Let’s get down to Business

'The system will comply, the first product will be rice', Lujing stated, 'The system will use the rice that was planted in your field, and prepare it for sale at dawn tomorrow.'

Fang Shi was about to ask a question when he his panel updated.

[A Journey of a thousand miles starts at the first step

Objective 1: completed

Rewards: Market Tab, Wallet Tab]

Fang Shi looked at he panel and two new tabs were now available. He selected the wallet tab first but it was empty at the moment.

"System, why is my wallet empty?", Fang Shi complained, "I know I'm not rich, but I still have some taels of silvers, and some silver coins left."

'Answer: the host has not entered any currency into the wallet', Lujing explained, 'Please select a primary and secondary option for accessing the wallet. Note: no matter what the user picks, you can always access the wallet from the panel.'

Fang Shi realized what the system was doing, if he pulled money from thin air from the panel which others couldn't see, he would attract undue attention from others.

"Fine, designate the hip pouch as the primary", he instructed the system, "And make my right sleeve the secondary."

'Wallet access points selected', Lujing stated.

Fang Shi took the 15 taels of silver and 27 silver coins he had leftover from purchasing the deed to his land, and thrust them towards the panel floating in front of him. His hands went through the screen, but the money disappeared on contact. The wallet tab immediately changed, and reflected the amount he had in his hands previously.

'Host Fang Shi, your store will open tomorrow, but an important detail must be handled before it can', the system told him, 'If you wish to be recognized, it's imperative that your store has a name.'

'This made sense', Fang Shi thought to himself, 'Who would walk in to buy something if they are not aware it's a store?'

"Ok, I need a grand name that will attract the eyes of passersby", he said, "I got it, from now on we are known as the Heaven and Earth Pavilion."

Fang Shi was feeling good about his naming sense when he heard a notification ring in his ear. He turned his head towards the still open panel to see a '!' mark on the achievement tab. Curious, he selected the tab and saw the following:

[New! What's in a name?]

He picked the new achievement and read:

[ What's in a name?

Name your store 1/1

Reward: Sign with your store's name]

Fang Shi accepted the reward, but felt somewhat underwhelmed by the achievement.

'Does this mean if I didn't name my store, I wouldn't have gotten a sign?', he considered the possibility.

Fang Shi just ignored what had happened, and selected the market tab next to investigate it. Once again, he was met with a blank page so he decided to find out why.

"Can you tell me more about the market page, Lujing?", he inquired.

'Of course, the host has to select a product and the system will check the local market for the prices set by the host's competitors', it told him, 'If no competition exists, the tab will stay empty.'

'That's useful', Fang Shi told himself as he typed in rice in the market tab. He ordered the system to search, and was surprised when six entries appeared in the tab. He found low quality rice, average quality rice, high quality rice, low quality spirit rice, mid quality spirit rice, and high quality spirit rice.

"Why are there so many different kinds of rice?", he wondered.

'The farmers who produce rice in this area ranged from untalented people who can only farm to make a living to the spirit farms of the sects who can barely produce a bushel of high quality rice a year', the system explained, 'Perhaps the host should decide what types of rice he will sell?'

"Explain the differences of quality to me", Fang Shi demanded from the system, "I cannot make a good judgement without know more."

'For normal rice, the quality denotes the amount of nutrients inside', the system replied, 'Spirit rice, on the other hand, is nutritious at any quality. The quality rating for spirit rice doesn't refer to nutrition, but to the amount of Qi stored in the grain. That being said, no matter the quality of Qi, the rice produced by the system has no impurities in it.'

Fang Shi looked over the market, and saw that rice was priced at 2 silver coins a bushel for low quality, 5 silver coins a bushel at average, and 8 coins at high. Low quality spirit rice was 2 silver taels or 1 spirit stone per bushel, mid quality was 5 silver taels or 2 spirit stones, and high quality was 10 silver taels or 5 spirit stones. He checked what the cost of planting rice was and saw the following: LQ rice 1 silver coin, MQ rice 2 silver coins, HQ rice 4 silver coin, LQ spirit rice 1 silver tael, MQ spirit rice 2 silver tael, and HQ spirit rice 4 silver tael.

"I have decided", Fang Shi remarked, "I will sell high quality rice at 5 silver coin, low quality spirit rice at 2 silver tael or a spirit stone, mid quality spirit rice at 3 silver tael, and high quality spirit rice at 5 silver tael or 2 spirit stones."

'The system is setting the prices now and creating a sign', Lujing responded, 'One last detail, the system predicts that problems may arise in the future, so it suggests a set of rules to keep the peace. Would the host like to set the rules of the shop?'

Fang Shi thought back to his past life, and remembered how novels like this would have a system that set unreasonable and unrealistic standards for the MC to follow.

"I will set the rules", he commented, "First rule, prices are set, any negotiations will be denied. Second rule, First come, first serve only if you have the money on hand. Third rule, Violence in the shop is prohibited. I think that covers everything for now, I will add rules in the future as needed."

'The system recognizes the host rules, and will post them in a visual location', Lujing told him.

At this time, Fang Shi went upstairs since everything seemed to be taken care of. He was slightly upset at having nothing to do because this world was very boring. From what he had been told, the system was responsible for his cultivation, and it was setting up his store at the moment. This was very different than what he read about, in the novels, cultivators would experience the world, refine rare materials, fight with their life on the line, and other cliche scenarios.

"Lujing, will you reward me with others crops in the future?", the bored Fang Shi asked the system.

'Answer: Yes, but if the host submits seeds or crops to the system first, it would advance the progress of the planned development of the host', Lujing replied.

Fang Shi was shocked, usually in the stories the MC could only follow the pace set by the system.

"What about livestock?", Fang Shi was curious, "Is it possible to raise livestock as well?"

'Answer: Yes', Lujing responded, 'This unit has identified that it should clarify the conditions of expansion. If the host wishes to add new crops or raise livestock, space is required. If the host decides to plant a new crop, the system must remove part of the current crop and replace it with the new. This is true for livestock as well, additional space is required or the animals will share space with the farm.'

Fang Shi understood, he did not have infinite space or resources, so he had to plan carefully. If he wished to expand, he had acquire more land or the materials to create more space.

'I will go buy seeds today', he decided, 'Once I can make money, and buy deeds around me, I can add more products then.'

With that thought in mind, Fang Shi left his house and traveled to the market. He bought seeds to various vegetables and herbs, returned home, and kept them in a dark place to prevent them from prematurely sprouting. The rest of the day was spent with Fang Shi lazing around, and him missing his computer, phone, and books.

The next day, Fang Shi was woken up by an annoyed sound from the system.

'Today is the first day of business, and opening time is at dawn', the system declared.

Fang Shi took the time to bathe since he had the facilities to do so now before getting dressed, and heading downstairs. He was pleasantly surprised when he entered the first floor and saw many new things. Shelves with bags of rice were present now separated by their quality. It was very obvious when normal rice was neatly stacked, but the spirit rice quantities were smaller the higher the quality was. Also every quality of rice had fancier shelves to display the goods.

Two signs were on the wall, one with the products and prices of the shop, and the other had the rules. Something else that had appeared was a strange portrait, but as he stared out it, he realized it would slightly move. Then it dawned on him, it resembled the clock in Minecraft from his previous life. This made sense to him because one thing he learned as he grew up here is that time was measured in awkward increments. He often heard people say, 'in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea' or 'in the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn'. Looking at the clock he was more familiar with made him feel more comfortable.

As he went to the counter that would be his new job, he saw a comfortable seat, an artifact that he guessed was the register, a box, a place for customers to give payment, and a place to receive change. He sat down in the chair, and touched the artifact which caused a light screen to appear. Although there were noticeable differences, the screen did still appear similar to a point of sale screen from stores that he was familiar with.

'It's officially dawn, the store is open', Lujing announced.

Fang Shi saw the front doors slide open, and the fog that hid the shop was quickly burning away. He also realized at this moment that he didn't feel uncomfortable, meaning that the system had put some kind of climate control in the shop.

An hour went by as Fang Shi sat waiting for his first customer.

"Did I make a mistake?", he mused out loud, "Should I have set the shop in town instead of here?"

Just as he was starting to feel disheartened, a man walked through the doors. Fang Shi recognized him as Wu Jie, another farmer who owned fields closer to the inner city. He knew Wu Jie had bigger fields that produced mostly mid quality rice, and he would often come out here to the poorer fields to flaunt his superiority.

"This is a very nice house you got here, but where are your fields?", Wu Jie asked with contempt.

"As you can see, this isn't just my house, but also my shop", Fang Shi retorted, "I was blessed to achieve cooperation with a senior, and now I tend this store for him."

Wu Jie did not say anything else and began looking through the shelves. His eye became more incredulous as he saw the quality of rice displayed by the signs before he angrily confronted Fang Shi.

"How can you lie to your customers?", he shouted, "High quality rice? Spirit rice? You think a boy abandoned by his parents could easily attain these things? You must have stolen them, I will take one of these as evidence and report you to the officials."

Just about that time another man entered the shop, someone else Fang Shi knew. It was Yang Cheng, and he was essentially Fang Shi's neighbor from a few fields away.

Fang Shi and Yang Cheng watched as Wu Jie picked up a bag of high quality spirit rice and start to march towards the door.

But before he reached the door, Fang shi heard in his head, 'Robbery in progress, deploying countermeasures.'

Wu Jie was feeling great, not only would he eliminate a rival once he reported this boy, but he would also get a free bag of high quality spirit rice. Even if he could not eat it, he could sell it for a lot of money. Just as he passed Yang Cheng, and was about the reach the open doors, the doors slammed shut. A pressure came down on him, and forced him to lay flat on the floor. Wu Jie did not believe Fang Shi's explanation about a 'Senior', but as he was now immobilized, he grew increasingly fearful.

"Senior! I apologize", he begged, "You should understand that young people can often lie. Please forgive me, and I promise this will never happen again."

Fang Shi could understand Wu Jie's worry, since Wu Jie was a late Body Perfecting stage cultivator, and he was immediately imprisoned without resistance. Fang Shi walked over, picked up the bad of rice that Wu Jie had tried to take, and walked back to the shelf it came from.

"The senior said that this is behavior unbecoming of a cultivator", Fang Shi pretended to receive guidance from a 'Senior', "He will let you go now, but you must leave and not return for a week. Should you ignore his command or attempt such a thing again, he will punish you more severely next time."

Wu Jie felt the pressure disappear, and he quickly thanked the senior before sprinting out of the shop.

Yang Cheng, who had watched all this take place, was amazed.

"Lil Fang, it appears you finally found some good luck", Yang Cheng commented.

"Thank you, Senior Yang", Fang Shi bowed to the man, "I did happen to get lucky, but since you are here, I invite you to look at my wares."

Yang Cheng smiled and nodded before walking around the different shelves. He was conflicted as he inspected the goods, but he ultimately picked a bag of HQ rice and made his way to the counter.

"Are you sure this is the price for this rice?", Yang Cheng asked, "To my knowledge, rice of this quality is usually sold 2 to 4 silver coins higher than this. Won't your backer suffer a loss?"

"It was my senior that set the prices", Fang Shi countered, "And I am just a clerk hired by him, who am I to challenge his instructions?"

Yang Cheng placed the silver coins on the counter before taking the bag of rice.

"I'll make sure to let everyone else know about your shop", Yang Chen said as he left through the doors.

Fang Shi excitedly open his panel, and saw a new '!' appear on the task tab. He quickly saw the task [A Journey of a thousand miles starts at the first step] indicate it was completed, and selected the task.

[ A Journey of a thousand miles starts at the first step

Objective 2 completed

Sale 1 unit of product 1/1

Reward: Bottled spirit water]

Fang Shi accepted the reward, and heard from the system, 'Starting tomorrow, the Heaven and Earth pavilion will sell spirit water. As there is no market for this, the price is set at 3 spirit stones or items of equivalent value.'