Chapter 35: Second Update

Watching the little girl’s departing back, Ren Rubi said in a low voice, “Shouldn’t we follow her?”

Fan Huilan shook her head. “This little girl is very wary. It’s better not to gild the lily. We’ll just wait slowly.”

Before the boss left, he had assigned them several tasks.

Guo Qianshan and the others’ task was to break the monopoly Strange Treasure Hall and the Chen clan held over medicinal herbs, and further spread Zhaoge’s good reputation. The task Fan Huilan received was to guide a little girl named Xingchun into entering Zhaoge of her own accord.

Fan Huilan and the others did not understand why the boss wanted this little girl to enter Zhaoge, but they did not dwell on it either. They only felt there had to be some deeper meaning in it, and all they needed to do was give it their all.

What troubled them was that, compared to Guo Qianshan’s task, theirs seemed a little small. Though everyone was a good sister or brother who had been through life and death together, that did not mean they had given up competing with one another. No matter who it was, all of them wanted the boss’s attention and approval. If the boss had only assigned them such a minor matter, did it mean they had done something poorly in daily life, making the boss feel they were inferior to Guo Qianshan and the others?

At the meeting in the small residence back then, Fan Huilan had almost been unable to resist the urge to ask. In the past, how could she have dared to do such a thing? But everything that had happened over this period had made Fan Huilan certain that the boss was broad-minded and noble in character. Even when he was angry, the gaze he turned on them was tolerant and equal, like the best elder brother one could have.

Fortunately, she quickly suppressed her impulse. She told herself there was no need to hurry and no need to be impulsive. They had yet to understand the boss’s deeper intent. Even if this really was only a small task, she still had to complete it perfectly, so the boss could see her ability.

Fortunately, the boss soon assigned another task, and only then did Fan Huilan truly calm down.

The boss said, “You all just heard Qiu Ping’an talk about Zhaoge’s accounts. Right now, Zhaoge lacks everything and has to buy everything. But relying solely on the output of the Artifact Refining Workshop and the Medical Workshop is not enough to support Zhaoge’s current population and construction. So I want to open another shop, expand our business, and get Zhaoge out of losses and into profit as soon as possible…”

The boss said he wanted to open a ready-made clothing workshop. Not an ordinary ready-made clothing workshop, but one that specialized in clothing for cultivators and high-level practitioners. Only that way could they earn more money in a short time.

The boss handed this task to her and had her lead people to purchase a kind of spirit insect called the snow silkworm.

Fan Huilan’s eyes lit up. The boss must have seen that the Medical Workshop’s medicinal herbs had been monopolized, so this time he had decided to start with the raw materials. Zhaoge was going to open a clothing shop, raise its own silkworms, reel its own silk, and weave its own cloth. Once they built up a reputation in the future, they would no longer have to fear those unscrupulous merchants raising silk prices!

Snow silkworms had originally been called white yao silkworms. They were also yao creatures, and the silk they spat was poisonous. Later, after being domesticated generation after generation by cultivators, they became spirit insects used specifically for spinning silk and weaving cloth. The poison in the silk was naturally removed as well. Fabric woven from snow silkworm silk was cool and smooth, and did not cling to dust. Although it had no additional effects, its color and luster were excellent, and when worn, it made one look ethereal and elegant. It was quite popular.

However, snow silkworms were not easy to raise, and getting them to spin silk was not easy either. The initial investment cost was extremely high. Therefore, although they were yellow-grade spirit insects, their price was not especially expensive. Fan Huilan bought ten of them at a price of two hundred taels each.

At the time, that merchant saw that this was her first time coming into contact with snow silkworms and even tried to deceive her by claiming they were mystic-grade spiritual creatures, ice silkworms.

Although ice silkworms and snow silkworms were extremely similar, and someone outside the trade could not tell them apart at all, Fan Huilan was not stupid. Mystic-grade spiritual creatures were things even cultivators sought after. If that merchant really had a mystic-grade spiritual creature in his hands, he would have gone to curry favor with cultivators long ago. Would he still be peddling it in Silver City?

Moreover, the difficulty of raising mystic-grade spiritual creatures like ice silkworms was more than a hundred times that of snow silkworms. If they went long without eating spirit stones, ice silkworms would become desperately starved for spiritual power and turn on their owners. If that merchant really had an ice silkworm, he would not dare keep it in his hands for long.

“Still, why did the boss specifically have us show off the snow silkworms in front of that little girl?” Ren Rubi boldly speculated. “Could it be that the little girl has snow silkworms too?”

As for ice silkworms, she did not dare imagine it. How could a little girl who had not yet entered the Dao possibly possess ice silkworms?

…

Inside Strange Treasure Hall.

The young master of the Chen clan slapped the table in a fury. “There’s a true cultivator behind the people of Zhaoge. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Jia Heqian said, “Young Master Chen, please calm down. The people of Zhaoge aren’t that frightening. As long as we gather medicinal herbs, refine Blazing Sun Pills, and present them to Tyrant Blade Sect, Tyrant Blade Sect will definitely uphold justice for us.”

But Young Master Chen gave a cold snort and abruptly said, “Has Immortal Master Song already fallen?”

Jia Heqian’s eyelid jumped. “Absolutely not. Young Master Chen, you mustn’t believe rumors. Our hall master has merely gone out for a period of time.”

Young Master Chen said darkly, “It seems the rumors are true. Earlier, you suddenly came to my door to cooperate, and only after you praised it to the skies did I believe you. Yet you concealed the matter of Zhaoge from me. Now you’ve caused my Chen clan to offend a cultivator. I’ll remember this debt.”

With that, he was about to leave, but Jia Heqian grabbed hold of him. “Young Master Chen, you absolutely cannot leave. Please listen to me first. That day, there was unusual movement in Nameless Valley. Our hall master went to investigate, and afterward he never returned. He must have been harmed by that cultivator from Zhaoge! Our hall master was a disciple of Tyrant Blade Sect. Tyrant Blade Sect will definitely uphold justice.”

Although Young Master Chen was a man who favored men, that did not mean he could stomach anything. Being hugged by an old man like Jia Heqian disgusted him so badly his brows wrinkled. He shoved Jia Heqian away in one motion and said coldly, “You can use those words to fool mortals who know nothing about the immortal continents, but have you forgotten that my Chen clan has produced several cultivators? Tyrant Blade Sect will not offend a Golden Core Perfected One for the sake of Song Dianlai.”

Young Master Chen understood very clearly. To make a cultivator like Song Dianlai, who had been in Foundation Establishment for many years, go and never return, while also suppressing Sea of Suffering Path and allowing a thousand people to live beside it, the master of Zhaoge had to be a Golden Core Perfected One.

Tyrant Blade Sect had so many disciples. Song Dianlai had merely been dispatched here to watch over Sea of Suffering Path, and each year he only gained a bit of face by offering tribute to Tyrant Blade Sect. Now that Sea of Suffering Path was being held down by someone at the Golden Core stage, why would Tyrant Blade Sect go looking for trouble by dealing with Zhaoge?

For Tyrant Blade Sect, that would both waste effort and damage its reputation. After all, if they drove away Zhaoge’s master, Tyrant Blade Sect would not find another Golden Core Perfected One to come over and suppress Sea of Suffering Path. When the time came, if they used human sacrifice again, wouldn’t they be cursed by everyone? Though Tyrant Blade Sect ranked last among the Nine Great Immortal Gates, it was not as though they did not value their reputation.

Just thinking about the things that had happened recently made Young Master Chen feel miserable. The incident at Luoxia Mountain the day before yesterday had clearly already been sealed by his orders, yet rumors still spread everywhere. He was so angry he could have died. If not for the sake of drawing a clear line between himself and Strange Treasure Hall, he would not even have come today.

Young Master Chen left without looking back.

Jia Heqian collapsed weakly to the ground. These years, he had relied on Song Dianlai and offended who knew how many people. He knew very well that since Zhaoge had supported Luo Yanxing, it would not accept him again. Moreover, since Zhaoge’s master was so kindhearted, he would also look down on someone like him, a man blinded by greed. That was why Jia Heqian had taken a desperate risk, trying to exploit the information gap to join forces with the Chen clan, refine mystic-grade pills, present them to Tyrant Blade Sect, and seek protection in advance.

Who would have thought Zhaoge would move so quickly!

The rumors outside must have been released by Luo Yanxing. That vicious woman had always used any means necessary. His Strange Treasure Hall was finished this time…

Jia Heqian’s premonition was not wrong. After Young Master Chen angrily left Strange Treasure Hall, the news that Song Dianlai had fallen spread farther and farther. Those merchants who had once been oppressed by Strange Treasure Hall no longer had to bitterly suppress themselves. Without prior agreement, they joined hands, and before long, Strange Treasure Hall fell like a toppled tree scattering monkeys, and was divided up cleanly.

…

Meanwhile, far away on Dongchen Continent, Chi Yixuan’s eyes had been hurt by the sight of his employees collectively undergoing “digging at the ground” training, so he had not paid attention to Zhaoge for quite some time. He only had his life-bound artifact keep watch and remind him if anything important happened.

Following the clue Wutong had given him, Chi Yixuan finally arrived near Bright Moon Gorge.

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