The young man and girl practicing martial arts alongside Chu Qiguang were none other than Wu Wei's young son, Wu Bing, and eldest daughter, Wu Qingchen.
Hao Xiangtong's suspicion that Chu Qiguang harbored designs on Wu Qingchen was not without reason. The moment she arrived, she saw Chu Qiguang hovering endlessly around Wu Bing and Wu Qingchen like a bee buzzing around blossoms, being attentive to an absurd degree.
When Chu Qiguang noticed Hao Xiangtong, he merely offered a casual greeting before turning right back to fuss over Wu Bing and Wu Qingchen.
Watching this unfold, Hao Xiangtong was reminded of how Chu Qiguang had spoken just as warmly to her a few days prior—telling her stories, cracking jokes, adopting her as his sworn sister... and even giving her a potent medicine called Gold Wine, charging her only two thousand taels at cost.
The effects of that Gold Wine truly were astonishing. Hao Xiangtong felt her stamina, which was already on the verge of the second stage, rapidly surge. She estimated she might truly step into the second stage in another month or two.
Yet the memory of how Chu Qiguang had tapped and struck her body after she took the Gold Wine filled her with indignation and shame every time it crossed her mind.
Even though he had used a wooden rod to tap her body out of propriety between men and women, it had still left Hao Xiangtong with a strange, unsettling sensation.
And now, coming to the Wu residence today to look for him, she was greeted by this very scene.
With a loud thud, Hao Xiangtong drove her fist into an adjacent pine tree. Disdaining to step forward and say anything, she stormed away in a fury.
Chu Qiguang and the two youths turned to look at the toppled pine tree. The Wu family's young master asked in bewilderment, "Why did Sister Hao snap that pine tree?"
"Probably had a stomachache," Chu Qiguang replied. "Don't mind her. She'll be fine once she gets home and drinks some warm water. Hao Xiangtong has quite a strange temper—you can never guess what's going on in that belly of hers. By the way, have you two heard of Gold Wine?"
First came the two thousand taels earned from selling Gold Wine to Hao Yongtai, followed by another two thousand from Hao Xiangtong. The moment Chu Qiguang received the silver, he spent it all on Ear-Opening Pills, spending every single night cultivating. By now, his progression in Qi Coursing through the Four Extremities had covered the fingernails, toenails, and tongue, leaving only the teeth and hair before he could step into the third stage.
'Once I get four thousand taels from Wu Bing and Wu Qingchen, it'll only take another five to eight days to make a breakthrough into the third stage.'
To surge from an ordinary person to the third stage of martial arts in a mere two months—if outsiders ever learned of Chu Qiguang's speed of cultivation, their jaws would surely drop.
After finalizing the Gold Wine deal with Wu Bing and Wu Qingchen, Hao Yongtai came looking for him, holding several sheets of paper. "Brother Chu, this is what you asked us to find."
Chu Qiguang took them and skimmed through. After a long moment of contemplation, he nodded and said, "I think I have an idea of what's going on. Let's go speak to your father and Master Wu together."
...
In the Wu family's reception hall, Hao Wen and Wu Wei listened as Chu Qiguang explained the matter.
Chu Qiguang slapped down one ledger sheet after another. "Over these past days, Yongtai and I have been looking into the Ding family. We sent people to secretly inquire at the Defense Circuit and the Inspection Division regarding how many cartloads of goods the Ding family moves each month, and even seized some hands from the Ding family caravans for questioning..."
These figures were not merely gathered from inquiries; they had also been verified by cat monsters sneaking into those people's homes to investigate, making the information exceptionally reliable.
However, whether it was Wu Wei or Hao Wen, the powerholders of this world were generally insensitive to numbers.
On one hand, mathematics was underdeveloped; on the other hand, they feared that studying and reading too much would make them susceptible to demonification.
Confronted with the data Chu Qiguang presented, Wu Wei assumed Chu Qiguang was referring to the Ding family evading taxes and dodging corvée labor.
Puzzled, he said, "At this point, both the Demon Suppression Bureau and the county magistrate are siding with the Ding family. What use is investigating these things? Without ironclad evidence, those runners and caravan hands will recant their testimony the moment they're threatened."
Chu Qiguang pointed to the rows of figures recorded on the white paper and said, "This isn't about evading taxes and labor service. Look at this... at Mount Mei alone, according to the recollections of the archers from the Inspection Division, more than five hundred baskets of coal are hauled out each day.
"Assuming sixty jin per basket, that means a daily output of over thirty thousand jin, which amounts to more than nine hundred thousand jin a month."
Hao Wen paused slightly. "That much?" He then asked, "And what of it?"
"The Ding family has been extracting nine hundred thousand jin of coal every month for nearly eight years."
Seeing that Wu Wei and Hao Wen still showed little reaction, Chu Qiguang could only continue, "With such a massive volume of extraction, quarrying stone and digging earth day after day, and Mount Mei being rather small to begin with, its rocks, soil, and vegetation have all been ravaged. Naturally, its feng shui and spiritual vein have been utterly destroyed as well."
At the mention of the feng shui and spiritual vein, the two great landlords' eyes finally lit up. They stared at Chu Qiguang in astonishment, not expecting him to deduce the destruction of the spiritual vein from these mere figures. Shocked and furious, they asked, "You're saying the Ding family ruined the spiritual vein of Mount Mei?"
The Mount Mei spiritual vein was said to trace its origin to Mount Zulong, thousands of li away, which was why Qingyang County's feng shui had always been praised by prominent clans and commoners alike. It was also considered one of the reasons Qingyang County produced so many wusheng, martial juren, and martial jinshi.
Furthermore, the reigning imperial family placed supreme importance on feng shui fortune and mountain spiritual veins. The Grand Progenitor Emperor had once sent men to survey the empire's spiritual veins and compile them into a grand register before choosing the site of the present Divine Capital and the imperial palace, laying down the realm's foremost feng shui array. For the past two hundred years, damaging spiritual veins had been strictly forbidden across the empire.
Chu Qiguang said, "Having destroyed the Mount Mei spiritual vein, no one in the entire county will let them off. Besides that, it violates an imperial taboo. The Emperor will never spare the Ding family."
Wu Wei and Hao Wen nodded repeatedly as they listened, marveling inwardly at Chu Qiguang's brilliance. With the Demon Suppression Bureau's interference removed, he had uncovered the Ding family's fatal weakness in just a few days.
Yet Chu Qiguang was not finished. He added, "Moreover, the Ding family sells this coal extremely cheaply—for less than half the market price. There must be another secret on Mount Mei. Unfortunately, the entire mine is heavily guarded. Not only is a martial arts expert stationed there, but mine guards patrol day and night. None of the people we sent could get inside."
Chu Qiguang thought to himself: 'That mine is virtually an army camp. Even dog monsters and cat monsters would be spotted if they entered. When Qiao Zhi got a little closer, he said a top-notch expert was stationed there, and that even he would be detected if he went in... There is definitely another secret hidden in Mount Mei.'
Naturally, Chu Qiguang did not know yet that the Ding family used Shenxian Dao's living corpses to mine the coal, which was why their labor costs were so low. To manipulate living corpses in the mountains, an expert from Shenxian Dao was naturally stationed there as well.
"Even so, their average price is barely eight fen of silver per hundred jin of coal, which amounts to less than ten thousand taels of annual revenue. While that is only an estimate, it shouldn't be far off. Where are they getting tens of thousands of taels each year to send to the capital?"
"If they can send tens of thousands of taels to the capital every year, they might be earning well over a hundred thousand taels a year."
Wu Wei frowned and said, "How much silver the Ding family makes in a year isn't something outsiders like us can know. If we want to find out... we'd have to get our hands on the Ding family's account books."
"Every step leaves a trace, let alone a grand business worth over a hundred thousand taels of silver." As Chu Qiguang spoke, he brought out another sheet of paper, pointing to the columns of figures upon it. "These are the goods shipped out by the Ding family's caravans each month. Do you think they can pull tens of thousands of taels a year out of these?"
Hao Wen and Wu Wei glanced at the list. It consisted entirely of commodities like iron woks, salt, tea, cotton cloth, and grain.
Chu Qiguang said, "Estimated at market prices, even if all of these were sold, the Ding family could make at most twenty to thirty thousand taels a year."
At this, both Hao Wen and Wu Wei were thoroughly bewildered. If neither the coal mine nor the caravans accounted for the sum, how on earth was the Ding family making all that silver?
Chapter 88