Like a Good Neighbor

Fang Shi had nearly completed the designs for all his future plans, had gathered the inheritances of multiple professions with the exception of puppetry, and upgraded all the wall scrolls to the next level, he was ready to upgrade the store. Unfortunately for his plans, something he didn't think about was already slowing him down. The wall scrolls had always grew normal and 3rd class materials at a very fast pace, but when he leveled them up, the speed of cultivating animals, plants, and minerals did not increase. All the level up had done was allow 2nd class materials to cultivate without affecting the 3rd class cultivation space. 2nd class materials cultivation time was much different: a few could produce goods everyday, some took a few to cultivate, and the rest took a month.

Fang Shi was considering how to proceed with his renovation plans as it would take a long time to cultivate everything he needed. The most effective method would be to purchase more land, but the problem with that was he had already bought all the barren, abandoned land and he would have to convince his neighbors to sell their plots of land to continue to expand. Nowadays, all his neighbors had several greenhouses where they grew spirit plants, and their houses looked much better than when he first set up his store. He knew some or most of the neighbors might agree to sell, but in the end it would cause them trouble just so he could settle his own business, so he decided against it.

Another change that had recently happened was that across the street from his store, a building of considerable size had begun construction. Fang Shi couldn't help being curious, so one morning he walked across the street where the construction crews were speaking with a large group of independent cultivators.

As he neared the group, a cultivator recognized him and called out, "Owner Fang, good morning."

Fang Shi gave a slight bow before asking, "What is being built here?"

The cultivator smiled, "Your store has been very beneficial for mortals and independent cultivators like us, so we pooled our earnings together to build this guild house. That way we have close access to the pavilion, and the city gate. I don't want to criticize your cultivation pods Owner Fang, but even if all the information gets sent straight into my mind, I still have to take time for my body to learn as well."

"I know", Fang Shi replied with a shrug, "There isn't much I can do about it until the senior has a breakthrough in artifact refining."

"Like I said, I'm not complaining", the cultivator said, "If it wasn't for your shop, we would still be risking our lives for a few spirit stones."

"I wish all of you good luck", Fang Shi turned to leave, "Now that I know what's going on, I should return to my store."

The independent cultivators all gave slight bows, and Fang Shi went to the counter to start his shift. As he was serving customers, he kept thinking about the cultivators across the street.

'They all came together to reach the next level', Fang Shi thought to himself.

He looked over at see Yang Cheng, one of his farming neighbors, come in to buy his normal morning breakfast and suddenly became inspired.

As Yang Cheng approached the counter with a rice ball and spirit spring water, he noticed that Owner Fang seemed to be smiling at him.

"Good morning, Owner", he greeted the young casually.

"Good Morning", Fang Shi responded, "Have you seen the new building going up across the street?"

"Yes", Yang Cheng answered, "Do you know anything about it?"

Fang Shi quickly told Yang Cheng what he had found out earlier. To Fang Shi's surprise, his neighbor didn't seem to look upon this news favorably.

"What are you worried about?", Fang decided to ask.

"Owner Fang", Yang Cheng spoke, "With your senior here, you don't have any worries. But the rest of us are just independent spirit farmers just trying to raise a family."

Fang Shi seemed to understand his worries, "So your worried they will start to extort everyone here for protection fees."

Yang Cheng nodded so Fang Shi continued, "I understand your concerns, so let me make a suggestion. When you see others gathering, the best way to counter that is to gather together yourself. If you're willing to sell your land to me, I will officially make you an employee. You will get a fair price for the land, you and your family can continue to live there, you'll be paid monthly, and you can enjoy an employee discount."

Fang Shi was about to wait for a response when he realized he didn't address the main problem, "Also, as an employee, you will be protected by the senior of the shop as well."

Yang Cheng was taken aback by the offer, "Do you mind if I think about this first?"

"I don't mind", Fang Shi was glad the Yang Cheng was taking this seriously, "I'll be putting the offer on the community board, but please spread the word as well to all the other farmers on this side of city."

Several days later, all the farmers of the western outer city were sitting in the restaurant. The restaurant had been reserved by Fang Shi, and specifically arranged to be a banquet hall for today. The farmers and their families enjoyed the food and drinks served to them, and made small talked with each other as they waited for Fang Shi to finally speak about why they came.

"Thank you for coming", Fang Shi expressed his gratitude to everyone, "By now, everyone should be aware of the proposal I posted on the notice board. I'm sure many of you have concerns or questions, and once I finish speaking I'll answer every one of them. As you all know by now, the independent cultivators have come together and are building a base across the street. While I don't feel threatened by this, I'm sure many of you are feeling uneasy about this. Too my knowledge, all of you have purchased items from my shop that have allowed you to grow spirit rice. I'm sure many of you are now worried that you they will try to fleece you of part of your harvest in the name of protection."

Nearly all the members of the audience was nodding in agreement with Fang Shi deductions as they listened.

Fang Shi continued, "So in ensure the safety of everyone, I decided to try their idea. If you are willing, I will buy your property and hire you as employees. You will earn protection from my senior, wages, and resources for your cultivation. I will give you employee discounts, access to services, and top price for your harvest. You don't need to answer now, so please continue to enjoy the meal, and I will answer any questions you have."

Afterwards, the farmers asked many questions, and Fang Shi answered all them. Everyone left in a good mood to discuss their this with their family members, but Fang Shi felt confident they would agree. Two days later everyone came to see him, and to his delight, they all agreed. He guided everyone to the city hall where he presented contracts to the farmers and the city representative. Fang Shi read the contract out loud to everyone, and both parties signed with the representative as a witness. He also handed a bag to each farmer with the first month's salary and benefits before everyone returned home.

A notification tone played causing Fang Shi to smile, and when he returned to his home, he opened the panel to check.

[New! Land Baron

[New! Landlord Baron

Own land that is 100 times the size of the store's original size (Completed)

Reward: An additional wall scroll is produced by the land owned by the host. Example, There are now two field wall scrolls (low quality and medium quality) instead of just one. (Notice: the medium quality wall scroll is one tenth the size of the low quality.)]

Fang Shi immediately went to the room in his house that had all the wall scrolls displayed. On a perpendicular wall, he immediately saw the new wall scrolls hanging, so he investigated them. Based on his reward that increase the future rewards based on the number of rivals, he thought there would be more wall scrolls. When he sent his Qi sense into the nearest wall scroll, he could no longer be disappointed that extra wall scrolls didn't appear because the size of the land inside the scroll was much larger now.

When he first received the wall scroll, one plot of land in the real world equaled one plot of land in the scroll. Thanks to this new calculation, every plot of land in his name now equaled two plots of land in each scroll and two tenths of land plot in the new medium quality wall scroll. After looking over all the deeds he now hand, he found out his owned 327 plots of land meaning the low quality scrolls had 654 plots in the them while the medium quality had nearly 33 plots.

Naturally, his next move was to immediately plant seeds in the expanded wall scrolls and send puppets to purchase more farm animals and live fish for his farm and pond. He also started to put together a gift basket for the guild house across the street, both as a welcome to the neighborhood, but also as a symbol of gratitude. Without their idea of forming a group to achieve newer heights, Fang Shi probably wouldn't have thought to do the same with his farming community.

The next day when the farmers woke up to get for the day, they quickly noticed several changes: The wall they had seen surrounding Owner Fang's store was now around their land as well, the air was full of Qi just like Owner Fang's property, and a road appeared inbetwee. All the properties leading straight to Owner Fang's store. They weren't the only ones to notice the changes, as the members of the new guild as saw the wall now surrounding the farmer's property. The cultivator that spoke with Fang Shi over ten days ago went across the street to find him again.

"Owner Fang", the man said with a quick bow.

"Ah, we meet again", Fang Shi smiled when he saw the man, "I don't see anything in your hands. Did you come to shop or do you have another matter to speak about?"

"I did come to ask about something else, could we go somewhere private to speak about it?", the man proposed.

"Of course", Fang Shi said as a puppet replaced him, "I can quickly get a private room in the tea house, will that do?"

"Of course", the man replied.

Soon, Fang Shi and the man were sitting in a private room, and the man started to speak as Fang Shi sipped his tea.

"Owner Fang, why is the wall that surrounds your store now surrounding the land of the farmers", the man inquired.

"Well recently I had an issue where my stock kept selling out because of the scheme of some of my rivals", Fang Shi said, "When I told my senior about this, he didn't immediately respond. I then remembered the conversation that you and I had in the past, and mentioned it to my senior. He liked the idea so much that he gave me the responsibility of speaking with all the farmers with the intention of hiring them. Now that we own so much farmland, I'm no longer worried about running out of stock so easily. Thank you, fellow Daoist. Without your idea of gathering others together to form a group, I'm not sure we could have continued to meet the demands of our customers."

The man saw Fang Shi bowing to him in gratitude, so he returned it with a perfunctory gesture. This young teenage boy had ruined a potential source of money, but it was well known that the senior would protect him with extreme prejudice, so he could only stew in his anger.

"Thank you for the tea, Owner Fang", the man said before leaving.

Fang Shi bowed in return, and once he knew the man had left the property, he returned home.

"System, please have the puppet that picks up and delivers from the quarry negotiate for a larger amount", Fang Shi commanded.

'Response: Done', the system answered.

"Now I just have to work with the Hong sisters for the debut, and wait for the materials needed to upgrade everything to pour in", Fang Shi verbally reminded himself.

He had completed all the designing of the buildings, performance related items, and products. Now he was over halfway through getting his checklist of tasks done.

The days following were as such, Fang Shi would do business as usual as he waited for the higher quality materials to build up. Then when he had the right amount, he would schedule a building for renovation and all the 3rd class materials were replaced with 2nd class products. It took most of the season before everything was completed. During this time, the puppets tasked to retrieve the inheritance had already returned, and all the puppets had been upgraded as well.

Once the final building had finished its upgrade, Fang Shi checked the wall scrolls and storage to see if he could start producing the goods for his new shop. When he was checking the stock, he noticed a strange sorting error when he saw a [Supreme Featherlight talisman] and [Supreme Featherlight talisman+].

"System, please explain what's happening?", Fang Shi rubbed his temple.

'Answer: As the host has continued to invest into the research and development of spiritual plants and beasts, there have already been some significant improvements', the system explained, 'The improved bloodlines of the spirit beasts, and newly discovered species of spiritual plants have been used to create the same products as the original species. These improved ingredients result in a bonus that's added in conjunction with the original function of the product. For example, the [Supreme Featherlight talisman] has the ability of allowing the user to move 5 times their normal speed, but the 'plus' version has a 6 times increase instead.'

"This is amazing", Fang Shi cheered, "System, don't put the 'plus' versions out for sale yet", Fang Shi said, "Keep them stored, I want to put them out once we launch the new store."

'Response: acknowledged', the system affirmed.

At this point, everything was ready with the exception of one thing, the Hong sisters. Over the last season, Fang Shi had them practicing the songs that the people of this world were familiar with, the songs from the games, and lastly a few songs he picked out from his last life. He didn't picked popular songs from his youth, instead he purchased music from the past. It's not that he didn't want to use modern songs, but he was afraid that people in this world would t accept at the moment. He figured that as he added new games, movies, and eventually tv shows, they would accept things easier.

Fang Shi entered the dormitory, and went to the room the three sisters had been using for practice, and luckily they were there.

"Owner Fang", the three fox girls greeted him.

"Are you ready to perform?", he asked.

"Yes", Hong Yan said confidently.

"Ok then, show me", Fang Shi replied.

The puppets responsible for playing the music started, and the three sisters performed. Half an hour later, the music stopped, and the Hong sisters could hear Fang Shi clapping.

"Excellent", he said, "I can tell you've been working hard. Be ready, because in seven days your first performance will take place."