Preparations for the Market

Pei Yi formed a lotus mudra with his hands and softly uttered a difficult syllable.

The gilded lid of the brass Pill Furnace in front of him opened with a soft "pop," revealing a crack, and a fragrant aroma of elixirs instantly filled Pei Yi's Alchemy Chamber.

Pei Yi tapped his slender fingers three times on his knee, and a dozen round and plump pills flew out of the furnace and fell one after another into the jade dish on the low table in front of him.

"Three portions of ingredients for the Grain Avoidance Pill yielded fourteen pills, less than fifty percent, which is a bit low, but fortunately there were no defects among them." Pei Yi carefully examined each pill in his hand before nodding.

He was fairly satisfied with the result of this pill-making attempt. Thanks to his recent days of diligent study, Pei Yi was now a genuine First-Tier Lower-Grade Alchemist.

Therefore, refining low-grade pills like the Grain Avoidance Pill is something they can do with ease.

However, the success rate of pill formation still requires a lot of practical experience to improve, which is something that cannot be rushed.

"The Chongming Market will open next month, so I need to refine more. As my senior brother the sect leader said, even if we can't sell them all at once and they're just sitting there, it's still much better than having customers come to buy them but not being able to get them out." Pei Yi thought to himself.

The Chongming Market he mentioned was a business that Sect Leader Kang Da had always wanted to open.

For this, Sect Leader Kang Da spent a great deal of effort and time working on it, because initially, the three nearby families didn't really support Kang Dabao's idea.

They felt that this place was too close to Linghe Market, and there weren't many unique spiritual materials available for sale.

Even though several families spent a lot of money to open a market, it was difficult to compete with the already mature market. They struggled to even break even, let alone make a profit.

The Sect Leader Kang Da still harbored deep resentment, and he approached the heads of the three other sects, speaking to each of them several times.

Ye Pinglin didn't have too many thoughts on it; he figured, why not? He was currently following the lead of Kang Dabao.

The Ye Household is currently very weak, and in the future they will inevitably have to rely on the Chongming Sect, their "relatively strong neighbor." Since Sect Leader Kang Da attaches so much importance to this matter, he certainly won't go against Sect Leader Kang Da's wishes.

Besides, his family doesn't really have any way to earn Spirit Stone, so it's good to give it a try.

The only difficulty was that his family simply couldn't afford the Spirit Stone, so he had to borrow the initial investment money from the Chongming Sect.

After returning several times during his trade runs and listening to Kang Dabao's repeated persuasion, the head of the Lu Household became somewhat tempted.

Like Sect Leader Kang Da, he was also a very thrifty person. After thinking it over, he realized that it was not a good idea to keep going to Linghe Market to be exploited.

Thinking about how she had painstakingly saved up those few Spirit Stone by swallowing her pride and being extremely stingy, she realized that if she went to Linghe Market a few more times, those unscrupulous merchants like Widow Ma with her big butt would make a killing off them. It was really not worth it.

With the Lu Household head persuaded by Sect Leader Kang's words, three out of the four families agreed.

Seeing this situation, and with Kang Dabao offering a condition that Yuan Jin could repair the Law Artifact for the three families at a reasonable price during this period, the Xue Household was able to proceed.

The Xue Household couldn't bear to let go of such a good deal, so they really didn't dare to disagree.

Kang Dabao hasn't settled accounts with Xue Hu for his attempt to abandon the other three families and secretly make peace with the Shi Household.

He dared not provoke Chongming Sect any further at this time.

To promote the opening of the market, Sect Leader Kang Da went to great lengths. He even stopped his own cultivation and spent several months traveling to do business.

Whether this trade run makes money or not is secondary; the important thing is to promote the Chongming Market, which hasn't opened yet.

Over the years, Sect Leader Kang Da has allowed him to make quite a few acquaintances.

Although not many of them were actually useful, Kang Dabao was happy to casually mention it to acquaintances while doing business, as it didn't cost any Spirit Stone. He thought that attracting even one more customer was a good thing.

Unexpectedly, He Dezong was very accommodating after learning the news, and took the initiative to ask the various merchant caravans of the He Household to help spread the word.

His family's scale is much larger, and the publicity spread by his caravans is far more effective than the Sect Leader Kang Da relying solely on his big mouth.

In just under half a year, cultivators in Cloud Horn Prefecture and even the neighboring Jingnan Prefecture learned that a market town would soon open on the outskirts of Cold Crow Mountain.

Regardless of the distance or whether people will actually come, at least we've made a name for ourselves, which can't hurt.

After the initial promotion, it's time to set up the shops in the market.

Kang Dabao designed Chongming Market to be very small, with only two short streets, one horizontal and one vertical, totaling about twenty shops.

The reason it was built so small is that if it were any larger, the array that Kang Dabao set up for the market would not be able to cover it completely.

While Sect Leader Kang Da felt regretful, there was nothing he could do. In recent years, Chongming Sect had been enjoying its massive construction projects, but it had also spent almost all of its Spirit Stones.

The number of Spirit Stone needed to construct the array was indeed a bit low. The array master who had previously constructed the array for the Chongming Sect originally thought it was a good deal and even considered doing this transaction as well.

When the accounts were tallied, it turned out that the small amount of Spirit Stone given by Sect Leader Kang Da was already fixed and there was no profit to be made. After completing the formation within the Chongming Sect, he left without a second thought.

Left with no other choice, Sect Leader Kang Dabao had to hire a mediocre array master from Linghe Market to build it. There's a reason why it was cheap, and that's how the market ended up like this.

The four shops facing the street at the crossroads are the only four two-story buildings in the market, and they are in the best location.

According to Yuan Jin's suggestion, the plan was to bring together the three most powerful families in Pingrong County: Hemu Dao, Fellow Cultivators Association, Grass Witch Cult, along with the Chongming Sect, so that each of the four families would occupy a room.

Kang Dabao did not agree. "Give a peach and receive a jade in return," he insisted on reserving a room for the Hong County He Household no matter what.

He Dezong really treated this as his own family matter, putting in a lot of effort.

The He Household readily agreed. Judging from the meaning in He Dezong's letter, Kang Dabao probably wanted to send He Degong over to ease the current strained relationship between him and Chongming Sect.

Of the three largest powers in Pingrong County, Kang Dabao only invited the Fellow Cultivators Association.

Upon hearing the news, Qin Sufu only said that he was short-handed and needed to prepare for the Foundation Establishment process, and would see when the time came.

Of the other two families, the Grass Witch Cult has kept a low profile since the Shi Household was wiped out. They usually do little to participate in outside affairs, except to bully their nominal but powerful vassals.

Not only that, Chen Ye also sent people to politely return the Spirit Stone that had been sent last year to each family.

He stated frankly that the previous agreement with the four families was now null and void, and that the four families of Cold Crow Mountain would no longer need to send Spirit Stone to the Grass Witch Cult every year. He hoped that the two sides could live in peace from then on.

Kang Dabao knew in his heart who was standing up for him, and his feelings were somewhat complicated.

If that's the case, then most people probably wouldn't even look at a shop in such a small market, and Kang Dabao was too lazy to bother with such a cold shoulder.

As for Hemu Dao.

Of the four shops reserved, one was for the Fellow Cultivators Association, one for the Chongming Sect, and one for the He Household, leaving one shop remaining.

So Kang Dabao went to visit the Ming Household in Tanggu County. This was his master's Yue Household, which had forty or fifty cultivators and was no less powerful than the He Household.

The old man who was in charge of the Ming Household a few years ago was Kang Dabao's teacher's wife's biological father.

Because of this relationship, when Kang Dabao was struggling to make ends meet with his two junior brothers in his early years, the old man took good care of the three of them.

This kindness was immense, and Kang Dabao remained deeply grateful.

However, the master's wife's biological father had passed away years ago, and now the head of the Ming Household was Kang Dabao's wife's cousin, so the relationship between the two families gradually became much more distant.

Kang Dabao sat upright on the cold bench for a long time, but still couldn't see the head of the family, Second Master Ming.

In the end, he only got to meet an elder from a branch of the Ming Household who came out to greet him and exchange pleasantries with him for a while.

Perhaps fearing that Kang Dabao, this poor relative, was there to freeload, the elder of the Ming Household didn't even bother to ask Kang Dabao's purpose. In the time it takes to smoke half a pipe, he politely served tea and saw the guest off.

Sect Leader Kang Da was used to being looked down upon by others, but being treated like this by the Ming Household still made him feel uncomfortable, as he had always regarded the Ming Household as his own.

Considering that the Ming Household also remained indifferent to the Shi Household's affair last time, Sect Leader Kang Da could naturally see that the Ming Household intended to sever ties with them.

"It seems that the things passed down from the old man have been lost by the Daoist priest again today." Sect Leader Kang Da stood outside the Ming Household's gate, stunned, ignoring the contemptuous looks from the Ming Household's servants.

Even though the sun was blazing overhead, a chill actually crept into his heart.

"In that case, let the shop facing the street remain empty. As long as we do a good job in the market, I don't believe no one would want it even if it were given away."

Upon returning to the still-under-construction Chongming Market, Xue Hu somehow learned that Kang Dabao had been turned away at the Ming Household's place. He shamelessly tried to take the shop, Sect Leader Kang Da just laughed it off and ignored him.

What a joke! What kind of family is your Xue Household?

The Xue Household Zither Leaf Forest plans to open a shop in the market that sells specialty Cold Crow Mountain. Their cultivators live closest to the outer edge of Cold Crow Mountain and have always had the habit of relying on the mountain for their livelihood. This is also a major source of income for the clan.

Because the Xue Household family often hunted demons in Cold Crow Mountain, their cultivators were the most skilled in combat among the three small clans, and their strength was significantly higher.

To succeed in this business, the capital required for acquiring and stockpiling goods is considerable, and the Xue Household's resources are indeed more substantial than the other two families.

The Lu Household of Fangshi Mountain doesn't produce many spiritual items; only the spiritual honey produced by their hive of spirit bees can be considered a specialty.

His family's spiritual honey, when consumed directly, can slightly increase the speed of cultivation; one liter of spiritual honey is roughly equivalent to three Qi Condensation Pills.

Because it doesn't have side effects like erysipelas, the price of one liter of spiritual honey might be slightly higher than three Qi Condensation Pills.

Therefore, most of the people who come to Chongming Market are poor, Rogue Cultivator, and most of them have to sell their items individually to make them affordable. Even among those independent Rogue Cultivator who can afford to buy individually, there are probably not many, which leads to the need for secondary spiritual items such as spirit dates.

That stuff is worthless; otherwise, why would the sect leader, who is so stingy as the Lu Household head, be willing to give Kang Dabao thirty catties at once?

In preparation for this, the Lu Household cultivated several more acres of spirit fields and planted various spirit flowers, intending to further expand the spirit bee colony so that the shops in the market would have a sufficient supply of goods.

This shop also sells some unranked spirit insects. In the early years, an elder of the Lu Household had joined the Grass Witch Cult and left behind some minor inheritances in the clan.

The current head of the Lu Household has a younger cousin who is somewhat knowledgeable in this field. The Flower-Limbed Black Armor that Han Yundao saw earlier, driven by the Lu Household's spirit slaves, was cultivated by that female cultivator.

It is said that she has recently had some good fortune and will soon be able to raise the grade of the Lu Household's spirit bees by one level.

In that case, his business will naturally thrive even more.

However, Heng Mountain Ye Household Kang Dabao didn't know what the Yokoyama Ye Household had to sell these days.

The deceased head of the Ye Household had a fairly good grasp of array formations, and could barely be considered a First Tier array master. He was also somewhat famous in the neighborhood.

Because the Heng Mountain Ye Household has the shallowest foundation, having been established for less than a hundred years.

The Ye Household has never owned any property. In the past, the entire clan's cultivation relied almost entirely on the Ye Household patriarch helping people refine formations to make a living.

The fact that his family was able to withstand the siege of bandits for so long with their not-so-outstanding formation was largely due to the efforts of the head of the Ye Household.

Since he couldn't think of anything, he simply Sect Leader Kang Da thinking about it and let Ye Pinglin worry about it himself. If he really couldn't think of anything, he might as well open a general store; at least that would attract some people and build up some popularity.

As for what Chongming Sect was going to do, Sect Leader Kang Da had already figured it out: the Chongming Sect's shop would be named Chongming Pavilion.

Kang Dabao knew that Master Qi had excellent calligraphy skills, so he specially asked Yuan Jin to make a trip to Xuanwei City to ask him to inscribe the plaque.

Standing beneath the plaque, gazing at the three large characters of the Chongming Pavilion and flowing style, Sect Leader Kang Da was quite satisfied.

He decided to use the first floor for business, and Pei Yi and Yuan Jin would take out the refined pills and Law Artifact to consign for sale. After receiving the materials from the sect, they only needed to hand over a fixed proportion of the finished products.

Any surplus can be kept by the owner or consigned to the Chongming Pavilion for sale, with the profits split 20/80.

Chongming Pavilion gets two, and the other two get eight.

This ratio is so high that you couldn't find anything like it anywhere in the entire Cloud Horn Prefecture. Sect Leader Kang Da still has a conscience; no matter how much he desperately wants Spirit Stone, he won't mistreat his own junior brother.

Without affecting Pei Yi and Yuan Jin's cultivation, the first floor of the Chongming Pavilion can also accept some business of refining specific pills and Law Artifact.

Of course, their skills are still shallow at the moment, and they will not accept orders higher than the First-Tier Lower-Grade, because Sect Leader Kang Da is afraid of losing money.

By the way, once Kang Rongquan has managed to take good care of the Chongming Sect's spiritual fields in a few years, Chongming Pavilion might even have to take on the spiritual rice business as well.

The second floor could be used for catering and lodging businesses, but this would only be possible if a spiritual chef was found. Kang Dabao was still looking for a suitable candidate, so it couldn't be done for the time being.

In addition to these four local outdoor businesses, they also invited relatives and friends like the Tanggu Kuai Household to open shops there.

Even at the edge of the market, Sect Leader Kang Da didn't forget to reserve a spot for Rogue Cultivator' training stalls.

He was still thinking about collecting the stall fee from those few fragmented spirits.

In the end, Sect Leader Kang Da compiled and tallied all these arrangements, carefully calculating on his fingers. He felt that they should be able to fill most of the market, and a weight was lifted from his heart. He could now focus his energy on cultivation.

After he breaks through to the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining during this seclusion, he will go somewhere else.

Thank you to Brother JianV for the 60,000 points reward, and thank you to readers 20180709232127744 and Mischievous Panda for the 100 points reward each.

Thank you to Brother JianV for the six Extended Net Moon, thank you to Brother 20171002145921789 for the Extended Net Moon, and thank you to Brothers Daotingtushuo, Cimushouzhongxianiyouzoushangshangyi, and Fengchuipantiespipiliang for the Extended Net Moon.

Thank you to all the readers who have subscribed to this book! I'm aiming for 10,000 words today!

(I would also like to give special thanks to Brother Lingyun Jushi for his feedback and support at the very beginning of this book. His new book, "Lineage Cultivation: Starting from the Great Evolution Technique," is currently being updated. Friends who like Lineage- themed novels can give it a try. It's backed by a veteran author with millions of words to his name.)