Chapter 106. Rank 8 [6]
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
With the banquet concluded and the guests having long since departed, the Lin Estate gradually returned to its usual tranquility.
Inside his courtyard, Lin Xuan sat behind his desk as he unfolded a freshly delivered letter.
His eyes calmly scanned its contents before a faint frown appeared on his face.
The Xu Family of Southwatch City had sent an official notice.
Its contents were remarkably simple.
The Lin Family was to begin paying taxes to the Xu Family immediately.
Failure to comply would be regarded as a declaration of war.
Lin Xuan placed the letter on the table and gently tapped the wooden surface with his fingers.
"What exactly gave them the confidence to make such a demand?"
he muttered to himself.
The taxation system among ranked clans was nothing unusual.
Now that the Lin Family had officially become a Rank Eight clan, both the Zhao Family and the Huang Family of Azure Willow City were obligated to pay thirty percent of their income as taxes every year.
Thirty percent was undoubtedly an enormous amount.
However, very little of it would actually remain within the Lin Family.
I’d rewrite that section like this to clearly explain the hierarchy:
The taxation system among ranked clans was straightforward.
Before the Lin Family’s promotion, the Lin Family, Zhao Family, and Huang Family all paid thirty percent of their annual income to the Shangguan Family.
However, once the Lin Family advanced to a Rank Eight clan, the hierarchy changed.
The Zhao Family and Huang Family no longer paid their taxes directly to the Shangguan Family. Instead, their thirty percent tax was redirected to the Lin Family.
Naturally, the Lin Family couldn’t keep the entire amount.
Under the kingdom’s system, they were required to remit twenty-five percent of that income upward to the Shangguan Family, retaining only the remaining five percent for themselves.
In other words, the Shangguan Family’s tax revenue from Azure Willow City had effectively been reduced from thirty percent to twenty-five percent.
It was precisely because of arrangements like this that many higher-ranked clans disliked seeing their subordinate clans advance in rank.
Every promotion meant a smaller share of taxes flowing into their own treasury.
Fortunately, Lin Zhaoyue had displayed astonishing foresight.
During the negotiations following the reconciliation between the two families, she had secured a signed agreement exempting the Lin Family from paying taxes to the Shangguan Family for the next ten years.
That single document had saved the clan an immeasurable amount of wealth.
As a result, the Shangguan Family would receive nothing from the Lin Family during that period.
Even so, they were still obligated to pay twenty percent of their own income to the Royal Palace each year.
In effect, the Shangguan Family would have to shoulder that burden entirely out of their own treasury for the next decade.
Unfortunately, it had also created another problem.
With the Shangguan Family temporarily stepping aside, the Xu Family had evidently decided to insert itself into the equation.
Lin Xuan’s gaze shifted toward the table beside him.
Bottle after bottle of pills rested neatly upon its surface.
Over the past several days, he had refined every batch of herbs available to him.
Unfortunately, not a single batch had produced another Pill Cloud.
It seemed his first success had indeed been the result of extraordinary luck.
Lin Xuan leaned back in his chair.
If he wished, he could simply use a bottle of Pure Quality Golden Core Pills and get the Shangguan Family to intervene on the Lin Family’s behalf.
However, he had already announced during the end of the banquet that the wandering grandmaster alchemist responsible for refining those pills had departed after producing the final four bottles.
One had been presented to the royal envoy while the remaining three had been sold at auction.
Producing more now would only invite unnecessary suspicion.
Besides, Southwatch City was far enough away that the Xu Family posed no immediate threat.
Between the two cities stretched endless mountain ranges and treacherous rocky terrain that made direct travel exceedingly difficult.
Any large force marching from Southwatch City would almost certainly choose the established trade route.
They would first travel to Blue River City before advancing toward Azure Willow City.
That journey alone would take considerable time.
More importantly, Lin Xuan wasn’t particularly worried.
The true dividing line between a Rank Seven clan and a Rank Six clan was simple.
A Rank Six clan possessed a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator while a Rank Seven clan did not.
Now that he had successfully broken through, the Lin Family already possessed the qualifications of a Rank Six clan.
Its official title of Rank Eight simply hadn’t caught up with its actual strength.
If he truly wanted to, he could immediately apply for promotion.
Doing so would place the Lin Family above both the Shangguan Family and the Xu Family.
Instead of paying taxes to them, they would likely become the ones paying taxes to the Lin Family.
The Lin Family, in turn, would only need to contribute a small portion of its income directly to the royal family.
It was undoubtedly an enticing prospect.
Yet Lin Xuan didn’t do so.
The benefits were obvious so were the risks.
The Lin Family’s current strength rested almost entirely upon him alone.
If he were to disappear tomorrow, the clan wouldn’t merely lose its qualifications as a Rank Six clan.
It would barely possess the strength to remain a Rank Eight clan.
More importantly, becoming a Rank Six clan meant far more than having a single Nascent Soul cultivator.
Its overall foundation had to match its status.
A Rank Six clan whose elders were only in the Qi Refinement Realm would become the laughingstock of the entire kingdom.
After all, even Rank Seven clans had Golden Core experts serving as their elders.
How could a mere Qi Refinement cultivator possibly command the respect of a Golden Core expert?
Cultivators revered strength above all else.
Asking the strong to take orders from the weak would only breed resentment.
Until the Lin Family produced enough powerful cultivators to support its new status, advancing too quickly would only expose its weaknesses to the world.
Just then, hurried footsteps echoed from outside the courtyard.
"Father! Father! I’m here!"
Lin Xuan smiled faintly as he set the letter aside and looked toward the entrance.
Lin Zhaoyue skipped into the room with her usual bright smile, while Lin Zhaoxi followed close behind her.
The two girls greeted him almost in unison.
"Father!"
"Uncle."