"Interest?" Shi Huagu shuddered upon hearing those words.
It was hard to imagine an almighty figure of the Body Integration stage failing to control his own body.
"Of course. Loans naturally come with interest. Otherwise, why would we lend you money?" Meng Potian said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, baffled by why Shi Huagu was reacting so dramatically.
The Meng Family wasn't running a charity where anyone could borrow money and simply return the principal. If they ran things like that, the Meng Family would have gone bankrupt long ago.
Shi Huagu forced a smile that looked uglier than crying.
*Damn it, how did I completely overlook the existence of interest?*
Beside him, Mu Baiyi, who had been tasked with reassuring his subordinate, had a subtle shift in expression and lost his composure as well.
He, too, had forgotten about the interest.
Shi Huagu wasn't the only one in debt; he was in debt as well.
The only difference was that he had disguised himself as a common cult member to borrow money from the Falling Coin Chamber of Commerce.
He had been thinking that once the barbecue restaurant earned enough profit, he would clear the debt as quickly as possible to prevent the truth from coming out.
If that ever came to light, he wouldn't survive it even if he was in the half-step Tribulation Transcendence stage.
"H-How much is the interest?" Shi Huagu was so terrified that he could barely speak properly, wishing he could dig up Qin Haoran's corpse and flog it.
Meng Potian was quite warm toward a big client like Shi Huagu. Furthermore, he admired Shi Huagu greatly for his loyalty and sense of duty in daring to take on this kind of debt.
However, admiration was one thing; accounts had to be calculated clearly.
"Look, it was clearly stated at the time the loan was made. This is 'Safe Tribulation Transcendence Insurance.' As long as one successfully ascends to the Tribulation Transcendence stage, interest is no longer calculated and only the principal needs to be repaid. But if the tribulation fails, interest is calculated at twelve percent per year."
Meng Potian traced out the calculation in the air to make it easier for Shi Huagu to understand.
"Forty years have passed since the original loan. The agreement at the time stipulated repayment through equal installments of principal and interest. With a loan of one billion, that averaged out to eleven million per month... Subtracting the one billion you just repaid, four point five billion remains."
The air was filled with dense, meticulous calculations, terrifying Shi Huagu to his core.
As a Body Integration cultivator, he certainly possessed the simple arithmetic ability required to follow it; he just couldn't bring himself to accept the reality.
Beside him, the corner of Mu Baiyi's eye twitched. If they had that many spirit stones, Fengdu would have been completed long ago.
And this was merely what Shi Huagu owed—he owed even more himself.
He had originally planned to clear the debt early to free himself and accelerate the construction of Fengdu. Now it seemed he might as well forget about that. Fengdu could be built slowly; there was no rush.
Currently, under the leadership of the Heavenly Court Cult, both the Nine Nether Cult and the Shining Sun Cult were flourishing. Under Young Cult Master Lu's guidance, the Shining Sun Cult had quickly shifted its research direction, and items like solar-powered candles were about to hit the market. Surely their speed at earning spirit stones would be even faster than running barbecue restaurants.
Mu Baiyi tried his best to look on the bright side.
In the spiritual space, Lu Yang thought to himself, *No wonder your Meng Family obeys the law. Making money by obeying the law is faster than doing it illegally!*
Even if you sent Shi Huagu out to rob people, he couldn't possibly plunder that much.
The Immortal Fairy, on the other hand, felt immense regret. "What a pity! This immortal lost out big time! Back then, I should have found a bank to deposit some spirit stones. Three hundred thousand years—no, four hundred thousand years later, how many spirit stones would this immortal have earned!"
"...Uh, can I ask something? Your Majesty, are you sure there's any bank that could remain in business from ancient times all the way to the present?"
The Immortal Fairy thought about it and realized Little Yangzi had a point.
With that, the Immortal Fairy returned to her usual cheerful self.
Shi Huagu and Mu Baiyi left the Meng Manor, utterly dejected.
"Cult Master, what should we do? Are we heading back to headquarters?"
Mu Baiyi shook his head. "Have you noticed that the standard of living for the common people in the Imperial City is higher than in other cities? That means their ability to accept new things is also higher. When we opened the barbecue restaurants before, we started in smaller places and gradually expanded to neighboring cities.
"Barbecue restaurants are common. Our advantage was that our food tasted good, something anyone could accept, so it wasn't considered a novel concept.
"However, the things invented by the Shining Sun Cult might not be accepted by just anyone who sees them. I believe that if we want to open up the solar-powered market, we must start from the Imperial City.
"Here's what we'll do: go contact the people from the Shining Sun Cult, and have everyone come to the Imperial City together to conduct an inspection."
Shi Huagu felt that there was a good reason Mu Baiyi was the Cult Master; his capacity for observation and analysis was indeed superior to his own.
***
"Imperial Father, your son has returned."
Inside the Imperial Palace, the dignified Eldest Prince bowed before Emperor Xia.
Three months ago, someone had reported officials in Jizhou for embezzlement, corruption, and deceiving their superiors while oppressing those below. Jiang Qun had traveled to Jizhou to investigate and root out the corrupt officials. He had traveled incognito, surveyed the populace, gathered clues, faced obstruction from corrupt officials, revealed his identity, intimidated the crowd, and incidentally met a confidante, finding himself a wonderful romance. He had only just returned to the Imperial City.
He had not expected that after not seeing him for three months, his father would have aged to such an extent.
The spirited and commanding Emperor Xia of the past was nowhere to be seen. Now, Emperor Xia looked like an old man on the verge of withering into rotten wood, his face full of wrinkles, his drooping eyelids almost covering his eyes.
He was supposed to have ten years of lifespan left, yet less than half of that time had passed and he was already on his last legs!
Emperor Xia favored his eldest son the most. Seeing Jiang Qun return, he revealed a smile, set aside the memorial in his hand, and beckoned him over.
"Imperial Father, your health..."
A wave of sorrow welled up in Jiang Qun's heart.
He knelt before the throne, allowing his father to stroke his head. In a daze, it felt as though he had returned to his childhood, when his father sat upon the throne and he sat on his father's lap.
"Cough, cough. It is nothing. We know Our own body; We can hold on for a little longer." Emperor Xia's eyes were cloudy, his vision severely degraded, and his speech was slurred, accompanied by spittle. "If the heavens want to take Our life, they still fall a bit short.
"We know you desire a life of freedom and have no intention of inheriting the throne. As a parent, We will not force you.
"It is just that if the crown prince is not settled early, and one day We can no longer hold on and pass away, the power of national destiny attached to Us will lose its master. It would likely run amok, inevitably causing a great upheaval, and the Ancestor would have to step in to suppress it.
"This national destiny is the very foundation of Our Great Xia; nothing must go wrong with it.
"Your second brother is too scheming, prone to being outsmarted by his own cleverness. Your third brother knows he lacks the talent to govern a nation and has devoted himself entirely to literature... Your eight younger brothers all have various flaws and cannot shoulder such grave responsibility. Entrusting the empire to them does not put Our mind at ease. As for your seven younger sisters, you know them as well..."
"Imperial Father, say no more! I will be the emperor!" Heartbroken and choking with tears, Jiang Qun nodded and gave his consent.
He knew his imperial father had always thought highly of him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have entrusted the matter of dealing with the Jizhou officials to him—it had been an opportunity to establish his prestige.
"Ah, you said it yourself, no taking it back!" Emperor Xia straightened his back with a sudden snap. His eyes turned sharp, clear, and brimming with vigor as he looked at Jiang Qun, bearing not the slightest resemblance to a man on the brink of death.
Jiang Qun: "..."
*Father, if you're fine, could you please stop putting on an act?*
Second Brother had said that there was no honesty in the imperial family and that every corner was filled with schemes and deception. He hadn't been wrong in the slightest.
Chapter 923