Chapter 345
In an instant, only the voice of Xiao Yuying, filled with laughter, could be heard: "Now, we have six!"
(End of this chapter)
**Chapter 311: Weighing Gold, Messages from the River of Heaven**
After a big score, it was time for the crucial moment of dividing the spoils.
The heroes of Jiushan sat in their designated places in the grand hall of Tiangong Island, all eyes fixed on the center of the hall.
The most eye-catching sight was the black stone that Senior Sister Zhang had brought back. It stood upright, covered in sword marks, as if it had a story to tell.
Next to the stone was a desk where Zheng Fa usually worked, and on it lay five items—
A yellow gourd and a jade tube, treasures from the Water Palace.
There were also three storage bags, one of which was stained with blood.
These belonged to the three unfortunate Yuanying cultivators…
Two of them were wise enough to surrender their treasures without a fight, and Senior Sister Zhang and the others didn’t press them further… It wasn’t out of mercy; it was just that the wooden Taoist had fled too quickly, and silencing them would have been pointless.
But the last one was a member of the Great Freedom Demon Sect… a former nemesis of Jiushan Sect.
When enemies meet, sparks fly.
Senior Sister Zhang and her companions didn’t hold back.
In total, they ended up with these three storage bags.
As for the collected building materials and other items, they were worthless and naturally excluded from the distribution.
Everyone’s gaze fell on Zheng Fa, their expressions varied, but all were waiting for him to speak.
Xiao Yuying, sitting to Zheng Fa’s left, couldn’t help but recall her earlier conversation with Madam Xuanhua:
“This archaeological project… the hardest part is actually the distribution of the treasures,” Madam Xuanhua had said to Xiao Yuying. “One misstep, and there will be resentment and discord.”
At the time, Xiao Yuying had remained silent, but she had agreed in her heart.
Madam Xuanhua continued:
“I’ve seen many cultivators enter secret realms together.”
“In my experience, those who can cooperate long-term are either family—where one’s gain is everyone’s gain—or master and disciple, where the roles are clearly defined…”
“Everyone else ends up at odds.”
Xiao Yuying understood this well:
Family members trust each other, often believing that what’s yours is mine and vice versa, so dividing the spoils is straightforward.
In master-disciple relationships, generally, the stronger takes the larger share, while the weaker gets the smaller portion, which naturally breeds discontent—yet, you are weak!
However, in the Jiushan realm, it was not so simple:
One factor was her presence as an outsider.
Another was the larger number of participants, making the division a complex issue.
Of course, Zheng Fa’s current status in Jiushan meant he could make decisions unilaterally… but human emotions were hard to gauge.
“The so-called ability to share hardship but not joy,” Madam Xuanhua’s final words left a deep impression on Xiao Yuying, “When everyone suffers, fairness doesn’t matter, but when it comes to sharing joy, achieving fairness becomes difficult!”
Xiao Yuying snapped back to the present, looking at Zheng Fa with curiosity: How would he distribute these items?
…
Zheng Fa certainly knew what everyone was waiting for.
After a moment of thought, he took out a small booklet.
Everyone could see that the cover read: “Seven Principles of Spoils Distribution.”
The hall fell silent, and everyone felt a strange sense of familiarity…
“This distribution principle was discussed and established with Senior Sister Zhang, and of course, it’s not perfect… If anyone has suggestions, feel free to voice them now,” he addressed the crowd.
Xiao Yuying suddenly understood Zheng Fa’s intention:
It was the old method—let the system speak for itself.
If the system was flawed, they could gather opinions and make adjustments.
But once a system was established, no one should violate it.
In simple terms, the goal was to reach a consensus and act accordingly.
Seeing that no one spoke, Zheng Fa opened the booklet and began to read:
“First Principle: Knowledge sharing; treasures and resources are distributed based on effort.”
He paused, glanced at the crowd, and seeing them nodding, continued:
“Second Principle: All spoils must first be submitted to the sect and cannot be kept privately.”
A strange expression crossed Xiao Yuying’s face—this principle didn’t seem to sit well with the cultivators.
After all, the Xuanwei cultivators had always had low trust in their sect.
As she listened, she began to understand why Zheng Fa had insisted on this:
“Based on the value of the spoils, project team members will receive corresponding merits.”
“All spoils will also be exchanged for merits.”
Xiao Yuying spoke softly, “Why go in circles?”
Zheng Fa had added a step of exchanging merits between the contributions of team members and the distribution of spoils.
Seeing her confusion, Zheng Fa smiled:
“There are several benefits: First, the number of spoils may not match the number of people, and even if they do, they may not correspond to the contributions of team members. Merits are more flexible.”
As soon as he said this, Xiao Yuying realized:
This was essentially the difference between bartering and using currency—more flexible and easier to value.
“Second, some spoils may be useless to us Jiushan cultivators, but recorded as merits, they can be exchanged for other things.”
Xiao Yuying nodded again, increasingly convinced that this was indeed a good approach.
Sure enough, upon hearing Zheng Fa’s explanation, the project team members looked enlightened—not only were they not dissatisfied, but they seemed to find Zheng Fa quite considerate.
Xiao Yuying pondered for a moment and asked, “How will individual merits be determined?”
“Each phase has corresponding merits.”
“Who knows what each person did in each phase? Can they just say it themselves?” Xiao Yuying inquired further.
Zheng Fa chuckled, pointing to the disciples who had used recording talismans earlier, “Didn’t we record everything?”
“…” Xiao Yuying’s eyes widened as she finally understood why Zheng Fa insisted on using recording talismans, “You did this for that?”
“Mainly to summarize experiences; this is just a bonus.”
The archaeological recordings… were primarily to preserve visual documentation, in case some details were overlooked.
But who said they couldn’t be used to assess individual contributions?
With such records, it would be clear who contributed more and who played a significant role in the project.
“You always have these strange ideas…”
After a long pause, Xiao Yuying muttered.
Once Zheng Fa finished reading the “Spoils Distribution Manual,” he asked, “Do you have any objections?”
The crowd thought for a moment and gently shook their heads.
Zheng Fa understood that it wasn’t that the manual was perfect, but this method was still relatively unfamiliar to them… It would take time to think of any issues.
As the saying goes, they could always make changes if problems arose later.
“Alright then…” Zheng Fa pulled out a list of items and said, “This is our harvest, and I’ve calculated the merits for myself and Senior Sister Zhang…”
He passed the item list around, and seeing no objections, continued:
“Now, let’s assess individual merits…”
Zheng Fa tossed out a few recording talismans, and a light screen appeared in the hall, displaying the entire archaeological process from when Senior Sister Zhang and the others set out to when they defeated that demon sect Yuanying, every detail vividly captured.
As the footage played, Senior Sister Zhang explained who did what and what role each person played.
By the end, everyone understood…
“Based on this merit distribution, do you have any objections?”
Zheng Fa noted what Senior Sister Zhang had said and calculated individual merits according to the proportions outlined in the “Distribution Principles.”
When the list was revealed, the most surprised was Mu Qingyan.
She had clearly ranked first and received the most merits!
Even Xiao Yuying was a bit taken aback—Mu Qingyan was practically the weakest member of the entire archaeological team.
But then it dawned on her: Without Mu Qingyan’s intelligence, this project would have likely failed.
As for the subsequent rankings, they were normal:
Xiao Yuying was second, Senior Sister Zhang third, with each name followed by what they had done and how many merits each task earned, detailed to the utmost.
No one had any objections… or did they?
“I have an objection!”
Mu Qingyan suddenly spoke up.
“Hmm?”
The others looked at her, puzzled… You, the first, what objection could you have?
“The sect leader leads with wisdom and is always concerned for our safety in Jiushan… shouldn’t he receive more merits?”
“…”
Looking at Mu Qingyan, who was filled with righteous indignation, everyone was speechless—no wonder you ranked first!
Zheng Fa calculated his own merits, but indeed, it wasn’t much… he felt he hadn’t done much work.
…
Xiao Yuying walked to her courtyard, took a turn, and first headed to Madam Xuanhua’s residence.
Now both were guests in Jiushan and familiar with each other, so their courtyards were adjacent.
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