Agency Model

[Heavenly Craft Creation Pavilion (lv1) (17/200)]

[Pavilion Master: Qin Fei]

[Puppets: Puppet Soldier (ungraded), Wooden Ox (first-tier puppet), Flowing Horse (first-tier puppet)]

[Bonuses: puppet speed +1%, power +1%, consumption -1%]

[Blueprints available to unlock: none]

Looking at the information before him, Qin Fei smiled in satisfaction.

He took out a voice transmission talisman and moved his lips, then brewed a pot of hot tea and waited for his honored guest.

An hour later, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded in the courtyard.

A tall figure in a cloak pushed open the door and entered.

"Brother Qin, what good thing did you want to see me about? Why all the mystery?"

The visitor removed his cloak, revealing himself to be Wang Hu.

He had originally planned to lead his brothers into the mountains again, but he had suddenly received a message from Qin Fei saying he had something good to discuss and specifically asking him to come alone.

Wang Hu was itching with curiosity, but Qin Fei had said nothing more in his message, only that they would talk when they met.

Having already tasted the benefits Qin Fei brought him, he naturally dared not treat the matter lightly. He had changed into a black cloak to conceal his face, told no one, and made his way here with care.

"Brother, can you tell me now? What good thing is it?"

Smiling, Qin Fei poured him a cup of tea. Then he swept one hand over the tabletop, and two spheres appeared.

"This is..."

Wang Hu had no mind to savor the tea. Full of suspicion, he picked up a sphere and examined it.

"Could this be... a first-tier puppet?"

Qin Fei chuckled and nodded. Taking the sphere, he flung it onto the ground.

"Bang!"

A puppet shaped like an ox and mechanical in appearance from head to hoof emerged.

"This is a Wooden Ox. It has eighteen zhang of storage space inside and can carry eighty thousand jin!"

"What!"

Wang Hu sprang to his feet.

"Eighteen zhang, eighty thousand jin... Qin Fei, don't joke with me."

He had hunted in the mountains for years, so of course he knew what that meant.

Ordinary Rogue Cultivators had limited space in their Storage Bags, so when they encountered large Demon Beasts or herds, they would often choose to avoid them.

It wasn't that they couldn't win, but that even if they killed their opponents, they often couldn't carry all the Demon Beast materials back.

Every time, they had to abandon quite a few materials, which pained them terribly.

After all, the materials from large Demon Beasts were often worth a great deal.

Whether scales, bones, sinews, blood, or meat, they were all precious spiritual materials.

Over time, they came to focus on hunting smaller Demon Beasts that would fetch a good price.

That naturally left them with far fewer choices.

Now, with this Wooden Ox puppet to help carry things, the hunting team would no longer need to pick and choose; they could take everything.

Seeing his astonished reaction, Qin Fei was puzzled.

A single heavy truck in his previous life could do the same. Could it be that nothing similar existed in this cultivation world?

What he didn't know was that there might be similar items in the cultivation world, but in the little Shangyu Market, there really were none.

Qin Fei thought no more of it and tossed down the other sphere. This time, it turned into a horse-shaped puppet.

"This is a Flowing Horse. Its carrying capacity and storage space aren't as great as the Wooden Ox's, but it makes up for that with greater mobility. It can travel a thousand li in a day."

The appearance of two new types of puppets in succession left Wang Hu deeply shaken.

Although quite a few first-tier puppets circulated on the market, he had never heard of this kind, made for carrying loads.

It took him quite a while to recover his senses.

"Brother Qin, did you make these? Have you broken through to become a first-tier Puppet Master?"

Wang Hu fired off his questions, eager to know the answer.

"That's right. I did just break through to become a first-tier Puppet Master."

Having received the answer he wanted, Wang Hu laughed heartily and gave Qin Fei a heavy pat on the shoulder.

"Good lad! I knew I was right about you."

A first-tier Puppet Master might not be much to a behemoth like the inner city's Lin Household, but he could provide tremendous support to Wang Hu's little hunting team.

If the two had merely been business partners before, Wang Hu was now thinking of getting Qin Fei on board.

"Brother Qin, why don't you join our hunting team? It'll make working together easier in the future. Don't worry, name whatever payment you want, and I, Wang Hu, won't object."

Unlike a gang, a hunting team didn't have so many rules and restrictions, and its members were relatively free.

It was essentially an organization made up of a group of idle Rogue Cultivators who agreed to hunt in the mountains together and share the profits.

Wang Hu could tell Qin Fei wasn't someone who liked restrictions, which was why he had extended the invitation.

To his surprise, however, Qin Fei still turned him down.

"Brother Hu, it's not that I don't want to join. I'm just afraid I'd drag the brothers in the hunting team down."

"Drag them down? What makes you say that?"

Instead of answering directly, Qin Fei pointed to the puppets before them and said:

"What do you think of these two puppets, Brother Hu?"

"They're excellent, of course. Otherwise I wouldn't be so tempted."

Qin Fei nodded and sighed softly.

"That's exactly what worries me."

"These puppets came to me in a flash of inspiration. After making them, I thought that if Brother Hu's hunting team were equipped with them, they would be a tremendous help."

"But that would inevitably make the other hunting teams jealous."

"I know you're not afraid of the other hunting teams, Brother Hu, but an open spear is easy to dodge; an arrow from the shadows is hard to guard against."

"If that brought trouble and cost the brothers in the team their lives, I really couldn't rest easy..."

Hearing this, Wang Hu understood the dangers involved.

Those words had not been arrows shot at nothing; on the contrary, such things happened from time to time.

In those mountains, the most feared threat was not the Demon Beasts, but the other hunting teams that entered alongside them.

If someone really did grow jealous and make trouble for him, he had no good way to deal with it.

"Brother Qin, you mean..."

Qin Fei smiled. He had gone around in such a big circle because he naturally had a purpose of his own.

"Brother Hu, outsiders would be jealous simply because we could use those puppets and they couldn't.

If they could buy them on the market, these problems naturally wouldn't exist.

I'd like to invite you to be my first-tier agent. Please give it some thought."

An invitation from someone at Late Qi Refining was not so easy to refuse.

So Qin Fei had taken a different approach, ensuring that Wang Hu would benefit.

These past days, he had been thinking about how to use puppets to make money quickly without drawing too much attention.

That had brought to mind the agency model from his previous life.

It spread quickly, growing through geometric fission.

Each level was kept confidential, with remote control through a single line of contact.

These features undoubtedly solved the problems Qin Fei faced.

"First-tier agent? What's that?"

"In short, I supply you with puppets at a fixed price. Once you have the goods, you can sell them yourself or find second-tier agents.

As for how much you charge for the puppets, that's entirely up to you..."

As Qin Fei explained in detail, Wang Hu's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

He keenly perceived the enormous profits to be made.

What made him even more curious was how Qin Fei had come up with such a marvelous model.

"Brother Qin, you really have a fine mind. I agree, but we still need to discuss the details carefully."

"Of course."

The two exchanged cups, brewing pot after pot of tea.

It was not until evening that Wang Hu took his leave.

After an afternoon of discussion, they finally decided that Qin Fei would sell the puppets to Wang Hu for thirty spirit essences each, with no price increases allowed.

Wang Hu, for his part, was not to reveal the source of the puppets.

Qin Fei was very satisfied with the outcome. Making a Wooden Ox or Flowing Horse cost him only ten spirit essences.

He could make a net profit of twenty spirit essences on each one he sold. The returns were astonishing.

With first-tier puppets, his profit had doubled outright!

Wang Hu was a bold man too. He understood that when the Wooden Oxen and Flowing Horses first entered the market, they would fetch their highest prices, and he had to make a fortune while he could.

So before leaving, he had made a point of leaving three Spirit Stones as a deposit, buying up the next ten puppets.

The reason he was comfortable leaving so many Spirit Stones was not that he trusted Qin Fei, but that he trusted himself.

Qin Fei naturally had no objection. Startup capital was exactly what he lacked.

After Wang Hu left, he went out as well.

Until now, he had only dealt with spirit essences. This was the first time he had held Spirit Stones in his hands.

Feeling the pure spiritual power the Spirit Stones gave off, Qin Fei couldn't help becoming a little intoxicated.

With so many Spirit Stones, he planned to save half to buy puppet materials and use the rest to improve his strength.

Before long, Qin Fei quietly appeared at the Wondrous Pill Pavilion, the largest pill shop in Shangyu Market.