The next month saw me visiting each of the seven prefectures I'd established. I was pleasantly surprised to find each of the main towns for these areas in much better shape than Xiwang had been. Each of them was being administered efficiently, the towns were in good repair, and each prefecture I had created had already established trading systems between the communities found within their borders.

Xiwang had isolated itself from the surrounding communities, something that would have to be addressed, to protect itself from prying eyes. It had focused entirely, to its detriment, on the smuggling operation Chon had been involved in. I managed to glean some ideas on how the mortals managed to trade goods across distances on the island and do so while protecting themselves from the animals and beasts that teemed within the confines of the forest.

Nothing earth-shattering or innovative, but methods easily copied at Xiwang so that it could begin creating its own trading network. Wagons that were inscribed with arrays for defense and embedded with small ballista weapons mounted on every wagon made travel possible. Moving in numbers was also an effective deterrent, and the more successful traders had established caravans that moved between towns at established intervals.

Each caravan tried to hire a cultivator as an escort, even one Body Refinement Realm cultivator, badly trained and without any access to martial techniques could make a difference. I made sure to distribute the common type of cultivation manuals and weapon techniques the Empire made available to every cultivator I came across, no matter their affiliation or realm.

I left instructions with trade consortia and town authorities that the manuals were to be given to any cultivator that needed them, and that the cultivators were to be informed they could apply to me in Xiwang if they were interested in joining my House or hoped for better manuals and techniques.

I would give uncommon Beast Tamer cultivation techniques to any cultivator who joined my House but only to those cultivators that had an affinity with the wind. Any other technique would need to be purchased, no matter if the person joined my House or not. My largess was not bottomless. I was willing to subsidize Beast Tamers because the territory needed them.

If I was going to make my Fief profitable and prosperous, I needed Beast Tamers to fly trade routes between each city. That was why I only considered cultivators with a wind affinity. That affinity could be used to increase speed when traveling using their flying beasts by creating a pseudo slipstream for their beast to fly in.

The visit to each prefecture was initiated to perform the awakening ceremony across my Fief, but I used this visit for an additional purpose. I had found, to my incredulity, that in Xiwang no banking institution existed, and that trade had devolved almost entirely to a barter system.

I needed to change that if I had any chance of collecting taxes, so had decided to form my own bank system. One that would allow every citizen to open an account and link a jade token with those new accounts. Merchants could accept payment from their individualized jade tokens directly, making buying and selling faster and easier.

Every prefecture and town that was gifted with the new bank was grateful, each ascribing motivations to my actions that simply didn't exist. I didn't create a banking system based on any feelings of altruism, I created them to facilitate the collection of tithes and taxes that were owed to the Barony. That the banks would also serve to make trading more efficient was a bonus.

It was hard to track and tax purchases and sales made using a barter system, but each bank and every jade token linked to the bank would track every time funds were exchanged between people and businesses. The process of supplying the banks with enough jade chips might have been a problem, except there was part of a mountain range that passed through my Fief. And the first of the prefectures I had visited had capable miners that had found jade deposits in those mountains.

I had purchased a large amount of jade cheaply; the miners having stockpiled an amazing amount as isolated as they were on the island. I stored enough in a spatial device to divide and distribute with each Bank I established. The miners were happy to take a loss on this first sale, realizing that as a new Baron, I would have a way to increase demand for their product.

The real problem came when I needed to find people to run the banks I was creating. This was where the difference between Xiwang and these towns became even more apparent. This problem was small and easily solved because the towns I visited had capable leaders, leaders that were aware of the talents of the citizens who lived within their borders.

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The administrators of each town made arrangements for me to interview talented people, those well versed in accounting practices or math. Even the poorest of the prefectures I had visited managed to find five people interested in working at or managing a bank. I happily installed some talented people and left behind a thousand jade stones that could be used to make tens of thousands of jade chips at each branch. I also left enough of the cores I'd seized from the warehouses of Xiwang to provide each branch working capital.

The main reason for visiting each of the prefectures had also seen a windfall of new cultivators awakened. The first six towns had been a boon for my House with seventeen cultivators opening spirit roots, most at the Cobalt tier.

Eight of those new cultivators had formed an affinity with wind and had agreed to join my House and cultivate as Beast Tamers. The other nine were a mixed bag, most gaining affinity with water, with two exceptions. A young man that gained an affinity with lava, and a young woman who gained an affinity with wood.

I recruited both of them for my House, promising them I would find a better cultivation technique for them to master, as well as martial techniques that would synergize well with their affinities.

There hadn't been anyone that awakened in those first six prefectures that interested Four Element Sect, but the last one was different. That area was the most populous of my territory and those attempting to awaken their spirit stone included almost five hundred young men and women.

Ten percent of those that had attempted to awaken their Spirit Root succeeded, and of those that had, half of them opened a Silver-tier Spirit Roots and an additional five awakened with Tin Spirit Roots. One of the young men that opened a Tin Spirit Root also opened an affinity with ice, a rare talent that if nurtured properly would allow him to become a cultivator of some promise.

His ice affinity was unlike mine. Mine was a pseudo affinity, I could only control ice because of the control I had gained over my affinities with water and wind. His affinity was real and would allow him to create attacks easier, stronger, and more effective than anything I could do.

Elder Arthit was positively salivating at finding five Tin Spirit Root cultivators. His joy only increased when each of them agreed to join Four Element Sect. Added to the twenty-five Silver tiered Spirit Root cultivators he recruited, and his first outing on the island had produced a windfall for the Sect. I was just as happy. This town had netted me an additional twenty young cultivators willing to join my banner.

"You might want to suggest to the Patriarch that Recruitment Hall should scour the rest of the island," I suggested to Elder Arthit once the last awakening ceremony was completed, and he had made arrangements to transport the new Sect members back to Four Element.

"Imagine how many other young men and women are going to miss out on this chance because no one has claimed the territory they live in yet?

"Why wait for someone to claim a Fief? It seems to me that it is in the Sect's interest to find these people quickly. If the results from my Fief are typical, then the Sect may gain almost a thousand new members immediately."

"You hope to teach the Patriarch how best to manage the island?" Elder Arthit asked in amusement.

"Don't worry Sect Sister, the Patriarch has already made plans much along the lines you suggested. Contribution Hall has offered the same missions that you placed, asking members to spread out and contact every settlement of any size around the island.

"Once we have gathered enough intelligence to see where population density is the greatest, we will host awakening fairs. All-inclusive fairs where Sect members can also set up booths to sell goods or services."

"Do you think the Sect would allow me to participate?" I asked.

"So that you can scoop up more of the cultivators that the Sect has no use for?" He asked, his understanding of my goals not surprising. "How many new House members are you planning on recruiting?"

"As many as I can that have an affinity with wind and are willing to cultivate as a Beast Tamer," I answered honestly.

"I've noticed your obsession with that pairing," he replied, "I wonder why, though? What do you hope to accomplish with so many Beast Tamers?"

"The same thing the Sect should be working towards," I admitted. "The island is vast. Not as large as the Empire, but it will still take days to fly end to end.

"Missives work to stay connected, but they have a problem when events require faster response time than messages being sent back and forth can provide. I want enough Beast Tamers flying the skies between towns and villages to alleviate that problem. As well as an army of Beast Tamers that patrol the area and report strange occurrences or issues that may be forming while they can be dealt with easily.

"If a Beast Tamer spots the beginning of a Beast Tide, that report could allow the Sect to act and stop the tide before it reaches the wall of a town.

"I want to use the Beast Tamers to offer transportation for goods and services, transportation for bureaucrats, and more importantly as the eyes through my territory so that issues might be spotted and I can deal with them before they become problematic."