...

Qianma Town.

The name also has its origins.

Back when the Changning Guard Region was still a desolate frontier, An Yuan Guard was already at the edge of human settlements. From the name An Yuan Guard, you can see it was a borderland.

And Qianma Town was an outpost built by humans relying on An Yuan Guard’s stronghold and An Yuan Pass to expand into the Outer Domain. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

It is said that the ancestor of the Huangfu Family, Huangfu Hongyu, was a remarkably talented person who stubbornly established Qianma Town as a foothold in the Outer Domain. Later, together with the government office and the Lei Family, they developed the Changning Guard.

Qianma, as the name suggests, was the vanguard site of expansion in those days.

Five to six hundred years have passed, and Qianma Town still bears the historical traces of that era. It is backed by An Yuan Pass, which leads to An Yuan Guard, and to the west lies the expansive Huangfu Ranch. To the south, a gorge has a city tower-style fortification named Qianma Castle.

Qianma Castle creates a separation between Qianma Town and the Changning Guard Region, but the castle is under government control and falls within the jurisdiction of the Garrison Commander of Qianma Town.

This is only fitting, since many key transit routes are directly controlled by the government office. Just as Ping’an Town also has its Garrison Commander, the Zhouxuan Pass, initiated by Ancestor Zhou Xuan, now falls under the jurisdiction of the Guardian’s Mansion of Ping’an Town.

The reason the Wang Family managed to secure control over Dingpu Ferry was because on the opposite side of Anjiang, there is a Changning Ferry managed by the government office, hence they did not concern themselves over the control rights of Dingpu Ferry.

The fixed assets Wang Shouzhe bought from the former Qianma Huangfu Family totaled a value of sixty thousand Qian Gold!

A modest carriage, escorted by Household Generals, passed through Qianma Castle and arrived at Qianma Town.

The geography of Qianma Town is not very expansive, with many hilly areas unsuitable for farming. Most of the land is planted with pasture grass, serving as feed bases for the Huangfu Ranch.

Inside the carriage, Wang Shouzhe was organizing some ledgers and records while updating his system.

The main interface remains:

[Family Name]: Longzuo Changning Ping’an Wang Family

[Family Grade]: Eighth Grade

[Clan Prestige]: [Village Reputation (100) Heaven Covering] [County Reputation (80) One Area’s Power] [County Reputation (19) Anonymous]

[Family Industry]: 29 items (click to view details)

[Clan Members]: [Internal (47)] [Outmarriage (11)] (click to view details)

[Clan Relatives]: 6 (click to view details)

[Clan House Generals]: [Adult (19)] [Minor (38)] (click to view details)

[Clan Servants]: [Adult (273)] [Minor (152)] (click to view details)

[Growth Facilities]: [Scripture Pavilion] [Treasure Pavilion] [Spirit Material Pavilion] [Spirit Pill Pavilion] [Clan Academy] [Martial Arts Arena] [Spirit Testing Platform]

[Secret Treasure Land]: [Outer Domain Trial Ground] [Bone Marrow Purify Cave] [Fire Cloud Cave (Middle-grade Fire Vein Spirit Field) (Medium)] [Spirit Medicine Cave

(Middle-Grade Spirit Medicine Field) (Small)] (click to view details)

[Income and Expenditure List]: (click to view details)

...

No need to mention the Prestige section, the Village Reputation is already maxed out, as the Wang Family has long dominated Ping’an Town. The County Reputation has also been steadily accumulating and recently experienced a "burst growth," reaching the level of being influential in the area.

Setting aside the antagonistic Huangfu Family, even the Celestial Human Lei Family does not dare to underestimate the Wang Family. As for the County Reputation, there’s nothing that can be done for now. It’s still deemed anonymous, which is typical for an Eighth-Grade family, indicating a long way to go.

Setting aside the industry for now.

The clan members have also accumulated to forty-seven members. Several brothers are married, and wives and children are counted under the Wang Family’s name. However, it seems the "Clan People Over a Hundred" achievement will take some more time unless Wang Shouzhe suddenly marries another fifty-three wives! This would also simultaneously fulfill the achievement of "Concubines in Clouds" and "Domestic Violence Fatality."

The number of Household Generals has notably increased, but most are still minors. They are children trained by the Wang Family from a young age, and once they reach sixteen, they can join the Household General system, solving the problem of insufficient clan members.

Furthermore, the number of servants suddenly reached nearly three hundred. This increase is not due to the family becoming so big that it needs that many people to serve. In fact, besides being able to raise House Guards, a Noble Family generally trains strong household servants.

These robust household servants, in name, are servants but are, in actuality, the Wang Family’s clan soldiers.

Because of their talents not reaching Lower Grade C, they can only practice the simplest Body Strengthening Techniques, accumulating a small amount of Profound Qi. After years of cultivation, they will just barely reach the First or Second Layers.

Any family would not be willing to waste cultivation resources on them. After all, a single Minor Primordial Cultivation Pill would cost ten Qian Gold, and a clan soldier’s annual expenses are only two or three Qian Gold.

This is why people like Wang Yong are considered Household Generals because many Noble Families, besides having Household Generals, also have clan soldiers, though they are typically registered with the government as household servants.

And fully armed clan soldiers, if well-trained, have the chance to kill relatively low-tier Qi Cultivation Realm cultivators. Furthermore, Household Generals supported by clan soldiers hold a massive advantage when facing enemies of the same level.

...

As for places like the Scripture Pavilion, they are still in the preliminary stages under Wang Shouzhe’s initiative, and currently, there isn’t anything very good inside. Apart from some basic cultivation techniques, sword techniques, body techniques, and so on, there are some lower grades, with a small amount of middle grade. As for the Upper Grade Techniques cultivated by Wang Shouzhe and others, Ping’an Wang Family does not yet have the legacy for them, and Wang Shouzhe and others cannot casually pass them on.