The Details
How come they've barely established themselves in the Mortal Realm, and now they want to set up a branch in the Immortal Cultivation Realm at the drop of a hat?
The mindset of a system is truly difficult to understand.
Fortunately, there is a ten-year time limit.
Although ten years is not a long time for cultivators who need to spend most of their time cultivating, it is enough for Lin Xiao, who has a cheat-like ability, to do a lot.
For example, one could activate a cultivation cheat, easily disguise oneself, and then roam freely throughout Xiushui City, indulging in food, drink, and entertainment.
Of course, Lin Xiao is very poor right now. His sect is also burdened with a huge debt of 100,000 Spirit Stone. With his current cultivation level, if he keeps using this cultivation cheat for too long, the Spirit Stone will be burning through his pockets and he'll feel the pinch.
Indulging in eating, drinking, and having fun is ultimately not a long-term solution.
We still need to get some real work done...
Although Lingxian Sect has earned a lot of Spirit Stone in the past two or three years, their expenses are also considerable. After all, the treatment of the Lingxian Sect Sect's disciples is unimaginable for other sects. Moreover, Lingxian Sect follows the path of low profit and high volume, and the middlemen's profit margin is not much different. Therefore, although the sect's Spirit Stone stone turnover looks large, the actual surplus is not very large.
Liao Pantu was initially quite anxious about this. He felt that if things continued like this, it would be very difficult to repay the Yuan Household's 100,000 Spirit Stone in five years. Even if they did manage to repay them, it would require emptying the sect's coffers. As someone who liked to hoard wealth, he couldn't stand such a wasteful act.
What's most infuriating is that Lin Xiao always finds a reason to refuse to contribute Spirit Stone; otherwise, why would I have these troubles?
As a Nascent Spirit Transformation cultivator, how could I possibly pressure the sect to return a mere 100,000 Spirit Stone?
However, with the development of the Mortal Realm, the various sects and royal families are becoming richer year by year, and their consumption power is rising day by day. Therefore, although Lingxian Sect has not raised prices in almost every aspect, its total revenue is gradually increasing.
These are all reflected in the Lingxian Sect's quarterly financial reports.
Liao Pantu, who was extremely concerned about the sect's financial statements, would often snatch the statements from Qin Jianghe to look at them. After looking at them for a while, he had nothing to worry about.
Just by looking at the financial statements of the Lingxian Sect, it's clear that other sects in the Mortal Realm have truly been revitalized.
Liao Pantu was originally the most opposed in the entire sect to opening the secret realm to other sects. He believed that if they couldn't obtain the key to the secret realm and gain exclusive rights, that would be one thing, but how could they share a secret realm that was completely controlled by their own sect?
In Liao Pantu's view, it was one thing for Lin Xiao, who had previously acted as a middleman between the Immortal Cultivation Realm and the Mortal Realm, to insist on low profit margins and high sales volume and not to charge more for the difference in price, since the Mortal Realm was indeed poor. However, sharing the unique secret realm was a completely irrational act that weakened the sect's own interests.
However, after seeing the annual financial summary for the new year at the end of last year, Liao Pantu's ideas were greatly shaken.
Finally, after Lin Xiao's persistent pleading, the sect relented and passed the resolution to open up some of the secret realms.
Although under Lin Xiao's leadership, almost no one opposed the proposal except Liao Pantu, and the decision could be made directly according to the principle of majority rule without Liao Pantu having to agree, Lin Xiao still reasoned with Liao Pantu and appealed to his emotions for a long time until he stopped objecting before starting to make arrangements.
Seeing that everything in the sect was developing smoothly, and that he had successfully advanced to the Spirit Transformation, and that his cultivation had been consolidated over the past two years, Liao Pantu was no longer in a hurry to cultivate. So recently, he followed Lin Xiao's Liao Pantu and began to eat, drink, and have fun, enjoying a carefree life in the mortal world.
As a result, after only a few days of his carefree life, his study partner urgently approached him, looking like he had something important to do.
"Senior Liao, do you know about steam engines? Do you know about turbines?" Lin Xiao found Liao Pantu on an antique shopping street in Xiushui City.
In a private room of a teahouse on Taobao Street, Liao Pantu, whose shopping mood had been interrupted, glared at Lin Xiao with displeasure. "Spit it out."
Lin Xiao smiled and poured him a cup of tea, handing it to him. "I see you've been quite free lately, how about taking on a research project?"
Upon hearing the part about "research projects," Liao Pantu finally swallowed the rebuttal that was already on the tip of his tongue. He pursed his lips for a while before finally speaking, "Stop keeping me in suspense, explain in detail."
He's been a bit bored lately, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to Taobao Street, where there's no way he could find anything he likes.
Seeing his interest, Lin Xiao's eyes lit up, and he immediately took out a stack of drawings, spread them out on the table, and began to explain his ideas in detail.
Liao Pantu looked at the pile of drawings: there were general maps of various countries in the Mortal Realm, detailed topography of the Pusi Kingdom, and lines connecting each province, prefecture, county, and even town, as well as...
"You mean, you want to build many of these 'trains' that travel at fixed times and locations to reliably transport people and goods?"
"Yes!" Lin Xiao was pleased that he understood so quickly.
Liao Pantu stared at Lin Xiao silently for a few moments, then looked down at the blueprints spread out in front of him.
"Why did you suddenly start tinkering with these things that ordinary people use?" he asked, puzzled.
Logically speaking, because of the existence of Xiushui City, not to mention the entire Pusi Kingdom, at least the living standards of ordinary people in their Hufang Province and surrounding provinces have improved along with the improved treatment of the people of Xiushui City.
Although the cultivation community in the Mortal Realm is developing quite well right now, it shouldn't be the time to be so idle as to start Dali things for mortals, right?
At least that's what he thinks.
However, considering that Lin Xiao always did things unpredictably, he didn't immediately refuse.
Upon hearing his question, Lin Xiao, as if prepared, answered smoothly and immediately, "No, no, Senior Liao, we need to take a long-term view. Don't you think that if our Mortal Realm wants to develop in the long run, we need a continuous stream of people to cultivate?"
Upon hearing this, Liao Pantu thought about it and realized there was nothing wrong with what he said, so he nodded. "Hmm, not bad, you can continue."
Lin Xiao continued, "To have a continuous stream of talent, relying solely on those with money and leisure time is definitely not enough, because their numbers are too small. Although most sects open their gates to recruit disciples from time to time, and with the current development, the number of people they recruit will increase, how can we guarantee that there will be enough talented people to cultivate without any worries? After all, the vast majority of people in the Mortal Realm are poor. If we recruit all the talented children from these poor families, wouldn't the people have no hope?"
"No, that's not right." Liao Pantu quickly waved his hand. "How is there no hope? For many poor families, becoming a cultivator is no less important than studying, becoming an official, and getting ahead in life. Moreover, cultivators can save some money during their cultivation to support their families. Aren't many disciples in our sect doing just that?"