"You want Uncle Jian to do business for you?"
In the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's council hall, Ning Fengzhi put down the ledger in his hands and looked at Lu Ye, who stood before the table, a hint of surprise on his face.
Gu Rong, seated nearby, grew interested.
"What kind of business needs this old fellow to step in?"
"Selling a Soul Tool."
Lu Ye set a palm-sized black object on the table.
Gu Rong picked it up and turned it over, examining both sides.
It was a thin slab, smooth as a mirror on the front, with no complicated patterns engraved on the back. As far as he could sense, it had hardly any Soul Power fluctuations, nor could it be hiding any means of attack.
"This thing?"
"This thing."
"How much?"
"Two Gold Soul Coins."
Gu Rong froze for a moment, then turned to Chen Xin and burst out laughing.
"Old Sword Bastard, did you hear that? A deal worth two Gold Soul Coins, and he wants you to step in."
Chen Xin didn't even lift an eyelid.
"Still better than asking you to sell coffins."
Seeing the two about to argue again, Ning Fengzhi cleared his throat and turned back to Lu Ye.
"Tell me about it."
He knew Lu Ye fairly well.
A twenty-one-year-old Soul Saint who had just obtained his Seventh Soul Ring. A young man like him would be a genius worth cultivating with every resource in any sect.
Yet Lu Ye was equally invested in business.
At first, several of the chamber of commerce's veteran shopkeepers had assumed that letting a young Battle Soul Master look over the accounts was merely the sect master's way of grooming him. After he uncovered problems in several entries, they became much more courteous.
Now that he had come specifically to see Ning Fengzhi, surely it wasn't just to make two Gold Soul Coins.
Lu Ye took the phone back from Gu Rong and turned on the screen.
"Sect Master, this Soul Tool is called a phone."
"Take a look at this first."
He opened the camera and pointed it at Ning Fengzhi.
On the screen, the middle-aged man in elegant robes sat behind the table, a page of the ledger still pinched between his fingers.
Ning Fengzhi's gaze instantly froze.
He raised a hand.
The man on the screen raised his hand as well.
Gu Rong leaned in for a look and waved a hand in front of the lens. It immediately appeared in the image.
"For recording images?"
"That's right. It can record sound too."
Lu Ye stopped recording and played it back.
"Sect Master, this Soul Tool is called a phone."
His voice came out of the little black object. Then Ning Fengzhi raised his hand, and Gu Rong's palm swept across the image.
Everything that had just happened played out again, clear as day.
Gu Rong looked down at the phone, then at his own hand, and smiled. "An interesting little toy."
"But what does this have to do with Uncle Jian?" Ning Fengzhi asked.
Instead of rushing to answer, Lu Ye took out two more phones and placed one in front of Ning Fengzhi and the other in front of Chen Xin.
He tapped his own screen a few times and sent out the footage he had just recorded.
"Press here."
Ning Fengzhi tapped the strange icon as instructed.
The next moment, the familiar voice rang out again.
Only this time, it came from his own phone.
Gu Rong's smile faded somewhat.
Ning Fengzhi looked up at Lu Ye.
"What you just recorded can be sent to another one?"
"Once it's posted, anyone else with a phone can see it."
"How far away?"
Lu Ye pointed out the window.
"Sect Master, you could have someone take one down the mountain and try it."
Ning Fengzhi asked no more. He immediately summoned a disciple from outside the door and handed him the phone.
After giving his instructions, he looked down and watched the footage again.
This time, he watched especially closely.
Lu Ye didn't hurry him. He picked up the tea a maid had brought and took a sip.
Three days ago, he had still been trying to figure out how to send Qian Renxue a letter explaining that he would have to stay at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for a few more days.
Who could have imagined that, just after he absorbed his Seventh Soul Ring, a system twenty-one years late would suddenly come knocking?
Its name was quite impressive, too.
God-Level Culture and Entertainment System.
Lu Ye had almost thought he'd misheard.
Soul Masters, Soul Beasts, Martial Souls, Soul Rings.
He had cultivated for so many years in this world where a disagreement could bring roofs flying and mountains crashing down, only for the golden finger he'd been waiting for to turn out to be a marketplace stuffed with entertainment apps.
Apps for listening to music, reading novels, and playing games.
There was even a short-video icon that couldn't have been more familiar.
The app gifted upon his first binding was the Douyin Pure Enjoyment Edition.
The matching phone cost one Gold Soul Coin.
There were also rebates from user top-ups.
When Lu Ye bought his first phone, the first thing he did was open Douyin.
But after scrolling for ages, he didn't see a single soul.
He had thought something was wrong with the system, until he shot and posted a video himself. Only then did something finally appear on the homepage.
In this world, nobody made videos at all!
All the lively content he had seen through a screen in his previous life would have to be created by him, bit by bit.
Lu Ye lost sleep that night.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had shops, merchant caravans, money, and two Titled Douluo renowned across the continent.
The phones needed to be sold, and the first batch of videos needed viewers.
The perfect candidates were right in front of him.
"Sect Master, think about it. If a child who has just awakened their Martial Soul wanted to see a Titled Douluo in action, where could they usually go?"
Before Ning Fengzhi could speak, Gu Rong snorted.
"Does he think he can see a Titled Douluo whenever he wants?"
"That's why there's money to be made."
Lu Ye pointed at the phone.
"He'd only need to buy one, and he could see for himself what a strike from the world's number one attack Douluo actually looks like."
Chen Xin finally raised his eyes.
Gu Rong turned and shot him a glance.
"You certainly know how to choose flattering words for him."
"Senior Gu, naturally, we'll film yours too."
"Leave mine aside for now."
Gu Rong leaned back in his chair and looked at Chen Xin with a smile.
"First, I want to see how the world's number one attack Douluo plans to earn you those two Gold Soul Coins."
Chen Xin ignored him and asked Lu Ye just one question.
"What do I need to do?"
Lu Ye promptly set down his teacup.
"Find a more spacious place and use your sword as you normally would."
An incense stick later, at the back mountain.
Lu Ye stood below the stone steps, holding up his phone and aiming it ahead.
Chen Xin stood at the edge of a cliff, his snow-white hair lifted by the mountain wind, his robes flapping sharply.
A long sword, clear blue throughout and seemingly carved from crystal, had already appeared in his hand.
The Seven Kill Sword.
The moment the sword appeared, Gu Rong, who had still been laughing, fell silent too.
Lu Ye tightened his grip on the phone.
Chen Xin hadn't directed his presence at him, yet he could still clearly feel that even the mountain wind around them seemed to carry a piercing edge.
This was far more exciting than those special effects that had cost a fortune to make in his previous life.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
Chen Xin raised his sword.
With no wasted movement, he swung it.
A flash of brilliant sword light shot across the valley!
Everything went white before Lu Ye's eyes. Through the lens, the distant cliff face exploded with a roar, and a deep sword scar ran straight down from the top of the rock wall. Shattered stone and dust poured into the valley.
The rumbling echoes crashed among the mountains, lingering for a long time.
Even the stone steps beneath his feet trembled several times.
Lu Ye looked at the screen, the corners of his mouth slowly rising.
White robes, a long sword, a cliff, and that sword scar cutting across the rock face.
Once he posted this, how many sword-wielding Soul Masters would it keep awake at night?
Chen Xin had put away his Martial Soul and turned to walk over.
"Well?"
"See for yourself."
Lu Ye opened the video he had just shot.
Chen Xin's gaze fell on the screen.
In the footage, he stood at the cliff's edge, his long hair moving in the wind. Then he raised his hand and swung his sword.
Mountain rock exploded, and sword Qi crisscrossed the air.
Chen Xin said nothing.
Gu Rong, however, leaned over from the side, watched it once, and gave his assessment. "Passable."
Lu Ye held back a laugh and said nothing.
He dragged the video back to the beginning, chose a piece of music, and cut out the waiting at the start.
When he pressed play again, stirring music suddenly rang out.
The moment Chen Xin swung his sword coincided perfectly with a heavy drumbeat.
Gu Rong's eyelid twitched.
He had just seen that same strike with his own eyes, so how was it that putting it in this little thing and adding sound gave it an extra, indescribable grandeur?
Even Chen Xin reached out and took the phone.
He watched it once, then played it again.
Ning Fengzhi stood beside them, watching the scene, the smile in his eyes growing stronger.
He suddenly understood a little of why Lu Ye had insisted on finding Uncle Jian.
If even the man who had swung the sword wanted to watch it a few more times, what about the Soul Masters out there who had only heard Sword Douluo's name?
"Let's use this one." Chen Xin handed the phone back.
Lu Ye took it, but didn't post the video immediately.
"Senior, it would be best to post this one under your name."
"Does it make a difference?"
"Yes. In the future, people who want to see you use your sword can come looking specifically for your account."
Lu Ye pointed to his profile picture.
"Look, the name is here. Tap on it, and you can find the other videos this person has posted."
"In that case, use mine."
With permission granted, Lu Ye immediately picked up the phone he had prepared for Chen Xin and registered an account for him.
Username: Sword Dao Chen Xin.
The profile picture was taken directly from the video they had just shot.
A white-robed figure stood atop the mountain, the Seven Kill Sword held across his body.
Even Chen Xin himself nodded slightly after seeing it.
Lu Ye uploaded the edited video, hit publish, then refreshed the page on his own phone.
The homepage, which had shown only Ning Fengzhi flipping through account books a moment ago, now featured a flash of sword light cleaving a mountain cliff.
He casually tapped the red heart.
The number beside it changed from zero to one.
Chen Xin saw it clearly.
"What does that mean?"
"If other people enjoy your video, they can tap it."
Lu Ye showed him the number.
"The more people tap it, the bigger the number gets."
Gu Rong also took out the phone he had been given.
He naturally hadn't forgotten the operation he had just learned. He opened the page and, sure enough, saw Chen Xin's sword strike.
He watched it once.
Then he watched it again.
Lu Ye deliberately waited a while, but there was still only one red heart under Chen Xin's video.
Gu Rong had already put his phone away.
"Let's go."
Ning Fengzhi asked with a smile, "Uncle Gu, aren't you going to watch it some more?"
"What's there to see? I've been looking at that sword of his for decades."
With that, Gu Rong walked down the mountain with his hands clasped behind his back.
Lu Ye was about to follow when Gu Rong's voice reached him again.
"Kid, come here."
Lu Ye hurried forward a couple of steps.
Gu Rong glanced back at Chen Xin and lowered his voice.
"Change that bit of noise from before. Use something else."
"You mean the background music?"
"Mm. It has to be better than his."
Lu Ye couldn't help the corners of his mouth curling upward.
Gu Rong had already stretched out a hand, pointing at another cliff in the distance.
"What's so interesting about filming his sword?"
"I'll show you a real Bone Dragon!"