From a young age, Guo Feilong was known as a man of his word.
Once he made a promise, he would see it through without fail.
He had vowed to compensate those who had been bullied by the town mayor and his gang of thugs, as well as the families of those who had been killed.
For those injured, he compensated them with 10 to 20 taels of silver, depending on the severity.
For those left disabled, he compensated them with 50 to 80 taels of silver.
For those who were killed, he compensated their families with 200 taels of silver each.
In total, he used over 4,300 taels of silver for compensation.
This money came from the confiscated wealth of the corrupt officials and bullies.
Not only did he enrich those who had been oppressed, but Guo Feilong also enriched himself in the process.
He gained the hearts and admiration of the common folk, as well as unimaginable wealth.
In the town square, in front of everyone, he executed the town mayor and the bullies, and confiscated their properties.
This frightened those who were notorious for not repaying their debts.
That very day, they hurried to repay both the principal and interest to those who had lent them money during their most difficult times.
Guo Feilong also decreed that those who had the means but maliciously refused to repay their debts must crawl in and out of the debtor's house on their knees when repaying.
There was no need to show face or dignity to such shameless people.
Such individuals were audacious because the law was too lenient and forgiving towards them.
Ultimately, it was the lack of justice and fairness in the law that led to this.
There were also those who genuinely couldn't repay their debts because they were too poor.
For these individuals, Guo Feilong offered leniency and arranged temporary jobs for them.
Once they earned enough to repay their debts, they would be released from their temporary forced labor.
For those who were lazy and refused to work, they would receive three meals a day with a small whip.
If they could endure it, they could avoid working to repay their debts.
If not, they would obediently go to work.
There was no debtor that couldn't be dealt with.
In just a few days, the atmosphere in Yellow Rock Town improved significantly.
The common folk of Yellow Rock Town genuinely supported him as their leader.
Guo Feilong didn't like being called "Master" by everyone, so he instructed them to call him "Lord" or "Immortal Master."
After dealing with these miscellaneous matters, Guo Feilong decided to handle his personal affairs and instructed the steward to gather all the matchmakers in town.
Matchmaker Zhang.
Matchmaker Wang.
Matchmaker Li.
Matchmaker Ma.
Matchmaker Sun.
In a town, having five professional matchmakers was quite a number.
The five matchmakers sat properly on their chairs, looking at Guo Feilong with great restraint.
"I'm not a man-eating demon or a fierce beast, so there's no need to be afraid. Just relax."
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Guo Feilong got straight to the point, "I called you here to find me a match."
"My requirements are not many, just three."
"First: under the age of 20."
"Second: the prettier, the better."
"Third: no bad reputation, good conduct."
"If there are none in Yellow Rock Town, you can look in other villages and towns."
"No matter the distance, once the match is made, you'll be rewarded with 20 taels of silver."
"Don't worry about me not having money, just worry about not finding enough girls to be my wives and concubines."
Upon hearing this, the five matchmakers' eyes lit up.
Twenty taels of silver was equivalent to three years' wages for an ordinary worker in Yellow Rock Town.
If they could successfully match a few for the Lord, they would earn a fortune.
"As for the bride price for the girl..."
Guo Feilong thought for a moment and said, "Tell the girl's family that the bride price is 1,000 taels of silver."
For ordinary people in Yellow Rock Town, the average bride price was 20 to 25 taels of silver.
A bride price of 1,000 taels was forty to fifty times that of an ordinary person.
Such a high bride price was incredibly attractive to ordinary people.
When he mentioned the amount, the matchmakers wished they had a beautiful daughter to marry him.
For them, 1,000 taels of silver was an astronomical figure.
For Guo Feilong, he was not lacking in wealth, but in young and beautiful wives to warm his bed.
Besides small vendors, he now had a thirty percent share in all lucrative businesses in Yellow Rock Town.
There were also several metal mines in Yellow Rock Town, which previously belonged to the former town mayor and the bullies.
Now, they were his assets.
With the addition of farmland taxes, he had an annual income of at least forty to fifty thousand taels of silver.
Supporting one or two thousand people was not a problem.
Moreover, he had over three thousand low-quality spirit stones in his possession.
If he wished to exchange spirit stones for silver, one low-quality spirit stone could fetch at least 5,000 taels of silver.
With over three thousand low-quality spirit stones, he could exchange them for at least 15 million taels of silver, enough to marry 15,000 beautiful wives.
As the saying goes, money makes the world go round.
A bride price of 1,000 taels was indeed enticing.
***
The next afternoon, Matchmaker Sun came back delighted.
"Lord, I have found a girl who meets your three criteria, and everything has been settled."
Matchmaker Sun said, "Her name is Su Xue, she's sixteen. Whenever you have time, we can visit her family, or I can bring her and her parents over tomorrow."
"I have time now, let's go now." Guo Feilong stood up from his chair, eager and impatient.
Su Xue's home was in the northern part of Yellow Rock Town. Her father was a bookkeeper at a fabric shop, constantly busy with his abacus.
When Matchmaker Sun approached them and mentioned the bride price of 1,000 taels, Su Xue's father agreed without hesitation, regardless of whether Su Xue herself was willing.
Upon arriving at Su Xue's home with Matchmaker Sun, Guo Feilong was immediately taken by Su Xue.
She was about 1.68 meters tall, with fair skin, delicate features, and elegant eyebrows, exuding a refined and gentle aura.
With her looks and figure, Su Xue could easily outshine those celebrities with beauty filters, even without makeup. A light touch of makeup would make her look like a fairy.
After Guo Feilong agreed to the marriage, Su Xue's father asked him, "Lord, when do you plan to hold the wedding? I need to prepare a wedding dress for Xue'er."
Guo Feilong looked at the sky and said, "Today is not possible, the restaurant can't prepare so many dishes, so let's have the wedding tomorrow."
Su Xue's parents and Matchmaker Sun were taken aback.
Getting married tomorrow, are you in such a hurry?
They didn't know that Guo Feilong, who hadn't experienced a woman's touch in over 120 years, was so captivated by Su Xue's appearance that he wished to consummate the marriage that very night.
***
The next day, Guo Feilong's wedding was completed under the officiant's guidance.
His marriage brought joy to the people of Yellow Rock Town.
Guo Feilong had five hundred banquet tables set up along the street in front of his house.
No gifts were required.
Anyone who wanted to eat could just sit down and enjoy.
Eat to your heart's content.
While the common folk didn't bring gifts, those with some status in town did.
And they brought quite a bit.
The total amount of their gifts was several times more than the cost of the five hundred banquet tables.
***
In the evening, around 9:30, with the full moon hanging high in the sky, Guo Feilong entered the bridal chamber and lifted the red veil of his bride, Su Xue, revealing a face of unparalleled beauty.
Beautiful!
Absolutely stunning!
Guo Feilong didn't bother blowing out the candles.
Instead, he took out a low-quality spiritual instrument from his storage bag—a Bright Lamp, and the room was instantly as bright as day.
The bride, Su Xue, immediately felt nervous and said, "Husband, with the light on, I feel embarrassed..."
Guo Feilong laughed heartily and said, "It's fine, it's better to see clearly with the light."
What's the point of a bridal chamber without light?
Today, there's light.
From now on, there will always be light.
[Here, a thousand words are omitted...]
As time passed, about five minutes later, Guo Feilong was defeated.
In his first real battle, no one could last long.
The physique of an immortal cultivator was stronger than that of an ordinary person.
About three minutes after his defeat, Guo Feilong rallied his troops and rejoined the battle.
In this battle, he made significant progress.
He lasted ten minutes before being defeated.
Three hours later, the seventh battle ended.
Feeling a bit exhausted, Guo Feilong put away the low-quality spiritual instrument Bright Lamp, and the room was plunged into darkness.
The bride, Su Xue, breathed a sigh of relief and fell asleep peacefully.
"I wonder how much auspicious cloud was generated from marrying a wife?"
***
At this moment, Guo Feilong remembered the Family Fortune Cauldron.
In the next moment, his divine soul entered his mindscape.
The Family Fortune Cauldron floated quietly in the center of his mindscape.
Golden rune scripts on the cauldron flickered with divine light.
Guo Feilong's divine soul peered into the cauldron.
Inside, it was like a heavenly abode, with ten small, colorful auspicious clouds floating.
Auspicious clouds had many functions.
They could enhance spiritual root aptitude.
They could increase the power of spells and divine powers.
They could temporarily boost the power of sacred treasures and spiritual instruments.
They could improve the success rate of alchemy, artifact crafting, and talisman creation.
They could also guarantee a breakthrough through cultivation bottlenecks.
"These auspicious clouds might not be enough to enhance spiritual root aptitude.
Let me see if they're enough to break through from Qi Refining stage six to stage seven."
In the next instant, with a thought from Guo Feilong, ten auspicious clouds flew out of the cauldron.
His divine sense guided the ten auspicious clouds swiftly through his meridians.
They arrived at a portal resembling the moon.
Once this portal was shattered, he would step into Qi Refining stage seven.
Boom, boom, boom!
The auspicious clouds collided with the portal like grenades, causing explosions.
When the ninth auspicious cloud exploded on the portal, it shattered like the moon.
A torrent of pure mystic power, like a waterfall, surged from the newly shattered portal.
Guo Feilong's divine soul guided this pure mystic power into his energy core, merging it with his low-quality medium water spiritual root.
The spiritual root was a container for storing mystic power.
Without a spiritual root, even if an ordinary person refined the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into their own mystic power, it would dissipate due to the lack of storage.
Every cultivator had an innate portal within them. Opening a portal released mystic power, which merged with the spiritual root, allowing it to expand and store more mystic power.
The higher the spiritual root level, the greater the power when breaking through cultivation stages.
This was why those with higher spiritual root levels found it easier to break through stages.
Additionally, the higher the spiritual root, the faster one could refine spiritual energy into mystic power.
Each pathway to the next stage was blocked.
It required mystic power to excavate. Only by clearing the path could one have a chance to break through the bottleneck and shatter the portal.
Every cultivator had only one hour a day to excavate the path.
As the path to the eighth stage appeared, Guo Feilong wasted no time. Once his spiritual root merged with the mystic power and doubled in size, he began using his mystic power to excavate the path.