The Way Forward

Fang Shi was enjoying his breakfast which consisted of spirit rice, grilled and salted fresh fish, a nice soup, and some pickled vegetables. In his past life, this meal was more common among the citizens of an island country close to his, but that didn't bother him at all. It's true this his home country didn't have the best relationship with other countries surrounding it, but he still enjoyed good food despite its origins.

Personally as an otaku in his past life, Fang Shi didn't care about where good shows, movies, books, or games came from as long as the stories were fun to experience. The only effort he had put into school was learning languages, and that was so that he could buy and read games and media in their original language. His job in his past life was as a convenience store employee, which allowed him to make enough to live in a small place and support his hobbies. Even though his looks were above average, his lifestyle deterred women from seeing him as a good partner.

Everything was different now, Fang Shi could cultivate, interact with women who were more beautiful than any he had seen before, and play games. If he could describe his situation right now, it was like he had been chosen by the Dao. As much as he liked everything about the shop, he still felt lonely at times but his lack of experience caused him to act indifferent when he was approached.

Fang Shi cleared his thoughts as he finished his morning routine, and went downstairs to begin the day. With a single command, the front gates opened and a stream of humans and spirit beasts in human form flowed into the stores. As usual, the guests would greet him as the passed and he would slightly nod and return their well wishes.

It wasn't hard for Fang Shi to notice the trends of each race as humans raced towards the cultivation hall first, and the spirit beasts when to eat in the restaurant first.

"Old habits die hard", Fang Shi murmured.

Even when presented with the resources, the majority of visitors still followed what they thought was the correct course instead of their actual path.

"That's true", a voice startled Fang Shi, "But what habit is causing you trouble this morning?"

Fang Shi looked behind himself to see a young lady wearing the robes of the Verdant Soul Pavilion standing there.

"How can I assist you today, Daoist Lin?", Fang Shi sighed, "Perhaps something you purchased didn't meet your expectations?"

"Absolutely not", Lin Xinyao smiled, "Yao'er noticed that Owner Fang seemed troubled, and wanted to help somehow."

"You could purchase more cultivation resources for body and soul cultivation", Fang Shi smiled back with fox like eyes.

"Hmmmph", Lin Xinyao frowned, "Yao'er was just showing concern, but the slimy owner is trying to take her spirit stones."

Without abother word, Lin Xinyao turned and walked away. Fang Shi shrugged, Lin Xinyao had asked, but as usual his answer wasn't what she wanted to hear. Unfortunately, this had happened several times already but Fang Shi wasn't sure how to deal with it. Laughter caught his attention, so Fang Shi looked over to see another woman wearing the same robe giggling.

"Daoist Wu, I must look like a joke to everyone now", Fang Shi addressed her.

"It wouldn't be strange to describe Owner Fang's lack of knowledge as humorous", Wu Yulan said as she smirked, "I believe I have some special metal ores that are less dense than you."

"Pardon me, Daoist Wu", Fang Shi started walking away, "I believe my senior just informed me of something I need to take care of."

With quick steps, Fang Shi exited the main hall and made his way the hall for professions. Though some customers still walked around looking at the products on sale, it was not as busy as before. Once everyone had bought the pills, artifacts, formation plates, and talismans they needed, they only returned when they had to restock their good. As Fang Shi strolled through the floors, he returned to his previous thoughts he was pondering before he was interrupted. If he could convince the guests of the advantages of cultivating their body, mind, and soul together, it would increase sales.

Every since he first got the store and created his own cultivation method three years ago, Fang Shi would stubbornly train himself using the techniques and spells that were sold to him. Later when the cultivation pod was produced and he added characters from games, movies, and tv shows in as opponents, he had also taken the time to learn their most basic moves. Altogether, he created a basic framework for a combat style that complicated but very flexible. Fang Shi felt very confident that he couldn't be defeated within the same realm, and that he had a fairly good chance of surviving against an early foundation establishment cultivator. At one point, he had watched a match between two cultivators at that level thinking that he could defeat someone above his own realm, but it had only been a cruel reminder of how much strength was gained when someone broke through.

'That's it!', Fang Shi wanted to pay himself on the back, 'I should announce a competition, and as a prize I can offer a prize of resources that will guarantee that the winner will breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm.'

Pleased with his idea, Fang Shi returned to his floor to design the wall scrolls to be used to advertise it. He quietly worked on the scroll, arranging all the pertinent information in a way that was both easy to understand, and appealing to look at. Now satisfied, Fang Shi looked at his clock to see that two hours had passed, so he he sent the task of creating the scrolls to the puppets responsible for talismans and formations and left his abode again to mingle with the guests. The restaurant, tea house, and bar were full during the evening as friends got together to enjoy what the different shops offered, read the new novels, played some board games, and boasted about their own achievements. Fang Shi had a nostalgic feeling well inside him as he weaved through the crowd.

"The water sect may feel powerful if you've bonded with a fire spirit beast, but there are ways around it. Try to find a spirit beast with an element to boost your attack or suppresses the enemies…"

"I've faced Master Misturagi so many times that I believe I've gained insight on his mountain clever attack…"

"Fairy and Sword has helped me reached 2nd order alchemist so fast, you know how hard it is to find some of those spiritual herbs…"

"How could Ling'er die, I must try to save her tomorrow…"

"Checkmate…"

"What? Bullshit!"

"This novel called Asura is pretty good, just save it to you Tianmu and you can read it anytime…"

Fang Shi felt guilty when he heard that last comment. The original version of Asura was written when authors were paid by the number of words they could write in an earth week. The idea of the story wasn't horrible, but it was too long of a story with repetitive dialogues, story arcs, and shallow characters. When Fang Shi received this as an award for his achievement, he was honestly worried that the cultivators of this world would get bored by the story like he had. Fortunately, the system had edited the storyline in a way to make it much more enjoyable to read, so Fanf Shi was thankful for the changes made.

The night passed and like clockwork, everyone stopped what they were doing and exited the pavilion. Fang Shi sat down for his evening meal as he pulled out his Tianmu to check for important messages. His contact list had become rather long as many of his guests wished to have some sort of connection with him. Most of the messages he would receive were invitations to banquets or advice on running a business, but sometimes certain contacts would send more sensitive messages. Lin Xinyao and Mao Qingyue from Blue moon city were the most active culprits of this act. Fang Shi had weird feelings about this as risqué pictures of his prior life went way farther than this one. In this world, everyone wore robes that nearly covered everything so seeing a woman's bare shoulders or legs was taboo if she wasn't a Dao companion. Despite the picture he received being highly conservative in his own mind, he still save them in a special place.

After clearing out all his messages, Fang Shi heard a notification play, and instinctively looked at the artifact in his hand. When nothing appeared, he opened the system panel in embarrassment and located an two indications on the task panel.

[New! Breaking New Ground!

You have done an excellent job with the tasks so far. Even though the majority of shops and services opened at this point were due to the system, it is also recognized that you have contributed.

At this point, you have been managing what the system has provided you and it's time to see if you can step up to the next level.

Task: Brainstorm, design, and fund a new business idea that resolves an issue.

Reward: Based on your actions, the system will unlock a function of your choice equal to your privileges.]

[New! Now Hiring!

The system has noted of your preference of using puppets to handle the day to day operations of the store. As a merchant new to the business, this practice was accepted but it won't be long before you breakthrough in realm and in the level of authority you have of the system. Puppets require spirit stones to constantly work, and can be seen as an unnecessary burden on the spiritual veins the pavilions use to maintain their strength.

Task: Advertise, hire, and manage until your business is run fully by sentient beings.

Reward: Resources will be provided to allow you to perfectly breakthrough to the next realm.

Prerequisite: The task 'Break New Ground' must be completed first before you can complete this one.]

Fang Shi was please at first when he began reading the new tasks, but by the end he was slightly frustrated. He had already thought about completing the second task first until he saw the prerequisite.

"Just a minor setback", Fang Shi comforted himself as he selected the daily report, and started going over the daily numbers as he ate.

Twelve days later, the cultivation halls of both locations were filled to the brim. Ten days ago, wall scrolls were hung in both halls with a strange challenge. Owner Fang announced that he would open a special arena for a competition, but it wasn't the customers facing each other. Owner Fang would take on all challenges in a 1 v 1 battle and the prize was very enticing. Should someone defeat the owner, he would receive enough resources to attempt to breakthrough a minor realm if they were above the Foundation Establishment realm or a perfect breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment realm if they were Qi Gathering realm or lower.

Naturally, this news quickly circulated through all the customers, and even most of the cities were aware after a few days. As Fang Shi prepared for the day, he looked out his window to see massive amounts of guests entering the property.

"It most likely looks the same in the other location", Fang Shi mused.

Normally, Fang Shi liked to eat light breakfasts to start the day, but since today was special he opted for food rich in spirit and blood essence and tea that promoted faster recovery of mental strength. Since today's event required cooperation with both cities, Fang Shi entered the virtual realm artifact instead of going downstairs.

The cultivation hall at both locations were noisy as participants were making their way inside, claiming a pod, and entering it. Despite the large number of pods that the halls could support, a queue had still formed and lines were forming near each artifact. When someone was defeated, they would have to exit and allow the next in the queue to enter, but a portion of the visitors were masters who wanted to check the progress of their disciples.

All the light screens mounted on the walls and projectors from the cultivation pods activated causing everyone attention to turn towards the closest display. Cultivators inside the pods also witnessed the same view as Fang Shi appeared in the center of a modestly sized arena.

"Welcome to today's challenge", Fang Shi smiled brightly as he addressed the large audience, "I suspect that this event will take some time, so I decided to try to make things more interesting for everyone. If you're currently not participating, you can go to the counter a request a special item. This item was created to hold your Tianmu, and when worn on his head you view the battles. The feeling might not feel as real set the artifact, but it should be better than trying to watch the light screens."

Fang Shi observed the seating of the area which was currently sparsely populated, but soon after his announcement cultivators began to appear.

"As much as I wish I could wait for all the seats to fill", he continued, "I should get started soon so I'll announce the rules at this time since all the participants are waiting to fight. First, you can use any techniques, abilities, items, or skills you have but I'll warn you at this time. Should you expose an unorthodox technique, the match will be stopped and the senior watching over the pavilion will take you into custody. Your soul will be searched, and you will be turned over to the authorities of the city of the offense. Next, using a technique that sacrifices oneself to kill the opponent is permitted but since you have to die first to trigger the attack, you are forfeiting your match. Lastly I, Owner Fang will not use any assistance from pets or puppets, and I'll only use weapons and items stored in my storage ring. To keep matches from becoming boring, a wheel will be spun to decide in what manner I have to fight to achieve victory. Now let's bring in the first…ah, almost forgot. My seniors have made a change at the last moment. They felt that no one would be able to win the prize they put up, so they added a small reward. Should an opponent last a certain amount of time during the battle, even if they lose in the end they will receive a certain quantity of spirit stones for their achievement. Now, bring out the first challenger!"

A pair of doors opened and a man walked through them out onto the arena floor.

A unseen announcer wasted no more time before saying, "Ready, Fight!"

Several hours later, most of the audience was in awe as they watched Fang Shi sweep through the opposition. In a smaller private box, Protectors Jin and Lei sat and talked as they watched the spectacle.

"Have you ever come across a person such as this?", Lei Huang inquired from Jin Tianxuan.

"No, buts it's easy to speculate that this young man has heard the voice of the Dao", Jin Tianxuan replied as he raised his teacup to his mouth to drink.

"Have you noticed that even though Owner Fang has showcased many thing, there's something the young man has not displayed?", Lei Huang posed a question.

Jin Tianxuan closed a fan he had been waving with one swift motion, and rested his chin on it.

"Now that you mention it, he has demonstrated so many great skill with weapons", Jin Tianxuan answered, "Yet, I haven't seen what elements he's proficient in. Does this mean he has high attainments in body cultivation?"

"It seems so, but why did his master allow him to split his attention instead of focusing on traditional cultivation?", Lei Huang felt pity for Fang Shi, "Had he a proper education, he would've had a chance at golden core by three hundred years of age."

Jin Tianxuan eyed Lei Huang, "Perhaps we're the ones who are lacking, his master has attained a higher realm than us. I don't know how confident you're about breaking through, but I certainly feel better now that I've starting coming here."

"But what can we do?", Lei Huang replied, "Even when my own Lei clan focus on our most promising descendants to ensure our continued existence, it's getting more difficult to gather the resources to do so."

"Your clan deserves to disappear if the pride you display right now blinds your eyes", Jin Tianxuan snorted.

"Ol' Jin, have you eaten the guts of a netherworld tiger to speak with me like that?", Lei Huang was irritated by Jin Tianxuan's insults.

"The solution to our problem is right here", Jin Tianxuan raised his hands and pointed to their current location, "Over this past season, you've seen what this place offers and it didn't occur to you that this senior is willing to sell his knowledge?"

"What you say makes sense", Lei Huang relented, "If the store owner is willing to share anything for the right compensation, it could ensure a better future for us."

"Winner, Fang Shi", the results of the current fight was announced to the crowd.

The audience clapped with complex emotions. On one hand, the loss of each combatant kept the hope alive that they would be the first to defeat the store owner. On the other hand, this store owner was really fierce!

"That's settled then", Jin Tianxuan took another sip of tea, "I'll contact everyone soon, and we'll go see Owner Fang once this event is over."