The Old Marquis had placed great hopes on Ning Xiaochuan because he had the potential to cultivate to the Earth Venerable Realm and the strength to hold up the entire Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion.
The Old Marquis said, "Once you have properly mastered the shopfront businesses under the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion and gained experience for a time, I will gradually hand over the core assets to you: the mines, martial estates, army, fiefs, and so on."
"The Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion has over three hundred and seventy thousand shops involved in every trade and profession. They are a tangled, cumbersome mess. After taking them over, how do you intend to manage them?"
Ning Xiaochuan was still too young, after all, and had experienced too little. On one hand, the Old Marquis wanted to test him; on the other, he wanted to guide him.
No one could be completely at ease entrusting such an enormous fortune to an eighteen-year-old child.
Ning Xiaochuan's mind raced. After pondering for a moment, he said, "I think the value of these three hundred and seventy thousand shops absolutely cannot be overlooked. If managed well, they can become a pillar industry for the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion, with even greater deterrent power than the army."
"Although the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion has many shops, they lack integration. If all these shops can be brought together into a Chamber of Commerce Alliance under unified management, they will certainly create even greater value. Twice the value, three times... perhaps even ten times the value."
The Old Marquis said, "The idea of forming a Chamber of Commerce Alliance was proposed by the ancestors of the previous generation. However, the difficulty of integration was immense, and in the end, the losses outweighed the gains. The matter was simply dropped."