The 30th year of the Jingtai reign of the Ming Dynasty.
The capital city, the Prince Dingguo's residence.
"Your Highness, wake up! The Ministry of Rites is at the door, saying they want to take back the 'Imperial Wine Power' of our residence. This is our last source of income!"
The urgent shouts pierced Wang Fa's head like a drill. He abruptly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was an old, wrinkled face, pacing around his bedside with a sob in its voice.
Wang Fa was completely dazed.
His last memory was of staying up for three consecutive nights revising that damned PowerPoint presentation. A sharp pain shot through his heart, and then darkness enveloped him.
"Am I... filming in Hengdian?"
He sat up, looking around. A rosewood canopy bed, a screen embroidered with qilin, and a faint scent of ambergris in the air. The quality, the cost—if the Hengdian film crew could afford to rent a place like this, the director would be going to accept an Oscar long ago.
A flood of complex memories exploded, forcibly filling his hippocampus.
This was the Ming Dynasty, but not the Ming Dynasty of his textbooks. It was a world where martial arts flourished; the strong could split mountains and rivers, while the weak could scale walls.
And his current identity was Wang Fa, the only son of Wang Qintian, the only non-royal prince and a first-class pillar of the state.
His name was grand, but in the capital's elite circles, he was a joke.
"Young Master?" The old steward, Wang Fugui, seeing him lost in thought, mustered his courage and nudged him. "If this drinking privilege is taken back, the hundreds of people in the manor will starve next month. Master is still fighting the barbarians in the north; we can't afford to ruin the family!"
Wang Fa rubbed his temples and sighed deeply. "Wang Fugui, please leave. Let me have some peace and quiet."
The steward hesitated, then finally wiped away his tears and left.
The room fell silent. Wang Fa walked to the bronze mirror, gazing at his reflection—a handsome, even somewhat devilishly so, face of someone in his early twenties. A twitch involuntarily escaped his lips.
"Transmigrated into the son of a top-tier official, starting with a fiscal deficit and political blockade?"
According to his memories, his adoptive father, Wang Qintian, had rendered too much service, earning him the title of a prince outside the imperial family—a thorn in the side of the feudal imperial power. Now, with the emperor's tacit approval, all the major aristocratic families in the land had joined forces to impose economic sanctions on the Wang family.
The winery was shut down, the cloth shop investigated, and the grain store suppressed.
This wasn't just hell mode; this was practically an attempt to kill the Wang family!
"In my past life, I worked 18 hours a day until I was exhausted for a pittance of silver." Wang Fa clenched his fists, his eyes sharpening. "This time, I was finally reborn into a wealthy family. If I still have to worry about making a living, then what was the point of my transmigration?"
"Working is out of the question! I'll never work for anyone again in this life!"
Just as he made this grand vow, a cold electronic voice rang in his mind:
[Ding! The host's mentality meets the system activation conditions. "Martial Arts Leek System" is binding...]
[Binding successful!]
[Current Attributes:]
[Host: Wang Fa]
[Cultivation: Martial Apprentice Level 1 (Useless Level)]
[Leek Value: 0 (Leek Value can be obtained by harvesting others' assets, emotional fluctuations, or involving them in system-related financial activities)]
[Newbie Gift Pack Issued: "Ming Dynasty Scratch-off Lottery Technology Solution," "One Bucket of Anti-counterfeiting Fluorescent Ink," "One Beginner Marrow Cleansing Pill."]
Wang Fa's eyes instantly shone like two searchlights.
System! Finance! Harvesting!
As a top student majoring in modern finance, coupled with years of hard-earned experience in the real world, he knew all too well what these words meant.
"Harvesting other people's emotions and assets?" Wang Fa chuckled. "In ancient times, running a gambling den, wouldn't that be a game-changer?"
Just as he was pondering this, the door was suddenly flung open with a bang.
A long-legged beauty in light silver armor, a long sword at her waist, rushed in. She was stunningly beautiful, but the decisive, ruthless aura between her brows lowered the temperature in the room.
"Wang Fa! You actually have the mind to look in the mirror?"
Wang Fa searched his memory; this was Lan Mengyao, the daughter of General Lan Guang, who guarded the western border. Their families were old friends, and she was his betrothed since childhood.
"Miss Lan, don't get so angry, it'll cause hormonal imbalances," Wang Fa teased with a grin.
Lan Mengyao's chest heaved with rage, her aura, emanating from her like a captain, unconsciously causing the teacups on the table to tremble. "Do you know that the people from the Ministry of Rites just said that if you can't pay the outstanding 'Imperial Treasury tribute silver,' they'll take the Prince's mansion as collateral? Your father is fighting valiantly on the front lines, and you're about to lose your home in the capital!"
"How much silver?"
"Fifty thousand taels of silver! In cash!" Lan Mengyao gritted her teeth. "Those aristocratic families have calculated that the Prince's mansion can't access cash right now; even the bank counters throughout the city won't lend money to the Prince's mansion!"
"Fifty thousand taels..." Wang Fa stroked his chin.
In the Ming Dynasty, where a peck of rice cost only a dozen coins, fifty thousand taels was indeed a huge sum.
"Fine, give me three days."
Lan Mengyao was stunned. She looked Wang Fa up and down, then sneered, "Three days? Where are you going to rob me? Even if you sold a kidney, your body, worn down by wine and women, isn't worth fifty thousand taels!"
"Selling a kidney is too low-class," Wang Fa smiled mysteriously. "What I'm selling is… a dream."
…
Three days later, on Xuanwu Street, the most bustling street in the capital.
A huge booth was erected overnight, banners blotting out the sky, bearing several large, flamboyant characters:
"Two coins, buy a Martial God dream!"
"The first 'Creation of Heaven and Earth' scratch-off lottery in the Ming Dynasty, limited release today!"
Below the booth, countless commoners and martial artists in long robes pointed and whispered.
"What are scratch-off lottery tickets? What's the prize?"
"I heard it's something that spendthrift son of the Prince's mansion came up with. Probably just another money-grabbing scam."
"Two coins isn't expensive, but he claims you can scratch off a 'Martial Saint's Inner Core'? Isn't that pure nonsense?"
Several richly dressed scions of noble families watched coldly from the crowd.
"Heh, Wang Fa's gone mad. He actually thinks he can scrape together 50,000 taels of silver with just two coins a day? It's utterly ridiculous." Lin Cheng, the eldest son of the Lin family, scoffed disdainfully.
Wang Fa was currently sitting in a grand chair behind the booth, fanning himself with a folding fan, eyes closed in meditation.
In his mind, system notifications were flooding the screen:
[Ding! Detected Lin Cheng's contemptuous mood, gained +10 Leek Value!]
[Ding! Detected Passerby A's curiosity mood, gained +1 Leek Value!]
[Ding! Detected…]
Although each one didn't add much, the sheer number of onlookers was overwhelming!
"Time's up!" Wang Fa abruptly stood up and ripped off the red silk covering the pile of prizes.
Instantly, a collective gasp filled the room.
On the display stand sat an exquisite white jade bottle, emitting a faint golden light. Even from a distance, the martial artists could sense the pure energy contained within.
"That's... the system's reward—a beginner-level Marrow Cleansing Pill!" Wang Fa shouted. "Everyone! This pill is worth at least three thousand taels of silver, and it's priceless! Today, it's in this pile of 'paper scraps'!"
He casually picked up a beautifully crafted cardboard card, printed with the mythical Qilin beast and coated with a thick layer of gray.
"Just two coins for one card. Scratch off this layer of gray; if three Qilin images appear, the Marrow Cleansing Pill is yours!"
A moment of silence followed.
Then, the crowd erupted in chaos.
Two coins for a pill worth three thousand taels?! The probability was low, but the cost was negligible!
"Give me ten!" A burly man squeezed forward, immediately bidding twenty coins.
He was a notoriously poor martial arts apprentice in the capital, stuck at the third level of Martial Apprentice for years, desperately needing spiritual medicine to break through.
Wang Fa personally handed over ten cards, smiling, "May this valiant warrior soar to the heavens with a single scratch!"
The burly man nervously squatted by the platform, carefully scratching with his fingernails.
The first card, no.
The second card, two Qilin! So close! The burly man's breathing quickened.
Until the ninth card…
"I won! I won! Hahaha! Two Qilin… no, three! Three!"
The burly man jumped up wildly, holding the cards above his head.
All eyes instantly turned to him; even the scions of noble families couldn't sit still.
Wang Fa smiled slightly, generously walked over, and took the card to confirm: "The anti-counterfeiting mark is correct! Congratulations, brave man, this Marrow Cleansing Pill is yours!"
When the burly man swallowed the pill in public, and an aura of breakthrough emanated from his body, the entire Xuanwu Street went completely wild.
"Give me a hundred!"
"Don't push me! I'll offer two hundred coins, give it to me first!"
"I'll buy a thousand! I don't believe I won't win the grand prize!"
[Ding! A large number of investors have entered a frenzy, and the harvest value continues to soar!]
[Current investor value: 1500...3000...8000!]
Wang Fa looked at the flood of copper coins and silver ingots, his heart filled with joy.
Fifty thousand taels?
This is just the beginning.
In the Ming Dynasty, he not only wants to be a powerful prince, but also to sit on the throne of the financial emperor.
Lan Mengyao stood at the back of the crowd, staring blankly at the man chatting and laughing on the stage. For the first time, a feeling of "absurdity" welled up inside her.
This spendthrift…it seems he really intends to empty the capital's coffers?
Meanwhile, Wang Fa looked towards the palace, thinking to himself:
"Your Majesty, this is just a lottery ticket. In a few days, when I produce the 'Great Ming War Bonds' and 'Great Ming Royal Stocks,' please don't be so shocked you fall off your throne!"