let me. It’ll look strange if you keep going to the Metal Peak to talk with Master Jin. Let me help with this.”


    “Okay, thanks, LiTing. Moving on, we still have one last slot to fill.”


    No one else volunteered another name, so Yan looked at me carefully before making a final proposal.


    “If these are not going to be empty titles, if you want ministers who know what they’re doing and who can properly fill these roles, you need a Minister of Rites who understands the sect, its rules, and what is expected of someone looking to excel here. You need someone who knows more about such things than I do.”


    I took a deep breath. Yan had made the suggestion before, and I had put it off. Including the man would be dangerous, but I could see the benefits of having his counsel.


    “You’re saying I need Ning ChenKun. Will he do it? He wants to be a Sovereign. Will he take the position of Minister of Rites under some unknown Grandmaster?”


    “Let me talk to him. He should be arriving in Yellow City soon to start setting up his own domain. Joining us would mean abandoning the path his grandfather established for him, and he would lose access to his clan’s deathsworn, but I might be able to convince him to take that risk. Last time, he didn’t have any standout classes in the Academy other than us. Without our group, he should be on rather shaky footing by this point.”


    I rolled my fingers on the table in thought, considering the potential implications. From what I had learned from Jin after reaching Heaven City, the Ning Clan was the weakest of the four Sovereign clans and was in a rather precarious position. Ning ZeKun, their patriarch, was the clan’s only Bloodline Tier cultivator. This meant he wouldn’t be in a position to help us against the other clans, but it also meant he would be more willing to work with outside forces.


    While I considered myself a nominal Peak Emperor and had solid connections to three other Emperors, gaining a connection to Ning ZeKun wasn’t something to scoff at. The dividing line between Emperor and Sovereign was far harsher than that between Grandmaster and Lord.


    I studied Yan, trying to analyze his reasons for making this suggestion. I felt a mix of ambition and vindictiveness from him, but both feelings were muted, and neither seemed directed at me.


    He had to see bringing Ning ChenKun on board with us as a way to further his plans against the Zhu Clan, but I didn’t sense any deceit in him. This was his honest advice. He genuinely believed that it was the right decision.


    “Alright. Talk with him. Just be careful with what you say.” I looked around at the group and measured my words in case we were being spied upon. “While Ning ChenKun is around, everyone needs to be careful. At the end, I will bring him with us if possible, but I don’t want him in a position where he might have thoughts of betrayal.”


    After getting everyone’s agreement, I returned my focus to Yan. “It’s your idea. Make it happen.”


    <hr>


    Once the meeting broke up and everyone headed off to attend to their own business, I left the manor to inspect my new domain and see what I had gotten myself into.


    My first concern was the city’s defenses. If Yan was right, we could expect to be attacked as soon as word got out that the city had a new owner, so we had to be prepared. It would be good to have skilled defenders to push back any invaders, but they would take time to train. Before that, we would have to rely on fixed defenses.


    An inspection of the city wall showed that while it was in ruins, it hadn’t been worth much even when new. The wall was constructed from large sandstone blocks dragged up from the local bedrock. This would have been sufficient to guard against mortals, but even a Disciple-level earth cultivator would have been able to cut through it without much difficulty.


    To be fair, no simple stone wall would protect a city from an earth cultivator. Defensive formations were critical if one wanted any form of defense against even the simplest techniques. The real problem with sandstone was that it was a poor qi conductor and couldn’t easily be integrated into most formations.


    A quick check of the surrounding area indicated that there were no other mineral deposits large enough to build an entire wall with. So, if I wanted to fix this problem, I would either need to import hundreds of tons of stone, or I would need to find a way to make this sandstone more effective.


    Importing stone would work, but it would take time, and it would be expensive. Sure, the cost of a granite wall wouldn’t be much to a Lord, but it also wouldn’t be much of an improvement. To really make a difference, I would need something like West Brook City’s rhyolite walls, and that wouldn’t come cheap.


    While I could use a single Rank 5 pill to pay for everything, that would defeat the purpose of this exercise. I was supposed to show my city management skills to the sect, and relying on unexplainable wealth to solve all my problems wouldn’t cut it.


    With a small boost to my current water and fire affinities, I was confident I would be able to make Perfect Rank 4 pills without a will-lock, and that would give me a way to fund everything in an ‘explainable’ way, but it still felt like cheating. Without knowing how my actions would be graded, I could only guess at how to proceed, but I felt it would be best to rely on my personal wealth as little as possible.


    A long time ago, back when I was the city lord of North Lake City, my Minister of Rites had said that I should only personally fund a single project. That might have just been a local tradition, but it also might have a deeper source. It might be a tradition that had been started by the Nine Rivers Sect.


    After long hours of deliberation, I decided to put the matter of the city’s defenses on hold. The best option would be to make something work with the sandstone, but I needed to try a few experiments first. I could do that later. First, I needed to understand the rest of what I was facing.


    I shifted my focus to the people. While the defenses were important, my true goal had to be improving the lives of my citizens. Walls and defensive formations were important for making that happen, but they were only one piece of a far more complex puzzle.


    A single look was all I needed to tell that the people were underfed, and with only a few questions, I understood the cause. A large portion of the city’s diet had come from the fishing industry. Less than a year ago, the YaLu River had been poisoned during a war between two cities upstream. The fish that weren’t killed off by the poison were deadly when eaten, so the city had been forced to abandon its primary food supply.


    Basic foodstuffs were rather inexpensive at my level, so I could import as much as needed to solve the immediate issue, but I needed to do more than that. I needed to fix the root of the problem so that NanLu City would be able to stand on its own.


    I took out my mental journal and scratched down a few notes on what needed to be done. There was a lot to fix, but with a solid team behind me, I was confident we could make it happen.