CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 41: PAYING RESPECTS! ANCESTOR LONGYAN (REQUEST FOR RECOMMENDATION VOTES ON MONDAY)

...

***[Clan Industry]***

[Fishing Team]

[Changning Fish Stall]

[Fenggu Farm]

[Xingsheng Farm]

[Xinmao Silk Farm]

In total, there are five items, each followed by (click to view details). Naturally, Wang Shouzhe clicked on the Fishing Team.

The page "jumped" to the Fishing Team details page.

***[Fishing Team]***

Small fishing boats: 9

Medium fishing boats: 1

Sailors and fishermen: 46

Clan responsible person: Wang Dinghai

Average annual revenue over the past five years: 606 Qian Gold

Average annual expenditure over the past five years: 385 Qian Gold

Average annual net profit over the past five years: 221 Qian Gold

Average annual spirit fish catch over the past five years: 400 pounds

...

Improvement direction: Develop various fishing tools for mixed fishing operations

...

This year’s target:

Net profit target: 1000 Qian Gold

Spirit fish target: 1000 pounds

This is the simple panel of the Fishing Team, recording financial data before Wang Shouzhe took office, as well as the direction for improvement and this year’s profit targets.

According to Wang Shouzhe’s estimate, this target is very easy to achieve. After all, it is currently the peak season, and this year, due to the pest disaster leading to food shortages, the price of fish meat, as a partial substitute for staple food, will inevitably rise.

For the Fishing Team and Fish Stall industries, Wang Shouzhe’s total profit target is 2000 Qian Gold.

However, the only issue is that with the increased catch by the Fishing Team, it is highly likely to gradually disrupt the ecological balance, although it won’t pose a significant problem within a few years.

However, this is ultimately not a long-term plan.

For a Black Tortoise Clan, long-term and stable sources of income are the true pillar industries. Short-term enormous profits can only serve as a supplement to the clan’s industries.

Just like an industry such as [Fenggu Farm], it is a true heritage industry that can continuously provide resources for a Black Tortoise Clan over centuries.

This point is extremely important.

In the Black Tortoise World, there is no shortage of windfalls; getting lucky and coming across a treasure, or benefiting from a senior’s legacy, or encountering two High-Tier Ferocious Beasts perishing together, and other miracles, these will make you wealthy overnight.

But what about after getting rich overnight? No matter how many resources you have, they will eventually be exhausted, only heritage can remain evergreen.

Take Wang Shouzhe himself as an example: now eighteen years old, at the Sixth Layer High Stage of Qi Refining Realm, he currently consumes nearly 200 Qian Gold in resources annually. According to the clan’s estimate, he can reach the Peak of Ninth Layer of Qi Refining Realm in about twenty years, and by that time, he will only be thirty-eight, still at the prime of his life.

Even if these 200 Qian Gold resources remain unchanged, it would still require 4000 Qian Gold over the course of twenty years.

Of course, it’s impossible for things to remain unchanged; as he reaches the Seventh Layer, Eighth Layer of Qi Refining Realm, the resources consumed each year will increase rapidly. To cultivate from his current stage to the Peak of Ninth Layer of Qi Refining Realm, it will consume at least over 8000 Qian Gold in resources.

Where do these resources come from? They are squeezed out bit by bit from the output of the clan’s various industries every year. Those clan assets that can produce long-term and continuous benefits are the true family heritage.

Similarly, this is also why, given the current situation of the Wang Race, there is no strength to cultivate a second Wang Shouzhe. Otherwise, even if the talent is slightly inferior, as long as enough resources are invested, a young expert can still be created.

In fact, if one or two times the resources were additionally invested in Wang Shouzhe, or resources were invested regardless of cost, he wouldn’t need twenty years to reach the Peak of Qi Refining Realm. Perhaps it would take only fifteen years, or even ten years or less.

This is also the reason why Loose Cultivators find it difficult to achieve significant accomplishments; they have no roots or foundations. They might get lucky and obtain some resources, but if unlucky, they might even go hungry.

Loose Cultivators who can cultivate to the Spirit Platform Realm either have talent beyond measure and luck, or their luck is extraordinarily high to the extreme.

Therefore, even though the over ten thousand Qian Gold resources of Wang Shouzhe seem a lot, it is only equivalent to the total expenditure over several years under the current tight circumstances for the clan. Without careful planning, it would at best be a flash in the pan for the Wang Family, lacking lasting strength.

Watching the "simplistic system panel" he created, Wang Shouzhe’s mind was also rapidly turning; how to spend money wisely has been something he’s been contemplating these past few days.

What does the clan lack most now? Of course, it lacks a Spirit Platform Realm expert. In this way, they could replace Ancestor Longyan’s position and long-term act as the clan’s shield. After all, Ancestor Longyan’s injuries have never fully healed, and the situation is worsening.

But is more than ten thousand Qian Gold in resources enough to support someone to reach the Spirit Platform Realm? Naturally, it is far from being enough. If a Spirit Platform Realm expert were so affordable, Ping’an Wang Family’s overall financial resources would have easily solved the problem long ago.

In fact, all the ancestors in the Black Tortoise Clans with the Spirit Platform Realm would become too numerous. Therefore, this option can already be crossed out, no need to consider it.

Use all this money to expand the clan’s industries...

Wang Shouzhe has also carefully pondered over this question, but how many clan industries can more than ten thousand Qian Gold develop? One must know that some industries known as pillar clan industries are famous for their large scale, long development cycles, and relatively low return on investment.

Take the Wang’s Fenggu Farm for example, how much effort and funding from previous generations have been poured into it? But how much profit does it normally yield each year? In good years, making a pure profit of seven or eight hundred Qian Gold is already quite good.

In the long term, increasing investment in pillar industries is an inevitable trend. But distant water cannot put out a nearby fire, so Wang Shouzhe temporarily circled this idea and decided to wait and see.

Or perhaps, purchase a large number of cultivation resources for himself and supply those clan members with potential?

Wang Shouzhe naturally also considered this point.

However, there is an increasingly tight marginal effect in this, can Wang Shouzhe reach the Spirit Platform Realm after consuming Minor Primordial Cultivation Pills every day for several years?

Obviously not... not to mention the Spirit Platform Realm, even reaching the ninth layer of the Qi Refining Realm is uncertain.

Even if he could aggressively consume resources to cultivate to the ninth layer of the Qi Refining Realm in just a few years, what then? Can it solve the fundamental issues of the clan’s survival?

If even someone with his talent, among the best in the clan’s youth, cannot do it, what about other clan members?

Sixth Grandfather Wang Xiaohan attempted to reach the Spirit Platform Realm years ago but failed. Although his state has declined with age, he’s currently stalled at the ninth layer of the Qi Refining Realm, and no longer at his peak. If he were given ample resources and confidence, there would be a chance to return to the peak of Qi Refining and attempt the Spirit Platform Realm again. This is the quickest way Wang Shouzhe can think of to add an ancestor in the Spirit Platform Realm to the clan.

But this resource is still far from sufficient compared to gathering all the resources necessary to attempt the Spirit Platform Realm. Moreover, adjusting Wang Xiaohan’s mental and physical state to be capable of attempting the Spirit Platform Realm is not something that can be achieved overnight.

After much consideration, Wang Shouzhe thought that if this money could somehow be used to heal Ancestor Longyan’s injuries or extend her life, it might be the most urgent matter to address.

But it is apparent that merely relying on this sum of money to completely cure Ancestor Longyan is impossible. If it were possible to heal her with just more than ten thousand Qian Gold, the clan would have long done so at any cost.

Therefore, even if she could truly be healed, the cost would surely far exceed that of supporting one or even several Spirit Platform Realm experts.

Maybe with a large investment of money, at best, her injuries could be alleviated or her life prolong somewhat.

Let’s list it as an option to be considered later, Wang Shouzhe thought deeply with a furrowed brow.

Truly envious are those transmigrators with genuine golden finger systems, who can solve all difficulties with their golden fingers. They can go about their days carefree and laugh, overpowering all obstacles effortlessly.

Unlike him, even with a bit of money, he’s still thinking long and hard about where to best utilize it. From cultivating from the sixth layer high stage of the Qi Refining Realm to the seventh layer, advancing just a stage in this small realm, it takes a few months of time to slowly cultivate and hone, and that’s because of his relatively rich resources, which hastens the process.

But upon careful thought, it is quite apparent that this world is very much real, and the path to becoming a strong individual has always required building step by step.

While he was lost in thought, Miss Xia He was sent over by Elder Gongsun Hui, saying that Ancestor Longyan had summoned him for a meeting.

Ancestor Longyan summoning?

Wang Shouzhe’s mind blanked for a moment before he immediately composed his Essence, Qi, and Spirit. Ancestor had often secluded herself in recent years, rarely summoning descendants of the clan. She hadn’t even appeared at Wang Dingyue’s funeral, showing that her physical condition was not very good.

Even Wang Shouzhe, the most favored among the seventh generation, hadn’t seen the ancestor for more than a year. Usually, it was Elder Gongsun Hui who took care of her.

"Thank you, Miss Xia He." Wang Shouzhe was quite polite to Xia He.

Xia He quickly bowed slightly: "No need to be polite, Patriarch. If you have nothing pressing to attend to, please come with me to see Ancestor."

She was Gongsun Hui’s companion, raised from the age of nine, and now she was nineteen. Although she had no cultivation talent, she was intelligent and resourceful, literate and proficient in the Nine Chapters of Mathematics.

Much of the accounts for Elder Gongsun Hui were calculated and organized by her help.

Afterwards.

Wang Shouzhe followed Xia He all the way to the secluded courtyard where Ancestor Longyan resided. It was situated near Zhuwei Lake. In a short while, Wang Shouzhe arrived at the courtyard known as [Longyan Residence].

To avoid disturbing Ancestor Longyan’s dedicated practice, this vicinity was deemed a clan forbidden area, where nobody was to trespass without her summoning.

Gongsun Hui was already waiting at the entrance of Longyan Residence. Upon meeting, she said in a bright voice: "Ancestor, Shouzhe has arrived."

"Shouzhe, come in."

A calm voice gently sounded at the doorway.

"Yes, Ancestor." Wang Shouzhe took a deep breath, calming his mind slightly before pushing the door open and stepping into Longyan Residence.

This was a quaint courtyard, sparsely decorated and devoid of any luxury. Simple, ordinary flowers and plants grew in the courtyard, swaying gently in the breeze.

In the pavilion, a slender woman stood leaning against a railing, gazing at the garden scenery. Her back was to Wang Shouzhe, with a cascade of white hair casually draping over her shoulders.

On seeing the snow-white hair, Wang Shouzhe’s heart inexplicably ached. This was from a deep memory of his predecessor; when Wang Shouzhe was a child, he clearly remembered that Ancestor Longyan’s hair was only half white.

In just a span of ten years, it had turned completely white.

Wang Shouzhe felt a lump in his throat, stepped forward, and bowed in respect: "Shouzhe pays his respects to Ancestor."

...