After being sternly warned, Feng Xi became much more composed when facing Kong Xuan.
He no longer brought up any indescribable topics, instead shifting the conversation toward Little Peacock's future work.
--He had not forgotten the most important matter at hand.
As a middleman who buys low and sells high, how could I not build a good relationship with the manufacturers at the source of my supply?
And ideally, I should bring Kong Xuan into our business organization as well...
Feng Xi's eyes rolled as the abacus in his heart clacked furiously.
He unleashed a stream of clever words, speaking eloquently as he hoodwinked—no, persuaded—Kong Xuan, sincerely inviting him to participate in the shell company they had only just decided to establish.
"Kong Xuan!" Feng Xi said solemnly. "Since you feel that you've grown up, and when handling matters, you want to rely on your own abilities instead of constantly seeking help from your family and elders..."
"You want to become a spiritually strong person who constantly strives to improve and never gives up."
"But these things can't be achieved by merely talking about them."
"You have to prove them through action."
"Prove them? How?" Kong Xuan asked humbly.
"For example... starting a business!" Feng Xi naturally guided the conversation along. "You said earlier that one of your uncles suggested a job for you—the management of Phoenix Perch Market."
"I know you have a deep background. As the first heir in line of the Phoenix Lineage, you are destined to control immense wealth in the future... You are only gaining experience now, yet you already have such a position."
"But are you satisfied with merely managing a market?"
"The wealth of the Phoenix Lineage belongs to you, but also doesn't belong to you... because it was wealth your parents built through their own efforts."
"If you only manage it, then even if you do the best possible job, what will that prove?"
"At most, you'll only be a preserver of what already exists, not a pioneer!" Feng Xi declared.
Kong Xuan listened, deep in thought.
"If you truly want to prove your abilities, to prove that you can gallop across the stage of this era and live well in this Primordial World, no longer relying solely on the shelter of your elders' wings... then you need to step beyond the life path arranged for you by your family and carve out an entirely new road!"
"Even if that road is rugged, lacking the stability and ease of a broad avenue... as long as you take even the tiniest step, it will still be a transformation and sublimation of your personal abilities!"
Kong Xuan was moved. Bewitched by Feng Xi, he took the bait. "Then what should I do? How do I start a business?"
"Can I really do it alone?"
"At the beginning, there's naturally no need to set the bar so high." Feng Xi wore a mysterious smile. "You can seek out partners and helpers, join a new organization, experience the atmosphere of everyone pooling their wisdom and strength, and familiarize yourself with the process first..."
"Hmm... As it happens, there's a very good opportunity right now!"
Feng Xi's smile was radiant.
"I'll await your good news."
Kong Xuan waved reluctantly as he bid farewell to Feng Xi.
"Don't worry!"
Feng Xi made a solemn promise. "The next time we meet, both of us will have undergone a whole new transformation!"
After Kong Xuan's figure disappeared from Feng Xi's sight, he opened one of the hands he had clenched into a fist.
In his palm lay a feather.
--A Peacock Feather!
It was the token Kong Xuan had given Feng Xi.
With it, he could purchase valuable products from the Phoenix Lineage at the lowest possible cost.
Many of those products were already in short supply even within Phoenix Perch Mountain, let alone available for sale outside.
But aside from that, did it have no other functions?
Of course not.
Although Kong Xuan's own prestige limited the power of a single feather, making it impossible for Feng Xi to truly use it to participate in or influence the Phoenix Lineage's high-level decisions...
He did not even have the qualifications to listen in and learn about them.
But at the lower levels, it could be put to considerable use.
For example, he could learn the origins recorded by certain merchants traveling to and from Phoenix Perch Market, the general goods they purchased in the market, and where they ultimately went when they left.
This allowed him to avoid unnecessary price competition as much as possible and bring the principle that scarce goods were valuable into full effect.
"Information is a resource too!" Feng Xi sighed. "When all these scattered pieces are combined, they're enough to unleash an astonishing power and increase the profits by several more percentages!"
"Once this succeeds, I'll have to give Kong Xuan a huge red packet, a generous commission..."
"To thank him for the tremendous help he's given me!"
With a beaming smile, he used the Peacock Feather to move about and linger in various markets, borrowing the prestige of the Peacock.
He knocked on the doors of those market administrators, holding a feather in one hand and a gift in the other... With both approaches working together, what could he fail to obtain?
The market administrators were not low-ranking, but neither were they particularly high-ranking.
The lands of Phoenix Perch Mountain were marked and arranged using combinations of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, with each territory named a district.
Jiazi District, Yichou District... There were sixty districts in total.
Each district had one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred markets!
Doing the math, there were several million markets... Unless one was the chief administrator in charge of an entire major district, an ordinary individual market administrator truly had little ability to resist the Peacock Feather.
Besides, what Feng Xi wanted had little to do with the Feathered Clan. He was earning money from outsiders... so they simply let him do as he pleased.
After making the rounds, the jade slips he had used to record information were filled with tens of thousands of entries.
Feng Xi had no patience for dealing with all this himself--he had people behind him!
With tens of thousands of Witch Clan elites there, how could he not put them to use?
He sent all the information on the jade slips directly to the public network, allowing the experts skilled at planning situations and processing data to make arrangements.
The Witch Clan had plenty of such people.
After all, this was a clan formed from the achievements of the Human Race's finest. Every individual was absolutely above the average level of ability among the Human Race!
Everyone had their own specialty, and some had even left their names in the annals of history, shaking the ancient and modern world!
Now that they were needed, nearly ten thousand people immediately stepped forward and silently performed their deductions and calculations.
Very soon, a plan was about to be completed.
Within it, a summary of the information had been used to deduce many hidden details from the tiniest clues. From there, the conditions of markets in various places were inferred, with the routes taken by the Witch Clan travelers being of paramount importance.
One person spoke, another added on, and these elites were passionate and excited.
"With this information supporting us, we won't be able to do business just once."
"That's right... We can make the snowball bigger and bigger!"
"Bring in one batch of goods, sell them all after reaching the next location, then purchase another batch in the same place and sell it farther on..." someone said. "Originally, we didn't know which goods would sell better in a new location. Besides, with time and circumstances limiting us, we had no way to investigate on the spot... But now?"
"These merchants who stopped here to transfer goods and stock up have already exposed everything to us—the goods they sold to Phoenix Perch Mountain, the routes they traveled, and the goods they purchased before leaving!"
"Hahaha... A beautiful future is waving to us!"
"Every time our team reaches a new place, it means our wealth will multiply several or even dozens of times over!"
"Although top-tier resources often can't be bought with low-level currency and are mostly exchanged for other equally precious items... I'll be satisfied even with this."
"For a Golden Immortal to advance to the Grand Unity realm, they need enough resources to fill an entire minor chiliocosm before their life origin can advance and allow them to become one with the universe... And now, hope lies before us. It can let us rapidly gather several tenths of the accumulation needed for this stage!"
"This is a road of diplomacy, and also a road of wealth!"
Many people were delighted, feeling that they could see a beautiful future.
Feng Xi was even more so.
He sighed at how every profession had its specialists. The Witch Clan had never lacked elite talents capable of expanding profits to such an outrageous degree.
At the same time, he took the opportunity to formalize the alliance that had only recently been established.
What did formalization mean?
It meant being strict and orderly, with leaders, a middle tier, and the most basic units at the bottom.
With tears glimmering in his eyes, Feng Xi ruthlessly chopped several slices from the share of future profits that had not yet reached his hands.
The profits he cut away were prepared as reward commissions for the elites currently processing the information... Others had worked themselves to the bone for the organization. How could they not be rewarded?
However, when distributing them, Feng Xi played a little trick. He marked them as rewards funded by him personally instead of writing them into the fair division stipulated in the contracts.
Only by being generous with rewards can one win people's hearts--this is what it means to gain much support from those who follow the Dao.
Countless examples throughout history had shown that a leader had to be generous, willing to let others share the bones and drink the soup after he ate the meat, in order to accomplish great things.
Some founding emperors were inferior to their ministers in governing ability--those ministers were talents whose names had entered the historical record. In military command, they were inferior to their generals--those generals had illustrious achievements and were celebrated as military sages throughout the ages.
But why was it that the one who laughed last, the one who sat upon the throne, was still that emperor?
There were many reasons, but being generous enough and granting abundant, fair rewards was certainly one of the most important.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with generosity. The key was that he also had to tell others--
This money was a reward I gave you!
At this moment, even though Feng Xi was nominally equal to the other witches... this one move was the most effective at gathering people's hearts and building his own base.
If one day I want to do something... using this base to build momentum, turning one into ten and ten into a hundred, spreading contagiously, perhaps I can draw the entire lower level of the Witch Clan into acting in concert with me...
"Smack!" Feng Xi suddenly slapped his own head. Somewhat amused, he muttered, "What am I thinking?"
"If I really went that far and mobilized the entire lower level of the Witch Clan... wouldn't that amount to starting a rebellion?"
Against an external enemy--the Demon Clan--Feng Xi had no need to do this. The ancestral witches would take the lead and fight on the front lines.
Only when acting against the inside would such an operation have any meaning!
And against the inside... aside from overthrowing the ancestral witches' rule, what other possibility was there?
Feng Xi was a law-abiding citizen of Houtu's division. How could he commit such a grossly disrespectful act?
Let alone do it, he did not even dare to think about it!
He simply lacked the courage!
Unless some supreme giant lent him the audacity to defy the heavens!
Before you continue