Chapter 312: Filthy Rich, and Fortunately, It's All Mine

With the Sun Family Ancestor gone, Qi Suian dealt with the remaining people as easily as slicing through melons.

He captured all the surviving Mages to be used as test subjects.

Then, he took inventory of the Sun Family's assets and rewarded the surviving motley crew.

The next step was to prepare for further expansion.

After receiving a reward that met their expectations, the motley crew naturally had no complaints.

The AI wasn't stingy, either, directly giving them ten percent of the Sun Family's entire fortune.

It just went to show the difference between a family that was filthy rich and the perpetually poor Jianghu Mages.

As for the remaining ninety percent, Qi Suian began to pick through it himself. He set aside some of the wealth for future development but stuffed most of the rest into the Melting Furnace.

The number of Spiritual Roots, in particular, was unbelievably high.

Not to mention the others, there were over five hundred Top-Grade Spiritual Roots alone.

At first, Qi Suian thought he had miscounted by a digit.

As for Middle-Grade and Lower-Grade, there were even more: nearly ten thousand Middle-Grade, and over a hundred thousand Lower-Grade.

He truly hadn't expected the mere Sun Family to possess so many Spiritual Roots.

But he soon found out why: they used Spiritual Roots to propagate more Spiritual Roots, which was how they ended up with so many.

Most of the Spiritual Roots were actually of repeating types; it wasn't as if every single one was unique.

Parasites, by their nature, reproduce in large numbers.

For a Mage from a Mage Family, Spiritual Roots were the one thing they never lacked while growing up. What they lacked were the resources needed to refine and nurture them.

Therefore, one of the Sun Family's main businesses in the market for Extraordinary resources was selling Spiritual Roots.

The uses for a Spiritual Root weren't limited to just refining them for power; there were other industries built around them.

The simplest was Amber Jade, which could be used as a vessel. Beyond that, other Extraordinary resources could use Spiritual Roots as a raw material.

The Sun Family's descendants, on the other hand, were a disappointment. It wasn't that they lacked Top-Grade Spiritual Roots, but that they simply couldn't refine them and were unable to break through.

If Qi Suian had come three to five months earlier, the number of Spiritual Roots would have had another digit added to it, and then been doubled.

The Sun Family had recently sold several batches of Spiritual Roots in exchange for various resources.

Otherwise, how could the massive Sun Family afford to support so many Mages?

While the profits were immense, the daily expenses were an astronomical figure to those Jianghu Mages.

Not to mention supporting a Third-Grade Mage, whose lifestyle could only be described as extravagant.

'I wonder how many times this many Spiritual Roots can evolve the Tai Sui God.'

To say nothing of the rest, these hundred-thousand-plus Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots could only increase the Tai Sui God's armor value by a single point.

Thus, he could only pin his hopes on the Middle- and Top-Grade Spiritual Roots.

"So many Spiritual Roots... collecting them is going to be a problem," Qi Suian sighed.

'I'll definitely have to pick them up myself. It's not like I have an external collection device.'

Fortunately, with the Tai Sui God's current modules and power, it wouldn't take long to process them all.

[I suggest you do not touch the Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots. The quantity is large, but the return is small. Even if you use them all as fuel, you will only increase the armor value by 1 point.]

[I suggest you focus on the Top-Grade Spiritual Roots, supplemented by the Middle-Grade Spiritual Roots.]

[The remaining Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots should be used as operational resources and assets.]

[When the time comes for the final harvest, they can all be used to their fullest extent as fuel.]

"So keep them as capital, huh? That works."

"But if you want to play the Spiritual Root market, it probably won't be that easy."

"The main customers in the Spiritual Root market are the Mage Families. Only they can absorb such a large quantity of Spiritual Roots."

"We've annihilated several Mage Families. I doubt they'll be willing to work with us," Qi Suian asked.

[Correct. They will not cooperate with the Taiping Heavenly King Warlord, but they will not refuse profit.]

[They will certainly maintain the proper attitude, but the Mage Families will not pass up on profits that are ripe for the taking.]

"I get it. The mouth says no, but the body is very honest." Qi Suian immediately understood what the AI meant.

They just wanted to save face and not have their last shred of decency torn away.

'Well, that's simple. Just don't let things that can't see the light of day see the light of day. Problem solved.'

"However, we can't be in such a hurry to give these to them."

"We need to tamper with this batch of Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots first," Qi Suian said, his eyes narrowing.

He was no good man, so he felt not a shred of psychological pressure doing this.

If he succeeded, he would have a batch of remote bombs capable of releasing a potent toxin.

Qi Suian had a decent understanding of the structure of Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots. Although their skills and forms varied, they all shared one commonality.

That was the life-symbiotic structure. This structure was the very origin of Mages and Spirit Demons.

Qi Suian just needed to target this commonality, and he could absolutely develop a biological weapon.

[I actually do not recommend you develop remote bombs.]

How could the AI not know what Qi Suian was up to? It understood him quite well.

So, it proposed an even more insidious plan.

[You can go straight to the final step and directly develop a bio-extinction virus that targets Spiritual Roots.]

[Artificially destroy all Spiritual Roots, forcing the entire Spirit Root World into a Dharma Decline Era. At that time, the resources of an entire world will be yours for the taking.]

Seeing the AI's suggestion, Qi Suian couldn't help but fall silent.

'I just want to get some resources and kill a few Mage Families. Isn't the AI being a bit too extreme? It's jumping straight to destroying all Spiritual Roots.'

After some serious thought, he said, "With my current technology, I can only target Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots at most."

"I don't know how to target Middle- and Top-Grade Spiritual Roots yet."

"Secondly, the mobility of Spiritual Roots is very poor, so the spread of a targeted extinction virus would be limited."

"Unless it spreads on a conceptual or rule-based level, the probability of success is very low."

The vast majority of Mage Families acquired Spiritual Roots to use as raw materials.

There was hardly any time between warehousing and manufacturing.

Even if there were, it would only spread in a localized area. The possibility of an outbreak causing a large-scale die-off of Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots wasn't high.

[It doesn't necessarily have to spread through Spiritual Roots. It can also spread through people.]

[By modifying the Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots, you can make them trigger a latent genetic illness in people.]

[You would then release a large number of these Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots into the wild. When people refine them, they become infected and can then spread the illness through respiratory droplets...]

The AI provided a roundabout strategy.

In the end, the target was the native population. Since it was impossible to artificially create a Dharma Decline Era, they would just usher in an era of universal chronic illness.

It would be like stepping on the gas pedal for the apocalypse.

"That's a very good plan of yours, but I'll have to wait until my hands are free."

"Besides, a hundred-thousand-plus Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots won't be enough. We should propagate more before releasing them."

"Especially since our territory has grown. We'll release them in different regions and in batches," Qi Suian added.

The AI was only responsible for coming up with ideas. The subsequent research, modifications, and so on all had to be handled by Qi Suian himself.

In this respect, the AI was still no match for Qi Suian.

After all, Qi Suian was blessed with a protagonist's halo. His immense luck allowed him to find the correct solution from countless errors in a much shorter time.

It was like the invention of the light bulb, which required a huge number of experiments and material explorations to finally arrive at the tungsten filament.

Even with sufficient knowledge, a certain amount of luck was still needed. If you were lucky enough to get it on the first try, wouldn't that be even better?

After all matters concerning the Sun Family were handled, Qi Suian finally returned to his laboratory.

He took out the decapitated Sun Family Ancestor.

"Head-Splitting Master. Too bad I'm not a follower of Guan," Qi Suian said with regret.

'Otherwise, I could grow a magnificent beard, give Fei a makeover, model my energy weapon after the Cyan Dragon Crescent Blade, and cosplay as Guan the Second Lord.'

"Who in the world are you?" The Sun Family Ancestor's head suddenly opened its eyes. Floating in a nutrient solution, it spoke using its divine soul.

Its physical body couldn't speak, so it didn't use it.

If he could survive being decapitated, speaking without physical organs wasn't a big deal.

"I am the Taiping Celestial King. Would I be the type to hide my true intentions?" Qi Suian said proudly.

This statement left the Sun Family Ancestor speechless. 'You call this *not* hiding your intentions?'

He had never once seen Qi Suian's true face. Even now, after being captured, the man was still wearing his treasured iron armor, refusing to show his face.

He even used a pseudonym, the so-called Taiping Celestial King.

The Sun Family Ancestor now suspected that the man before him was plotting something of immense scale.

"So be it. My skills were inferior," the Sun Family Ancestor said with self-deprecation. "Who would have thought that a dignified Mage from the top three grades would stoop so low as to masquerade as a mid-grade one."

"A man who can endure such humiliation would never tell me the truth."

In the Sun Family Ancestor's eyes, Qi Suian was no Fourth-Grade Mage at all.

He had to be a Third-Grade, or possibly even higher.

Otherwise, how could he have been captured so easily?

Qi Suian wore a strange expression. 'Does my protagonist's halo have a side effect that makes people overthink things?'

He really wasn't sure. After all, when he wasn't studying and researching, he was on his way to kill someone. He rarely interacted with people.

Even when he did, he usually cut them down before they could say more than a few words.

Given the Sun Family Ancestor's situation, he must be concocting all sorts of conspiracies and grand schemes in his head.

In reality, there was nothing of the sort. Qi Suian was just planning a "pig-butchering" long con to trap the Mage Families. It was simple murder and robbery; there weren't so many convoluted intentions.

"A man on the verge of death shouldn't talk so much."

"Even if you know something, don't say it. You wouldn't want to implicate your descendants," Qi Suian said, playing along.

What else was he supposed to do?

The man had already built him a staircase; all he had to do was walk down it. There was no need to correct him.

Why waste so much breath on a dead man?

"I just don't understand. Pinghu City's wealth is only relative to its surroundings. To a Mage of your status, it's nothing more than a poor, remote backwater."

"Why choose Pinghu City and the Sun Family?" In the Sun Family Ancestor's mind, everything from Sun Yuan's capture to the current situation where the guest had become the host was all part of this man's master plan.

"Because it was suitable, of course," Qi Suian said with a grin. "Anything with value will be exploited."

"If you were useless, I wouldn't have even given you a second glance."

"If you're going to blame someone, blame yourselves." Qi Suian spouted nonsense, leaving the rest for the man to fill in with his own imagination.