Can I see your Manager?

The next morning, Fang Shi waited in front of the store's gate inside of sitting behind the counter. In front of him were several groups of adults and children, parents who had toddlers starting on the left and parents of ten year old boys and girls on the right. Fang Shi waited for another hour before everyone who had signed up to challenge him had finally arrived.

"Thank you for arriving on time", Fang Shi spoke to the crowd, "As everyone here can see, you should be organized by the age of your children. There are several pools for the children to play in, but they are sorted by the strength of the medicinal herbs used. This is not well known, but spiritual roots can be detected as soon as two years old and are considered mature at twelve years old. The first step today will begin with the youngest and work our way to the oldest. When called, enter the cultivation hall where artifacts are already set up to test your children's roots. Once that's finished, you will be led to the public bath where you can bathe your children or simply let them play. The important part is just that they have exposure to the spirit water and herbal essences to promote spirit root growth. This will be done every day for seven days, and on the seventh day, we will follow the bath with one more test of their spiritual roots. This will be the test that decides who wins the wager, either you apologize for slandering my business or I'll compensate you for falsely advertising."

The group of parents nodded, and Fang Shi called the youngest group first. They started to enter the store, and follow the puppets who were guiding them to the testing room. The other customers were also quietly paying attention to the spectacle because they also had doubts about Fang Shi's claims, but wanted others to verify the results first before they made their decision.

It didn't take long to surprise the parents when they saw the spirit roots of their two and three year old children. Since the children were just old enough to have their roots detected, the spirit roots they displayed were not particularly impressive, but these were two year olds!

Once the first group finished, they were guided to the bathhouse, and the next group of guests with five to eight year old children were invited in to complete the first step. As the day progressed, Fang Shi contemplated several things while directing the groups. He had several questions such as: how effective are the programs on the pod? Should I add more? What will be the future of the store?

That evening, while sitting on a balcony on his house the had a beautiful view of the pond and bamboo forest, Fang Shi began to muse out loud.

'Thank goodness the system could setup a formation that allowed me to see everything without sacrificing my privacy', he thought as he drank.

Fang Shi opened the daily report, but selected 'Monster Slayer' to view its performance since its inception. A graph that reminded him of the stock market appeared alongside various statistics, and he smiled. This hunting game was popular with all cultivators and martial practitioners of all levels, and had a general rise over time. Curious, he selected the film 'Renzhe Mijuan' and was met with a very different result.

When he first commissioned this film, it was to encourage his customers to expand their knowledge and training into martial and soul cultivation alongside Qi cultivation. He knew that the film wouldn't be rewatched too many times, but the numbers showed a different reality. Most customers would watched once, and never watch it again, much to Fang Shi's surprise. There was a very small minority that did watch multiple times before leaving the film on the shelf, and this made Fang Shi decide to get feedback from customers to figure out the issue.

Since he couldn't solve the problem tonight, Fang Shi went down the list, trying to get a clearer picture of every situation. After acquiring his neighbor's property, Fang Shi had arranged three lines of merchandise: 3rd class, Premium 3rd class, and 2nd class. As much as he wished to sell a Premium 2nd class product line, he didn't have the supply to support it.

Since the reversal of the policy on mass purchases, customers had once again bought the allowed goods in mass quantities to sell to nearby cities, towns, and villages. Fortunately, with the massive upgrade to the wall scrolls in capacity, Fang Shi no longer had to worry about running out of those items. But he knew that the merchants would be hit with reality soon when the giant increase in supply would cause low quality spirit rice to plummet in value.

Fang Shi was mostly satisfied with how things were being handled, so he closed the panel after reviewing the different shops and went to bed.

For the next few days, everything went smoothly: Fang Shi guided the parents and children during the morning, he questioned various guests during the day, and compiled the answered during the evening. These activities had caused the main store to mainly be manned by a puppet, and Fang Shi was starting to realize that he might have to stop working at the counter. He was the owner of the store, and he liked seeing all the guests arrive through the front door, but it was no longer feasible to stay in place.

It was the eve of the 15th day of his plan,and tomorrow would be a big day: First, the pod cafe had the debut of Jade Dynasty, and second, it was the final day of the bet in between him and the parents. Fang Shi was looking over a set of robes hanging on a rack in his bedroom. He had personally designed, and had them tailored to represent his new role in the store. His plan was to walk through the shops, speaks with customers, mentor employees, and mediate when needed, but he was nervous. Even though he had enjoyed speaking with guests at the checkout, those conversations didn't last long. Also, he felt this would be a better way to ensure he cleared the current task.

Fang Shi wanted everything to resolve smoothly because things would change soon. It was almost New Year's Eve, and even though he wouldn't be traveling, Blue Moon city would see many people coming and going. Last New years, his store wasn't as large, and there weren't employees, so he had a very small and private celebration. This year had seen lots of growth, so he would have to plan ahead to be ready.

Fang Shi had finished writing some ideas for new years on a scroll before placing to the side to allow the ink to dry. After several days of speaking with customers and gathering feedback, he now had a much better understanding of why his film didn't get viewed as much as it should. Of course everyone would see it once, but most guests said that even though they understood the purpose of the movie, they didn't learn anything from it. Also, cultivators higher than the Qi Gathering realm weren't very interesting in lower level techniques.

This gave Fang a Shi the answer he sought, he needed to build up a library of films that highlighted martial and soul combat at almost every level of combat. Mentally, he began to create a list of things to accomplish: 1) finish the current task, 2) every week after the 1st item was finished, introduce more films, 3) once the task is done, use the reward to upgrade the pods, 4) prepare for New Years, and 5) 14th birthday will follow after New Years. With the list created, Fang Shi laid down to get some rest for tomorrow.

"Good morning, honored guests", Fang Shi said to the parents waiting at the front gate,

"Welcome to day 7 of the children's medicinal bath challenge. Unlike the other days, today you will report to the pools first. Once all the herbal supplements are absorbed, you will be guided to the test room. I'm sure you're all ready to see the results since you've only seen the initial test results. As per the contract signed in this wager, all customers not affiliated with the store are welcome to view the final result to ensure fairness. Now, please proceed to the bathhouse."

Without having to do anything else, the group of parents and children walked in, and headed to the bath house.

While that event was taking place, Peng Hui had his own surprise. When he logged into the cultivation pod, and entered his personal space, he saw stars flying across the room directing his attention to the theater hall. Having developed a reputation for be the first to try new things in the pod cafe, he immediately entered to find out what was going on. Whenever he reached the cinema, he saw the poster for Zhu Xian, and a quick explanation. Unlike 'Renzhe Mijuan' which lasted over an hour, Zhu Xian (Jade Dynasty), would last around 20 minutes. He was disappointed at first, but when he kept reading, he found that everyday the story would continue.

No longer disappointed, Peng Hui start down in the chair of his personal theater and started the show. The first thing Peng Hui saw was a plump older man in blue and white robes with a black beard and black hair walking through a village that suffered from an attack. As the man makes his way around, he finds everyone dead until he finds two survivors, two small boys. Even though the man looked stern and rough around the edges, he saves both boys and brings them back to his home, the Qingyun sect.

When he arrived, Peng Hui finally learned the names of the first three characters: the man is named Tian about, one boy is called Lin Jingyu, and the other is named Zhang Xiaofan. Elder Lin decides to test the roots of the boys in front of the other elders. Lin Jingyu is determined to be a genius, and joins Long Shou peak, but Zhang Xiaofan is not so fortunate. As Peng Hui hears Zhang Xiaofan speak, it's evident that the boy is slow, something that is confirmed with his test. Just as Peng Hui was about to find out the fate of Zhang Xiaofan, the screen changed, (This is the end of episode 1, tomorrow the next episode will be released.)

Peng Hui stood still, shocked that he would have to wait a day before the answer was given. He decided that he shouldn't face this alone, so he brought up his friends list and located {Mei Lingxue}, his junior sister. Peng Hui quickly composed a note as such:

[Junior sister Mei

When I used the cultivation artifact today, I saw that Owner Fang added a new visual novel to the theater. The recording is much shorter the. 'Renzhe Mijuan', but the story is excellent and long, so Owner Fang did the sensible thing. The story has been separated into smaller parts that will release everyday. I hope so enjoy, Senior Brother Peng.]

He sent the message, and suddenly felt better until he remembered that he still had to wait until tomorrow, so he started playing Monster Slayer.

Next door, the children had finished their time in the pool, and after getting dressed, were led to the cultivation hall. A large group of observers were already waiting in the testing room. As the children saw the large number of people inside watching them entered, a plethora of reactions took place. Most of the youngest children started to cry, and cling to their parents. The older ones tried hiding behind their parents as well, as the oldest children did their best to stand straight and endure the stares.

"I'm sure everyone has been anticipating this moment, so I will ask all the parents to escort their children to the tester now", Fang Shi announced.

As everyone moved to the back where the testers sat, Fang Shi continued, "Now I will make one announcement before we start. My senior is very aware of how the results of test like this could cause feelings of envy and jealousy. This, he will place secret protections on the children and their families. Let me make this clear, whether an attempt is successful or not, my senior will find those responsible. Your end will not be pleasant, and any accomplices will also suffer your fate."

Though no one made any big motions, Fang Shi could still tell that several people had slight changes in their attitude.

"With that said, parents, insert the jade slip into the slot and place your child's hand on the tester", Fang Shi ordered them, "If you try to place your own hand instead of your child's, my senior will penalize you five times the price of the baths. If you can't pay immediately, you will have to stay here and work until the amount is recovered."

What happened next made Fang Shi want to bang his head against the wall, because several parents were preparing to do what he warned against. When they heard the threat, those parents made subtle gestures to make it appear that they were assisting their children place their hands on the tester. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the testers finished and light screens appeared above each one.

"Now that the seven days is finished, let's witness if I delivered as promised", Fang Shi said to the crowd, "First, we will start with the oldest, and go in reverse."

On the screens for the ten children that were 10 years old, a pentagon graph was displayed.

"The tester the senior of the shop uses is one of high precision", Fang Shi explained, "When a test is done, it will produce five colors in the middle. Each corner represents an element and the color tells you which one it is. The absence of a color, or a color that doesn't move far from the center point represents a lack of compatibility with that element. If the color reaches the first or second line, this denotes a low compatibility. If it reaches the third line, this equates to a mid grade spirit root. Four lines is a high grade spirit root, and five is a heaven grade spirit root for that element. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone nodded or verbally acknowledged him, so Fang Shi continued, "When I start the presentation, it will display the spirit roots on the very first day. Then it will change to the 2nd, 3rd, and so on until today. I can promise, and so can the parents that I have not touched the jade slips since they were given to the children. Now, let's begin."

Fang Shi internally told the system to start, and each screen showed everything as he described as the screen would change every ten seconds. By the time it reached today's scan, the growth of the roots was visible enough. Fang Shi didn't stop, and displayed the results by age group. The discussions held by the crowd grew louder once the scans of the youngest were shown.

"Owner Fang", a disciple of the Azure River sect called out, "How is it possible that these toddlers had the biggest gains?"

Fang Shi wasn't surprised to see disciples from the sects here because 50 pods could never be enough for one sect.

"That's an easy answer", he replied, "During this age, a person's spiritual root can receive the most benefit from the spiritual plants we use. As I've said before, we don't have the spiritual herbs to increase the spiritual roots of someone older. This means as a child get older, and their roots are set, the baths are less effective. Ideally, you should start bringing them here at 2 years of age until they are 12. That's being said, if these 10 year old children come everyday for the next 2 years, they can still see a 10-30% increase in root growth compared to not using the baths."

"How did Owner Fang come up with that prediction", one mother asked.

"Simple calculation", Fang Shi said with confidence, "If you look at the progress these children made in seven days, the youngest had roots that grew over 1% with the highest having 1.3% of growth. The oldest still had growth rates of .5%, and the lowest was .35%. If you calculate, in one year the child with the slowest growth will still gain 17.5% more, and that's doubled in two years. It's even more if you start when they are 2, by the time they are reach five years of age, they will have gain 300% compared to a child that didn't use our services. Obviously, results may vary and as they get older the baths become less effective."

All the parents and many of the adults grew excited when they realized that there was a chance for a better future for their young.

Just as they started making plans, Fang Shi's voice caused them to panic, "I don't know how many people read the description of the children's bath, but please remember that based on the low quantity of spiritual herbs used in the bath that we only offer it once per day with only a hundred spots open. If you wish to reserve a spot, you need spirit stones and your child present to get on the list."

Mayhem broke out as parents who had visited the store with their children were already running back to the bathhouse. Other adults that came alone were quickly leaving to run home to find their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, or grandchildren.