Li Xiuchang had happily acquired the first flying boat of his life.
From then on, he was no longer a target for the "flying boat rental drivers" looking for passengers.
On the way back, Senior Brother Wang Long was still riding Li Xiuchang's flying boat. Although it was clearly not raining, he insisted on pulling up the canopy and crouching inside the boat, leaving Li Xiuchang utterly puzzled.
The two of them flew toward the sect at an unhurried pace, chatting along the way about their Smoked Spirit Meat business.
"Sales in the outer sect have been a little sluggish lately. The last batch of spirit meat took two whole days to sell out. Fortunately, the reputation of Smoked Spirit Meat has reached the inner sect now. I'm sure we'll be able to open up the inner sect market soon," Wang Long said.
Li Xiuchang had anticipated this situation long ago. The audience for Smoked Spirit Meat was too small, and it was concentrated within the Immortal Dust Sect.
Their large-scale shipments had quickly saturated the outer sect market.
Even after opening up the inner sect market, it would only buy them a little more time.
Inner sect disciples were generally better off financially than outer sect disciples. Moreover, most of them lived like ascetics: either cultivating in seclusion or accepting missions to hunt demons and exterminate evildoers outside.
As a result, inner sect disciples consumed Grain-Aversion Pills more quickly, so Smoked Spirit Meat definitely had a market in the inner sect.
However, there were far fewer inner sect disciples than outer sect disciples, and even fewer of them were Qi Condensation Cultivators who needed Grain-Aversion Pills.
Therefore, the inner sect market was not large either and might soon become saturated as well.
Li Xiuchang did not take it too seriously. "Once sales in the inner sect slow down too, if we can't find a new sales channel, our sales of Smoked Spirit Meat strips will definitely plummet. But it doesn't matter. We'll earn as much as we can. We never expected to rely on this for the rest of our lives."
Wang Long nodded. "Later on, we'll probably rely mainly on old customers making repeat purchases. By then, we can reduce the scale of production directly, or even stop production altogether and stock up on more goods in advance to sell gradually."
Neither of them had any intention of making Smoked Spirit Meat a long-term business. They only wanted to earn some spirit stones to tide them over.
Once their skills or Cultivation Levels improved, they might not even think much of the small amount of spirit stones they were earning now.
Senior Brother Wang Long's goal was to become a Tier 2 Talisman Master, while Li Xiuchang wanted to use these spirit stones to help himself break through to the Third Layer of Qi Condensation.
Once he reached the Third Layer of Qi Condensation and gained Spiritual Sense, he would be able to look inward and see the magical power in his dantian. Then, he could try directly increasing his magical power through "length" and raise his Cultivation Level.
If he succeeded, he would never need to spend time cultivating again. As long as he focused on practicing his skills and accumulating length, his Cultivation Level would shoot upward.
After being away for more than half a month, Zhang Wanzhi finally returned. He had an old man in his hand, and behind him followed a burly, broad-backed middle-aged man with a face full of flesh. He looked anything but good-natured.
"This kid, tsk, tsk..."
Zhang Wanzhi looked toward the direction of Eastern Geng District No. 18, momentarily at a loss for words.
Back then, he had left Li Xiuchang fifty spirit stones, hoping that Li Xiuchang would cultivate properly and improve his Cultivation Level quickly.
But only after returning did he discover that Li Xiuchang had used that small amount of start-up capital to launch a successful business.
"There's something interesting about his special-attributed magical power, and his Cultivation Level hasn't fallen behind either. He's already at the Second Layer of Qi Condensation. Looks like Old Gui wasn't wrong—there's definitely something special about this kid," Zhang Wanzhi said happily.
He was not afraid that Li Xiuchang had problems. He was afraid that Li Xiuchang would be too mediocre.
The greater Li Xiuchang's problems, the more unusual and monstrous he was, the greater the hope that he could help them.
They had long since fallen into a dead end, waiting only for a chance to break the stalemate.
Behind Zhang Wanzhi, the burly man with the fleshy face said in a toneless voice, "Still not fast enough. If he cultivated demonic techniques, I could help him establish his Foundation within a year."
Zhang Wanzhi shook his head. "That won't be necessary. Forcing a seedling to grow by pulling it upward isn't a good thing. We've waited all these years, so there's no need to rush this instant."
After a pause, Zhang Wanzhi pointed toward the crowd gathered around Eastern Geng District No. 18 and asked, "Old Mo, what do you think we should do about these people?"
Under their management, Eastern Geng District had always maintained a quiet environment with few people. But now, a crowd was bustling around Li Xiuchang's residence, keeping Zhang Wanzhi on tenterhooks.
Inside and outside the courtyard, ten fire tenders were working at full steam. Dozens of people were even flying through the sky collecting smoke, buzzing around like flies.
Eastern Geng District had never been this lively.
They were all people burdened with secrets. With so many eyes and ears around, speaking and acting had become extremely uncomfortable for them.
The burly man, Old Mo, glanced over and said, "Create an accident and give him tens of thousands of spirit stones. This smoked meat won't earn him many spirit stones. Once he looks down on such a small amount, he'll naturally stop working."
Zhang Wanzhi chuckled. "You don't know that kid's temperament. He's a match for Chen the Turtle. I had to expend quite a bit of effort just to get him to accept fifty spirit stones. Tens of thousands of spirit stones? He'd probably think someone was trying to buy his life... We'd better find a way to get him to move those furnaces somewhere else."
Old Mo thought for a moment, then nodded. "Leave it to me."
Li Xiuchang had no idea when Zhang Wanzhi had left, nor did he know when he had returned.
After returning from the marketplace, he finished dealing with the matters at hand and entered the cultivation room once more to cultivate in seclusion.
Night fell.
To cultivators, day and night made no difference.
Especially with the Immortal Dust Sect's Sect Protecting Great Array, which had the effect of gathering moonlight. Even in the dead of night, visibility was excellent.
Inside and outside the courtyard, ten fire tenders at the Late Qi Condensation stage who were also Tier 1 Talisman Masters were working in a steady rhythm. More than forty Qi Condensation Cultivators were still collecting smoke in the sky. Not a single person had gone off work to rest simply because darkness had fallen.
Senior Brother Wang Long, meanwhile, was in the Quiet Room inside Li Xiuchang's house, fully focused on drawing talismans.
After working with those fire tenders for so long, they had developed an understanding. He no longer needed to supervise them constantly and only had to step outside to check on them occasionally.
Now that Senior Brother Wang Long was flush with funds, he had been practicing drawing Tier 2 Talismans whenever he had free time, striving toward becoming a Tier 2 Talisman Master.
"Failure!"
Wang Long watched the talisman paper in his hand turn to flying ash and sighed.
"It's so quiet tonight."
He paused, then sensed that something was wrong. Tonight was a little too quiet... Those fellows couldn't be slacking off, could they?
He pushed the door open and walked outside. The scene before him left him standing there in a daze.
Several fire tenders wore foolish smiles on their faces, their eyes unfocused as they swayed drunkenly in place, their arms still groping at the air before them.
Above his head, the more than forty people were in the same state. A few of the female disciples were slightly better off, but they too wore bewildered expressions. It was obvious that their minds had been bewitched.
Wang Long's vision blurred. Suddenly, he saw a fairy of peerless beauty, holy as jade, walking toward him with delicate lotus steps. Her clothes were disheveled, half-covering and half-revealing her body, leaving him dazed.
Wang Long had no idea what was happening to him. Acting against his will, he lunged toward the clearly suspicious fairy.
He grabbed the fairy in his arms, but when he turned his head for a look, how could she be any fairy?
She was nothing but a skeleton with scraps of flesh clinging to it.
A ghost!
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