Market Renovation!

Three days had passed since the clan rules were changed.

Comprehensive renovation work had also begun on Hongtian City's market...

The old market occupied two streets in the city center. Its storefronts were dilapidated, its signs crooked, and it had only fourteen shops scattered across it.

Six of them stood empty, gathering dust. Sun Bo'an brought in mortal craftsmen to tear them down and rebuild them.

The storefronts were made a uniform size, and the signs were given a uniform style and size. The market was divided by trade into a talisman district, a pill district, a Law Artifact repair district, a lodging district, and a stall district.

There was also a general goods district, with a "goods shop" dedicated to buying spirit materials from Rogue Cultivators.

Most Rogue Cultivators had quite a few things on hand, but they couldn't find buyers, or the goods came from illicit sources.

If someone offered to buy them, even at a price twenty percent lower than elsewhere, they were happy to sell.

It was a common trade in the cultivation world: laundering goods.

Of course, the shop also bought spirit materials and the like. Some materials could be gathered through this channel, solving the problem of raw materials for the talisman and medicine shops.

The finished products could then be sold directly in the market.

Spend one share of money on raw materials and earn three shares selling the finished products; the entire difference was profit. Only in this way could the business last.

Renovating the market took more than half a month.

Half a month later, the first batch of first-tier talismans drawn by Sun Wanqing herself went on the shelves. Their quality had improved slightly compared to before.

Among low-grade first-tier talismans, they could be considered fine work.

As soon as the new market opened,

Rogue Cultivators flocked in. Most of the buyers were Rogue Cultivators passing through Hongtian City and stopping to rest. They were surprised that such a remote backwater actually had a proper talisman shop, and that its talismans were quite effective!

Sun Changping's medicine shop opened for business as well.

It still sold the same three old products-Grain Avoidance Pills, Qi-Nourishing Powder, and Lesser Spirit Recovery Pills-but their quality had visibly improved by twenty to thirty percent.

Following the standard procedures in the Hundred Arts Chapter, he had readjusted the furnace temperature and the proportions of medicinal ingredients. The failure rate had fallen from sixty percent to thirty-five percent.

What surprised Sun Bo'an most was the goods-collecting shop.

In its first month of business, it had actually acquired seventeen batches of spirit materials, three of which were first-tier mid-grade spirit herbs in good condition...

Seven Rogue Cultivators had sold spirit materials. Two of them had immediately taken the Spirit Stones they received and gone next door to buy talismans and pills.

The money had flowed right back.

Sun Bo'an squatted at the entrance to the market, watching the Rogue Cultivators come and go. He felt that, after living nearly fifty years, he understood for the first time what it meant to "get money moving."

Before, the Sun, Ye, and Lin clans had run the market together.

What a mess the market had been: disorder everywhere, each clan setting prices however it pleased. The gap between then and now was plain to see...

After nightfall, he went to the back mountain to report.

Shi Jian showed little expression after hearing the monthly report.

"The market is only our foundation. It will continue to grow step by step. After some time, those eight minor clans will also move in and do business here. Business will only become more prosperous."

"From now on, they must pay twenty percent of their business profits as rent each month."

"As for the White Cloud Minor Gathering in two months, what are you planning to take?"

Sun Bo'an was taken aback, somewhat puzzled.

"At the White Cloud Minor Gathering, the Lineages from all nine counties will gather, and Rogue Cultivators will flock there. If you don't take goods to sell, are you planning to take nothing but your old face along to stroll through their market?"

Sun Bo'an stared blankly for two breaths before it suddenly dawned on him, and his old face reddened.

"Over the next two months, collect more spirit objects, especially ones you don't recognize, or rare ones. You can use the White Cloud Minor Gathering to sell them off."

"Even if their grades aren't high, there must be plenty of them!"

"At a gathering like that, there's no need to worry about finding business. You must learn to seize every opportunity to earn resources. Only then can there be any talk of a future."

The night wind swept across the back mountain, and the Spiritual Qi in the Spirit Vein surged soundlessly.

Sun Bo'an stood in the moonlight, momentarily dazed. He suddenly felt that two months really was frighteningly short...

As soon as he thought of Shi Jian's words,

He felt as if he were about to miss out on countless Spirit Stones. Those were all resources!

Every Spirit Stone would be a resource for the Sun Clan's younger generation, a fragment of a future Foundation Establishment Pill. That was all money!

"Yes, Ancestor."

"I have learned from your teachings!"

"Only after receiving your guidance today, Ancestor, have I come to understand. For the next two months, I will certainly not disappoint you."