"Great Xia's richest people ranking."
"Tianhai's wealthiest ranking."
"Top ten families with millennia of heritage ranking."
"The most powerful figures in Great Xia."
After deciding to build a faction on Earth to serve himself, Ye Yang immediately began searching the browser for introductions to Great Xia's wealthy, influential families, and powerful figures.
Yes, for Ye Yang, the only method to create a faction as the sole Immortal Cultivator on Earth was this straightforward and direct.
He didn't need to invent a faction from nothing.
For Ye Yang, he only needed to find the faction he desired and apply some influence so that the faction would serve him and become his power base.
Time flew by.
One after another, introductions to influential figures appeared on Ye Yang's computer screen.
Honestly, seeing so many powerful figures one after another, Ye Yang couldn't help but marvel at how drastically Great Xia had changed after the Kunlun Mirror altered the world background.
Before the background change, Great Xia would never have allowed so many immensely powerful figures to exist.
The state wouldn't have tolerated them.
But after the world background changed, many powerful figures that were previously nearly impossible to appear suddenly emerged.
For example, before the background change, no matter how powerful a family was, it had to bow to the state.
If the state wanted to act against you, a single word could destroy families with centuries or even millennia of heritage.
After the background update, the top families could balance against imperial power.
Just like the "Five Surnames and Seven Clans" during the Tang Dynasty before the world changed.
Even the royal family relied on these powerful families to govern the state.
Unlike Tang, which needed literati from the five surnames and seven clans, Great Xia's top families truly possessed power that rivaled the throne.
The cities and provinces where these families lived were almost entirely governed by themselves.
Centuries or millennia of heritage had allowed them to tightly control these regions.
Local officials were appointed directly by these families, only submitting post-factum approval documents to the royal court as a formality.
In other words, post-update Great Xia was governed jointly by the royal family and the aristocratic families.
The royal family was simply the most powerful aristocratic family.
From browser info, Ye Yang learned the classification of aristocratic families after the update.
They were divided into: Wealthy Family (10 years), Prestigious Family (100 years), Esteemed Family (500 years), and Aristocratic Family (1000 years).
Of course, these time frames weren't literal.
The classifications were merely standards to evaluate strength.
As soon as your faction met the criteria, you could be promoted to Wealthy Family, Prestigious Family, Esteemed Family, or Aristocratic Family directly.
However, in a world controlled by aristocratic families, ordinary people wishing to build a wealthy family or higher from scratch faced near-impossible odds.
Prestigious and Esteemed Families still appeared every few years or decades.
But the difficulty of becoming an Aristocratic Family was tens or even dozens of times harder than for Prestigious or Esteemed Families.
Ultimately, the most important factor for becoming an Aristocratic Family was having influence over at least one province or multiple provinces.
Just like the "Sanxing" before the world update, controlling one's life and death.
To become an Aristocratic Family quickly, you need to possess a massive power base.
Otherwise, you could only rely on your ancestors' legacy, slowly climbing over centuries or millennia.
In the last century, only one family successfully upgraded to Aristocratic Family from Wealthy Family status.
That family was in Ye Yang's current city, Tianhai City.
Tianhai City stood out in Great Xia and was called the city second only to the capital thanks to this family.
The city's prosperity owed much to them.
The family's name was the Zhao Family.
A century ago, the Zhao Family was merely a wealthy family with considerable assets.
But after a legendary figure named Zhao Qingzhi appeared, everything changed.
Within less than fifty years, Zhao Qingzhi led the Wealthy Zhao Family to rise to Aristocratic Family status.
On Great Xia's list of the most influential figures in the last century, Zhao Qingzhi ranked ninth.
All those ranked above him were true titans.
At worst, they were high-ranking officials who reformed Great Xia's system.
At best, they included the emperor and prime minister of Great Xia.
For Zhao Qingzhi to stand among them was terrifying indeed.
Zhao Qingzhi's personal story was equally legendary.
He was like a protagonist who created a Wealthy Family from nothing.
A century ago, when Zhao Qingzhi took charge of the Zhao Family, foreign stock markets were booming.
Zhao Qingzhi sold off all the family assets and invested in overseas stock markets.
Like a born stock god, he never lost money.
Within five years, Zhao Family's assets had increased over a thousandfold.
Just from wealth, Zhao Family was already comparable to ordinary Aristocratic Families.
But Great Xia's Aristocratic Family system looked beyond wealth alone.
Having wealth might get you promoted to Prestigious Family, but upgrading to Esteemed or Aristocratic Family was very difficult.
Zhao Qingzhi clearly realized this.
So after accumulating enough wealth, he promptly withdrew large amounts and began investing in other industries.
His ventures were blessed by luck.
He rarely suffered losses.
Whether in freight, the emerging automobile industry, or electronics, Zhao Family always entered early and became leaders.
With diversified development and no losses, Zhao Family's wealth steadily increased.
From a wealth perspective, only about ten Aristocratic Families could rival Zhao Family.
This included the royal family of Great Xia.
Still, wealth alone was not enough to upgrade to Aristocratic Family.
Therefore, after amassing wealth, Zhao Qingzhi shifted into industry.
Decades later, Zhao Family's industrial holdings covered nearly all of Tianhai.
Almost every landmark building in Tianhai belonged to Zhao Family.
Beyond Tianhai, Zhao Family also invested in many other places.
With industrial influence growing huge, Zhao Family successfully upgraded and became the only family in the last hundred or several hundred years to rise from Wealthy Family to Aristocratic Family.
"Time is the strongest enemy. For the elderly, even a minor cold could become fatal."
"The legendary figure who created Zhao Family, Old Master Zhao, now ninety-six years old, has contracted a cold that cannot be cured. Zhao Family's direct descendants are rushing back to Tianhai to see him for the last time."
"Super movie queen Zhao Ling'er's identity revealed—suspected to be Old Master Zhao's granddaughter."
After reading Zhao Qingzhi's introduction, Ye Yang squinted his eyes while looking at related news about Zhao Qingzhi.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]