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Looking at Tian Heng’s eager gaze, Chen Qing felt a slight heaviness in his heart.

As expected, once new territories were conquered, the old power players set their sights on them. The Civil Official System was still not given much attention, but the Department of the Yin God was something everyone wanted.

It was too capable of taking care of one’s own affiliated forces.

After death, within the divine path, there would be guarantees; whether it was meritorious soldiers, knowledgeable magicians, or anything else, once dead, all came under the jurisdiction of the Yin God’s system.

This led to a sense of awe towards the Yin God by anyone in power.

In the realm of the Yin God, theoretically, the more merits one accrued in the world of the living, the better the benefits they enjoyed.

However, there was still room for manipulation of interests.

The master of the Yin God could determine the management layer of the Yin God and decide the channels through which one could continue to accumulate merits after death. With such power, who wouldn’t want it?

There was no divine position that could bring more benefits to a family than being the master of the Yin God.

But precisely because of this, the Department of the Yin God couldn’t be handed over to someone like Tian Heng.

Chen Qing sighed and, looking at the other’s eager gaze, said indifferently, "There will be a new appointment system for the Department of the Yin God in the future. No one will be directly appointed anymore."

"Ehh..." Tian Heng was first taken aback, knowing in his heart that his lord had just refused him, but he didn’t say there was another candidate. Instead, he mentioned a new appointment system, which meant that the other party would neither use his Tian Family’s members nor the Shen Family’s.

A new system?

That should be open to everyone... This means... the Tian Family also has a chance!

"Your wisdom is admirable, my lord. You must have devised a perfect strategy," Tian Heng said with a smile.

High praise passed over, causing Chen Qing to roll his eyes. This guy was clearly hinting that since it was a new plan, it had to win everyone over, including himself.

"Since you’ve asked, let me give you a heads-up. In the future, I plan to make appointments to the Department of the Yin God based on the achievements of governors and votes from the common people."

"Ehh?" Tian Heng was taken aback again: "Achievements? Votes from the common people?"

"What do you think about the status of the administrative officers in Jiangnan?" Chen Qing directly counter-asked.

"Administrative officers, well..." Tian Heng pondered for a while after hearing this and then said, "Nowadays, administrative officers in Jiangnan have high standards. They must understand the classics to ensure education and culture, comprehend reason and magical knowledge, grasp the basic principles of major projects and their benefits, before they can introduce better initiatives to benefit the region they manage. Although I don’t pay much attention to this area, I know that the recent administrative appointments seem to be academy graduates, who understand both literature and technique, young people with demanding comprehensive requirements, but. .."

He paused and looked at Chen Qing: "Their status, however, isn’t that high."

Chen Qing smiled at this response; indeed, it was a strange phenomenon in Jiangnan now.

The administrators of Jiangnan were not fixed and changed frequently.

To coordinate with the academy’s magicians for project development, many older officials relied entirely on young auxiliary politicians assigned from the academy to understand matters.

Over time, they would be sidelined because the young auxiliary politicians did all the work. Magistrates who didn’t work would find that fewer and fewer people were willing to follow their lead.

After all, those from the academy had a certain prestige, and everyone admired them more. This led to less regard for the temporary magistrates, which, combined with such public sentiment, resulted in the first batch of magistrates from each county resigning over a few years.

Chen Qing did not refuse anyone who resigned, immediately promoting the local auxiliary politicians to full position.

Now almost all counties in Jiangnan were governed by young scholars from the academy.

Having served as auxiliary politicians, these overly young magicians gained both administrative experience and recognition from the grassroots officials.

At least for now, they got along quite harmoniously.

But there was a problem... just as Tian Heng said, their status wasn’t high!

New governors were required to know a bit of everything, and the comprehensive standards were actually quite demanding.

The reasons these individuals became governors were fundamentally due to a lack of talent in technique.

Even research-oriented magicians needed talent, and with so many people being recruited by the academy each year, there were always those who couldn’t keep up, unable to develop their own projects or to become true magicians.

Those who had no path in magic couldn’t just be wasted, could they?

So, they responded to the call and became auxiliary politicians.

In the eyes of traditional magicians, they were deemed obsolete; among the populace, magicians who could directly improve the quality of life were more respected, resulting in the governors actually having a lower status.

Continuing like this wouldn’t be good...

In Chen Qing’s eyes, governors could not be too powerful or autocratic, but they couldn’t be too weak either, as it would be detrimental to the wellbeing of the people.

"That’s also a key reason," Chen Qing nodded. "If the status isn’t high, then outstanding individuals won’t develop in this direction. Those who were eliminated by no choice of their own will lower the quality of governors over time, and the status of civil officials can’t be this low..."

"So, my lord plans to use positions in the Department of the Yin God to elevate the status of civil officials?" Tian Heng immediately understood the other’s meaning.

Chen Qing nodded, "The Department of the Yin God has an extremely high status, and it’s a perfect opportunity to enhance the prestige of civil officials."

"But... there must be conditions, right?" Tian Heng asked doubtfully: "If just any civil official can serve in the Department of the Yin God, then... I’m afraid the status might become excessively high."

"Hmm... that’s why achievements are key!

" Chen Qing said with a smile: "To advance in the Civil Official System, one must have considerable achievements and a positive reputation among the people.

Governors have terms of three years, after which their achievements and popular reputation will be assessed, a task undertaken by the local Department of the Yin God and newly established bureaucrat officials.

And the citizens will also have the right to vote in the triennial conferences. "

"Those with outstanding achievements and good reputations can enter the Department of the Yin God, governing a City God of a county, even if they cannot be promoted.

And if they wish to continue managing larger Provincial Government Offices in the living world, they have the chance to become the Yin God of an entire province. "

"This..." Tian Heng hesitated, then curiously asked, "The initial approach indeed seemed good, but... what comes next? Surely there aren’t enough positions in the underworld for the endless stream of civil officials, right?"

"Why wouldn’t there be enough?" Chen Qing looked at the other party.

"Aren’t the City Gods in the underworld always appointed permanently?" A thought suddenly struck Tian Heng.

"I never said that..." Chen Qing replied with a smile.

Tian Heng was stunned. He had always believed that beings in the underworld were not constrained by lifespan because he himself could grant others extended infernal lifespans. Could it be that he himself could not maintain an eternal infernal lifespan?

Seeing right through what the other was thinking, Chen Qing immediately said, "You’re overthinking it. How could such an important place as the underworld be held permanently by someone? Do you think that would be feasible?"

"Uh..." Tian Heng lowered his head. As a subordinate, of course, he wished it were feasible, but... from the perspective of the entire power structure, permanent occupation of a position of power without rotation is clearly more detrimental than beneficial!

"May I dare to ask, how long is the lifespan of the ruler of the underworld?"

"Let’s go by the divine position..." Chen Qing said with a smile: "The higher the divine position, the longer the lifespan. However, one cannot occupy their office forever. Take the ruler of the Provincial Government Office in the underworld, for example, their infernal lifespan is roughly a thousand years and up, but they cannot hold office for a thousand years. There’s a rotation every ten years. If one doesn’t receive a concrete position during the rotation, they become a jobless Yin God.

They can choose to stay in the underworld to continue cultivating, or they can choose to reincarnate. "

"Reincarnate?" Tian Heng frowned: "Reincarnation is a path common people are willing to take, right? Would the former rulers of the underworld be willing to reincarnate?"

"They would..." Chen Qing said with a smile: "Regardless, the lifespan of the gods of the underworld will come to an end.

The earlier one reincarnates, the more divine rewards they receive, with fortune added to their fate.

Both their aptitude and fortune will be better, and in the future, they can go even further! "

"Go further to where?" Tian Heng asked in confusion: "If someone has reached the highest position in the underworld, or as I have, the ruler of the West Sea, isn’t that the limit? Isn’t reincarnation just starting over again?"

"There is no end to the road..." Chen Qing said with a smile: "This world is bigger than you imagine. There’s a much wider universe out there. You’ll understand in time that everything here... is just the beginning!"

At these words, not only Tian Heng but also Ao Zhen, who had been listening for fun, had their eyes light up.

A wider universe?

Something beyond the heavens?

Ao Zhen stared intently at Chen Qing. It was recorded long ago in the Dragon Palace that beyond this world lies an almost infinitely vast universe, and within that expanse, their own world is as small as a grain of dust.

But that’s the outer universe. Even though the Dragon Palace had existed for countless years, no one had ever dared to venture out, not even those at the Dragon King level, because beyond the heavens.

.. apart from the vast universe, there were terrifying creatures.

The creatures of the Celestial Serpent Palace, more powerful than the Dragon Kings, were said to be mere prey in that outer universe!

Chen Qing... his future planning is actually for the outer universe?

At that thought, a mysterious light shone in Ao Zhen’s eyes. If this were true...

"I need to return to Jiangnan first. You and Wei Gongcheng will manage the follow-up in the Southeast. Later, we will revisit this matter," Chen Qing said, glancing at the sky that was about to brighten.

"Very well, then I shall see you off, Your Excellency," Tian Heng hastily bowed in salute.

Chen Qing nodded, and in the next second, he transformed into a beam of white light and vanished from the spot.

Tian Heng glanced and knew that Chen Qing had used the Divine Presence Technique.

He was puzzled as this technique greatly consumes the power of faith, and Chen Qing was usually reluctant to use it.

Moreover, with the important matter of the underworld position distribution in the Southeast, it was surprising that Chen Qing didn’t stay to oversee the situation, especially since the Shen Family was eyeing things covetously here.

Using the Divine Presence Technique to return directly at this time, was there something even more important happening in Jiangnan?

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In the Lyuzhou Prefectural Government, Chen Qing descended as a beam of white light directly into the courtyard. Without even having time to greet his own mother, Chen Qing hurriedly made his way to the academy.

In the academy, Jiang Xiaoling was waiting for Chen Qing early in a courtyard.

"You used the technique I left for you to notify me urgently. Is there something important?" Chen Qing looked at him, actually having a rough guess of what it might be, otherwise, he wouldn’t have rushed back so desperately.

Indeed, in the next second, he heard the answer he had anticipated.

"The Huazhong Region Federal Military Commander, Mr. Zhang Zhengyuan, would like to request a meeting with you!"