Money Maker

Lei Huang was sitting on a thick branch of a tree after have taken several pills to recover. With the last of the devils finally taken care of, he needed to quietly heal enough to safely return to the fortress. As he meditated and felt the pills begin the healing process, a sudden shift in energy caught his attention. Lei Huang silently readied his weapon, a spear made with lightning bamboo and a strange metal ore, but sighed in relief when he recognized Shui Yan.

"Senior sister, while your presence is a welcome sight, your arrival was somewhat a surprise", Lei Huang smiled.

Shui Yan's face displayed her irritation, "Who's your senior sister? Did you join the Crimson Tide sect without my knowledge?"

"My apologies, Senior", he continued to tease the other protector, "Please allow me to recover enough so that I can properly congratulate you on your breakthrough to Late stage Nascent Soul."

"I was lucky", Shui Yan relented, "Make sure you speak with Xu Ling next, and offer the same to him."

"Oh, I was curious about who the other one was", Lei Huang replied, "I felt the rise in strength, but was busy facing the devils at the time."

"I have to admit", Shui Yan's voice was lower than usual, "In the past, I would've been more excited about advancing a small realm. Having the Heaven & Earth pavilion here has changed things, and I'll miss being able to visit it."

"It won't be too much longer for me either", Lei Huang responded, "Although I didn't breakthrough defending the wall, I'm fairly close and will do so soon."

"I wish I had more time to report my advancement in realm", Shui Yan sighed, "Our reinforcements should arrive today, so it'll be impossible to delay it…wait, what is that?"

Lei Huang watched as Shui Yan rose into the air while conjuring a ball of fire in one hand, and a javelin of ice in the other. He quickly stopped his own meditation with his spear appearing in his hand once again. Using the perfect pills he had purchased from Fang Shi's store, he had restored enough strength to fly again. He followed after Shui Yan and the two of them flew northwest until he saw ten people hopping along the tree tops in a single row.

"Friends, can you stop and talk with us for a moment?", Shui Yan reached out to the group.

Lei Huang saw ten people wearing the robes of the Heaven & Earth pavilion stop and look at the two of them. A collection of masks hid the faces of the ten of them, each one similar to a different animal.

"We were sent on a mission by the owner", the male with a wolf mask said, "Unless there's something important, we need to return to the store to report the completion of our task."

"My apologies", Shui Yan tried to lessen the tension, "We were unaware. There's nothing significant about calling out to you other than our own curiosity."

The wolf masked man nodded, and without hesitation all ten began moving again.

"Why did owner Fang send his puppets out here?", Lei Huang narrowed his eyes.

"Let's investigate where they came from?", Shui Yan suggested.

"Alright", he agreed.

Shui Yan pulled out her Tianmu, sent a quick message to the protector's private group, and started moving to the northwest. Lei Huang also followed after her but since he was still recovering, he used his spear to fly while he continued to rest. It only took thirty minutes for the pair to reach an open space in the forest that was a large round area.

"What happened here?", Shui Yan was the first to speak, "It appears that some ruin or structure was here before, but it has been dug up. Not only that, they also dig up the ground below as well."

"There had to have been a teleportation formation here", Lei Huang voiced his opinion, "You can still feel the uncomfortable sensation of broken space here. Also, the ground is disturbed so it's fair to say those ten puppets took whatever was here. Not only that but they found something valuable underneath, and took that as well."

"I'll just take some images and we can speak with the others later", Shui Yan stated, "Those puppets felt stronger than me, so there's no way the two of us could catch up to them and stop them. Ah, nevermind, the reinforcements from the five sects have arrived."

"Best to head back then", Lei Huang advised as the two of them stepped onto their perspective weapons and headed back to Tianbao.

Fang Shi has been going over the day's sales and purchasing when something caught his eye. Closing the system panel, he walked through the sliding glass doors that led to the terrace outside to better view the sights. Five large flying ships could be seen in the distance hovering above the inner part of Tianbao city as they anchored themselves to a tall tower.

Fang Shi wanted to admire the large flying boats that he had read about in novels in his past life, but instead he had a dissatisfied look on his face.

"Perhaps my expectations were unrealistic, but these ships are just that", he reflected, "I'm not sure why, but maybe it's a lack of imagination. The grand vessels I imagined when I read light novels just look like boats, and not normal boats but ancient boats. Sailing on the ocean is different than flying in the sky so why do both look exactly the same."

Before he could continue his thoughts, ten puppets walked through the glass doors and stood in front of him. Without further explanation, the puppet wearing the wolf mask presented a storage ring to him.

"Very good", he praised, "Return to your usual area of responsibility, and continue the task of guarding the store."

The ten silently turned back where they came from and Fang Shi was alone again.

"System, receive the storage ring, evaluate the contents, and give me a report", he ordered before remembering, "Also, start constructing the teleportation array."

[Acknowledged]

With the system occupied with its current task, Fang Shi returned his attention to the flying ships again.

"I could sell flying ships, but not yet", he expressed the idea that had formed in his head, "Unfortunately, the easiest way would be for one of the sects to sell me a boat, but that's not very likely."

Absentmindedly, Fang Shi opened the system panel and viewed each tab with casual interest until he reached the one that listed all the available products. The current list was much longer than the first days of business when he only sold rice, and now everything was organized by the store that sold the items. While the system had been the one to operate the business since the first day, there was one thing it didn't do, initial material procurement. Everything he offered to the customers had to be obtained by his efforts first or was awarded by a task, but even the awards given were something that already existed and didn't mysteriously appear from no where. Plants were bought from other vendors before being raised in the special realm displayed in the wall scrolls. The materials used to create artifacts were purchased from the local mine in Blue Moon city, cultivation methods and techniques were either purchased from guests or taken from the secret realms the system had discovered. When customers where scanned, their information was also saved though it was never resold as promised. The system would just use the collected information to advance the manuals that were sold. Even the combat techniques that originated from video game or tv show characters came from his memory with the system adapting them to this world.

"I should start small", Fang Shi resolved the turmoil in his thoughts, "Let's work on goods that even mortals can use, and try to buy everything we can that will continue to deepen the foundation of the collective knowledge. Especially after the last conflict, there should be a huge amount of assets I can buy to create new products or services."

[Host]

"Yes?", Fang Shi gave a excited reply.

[This unit has completed initial evaluation on several priorities. Would like to hear the report now, or hear the report when all objectives are reviewed?]

"Please go ahead with what you have", Fang Shi said.

[First item, teleportation array.

The initial findings show that based on the amount of material found and the requirement that the array must be able to transport the host, this unit can create three formations. Additionally, there is a 24 hour time requirement between each use due to the amount of spiritual energy needed to operate it.

Second item, soul cultivation methods and techniques.

This unit has scanned the remains of the 'devils' obtained from the defense of the store, and the corpses collected from the resource acquisition team. Based on the results, this unit can create the basic method for soul cultivation for the host. Does the host wish to continue scanning additional 'devils', or is there another priority you want to elevate?]

"I have questions about the first item", Fang Shi didn't want to get overwhelmed by the system's briefing, "Since all the material is here, will I need to send someone to Blue Moon city to build the formation there?"

[No, store the materials in the item storage space, use the system panel to place the array, and this unit will handle the rest.]

"You also mentioned that this array will be able to transfer objects up to my size in between locations", Fang Shi continued, "But I doubt I'll need to use it everyday. I can turn this into a business opportunity, correct?"

[Of course, it's not only possible, but this unit highly encourages the host to delve into business when possible.]

"As far as the second item, don't stop the scans", Fang Shi shifted focus, "Naturally, I want a soul cultivation method, but I also wish to sale to my customers. Scan them all, store the information, and then deal with corpses in the most optimal manner."

[Shall this unit continue with the results?]

"This is already a lot, and I've new priorities", Fang Shi conveyed to the system, "I will do the rest later, and I'm going to designate the place for the array first so that can get started. After that, I want to take advantage of the teleportation array by starting two business: one for transportation, and one for sales between guests. The transportation business will be done either myself when I move between stores, or a puppet on days I don't use it. It can be a mail or delivery service, and I'll charge a fee to the customers. The second business is to allow our guests to use the virtual realm to buy and sale from each other, and once again I'll charge a small fee to allow them to do so. This will allow me to save shelf space as I won't have to dedicate space for local products from each region, and gives local businesses the chance to sale their products to others outside the region."

[Acknowledged.]

"One last thing", Fang Shi finalized his thoughts, "Promote our promise of buying broken artifacts, and inform me when enough has been gathered to build a small flying boat. Invest a five percent of our profit into the R&D department for the sole purpose of building the ship."

[Acknowledged. This unit is curious about why this has become important?]

"Not everyone might be able to afford to send their goods by teleportation", Fang Shi explained, "So this will provide a cheaper, albeit slower option. I also don't plan to allow others to use the teleportation array, so building our own ship will be a way for others to travel."

[This unit understands and will return to the tasks assigned.]

Fang Shi selected the tab that showed the stores layout, and immediately went to work on assigning a place for the new array.

In a large room carved into unknown mountain, a large banquet was in progress. Instead of a room, it was more accurately a giant cavern that was made into a lair. The opening was very large, and one could assume that large beasts would comfortably pass through to the inside. The walls of the cave had murals carved into them, depicting dragons, giants, large birds, tigers and other beasts. While the carvings were masterfully done, all the depictions displayed the dragons in particular in triumph over the other races.

In the back of the room was a large flat rock, and a giant turtle laid on top of it. This turtle had two main defining characteristics: it was the size of a convenience store, and it somewhat looked like an dragon. The rest of the cave had a collection of snakes, turtles, lizards, and flood dragons that also had features that were dragon like.

(All hail Long Xuanwu), the guests shouted together.

(We are all friends here, take your seats), Long Xuanwu magnanimously relayed to the crowd.

Guests one by one starting from the positions of most important to least would leave their seat, approach the dragon turtle, leave their gift, and return. After the last guest sat down again, Long Xuanwu looked around.

(Did You Du not attend today?), the turtle asked, (Hei Tun, do you know anything about this? His territory is next to yours.)

A basilisk with dragon features replied, (Senior Long, he told me that he had received a request from the tribes in his area. The humans that live in the walled city had been reinforced temporarily with another Nascent Soul realm cultivator that specializes in taming monstrous beasts. He went there to guard against the cunning plots that could be used against his subordinates.)

(How unfortunate, we only gather like this every one hundred years), Long Xuanwu's spirits dimmed a little, (I was looking forward to the wine he might have brought.)

(Once I return to my mountain, I'll have Yao'er go to his cave and make sure everything is okay), Hei Tun assured the turtle lord.

(Just make sure your son stays safe), a feminine voice warned Hei Tun, (Lately, those from Fengming Xuanjing have been more active.)

(Thank you for your concern, Lady Yan), the basilisk replied to a dark pink salamander, (I'll let him know, but I didn't spoil my Yao'er. He should be able to travel to an ally's home without worry.)

(It's good to see Lady Yan is so caring for the young), an azure flood dragon with sleek scales jested, (Perhaps you should accept my proposal, and you can take care of our young as well.)

The one called Lady Yan gave the owner of the voice a momentary glance before ignoring him.

(Qing Lie, I'd admit that you certainly have patience) Hei Tun laughed, (But I'm not sure how many times you'd have to be turned down before you would give up.)

Qing Lie snorted before drinking the wine in the large bowl in front of him. All the biggest spirit beasts laughed without reserve though the one serving them didn't.

(Now, now, today is not the time for this), Long Xuanwu tried to defuse the situation before looking up at the sky, (To think they are getting so bold.)

Several hundred kilometers away, an eagle that was five time larger than a normal one was swiftly flying away.