Chapter 504: Wanbaozhai’s First Transaction

Tianfeng Street was as crowded as ever; one could easily come across a martial artist or a major herbal merchant. At the end of the street, a newly opened shop quickly attracted many martial artists and herbal merchants. Inside, the place was packed, with more people continuously flowing in, while others left as well. At the counter, Lin Dong, dressed in fine clothes, with his gray beard and snow-white hair, stood alongside eight uniformly young assistants—there was no doubt he was the owner of the shop. Sitting leisurely in an armchair, Lin Dong sipped tea, while the assistants stood with their hands behind their backs. Aside from their assistant attire and position at the counter, they looked more like guards than assistants. Yet, no one seemed dissatisfied with them. This was a characteristic of Tianfeng Street—assistants often acted more arrogantly than customers.
“Let me take a look, let me take a look…”
“Hey, over there! Are you done? Show it to me quickly!”
Inside the shop, shouts rose one after another as people rushed to see the brochure prepared by Wanbaozhai. The main reason was that the large wooden shelf behind the counter was empty, with only a green branch placed in the center. Below the branch were large headings: “Branch of the Lingyun Tree, a Grade 7 auxiliary cultivation material.” Just this single auxiliary cultivation material piqued countless people’s curiosity. Whether they could afford it or not, they wanted to know the price listed in the brochure. Yet, everyone who read the brochure was disappointed—there was no mention of the price for the branch at all. Instead, the items sold were extremely varied: spiritual weapons, spiritual pills, spiritual materials, spiritual beasts, spiritual minerals… Like other shops, the items with clearly marked prices ranged from Grade 6 to Grade 1. Although the brochure was similar in size to those of other shops, it contained far fewer types, with each type having fewer varieties than elsewhere. As a result, many major herbal merchants left after realizing there were no special spiritual materials or beasts, leaving only those martial artists who wanted to see if Wanbaozhai would put the Lingyun Tree branch up for bidding. Even after reading the brochure, they stayed in the shop. More than an hour since opening, the shop had an astonishingly high foot traffic, yet not a single transaction had been made. Lin Dong, sitting at the counter, paid no attention to this. Wanbaozhai wasn’t as closely tied to his success as Lin’s Inn.

Of course, by the success of the business, he meant the business at the store. What he wanted was for word of the Lingyun Tree branches available at Wanbaozhai to spread, so as to attract large sects to come and seek exchanges. As long as the store’s business wasn’t too sluggish, that would be sufficient. For Lin Dong, making the store’s business thrive wasn’t actually difficult. The reason those herbal merchants who came in and left quickly didn’t buy various spiritual materials and minerals at Wanbaozhai was simply that the prices weren’t more favorable compared to other stores, and the variety wasn’t comprehensive. After buying a little from Wanbaozhai, they had to go to other stores, which was no better than buying everything in one place. In fact, Lin Dong had no shortage of varieties—Guhuan Sect and Xingli Sect were both his partners. Both were medium-sized sects focused on crafting, and due to their different locations, the quantity and variety of their lower-tier spiritual minerals and artifacts were comparable to, if not better than, those of a large sect. As for lower-tier spiritual materials and beasts, Linji Inn had already developed a considerable scale over the years through the farms and plantations of Guhuan Sect. Although most of them were used as ingredients for Linji Inn, they still had some medicinal value. In terms of lower-tier spiritual materials and beasts alone, they were hardly inferior to those of large sects. As for higher-tier ones, Linji Inn had its own small gardens and breeding pens, and in terms of cost, quantity, and variety, it could far surpass large sects. It could be said that running Wanbaozhai wasn’t difficult, and making money was even easier. Although selling large quantities of high-tier materials useful for cultivation might attract the attention of Tianwei Pavilion and some large sects, causing considerable trouble, Linji Inn also had an abundance of other types of high-tier spiritual beasts and materials. At the prices in Tianfeng Street, if Linji Inn sold them at the same rates, the profits could be hundreds or even thousands of times higher. The reason he hadn’t done this was, firstly, because Lin Dong didn’t lack money, and secondly, because he didn’t want Wanbaozhai to become too prominent, as he had secret deals to conduct. These deals, of course, involved exchanging spiritual materials and beasts with various large sects. One sect would give something, another would give something else—choosing what he wanted—and then integrating everything obtained from these exchanges: high-tier cultivation materials, high-tier minerals, high-tier beasts… Just thinking about how many large sects there were in Tianfeng Street made Lin Dong’s heart race.

If they could successfully replace them one by one, Lin’s Inn would truly thrive. If even one of the ten major sects could provide seeds or branches of high-grade cultivation aids, Lin’s Inn’s cultivation materials would no longer be used to mass-produce high-level martial artists but rather high-level experts. Moreover, if Ren Qingsong could truly take control of the Material Building and combine its high-grade cultivation aids, it would even be possible to mass-produce experts at the ninth level of the Heart Reversal stage. With some exceptionally talented children trained later on, reaching the peak of strength would not be a problem.

This was the big deal in Lin Dong’s eyes. For this reason, money and glory could be set aside—everything revolved around secret deals with the major sects. Compared to openly exchanging high-grade cultivation aids, the advantages of secret transactions were countless. The most important point was that since the major sects obtained these high-grade cultivation aids without anyone spreading the word, no force other than the Heavenly Might Pavilion could uncover their internal affairs. In this way, as long as Wanbaozhai remained quiet and didn’t cause any major news, the Heavenly Might Pavilion would have to rely on chance to pay attention to it—perhaps by noticing something unusual while sorting through information from the major sects and then following up on Wanbaozhai.

By the time the Heavenly Might Pavilion confirmed that all the high-grade cultivation aids in the hands of the major sects came from Wanbaozhai and learned about the full strength of the Yu Tian Sect behind it, Lin’s Inn would already have thousands of experts at the ninth level of the Heart Reversal stage. At that point, even the Heavenly Might Pavilion would be powerless.

As Lin Dong considered whether to disguise himself and visit Ren Qingsong again later to inquire about the progress of the Material Building, a faint spiritual energy tried to break through his energy barrier.

Looking up, he saw an elderly man in his sixties.

Seeing Lin Dong looking at him, the old man’s face turned slightly red as he nodded and said, “This old man, Zhong Wanghong, has a matter to discuss. I was wondering if I might borrow a moment of your time?”

Lin Dong’s spiritual energy surged as he entered the old man’s energy barrier and briefly scanned him—revealing that he was at the eighth level of the Mental State stage.

A barely noticeable smile flashed in Lin Dong’s eyes. This strength was well-suited for someone in charge of a sect’s branch store. The first customer had arrived.

“Please come in!” Lin Dong stood up and bowed.

The old man crossed the counter and followed Lin Dong to the back yard.

Just like Lin’s Inn’s front and back yards, Wanbaozhai’s back yard also had stone tables and benches. Lin Dong led the old man to a stone table, seating themselves as host and guest. He gently stroked the long beard that Old Man Ding had stuck to his chin and asked, “This old man is Zhang Sanfeng. I wonder what matter Brother Zhong has to discuss?”

King Zhong bowed and said, “I am the owner of a rare beast shop not far from here. I’ve taken the liberty to disturb you today to ask Brother Zhang whether you plan to use the branches of the Lingyun Tree from your shop to bid in competitions?”
Lin Dong nodded.
“I wonder how many branches of the Lingyun Tree your shop can provide in total?” King Zhong pressed further.
“After accounting for the needs of our elite disciples, we only have about two to three meters left each year,” Lin Dong replied, feigning deliberation.
A hint of disappointment flashed in King Zhong’s eyes. Just two to three meters of Lingyun Tree branches wasn’t enough to help even one elite disciple advance in cultivation.
Of course, even a small amount counts. After calculating, King Zhong said, “Five hundred thousand taels of silver—would Brother Zhang consider selling them to our rare beast shop?”
Lin Dong shook his head apologetically. “Our Wanbaozhai has just opened, and we still need to use the Lingyun Tree branches to build our reputation.”
“Then… do you focus more on materials for alchemy or for crafting?” With his earlier disappointment and the fact that two to three meters of branches wasn’t much, King Zhong wasn’t disappointed and quickly shifted his focus.
“Materials for alchemy, related to cultivation,” Lin Dong answered question by question, letting King Zhong guide the conversation.
King Zhong perked up and quickly asked, “Do you have these four rare materials: Stage 7 Tianfeng Grass, Stage 7 Xueku Fruit, Stage 8 Qianqiu Leaves, and Stage 9 Wenxiang Grass?”
“No…” Lin Dong shook his head slowly.
King Zhong was completely disappointed. Aside from the Lingyun Tree branches, the sect behind this shop didn’t have any of the materials his own sect needed. Moreover, the Lingyun Tree only produced two meters of branches per year, and those were reserved for building reputation.
Just as he was about to leave, Lin Dong took the initiative and asked, “What about spiritual beast inner cores for cultivation support? Or perhaps Stage 6 Golden Bulls or Stage 8 Bloodthirsty Bees?”
“Stage 6 Golden Bulls, Stage 8 Bloodthirsty Bees…” King Zhong shook his head gently.
“So, does your shop have spiritual beast inner cores for cultivation support?” Lin Dong was pleased. King Zhong’s attitude clearly indicated that his sect had such inner cores. As for the Stage 6 Golden Bulls and Stage 8 Bloodthirsty Bees, he mentioned them just to fill in the numbers, so as not to make the other party suspect that his sect had no need for spiritual beasts at all. He also assumed that the other party’s sect couldn’t possibly have them, as both types of beasts were extremely difficult to tame.
King Zhong hesitated for a moment but decided there was no point in hiding it and nodded. “Yes, we do have a few Stage 8 Water Spirit Beast inner cores, but…”
Lin Dong was secretly delighted. Wanbaozhai’s first transaction had already started off so well.

Ever since he decided to open a shop on Tianfeng Street, Lin Dong had painstakingly memorized various spiritual materials, spiritual beasts, and spiritual minerals that could aid in cultivation. Almost any type he mentioned, he could recite verbatim their functions. In Lin Dong’s memory, the inner core of this eighth-tier Water Spiritual Beast indeed belonged to the category of cultivation aids. Although its medicinal effect wasn’t very strong due to its large size, it was sufficient to lift a warrior who had just reached the first stage of the Heart Reversal Phase to the late stage of the second stage. Even if he consumed it himself, it could reduce his cultivation time by 50%. If he could obtain it, it would be of great help to both his own strength and that of the guard team. Especially for the guard team, it would mean an average improvement of two minor realms in their strength.