Chapter 1022: Chapter 235: Tier Two of Wealth and Blessings (Part 2)

Within the Empire, it has always been believed that might makes right, and that plunder is how one completes the stage of primitive accumulation.

Their wealth comes from theft, fraud, exploitation and even pillage; who would believe in something like "great virtue carries all things, blessings descend from above"? "If your virtue doesn’t match your position, disaster is sure to follow"?

You could say that all of these notions across the territory are the influence of Lin Rui’s own aura.

Thus, after obtaining the Qingyu Divine Light, the territory will have a massive number of Treasure Chests!

From white-board Treasure Chests to Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Gilded, every tier can be obtained in a steady stream.

The number of Treasure Chests depends on only one thing—the number of household registrations within the territory.

If the territory has a hundred thousand households, then it can mass-produce a hundred thousand Treasure Chests.

Even if you only take the average gain from opening these chests—say, each opening yields 3 points of Life Value, Spiritual Energy Value, Physical Attack, Physical Defense, Spiritual Strength, Spiritual Resistance and so on—

just a single round of opening can increase 300,000 Life Value or 300,000 points of Physical Attack! 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

What kind of concept is that? Even after fighting his way to where he is now, Lin Rui still doesn’t have 300,000 Life Value.

If a Knight increased their Physical Defense by 300,000 points, that would be tough enough to drive their opponents into despair.

Of course, the gains from opening Treasure Chests this one time will not all fall on a single person; they will be relatively spread out, and the wealthier the family, the greater the share of gains.

If a family’s wealth is extremely vast, then they can make it so that a three-year-old child who has just begun training already possesses 30,000+ Life Value.

The key is that all of this investment is not actually pure sunk cost, because under the effect of [Wealth and Blessings], their return from opening Treasure Chests is not low. After all, the items they get from the chests still belong to them.

And this is only the second stage of [Wealth and Blessings]: when opening Treasure Chests there is a 1% chance to gain one additional item lower than the current chest’s tier, and a 0.1% chance to gain an extra item of the same tier. Once the Clan Aura becomes stronger, their chest openings might also erupt in flashes like Lin Rui’s, with a single Silver Treasure Chest coughing up more than a dozen items.

By then, their "investment" in opening Treasure Chests might actually be a positive-return business, making money while boosting their strength.

This will lead to certain merchant houses raising a batch of monstrous-level foundation holders. The process is just too simple: you only need to find a loyal young man, or even have a director of the firm personally open the Treasure Chests. That way, you gain wealth while simultaneously raising your underlying power.

And if they stack this with the effect of the Goddess Priestess of Fortune, going to the Saint Hall of the Goddess of Fortune to receive a blessing before opening the chests, temporarily raising their Luck Level and Luck Value, then the returns will keep climbing.

This is bound to lead to one outcome! Namely, that the territory will enjoy Wealth and Blessings in abundance!

Because in such a situation, whether merchant guilds, nobles, or great families, all will desperately scour the four corners of the world to collect and purchase Treasure Chests and bring them into the territory to open.

Treasure Chests being opened in an endless stream will naturally explode into a flood of treasures and items.

The territory levies normal taxes; if you’ve obtained so much wealth and so many items, then both emotionally and rationally you should be paying wealth tax.

That resolves the issue mentioned in that remark: consumable items will be deducted from the territory’s Treasury; once items of the corresponding tier are exhausted, higher-tier items will be drawn from the territorial vault.

This will keep a relatively healthy cycle within the territory’s Treasury, preventing the subjects from completely fleecing its wealth.

That said, Lin Rui is quite open-minded about this: tools of the state and military have never come cheap. Even if the finances have to subsidize this a bit, he can accept it.

So long as the territory grows strong and can continue in stable existence, money is utterly insignificant to him.

No matter how much subsidy this costs, can it really exceed the wealth he harvests from taxes and war?

Not to mention that as long as the territory develops, he can reap an endless stream of resource points.

The broad plaza in front of the palace complex of the territory is lined on both sides with Resource Statues.

And more importantly, as the territory grows, whenever any creature within the territory kills a monster, the Lord gains an extra +2 Experience, and on the wealth obtained, the Lord gets an additional one ten-thousandth!

This time it’s no longer limited to the subjects within the territory. As long as Lin Rui’s territorial borders are expansive enough, then any slaughter between monsters within the territory gives Lin Rui a boost. For example, in the Blood Maple Forest, on Taishan Sky Mountain, when Magical Beasts and monsters slaughter each other, Lin Rui also receives gains.

In other words, the territory’s current Wild Hunt Banquet is Lin Rui’s level-up banquet!

This made Lin Rui quite pleased with Wutong’s earlier arrangements; at this moment what he should do is rapidly expand the territory’s borders, not keep his power confined within the city limits.

Just as Lin Rui was thinking of striking while the iron was hot, continuing to invest Territorial Essence to see if he could trigger a third instance of Clan Aura, Caroline suddenly came to the Government Hall and said, "Lord, there is a matter that requires your attention. Our Aerial Cavalry have captured a group of people. They say they were guided by your beacon to come to our territory."

"Beacon?" Lin Rui’s expression suddenly changed; at this point he practically changed color at the mere mention of beacons.

Could it be that the Desert Beacon’s abilities are also being boosted by the Territorial Essence?

Wouldn’t that be a disaster!

Every time he triggered a Historically Significant trait, would he have to run a trip into the Desolate Domain World?

He’d just invested so much Territorial Essence; doesn’t that mean that many cycles have passed and the Power of Deathly Silence has surged in erosion?

Seeing Lin Rui’s face turn sour, Caroline hurriedly said, "I could tell at a glance they weren’t any good people, all shifty-eyed and sneaky. They claimed they knew you, yet were secretly asking around about what Divine Spirit our territory worships."

Lin Rui asked in surprise, "They can communicate?"

Caroline answered as a matter of course, "Sure, as long as it’s a living being, it can communicate. They also said they were here to do business; I suspect they might be scouts from some power or other."

Lin Rui finally realized he’d misunderstood; of course the effect of Territorial Essence couldn’t possibly apply to an entirely different Desolate Domain World as a whole.

[Special Item · Golden Treasure Hall Trade Mark: When placed within a territory it will slowly absorb energy. After accumulating enough energy, it will erupt in a burst, slicing open a small Plane rift, allowing a Golden Treasure Hall caravan to pass through (Note: caravan size cannot exceed 120 people).]

He did still have another beacon, after all; the ones who came should be from the Golden Treasure Hall.

Lin Rui said, "Let them in. It should be a supplier I got to know during the Plane War."

Very soon, Nakada’s excited voice came over: "My dear Lord Lin Rui, you have astonished me too much! From the end of the Plane War until now, we’ve been apart for not even three days, right? And you’ve already successfully activated the Trade Mark?"

A moment later, Nakada’s massive body appeared outside the Government Hall.

Lin Rui walked out of the Government Hall, looked up and swept his gaze over it, and calmly said, "I’m a bit surprised myself that this thing is also boosted by the effect of the Territorial Essence. It’s only been three days; have you prepared the goods for our trade?"

Nakada awkwardly cast a Shrinking Skill on himself, shrinking until he was about the same size as Lin Rui, then complained, "Lord Lin Rui, you’re great in every way, it’s just that your body size is far too small. In almost any world, size usually means strength. Take us of the Snake Race: the stronger someone is, the bigger they are, constantly shedding skin and constantly evolving. You really ought to enlarge your body a bit—how about four meters, in my opinion? That way your mighty frame will feel even more conquering."

Four meters tall, that’s way too big, right? How would he still get intimate with beauties—could his women even handle that?

However, the moment he thought of a four-meter-tall frame, Lin Rui immediately recalled the Elf race’s number one powerhouse, the Master of the Wild Hunt, Ailindir Shadow Moon. She was a Female Frost Giant. When he first saw her, Lin Rui had felt a jolt of amazement. At that time her skin was like fresh snow in the moonlight, faintly glowing blue-white. A deep-blue gown inlaid with star-like Silver adornments cascaded down like the Milky Way spilling across the night sky; her bearing was exceptionally striking.

The corpse of this number-one female elf powerhouse is currently being nurtured within Audrey’s Ring of Blood Soul.

Because of her own lack of strength, Audrey has yet to revive this female powerhouse.