Chapter 641 Family Expenses and Industries

"This matter can be arranged."

Eldrin nodded slightly. In recent years, the cultivation progress of the Chen Family cultivators had accelerated remarkably, and correspondingly, the resources they could obtain had also increased substantially.

With the Chen family's enterprises and shops spanning several major continents, it should in principle be sufficient to sustain 1 or 2 late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

It was only because Eldrin and Lyra had progressed too rapidly in their cultivation, that the 5 elements essence within the clan treasury remained insufficient.

Once Eldrin and Lyra broke through to Qi Refinement, Mid Stage, each would need to elevate several of their Life-Bound Magical Treasures. The amount of 5 Elements essence required for this would be an immeasurable figure.

The amount of 5 Elements essence consumed by just 10 innate spiritual treasures alone would be enough to bankrupt an ordinary Nascent Soul clan, let alone the additional expenditure required for innate divine abilities.

Over the years, the Chen Clan had accumulated a considerable amount of 5 Elements Essence. However, with several clan members advancing to the Nascent Soul realm in recent years, coupled with the substantial consumption of 5 Elements Essence in refining the 2 Polarities Treasure Lotus, their stored reserves had become insufficient.

Moreover, the reserves of spirit stones in the clan treasury were somewhat insufficient, so they had no choice but to first levy contributions of spirit stones from the clansmen.

Once he had made up his mind, Eldrin sought out Chen Changxuan and informed him of the situation.

The Old Patriarch nodded after listening, then said, "To be frank, it’s not that the clan lacks funds. However, since our promotion to a Nascent Soul Clan was relatively recent, most of the spirit stones in the clan treasury have been allocated to investments."

"Oh?"

Eldrin's eyes flickered slightly as he listened to Chen Changxuan's detailed account.

As the old clan leader recounted the tale, Eldrin came to understand the current state of the Chen family.

Having seized several fifth-tier spirit mountains and slain numerous formidable foes, the Chen Clan was, in fact, wealthy. Their ledger showed resources that ranked among the finest even among Nascent Soul clans.

However, after the Chen family ascended to become a Nascent Soul Clan, there was far too much foundational heritage to accumulate. Thus, the family’s spirit stones were primarily allocated to 3 areas.

The 3 primary investments were: clan member loans, fixed assets, and market investments.

The clan's loan program primarily provides financial assistance to clan members during their breakthroughs to the Foundation Establishment, Purple Mansion, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul stages.

From esteemed figures like Chen Changxuan, Chen Silas (Person Name) and other Nascent Soul True Monarchs, down to minor cultivators at the ninth level of Qi Refining, nearly all were encompassed within this scope.

Its primary objective is to nurture promising clan cultivators, with interest rates set remarkably low. Upon successful breakthrough, recipients are required to either serve the clan or repay the debt by earning spirit stones through various cultivation arts.

The second investment is considered fixed assets, which also constitutes the bulk of the clan's expenditures.

In just 2 100 years, the Chen Family had cultivated over 1,000 spirit mountains of varying grades across The Vast Sea (Location) and the Chen Kingdom, while also reclaiming more than 2,000,000 mu of spiritual farmland.

Just these 2 expenditures alone accounted for 40 percent of the clan's annual spending.

The Spirit Mountain's spirit fields were primarily used to cultivate spirit trees for refining treasure ships, along with various spirit fruits and medicinal herbs.

These investments would require hundreds or even thousands of years to yield returns, and most of what had matured by now were low-grade spiritual herbs.

The profits from these low-grade spirit herbs were rather meager. After deducting the stipends for the clan members in charge of cultivation, the actual earnings were quite modest.

主要的利润，还是三阶以上的中高阶灵药，这种等级的灵药已经可以作为元婴丹药的辅药，可以说是相当的赚钱了。

However, for a spiritual herb of this grade to fully mature, it would require at least 5 100 years—it was still far too early.

These spiritual mountains and fields now nurtured hundreds to thousands of fourth and fifth-tier high-grade spirit herbs, including rare treasures like the Heavenly Tribulation Flower. Yet maturing them would require several 1000 years.

Yet such investments were indispensable. After Eldrin (Person Name) broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, merely gathering the supplementary ingredients required to refine a single batch of high-grade pills demanded the collective resources of an entire continent.

The main ingredients for refining fifth-grade pills were all procured from external sources at great expense. If the spirit herb fields were not expanded soon, it might become impossible to even gather the supplementary ingredients for a single cauldron of pills, let alone the precious primary ingredients.

The old clan leader had a long-term vision, so he invested heavily in this area, with continuous annual investments. In this way, after 1 1000 years, the clan would gradually begin producing fifth-order spirit herbs.

Among these spiritual herbs, some were even key supplementary ingredients for the Soul Elixir. Even if the Chen Clan didn't use them themselves, they could later use these to establish connections with various great sacred lands.

Beyond fixed assets, there were the family's shops. Over the years, the Chen Clan had established stores across neighboring continents through acquisitions, leases, exchanges, and various other means.

To this day, the Chen Clan had established shops across 17 surrounding great provinces and 1,364 market towns.

To this end, Chen Changxuan personally traversed this dozen or so great continents, making arrangements with every major Nascent Soul immortal clan and sect. He even offered substantial benefits, which altogether amounted to no small expenditure.

These shops were established not only to sell the Chen Clan's resources, but also to procure the 5 Elements' Essence for Eldrin (Person Name).

According to Chen Changxuan's arrangement, they only needed to wait another 2 or 3 sexagenary cycles before the accumulated 5 Elements Essence from the shop's acquisitions would suffice to cover Eldrin's consumption needs after his breakthrough to Nascent Soul, Mid Stage.

It's just that Eldrin has encountered significant opportunities since breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm. Now that he has obtained the Moon God Pearl, it appears his breakthrough to Nascent Soul, Mid Stage will occur several years earlier than expected. This has caused both the family's 5 Elements essence and their stockpile of spirit stones to become somewhat insufficient.

"So that's how it is."

Eldrin (Person Name) let out a sigh. Over the years, he had devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation, paying almost no attention to the affairs of his family.

If he were to handle these matters, it would likely greatly delay his cultivation, and he might not even manage them as well as the old clan leader.

At this thought, he murmured thoughtfully, "Although the family's spirit stones are fewer than 10,000, we must not delay our clansmen's cultivation."

"In that case, those cultivators whose cultivation bases are on the verge of a breakthrough shall be temporarily exempted from the assigned quotas."

"Draw a suitable amount of the more common fifth-rank spiritual materials from the clan vault and arrange for their sale."

Chen Changxuan nodded with a smile. "I see the 8 Trigrams Treasure Tree is nearing its breakthrough. Once it ascends, my few spirit treasures will become obsolete. Since you originally gifted them to this old man, I shall now trade them for 5 Elements Essence on your behalf."

"Thank you, Elder Uncle."

Eldrin smiled faintly upon hearing this and deliberated with Chen Changxuan for a few more moments.

Considering that managing affairs would greatly delay his cultivation, he pondered for a moment before saying, "There are matters you need not handle personally. It would be better to focus more of your attention on cultivation."

"It's alright."

The old clan leader chuckled and waved his hand. "Aside from you, the only 1 I trust most in our clan is Lior. Now that Lior is preparing for his second attempt to form his Nascent Soul, I simply cannot spare the time to step away."

"Oh?"

Eldrin suddenly realized that without noticing, Lior had already lived for over 7 100 years and was not far from breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.