The day our home was confiscated, my grandfather was beaten to death.
The last thing he said in my ear was: "Liao'er, remember... our Huang family owes this world thirty billion jin of salt."
I held his body as it slowly turned cold and looked at our ransacked home, feeling only that it was absurd.
Thirty billion jin? Even if they ground me up and sold me by the jin, I wouldn't make a fraction of it back.
It wasn't until I fled into a ruined temple and clutched our bloodstained ancestral salt license in desperation that a cold voice sounded in my mind:
"Heavenly Capital Salt License System bound. Current public support: -30 billion."
"Warning: Debt unpaid. Ultimate System penalty: soul annihilation."
Only then did I understand.
What my grandfather left me wasn't a last wish, but a contract selling me into servitude for all eternity.
From that day on, I saved the people, won their hearts, and brought peace to the land.
When I finally repaid the debt and stood atop the world, I understood: those thirty billion jin of salt had bought an empire for all ages, and an unstoppable path to the throne.
