The Fourth Financial Crisis

Since the Yangjiang Port project was proceeding very smoothly, Li Qingning returned to Haiya City after only leaving for more than ten days.

However, when she saw Yang Lu again, she did not immediately talk to him about the business of Yangjiang Port. Instead, she asked him with a weird face if she had an affair with Tian Beixi on an outlying island!

Faced with this sudden accusation, Yang Lu was of course unable to admit it. After seeing Yang Lu's resolute denial, Li Qingning secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then explained the cause and effect of the matter to Yang Lu. Only then did Yang Lu know why. Li Qingning would ask such outrageous questions.

It turns out that the person in charge of the Yangjiang Port project of the Shenhuo Sect is none other than Tian Beixi, who just escaped from the island!

The Yangjiang Port project is progressing so smoothly, and it can be said that Tian Beixi takes the greatest credit. There are even rumors in Huoyunzhou that Tian Beixi has secretly received the spirit stone coins from the Haiya Chamber of Commerce and is delivering benefits to Zhongzhou cultivators. If this were not the case, how could the equity transfer of a large port be completely finalized by the Haiya City Consortium in less than a month?

Not only that, Tian Beixi also took the initiative to find Li Qingning afterwards and asked to see Yang Lu, the consultant of the Qingning Chamber of Commerce, by name.

Li Qingning didn't know that Tian Beixi was able to escape from the island precisely because Yang Lu took the initiative to release the water. She only knew that Yang Lu and Tian Beixi once had a fight in the air on the island.

So when I saw Tian Beixi's face full of embarrassment, it was as if he had been "trickled" by Yang Lu, and he kept mumbling "Did I ask Yang Lu to do anything for me?" He should stay away from me, sooner or later I will make him look good." She thought Yang Lu had molested him on an outlying island!

Out of some inexplicable sense of crisis, even Li Qingning, who usually doesn't like to use his brain, his mind became vivid at this time, thinking that Yang Lu had obviously won a great victory, but Tian Beixi, the commander-in-chief of Fire Cloud State, was let go. , she became even more suspicious on the spot.

But if his junior brother Yang did such a beastly thing, why did Tian Beixi not seem to be resentful, but even turned to help him? Is this the "Stockholm Syndrome" that President Lu Yang called back then?

Although his little mind was working rapidly, when facing Tian Beixi, Li Qingning still put on an expressionless poker face, saying that his junior brother had something to do this time and did not come to Huoyun State to participate in the bidding.

After hearing that Yang Lu had not come to Huoyun Prefecture at all, Tian Beixi gritted his teeth again on the spot, asking whether your Qingning Chamber of Commerce looked down on her. Otherwise, why didn't Yang Lu come over in person for such a big deal as the merger of Yangjiang Port?

This question confused Li Qingning on the spot.

You didn't tell him to stay away from you just now. Why are you angry again now that you heard that he didn't come over?

And she really wanted to tell Tian Beixi that I am the president of the Qingning Chamber of Commerce. Now I don’t take it seriously even if I come in person. Only when Consultant Yang from our chamber of commerce comes does it count. What is your logic?

What's more, the Qingning Chamber of Commerce is participating in the bidding of the Shenhuo Sect, not the Tian family of your Huoyun State. Even if our Haiya Consortium really looks down on people, it is also looking down on the Shenhuo Sect. What does it have to do with you, Tian Beixi!

However, before Li Qingning could explain anything, Tian Beixi stood up angrily and walked away.

Before leaving, Tian Beixi also left a vicious message, saying that we had written off the issue of the outlying islands, and everyone should do their own thing according to their own abilities. Li Qingning was choked and didn't know what to say.

After all, there doesn’t seem to be any conflict of interest between us!

What are we going to do based on our abilities?

Puzzled, Miss Li had no choice but to characterize Tian Beixi as a psychopath. This is why Li Qingning asked Yang Lu if he had molested Tian Beixi as soon as he returned to Haiya City.

After listening to Li Qingning's story, Yang Lu couldn't help but feel a little amused. Tian Beixi looked quite smart, but in essence she was a very emotional woman. From the time she went to the outlying island alone to prove that she was already passive, she still planned to If you put all your efforts into it, you can see that although this woman is somewhat intelligent, she has a very easy-to-get attitude.

It's just that he clearly didn't have anything happen with Tian Beixi, but he was inexplicably splashed with dirty water. Yang Lu would never accept this kind of thing. Fortunately, Li Qingning's biggest advantage is that he has a soft ear. After he explained it at all costs, Li Qingning Finally, I reluctantly believed that nothing happened between the two of them. If it were another woman, Yang Lu's words of breaking the sky would not work.

After Li Qingning returns from Huoyun State, the handover of management rights of Yangjiang Port can begin step by step.

After another month of command and dispatch and work arrangements, until the Qingning Chamber of Commerce relied on the management team formed by He Mingyuan's old team and took a fast boat to Yangjiang Port to officially take over the work, the equity investment project of Yangjiang Port finally came to an end for the time being.

While helping to manage the Qingning Chamber of Commerce, Yang Lu did not pause his own practice.

Relying on the magical power of practicing in dreams granted by President Lu Yang, Yang Lu has now officially entered the third level of Qi refining.

Although the first three levels of Qi refining are the fastest stages for a cultivator to advance in cultivation, Yang Lu was able to break through to the third level of Qi refining with less than half a year of practice. This rate of progress is probably only slightly faster than that of Li Qingning, who has the best spiritual roots. inferior.

After cultivators reach the third level of Qi refining, they need to face the first major threshold of cultivation——

The bottleneck in the middle stage of Qi refining.

According to the division of cultivators' cultivation realms, every three to four small realms correspond to a medium realm, and every three medium realms correspond to a large realm. The first to third levels of Qi refining correspond to the early stage of Qi refining; the fourth to sixth levels of Qi refining correspond to the middle stage of Qi refining; the seventh to tenth levels of Qi refining correspond to the late stage of Qi refining.

The foundation building stage, golden elixir stage, and Nascent Soul stage all follow similar grading standards.

For ordinary cultivators, breaking through the small realm of the first to third levels of Qi refining only requires mindless chanting of sutras. However, if they want to break through the fourth level of Qi refining and advance from the early stage of Qi refining to the middle stage of Qi refining, they only need to rely on Reciting sutras in retreat is no longer enough. After reciting sutras in retreat for a certain number of times, the cultivator also needs to go through a process of accumulating energy and breakthrough.

Generally speaking, the maximum amount of spiritual energy that a cultivator in each realm can store is fixed, but if the concentration of spiritual energy around the body is high enough, this limit can be exceeded briefly. According to the mainstream view in the world of cultivation, the so-called Qi accumulation breakthrough is to allow the concentration of spiritual energy in the body to exceed its own limit and open up the major acupuncture points of the human body, thereby advancing to the next level.

It is said that in the medieval times when spiritual energy was rich, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was extremely rich. Cultivators in the early stage of Qi refining could easily advance to the middle stage of Qi refining. However, as the number of cultivators increased, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth became thinner, and cultivators had to use Qi Gathering Powder. Only by breaking through the limits of one's own spiritual energy, the current market price of Qi Gathering Powder has reached as high as 3,500 yuan of spiritual stone coins!

This price is already equivalent to the income of an ordinary Qi-refining monk who works part-time for three or four years without eating, drinking or practicing.

Precisely because of the high price of Qi Gathering Powder, for the vast majority of ordinary Qi Refining Stage monks with grassroots backgrounds, the biggest difficulty in breaking through the bottleneck in the middle stage of Qi Refining can be summed up in just two words - no money!

Every time an ordinary monk in the Qi refining stage tries to break through to the middle stage of Qi refining, he needs to spend 3,500 yuan of spiritual stone coins, and the lower the level of the exercises he practices, the lower the success rate of breakthrough. The success rate of breakthrough with ordinary yellow-level exercises is even lower. Less than 10%. This is why many monks from small sects and sects often need several years or even decades to advance to the middle stage of Qi refining.

For the grassroots disciples of the Haiya Sect, their personal income mainly comes from contributions to the sect.

The most common way to obtain sect contributions is to serve as a resident immortal master, responsible for the grassroots governance of the Haiya area. Although the sect contribution obtained in this way is not much, it is more stable. If managed properly, you will also get a little extra heavenly law. Merits will be added to your body, and your free time can also be used to practice.

If you want to get more sect contributions per unit time, you can consider serving as the Immortal Master leading the ocean-going fleet on the sea cliff. The sect contribution you can get per unit time is twice as much as the stationed Immortal Master, but there is no way of heaven. With the additional benefits of merit, you will have less personal time to practice, and you will also need to leave your hometown for a long time. The quality of life will be much worse than that of the resident immortal master.

There are also some temporary tasks such as maintaining air traffic and clearing snow on the roads. These temporary tasks are not like the resident immortals and the leading immortals who have to work continuously for several years. Although this kind of temporary mission can also get some sect contributions, it is not very stable. There may not be suitable sect tasks assigned to you at any time.

In addition to different task contents, the sect contribution obtained by completing the task will be different. Even if they are engaged in the same job, the higher the cultivation level of the disciples, the more sect contributions they will receive. Some more difficult tasks will also require The disciple who accepts the task must reach a certain threshold in cultivation to receive it from the sect.

After the end of each fiscal year, Haiyapai will conduct an overall accounting.

After calculating the total profit of the Haiya Sect for the year, the Haiya Sect will reward its disciples according to their contributions. Normally, the annual dividends of the Haiya Sect's Immortal Master can be 500-900 yuan in spiritual stone coins. The immortal master who leads the ocean-going fleet can be given 1,000-1,800 yuan of spiritual stone coins. This income is relatively high among the sects in the southeastern coastal areas of Zhongzhou.

Of course, the economic development level of Haiya City has a crushing advantage compared to neighboring cities. It stands to reason that the treatment of grassroots disciples should be far better than that of Mountain Eagle Sect and Guyun Sect disciples. However, just like other large commercial trusts on the earth, The allocation mechanism of the Haiya Chamber of Commerce is very tilted towards the top.

Under the circumstances that Su Yuanfeng and Jiang Huaan have far greater financial resources than Chen Ming and Fei Fan, and the total number of cultivators of the Haiya Sect is twice that of the Shanying Sect, the treatment of ordinary Qi refining disciples of the Haiya Sect is no better than that of the Shanying Sect. The pie is too strong.

However, the exact amount each Haiya Sect disciple receives each year must be calculated separately based on the size of the year.

For example, due to the Haiya City Immortality Conference held this year, the Haiya Sect's sea trade income is much less than in previous years, and each Haiya Sect disciple's dividend will be smaller. However, due to the great success of the expedition to the outlying islands commanded by Han Fulai , not only made up for the losses caused by the Haiya Immortal Ascension Conference, but also had a slight surplus compared with previous years, which caused the final dividend to rise instead of falling.

This is why many low-level monks from the Haiya Sect are very polite when they meet Han Fulai.

It is precisely because the expedition to the outlying islands earned all the Haiya Sect monks an average of thousands of spiritual stone coins. Many grassroots monks of the Haiya Sect have been given the opportunity to try to break through the bottleneck again. Although Han Fulai is only a mere mortal, the Haiya Sect’s When the monks at the grassroots level saw him, they would respectfully call him Manager Han.

After all, who can have trouble with Lingshi Coin?

If there is an operation to make extra money next time like the Outlying Island War, even if Jiang Huaan does not let Han Fu come to lead the team, the grassroots monks of the Haiya Sect will probably not agree. Everyone will definitely vote with their feet and support those who can make money for them. !

Compared with those hard-working cultivators at the grassroots level who work for the sect, Yang Lu will naturally not be troubled by the bottleneck in the middle stage of Qi refining.

In Yang Lu's view, as long as a problem can be solved with money, it is not a problem!

Normally, monks in the Qi refining stage spend years of savings purchasing Qi Gathering Powder. Every time they take the Qi Gathering Powder, they would like to use metaphysical means such as burning incense and bathing to increase the probability of breakthrough as much as possible. However, Yang Lu, who is rich and wealthy, can even eat Juqi Powder like jelly beans. If one pair of Juqi Powder is not enough, he will get two pairs. If two pairs are not enough, he will get three pairs...

If seven or eight sets of Qi Gathering Powders are not enough, Yang Lu can even consider spending a lot of money to build a spirit stone spirit gathering array to artificially create an ultra-high-concentration spirit energy environment similar to that of the medieval era, which will actually greatly increase the probability of success in breaking through the bottleneck.

In fact, as soon as Yang Lu broke through the third level of Qi Refining, Li Qingning over there excitedly took him to Tianshu City and bought a dozen pairs of Qi Gathering Powders and two sets worth 20,000 yuan. The spirit stone spirit gathering array.

Smashing down so many spirit stone coins may not be enough to break through the bottleneck in the middle stage of Qi refining, but it may even be enough to break through the late stage of Qi refining. After all, although Yang Lu has a high spiritual talent, he is practicing the heaven-level technique "Boundless". "Heart Sutra - From Beginner to Mastery", when you break through the realm bottleneck, you will have an additional success rate bonus.

If nothing unexpected happens, it should not be a problem for Yang Lu to reach the fourth level of Qi refining before the battlefield outside the territory begins.

And Li Qingning himself was not idle either. As the day for the opening of the overseas battlefield gradually approached, Yang Lu felt that his eldest daughter had become visibly anxious.

Every morning when Yang Lu gets up, he can see Li Qingning engrossed in learning the skills of combat spellcasting from Butler Zhou, and often studies for a whole day. You must know that Li Qingning has never been a scholar, so she can practice spells so hard. This shows that the psychological pressure she is under is definitely not small.

Li Qingning himself is a person who can't hide things in his heart.

After getting along with each other for such a long time, Yang Lu had long known the anxiety hidden in Li Qingning's heart.

As the great-granddaughter of the president of the Lingshi Reserve Bank, Li Qingning not only enjoyed the aura of being a proud daughter of heaven, but also shouldered the responsibilities of the Li Qingyang family. After all, Li Qingyang was one of the leaders of currency reform during the third Lingshi financial crisis. First, countless cultivators perished because of reformers like Li Qingyang and Lu Yang.

Now that Li Qingyang is still alive and Li Qingning is operating in Zhongzhou, the headquarters of the Lingshi Reserve Bank, naturally no one dares to do anything to her. But if it goes to the lawless battlefield outside the territory, then Li Qingyang's enemies will have to repay injustice and revenge.

Originally, Li Qingning felt very good about herself.

After all, she has practiced quasi-heaven-level skills, and is proficient in the top killing moves of the seven major sects of Kyushu. She even possesses the strongest magic weapon in the Qi refining period in the entire Kyushu cultivation world, Xunfeng, a sword that kills horses.

If we just compare her combat effectiveness on paper, there are almost no opponents for her in the entire Kyushu cultivation world.

However, after fighting Li Wen, the killer of Heyu Pavilion, Li Qingning found that his actual combat experience was indeed too limited, and he could not display his due paper combat effectiveness at all.

Since then, Li Qingning has learned a lot. He spends more time practicing combat skills than before, and he is not even as concerned about the affairs of the Chamber of Commerce as he used to be.

As the day for the opening of the battlefield outside the territory gradually approached, her time to practice combat skills became longer and longer. Even as a cultivator in the realm of Qi Refining, she had two obvious dark circles under her eyes. .

Although studying hard is not a bad thing, Yang Lu can also see that Li Qingning has a lot of psychological burden.

In the past, Yang Lu only needed to say "Miss, you don't want your chamber of commerce to go bankrupt, right?" to make Li Qingning put down everything at hand and listen to him. However, now, as long as it is not a major event that the sky is falling, Li Qingning can basically Just leave it to Yang Lu to make the decision, and she didn't even check it.

The extraterritorial battlefield trial is equivalent to the enhanced version of the college entrance examination in Kyushu Cultivation World. All Qi Refining Stage monks who participate in the trial have to put their lives on the line. There are actually not a few anxious "cultivation world candidates" like Li Qingning. However, seeing Li Qingning He looked very haggard every day, and Yang Lu couldn't help but feel a little distressed.

However, he also knew that it was useless to tell Li Qingning the principle of "combination of work and rest". It was as meaningless as saying "Don't be anxious" to an anxiety disorder patient. Fortunately, the Zhongzhou Sword Discussion Conference was about to be official. was held.

Leading Li Qingning to participate in the competition can not only complete the tasks assigned by Su Yuanfeng, the president of the Haiya Chamber of Commerce, but also verify the effectiveness of his eldest daughter's recent contacts, and also help his eldest daughter relax and relieve her tension.

This sword discussion conference is held at the right time!