Dao Discussion Stage, Eighteen Death Matches

It was another small market day, and Luo Chen arrived at his stall early.

This left Old Taoist Chen rather puzzled.

"Ever since you started refining that stuff, haven't you only come once a month?"

"I've been short on Spirit Stones lately, so I'm selling a batch early."

Luo Chen spoke indifferently as he laid the two kinds of pills out on the stone slab.

His gaze swept over the surroundings, and he looked somewhat puzzled.

"Where's Wang Yuan?"

"No way, don't tell me you don't know about that?" Old Taoist Chen put on an exaggerated expression.

Luo Chen was stunned. Was this something he was supposed to know?

It wasn't like I was the sort of person who loved gossip.

He spent every day cooped up in the Pill Room. Most of his news from outside came from those two social butterflies, Gu Cai Yi and Bai Mei Ling.

"They're about to start fighting."

"You mean the Mountain Shattering Gang and the Great River Gang? Isn't this getting tiresome? They already made a fuss for half a day two months ago, and now they're at it again?"

Old Taoist Chen shook his head. "No, this time is different from before."

Only after Old Taoist Chen explained did Luo Chen roughly understand the full sequence of events.

Or rather, anyone who cared to ask around would naturally learn about the current situation.

The truce from two months ago had not truly been a truce.

It had merely been the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion stepping in and arranging peace talks between Mi Shuhua of the Mountain Shattering Gang and Wang Haichao of the Great River Gang, the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

After all, if this went on, the Outer City Area would sooner or later be smashed to pieces. Whether the Outer City Area or the Inner City Area, both were places where the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion collected rent.

If everyone got beaten to death, who would they collect rent from?

But the profits involved in the mountain routes were simply too enormous.

Naturally, the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators would not give them up so easily.

Yet they could not refuse to give the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion face. After all, it was the owner of the Marketplace, and behind it stood the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect.

Thus, they settled on a method of martial combat.

Each side would send out nine top experts to compete on the Dao Discussion Stage of the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion, with life and death left to fate.

The participants' cultivation was restricted to below Foundation Establishment.

If the Great River Gang lost, it would abandon its mountain business, crawl back to properly manage the Lancang River, and additionally yield a water route to the Mountain Shattering Gang.

If the Mountain Shattering Gang lost, it would be even simpler: out of the several safe routes it currently controlled, it would transfer five to the Great River Gang.

The previous two-month truce had been meant to give the two gangs time to gather experts.

"So that's why so many unfamiliar cultivators have appeared in the Marketplace lately. They were all experts invited by the two gangs!"

Luo Chen suddenly understood.

His hands did not stop moving. He casually handed several Jade Bottles to a Repeat Customer.

After taking the Spirit Stones, he saw Chen Xiuping shaking his head.

"The two gangs carry considerable weight around here, but placed in the entire Jade Cauldron Domain, they aren't worth much at all."

"Uh..."

"It was the cultivators of the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion who deliberately spread the news, which was why so many people came from elsewhere."

Luo Chen blinked. Why would the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion do that?

Weren't they worried that all these outsiders would stir up trouble and become difficult to manage?

But Old Taoist Chen quickly answered his doubts.

"The Far East Six Sects each have their own strengths and their own fields of business."

The Joyful Union Sect dealt in the business between men and women, a trade that had endured from ancient times and never declined.

The Divine Talisman Pavilion dealt in talisman business, standing alone across the Six Regions in the art of talismans.

The Medicine King Sect dealt in pills and spirit herbs, earning so much that its coffers overflowed.

The Five Elements Divine Sect dealt in spirit plants and spells, its business likewise flourishing.

Sky Sail City dealt in magical implements and formations. Its Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion was truly one of a kind throughout the Six Regions.

Then what about the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect?

To those poorly informed wandering cultivators, did the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect have any business worth praising?

The answer was no!

The Jade Cauldron Sword Sect was renowned for its combat strength, and its sect was filled mostly with sword cultivators.

Yes, sword cultivators were indeed powerful among those of the same realm, but they did not engage in production!

Although the Sword Sect also possessed respectable sword-forging techniques, compared to Sky Sail City, they were nothing at all.

In particular, the swords forged by the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect were mostly Sword Pellets, which required wholehearted nurturing.

Ordinary cultivators pursued diverse combat methods. Who would be willing to roam the world with just one sword?

By comparison, universally useful flying sword magical implements were far more adaptable.

As for Pill Dao, Talisman Dao, and Formation Dao, although the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect dabbled in them as well, it had even less to show for them compared with the other sects.

"Then by your reasoning, wouldn't all the cultivators of the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect be drinking the northwest wind?"

Luo Chen still found it somewhat unbelievable.

"Not quite. After all, this entire region belongs to them." Old Taoist Chen spoke eloquently, knowing this sort of gossip like the back of his hand. "Take Zhong Ding Restaurant and the Dao Discussion Stage, for example. Those are all their businesses."

Restaurants? Arenas?

How many Spirit Stones could those possibly earn?

"Our monthly rent and stall fees are also sources of their income."

"Another major source of income is that the Jade Cauldron Domain lies closest to the Million Mountains. Most of the natural treasures produced in the mountains are purchased first by the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect. Then they sell those raw materials to the other sects of the Six Regions."

Luo Chen bared his teeth. "But that still sounds rather shabby!"

He pointed at several conspicuous buildings in the city center. "If that's the case, why don't the people of the Sword Sect drive the other sects' industries out of the Jade Cauldron Domain and do these businesses themselves?"

Even if the Sword Sect's pills and talismans were refined terribly, they would surely still be better than those made by Cultivation Families and wandering cultivators.

With swords in their hands, if they wanted to sell, who would dare refuse to buy?

"How would they dare?" Old Taoist Chen said quietly. "Back then, the Jade Cauldron Domain wasn't conquered by the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect alone. The other Five Great Upper Sects, along with all the large and small sects presently in the Jade Cauldron Domain, also contributed."

Understood. Now he truly understood.

If the Jade Cauldron Domain were compared to a company, then the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect could be considered its largest shareholder and executive director.

The other sects each held their own shares within it.

But the company's profits were not divided equally.

How much one could take from it depended entirely on one's own abilities.

The Sword Sect merely had the advantage of playing on its home ground.

It had to be said that after Old Taoist Chen explained it this way, Luo Chen completely understood the current situation.

The Dao Discussion Stage itself was an important business of the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect.

Now that there was the spectacle of two gangs contending against each other, with eighteen experts invited to fight to the death, they would certainly squeeze the greatest possible value from this match.

That was why they spread the news. When the time came, ticket sales alone would earn them brimming coffers.

If they arranged some other events in the middle, such as an auction, they could make another fortune.

"Sure enough, there are no fools among cultivators!"

Luo Chen sighed.

It looked like a dispute between two gangs, yet the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect, as the mediator, stood to profit the most.

And whether the Mountain Shattering Gang or the Great River Gang won, would not the things they obtained from the mountains still be bought first by the local Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion?

The meat would all rot in the same pot anyway. Better to let the fragrance drift outside and draw in more wild dogs to slaughter.

Unfortunately, none of this had anything to do with Luo Chen, a Qi Refining Fourth Layer cultivator.

No, it did have a little to do with him.

His good big brother Wang Yuan was the Mountain Shattering Gang's leading fighter this time.

Mm, the Mountain Shattering Gang's Twin Blossom Red Pole!

"Should I go support Wang Yuan when the time comes?"