Shi Feiyang pondered over the Great Ming Court, existing for over three hundred years, its governance naturally evolving and leading to various drawbacks.

Over the years, he had been diverting water to create seas, filling deserts, warming the climate to resist the Little Ice Age, and establishing Immortal Markets for overseas trade, extending the national fate of the Great Ming for nearly a century.

Yet, instead of eradicating internal problems, they became more severe. The various allied political party groups accumulated more capital and power, even the Donglin Party had Earth Immortals emerging. They not only cultivated themselves but also hired and supported a large number of Loose Cultivators, seeking talent suitable for cultivation nationwide.

Among them was a knight renowned throughout the Three Xiang, living by providing protection, named Iron Whip Lian Shoujing, who had a daughter named Lian Hongyao.

She was encountered by the Governor of Hunan during his return home in those days. After testing by cultivators, it was determined she possessed excellent root bone qualifications, leading to her recommendation to the upper echelons of the Donglin Party, who adopted her as a foster daughter.

Lian Hongyao was originally valued by Xu Feiniang, later forcibly taken by Yan Yingmu, eventually joining the Emei Sect. While her root bone qualifications weren't as good as the Three Heroes and Two Clouds, they were still quite similar, representing cultivation accumulated over generations.

She received massive resource support from the Donglin Party, acquired numerous teachers, and purchased various Immortal Cultivation Secret Manuals, ultimately forcing her way to becoming an Earth Immortal within a few decades.

Shi Feiyang knew there were cultivators in the court, yet he hadn't anticipated them creating an Earth Immortal!

From a long-term perspective, these were trivial matters. By the time the Dharma Decline Era arrived, they would be unable to ascend the Outer Heaven Divine Mountain. In the end, the treasures they bought at high prices would lose their spiritual essence, becoming mundane objects.

The more cultivation resources they acquired, the better!

From the standpoint of enabling the Great Ming Dynasty to continue, the key was to pry open the financial reserves held by these political party groups, transferring them into the hands of ordinary citizens at the lowest level.

"Diminish the surplus to supplement the deficit," is the lasting principle.

In fact, he had planned for this many years ago. Over the years, what was traded from the Outer Heaven Divine Mountain were all "luxury goods of the Immortal Path." As these luxury goods flowed into the hands of these political party groups, their gold, silver, copper, and other wealth were transferred to the Mingyu Immortal Market bank, and then Shi Feiyang had Jiang Dachuan use this money to buy up real estate, mountains, rivers across the entire country...

Shi Feiyang set this strategy during the refining of the Dragon Coin, subsequently having Jiang Dachuan and others execute it. However, over these years, due to concentrating on cultivation, he hadn't kept up with real-time updates. Although the work continued, it lacked vigor, especially since Shi Feiyang also brought in Li Zhenchuan, which led Jiang Dachuan to perceive Shi Feiyang was dividing his power, making his efforts even more lackluster.

The current situation is that the Ming government is very poor, the annual tax revenue of the treasury is continually declining, with many tax sources being dominated by the political party groups through various means, even going to the extent of provoking Shandong's civil unrest, killing the emperor's dispatched tax collectors, leaving much of the tax unrecovered, causing annual deficits.

This caused the emperor to become very thrifty, trying everything possible to gather money, diverting it not to the treasury but to the internal fund. When needing to use it, the ministers had to implore and plead with him for a long time before the emperor would release a small amount...

The previous emperor, Zhu Citing, for having weak sons unable to contest with these ministers, directly groomed his grandson to take the throne.

The state was poor, the emperor not wealthy, while the political party groups held mines, land, and various capital, with Shi Feiyang's Mingyu bank possessing large amounts of Dragon Coins, gold, silver, etc.

Shi Feiyang called together Jiang Dachuan, Li Zhenchuan, and eight other key figures of the Mingyu Immortal Market, instructing them to spread rumors that the Outer Heaven Divine Mountain would seal off, cutting off trade with Central Earth entirely, leading to price hikes in all cultivation resources, seizing the opportunity to extract more wealth from the groups' hands.

Simultaneously, arrange for purchasing their various assets.

Real estate, land, mining, forestry, river transportation, everything; they welcomed it all!

Also, grain, cloth, silk, copper, iron, etc., whatever was available, they acquired.

However, the purchase operations had to be done covertly, avoiding the use of the Mingyu Immortal Market's name, disguising everything as private individuals, adding multiple layers of intermediaries.

As soon as the Outer Heaven Divine Mountain closed, the supply of the Mingyu Immortal Market had already significantly decreased; without any further publicity from them, many Immortal Grass Spirit Pills were already rising in price, and with their speculations, the rise soared even higher.

Those political party groups, wanting to continue obtaining cultivation resources, had to come up with more money to buy; if short on funds, they would need to sell off their assets.

Shi Feiyang, having abundant money and luxury goods, first extracted the liquidity of Dragon Coins from the market, reducing the Dragon Coins nationwide, causing their appreciation, while goods depreciated, yet luxury goods prices had to rise.

These luxury goods weren't merely to demonstrate status and prestige; they were life-saving necessities, greatly beneficial for cultivation and longevity, especially for older officials and wealthy merchants, who would buy them regardless of the price.

With Dragon Coins appreciating, he could acquire even more assets from them.

At this time, the common folks at the bottom were struggling too, as money in the market dwindled, their labor and produced goods lost value, leading to deflation.

Over time, the entire Great Ming country's market was set to explode; otherwise, they'd have to look for a new currency.

Shi Feiyang, at this juncture, distributed large amounts of grain, cloth, and other materials nationwide through the Daoist temples of Qingcheng and Snow Mountain Sect!

For example, families with second children received provisions, with triple the amount for the third child, and quadruple or more for the fourth child and beyond; all military families with members stationed away received double provisions, those guarding borders even more, and those serving corvée, whether building city walls or river channels, were subsidized by the head; technicians within craftsmen households, firearms camp members, Blue Indigo Factory workers, Ceramic Port workers...

And anyone meeting criteria like orphans, the solitary, widowed, disabled, under sixteen, and above sixty, were provided for.

As long as reasons could be found, money, grain, clothings, and various materials were distributed lavishly as if without cost.

The reason for not using the government system is because the government is controlled by political party groups. If ten portions of grain are distributed, after many deductions, just receiving one portion in the hands of the common people would be considered fortunate.

Rather than distributing money, he directly distributed materials. To avoid waste, he instructed the Snow Mountain Sect's Daoist temple system around the country to use Dragon Coins to repurchase these materials.

If ordinary people's households had excess supplies, they could take them to the Daoist temples of the Snow Mountain Sect to sell, exchanging them for Dragon Coins to purchase other materials.

This back-and-forth achieved the goal of extracting resources from the hands of the political party groups and distributing them to the grassroots.

As for those real estate and land, they were of no use to him, so he continued to distribute them to people who had made great contributions to the country.

He retained the mineral resources, setting up a department under Yuan Yang Palace specifically to manage them, with ninety percent of the earnings donated to the country, counted as collecting taxes for the country.

Upon Shi Feiyang's command, the three major systems of the Immortal Market, Qingcheng, and Snow Mountain all began to mobilize, transporting large quantities of materials to various parts of the country. This task was a massive project, expected to take at least ten years.

As for the court, it was also a crucial area. The Minister of Revenue and even the Cabinet Scholar, this Elder You was also a member of the Donglin Party, and the Noble Princess Consort You was also part of the Donglin Party.

Shi Feiyang thought for a moment and prepared to call Shi Longgu to ask. Calculating with his fingers, he realized Shi Longgu was not in Mingyu Immortal Market, but in the Southern Border…

Calculating further about what Shi Longgu was doing, it turned out to be a "Tiger Falling into a Deep Pit" situation, encountering trouble.

The reason she went to the Southern Border was to find Bai Guanhong.

Bai Guanhong, who was cursed by Dongxuan Immortal in the past, was sent by Shi Feiyang to Master Zun Sheng. After Master Zun Sheng's ascension, he was left behind and now tangled with several Witchcraft Masters in the Southern Border, involving the recluse Li Ning in the Southern Border… truly a tangled and unresolvable mess.

After careful deduction, although the opposition altered the Heavenly Number and went through multiple disguises, Shi Feiyang still noticed something suspicious, eventually concluding that someone intentionally set a trap to lure him out of the Capital.

But Bai Guanhong could not be ignored. While rescuing him was not difficult, sending someone else would suffice, it would inevitably trigger Li Ning to release the Red Flower Princess!

It was a deadlock that had to be resolved personally by him, but once he left, things would certainly arise in the Capital.

This is interesting; it doesn't seem like Chi You's handiwork, yet it is related to Chi You, suggesting that a master is secretly assisting Chi You.

Hmm, the opposition would never expect I have an unexpected ally!

He cast a spell to summon Zhu Changyuan.

Soon, Zhu Changyuan arrived and paid respects to Shi Feiyang.

Shi Feiyang asked him, "Has your grandfather already ascended?"

Zhu Changyuan nodded, "After receiving the Jade Scroll transmitted by you, he left the next day."

Shi Feiyang sighed slightly, "That's good, his ascension to Heaven to become an Immortal is quite fitting."

Zhu Zaiyu, fathered children in his later years, his Essence Energy already weakened; he should've reincarnated again to achieve accomplishment. But his deep comprehension of Dao was not inferior to Shi Feiyang. Having encountered setbacks in his youth and gaining enlightenment, his mindset was well-ahead, making cultivation smoother and more efficient. Coupled with years of consuming various Elixirs for nourishment and accumulating Merit, he ultimately achieved the rare accomplishment of Immortal Cultivation in old age and ascension in one lifetime.

However, the position he could've achieved by reincarnating would have been higher, which was what Shi Feiyang mentioned in the Jade Talisman to him.

Yet Zhu Zaiyu did not care about that and directly ascended.

Even though his own cultivation level might not be high, with his Dao Level and achievements in music, the Heavenly God would probably confer him as a deity with a respectable rank in music.

It could be considered perfect!

Shi Feiyang asked Zhu Changyuan, "Your brother Geng Kun, who died in the East Sea under the Heavenly Demon Immortal Slaying Sword of the Taiyin Hunyuan Ancestor, you took his Primordial Spirit away. Where did you eventually arrange for his reincarnation?"

Zhu Changyuan looked astonished, "You don't know? The one sitting on the throne now is him."

"What?" This unexpectedly surprised Shi Feiyang greatly. During this period, while guiding the young emperor in sword refining and seeing him multiple times, he had not noticed anything unusual.

As for Geng Kun, he had not calculated his past fate. Today, he merely asked Zhu Changyuan casually, remembering the days working under Geng Kun in the East Sea, never expecting such a result.

Zhu Changyuan said, "Back then, I brought his Primordial Spirit back to my grandfather. After calculating, my grandfather said that Great Ming would face a catastrophic disaster. Although with your protection, it could be overcome, but many would suffer casualties. At that time, the former Emperor Citing's sons, either dying young or being too weak, were unfit for great responsibility. So, my grandfather sent his Primordial Spirit to the Imperial Palace for reincarnation, thus resulting in the current emperor. To prevent discovery, my grandfather altered many aspects of his Heavenly Number and made many arrangements…"

"No wonder even I didn't see it in a moment of carelessness! With your grandfather's handiwork, no wonder."

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