Sea Cultivation: Giant Ships and Heavy Artillery Knock on the Door to All Races

Chapter 259 Maritime Mobile Market: The True Purpose of Trading

General Affairs Hall
Lin Qianfan is carefully reviewing the employment status and personal abilities of all adult members of the family, as well as screening the applications submitted by various Foundation Establishment forces within the archipelago to join the Tianji Wheel.

Although the Tianji Wheel is only the most basic Tier 3 ship, it has the greatest demand for manpower, estimated to be nearly 300 people.

Of course, it's not necessary to have three hundred professional shipwrights. Maintaining the normal operation of a Tier 3 ship only requires a small number of professionals. For example, the Zhentao ship only needs a few dozen technical personnel, and the rest are replaced by puppets.

The extra staff on the Tianji Wheel are mostly "merchants," because the Tianji Wheel is positioned as a "mobile market on the sea."

As the name suggests, the Tianji Wheel travels between various Golden Core factions with manpower, goods, customers, and other resources, earning profits from the price difference.

Compared to the fixed market's limited influence, the Tianji Wheel's mobile cargo can directly break geographical restrictions, allowing regional rare resources to appear in places that are almost impossible to find.

For example, the delicious carp and dragonfish of the Yulong Islands, and the various dragon-type spirit beasts that are special products of the Dark Sea, are all regional resources. As long as they are taken to other regions, they will become rare commodities.

Of course, the above is just a narrow example. The real situation is not limited to this. As long as the Tianji Wheel keeps running, it can continuously mobilize regional resources, and the profit margin is very considerable.

This business has a high barrier to entry, with almost no competitors, making it a very unique business. Its only drawback is that while the profit margin is high, the scale is not large, so the business is still a bit small.

"...graduated from... and previously worked at..."

The Lin family's population has expanded rapidly in recent years. The main family in Yanglong Bay has exceeded 1,000 people, while the Lin family in Xiancheng has exceeded 2,000 people, nearly doubling compared to more than 20 years ago.

However, most of these new people are very young, with more than 30% being minors who are still receiving education in their clan schools. Meanwhile, most of the adult population has been placed in jobs, and those who haven't are considered incompetent.

Therefore, Lin Qianfan could only select a small number of core clan members to serve as management personnel. He also needed to train some young clan members who had no experience and were just starting out in society. The remaining gaps would have to be filled by the outstanding disciples of his Foundation Establishment forces.

"Four levels of space below the deck..."

The Tianji Wheel is divided into nine levels. The original use and specific functional divisions of this ship are no longer important. Now that it's in the hands of the Lin family, it will naturally be changed according to Lin Qianfan's needs.

The nine-story space is divided into four levels below deck and five levels above deck.

The lowest level, the fourth basement level, is the "Dragon Bone Level." This level of security is the highest, and even ordinary Lin family shipwrights cannot enter. Only Lin family Foundation Establishment cultivators and a few first-tier shipwrights can enter.

Here lies the ship's core power source, the "Spirit Source Well," which gathers free spiritual energy. Therefore, this ship is a mobile third-tier spiritual vein, and all other structures are based on its existence.

In addition, the core formations of the two defensive systems of the Tianji Wheel are also located here, so this place is absolutely confidential and no unauthorized personnel are allowed to enter!

The third basement level is the "workshop level," where Tianji Wheel not only acts as a merchant buying low and selling high, but also takes on a production role.

Here are various specialized workshops set up for the efficient production of various alchemical arrays and talismans. Tianji Wheel can process various low-priced raw materials into in-demand finished products at sea, and then sell them at the right time, with a very large profit margin in between.

Because Tianji Wheel has very limited manpower, these workshops only occupy part of the workshop floor, with the remaining space being the storage warehouse area and the puppet lock area.

The Lin family has invested a lot of manpower and resources in puppet development over the years, and now it has begun to show results. The Lin family has basically gotten rid of the problem of purchasing ordinary puppets from outside, and the Tianji Wheel is naturally equipped with a lot of puppets.

These puppets are divided into day service and combat sequences, which can help cultivators share some of the maintenance work and handle emergency issues.

However, the most powerful second-tier puppets were all purchased at high prices, and the Lin family's puppeteers have not yet reached that standard. Lin Qianfan also plans to study this aspect further when he has free time.

The second basement level is the "boatmen's quarters," which is the living and rest area for nearly 300 boatmen. The space per person is limited, and there is even a small separate area for raising live animals and a temporary medicine garden.

Fortunately, the ceiling height on this floor is high enough, so it's not particularly oppressive. Also, this is just a rest area, while the work area is upstairs, so the environment isn't too bad and is better than many small monster-hunting ships.

The basement level is the "market floor" open to the public. This floor has the largest interior space and is filled with all kinds of large shops.

The entire Tianji Wheel contains seventy-two shops, eighteen of which are operated by the Lin family. The remaining fifty-four shops are open for bidding, with Foundation Establishment families from the Fish-Dragon Islands submitting applications and selecting the best to move in.

This market floor mainly accommodates the fifty-four shops that were selected through public bidding.

Although the number of shops is small compared to the hundreds of shops in traditional markets, each shop represents the hard work of a Foundation Building force, and each shop is a winner in the competition.

They all need to have their own unique strengths and their own profit-making capabilities. They not only enrich the Tianji Wheel, but also need to pay high taxes to the Lin family, which can be considered a win-win situation, since these Foundation Establishment forces also need to expand and develop.

The above four levels are all below the deck, and there are five more levels of space above the deck.

The first level above the deck is also called the "deck level," which is divided into inner and outer sections. The open-air deck area is the "open-air market," a place specifically provided by the Tianji Ship for local cultivators to set up stalls. Given their size, they can't really compete for much business, and setting up stalls on board requires paying taxes. Moreover, they are also potential customers. With them leading the way, it will definitely bring obvious popularity and lower the locals' guard. It's a down-to-earth approach.

The first floor houses the eighteen shops owned by the Lin family. These shops have very little overlap in their offerings and each has its own unique characteristics. They are all high-quality properties carefully selected by Lin Qianfan.

However, they face some objective competition with the floors below, which is unavoidable, and customers also have the right to choose.

The difference between the upper and lower levels lies in the fact that self-operated stores have higher profit margins, but with Yulonglinjia as a guarantee of credibility, each has its own advantages.

The second floor is also divided into inner and outer sections, but it is much smaller because it lacks the open-air deck area of ​​the first floor.

The open-air deck on the second floor houses a restaurant, a large restaurant owned and operated by the Lin family, specializing in the unique spiritual cuisine of the Yulong Islands.

These delicacies may not be well-known in other places and may not be very attractive to outsiders, but this restaurant can provide a unique exchange venue for many business negotiations.

Business discussions don't necessarily have to take place in a private room; they can also be conducted openly and aboveboard. Restaurants even offer rebates to these businesses, which naturally provides them with a customer base.

The second floor houses several luxurious leisure and entertainment venues, catering to powerful guests. It is also where the Tianji Wheel receives other large forces, such as Foundation Establishment cultivators representing Golden Core forces.

In summary, the basement, first floor, and second floor are all open commercial areas, with the difference being that the consumption threshold increases progressively at each level.

Each of these three floors has a completely open, unfurnished space that connects the upper and lower levels. This large open space makes the originally rather narrow interior space of the cabin appear very spacious.

This enormous internal atrium is not just for decoration; it also serves as the auction hall for the Tianji Wheel.

When a lot of valuable goods are collected along the way, mobile auctions can be held at various stops, allowing guests of all levels to participate directly in the auctions.

Once you get to the third deck, there are no more open decks; it's all interior space, and this entire deck is filled with luxury cabins.

Although the Tianji was a merchant ship, it was destined to stop and go along the way and not go directly to its destination, but it did have a small passenger cabin specially reserved so that it could pick up and drop off passengers along the way. After all, not every passenger was in a hurry, and there were certainly people who liked to travel around along the way.

Such a person may be very wealthy, or may have a skill to rely on. They may disembark after a few stops, or they may stay on the ship for a long time. Regardless of the possibility, they are a high-quality customer.

The third and fourth floors are strictly separated by an array, with no direct connection between them. This is because the fourth floor is the captain's cabin, the private space of the Third Elder and Lin Qianfan, which is not easily accessible to others.

The fifth floor at the very top is very small; it is a special "escape pod" containing a short-range random teleportation array.

When the Tianji Wheel encounters an extreme crisis that seems impossible, the shipwrights can use this short-distance teleportation array to travel thousands of miles away to seek a chance of survival. This escape pod can even be detached as a whole and launched directly as a decoy.

Of course, this is just a contingency plan. If it really comes to that, it's hard to say how many people will actually escape.

Three hundred people sounds like a lot, but in reality, it's not much once you cram them in. On average, each shop will only have three or four people. Many things will still need to be done through complex formations and puppets. For example, restaurants don't need many waiters or servants.

Lin Qianfan now has the power to make this decision, choosing the right personnel and shops to form the best team.

"One pseudo-Core Formation cultivator, five Foundation Establishment cultivators, and a second-tier combat puppet—as long as we don't encounter a third-tier demon king, our safety shouldn't be a problem. Besides..."

Although Lin Qianfan was the captain, he did not intend to spend too much time dealing with business matters. As the highest authority, the Third Elder would not handle everything himself, so he transferred a Foundation Establishment cultivator who had previously managed the market from the Lin family of Immortal City to serve as the general affairs manager.

In addition, Lin Qianfan also hired three Foundation Establishment cultivators with guaranteed loyalty, who were experienced and advanced in years, from among the many Foundation Establishment forces under the Lin family to help manage the Tianji Wheel.

These three were elderly cultivators who had been living in seclusion at home. During the prosperous era of the Fish-Dragon Islands, it was almost impossible for wars to break out within the islands. Any conflicts were resolved through continuous expansion, so their families did not actually need them to hold the line.

Helping out at Tianji Wheel is actually a good choice. Not only can you earn a decent salary, but you can also build good relationships with the Lin family, which will give you an advantage in the future distribution of Foundation Establishment Pills.

Don't let their age fool you; they're all hard workers, and when it matters, they can grab their talismans and charge out of the ship to make a big splash.

As for Lin Qianfan's true purpose...
Of course, it wasn't for making money through trade to supply the road. Lin Qianfan had been financially secure ever since he obtained the Vast Ocean Spirit Guide, and the Lin family didn't care whether he could make money or not when they were nurturing him.

Instead, the goal is to use the Vast Ocean Spirit Guide to expand the sea map of the four regions of the Inner Sea, find unclaimed magic treasures to help Xiao Xinglan overcome her tribulation, and investigate/mine high-value mineral deposits in various places during this trade journey.

The Tianji Wheel's journey to run trade routes is merely a formality; it's simply a way to cultivate talent for the family and the Fish-Dragon Islands, increase the Lin family's influence in the Inner Sea, and earn contribution points to gain public support.

Previously, this was accomplished using demon-hunting ships, but second-tier spirit ships had limited ranges, only able to operate near familiar hunting grounds. The Tianji Wheel, on the other hand, had a much wider range of operations, and as long as it didn't provoke third-tier demon kings, it could travel to the main routes of the four regions of the inner sea.

(End of this chapter)