I established the Eternal Immortal Clan by taming beasts.

The meeting ended, and everyone filed out.

Lin Xuandong walked at the back, his steps light, but the heavy thoughts between his brows could not be hidden.

One million spirit stones, a stable supply of goods, and a talent shortage—each of these weighs heavily on my shoulders, neither too heavy nor too light, yet impossible to ignore.

He paused at the door, glanced back at his father still standing by the window, hesitated, and finally turned and left, his footsteps gradually fading at the end of the corridor.

Lin Che did not rush to leave.

He stood by the window, watching his sons' figures gradually disappear into the morning light of Shattered Star Lake.

Outside the window, the thin mist on the lake had dissipated, and sunlight sprinkled on the water, breaking into thousands of golden scales that rippled gently in the breeze, dazzling the eyes.

Several blue-eyed eagles circled in the air, emitting clear and melodious cries.

He withdrew his gaze, took out the intelligence jade slip that Zhihei had given him from his sleeve, and began to analyze the intelligence of the three families again.

The strength, background, main industries, and key figures of the Cheng, He, and Liu families are all clearly visible.

Meanwhile, another issue was also swirling in his mind—talent.

Array masters, alchemists, and weapon refiners are professions that almost every cultivator needs.

If the Lin family only runs a small shop, that doesn't matter. A shop just needs to put things on the shelves and wait for people to come and buy them.

However, from the very beginning, the Lin family established a chamber of commerce.

The chamber of commerce's positioning dictates that it cannot simply be a place to sell goods.

It also needs to provide services, build a reputation, and become a platform that attracts customers to come, to come more often, and to bring others.

It's alright in Chuyang City.

The area is small, the demand is low, and with the production capacity provided by vassal states, it can fully meet the needs.

Customers come, buy what they need, and leave; no additional service or technical support is required.

But if it were in Burning Bone City, the situation would be completely different.

That area is the rear of Burning Bone Pass, with many cultivators, high demand, and many competitors.

When customers walk into a chamber of commerce, they not only want to see if the goods are good, but also if the chamber has the ability to provide after-sales service.

Who repairs the formation if it breaks? Who checks the pills if they're faulty? Who do I contact if I want to customize a magic weapon?

Without these talents, the chamber of commerce will become much less attractive.

Lin Che was reminded of himself from back then.

At that time, he had just formed his core and was setting up a protective array for his family. He inquired about array masters everywhere and finally found Qin Yulin through Wang Miaoxue's connections.

He also bought the spiritual materials needed for setting up the formation at the Wind Merchant Guild.

It wasn't because he wanted to buy it there, but because it was convenient.

Having found a formation master, I was able to gather all the materials easily, saving time and effort.

This is the "siphon effect" of talent.

A top-notch array master can bring the Chamber of Commerce not only the benefits of arrays, but also the sales of various spiritual materials, customer loyalty, and word-of-mouth marketing.

The same applies to the other professions.

Having an alchemist in charge can bring a steady stream of orders for pills to the chamber of commerce, and also build a "professional and reliable" image in the minds of customers.

With a weapon refiner in charge, the guild can take on the business of customizing, repairing, and upgrading magical artifacts, all of which are high-profit areas.

If the Qingmu Chamber of Commerce did not have its own master of all arts and crafts to oversee it, its influence would be greatly diminished.

The customer came, bought a spirit beast, bought pills, and then what?

Next time he needs to set up an array, he'll have to go to the Fengxing Merchant Guild;

To repair the ritual implements, he had to go to Wanbaoge;

To find someone to appraise the elixir, he had to go to the Liu family's pharmacy.

This is not only a loss of profits, but also a loss of customer relationships.

Therefore, we must take this seriously.

The Lin family has no shortage of spirit beasts, spirit herbs, or spirit stones; what they lack is "people."

Those capable individuals who can stand alone and provide technical support to the Chamber of Commerce cannot be cultivated overnight.

But there's no escaping this.

Lin Che put the jade slip into his sleeve and walked out of the conference room.

Instead of returning to his cultivation room, he walked along the bluestone path beside Shattered Star Lake towards the Spirit Beast Garden.

The morning breeze caressed his face, carrying the fresh scent of water plants and the slightly earthy smell of soil. His steps were neither fast nor slow, but his mind was racing with calculations.

Array Master.

The first person he thought of was Qin Yulin.

That guy's mastery of formations is top-notch in the entire Burning Bone City region, and his personality is easy to control.

But she's already a retainer of the Fengxing Merchant Guild. If we try to poach her, let's not even talk about whether she'd be willing or not. How would the Fengxing Merchant Guild react?

Wang Qinian was very polite to him. When the Lin family needed help the most, it was Wang Qinian who introduced Qin Yulin to them.

If we were to try and poach his girlfriend at this time, it would be unreasonable and illogical.

Let's test the waters first.

Lin Che had a plan in mind. He wasn't in a hurry to poach people; he wanted to first see how the Fengxing Chamber of Commerce would react to the Lin family's move to Burning Bone City.

If we can maintain the cooperative relationship, that would be best;

If they are destined to become rivals, he wouldn't mind poaching Qin Yulin.

In the world of cultivation, there are no eternal friends or eternal enemies, only eternal interests.

Alchemist.

The Lin family has accumulated some experience in this area. Over the years, they have trained a group of first- and second-tier alchemists, who are all guest advisors. They can refine basic pills to ensure that the merchant guild has a continuous supply.

However, these people are only "usable" to a certain extent, far from being able to "stand on their own."

When faced with truly complex prescriptions or rare medicinal herbs, they were simply unable to cope.

Su Wanwan does have that ability.

She already possessed the pill-making heritage of the Su family, and after taking over the pill-refining heritage of the Chen family, she has studied it extremely deeply over the years.

But now she spends most of her time cultivating, and she is too busy to be in two places at once.

To ask her to abandon her cultivation and go to Burning Bone City to oversee things would be putting the cart before the horse.

Weapon refiner.

Lin Che sighed softly as he thought about this.

The Lin family has no tradition of crafting magical artifacts; all their artifacts are purchased.

None of his own people were skilled in weapon crafting.

The Lin family's biggest weakness right now is in weapon crafting.

After much thought, Lin Che realized that the most reliable solution was to "hire externally".

If you can hire someone externally, you need to have attractive incentives.

Which of those rogue cultivators who have achieved something in the various arts of immortal cultivation is not a proud and arrogant person?

They won't accept recruitment easily; to get them to agree, you need to offer them attractive terms.

Spirit stones? The Lin family has plenty, but so do others.

Giving too much would be too costly and not worthwhile;

If you give them too little, why would they come?

Spirit beasts? That's something the Lin family excels at.

The spirit beasts bred by the Lin family are among the best in the entire Burning Bone Pass region.

Using spirit beasts as leverage to attract skilled individuals among independent cultivators might be a viable approach.

Lin Che stopped and stood under a clump of misty willows, gazing at the lake in a daze.

The willow branches drooped low, almost touching the water's surface, swaying gently with the waves.

Several small fish swam in the water, occasionally leaping out of the water, splashing up a small water droplet, and then falling back into the water and disappearing.

After pondering for a long time, he took out a communication jade slip and sent a message to Zhi Heifa:

"Help me find some rogue array masters, alchemists, and weapon refiners near Burning Bone City. Cultivation level is not a limit, but character is the most important factor. If you find any suitable ones, please let me know."

The jade slip glowed faintly; the message had been sent.

Without waiting for a reply, he put the jade slip into his sleeve and continued walking forward.

……