What Good Was One?
Even if you do nothing inside but cultivate, you've still made a profit.
The secret realm offered by the Lingxian Sect is called the Green Field Mystic Realm. There are ten permissions in total, with five slots for each permission, for a total of fifty slots to be auctioned off. The ten permissions are valid for fifty years.
The auction house in Xiushui City has also released a list of all the basic resources in the Green Field Mystic Realm, and there are quite a few tempting items on this list.
With these resources, many of their sect's Pill Formula formulas, which had long been shelved due to a lack of materials, could be reused.
Therefore, the moment this competitor's product was announced, the entire venue erupted in excitement.
At this point in the auction, all the participating sects displayed unprecedented enthusiasm.
Regardless of how many Spirit Stone they had already spent in the previous auctions, they were now bidding with all their might, disregarding everything else.
After two or three years of accumulation, the wealth of many sects is now vastly different from what it used to be.
At first, everyone was bidding enthusiastically, but as the bidding progressed, many sects began to show signs of fatigue.
Therefore, some sects with insufficient resources began to consider and seek cooperation.
For example, Han Shangyi, the leader of the Clear River Sect, one of the top sects that has been profiting from the Lingxian Sect in the past two years, received a message from Yang Quan, the leader of the Clear Wind Sect, who was in the next room.
"Old Han, let's work together?" Yang Quan said.
It is said that the Clear Wind Sect and the Clear River Sect have a long history, but there are not many records in the history of their respective sects. Therefore, this rumor is only passed down among the younger generation from time to time. However, the relationship between the two sects has been good in the last hundred years, and the two sect leaders have a good personal relationship.
Their private rooms were next to each other, and they chose them together when they came in.
However, Clear Wind Sect is located quite far from the Pusi Kingdom. By the time the winds of Xiushui City reached them, it was already too late to catch up with the first tier. If it weren't for the Clear River Sect delivering the message, they would have almost missed even the tail end of the second tier. Therefore, when bidding for such a large project, their resources were somewhat lacking.
Han Shangyi asked him, "How do you want to cooperate?"
Seeing that he didn't refuse, Yang Quan didn't stand on ceremony. "You guys take five spots and split them between the two of us, I'll help you split the Spirit Stone."
"One spot," Han Shangyi said.
"What can one spot do? Two at a time. After all these years, you should learn to be more generous," Yang Quan continued to bargain.
"Just one." Han Shangyi showed no sign of backing down.
Actually, he was thinking of giving up a little, but two was too many. At most, he could only accept one and a half. However, there was no way to split two people in half and then sew them back together, so there could only be one spot.
Sensing his determination, Yang Quan had no choice but to back down. "How about this, our sect will take a loss and share 35% of the Spirit Stone, and then we'll have one spot this year, two next year, and one more the year after, alternating between alternating years, is that alright?"
Upon hearing this, Han Shangyi thought it was a good idea and readily agreed.
With the Clear Wind Sect helping to distribute the Spirit Stone, Han Shangyi bid even more enthusiastically.
Many other sects and royal families also considered seeking cooperation with others and began negotiating privately.
While it's possible to negotiate with the successful bidder after the auction ends, at that point it would no longer be a cooperative relationship but a complete seller's market, where the seller would dictate the terms entirely, leaving the bidder with no initiative whatsoever.
Currently, cooperative bidding is generally more equitable in comparison.
Therefore, when the auction for the secret realm slots finally ended, five or six of the ten slots were won through collaborative bidding.
There is a collaboration between one or five royal families, with each family receiving one spot.
After all, it would be difficult for the royal families of the Mortal Realm to compete with the major sects in terms of wealth and resources. Moreover, the number of cultivators they cultivate themselves is relatively small, unlike the sects that recruit disciples and have a large number of elites year-round.
Of course, the people of Xiushui City were fully aware of the situation.
It wasn't that they were supervising these sects and royal families; rather, these sects and royal families themselves informed Xiushui City about their private cooperation.
Some sects and royal families were worried that if Xiushui City didn't allow this kind of piecing together, and instead revoked their hard-won access to the secret realm on the grounds that they didn't comply with the rules, what would happen?
Having enjoyed several years of a rich and prosperous cultivation life that was completely different from the past, and having personally experienced the flourishing prosperity of their Mortal Realm since the establishment of Xiushui City, these sects, regardless of their past, now basically have no intention of competing with the Lingxian Sect.
Not to mention that this time Lingxian Sect used its access to the secret realm.
This immediately led many sects and royal families who were already close to the Lingxian Sect to recognize Lingxian Sect's leading position in the Mortal Realm, and they all sent letters to the Lingxian Sect's mountain gate that were ostensibly greetings but were actually pledges of allegiance.
Furthermore, many sects even planned to offer tribute to the Lingxian Sect under the guise of sending gifts.
Lingxian Sect did not refuse, but accepted them all and said that everyone had their difficulties, and that there was no need to send such generous gifts in the future, and that normal sect exchanges would be fine. They then returned some gifts to each of them.
Upon receiving the reply, the leaders of the various sects and their royal families were greatly relieved. Since Lingxian Sect had not refused the gifts they had sent along with their pledge of allegiance, it meant that they had accepted them. Moreover, it seemed that Lingxian Sect was not greedy for the resources of their sects. Having such a big brother felt quite good.
As a result, Lin Xiao's system also started playing in his mind a few days later.
[Ding--Congratulations, host, for successfully gaining the loyal support of twenty sects in the Mortal Realm and the support of over fifty other sects. This has greatly enhanced the prestige of your sect in the Mortal Realm, and you have completed the task exceptionally well. The rewards are divided into personal rewards and sect rewards, which have been distributed to your private treasury and sect treasury respectively. Please check your accounts.]
Upon receiving the system notification, Lin Xiao was initially delighted. This time, the rewards were divided into personal rewards and sect rewards, which seemed substantial and must be of high quality.
Before he could even open his private database, the system notification sounded again.
[Ding--The host has exceeded the requirements for the 2.0 version sect construction activation task. The 2.0 version sect construction series of tasks will now be officially activated for the host.]
[Version 2.0 Sect Construction Series Quest (Part 1): Due to the sect's outstanding performance, it has gained great prestige in the Mortal Realm. However, an excellent sect cannot be content with its current position if it wants to continue to develop. It must dare to explore and forge ahead, taking its steps beyond the Mortal Realm and heading towards the Immortal Cultivation Realm. Please establish a sect base in the Immortal Cultivation Realm within ten years.]
[Friendly reminder: The location of your sect's base has a significant impact on its future development in the Immortal Cultivation Realm. Please choose your base location carefully.]
Lin Xiao:...
Suddenly, I lost all interest in even looking at the rewards.