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“It’s different. These past two days, I’ve been eating vegetarian food, eating a vegetarian diet, and eating a lot of fruit. Maybe what comes out will be sweet,” Ronan explained.
Martial arts schools, academies, Buddhist temples, and Taoist temples are the most important gathering places for extraordinary folk forces in the area. Ronan had already visited the martial arts schools and academies, and a couple of days ago he went to the Buddhist temple and the Taoist temple, where he ate vegetarian food for one day and then vegetarian food for another.
"Is that so?" Zhao Yingqi was hearing this for the first time.
“Absolutely true,” Ronan assured him.
Zhao Yingqi stared at Ronan with a fierce yet adorable expression. "If you lie to me, I'll bite this thing off. Anyway, you can regenerate." After saying that, Zhao Yingqi grabbed the familiar, huge penis with one hand, leaned in, opened his mouth, and began to lick it.
Ronan really liked looking at Zhao Yingqi. She was far from being a stunning beauty. She had an oval face, slightly light and thick eyebrows, almond-shaped double eyelids that smiled when she laughed, a low nose bridge, a slightly fleshy nose tip, and lips that were neither thin nor thick, with the upper lip slightly upturned. She gave off the feeling of a carefree, cheerful girl next door.
When Ronan was playing with Zhao Yingqi, he always felt a strange pleasure, like a middle-aged bad uncle messing with his rich and beautiful daughter's innocent classmate, especially when he saw her giving him oral sex.
After struggling for a while, Zhao Yingqi spat it out, saying, "My mouth is sore, why aren't you coming out yet?"
"Forget it, let's just get straight to it." Ronan leaned down and pressed down on him.
"Be gentle, it's been a while since I've done this," Zhao Yingqi said, as Ronan entered her. "Mmm, ah," she groaned, her hands unconsciously wrapping around Ronan, her legs tightly entwining his waist. All the folds in her vaginal walls were smoothed out by the massive object, and a long-lost feeling of fullness returned, accompanied by pain. But the pain was instantly overwhelmed by an immense, dizzying pleasure.
Ronan looked down at Zhao Yingqi, who was like a white tiger, and felt a kind of defiled and destructive pleasure as he watched himself enter and exit her.
Having already gotten into the zone, Zhao Yingqi, who was constantly making "uh-huh" sounds, once again caught Ronan staring at her there and shouted sternly, "Don't look there!"
"Fine, I won't look then." As Ronan spoke, he suddenly launched a sneak attack, giving Zhao Yingqi a hard thrust into his clitoris.
"Ouch, uh." Zhao Yingqi squeezed his eyes shut in pain.
Ronan stopped what he was doing and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, it's my fault."
Zhao Yingqi spread her legs, a hint of reproach flashing across her face, followed by a look of happiness. "Hmph, I know it was my fault. I shouldn't have lied to you that I had already mastered it." Before, when Ronan asked her how her semi-fusion training was going, Yang Nian, a little brat, had already mastered it, so of course she had to. That's why she lied, and Ronan thought her body had undergone a major change, but it turned out there was no change at all.
Chapter 808 After finishing this, let's get down to business: cultivation methods and unification. Hopefully, everyone is alright.
Zhao Yingqi wasn't a very resilient person either. Ronan didn't last long before he pulled away, stood up, and ejaculated into her mouth.
However, Zhao Yingqi was not very experienced in swallowing, and Luo Nan ejaculated a lot and forcefully, so she choked directly, coughing and spitting out thick semen and saliva, which splashed all over her body and the bed, even getting a lot of it on her stockings.
Ronan couldn't help but laugh, and she angrily held him down and started hitting him.
After the two played around for a while, Ronan, while still caressing her, inquired about serious matters, "How is the recruitment of maids for Madam Zhao going?"
The term "maid" does not refer to ordinary people who serve others, but rather to talented young girls.
All of this was because Ronan foresaw an upheaval in Seris, followed by a cataclysmic upheaval in about ten years. Therefore, he planned to stay in Foshan during this period and develop farming.
Ronan was unaware that the major events to come would be far greater than he had imagined or anticipated.
After all, even the smartest person can only make predictions based on the information they have.
Now, Ronan only knows that he is missing one thing: a reliable person who can act as his eyes and ears.
As a foreigner, he was inherently very different from Seris, so he could only be trained, and not in his own name.
A child who is seven or eight years old and has talent can be put to use after another seven or eight years of training.
The person in charge of this matter was naturally Zhao Yingqi, who had a very good relationship with Madam Zhao.
Of course, the actual person in charge was not her, but Alice, who had extensive experience in surveillance, and Ashley, the former head of the secret service. The real mentors were Ronan's good daughter, the theoretical master Astrid, and Falek, whose magic was extremely special and who was able to create his own cultivation method.
Why recruit girls?
Like in the West, in Seris, there are still poor people willing to lend money to gamble on their sons who have shown magical fluctuations, even if they are not necessarily talented. On the other hand, there are wealthy families willing to take in sons of truly poor people, so poor that no one would easily lend them money. Even if they fail, they can still be considered laborers, which is affordable.
Therefore, the vast majority of talented people who did not have the opportunity to go to school were women.
It's not about discriminating against women, but rather that men can have a bunch of women and have a bunch of children in no time, while women can also have a bunch of men, but no matter what, they still need to be pregnant for more than half a year before giving birth to one.
Why don't wealthy families accept girls? The answer is limited educational resources.
Seris has more extraordinary educational resources than the West, even surpassing the Kingdom of Phos, which Ronan reformed for decades. However, the proportion of extraordinary individuals receiving education in Seris is only slightly higher.
Because their cultivation method requires personal guidance from a teacher, some profound things must be explained by the teacher, and they also need to learn some scriptures and great principles, and have a certain kind of "true faith" in order to successfully complete the integration of cultivation methods, which makes the educational resources required per person greater.
In the West, the secret methods of summoning are passed down by scholars, while the elemental methods are learned through a combination of theory and self-study. The divine oath is usually taught in the church, and what is taught and learned carefully is actually only the basic part.
"Ronan, why do you think Seris went through all this trouble?"
Zhao Yingqi suddenly asked a question with emotion.
The native Seres people would not ask such a question, because it has always been so. Zhao Yingqi, on the other hand, is a person who came from the West, has seen all kinds of civilizations and cultivation methods, and is very knowledgeable.
"Because the Seres people have integrated their thoughts into their cultivation methods. They share the same cultivation methods and the same set of ideas, and the extraordinary individuals also share the same set of ideas. This nation shares the same ideology and culture, which is the foundation of the Seres' unification."
Ronan replied.
Before the unification, when Seris still had many truly feudal vassal states, the same cultivation method was already part of "rites". These states may have different cultures, but they identified with the same civilization. This is the reason why the later unification and the unification of culture further solidified this point.
All I can say is that this "Duke of Zhou" of the extraordinary world is truly a saint among saints.
Even if he came to this world from another advanced civilization and founded a special monotheistic religion with many secular elements, which later became the Seven Saints Religion, he was still far inferior to the native "Duke of Zhou".
"Get to the point, how's the recruitment going?" Ronan brought the conversation back to the main topic.
“We recruited fifteen girls,” Zhao Yingqi said. “Of these fifteen, only seven or eight may be able to bring out their talents. In the next few years, we can recruit a few more each year, but the limit is about twenty per year. Firstly, we can’t recruit more, and secondly, we can only afford this many.”
The burden is not money, but the number of teachers.
"This number is enough. In a few years, we will have about a hundred young girls with extraordinary powers working for us, acting as our eyes and ears."
This series of actions was merely a minor, unimportant move by Ronan.
There's not much to do this winter; we'll have to wait until next spring when Liu Menglong comes back.
"Do you think he can come back?" Zhao Yingqi suddenly murmured.
“Of course he can come back. Factional struggles, even if there’s bloodshed, even if some accidents happen and more people die, it won’t be his turn,” Ronan said.
Liu Menglong was a fifth-rank official, far from the center of power. He came from a prominent family and belonged to a marginal faction that had nothing to do with military power. In other words, he was a pro-peace faction among the southerners. At present, the northern landlords and army pro-peace faction and the southern merchants and navy pro-war faction were fighting each other, so they couldn't be taken care of for the time being.
"Oh, then maybe he'll be transferred," Zhao Yingqi said, sounding somewhat reluctant.
"What, you don't want to separate from Madam Zhao?" Ronan asked.
Zhao Yingqi nodded, "She's like a younger sister to me."
“You’re the one who’s like a younger sister. She’s five years younger than you, but she’s much more mature,” Ronan said. Putting aside her role as a mother, Madam Zhao gave off a gentle and virtuous vibe, while Zhao Yingqi was just a big kid who hadn’t grown up.
"Ha, Ronan, you know more than I do? Don't forget, she's another me. Some things are the same. She also ran away from home when she was seven, but she didn't experience the same things as me. She was even given a severe lesson and then spent the next few years studying behind closed doors. You said that the more you suppress certain thoughts, the stronger they become."
Zhao Yingqi himself would never say that he was rebellious and liked to pursue things that transgressed etiquette, but instead used "certain ideas" to replace it.
"Sigh, I hope Brother Liu will return safely and that he won't be transferred anytime soon," Ronan said.
Although Liu Menglong and he had disagreements, they were still friends. Moreover, Liu Menglong was not someone who was truly passionate about power and wanted to control everything, so they could still coexist. But if it were someone else, it might not be the same. Although the other party was likely a corrupt official who strongly agreed with Ronan's methods, he probably couldn't tolerate Ronan's existence.
This would inevitably lead to conflict, and he would no longer be Master Luo, but would become like Master Luo before Chen Zuolin.
Ronan preferred being a clerk to being a master who could become an adversary at any time.
Chapter 809 Eating beef is all about money; money makes things easier.
In Foshan, it's October, the weather has finally cooled down, and it's stocking season. It should be a happy time, but something happened that made Ronan very unhappy.
Three engineers were arrested. Two of them were recruited by Ronan through Isabel from the free trade zone in India. One of them was a Weylander with extensive experience in coal and iron smelting, the other was a former Rhineman who was now French and an expert in coal handling, and the third was from the Ship Country who was very skilled in casting.
The three people's charges are not fighting and assault, or humiliating women. If they were, it would be easier to handle. They could settle the matter privately if possible, and if not, the plaintiff would become the defendant.
The three men were charged with coercing the killing of cattle.
Foshan is a place with developed industry and commerce, and many people who love good food. The cattle here are eaten in abundance, including many draft cattle.
The law prohibiting the private slaughter of cattle is practically ineffective, provided you are not caught in the act and reported; otherwise, it is a serious crime.
At this time, the Davidic dynasty, which ruled Seres, did not practice extraterritoriality, nor did it consider international impact. Foreigners who broke the law were punished just like everyone else.
Ronan inquired about the details.
The three engineers weren't reckless people; they'd been at Seris for quite some time, and they knew a lot about things.
The one from the Ship Country didn't care. He was from the Ship Country and thought everything tasted good. He didn't mind eating pork every day. The other two were different. Before, in India, they could eat beef as much as they wanted, which was more enjoyable than when they were in their hometown. When they came to Seres, it was good at first because the food here was really better than in India. But after not eating beef for several months, they really missed it.
Initially, they planned to buy beef from the Muslims.
Islam has been established here for hundreds of years, and there are many Islamists in Guangdong, including several thousand in Foshan, where there are also several mosques.
Although they were forbidden from preaching to outsiders at will, their beliefs and customs were not interfered with, and a piece of land was even specially designated for them to raise cattle and sheep.
Many local Seres people who enjoy eating beef buy beef from the Tianfang Church.
But the Sheikhs wouldn't sell to these heretics.
They claim it's for religious reasons, but it's actually for business reasons.
More than a hundred years have passed since the opening of new sea routes. In the beginning, the Islamic religion still held a dominant position, whether it was the Suleimanian Navy in the Mediterranean or the Arab Navy in the East. However, in the last one or two decades, the situation has changed. The West has risen strongly, and the Islamic merchants have become increasingly worse off.
Matters concerning God and the Father can be discussed.
Can we discuss the money?
Not only did they refuse to sell, they also kept a close eye on the Westerners, seizing any opportunity to launch a two-pronged attack of arresting and suing them.
If that were all, it wouldn't be too difficult, since the officialdom in Foshan has basically already boarded Luo Nan's pirate ship.
The crucial point is that the Yimin Division can intervene in this matter.
In short, foreigners are still foreigners. Theoretically, Ronan should be under their jurisdiction, but they obviously can't really control Ronan.
Yuan Fanghe, the official in charge of the Yimin Division, was at odds with Luo Nan.
This time, Luo Nan personally cooked a meal for Yuan Fanghe.
Ronan brought a plate of sliced poached chicken to the table. "Here, Lord Yuan, have some chicken."
White-cut chicken is ubiquitous in this world and this era, but Ronan's method is rare because ice is hard to come by in this era, while Ronan can easily obtain ice, adding an extra step of soaking the chicken in ice water during preparation.
The skin of the poached chicken is golden and crispy. Ronan uses capons, which have a distinct layer of jelly-like chicken fat in the middle. The meat is not tender because the chicken is relatively old, but not that old because the bones are still slightly bloody after cooking.
The dipping sauce is extremely simple, consisting only of soy sauce.
Yuan Fanghe picked up a piece and ate it without dipping it in soy sauce. Before he even swallowed it, he exclaimed, "Delicious! The chicken tastes like chicken, and even the bones are flavorful. I never imagined that you, Master Luo, a foreigner, would be so skilled in cooking, not in words."
"Ha, Lord Yuan, you flatter me," Ronan said modestly. "Try the beef offal again."
Yuan Fanghe tasted it and said, "I've heard that even Western nobles don't eat this. I never imagined that Master Luo would know how to make it."
“I’ll still eat, and besides, I’m not of noble birth,” Ronan said.
“Not necessarily. Mr. Luo comes from a wealthy family, otherwise he wouldn’t have become a clerk in the county government as soon as he entered officialdom,” Yuan Fanghe said. At this time, the upper echelons of Foshan already knew Luo Nan’s true identity, but no one would expose this and make everyone feel awkward. They even learned about Luo Nan’s life experience through some foreigners.
There's no way around it, Ronan is just that famous in the West. Western history writing is terrible, but they write biographies of famous people in a very formulaic way. In the understanding of people like Yuan Fanghe from Seres, Ronan's starting position as the secretary of Wright City was just a county clerk, and Ronan was considered to have a powerful family background.
“If you think so, then so be it.” Ronan didn’t deny it and went straight to the point, “Lord Yuan, name your terms.”
Yuan Fanghe didn't speak directly, but instead started talking about himself, "My background is much worse. I'm the son of a farmer and worked as a page. Fortunately, my master took pity on me and allowed me to take the imperial examination. Later, I passed the examination and became a Jinshi, but unfortunately, my ranking was not good and no one took care of me. I was assigned to a poor and remote place. Over the years, I have made some contributions, but I have not been able to get promoted. I have wasted half my life and am still only a seventh-rank official."
"When we first met, my behavior was simple: I just wanted to stand out."
His tone was calm, but you could still hear the bitterness in his voice. A person who had been an official for many years and had political achievements could only act as a pawn for some young officials who had no connections, and actively provoke the new superiors in the hope of getting promoted later.
“Lord Yuan, you don’t seem like a careerist,” Ronan said. At first, he thought Yuan Fanghe was a careerist with a muddled mind, but a year later, he felt that he wasn’t.
"The nation is in decline, and I just want to do my part," Yuan Fanghe said in a very soft voice. He knew that he was of low rank and power, and he couldn't even raise his voice to express his aspirations.
Ronan added, "Then don't think about getting promoted for now. Once everything settles down, I can help you with the arrangements."
With turmoil imminent, seeking help might mean losing him by then. However, once the turmoil subsides, many positions will become available, offering ample room for maneuver. Yuan Fanghe certainly understands this. If he doesn't, he's not qualified to be bribed by Ronan; it would be better to find a way to get rid of him and replace him with someone else.
"Are you sure you can do it?" Yuan Fanghe questioned.
"Money can do a lot of things," Ronan replied with just that.
There are many things in this world that money can hardly buy, such as improving one's cultivation. However, most people in officialdom have given up hope of reaching the top; wealth is an important pursuit for them.
Yuan Fanghe couldn't help but sigh. It took him many years to let go of his stubbornness and choose to become a corrupt official. But the problem was, he still didn't have enough money. Money, on the other hand, was very easy for Luo Nan, so easy that it could help him get promoted.
"There's one more condition: I want to take care of my youngest son," Yuan Fanghe added.
“No problem,” Ronan readily agreed.
Now that the Foshan officialdom has been completely taken over, when Liu Menglong returns, his advisor Luo will still be in control.
Chapter 810 On the Road: Unfair and Uneasy
In October, after months of preparation, the grand procession carrying out the sacrificial ceremony to Heaven departed from the capital and headed south to Luoyang.
To arrive before the winter solstice in late December, and considering the 700-800 kilometer journey from Beijing to Luoyang, and that this group of nearly 20,000 people couldn't travel quickly—a large group of powerful officials were among them—traveling slowly would be disgraceful and cost both money and time.
Therefore, we need to set off in October.