The gold coins dropped from farming the estate of the late Viscount Fantes had finally been successfully tallied by Li Xiuman.
It could only be described as a massive windfall.
A total of 10,253 gold coins.
To the current Li Xiuman, it was practically equivalent to doubling his net worth.
This amount of gold was enough to raid ten red dragons' nests.
Talk about the sheer wealth of a noble.
Furthermore, the vast majority of Viscount Fantes's wealth lay in real estate and industries.
Such as estates, fortresses, fields, and the like.
Liquid capital only made up a very small portion of Viscount Fantes's total assets.
“If only those estates and fields could drop as loot too,” Li Xiuman sighed in wistfulness.
Then again, it was probably precisely for this reason that Count Wit did not look too deeply into why Viscount Fantes's estate had been thoroughly plundered.
After all, those estates, fields, and fortresses would ultimately end up in the hands of Count Wit, the lord of the territory.
Li Xiuman had merely taken a small cut.
“Damn it, thinking about it like that is so annoying.”
“Whatever. A magnanimous skeleton doesn't bicker with greedy, despicable humans.”
“Now, how should I deal with these gold coins?”
Li Xiuman fell into deep thought.
Leaving such a massive pile of gold coins sitting in his storage space felt like a disservice to them.
This was ten thousand gold coins! Li Xiuman had never seen so much gold in his life.
“I need to find a good bank and negotiate a solid interest rate,” Li Xiuman thought to himself.
Pushing open his door, he headed toward the bank in White Bear City.
In front of the bank, Li Xiuman paused.
If he deposited such a huge sum of money right now, wouldn't he basically be giving himself away?
Viscount Fantes's estate had just been cleaned out.
And then, he—the hero who had saved White Bear City—suddenly whipped out a massive fortune.
That was practically shouting his guilt from the rooftops.
Besides, the bank in White Bear City didn't exactly inspire confidence in Li Xiuman.
In that case, why not... deposit it with the Reby Merchant Association along with his previous funds?
At the very least, Tedela was far more trustworthy. Plus, he already had a large share of stock and untouched funds sitting with her.
Li Xiuman turned around and headed to the Reby Merchant Association, where he successfully met with Tedela.
After he explained his intention, Tedela pondered for a moment before agreeing.
Then, without a moment's hesitation, Tedela called over some servants to transport these chests of gold coins to the White Feather Merchant Association.
Inside the White Feather Merchant Association, Jetis stared at the several chests of gold coins before her—well over ten thousand in total.
“There is no mistake!”
“These gold coins must be the operational funds for Master's next phase of plans and arrangements!”
Jetis opened a map and looked at the cities she had long since marked. The corners of her mouth curved upward.
“Let us begin. Using this gold along with our recent gains...”
“...Master's commercial empire shall be founded this very day!”
Under Jetis's orders and planning, the vampires split into three groups, heading simultaneously to White Crystal City, Black Wolf City, and Old Mountain City.
Branches of the White Feather Merchant Association were established in these cities, and recruitment for employees began immediately.
By swiftly leveraging the merchant connections they had accumulated in White Bear City, they secured a massive number of orders and deposits.
Using these deposits and their original capital, they quickly established merchant routes and caravans centered around White Bear City, connecting Iron River City, White Crystal City, Black Wolf City, and Old Mountain City.
The core caravans were organized and run by the vampires.
Since it was the early stages, they had to yield some profits to initiate talks with the local merchant associations in each town.
With the injection of capital, a massive commercial network slowly began to flow.
Li Xiuman had absolutely no idea about any of this.
At this moment, he was only happily imagining how much interest his gold coins would accumulate over time.
That was ten thousand gold coins!
How long would he have to work without eating or drinking to earn ten thousand gold coins?
“I can finally hold my head high and call myself a wealthy man, right?” Calculating his assets and gold, Li Xiuman thought with absolute delight.
No, wait.
He was a man of wealth, class, and unparalleled inner culture. He shouldn't be so fixated on such trivialities.
A wealthy man had to carry himself with dignity.
He couldn't let others look down on him as some vulgar, nouveau riche upstart.
Returning home, Li Xiuman took the leftover steak from the night before and went outside to feed the stray cats on the street.
“Meow~”
“Meow~”
Before he knew it, the sky began to take on the warm hues of dusk.
A large crowd of stray cats had gathered around Li Xiuman's feet.
There were orange tabbies, calicos, tortoiseshells... all sorts of cats, taking delicate little bites of the steak from the plates.
Li Xiuman gently extended his hand, stroking the cats in the direction of their fur.
“Another day gone by just like that.”
Li Xiuman stacked the finished plates together as the sky turned completely dark.
After washing and putting away the plates, Li Xiuman returned to his basement.
Opening his magic book, he began to study.
His studying continued until early the next morning.
“Golem Creation!”
Rock and magic steel twisted and condensed together, eventually taking a humanoid shape.
However, this Golem had not yet been fitted with a magic stone core, leaving the intricate internal parts of its chest cavity exposed.
Li Xiuman took out the Evil God Power Crystal and glanced at Number Zero.
Number Zero quickly caught his drift, raising the Shield of the King and watching the new Golem guardedly.
“Next, let's test the effects of the evil god's power!”
As Li Xiuman spoke, he placed the Evil God Power Crystal into the Golem's chest cavity and cast Golem Creation to seal it shut.
An ominous aura erupted from the Golem's body.
In an instant, a storm seemed to whip through the basement as a vast wave of malevolent energy swept outward from the evil god Golem's body.
The evil god Golem's eyes turned a blood red.
Li Xiuman hurriedly tried to control the evil god Golem, only to find that it completely defied his command.
With its crimson eyes locked onto them, it lunged straight toward Li Xiuman and Number Zero.
Number Zero quickly raised the Shield of the King, launching the evil god Golem into the air.
“Tier 2 Magic, Water Prison!”
With practiced coordination, Li Xiuman raised his wand and conjured a blue magic circle. A torrent of water surged toward the evil god Golem, trapping it midair.
The evil god Golem struggled frantically.
Without hesitation, Li Xiuman drew Crystal Orchid and thrust it into the Water Prison.
“Freeze!”
Crack, crack!
Accompanied by the sound of rapid freezing, the evil god Golem was completely encased in ice midair.
Only then did Li Xiuman feel safe enough to observe the state of the evil god Golem.
“The materials making up its body have been corrupted to a certain extent.
“However, its structural strength actually increased. The evil god's power seems to have the effect of boosting the durability of materials...”
Li Xiuman severed one of the evil god Golem's arms to examine it closely.
To his surprise, the severed arm actually began to squirm in his hand.
“Whoa, it even has a vitalizing effect!”
Li Xiuman completely disassembled the arm.
“So the structure has changed as well, huh?
“Let's write this down. I honestly never would have thought of a Golem structure like this.”
Li Xiuman pulled out The Skeleton's Magic Book and carefully sketched the cross-section of the evil god Golem's arm.
He then proceeded to disassemble the rest of the evil god Golem in the same fashion, documenting everything.
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