Chen Xianhe's Business Talent

"Your subordinate obeys."

Chen Zhi accepted the order and withdrew.

He had already more or less guessed how the Young Clan Leader intended to increase the number of women in the clan.

That was right—by doing what nearly every cultivation force in the Myriad Star Sea did: buying female slaves from Cloud Country.

The war between the Qianyuan Sword Sect and Cloud Country on Xianyun Continent had lasted for four hundred years.

Over those four centuries.

Whether they were cultivator prisoners of war or ordinary mortals from Cloud Country, great numbers had been sold into the Myriad Star Sea, becoming slaves of its major cultivation forces.

Cultivator prisoners from Cloud Country had it somewhat better.

If the opposing force could afford the Spirit Stones, the Qianyuan Sword Sect allowed them to ransom their captives back by paying Spirit Stones.

Cloud Country treated Qianyuan Sword Sect prisoners the same way.

After fighting for so many years, the two sides had long formed a set of unspoken rules.

Everyone struggled within those unwritten rules.

Otherwise, if neither side observed any rules at all, their high-level cultivators would simply slaughter the other side's low-level cultivators at will. Such actions were the most destructive to an enemy force, digging out its very foundations.

Yet neither the Qianyuan Sword Sect nor the sect behind Cloud Country had chosen that path.

In Chen Daoxuan's view.

High-level cultivators were strategic forces to any cultivation power, much like nuclear weapons.

The war between the Myriad Star Sea and Cloud Country, meanwhile, was a slow, grinding process of wearing away the other side's reserves.

Relying on the seven Immortal Cities the Qianyuan Sword Sect had established in Cloud Country—no, now only six Immortal Cities—it crazily devoured the lives of cultivators from both sides every year.

After so many years of war.

Neither side could simply stop whenever it wished.

If the Qianyuan Sword Sect's initial attack on Cloud Country had been driven only by profit and vengeance, then now the conflict between them was no longer merely about profit. It also carried the blood feud forged over four centuries.

For instance, twelve Immortal generation cultivators of the Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island had fallen on the Cloud Country Battlefield. How could they not hate Cloud Country cultivators?

Of course they hated them!

Cloud Country cultivators felt the same way toward cultivators of the Myriad Star Sea.

However, judging from the results of the war over all these years, the Qianyuan Sword Sect had always held the upper hand and maintained its offensive against Cloud Country.

Other than losing one Immortal City in that battle fifty years ago, the Qianyuan Sword Sect had rarely suffered defeat in its war against Cloud Country.

After arranging the clan's affairs, Chen Daoxuan set out for Guang'an Prefecture with the remaining fifty-odd Crimson Shadow Flying Swords.

One month later.

On the deck of the Azure Dragon.

"Phew!"

Chen Daoxuan stretched, leaned against the railing, and gazed at the magnificent sight of the Guang'an Prefecture Port, its white sails blanketing the sky. He let out a breath of stale air.

"No matter how many times I see it, this scene still feels incomparably spectacular!"

Even through the eyes of Chen Daoxuan's previous life.

The sheer volume of cargo passing through Guang'an Prefecture Port far exceeded that of any modern port from his former world.

As far as Chen Daoxuan knew.

The Prefecture City of Guang'an Prefecture alone was home to over ten million members of the Zhou Family.

One had to know that this was not a modern city from his previous life, with skyscrapers everywhere. The Prefecture City of Guang'an Prefecture did not have so many steel-and-concrete buildings to increase its population density.

Guang'an Prefecture could accommodate such an enormous population solely because its urban sprawl stretched beyond the limits of the eye, dwarfing even the cities of Earth from his previous life.

This was Chen Daoxuan's second visit to Guang'an Prefecture.

He was familiar with the way.

Before long, he settled the clan members brought on this journey into an inn in the Prefecture City where mortals lived.

After settling the clan members.

Chen Daoxuan headed alone toward the Rogue Cultivator Market in Guang'an Prefecture's inner city.

He queued up and entered the inner city.

By the time he had gone through the whole process, dusk was already approaching.

Chen Daoxuan did not dare delay. He hailed a Cloud-Treading Beast Cart and headed for the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop in the Rogue Cultivator Market.

One incense stick later.

Chen Daoxuan got out of the cart.

After stepping down, he seemed unable to believe the sight before him.

At this moment, the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop was packed so tightly by Rogue Cultivators and cultivators from small families who frequented the Rogue Cultivator Market that not even water could pass through.

"Shopkeeper, hurry up and begin! If you don't start soon, it'll be dark!"

"Exactly! Hurry up and draw!"

"Shopkeeper Chen, start already! I've come for over a month straight and haven't won even once. I refuse to believe my luck is so bad that I can't win a single time!"

"What's that compared to me? I've been waiting here since three months ago!"

"..."

Standing outside the crowd, Chen Daoxuan listened to their clamoring voices and looked toward the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop surrounded by people. At last, he pieced together most of what had happened.

It turned out that the several dozen First Grade Lower Rank and medium-grade flying swords at the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop had become wildly popular throughout the surrounding area shortly after sales began on the first day.

Chen Daoxuan had been mentally prepared for the shop's flying swords to sell well.

After all, he had conducted thorough market research before opening the shop.

The quality of Magic Artifacts sold by other Artifact Shops simply could not rival that of the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop.

It would have been strange if the Chen Family's flying swords had failed to sell.

But Chen Daoxuan had never imagined that the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop would create such a huge stir in the Rogue Cultivator Market.

After all, he had only left Chen Xianhe with fewer than forty flying swords.

Judging by the feverish demand Chen Daoxuan saw, they should have sold out long ago. How could this scene still exist?

The reason the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop had become so popular was entirely because Chen Xianhe had pulled off a round of hunger marketing.

On the very first day after the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop opened, Chen Xianhe realized that the Chen Family's flying swords would sell like wildfire.

But he understood even more clearly that the shop's inventory could never satisfy the enormous market of the Rogue Cultivator Market.

One had to know.

The Rogue Cultivator Market of Guang'an Prefecture had several hundred thousand resident cultivators alone, not to mention the endless stream of people coming and going every day.

According to the Zhou Family's statistics, the total daily traffic of cultivators entering and leaving Guang'an Prefecture exceeded five hundred thousand.

This showed just how prosperous Guang'an Prefecture was.

For such a massive market, the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop's meager inventory would not even raise a ripple if thrown into it.

Chen Xianhe could not possibly sell out all the flying swords on the first day, then shut the shop for the next several months, could he?

Thus.

The clever Chen Xianhe came up with a solution: a lottery!

When the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop first opened, he drew one lucky customer each day, granting them an opportunity to purchase a flying sword from the shop at the normal market price.

Chen Daoxuan had initially left behind twenty-three Low-grade First-tier Magical Artifacts and eleven Medium-grade First-tier Magical Artifacts.

At that rate, the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop could hold out for at most a little over a month before it still had to close.

Left with no other choice, Chen Xianhe could only keep extending the interval between each drawing.

By now, Chen Xianhe basically held one drawing a week, and he had finally waited for Chen Daoxuan to come replenish the stock.

Chen Xianhe swept his gaze over the crowd and was just about to announce the result when the corner of his eye caught Chen Daoxuan among the people. Excitement immediately surged onto his face.

Chen Daoxuan noticed that although only a few months had passed, Thirteenth Uncle's complexion was even better than it had been in the clan.

Naturally. Without all those troubling clan matters, and with the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shop's business flourishing day by day, Chen Xianhe's complexion could hardly be poor.

"Shopkeeper Chen, hurry up and announce the result! Everyone's waiting!"

"Yeah, announce it already! I've waited a whole week."

"Hurry up!"

"..."

Amid the crowd's urging, Chen Xianhe took a specially made slip of paper from a black stone box.

Chen Xianhe glanced at the slip and said, "Congratulations to customer Number Jia Seven, who has won an opportunity to purchase a flying sword from our shop!"

"Me, me, me! It's me! Hahaha!"

A short, stocky man with a face full of flesh squeezed out from the crowd, wildly waving a slip identical to Chen Xianhe's in his hand as he cried out in delight.