At the end of the year, Li Ling met repeatedly with members of the merchant guild to discuss the various arrangements for supporting the founding of his sect.
This time, it was not just Shang Yuxian negotiating with him, but many other members of the guild as well.
On Northsky Island, several people sat together in a quiet, elegant pavilion belonging to the guild.
Holding a jade pot, Mu Qingsi personally brewed spirit tea for their guests with practiced grace.
This tea was a specialty Li Ling had brought back from the Snail Shell Sanctuary, imbued with the fragrance of a hundred flowers. Soon, its aroma filled the room as though countless blossoms had opened.
"What wonderful tea. If I'm not mistaken, this must be the Hundred-Flower Breath-Freshening Tea produced at Madam Zhao's estate? And the finest of the fine, at that. It isn't easy to buy elsewhere."
The speaker was a middle-aged-looking cultivator whose broad, corpulent body resembled a small mountain. His aura ran deep, and he wore a bright yellow brocade magical robe with a large coin emblem embroidered prominently upon it.
His name was Kuang Li, a Steward Elder of the Money Guild who had spent many years at Foundation Establishment, and one of the capable elites stationed at its North Sea Branch Headquarters.
Beside Kuang Li, a female cultivator in a scarlet court-style satin dress, her bearing dignified and luxurious, said, "Madam Zhao has long possessed methods of the Incense Path. Her three incense formulas-Hand-Rubbing Incense, Skin-Smoothing Incense, and Breath-Fragrance-have always been renowned throughout the North Sea. Many factions within the guild have sought the right to sell them on her behalf, without success. It seems Fellow Daoist Li truly has a wide circle of acquaintances, to know even such an accomplished senior."
She was also