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Late at night, Chen Qing sat upon the throne, listening to the discussions of Xuan Mang, Su Yi, Li Changqing, Qitian Feng, and Ting Yun.
Xuan Mang said, "Our Mystic Gate Army is unmatched across all nations, yet handing out salaries would be an enormous expenditure."
"Even if each person only received five Spiritual Pearls a month, we would need to distribute nearly twenty thousand Spiritual Pearls monthly!"
"And that's just the number for one month!"
"Now, the military has a total of two thousand while there are over twelve hundred civil officials, none of whom are involved in production nor generate any output."
"There are only a little over four hundred production sect cultivators, who are responsible for supporting nearly four thousand people, which is simply impossible!"
"The financial resources required are astronomical!"
