After leaving the Cloud Sound Workshop, Lu Ye did not return directly to the sect. Instead, he went to the Seven Treasure Chamber of Commerce's workshop.
As soon as he entered, he heard the sound of wood being sawed.
The carpenter Xu Cheng was bent over a workbench, drawing a saw back and forth, while several apprentices planed boards nearby. Thin wood shavings curled out of their planes and fell to the floor, gathering into a small pile before long.
As Lu Ye watched, he suddenly recalled a type of video he had come across in his previous life.
Satisfying videos.
Whether it was planing wood, washing an old rug, or simply cleaning something dirty, there were always people who could watch for hours.
He had watched plenty of them himself.
At the thought, he immediately took out his phone and filmed the apprentice planing wood.
After filming, he walked a couple of steps forward.
"Master Xu, come take a look."
Xu Cheng assumed the chamber of commerce wanted something else made. He put down his saw and came over.
But when he lowered his head, he saw his own apprentice's hands.
"This was just..."
"I just filmed it."
Lu Ye played the clip to the end, then played it again.
Wood shavings curled up, rough edges were planed smooth, and a clean stretch of wood grain emerged.
Xu Cheng looked at the phone, then at the apprentice, who had looked up to see what was happening. After a moment, he suddenly reached over and took the plane.
"He didn't go all the way to the end on that stroke. Wait, let me do it."
Lu Ye's eyes lit up.
Before he could say anything, Xu Cheng had already sat back down, swapped in another piece of wood, and begun demonstrating again.
He was a master craftsman with many years of experience. With the same plane in his hands, the shavings he produced were almost identical in thickness, and even the sound was smoother than before.
After the clip was filmed, Xu Cheng leaned over and watched it for a long while before finally nodding in satisfaction.
"That's more like it."
Lu Ye gave him a phone to try, briefly explained how to film and post, and reminded him to film only the work in his hands, not to casually capture the chamber's account books or storerooms.
Xu Cheng readily agreed.
By the time Lu Ye walked out of the workshop, Xu Cheng was already calling for an apprentice to bring over another piece of wood.
Sure enough, when it came to what they did best, no one could resist showing others.
Next, Lu Ye went to the place where the guards usually practiced.
If carpenters could film, the guards naturally could too.
Zhou Kai was a little embarrassed when he first received his phone, but when he saw Sword Douluo's strike, he immediately drew his saber, insisting on seeing how he would look on video.
Several of his companions gathered around as well.
One said he was standing too close, another said there were clothes hanging out to dry all behind him. In the end, they all pitched in and cleared a space in the courtyard.
Standing to one side, Lu Ye barely had a chance to get a word in.
He simply left a phone with them and let them have at it.
As long as they did not film the sect's patrol routes, they could film their ordinary practice however they liked.
When he reached the dining hall, Old Fang was chopping vegetables.
Lu Ye filmed a clip of him slicing noodles. At first, Old Fang complained that it was getting in the way, but when he saw his own hands on the phone, looking even nimbler than usual, his attitude immediately changed.
"Wait a moment. There's something else I'm good at."
With that, he took out another lump of dough.
The people waiting nearby for their meal watched and stopped urging him to hurry. Instead, they craned their necks to look at the phone.
As for the place where the caravans rested, there was even less of a shortage of things to film.
A worker spread out an old rug covered in mud and dust. He splashed water over it and scrubbed it strip by strip with a stiff brush, slowly revealing a pattern that had been impossible to make out before.
Lu Ye found it interesting and filmed it, along with a kitten sleeping belly-up by the door.
He even thought the cat might get a few more red hearts than Zhou Kai's saber routine.
In just two days, all thirty trial phones had been handed out.
And Douyin no longer contained only those first few clips.
There were people singing, dancing, planing wood, practicing with sabers, cooking-just about everything.
Some of the videos could hardly be called good: the camera was crooked, the sound was a mess, and one person had filmed only half his own face from beginning to end.
But Lu Ye was in no hurry.
What he feared most was that no one would be willing to film.
As long as these people were willing to try using the phones, everything afterward would be much easier.
Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
When Lu Ye went to see Ning Fengzhi again, Ning Rongrong was sitting nearby, engrossed in her father's phone.
Gu Rong sat beside her and had already reminded her twice.
"Rongrong, you haven't watched Grandpa Bone's yet."
"I watched it."
"Then watch it again."
"Wait a moment. It's about to roll over."
"What's about to roll over?"
Gu Rong leaned over for a look. On the screen was a kitten sleeping beside a threshold.
The little creature lay belly-up with one paw over its face. As it slept, its body slowly tilted to one side.
Gu Rong watched for a moment and, without realizing it, stopped talking.
Just as the kitten was about to roll over, the video suddenly ended.
Gu Rong frowned.
"Why did it end?"
Ning Rongrong looked up at him and suddenly burst out laughing.
"Grandpa Bone, you were waiting too!"
Lu Ye had just reached the doorway. Hearing that, he almost failed to hold back a laugh.
Gu Rong looked over at him.
"Did you film this?"
"Yes."
"Why did you only film half of it? What happened afterward?"
"It didn't roll over. It went back to sleep."
Gu Rong fell silent for a moment, then reached out and played the video again.
"Let me watch it again."
Watching the old man and the little girl huddled together, Ning Fengzhi's eyes grew warmer with amusement.
Only after Lu Ye sat down did he pick up the register beside the table.
"All thirty phones have people using them?"
"All of them. Some people only like watching, while others started filming nonstop as soon as they got one. A few shopkeepers are only interested in making calls and don't watch much else."
"That's normal."
Ning Fengzhi nodded.
"It would be strange if everyone liked watching the same thing."
As he spoke, he took back his phone and casually scrolled through a couple of videos.
An adult musician looked up beside her instrument. Then the picture changed, and her clothes and hairstyle had changed with it.
Ning Fengzhi's finger paused briefly.
He continued scrolling and saw the guards' saber techniques and the carpenter's craftsmanship. Gradually, he understood why Lu Ye had sought out these people.
A Soul Master might not like music, but that did not mean he would dislike sabers. If he disliked sabers, there were still landscapes and crafts he had never seen before.
This little phone could hold far more than it appeared to.
"They're ready. We'll put the first hundred in the Heaven Dou City shop."
After speaking, Lu Ye handed over the figures he had written down.
"Two Gold Soul Coins each, same price as before. I'll supply the phones. The chamber's storefront, staff, and share will be calculated as agreed."
Ning Fengzhi looked it over without dwelling on the small figures and asked just one question.
"What if someone doesn't know how to use one?"
"I'll be in the shop on the first day, and I'll teach two of the workers. After that, people won't all have to come to me."
"Then let's give it a try."
Those were exactly the words Lu Ye had been waiting for.
Gu Rong finally put down the phone and suddenly chimed in.
"Once they're sold, will all those people be able to see my Bone Dragon?"
"Of course."
"Then sell them quickly."
Gu Rong spoke with absolute decisiveness.
Ning Rongrong laughed beside him, while Chen Xin merely lifted his eyelids and did not expose him.
But Lu Ye saw it clearly.
The phone in Chen Xin's hand was also open to his own profile page.
The business had not even opened yet, and the two Titled Douluo were already thinking about new viewers.
Early the next morning, a hundred phones were delivered to the Seven Treasure Shop on East Street in Heaven Dou City.
Chen Shun was a shop worker normally responsible for moving goods. When Lu Ye called him over, he thought he was going to be told to carry the boxes into the storeroom.
When he heard that the items would sell for only two Gold Soul Coins apiece, he was stunned.
"A Soul Tool, really selling that cheap?"
"First, take a look at what it can do."
Lu Ye picked up the demonstration phone and taught him the basic operations from the beginning. Chen Shun learned quickly. Before long, he could open videos on his own and take pictures of people standing by the counter.
He looked at himself several times before finally remembering there was work to be done.
"Manager Lu, let's put it by the entrance, where customers can see it clearly."
"Put it there."
Everything had been set up, and Lu Ye had barely settled into his seat, when a trusted messenger came looking for him and handed him an envelope.
It had been sent by Qian Renxue through their usual channel.
Lu Ye glanced at the signature and put the letter away safely without opening it at the counter.
Her messages were as quick as ever.
Just then, two young men stopped at the shop entrance.
One of them looked at the phone, then at the price tag, and could not help asking, "This is a Soul Tool too? How come it's only two Gold Soul Coins?"
Lu Ye looked up, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.
The first customer had arrived.