Lingxiao Immortal Clan.

now.

Lingxiao flagship store, a quiet room.

At the monthly Lingxiao Business Alliance summary meeting.

All the elders of the business alliance gathered here.

Ling Wantong, the leader of the business alliance, also arrived shortly afterward.

Following this, after everyone briefly recounted the business of the various shops under the Merchant Alliance, the elders of the Merchant Alliance took out some exquisite gift boxes and handed them to the Alliance Leader, Ling Wantong.

"Fellow Daoist Wan Tong, your previous proposal to establish a business alliance was truly wise, and we admire it greatly."

"Moreover, Fellow Daoist, your actions are tantamount to helping us earn spirit stones, for which we are extremely grateful."

"These are some good things we have acquired recently, and we intend to give them to you as a token of our gratitude. We hope you will not find them too offensive."

The elders of the merchant alliance, seeing the many benefits the alliance had brought them, expressed their gratitude.

Upon hearing this, Ling Wantong became particularly curious about the gift box they had handed him.

Furthermore, since the gift boxes were not specially concealed or protected, he was able to easily see the spiritual objects inside.

Each of them contained some extremely valuable fifth-grade low- to mid-grade spiritual items.

Even the spiritual items inside each gift box are worth at least a dozen fifth-tier spirit crystals, which is quite valuable.

In addition, there were many elders, and the gifts they gave were worth at least a hundred spirit crystals.

Ling Wantong was slightly taken aback by this.

'These slippery devils are really willing to spend money.'

Alliance leader Ling Wantong couldn't help but smile.

He had no reason to refuse such benefits that were offered to him.

Moreover, this matter will not have any major consequences.

He accepted them one by one, and said with a smile.

"You are all too kind."

"By the way, everyone, the businesses of our various shops under the Alliance have been on track and are doing very well."

"But that's not enough. So I'm going to stay true to my original intention and look for opportunities to earn more spirit stones through the merchant alliance."

Lingwan Passage.

He then carefully explained his two thoughts.

The first idea was rather risky: to spend a lot of money to hire some fifth-tier high-grade or even fifth-tier top-grade artisans to help refine higher-grade spiritual items, so that the shops under the merchant alliance would have the ability to sell high-grade spiritual items.

The profits from fifth-grade superior and fifth-grade top-grade spiritual items are relatively high, so this matter can bring even more benefits.

However, refining high-level spiritual items also requires a considerable price.

In addition, hiring high-level artisans is quite costly, making it difficult to reduce costs.

Therefore, it is difficult for the business alliance to sell such spiritual items through promotional methods as before.

Moreover, the customers of the merchant alliance shops are mostly cultivators in the early and middle stages of the Nascent Soul realm, and not many of them can afford high-level spiritual items.

Indirectly, if one does not offer a price advantage for those high-level spiritual items, it will be difficult to sell them.

Moreover, this matter is very likely to attract the attention of those large shops with extraordinary backgrounds in the market, since ordinary cultivators have a hard time controlling the business of selling fifth-grade high-quality and fifth-grade top-quality spiritual items.

Therefore, this matter has many shortcomings.

The second idea is more conservative: to use the Merchant Alliance's funds to purchase or lease some shops in the Immortal City, open more branches, or even expand the Merchant Alliance's branches to other areas.

However, as the number of shops increases, the number of spiritual items the merchant alliance needs to provide also increases.

However, the number of direct artisans in the Merchant Alliance is limited. Therefore, the spiritual items refined by these artisans can only barely meet the demand of the various shops currently operated by the Merchant Alliance.

Therefore, it is still necessary to hire some additional artisans, but there is no need to hire those of too high rank. Just hire some mid-to-low-rank fifth-tier artisans and ordinary artisans.

In addition, many of the major forces in the business alliance possess advanced skills and crafts.

Therefore, we could take some of the traditional skills as a source and hire some ordinary artisans with weak foundations to help us at a low price.

Indirectly, this can minimize the cost of hiring artisans.

But in any case, whether it's renting or buying shops in the Immortal City or other places, huge profits are required.

Indirectly, the cost of this matter is greater than the cost of the initial idea.

However, this matter does have its advantages, namely that it is relatively stable.

This is also Ling Wantong's preferred idea.

"I wonder what everyone's thoughts are on these two proposals?"

Ling Wantong asked the crowd.

"Aren't both of these plans a bit too hasty?"

"Moreover, the current size of our business alliance is already the limit of our strength."

"Even if our business alliance continues to expand, it's possible that even if you, Fellow Daoist Wan, have a senior, fifth-tier, late-stage Nascent Soul elder backing you up, things could still easily go wrong."

Although the elders of the merchant alliance present had long intended to do such a thing, they all had some concerns.

Moreover, both of Ling Wantong's proposals would cost a considerable amount of money.

If they fail, they will suffer a huge loss.

Therefore, they had to think deeply.

"Please rest assured, everyone. My elder's cultivation has recently increased significantly, and he is fully capable of keeping things under control. In fact, my elder is not afraid of trouble coming; he is afraid of trouble not coming."

Ling Wantong said with a smile.

He was unwilling to reveal Ling Pengyun's situation casually, after all, Ling Pengyun had a connection with the powerful Frost Immortal Sect of the Qingxia Realm.

Therefore, he only pretended to say that Yan Siyi's cultivation had greatly improved.

However, these words caused the elders of the merchant alliance present to have many thoughts.

After all, it is said that Yan Siyi's cultivation had already reached the peak of the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm. Under such circumstances, her cultivation has increased even more, wouldn't that mean she has reached the peak of the Nascent Soul realm?
"Fellow Daoist Wan Tong, could it be that your elder has reached the peak of the Nascent Soul stage?"

The elders of the business alliance present couldn't help but ask questions out of curiosity.

"good."

Ling Wantong lied without batting an eye.

In addition, Ling Wantong's past work style has always been quite good.

Furthermore, the expansion of the business alliance could bring enormous trouble, and if Ling Pengyun were to speak carelessly about this matter, he would likely suffer the consequences.

Therefore, the elders of the business alliance present couldn't help but believe in this matter, and their confidence even increased.

"If that's the case, rapidly expanding the size of the business alliance isn't out of the question."

After discussing it for a while, the elders of the merchant alliance smiled and said...

In addition, their ideas were exactly the same as Ling Wantong's; they both planned to take a steady and pragmatic approach, hiring ordinary craftspeople to open branch stores.

“Alright, then it’s settled.” Ling Wantong strongly agreed with the proposal and then confirmed the matter with the elders of the Merchant Alliance.

Immediately afterwards, they began to pool their resources and, through various information channels, inquired about the best locations in the Immortal City and intended to sell or rent shops to the public.

As for shops in ordinary locations, they don't really look down on them.

After all, those kinds of shops rarely have any cultivators passing by, making them relatively difficult to manage.

However, shops in good locations are considered prime locations, attracting a lot of attention, and few owners of such shops would sell or rent them out.

After searching for nearly half a year, the group finally managed to purchase two well-located shops from a small, declining family in a celestial city that desperately needed to cultivate high-level cultivators.

In addition, as part of the plan, they used the inheritance of advanced arts and crafts as a source to lure some outside artisans with weak inheritances to help refine spiritual items and run the two shops.

Gradually, the two shops started operating and business was decent every day.

The business alliance continued in this way afterward. They would even buy or rent shops to open branches whenever they had money, and entice ordinary people with various skills to help them.

Five years have passed in a row.

The business alliance then expanded like a snowball, growing its number of stores to thirty.

The alliance's monthly profits have also increased again.

However, the spiritual items sold by the merchant alliance are mostly the same old ones.

Indirectly, as the business of the merchant alliance grows larger, it inevitably affects the business of some other shops or merchant alliances in the Immortal City.

now.

Inside the council hall of the headquarters of a business alliance called "Autumn Leaf Business Alliance" in Immortal City.

Almost all of the top executives of the Qiuye Business Alliance gathered here.

The reason they gathered together was because the Lingxiao Business Alliance had been developing too rapidly recently.

The development history of Qiuye Business Alliance is similar to that of Lingxiao Business Alliance; both were established by small shops banding together for mutual support.

However, they were established a long time ago, hundreds of years ago.

However, since they did not have a powerful backer like Ling Pengyun who had reached the Nascent Soul stage, they dared not develop as quickly as the Lingxiao Business Alliance.

As a result, their current size is similar to that of the Lingxiao Business Alliance, with each having more than twenty or thirty stores under their command.

And precisely because of this, they find it difficult to obtain any high-level spiritual items. The spiritual items they mainly sell are the same as those of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance: fifth-grade, mid-grade, and low-grade spiritual items.

In addition, due to a series of coincidences, many of Qiuye Business Alliance's stores are located close to Lingxiao Business Alliance's branches.

The Lingxiao Merchant Alliance sells high-quality spiritual items, and also offers a number of special spiritual items to the public.

As a result, the business of many shops under the Qiuye Business Alliance has inevitably been affected.

Even the profits from those shops plummeted by nearly 50%.

This is not a good thing for the Qiuye Business Alliance.

As a result, they have been extremely troubled by this recently.

"Reporting to the Alliance Leader, we have found out the details of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance. Its backer is a veteran female cultivator and chef who is a fifth-grade high-level Nascent Soul cultivator in the late stage. However, it is rumored that she has recently reached the peak of Nascent Soul, and her current cultivation place is a fifth-grade high-level spiritual land outside the Immortal City."

"The current leader of the merchant alliance is a junior under him who is at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, named Ling Wantong. In fact, the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance was established by Ling Wantong together with some owners of small shops in the immortal cities."

"In addition, although we recently went to see Ling Wantong, the leader of the Lingxiao Business Alliance, to tell him that our business had been affected, he has lofty ambitions and is very confident in his abilities. He just gave us a perfunctory answer and did not make any substantial statement."

"Therefore, this matter cannot be resolved amicably, so we intend to wage a price war with them, forcing them to concede business share afterward..."

The elders of the merchant alliance carefully informed the Qiuye Merchant Alliance leader, "Qiuye Daojun," who was seated in the main seat of the council hall, of the various information they had recently gathered about the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance.

"While engaging in a price war is a safe bet, doing so would inevitably damage the foundation of my Qiuye Business Alliance. It's even possible that for a long time to come, my Qiuye Business Alliance will find it difficult to make any profits. Therefore, this is not a good suggestion."

In my opinion, it would be better to use force directly.

"Although his backer is a veteran fifth-tier high-grade spiritual chef who is suspected to have reached the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, and our Merchant Alliance alone cannot kill him."

"But its backing is not within the safe immortal city, but in a spiritual land outside."

"In this way, the situation has taken a turn for the better."

"I'm planning to take a risk and go to the Immortal City Black Market to seek help from the Shadow Tower to deal with the backer of the Lingxiao Merchant Alliance. Are you willing to do that?"

After a long pause, Qiuye Daojun, the leader of the Qiuye Business Alliance, spoke.

His cultivation was exceptionally strong; he was a veteran late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator who had long been at a bottleneck and was only one step away from reaching the Perfect Nascent Soul stage.

But he couldn't accomplish this on his own.

He then purchased high-level broken-mirror spiritual items to help him.

However, high-level breakthrough items are extremely valuable.

Even as the head of the Qiuye Merchant Alliance, he couldn't gather the resources to accomplish this in a short time.

He was particularly distressed on ordinary days.

Furthermore, with the current business alliance's operations being affected, the progress of this matter will undoubtedly become even slower.

This matter was a huge obstacle for him, and the straw that broke the camel's back.

Therefore, he deliberately took the risk of taking action against Yan Siyi, the backer of the Lingxiao Business Alliance.

In addition, the immortal city is vast, and where there is sunlight, there must be dark places as well.

As a result, a black market gradually emerged in the Immortal City.

It sells all kinds of spiritual items, even those from the demonic path.

Moreover, it is rumored that the black market is backed by high-ranking members of the Hunyuan lineage.

As a result, the black market has always been very stable, and it has continued to exist even though many people know about it.

The Shadow Tower is a special force in the black market that specializes in assassinations and has many high-level cultivators and ruthless individuals under its command who specialize in assassinations.

It is even rumored that the Black Market Shadow Tower has assassinated even those at the Void Refinement stage.

Moreover, its background is mysterious; the Shadow Tower in the black market is just a branch of it, and other major forces also have branches under its control.

But no one knows the truth about him.

Therefore, ordinary people hold it in great awe.

It is also worth mentioning that, although the Shadow Tower does dirty work.

However, they are extremely trustworthy. Even if the assassination mission they take on fails, they will still pay the deposit as usual and will never let their employer suffer a loss.

His reputation is excellent and he is trustworthy.

The Qiuye Business Alliance had even sought their help to resolve some of their enemies in the past, and nothing had ever happened to them.

However, the cost of seeking their help is also high.

Even if one wanted to find and kill Yan Siyi, a cultivator who was suspected of having reached the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, it would require at least ten thousand fifth-grade spirit crystals, which is roughly equivalent to an ordinary fifth-grade top-quality spirit treasure.

It should be noted that even if an ordinary cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage were to spend their entire life searching for a powerful spiritual treasure, it would be extremely difficult to acquire one.

It was for this reason that Qiu Ye, the leader of the alliance, told the other high-ranking members of the business alliance about his idea of ​​seeking help from the Shadow Tower, hoping to get their financial support.

After all, he simply couldn't afford this on his own. (End of Chapter)