CHAPTER 86: CHAPTER 84: TASK COMPLETED, PREPARATIONS FOR OPENING THE STORE FINISHED

After spending a few more days at home, thoroughly instructing the Transporting Locust Spirit to provide mulberry leaves for the Qingsui Silkworm daily, Li Ye headed to the Zhou Family to continue his work.

The sooner he finishes these tasks, the sooner he can take the fungus silk to open his shop. Every day’s delay means a loss of shiny Spirit Stones!

Whenever he encountered cultivators along the way, they respectfully greeted him, and Li Ye politely nodded in return without any airs.

When he arrived at the courtyard prepared for the cultivators of the Four Seasons Sect by the Zhou Family, he discovered Senior Brother Shu sitting there, cheerfully conversing with Qian Fang.

Could Senior Brother Shu have come by because there’s news?

Li Ye walked forward.

Upon sensing someone’s arrival, both individuals turned to look.

Senior Brother Shu sized Li Ye up with a smile and said, "The disciple of a True Man, Junior Brother, I’ve long noticed you’re no ordinary person!

Isn’t that what I said?"

"Haha." Li Ye replied modestly with a smile, "Just lucky. But, judging from Senior Brother’s invigorated look, is there progress at the mining vein?"

"I’m guessing it’s good news?"

"Good news, good news." Senior Brother Shu’s smile grew even brighter, "You’re here just in time, saving me the trouble of searching for you to tell you again."

He paused and continued, "I spent several days exploring the mining vein with younger generation cultivators, and with the help of a young Sword Cultivator from the Southern Domain, we finally uncovered some clues.

Apart from the influence of that powerful Fox Race entity infiltrating us, it turns out a Demon Qi Vein is forming.

It’s this vein that was utilized by the Fox Race entity, leading to the demise of the Earthquake Worm that maintained the Earth Vein’s order."

"Demon Qi Vein?" Li Ye had never heard of such a thing, curiously asking, "It doesn’t sound like a good thing. Why does Senior Brother call it good news?"

Qian Fang interjected, "Where Demon Qi gathers, it compresses Spiritual Qi, so Spiritual Objects derived from Spiritual Qi are certainly present around a Demon Qi Vein.

Moreover, Demon Qi can be used to craft special Demon Artifacts.

This power doesn’t have a strict distinction between good and evil; it’s just that our philosophies differ, leading to Demon Path cultivators opposing us."

Senior Brother Shu nodded, "Exactly. The emergence of this Demon Qi Vein is a good thing for us. A True Man will soon redirect it back to the Sect.

I and the cultivators of the Mo Family have completely sealed the opening where the Demon Qi leaks, and under the control of the Mo Family, the Miner Ghosts should decrease in number.

Spirit Mechanism Vine Brother has stated that as long as Miner Ghosts don’t increase, the vein can be opened to outside cultivators.

Now many are openly and secretly inquiring, eager to obtain the minerals within.

Previously, we had to deal with the controlled Earth Demon Ginseng, but now that’s unnecessary.

So your task can be concluded."

He explained the most important part.

"..."

Li Ye hadn’t anticipated the abruptness of the conclusion.

He had been prepared to work tirelessly for days and nights prior, only to find it was over?

Though it was a pity to lose some merit, he realized it didn’t matter much without Miner Ghost reinforcement; the Earth Demon Ginseng would soon be captured.

The remaining merit wouldn’t be substantial, and there’s no point fighting over this opportunity with other cultivators, nor troubling Spirit Mechanism Vine over it.

With this realization, he smiled lightly, "I came at just the right time, so I can join Senior Brother Qian in completing the task."

"That’s why I say Junior Brother Li is a Blessed Cultivator. It surely is good news." Qian Fang said with a smile.

"Since that’s settled." Senior Brother Shu turned to Li Ye, "Go ahead and collect the Earth Emotion Fungus Silk.

Once you’ve harvested it, if there’s nothing else, let’s go together to see Spirit Mechanism Vine Brother to hand over the task."

"Alright." Li Ye nodded, then went to the continuously food-providing Earth Emotion Fungus Silk area, pretending to survey among the fungus silk.

Before long, he noticed through a panel the concealed core of the Earth Emotion Fungus Silk, swiftly capturing it and placing it into a Storage Spirit Box.

The silk’s core hadn’t even had time to react.

However, the surrounding fungus silk suddenly erupted like frenzy, trying desperately to prevent them, but soon became stunned and devoid of spirituality.

Because once the core of the Earth Emotion Fungus Silk is captured inside such a Storage Spirit Box, it quickly loses contact with the outside, behaving tamely despite its previous wildness.

"These remaining fungus silk can still be used to feed livestock." Li Ye commented to Zhou Qiumai, "I’ll leave the handling to you."

"Thank you."

After expressing gratitude with a fist salute, Zhou Qiumai removed a ring from his finger and handed it over, "These are the Spirit Stones gained from selling fungus silk during this period.

Within fifteen days, seventy thousand one hundred and two hundred types of various Spirit Beasts were brought in.

Total Spirit Stones amass to seventy thousand one hundred and two hundred stones, all here."

Li Ye took the ring and examined it closely, indeed finding a pile of over seventy thousand Spirit Stones inside; this quantity didn’t strike him as overly extravagant.

Bear in mind that the surrounding area is full of cultivation families, and hundreds to thousands of livestock get consumed daily. Even this figure seems low to him.

He had imagined it would reach a million.

After confirming the Spirit Stone count was accurate, Li Ye placed it back on his finger, planning to hand it over to Spirit Mechanism Vine later.

"Yes, that’s correct."

"Precisely seventy thousand one hundred and two hundred Spirit Stones."

"Taoist Friend Zhou, my shop should open tomorrow. I hope Taoist Friend can help spread the word."

After arranging with Zhou Qiumai, Li Ye followed Senior Brother Shu out of the Zhou Family, where he’d stayed for half a month.

Finally able to return and submit the task.

...

Some time later.

Four Seasons Tower.

After listening to Li Ye, the Spiritual Mechanism Vine received the ring and Flying Light Cyan Lotus Seeds, placed them casually aside, and said, "This time’s task reward has already been distributed to you in advance."

"Hmm." Li Ye nodded.

Whether it was the shop or the three additional tokens given by True Man Suoxing, all were of great value, and he was very satisfied.

Seeing that Li Ye had no objections, the Spiritual Mechanism Vine turned to Qian Fang, "When you return to the sect, there will be an opportunity for you to enter the Jade Spirit Grotto Heaven."

Qian Fang’s face immediately lit up with joy, "That’s great!"

"This is a deserved reward."

"The sect’s tasks will not shortchange you."

After finishing speaking, the Spiritual Mechanism Vine directly initiated a guest dismissal, "Don’t stay here anymore, Junior Brother Shu remains. The two of you should go do what you need to do!"

"Yes!"

"Junior Brother bids farewell."

Li Ye and Qian Fang left the room of the Spiritual Mechanism Vine, the two exchanged a glance.

Then, in tacit agreement, they headed outside and soon arrived at the shop they were preparing to open.

First, the shop’s upper floor had already been set up by Qian Fang with the "mechanism counter" developed in collaboration between the Mo Family and the Four Seasons Sect.

Simply put, it was like an automatic vending machine. You just needed to place Spirit Stones on the counter, and it would automatically dispense goods corresponding to the number of Spirit Stones.

There was absolutely no need for a clerk to greet the customers.

"What price does Junior Brother plan to set for this fungus?" Qian Fang asked, "I can adjust the mechanism accordingly."

"The price, huh." Li Ye thought for a while and said, "Let’s simply price one pound of the fungus delicacy at ten Spirit Stones; this price is just right."

"Your pricing is very cheap. For dedicated Spirit Beast feed, the price is at least ten Spirit Stones per tael, and prices as high as a hundred per tael or even higher exist."

"I know, but most people in Huiya Marketplace are loose cultivators, so we can’t sell too expensively; we have to make it affordable for ordinary cultivators." Li Ye replied.

This shop’s main intent, in his vision, was to sell to loose cultivators.

As for the great families, if they’re really interested, they would certainly approach him for cooperation, and retail and bulk purchases would of course be calculated separately.

Furthermore, if in the future, the Earth Emotion Fungus can be improved, there might be different quality feeds, which also need to be calculated separately.

"It seems Junior Brother has also understood our Four Seasons Sect’s mindset, let’s go down and take a look!" He pulled Li Ye towards the stairs.

The modifications down here were even more impressive.

Three full Second Tier Spirit Veins were used to supply Spiritual Qi, each lotus flower around had array patterns painted and arranged properly.

Spiritual Power flowed between the lotus flowers, with each lotus flower’s required Spiritual Qi controlled by a lock-shaped magical artifact, ensuring neither too much nor too little.

Li Ye viewed this with great satisfaction, indeed, such matters should be entrusted to professionals.

Li Ye praised, "Indeed, Senior Brother Qian is remarkable, to even be this proficient with arrays!"

Qian Fang replied, "This array is pretty basic, mostly thanks to these Flying Light Cyan Lotuses of Junior Brother’s."

"But after Junior Brother handed in the Flying Light Cyan Lotus Seeds, will there still be a way to store Resentment Qi in the future? If these are used up, there won’t be any way to replenish, right?"

This was indeed the only concern he had.

The current business primarily involved the conversion of Resentment Qi into feed by the Earth Emotion Fungus, where Resentment Qi was the raw material, and the Flying Light Cyan Lotus was the container for the raw material, closely linked.

If there were no Flying Light Cyan Lotus supplements in the future, and the supply of raw materials became a problem, the business would immediately become untenable.

"That’s nothing for Senior Brother to worry about." Li Ye flicked his finger at a Flying Light Cyan Lotus, producing a crisp sound, "As long as there’s ample Spiritual Qi supply, this lotus will not wither."

"That would be excellent."

"Junior Brother, behold this is the cage I crafted for Earth Emotion Fungus."

He led Li Ye to the deepest part of the array, where there was a block floating in mid-air, assembled from countless square jade pieces.

The jade constantly transformed, and the block likewise continuously changed and rotated, glittering brightly, truly embodying the elegance of an Immortal Treasure.

When Li Ye tried placing the fungus’s main body inside.

The fungus main body floated in the center of the jade, and as the blocks changed, began supplying Resentment Qi to it.

With the supply of Resentment Qi, the once lethargic fungus immediately became lively.

It floated and stretched within the block, starting to change into various human forms, and began preparing all sorts of delicacies.

Once the delicacies were prepared, Spiritual Power’s blade severed its connection with the main body, ensuring no danger and no growth.

The peculiarity of the Earth Emotion Fungus is that only the main body possesses the ability to absorb Resentment Qi and grow incessantly.

And when Qian Fang pressed a mechanism nearby, the jade pieces automatically closed, transforming into a Storage Spirit Block that could cause the Earth Emotion Fungus to slumber.

"This is indeed intricate."

Li Ye nodded, "I knew inviting you to join was the right choice. Now everything is set; we only await tomorrow’s store opening to welcome customers."

"As for the profit split, I plan to give Zhou Qiumai half a share, and then split the remainder fifty-fifty between you and me, how about that?"

Although Li Ye held the most critical techniques, Qian Fang had put in considerable effort too; arrays, magical artifacts, and Spirit Veins were all his setup.

Too much or too little wouldn’t be fitting, so might as well keep it fifty-fifty.

"Fifty-fifty is good." Qian Fang nodded, "I wonder how many will purchase?"

"There will always be some."

Both held a bit of anticipation in their hearts.