June 10th.
Early in the morning, Chen Hao came rushing over. As soon as Su Yu opened the door, he blurted out anxiously, "Yu, something huge happened!"
"Speak slowly."
Su Yu was unhurried; the sky was not falling.
What kind of major crisis could someone like Chen Hao possibly have?
Over the past two days, Su Yu had achieved initial mastery of the Thunder Yuan Saber. He was busy familiarizing himself with the technique to speed up origin qi unification, so he had zero interest in Chen Hao’s breaking news.
Opening the door to let Chen Hao in, Su Yu turned back to eat the bowl of noodles he had just cooked for breakfast.
With his father away, his meals had been exceptionally meager of late.
Besides, he was running low on cash. He only had thirty thousand dollars left, which he needed to save for attending the Civilization Academy.
Going to school was by no means free.
While the registration fee for the Civilization Academy wasn't exorbitant, it still required an upfront payment of over ten thousand dollars. On top of that, he would have to eat once he arrived.
Seeing him eat noodles, Chen Hao swallowed hard. He had only eaten a little bit that morning and felt somewhat hungry after running over.
Su Yu pretended not to notice. There was only one bowl of noodles, and none for him.
"Yu..."
Sitting down across from him, Chen Hao tore his eyes away from the noodles and said urgently, "My dad said things got shaken up in the Great Xia Prefecture this year. Enrollment quotas across all the academies might be cut!"
"Mm."
"Enrollment cuts!" Chen Hao emphasized heavily.
Su Yu looked up helplessly. "Does that have anything to do with me? As for you, even though you're still at the Kaiyuan Fourth Layer, you're close to the fifth. Plus, you have thirty bonus points. Even if they reduce enrollment, it won't affect you much, will it?"
Su Yu genuinely didn't care. Exasperated, he said, "What, are you telling me they won't recruit a single person from Nanyuan? If the Great Xia Prefecture dares pull something like that, Nanyuan would dare break away from their control and defect straight to the Daming Prefecture!"
Nanyuan was not far from the Daming Prefecture. Less than three hundred li to the north lay the territory of the Daming Prefecture, making Nanyuan one of the cities closest to it.
Small though it was, Nanyuan still had a population of a million.
Its battle-ready soldiers numbered over ten thousand!
Counting retired veterans, Nanyuan could mobilize tens of thousands of fierce warriors at a moment's notice. No matter how much the Great Xia Prefecture cut enrollment, Nanyuan's numbers couldn't drop by much.
They had never recruited many to begin with, so Su Yu truly didn't care. Weakly, he added, "True or false, the ones who should be crying are the people over in the Great Xia Prefecture. They enroll the most students, so any cuts will fall on them."
Seeing Su Yu's indifferent expression, Chen Hao said with a mournful face, "I know, my dad said the same thing. But he said... with things like this, people in the Great Xia Prefecture who could have passed originally won't make the cut this year. Those with a bit of background are probably going to flee to smaller cities!"
"..."
At those words, Su Yu froze slightly. He realized he hadn't thought it through as deeply as Chen Hao’s old man had.
Right!
A cut in quotas would certainly hit the Great Xia Prefecture hardest. But what would those in the Great Xia Prefecture do if they felt they couldn't pass?
They would come to smaller cities!
Nanyuan was still one of the twenty-eight cities. Even though its quota wasn't large, it still had a few spots.
Those students might not be top-tier in the Great Xia Prefecture, but coming to Nanyuan, the requirements set by the prefecture were not high.
For instance, Nanyuan sent a dozen or so students to the Great Xia Civilization Academy each year. No matter how much they cut quotas this year, those spots wouldn't change drastically, because... there was simply no room left to cut.
Cutting any further would provoke public outrage.
Nanyuan's students were weaker not because they were inferior, but because the environment differed. This godforsaken place lacked origin qi, cultivation was slower than in the Great Xia Prefecture, and resources were scarce. You couldn't expect people in Nanyuan to match the level of those in the Great Xia Prefecture.
Therefore, Nanyuan’s quota was practically fixed. It wouldn't increase, but it could hardly decrease either.
Frowning slightly, Su Yu looked at Chen Hao. "Both the War Academy and Civilization Academy are cutting quotas?"
"Yeah!"
Chen Hao said miserably, "Isn't it all thanks to that marquis! The Prefect entered seclusion; if he hadn't, this never would have happened! That damn marquis never does anything useful, all he cares about is raking in money!"
Chen Hao was full of gloom, feeling his own prospects were in jeopardy.
Su Yu chuckled. He knew who the marquis was referring to.
Marquis Xia—Xia Longwu's uncle and the son of the King of Great Xia.
In Nanyuan, in the Great Xia Prefecture, and even across the human race, he was a famous figure.
He was the founder of the Xia Trading Company!
Nobody knew whether Marquis Xia was his actual name anymore. In any case, everyone called him Marquis Xia now, which was at his own insistence. Since his father was the King of Great Xia, he certainly qualified as a marquis.
So from a very, very long time ago, that man had been called Marquis Xia.
"How did this get tied to Marquis Xia?"
"You didn't know? He's the one who gave the order!" Chen Hao grumbled. "Word is Marquis Xia complained that the academies cost too much, so the Great Xia Prefecture's funding is being slashed by thirty percent this year.
"And that's not all..." Chen Hao said with a bitter grimace. "I heard—no, my dad heard—that Marquis Xia is actually selling quota spots!"
Chen Hao looked completely exasperated. "That man is actually selling quotas! Not academy admissions, but household registration spots in the twenty-eight cities! To test in another city, you need a local household registration. So if those people want to take the exams here, they have to buy a registration!
"And buying a registration isn't enough; they have to buy property! Put together, a house and a registration cost at least a million dollars or more!
"Haven't you noticed? Tons of people have been selling houses these past few days. Housing prices have gone crazy! Right here where you live, it's up to ten thousand a square meter!"
"..."
Su Yu was stunned for a moment. *There's a trick like that?*
Did that mean his apartment could sell for a million now?
Earlier, he had been planning to sell it for five hundred thousand!
"Tell me, isn't he wicked? The whole Great Xia Prefecture is cursing him right now!"
While Chen Hao continued venting, Su Yu couldn't help laughing out loud. "Marquis Xia is quite something. Originally, everyone was flocking to the Great Xia Prefecture. With this move, he's driven people out to the smaller cities instead!"
"What do you mean 'quite something'? Isn't this ramping up competition for us?"
Chen Hao protested, "For just one or two million, you can establish residency. There are so many rich people in the Great Xia Prefecture—won't they swarm over here like locusts?"
Su Yu smiled. "It won't be that exaggerated. The truly wealthy and influential don't lack money or yuanqi liquid, so their kids are competitive even in the Great Xia Prefecture. The ones running to smaller cities are the middle class. Do you think just anyone can pull out one or two million?
"In the end, even if more people come, it won't be that many."
Su Yu saw the situation clearly, but Chen Hao had a point: it definitely increased the difficulty of the exams for Nanyuan's students.
An average student in the Great Xia Prefecture might be at the Kaiyuan Fifth or Sixth Layer, but once they came to Nanyuan, they would be top students.
Families that could genuinely afford it would almost certainly come.
As a result, the competition would become far fiercer.
Of course, Nanyuan stood to profit as well. For example, anyone selling a home right now could easily turn a profit of several hundred thousand.
Su Yu could only say that Marquis Xia's maneuver was... peerless!
"If I were Marquis Xia... I'd build several residential complexes in advance and stipulate that buyers can only purchase homes in those designated neighborhoods. Easily selling hundreds or thousands of units at a firm million each with no bargaining would rake in hundreds of millions, even billions, in no time."
Su Yu sighed with feeling. "Multiply that across twenty-eight cities, and you'd pull in hundreds of billions right away. Do this every year, and forbid buyers from transferring ownership within ten years... and next year you could harvest another crop."
Chen Hao stared dumbfounded. After a long pause, he said with a wry smile, "Yu, I came here to tell you about the problem, not to ask how to make money! What are you thinking about!"
Su Yu chuckled. "It's fine, don't worry too much. This won't be that simple. If they really take up all of Nanyuan's spots, do you think Nanyuan would stand for it? Without a doubt, there will be compensatory policies."
"Really?"
Chen Hao still trusted Su Yu quite a bit, though he remained uncertain. "Will it affect me?"
"Probably not."
Su Yu wasn't certain either; he was merely guessing. "If I were Marquis Xia, I'd probably set up other policies. For example... if Nanyuan recruits twenty people in total, fifteen spots would be reserved for Nanyuan locals and five for outsiders. That way, the money is made, outsiders get a chance, and Nanyuan locals don't lose out.
"Meanwhile, those outsiders could have passed in the Great Xia Prefecture originally. In the end, total academy admissions remain unchanged, but tens of billions or hundreds of billions in extra revenue are generated. As for the money, the parents spent it willingly—if they were confident enough, they could have just tested in the Great Xia Prefecture, so no one can complain."
Su Yu smiled. "In short, it forces a bunch of middle-class families who wouldn't otherwise have spent money to pay their way out. They spend tens of billions, Marquis Xia pockets it and spends it elsewhere—flowing back and forth, that turns into hundreds of billions."
Chen Hao couldn't follow. *Wasn't it tens of billions? How did it turn into hundreds of billions?*
Su Yu didn't bother explaining further. He consoled him, "Don't worry, the higher-ups aren't fools. Would they really let public resentment boil over? The Prefect is only in seclusion, not gone. Aren't they afraid the Prefect will settle scores once he emerges?"
He was certain Marquis Xia wouldn't actually stir up catastrophic trouble for the Great Xia Prefecture. If Marquis Xia were truly that foolish, could the Xia Trading Company have monopolized the entire prefecture's cultivation resources?
Granted, it was backed by the Xia clan, but without genuine capability, the other great clans wouldn't have stood aside either.
"Yu, why do you think Marquis Xia makes so much money anyway? He's making so many people in the Great Xia Prefecture want to beat him to death!"
"His Xia Trading Company makes a fortune already. Any random item costs tens of thousands."
Su Yu shook his head slightly. "No one complains about having too much money. Maybe Marquis Xia just loves counting cash. There's nothing you can do about that."
At this moment, no one knew that the Great Xia Prefecture's treasury was nearly empty.
Even though Wan Tiansheng had said as much during the meeting, everyone assumed it was false, merely meant to scare people.
What a joke!
The Great Xia Prefecture was one of the mightiest prefectures of humanity, bristling with experts and boasting a prosperous economy where people lived in peace and contentment, its front-line armies sweeping all before them undefeated. How could it be out of money?
If it were broke, how could Xia Longwu spend money so lavishly?
Right now, even if Xia Longwu himself stood up and announced that the Great Xia Prefecture had run out of funds, most people would probably laugh and say, *The Prefect is joking.*
How could that possibly be true!
Su Yu didn't know, and Chen Hao knew even less. Reassured by Su Yu's words, he felt much more at ease and let out a breath. "That's good. As long as it doesn't affect us. My dad was even saying he might look into selling our old apartment this time..."
Su Yu cursed inwardly. *Filthy rich bastard!*
Chen Hao’s family owned an apartment right in Su Yu's residential compound that they had never sold. If they really sold it now, that would be a million in cash.
Stroking his chin, Su Yu brought up his earlier thought again. "Hao, do you think... it's really worth selling a house right now?"
A million!
When Su Long bought their apartment years ago, he got it very cheap as an active soldier, for around seventy or eighty thousand.
It was well past the transfer restriction period now. Nanyuan's housing prices had been decent, but its market value was only around five hundred thousand.
In the blink of an eye... it had doubled!
It was terrifying!
With this news, Su Yu felt an itch to sell the apartment right away. The profit was immense!
Chen Hao looked at him suspiciously and whispered, "Yu, are you still thinking about that? Uncle Su will beat you to death when he comes back! If you're short on cash, I can just ask my dad to lend you some."
"What are you talking about?"
Su Yu laughed. "I was just speaking off the cuff. I can't sell it anyway; even if I wanted to, I'd need my dad's consent. What a pity, an opportunity like this is so rare!"
Chen Hao didn't think much of it. Having never managed a household, he didn't realize how expensive basic living was; he lacked a real concept of money and never ran short of it.
Returning to their previous topic, Chen Hao asked nervously, "Even if it doesn't affect us, there will probably be a lot more people from the Great Xia Prefecture on the day of the exam. I hear that over there, there are countless geniuses—Kaiyuan Fifth and Sixth Layers everywhere, and Seventh and Eighth Layers aren't rare either. Yu... do you think they'll look down on us?"
Su Yu was unfazed. "Look down on what? Drop them in Nanyuan, and they might not even be as good as you! Our starting point is lower, but once we reach the Great Xia Prefecture, everyone will be on the same footing. By then, their progress won't be as fast as ours."
He neither overrated those from the Great Xia Prefecture nor looked down on those from Nanyuan City.
People from small places had a harder start, but in the Great Xia Prefecture, everyone was treated equally. As long as one remained grounded and worked hard, plenty rose to prominence—it was hardly unprecedented.
"All right then!"
Dropping the topic, Chen Hao soon asked curiously, "Yu, what are you planning to do these next few days? The academy goes on break soon. Why don't we go out and have some fun?"
"Not interested."
Su Yu had too much to do: repairing the 'Thunder' character, practicing the Thunder Yuan Saber, preparing to kill a mid-stage Qianjun, reading books, and cultivating his willpower. His plate was full; where would he find time to mess around?
"Cultivate properly, and don't wander off anywhere! What I said was only speculation; it doesn't guarantee Nanyuan's quota will stay the same. You'd better reach the Kaiyuan Fifth Layer to increase your chances. Otherwise, it's normal for weaker students to be weeded out. If one or two spots get cut, you might be one of them!"
Su Yu hadn't touched a single one of the three drops of yuanqi liquid Chen Hao's father had gifted him.
However, practicing the Thunder Yuan Saber over the past few days had drained him heavily, and he couldn't recover quickly. Since his Baihui aperture remained unopened, he couldn't actively absorb external origin qi, leaving him severely depleted.
He planned to consume a drop of yuanqi liquid in the next couple of days to give himself a major boost. It would be better for Chen Hao to cultivate here as well.
"All right then."
Chen Hao looked miserable. He would have to read books again; if he had known, he wouldn't have come over to Yu's place.
...
At the same time.
Nanyuan City Lord Manor.
City Lord Wu Wenhai, Longwu Guards Decurion Xia Bing, Liu Wenyan, the Old Principal, the Hall Master of the Wind Arrest Hall... many high-ranking figures gathered together.
Once everyone took their seats, Wu Wenhai got straight to the point: "Everyone already knows the situation. The Great Xia Prefecture's policy is one person per household. In other words, if a family has two children testing, they must buy two properties—and they must be over a hundred square meters. Anything under a hundred doesn't count!"
Tugging at his beard, the Old Principal sucked in a breath of cold air. "The marquis's heart... is far too black!"
Wu Wenhai pretended not to hear and continued, "Furthermore, with the exam date fast approaching, special fast-track processing will incur an extra ten percent surcharge!"
"..."
Even Liu Wenyan couldn't help chiming in, "Does that money go to Nanyuan, or the Great Xia Prefecture?"
"A fifty-fifty split between the Great Xia Prefecture and Nanyuan!"
Wu Wenhai smiled. "It's a good thing. Marquis Xia is taking the heat up front anyway, so we just collect the money; it has little to do with us. The ones complaining are the people from the Great Xia Prefecture. If they don't like it, they can choose not to come. For Nanyuan, this brings only benefits and no downsides."
The Old Principal said with a troubled frown, "I'm just worried our own quotas will be encroached upon in the end."
"They won't. The higher-ups indicated that enrollment numbers will roughly match previous years, without much difference—maybe a shift of one or two people at most, but no drastic cut all at once."
Wu Wenhai reassured him, adding, "This is actually advantageous to us. The Great Xia Prefecture originally intended an across-the-board cut, which would have slashed our quota by a quarter if divided evenly. Now, not only will we avoid cuts, but we can also make a tidy profit. Nanyuan isn't wealthy; taking this chance to earn some revenue means more funding across all sectors down the line."
The others nodded in agreement. Seeing this, Wu Wenhai continued, "The matter is settled then; opposing it wouldn't do any good anyway. The main reason I gathered you all here is so you can go back and tell the students not to feel pressured and not to panic. The higher-ups wouldn't act recklessly without considering our interests.
"Also, the Great Xia Prefecture will be in a bit of turmoil recently, with a massive influx of people. The Wind Arrest Hall and the City Guards must prepare proper defensive measures to prevent members of the All-Races Sect from fishing in troubled waters, and especially stay vigilant against them fanning the flames and steering public opinion!"
Wu Wenhai said sternly, "Some people don't understand the full picture and spread rumors recklessly. If the people of Nanyuan come to believe outsiders are stealing their quotas and interests, unrest will inevitably follow. We must remain on high alert!"
Everyone hurriedly voiced their agreement. Wu Wenhai let out a breath of relief and smiled again. "Furthermore, the higher-ups want us to keep these folks in Nanyuan as much as possible. They're all wealthy families. Nanyuan has developed slowly, with limited resources and an underdeveloped economy. This time, they're being delivered right to our door for free... no, they're paying us to deliver themselves!
"If they settle down here, Nanyuan can develop better in the future. In addition, the academies... have another revenue scheme."
"What is it?"
Wu Wenhai smiled. "The marquis said that all exam candidates must be affiliated with an academy! In other words, when those people arrive in Nanyuan, they must enroll in an intermediate academy. How much you charge per affiliated spot on the academy roster... is up to you to decide. Just don't make it too outrageous!"
Liu Wenyan drew in a sharp breath. "That fat... ahem, Marquis Xia truly plucks feathers from every passing goose! Surcharges, academy affiliations, property purchases for residency—he won't stop until he wrings several million out of every single family!"
Wu Wenhai gave a wry smile as well. "That's just Marquis Xia's temperament. He even said they can spend it or not as they please; he isn't forcing anyone to part with their money. If you have the skill, pass the exams in the Great Xia Prefecture yourself. He isn't putting obstacles in anyone's path. Tell me... who can do anything to him?"
"The marquis's wealth-accumulating methods..." The Old Principal clicked his tongue, saying after a pause, "I wonder if the King of Great Xia knows about this. If the old man finds out... he'll probably beat him half to death!"
"That's none of our concern,"
Wu Wenhai said casually. "As long as the marquis can bear it himself, that's fine. Of course, he's used to it. Let them curse him; it's not the first time. Years ago, the marquis secretly ran a black market trading massive amounts of merit points and fleeced the wealthy families of the Great Xia Prefecture out of tens of billions. In the end, didn't that just fizzle out?"
At those words, the crowd's expressions turned complex.
Merit points were tiered by rank; even with money, one couldn't necessarily purchase certain restricted goods.
Yet years ago, a black market sprang up in the Great Xia Prefecture where anyone with money could buy whatever they wanted!
Naturally, the prices were absurdly inflated.
Moreover, transactions were conducted in merit points. In that black market, a single merit point was driven up to over a hundred thousand dollars. On top of that, the goods themselves cost twice as much!
Layered together, the markup was more than tenfold.
Even so, many wealthy clans flocked to it, only for the entire operation to be busted—all Marquis Xia's handiwork!
The merit points the wealthy clans had bought went entirely down the drain!
Xia Longwu had personally stepped in to shut it down!
He didn't confiscate their merit points, but they were restricted to standard merit point transactions, meaning things they couldn't normally buy remained out of reach. The points sat idle in their accounts. Some had bought hundreds of thousands of points, yet their merit tier only permitted them to purchase supplies worth a few hundred points. They had the funds, but nowhere to spend them!
Nor could they secretly trade with others, as everyone involved was on Xia Longwu's watch list. Anyone daring to trade under the table... weren't they afraid of dealing with someone from the All-Races Sect?
After that incident, Marquis Xia kept a low profile for several years. Now, he was back to raking in cash again!
Rumor had it that he had pocketed tens of billions or even more that time. As for where the money actually went, nobody knew and nobody dared ask. In any case, it wasn't anyone else's money; those filthy rich tycoons had spent it of their own free will.
As Wu Wenhai brought up the past, Liu Wenyan and the others fell silent. If Xia Longwu weren't known for being exceptionally stern and iron-blooded, they would have suspected it was an entrapment scheme all along.
Ultimately, only the great families suffered losses, with little impact on ordinary people, so few spoke of it afterward.
During that period, however, Marquis Xia was cursed mercilessly by the wealthy clans. The nickname 'Pighead Xia' originated from that very scandal.
At the mention of Marquis Xia, the room erupted in chuckles.
Liu Wenyan chuckled along, but as he laughed, an inward sigh escaped him.
That Fatty Xia—who knew how much blame he had shouldered over the years? Nowadays, probably very few remembered that dashing young marquis of the Xia clan from fifty years ago.
Half the sky above the Great Xia Prefecture was held up by that very man people called a pighead.
What a pity that the world was foolish, blindly following the crowd. How many truly understood?
*A face like a pig, but a mind as bright as day.* That described none other than this endlessly reviled Marquis Xia.
Chapter 40