"The Sunlight Cheat" Worked! Sales Channels?

Back in the small room at Spirit Hall, Lin Xia eagerly shut the door.

He carefully placed the Sun-Gathering Mirror by the window where direct sunlight could reach it, adjusted its angle and height, and made sure the stand was firmly set.

"Come here, Bulbasaur!"

Lin Xia patted the floor beside him.

Bulbasaur had long been raring to go. At the call, it immediately scampered obediently beneath the Sun-Gathering Mirror, adjusted its posture, and aimed the strange seed bulb on its back directly at the convex lens hanging overhead.

Sunlight streamed through the spotless window, shining unobstructed onto the crystal-clear lens.

In an instant, something miraculous happened!

The once-gentle sunlight was captured, focused, and condensed by the lens's perfect convex curve!

A blazing golden-white pillar of light, countless times brighter than the one from his previous experiment with crystal scraps, almost solidified into substance.

With a hum, it struck the exact center of the mysterious seed on Bulbasaur's back!

The spot of light was tiny and dazzling, and its temperature abruptly soared!

"Bulba—saur—!!!"

Bulbasaur's body jerked violently of its own accord, and then it let out an unprecedented cry of bliss!

It was not pain, but the utter delight of drought-stricken land receiving sweet rain!

Bulbasaur's skin took on a healthy, warm sheen visible to the naked eye. The seed bulb on its back greedily opened slightly, while the veins along its edges lit up with a crazed green glow, like a starving traveler suddenly finding a table laden with delicacies!

Vast, pure, incomparably concentrated solar energy was being madly devoured and absorbed by that strange seed without the slightest obstruction!

This energy was more than a hundred times purer than the naturally diffused sunlight in the wild. In an instant, it activated the cycle of life energy within its body and even stirred the deeply buried Toxic source within it. Tempered and catalyzed by the pure solar energy, the two flowed together with extraordinary vitality.

Lin Xia watched nervously from the side, his spiritual power tightly locked onto Bulbasaur's body.

What he sensed nearly made him leap for joy.

The results were astonishingly good!

Its absorption efficiency had increased by several times more than he had expected!

This Sunlight Cheat had worked!

Without using poison, Bulbasaur could rely on this Sun-Gathering Mirror to cultivate at a speed no slower than it could at Plant Academy with the Sunlight Hall and Emerald Black Soil!

Just then, hearty laughter and the sound of the door opening came from outside—Elder Salas had arrived.

Clearly, after Lin Xia had finished reporting in, he had come specifically to check in on this young man he thought highly of.

"Lin Xia, you should be getting familiar with your district today, right? A group of children will need to awaken soon..."

Salas spoke as he walked inside.

However, when his gaze passed Lin Xia and saw the strange, dazzling scene unfolding in the room, Elder Salas's usually stern face instantly froze!

A glaring, scorching beam of sunlight descended from above, striking a small crystal device with precision. It was condensed into a strand of light as thin as a hair yet incomparably fierce, hitting the center of the seed on Bulbasaur's back, which was now radiating astonishing vitality!

The little fellow was bathed in a halo brimming with life, and an air of comfort filled the entire room.

"...Th-this... what kind of Soul Tool is this?!"

Even the well-informed elder of a branch hall stared wide-eyed, his voice filled with incredulous shock.

His sharp gaze locked onto the transparent lens at the core of the beam, which refracted a dazzling halo.

"It can... condense sunlight to this extent?! It can actively guide the gathering of life energy?!"

"No, no, this isn't gathered life energy. This is life energy converted from sunlight!"

Salas felt as though everything he had understood over the past several decades had been violently overturned in that moment!

This was not a Soul Tool at all, but an entirely new method he had never heard of, one that borrowed the mighty power of nature!

Lin Xia rubbed his nose. Seeing Elder Salas's expression, as if he had discovered a new continent, he felt both a little smug and a little helpless—

I wanted to keep a low profile while growing stronger, but it looks like... the Sunlight Cheat has been exposed to my boss right from the start?

For a moment, Lin Xia did not know whether that was good or bad!

But there was no way he could conceal it now. After weighing the pros and cons, Lin Xia decided to reveal part of the truth.

Before Lin Xia could speak, however, Salas impatiently began questioning him.

"Lin Xia, how did you do this?"

"No, Lin Xia, would you be willing to hand over the method for making this to Spirit Hall? Spirit Hall rewards special talents. For example, you definitely can't make many of these by yourself, but if you give it to Spirit Hall, we can help you produce and sell it. When the time comes, you'll receive dividends as well!"

Hearing this, Lin Xia looked at Salas in disbelief, his eyes full of confusion.

"Why?"

Perhaps because he was in a good mood, Salas immediately answered Lin Xia's question.

"Lin Xia, although Spirit Hall is the strongest soul master force on the continent and the holy land with the greatest number of soul masters, there are many things we cannot conveniently do."

"Politics and economic development, for one, dictate that Spirit Hall cannot amass wealth as aggressively as the two great empires and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

"Spirit Hall may not lack money, but who would ever complain about having too much?"

At that point, Lin Xia instantly understood the meaning behind Salas's words.

Spirit Hall was not poor, but neither was it wealthy. After all, it had to train so many soul masters, and the soul master allowances were funded by the two great empires, with Spirit Hall merely distributing them.

If it wanted to go further in winning people's hearts, Spirit Hall could simply bypass the two great empires and pay the soul master allowances itself.

At the end of the day, Spirit Hall had money, just not enough of it!

But was this thing of his really that useful?

"Elder Salas, I don't understand. Although I developed this thing, its applications aren't very broad. I originally made it only to help Bulbasaur. Not everyone can use it!"

"Do soul masters really need this?"

After Lin Xia briefly explained the magnifying lens's function, he had not expected Salas to become even happier.

"Hahahaha, Lin Xia, let me ask you a simple question. In this world, are there more soul masters or more commoners?"

"Of course there are more commoners. Oh, I get it!"

Lin Xia had only gotten halfway through his sentence before he instantly understood what Salas meant.

Seeing that, Salas added an explanation.

"This little thing you made is inexpensive, and in an emergency, it can serve as a decent fire-starting tool. It may even have professional and specialized uses I haven't discovered yet."

"On top of that, it may be extremely useful to soul masters with plant-type martial souls. So you don't need to worry about not being able to sell it. Even if it is sold as a toy, it will have decent sales. After all, it's a novelty!"

"All you need to do is wait to collect the money!"