Immortal Only Accepts Female Disciples

Chapter 206: Side Story: Matchmaking (III)

Moonlight City's transformation progressed steadily under the leadership of the House of Paradise and crown prince Mingyue Jian. All political power was consolidated and this allowed them to carry out a unified and coherent plan. The ten directors of the House of Paradise met with the crown prince constantly to update each other on the progress of projects and discuss solutions to thorny problems. This was also an opportunity for both sides to befriend and understand each other and see if there was a suitable match for marriage!

Mo Yanmi was good at logistics and finance and handled the merging of all other brothels into the House of Paradise. She, along with Liu Ling and Chen Wangyin, were responsible for going to each brothel and implementing reforms and new sets of rules. This sometimes required assistance from the royal guards and Mingyue Jian often showed up to lead the troops.

Each brothel had to turn all their workers into formal employees that receive the same benefits as those in the House of Paradise. Most of the money came out of the reluctant owner's pockets. Some places did not have the funds to support such a change. After a detailed audit of all finances, if there was no other choice, Mingyue Jian had to open up the royal treasury and support them.

From these actions, the three women improved their people skills as well as showed off their attention to detail and financial savvy. They were difficult to swindle, drove hard bargains, and never backed down from arguments. These were all important traits to have in a queen that would become a future political force.

Huang Ruyan led Yuan Qiaochu and Tang Mingtian to take care of handling those factions that still resisted. These included disgruntled nobles and lords that had the most to lose as well as the entire slave trade business.

Many of the richest brothel owners tried to defect to the neighboring Golden Yu Dynasty and take their wealth with them. This absolutely could not be allowed and those that were caught had their entire families thrown in jail and all their assets seized. If they had stayed, perhaps they would have still lost all their money but they could have kept their lives.

The slave trade involved not just businesses within the city but vast networks of kidnapping gangs spread across Dragon Flower and the neighboring provinces. News of reforms within the city soon spread out and these gangs no longer visited the city out of fear of being captured and executed.

Since kidnapping was no longer profitable, they resorted robbery, extorsion, and even taking over whole villages to act as local warlords. Fighting against these forces required Bright Moon Kingdom's military that had not seen serious action in decades. Huang Ruyan, Yuan Qiaochu, and Tang Mingtian did not shy away from the fighting and followed the kingdom's generals out onto the field and into battle.

They performed exceptionally well in many battles against the gangs and subjugated large swaths of land, bringing lasting peace to the land. Their traits of bravery, righteousness, and resolve were desirable to Mingyue Jian as well. Through many campaigns, they became hardened and experienced leaders. As queen, any one of them would be well liked and respected for her will and strength.

Qin Yan was older and not as ambitious or excitable as Mo Yanmi or Huang Ruyan. She took care of sect matters with Zhang Lili, Wang Yuyan, and Xie Yunxi. As more and more brothels fell under their control, they had to deal with the victims of s.e.x.u.a.l abuse and human trafficking. They organized financial restitution for these women as well as safe travel back to their home towns and villages. Those that chose to stay were absorbed into the House of Paradise and taught the values that Lin Qingcheng espoused.

As the ordinary members of the House of Paradise grew, the four directors were also responsible for recruiting new members into the sect proper. They took their madam's words seriously and looked for the ones that had the desire to improve as well as innate talent.

More and more disciples joined their ranks and it became an even tougher job to keep track of everything. There were now over a thousand official disciples and the number was still growing. Each new disciple needed to be taught as well as given resources.

Qin Yan and other three helped transform the sect's operation to streamline management. The disciples were formed into squads of ten and cohorts of fifty. Each squad had a leader and each cohort had manager. Each squad was responsible for supporting each other in practicing the basic martial arts and cultivation manuals. Each cohort was responsible for distributing resources and assessing their members for progress. Those that were deemed talents in each cohort were pulled out and promoted to a separate rank for further development.

All of this was incredibly impressive. Although there were many hiccups and problems with planning and implementing such changes, the overall goal was still achieved and helped the sect grow from a few hundred to the thousands. Mingyue Jian was equally impressed by them as the others. Organization, management, and innovation were all important for the kingdom and skills rarely seen in a queen.

All ten of Lin Qingcheng's directors were hardworking and diligent and carried out their tasks wonderfully. There was a sense of comradery among them as well competition. They were working together for the future of the House of Paradise but they were also trying to see who among them would be able to keep up with the growth of the sect and who would be left behind.

The dilemma was that all of them refused to take the easy road. They all stepped up to the challenge!

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Lin Qingcheng sat at table and studied the stack of papers in front of her. They were reports from Bright Moon Kingdom and included everything she wanted to know and even more she didn't care about.

Her head hurt as she struggled through the endless pages. What worried her most was not progress and performance but a stack of twenty pages at was different from the rest.

These contained one page that Mingyue Jian wrote for each of her directors as well as one page each that the directors wrote about him. They all followed her commands and put down what they truly felt into words. It was her way of finding out if there was a suitable match among her directors.

Mingyue Jian was diligent and filled each page with many words. The man liked to beat around the bush a lot but his ultimate intention towards each woman was clear. On three of the pages, he left the stamp of a bright red rose. The reports from opposite side were less verbose but five of them also had red roses.

This was quite surprising. Lin Qingcheng did not expect that so many of her disciples were interested in the crown prince. She was hoping that there would be a single clear match but there were now three 'matches' with both sides indicating their interest.

"Master?" She said.

"Huh?" Chen Wentian answered from the bed.

Lin Qingcheng took the six special reports and crawled onto the bed. She laid down next to Chen Wentian and gave him the papers. She snuggled into his chest while he read them.

"Hmm Qin Yan, Chen Wangyin, Yuan Qiaochu? Are you having trouble deciding between the three?"

She mumbled her assent.

He chuckled, "One woman from each group, this crafty crown prince likes to hedge his bets. I bet you that there is one among the three that he likes the best but he's just being coy. However, it's also important to see if any of these three women like prince the most Chengcheng, you want them to be happy, right?"

"Of course."

"Then let the three of them go on some private dates with the prince."

"Dates? How should they date." She asked, confused.

"Let's see something romantic, something exciting, something where they can bond with each other." He said, "The first one, they can have a private dinner party at the royal palace. The second can be romantic getaway to another province, perhaps Blazing Mountain, Glacier, and Cloudy Mountain. The third would be visiting each woman's family. With three dates each, hopefully they can all come to a conclusion."

Lin Qingcheng nodded in understanding before climbing on top of Chen Wentian with playful smile. She leaned down and nibbled at his bare chest while sending her hands down towards what she wanted.

"Master where is my romantic getaway?"