Chapter 963: Chapter 56: Xirong Manor Master: Jiucai Rong, Come Back
Chongshan Fang was taken aback. "I’ll come to the shop and help with research—you trust me that much?"
Even if they became Tao Companions, she didn’t think the other party would suddenly trust her completely.
Trust has to be built step by step.
Honestly, she didn’t trust him either, and had no idea what kind of person he really was.
But cultivation is a high-stakes gamble—if you don’t bet on opportunities, they’ll never walk up to your door.
She’d watched the whole day yesterday and discovered that Jiucai Rong didn’t seem bad—looked sharp, and at least seemed like the kind with a bottom line...
Only then did she choose to take a gamble, planning to discuss becoming Tao Companions. Marrying a good husband was, in theory, her most likely path to rise up right now.
"I have a way for us to trust each other." Jiucai Rong smiled. "If you’re willing to follow me, you’ll need to show some sincerity."
"May I ask what sincerity I need to show?" Chongshan Fang asked.
Jiucai Rong smiled. "Sign a friends contract with me."
"You’re from the Beast Taming lineage, not someone who ascended up here?" Chongshan Fang showed a look of surprise. Had she guessed wrong?
Jiucai Rong’s Divine Techniques were actually: Mask.
Among blacksmiths he was considered pretty decent—one Disaster, two Tribulations level Cultivator.
And he had a double Mask: Yin Mask, Yang Mask.
Don’t ask why they have a unique Divine Technique for converting Sun Moon Divine Weapon attributes—just blame it on how ridiculous the Painter is... Jiu Shui has it, Ning Zheng steals from Jiu Shui and gets it, his Painter steals from Jiu Shui and he gets it—everyone’s jealous.
The double Mask Divine Technique really fit Jiucai Rong’s personality.
After all.
He wasn’t a Combat Stream Cultivator to begin with—he was from the business faction.
Night Mad Cultivator’s kind of temperament was destined to be a Combat Stream Cultivator.
Because as the manor’s strategic chief, Night Mad Cultivator liked to take bizarre, risky moves—his external layouts were all about scheming others, seeking life out of certain death.
One gamble after another, extremely aggressive in nature.
Whereas Jiucai Rong was the manor’s chief of commerce.
He just wasn’t cut out for combat, nor did he like fighting and killing—he liked doing business.
He liked making money, liked keeping things stable, and didn’t like taking risks.
So Mask suited his way of doing business too—ever-changing, adapting to all sorts of situations.
Like right now.
Double Mask, 50% + 50%, turned a crippled Beast Tamer into a complete one.
He easily contracted this "friend."
After the contract succeeded, Chongshan Fang turned into a Yin Attribute Beast Taming target.
"Milord, are you Immortal-Becoming through one Disaster and two Tribulations?" Chongshan Fang couldn’t help asking.
"Yes." Jiucai Rong nodded.
Chongshan Fang mused, "Then milord can contract these three Lifebound Beast Taming targets... the other seven attributes can only be completed post-Immortal-Becoming, before you can contract them."
"And the seven Postnatal beasts contracted that way won’t be so tightly controlled—they might not obey properly."
Jiucai Rong nodded. "Of course I know."
In every system, when you’re Immortal-Becoming you try to go through as many attribute Tribulations as possible.
After Immortal-Becoming, completing that attribute makes it a Passive attribute, only usable for defense.
Like Destiny—if you complete it Postnatal, you can’t use it for active offense, can’t use it for Divination, can’t grant Blessing...
Like the Water Attribute—if you only complete it after becoming Immortal, you’ll be unable to actively use Water Attribute Divine Techniques.
You can only passively resist enemies.
Even as a Beast Tamer, if you complete Water Attribute after Immortal-Becoming and then sign a contract with a Water Attribute beast... various minor issues will appear; it won’t be Perfection, and your Combat Power will be weaker.
"It’s fine. I’m a businessman—contracting a friend isn’t for Combat, it’s so I have a confidant to do business with... after we finish selling breakfast, are you free this afternoon?"
Jiucai Rong asked.
"I’m free. Other than breakfast, I’m idle the rest of the time, just cultivating." Chongshan Fang still felt this was a huge opportunity.
"Excellent. Later swing by my shop and be my clerk. Trust me—stick with me in business and your future will be very promising."
Jiucai Rong smiled, quite satisfied that going out for breakfast had netted him a free worker.
As expected, the Immortal Realm was still full of good people!
...
After finishing breakfast, they returned to the shop.
Jiucai Rong accepted today’s Golden Core goods transmitted over from the Teleportation Array.
The Immortal Realm of course had Teleportation Arrays, so he wasn’t too worried about transporting goods—it was quite convenient.
The Immortal Venerates controlled the Teleportation Arrays in their own regions and had the authority to intercept their goods.
But Immortal Venerates disdained playing petty tricks—they had reputations to maintain.
Every day countless trade caravans passed through the Arrays; all the major Business Alliance Civilizations were using them.
Who would care about a little nobody opening a shop in some tiny Marketplace?
Let’s just say his business wasn’t yet worth Immortal Venerates breaking the rules to ambush him.
Jiucai Rong had just opened for business when a crowd appeared outside the door.
"We want to discuss the art of forging iron."
"This Itinerant Merchant here, could you introduce us to the blacksmithing force behind you?"
The blacksmiths had come to study—a bunch of muscular burly men shouting at the top of their lungs.
"You guys are nuts."
Jiucai Rong angrily shooed them out:
"Go, go! We’re Alchemists, not blacksmiths—we’re not in the same line of work."
Jiucai Rong was speechless. What kind of people were these?
We’re a Pill Shop, and a bunch of crude blacksmith lugs show up to smear my reputation.
Rotten to the core.
Jiucai Rong loudly called out to the onlookers outside, "Everyone, ignore those blacksmiths. Dear customers, please come in!"
"I’m here!"
"Don’t push."
"Save one for me!"
People were extremely enthusiastic.
On the second day of opening, it only took ten minutes to sell out.
A crowd happily walked off cradling their Golden Cores.
Only that group of blacksmiths remained, faces dark and uncertain, clearly quite displeased with Jiucai Rong.
Of course, they’d bought a pile of Pill Medicines too.
And people kept enthusiastically discussing:
"I don’t have kids yet, but I’m buying one for my future child."
"Exactly. The shelf life is long—it can be a family heirloom Pill Medicine."
"Main thing is it looks good—just looks like an heirloom treasure."
...
After yesterday’s hype, today’s enthusiasm was extremely high.
Never underestimate these parents desperate for their children to become Dragons.
They can’t take it themselves, but their kids can; surely one child will be able to endure the suffering and become someone above others.
At the end of the day it’s something to pin their hopes on.
Don’t underestimate that hope—just that alone is enough for many bottom-tier Cultivators to scrape together money to buy one.
Mostly because it’s not expensive, and it doesn’t spoil.
Even Cultivators who haven’t become Immortals yet can squeeze out a thousand Middle Grade Immortal Stones.
"Everyone, come back tomorrow!"
Jiucai Rong decisively closed up shop, started counting Immortal Stones, and sent the funds he’d earned back via teleportation.
He began counting the money:
"Feels like we’re about to hit it big."
"Our product, after precise calculation, sits right at the sweet spot of being a hot seller, but because the side effects are huge, it won’t attract the coveting of High Tier bigshots."
This range was extremely suitable.
And the costs were low.
First, raw materials.
The metals were basically all Self-Transformation Realm level... not expensive.
After all, even the lowest level Immortal Pill is sold at Immortal-price standards, earning foreign currency: Immortal Stones.
Second, Destiny collection.
This part was a bit troublesome—but only a bit.
Other Civilizations are hard to deal with, but the Daoist Civilization is super easy—they’re covered in Taoist Temples everywhere, statues of Venerable Gods absorbing the common people’s Destiny. What’s the harm in skimming some off for Alchemy?
Third, simple refinement.
Clang clang clang with the hammer—it’s much easier than forging weapons.
To cut costs, they were already planning to build assembly lines in the Immortal Realm for fully-automated forging.
The Golden Core was like a stainless-steel basin—heated, smelted, shaped, and popped out of the factory.
Can the Alchemist next door even compete?
Their Pill Medicines are too delicate—any little thing and the Pill Furnace gets too hot and burns the pills.
They’re doomed to be no match for our thick-skinned, tough Golden Cores.
Just as he was tallying today’s profits, knocking came at the door again.
Jiucai Rong was a bit puzzled—he’d already hung up the sold-out sign, so who was still coming?
He opened the door and saw it was a fellow wrapped in a cloak.
The person stepped inside, took off the cloak, and Jiucai Rong immediately saw his true face: Xirong Manor Master??
No, wait.
Who am I...
Isn’t my Manor Master... that painting-loving figure?
No, who am I?
Didn’t I transmigrate?
His mind was a bit scrambled, because when Jiucai Rong became a Painter’s character, the Painter had modified certain memory logic.
He’d changed the identity of Xirong Manor Master into his Painter.
"Don’t worry, I’m here to pick you up." Ning Zheng smiled gently.
He hadn’t really come here to sightsee; he’d taken advantage of Jiucai Rong heading out alone to open a shop, to come retrieve the Painter-character Jiucai Rong back to his original server, and reattach the [Player Slot].
But he needed the other party’s voluntary consent to pull him back to the server.
Comments