[You have been granted the title of Count of Scania. You have initiated a noble lineage, which will be named after the surname you use as an alias in this world.]

[You have received the noble coat of arms: Count's Badge of the Fu Lei Clan.]

[You have been granted the authority to enfeoff nobles and knights, with a maximum of 1 Viscount, 2 Barons, and 20 Knights. Note: You need to grant the corresponding area of land to the other party, which will reduce your territory's tax revenue.]

After the enfeoffment ceremony, Bai Pu received the Count's Badge.

This badge was entirely golden in sheen, with the Griffin Family Emblem personally chosen by Bai Pu engraved on the front, and details such as Bai Pu's fiefdom and family surname engraved on the back.

[Count's Badge of the Fu Lei Clan: Place in Storage Space to gain extra benefits: +300 Life Value, +3 All Attributes. Each natural month, you get one teleportation opportunity with this badge to your fief capital (must be in an unbothered state in the real world) and can stay freely for (3) days.]

[Detected that you already possess a similar special item: Identity Jade Token of the Wu County Lu Clan. You can only enjoy the enhancement from one of these special items.]

Bai Pu checked and found that this noble badge's benefits were determined by his title in the flesh and blood plague world and the Sweden Empire.

Currently, as a Count, Bai Pu enjoys the powerful benefits of +300 Life Value and +3 All Attributes. If he were to downgrade to Viscount, it would be only +200 Life Value and +2 All Attributes, and for Baron, it would be +100 Life Value and +1 All Attribute.

Bai Pu can enfeoff other Awakened to become nobles in the Fu Lei Clan lineage. The nobles he enfeoffs will automatically receive a noble badge and enjoy the associated benefits.

However, Bai Pu wouldn't enfeoff lightly, as this is a genuine land-giving title that could affect Bai Pu's territory size and tax revenue.

Taxes are based on the prosperity of Bai Pu's territory and are an income given to Bai Pu every quarter.

Bai Pu can choose to receive material taxes or Spiritual Point taxes.

Material taxes refer to Spirit Realm items like the Spirit Realm grain harvested from the territory's manors, Spirit Realm cloth from workshops, and such valuables as Spirit Realm gold and silver.

The benefit of choosing material taxes is sometimes obtaining good raw materials or even finished items—though most material taxes end up as "junk" that the Awakened can't use, only sellable to the Spirit Realm Will for a small amount of Spiritual Points.

Tax revenue in the form of Spirit Realm gold and silver can be used in many Spirit Realm planes and can also be exchanged for Spiritual Points.

Bai Pu, without much thought, chose material taxes. The miscellaneous items harvested each quarter can be sold to the Spirit Realm Will, converting them into Spiritual Points.

Although this doesn't earn as many Spiritual Points as directly choosing "Spiritual Points taxes," the advantage is the occasional surprise.

Bai Pu checked again; based on the current territory: Scania's land manors and town prosperity, the tax collected each quarter translates to about thirty thousand Spiritual Points.

For a Count's territory, this tax amount is rather meager.

But considering the entire Sweden and even the Nordic Peninsula, sparsely populated and barren, ravaged by the Blood Ring Fortress, with very low prosperity, having this tax revenue is not bad.

Bai Pu can also adjust the tax rate, imposing heavy taxes on the territory! This could significantly increase tax revenue in the short term, but it would continually decrease prosperity and cause a massive exodus of natives.

The most scarce resource on the Nordic Peninsula now is people—meaning normal residents uninfected by the Flesh and Blood Plague. Bai Pu would not stoop to such short-sighted practices.

Bai Pu opted to lower the tax rate by 30%. Now, as Sweden is in need of recovery, choosing a lighter tax rate could attract people to migrate to Scania.

Scania's geographical position is still advantageous, located by the coast with a natural harbor, a must-pass route for the best trade routes between the European continent and the Nordic Peninsula.

Had it not been for this, Emperor Gustav and Princess Christina's warship wouldn't have passed by the Starfall Islands, triggering a series of impactful events.

Qin, as the Regent Empress Dowager, will help Bai Pu oversee the fiefdom, such as sending loyal and reliable administrative officials and shifting the focus of economic trade to Scania.

After consulting with Bai Pu, Qin decided not to leave this world temporarily. Bai Pu can summon Qin for battle from the otherworld using the Source Blood Apostle's power when needed.

After exchanging for the Count's title, Bai Pu had less than five thousand Battle Merit remaining.

He sought out Prime Minister Oxensterna.

Prime Minister Oxensterna didn't show Bai Pu much favor, especially upon hearing of Emperor Gustav's assassination.

Yet this Prime Minister was also awed by Bai Pu's achievements, and Bai Pu refrained from meddling in political affairs, reassuring Oxensterna about this outsider and the Empress Dowager's paramour.

But Bai Pu wasn't there for chit-chat; just by saying "Battle Merit Exchange," he successfully turned the Prime Minister into a human ATM entering a stasis state, unfolding the exchange list with a swift sound.

Bai Pu too entered a time stasis state, able only to browse the list and exchange items.

World Event: During the Blood Rose War, Awakeneds can exchange any reward items as long as they have Battle Merit, ignoring faction reputation.

Naturally, Bai Pu's reputation within the Swedish Rebel Army was already at the level of adoration—he was even one of the founders of this faction.

He unsurprisingly saw a list for exchanging noble titles and continued flipping through.

Reaching the end, Bai Pu didn't see any items like [Lucky Dice] affecting the draw results of treasure chests.

Yet the good news was they provided exchanges for some relatively scarce equipment types, such as golden-quality necklaces, rings, accessories, and other jewelry.

A golden-level necklace required 1500 Battle Merit.

Bai Pu noticed that one golden-level piece of equipment had already been exchanged.

He checked his current equipment slots, finding the necklace (neck) and ring (finger) slots vacant.

He promptly exchanged three golden-level jewelry pieces with his Battle Merit.

All three pieces of equipment were standard types without additional special Skills; fortunately, being Golden Equipment, the added Attributes were quite substantial.

[Swedish Royal Necklace: Neck, adds 3 Power, 3 Endurance, 1 Charm.]

[Swedish Royal Power Ring: Finger, adds 6 Power.]

[Swedish Royal Lively Ring: Finger, adds 6 Agility.]

Bai Pu donned these three pieces of equipment. He initially had a +3 Agility blue armor "Ring of Frog's Chirping," which was naturally replaced.

With the remaining Battle Merit, Bai Pu bought some local specialties from this plane, focusing on some alchemy potions with buffing and debuffing effects. Then he went to Qin to learn the formulas for these alchemy potions.

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