Afternoon.
Ma Feifei trudged back to the doorway with his little stool, looking utterly defeated, and sat down again.
He had written about sixteen thousand words for two hundred Spirit Crystals. On average, each Spirit Crystal bought him only "eighty-three" words.
That was right: he had run out of Spirit Crystals.
By that calculation, Ma Feifei would need nearly a hundred thousand Spirit Crystals to finish copying the Thousand Gold Formulas!
What a coincidence. That was about the same as the total sales of My Fair Princess.
The bookstore had been open for several months, but all told, he had earned no more than two thousand Spirit Crystals. A hundred thousand? Ha. Not a chance.
He couldn't copy the book anymore, and business at the store was poor. At least he'd once had the Three Moneybags, who brought in dozens of Spirit Crystals for the bookstore every day.
Now Yang Chengzhi had shot to fame at the Dragon Ranking tournament, claiming first place on the Dragon Ranking. He was basking in glory and had become a key student cultivated by Zhenguan Academy. Spirit Crystals, cultivation techniques, martial skills, spirit weapons—he could have anything he wanted. He probably wouldn't be coming back.
Zhou Zhuling had gone with her mother to Yuanfang City in search of the living Buddha from the West. Zhou Guanyu was now the bookstore's only customer, contributing just "seven" or eight Spirit Crystals a day. Who knew how many years it would take to earn a hundred thousand from him? And that was without counting the dragoness in the shop who ate Spirit Crystals for a living. Ma Feifei would probably never scrape together a hundred thousand, even if he worked himself to death.
Once a person lost all hope, nothing felt worth doing.
That was exactly how Ma Feifei felt now. He sat lazily on his little stool, leaning against the door and watching passersby.
Winter had come to this world, and the weather was turning cold. People on the streets had started dressing more warmly. Most of them, however, were ordinary folk. Without the strength of cultivators, they couldn't shrug off the cold or the heat.
"Actually, being an ordinary person isn't so bad. At least you can feel the seasons change." Ma Feifei looked down at the thin robe he was still wearing and sighed.
With his cultivation at the peak of Spirit Master Stage Nine, he could no longer feel changes in the weather. He couldn't experience the wonders of nature's changing seasons, which was rather a shame.
"Shopkeeper, I've broken through!" Zhou Guanyu exclaimed excitedly from inside the bookstore.
After just a few hours of comprehending The Legend of the Condor Heroes, he had advanced from the late stage of Spirit Master Stage Four to Spirit Master Stage Five! It was only a tiny breakthrough, but the speed was still astonishing.
Ma Feifei heard him from the doorway but barely reacted. "Have you comprehended any cultivation techniques or martial skills?"
The greatest benefit hidden in The Legend of the Condor Heroes wasn't the boost to cultivation, but the cultivation techniques and martial skills. Zhou Guanyu had already been at the late stage of Spirit Master Stage Four; after breaking through, he was only at the early stage of Spirit Master Stage Five. The cultivation benefit he got from the book was basically just a bonus from the system. He'd probably get the same result from any other book—as long as it wasn't one Ma Feifei had written.
Zhou Guanyu shook his head. "Not yet."
"How far have you read?" Ma Feifei asked.
"I haven't finished the first chapter..."
"Then keep reading."
He hadn't even finished the first chapter. It would be a miracle if he'd comprehended any cultivation techniques or martial skills. No profound martial arts appeared in the first chapter of The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
It looked like he couldn't copy the book for now. He'd have to do a task first.
He'd figured out how the system worked: its tasks were linked together, one after another. The Thousand Gold Formulas required Spirit Crystals to copy, so the system had given him a task to sell books. If he could sell them, he'd have the Spirit Crystals he needed to copy the Thousand Gold Formulas.
Making money through the bookstore's usual business was no longer realistic. Selling books was his only option!
But that raised the question: how could he sell My Fair Princess, which cost ten Spirit Crystals?
"Maybe I should do some market research tomorrow?" Ma Feifei murmured, watching the people passing by outside.
"Remember! If a customer comes in, be welcoming. Don't keep a straight face. Remember, every customer who walks through that door is carrying a fortune in Spirit Crystals. Our goal is to get those Spirit Crystals out of their pockets, so treat those wealthy patrons like family. Understand?"
The next day, before leaving, Ma Feifei called Yun Qingyang over and spoke to her earnestly.
He planned to go out and promote My Fair Princess today, so he had to leave Yun Qingyang in charge of the store.
The problem was that Yun Qingyang's face was far too cold. Almost no one wanted to get close to her. Even Zhou Zhuling and the others, who came to read at the bookstore every day, had never heard her say a word. She was committed to being cold and aloof to the bitter end. An employee like that would probably drive away any customers who came in.
If not for her extraordinary strength, Ma Feifei would never have hired someone like her. What would be the point? To hurt his store's business?
"No one will come," Yun Qingyang said after staring at Ma Feifei for a long while.
Ma Feifei was annoyed. His employee wasn't just cold; she also knew how to talk back.
But before he could get angry, he realized Yun Qingyang was right!
Ever since she'd come to the bookstore, not a single customer had been added~~
And it wasn't just the new employee Yun Qingyang. In the several months since the bookstore opened, even Ma Feifei himself had met so few customers he could count them on one hand!
"Fine! Do as you like." Ma Feifei waved a hand, dejected, and turned to leave.
But before he could get out, he suddenly sensed someone rushing toward him. The doorway blocked his view, leaving him in a blind spot, so he couldn't tell who it was. Still, he instinctively stopped and shifted aside.
A figure came rushing into the bookstore.
He was a middle-aged man, though it was impossible to guess his age. He could have been forty, or he could have been four hundred!
He wore luxurious clothes made from the pelts of spirit beasts whose names Ma Feifei didn't know. They even gave off a faint, pleasant fragrance.
As soon as the man stepped into the bookstore, he saw Ma Feifei standing beside him. He quickly composed himself and put on an air of importance. "Is this the Mysterious Bookstore?"
Ma Feifei nodded instinctively. "Yes."
The middle-aged man looked pleased. His eyes swept around the room. The bookstore was rather sparsely occupied. Behind the counter stood a cold, aloof woman, presumably the owner of this little shop. In the corner sat a young man reading a book, presumably a customer. And the ordinary man standing in front of him was presumably a hired hand.
"It's a little quiet in here," the middle-aged man remarked softly. By his count, there was only one customer in the shop.
"The store just opened, so it's bound to be a little quiet. Would you like to read something?" Seeing a new customer, Ma Feifei decided not to leave just yet and greeted him with a smile.
With all the commotion, Yun Qingyang and Zhou Guanyu had naturally noticed the man. Hearing Ma Feifei claim that the Mysterious Bookstore had just opened, Zhou Guanyu couldn't help rolling his eyes. Even Yun Qingyang, who was always cold and aloof, looked taken aback. She looked at Ma Feifei and raised a few fingers on the hand hanging at her side, as if counting how long she'd been at the bookstore.
The middle-aged man nodded, apparently agreeing with Ma Feifei.
"Oh, reading costs one Spirit Crystal per hour?" The middle-aged man finally noticed the sign propped up on the floor.
Before Ma Feifei could explain, the man seemed to understand. "That makes sense. Books this miraculous are worth the price."
Ma Feifei's heart leaped with joy. Could this be a customer from the Imperial Capital? Was word-of-mouth finally starting to pay off? It had only been three days since Yang Chengzhi's match against Xiaoyaozi, and he hadn't expected someone to come so soon.
While Ma Feifei was still thinking this over, the middle-aged man had already stepped forward and headed toward Yun Qingyang.
"You must be the shopkeeper. I'm Zhang Yunji, from the Imperial Capital."
"..."
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