Thinking of this, Lin Ming shook his head and ruefully smiled. “I joined the Crown Prince as one of his subordinates, and still haven’t done a single thing, yet I actually want to make a sudden demand to find such a large amount of materials. And these precious and rare materials can’t even be found in the city. Even if they were the relatively basic materials that I need, the Crown Prince would not be able to purchase them easily.”
Lin Ming knew that the Crown Prince was not wealthy. Even though the Crown Prince’s palace looked opulent and grand; the palace had to hire several hundred people and pay them for their work. There were also several other expenses. In addition to the banquet, the Crown Prince gave gifts, rewards, and other such expenditures in order to win over others and raise his own influence. The annual amount of money that he spent was probably around 2 to 300,000 gold taels.
For instance, when the Crown Prince had given Lin Ming a gift of more than 100 pure true essence stones, the cost of that had been several tens of thousands of gold tales. The manor that was situated near Sky Fortune City along with 100 acres of fertile farmland, servants, maids, and so forth would cost at least 100,000 gold taels. In addition, there was also the Purple Gold Flexible Armor; added up altogether, it must have been more than 300,000 gold taels!
Because the large expenditures, the economic situation of the Crown Prince might even be inferior to those famous inscription masters that had been working a long time. For example, Muyi, Wang Xuanji, and those kinds of people; they had a high income, and their spending was low. After amassing money for many years, they were overflowing with riches.
The Crown Prince used a very large amount of money. Depending on just his salary from the government, this would be utterly inadequate. The Crown Prince’s income mostly came from his estate, farms, and also stores.
The estate and paddies were things like the manor that had been bestowed upon Lin Ming. But as for shops, Lin Ming actually knew that the Crown Prince didn’t have many. This was because the biggest and busiest shops of Sky Fortune City were firmly grasped in the hands of the Allied Trade Association.
Compared to the Tenth Prince who constantly campaigned in all directions and plundered countless lands, the Crown Prince was very poor. Because he was poor, he could not win over others, and thus the Crown Prince’s influence was suppressed by the Tenth Prince.
“The cost of the all the gifts that the Crown Prince gifted me should total to around 300,000 gold taels. For the Crown Prince to suddenly hand so much over to me, he probably doesn’t have much money on hand at the moment. I just received so many gifts, yet now I also want materials; it just isn’t too appropriate. However, I have to ask for these materials; otherwise I will never be able to collect them on my own. Originally, finding the materials for the medicinal inscription symbol already took a very big effort on my part, and this body inscription symbol’s materials are much more precious. I just don’t have any way left but to ask the Crown Prince to help me find them. As for the money, I will find a solution… but first I should return the manor to the Crown Prince…”
“With the two body inscription symbols, the Essence Gathering Symbol and the Strife Seal, in addition to my ethereal martial intent, ‘Flow like Silk’ ability, and the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’, I will have the confidence to face Zhang Guanyu four months from now. But I’m not sure if I can reach Ling Sen in 6 months. This Ling Sen, the stronger I am, the more I can sense just how terrifying he actually is…”
“But provided that the Crown Prince can help me find the materials I need for the inscription symbol, there are certain materials I listed that might only be found in a sect. With just the Crown Prince’s connections, how many would I be able to find?”
…
Inscription Association, Inscription Hall –
Lin Ming had just stepped into the Inscription Association and was immediately discovered by the young reception lady who had received him last time. The young lady’s eyes lit up, and she immediately put down the task she had been working on. She quickly walked over to Lin Ming, her breath somewhat rapid.
These days, there were many people in Sky Fortune City that knew the name Lin Ming. But although they were able to recognize Lin Ming’s name, and they didn’t know what he looked like. However, this young reception lady had once been responsible for Lin Ming’s inscription master examination and had his information. The Inscription Association of course knew that the dazzlingly bright star of Sky Fortune City and the number one genius of the Seven Profound Martial House was exactly the young man who had participated in the inscription master examination.
This was an amazing character!