The Zhou Family's mysterious reward for entering the top thirty in the 'Hundred Clans Conference' was now known to all the Elders of the Zhou Family.
Therefore, when Zhou Mingde mentioned that the Zhou Family would need to employ people on a large scale in the future, none of the Elders were surprised by the statement.
However, Zhou Chun's current response made several Elders furrow their brows.
Zhou Mingde also furrowed his eyebrows slightly and said, "Employing outsiders is certainly a method, but can outsiders be trusted?"
"Those Loose Cultivators are selfish, and as the saying goes, 'whoever feeds them is their mother.' It's fine to hire them as hired hands to fend off a Beast Tide, but when it comes to dealing with other powers or resource extraction, even with supervision, there's no guarantee they won't try every possible way to betray the family's interests!"
Zhou Chun, of course, was also aware of this.
At this time, he calmly said, "The Supreme Elder makes a very valid point, but it overlooks the composition of Loose Cultivators."
"In the eyes of our grand families, those without a fixed sect or Foundation Establishment Cultivators to rely on are all Loose Cultivators!"
"But as everyone knows, aside from lacking a sect and Foundation Establishment Cultivators, they are in fact family-oriented Cultivators with homes and loved ones!"
"Moreover, among Loose Cultivators, many have spousal, filial, or mentor-disciple relationships, and they also have attachments to each other."
Having said this, Zhou Chun looked at Zhou Mingde and the Elders who were deep in thought and continued, "Thus, in my view, we can employ Loose Cultivators with two standards. For issues like clearing out Demon Beasts and defending against Beast Tide attacks, we can employ anyone. For more delicate matters, we should only hire those with families and ties to the kin."
"Of course, to achieve this, we need to invest more manpower in gathering information on Loose Cultivators on a regular basis. That way, when the time comes to hire people, we can directly find the right ones, and this task can also be entrusted to Loose Cultivators!"
"We might even invest a little in some of those with a good nature and decent talent, such as allowing them to meditate and practice cultivation for free at the Zhou Family Mountain, selling cultivation resources to them at cost price, or giving them a Magic Artifact with half paid in Spirit Coins and the rest on credit."
"Not every investment may yield a return, but as long as we receive useful returns on half of our investments, it will relieve the Zhou Family's shortage of manpower in the future!"
After he finished speaking, Zhou Mingde and the Elders of the Zhou Family all lowered their heads, pondering his words.
After a while, Zhou Daoyi was the first to speak out, "Great, Zhengchun, what you've said has really opened our eyes—all pragmatic measures!"
Zhou Mingde also nodded repeatedly and said, "Indeed, if you, Zhengchun, hadn't brought up these points, I too would have failed to realize them."
Their inability to realize this stemmed from their own growth experiences.
From childhood to adulthood, they had grown up in a powerful Zhou Family, and deep in their hearts, they looked down on Loose Cultivators; they also witnessed many disgusting deeds committed by Loose Cultivators over trivial gains.
Such experiences naturally made them distrustful and averse to Loose Cultivators from the bottom of their hearts.
So even when it came to hiring outsiders for help, they had an innate repulsion towards Loose Cultivators.
Of course, this also related to the fact that the Zhou Family had never before faced the need to employ outsiders on a large scale—they lacked experience because they'd never done it.
Zhou Chun, on the other hand, lacked such deep-seated aversion to Loose Cultivators, and due to the influence of his past life experiences, he was quite familiar with the practice of employing people, which naturally made it quite easy for him to think of these things.
These were points Zhou Chun knew within himself, and naturally, he would not speak them out loud.
Now that he saw everyone was satisfied with his suggestion, he took the opportunity to propose another reform he had been thinking about before the war began.
"Since both Supreme Elders and the Elders have no objections to employing Loose Cultivators, I would like to discuss another idea I have here."
"Previously, I noticed that family affairs consume a lot of our Clan Members' time, severely hampering the Zhou Family Cultivators' development in other Cultivation Techniques and preventing them from having the opportunity and time to temper themselves outside."
"So, I was thinking, could we entrust some of the less important tasks, such as feeding and raising Demon Beasts, caring for the Spirit Grass fields, and related matters, to Loose Cultivators?"
"If ordinary Loose Cultivators can't be trusted, we could choose Cultivators from smaller families for these tasks, or even nurture these small families into vassals that specialize in Beast Taming and cultivating medicines for our Zhou Family!"
As expected by Zhou Chun, as soon as he made this suggestion, someone immediately raised an objection, and that person was the conservatively inclined Second Elder, Zhou Chongshan.
Zhou Chongshan said slowly, "Zhengchun, I think your idea is inadvisable. The reason our Zhou Family has Clan Members undertake tasks such as raising Demon Beasts and caring for Spirit Grass fields is not to save money, but to hone them, to make them more knowledgeable about the habits of Demon Beasts and Spiritual Medicines, and to apply that knowledge practically."
"If we hire Loose Cultivators for these tasks, not to mention the Spirit Coins spent would also be a significant expense, what if they sabotage our interests behind our backs? What if they learn our Zhou Family's Beast Taming Skills?"