Chapter 36: Super Charged Influx
You requested my help? Elder Xu Xiaoli gave me a look as she spoke.
Yes, elder. I have acquired a green ocean lily and want to sell it, I replied. Her eyes lit up at that.
You did well to come to me. The fact you were able to return so quickly and unharmed, perhaps the heavens truly have blessed you, she said. I smiled slightly. While many people would have tried to control their reaction, that would have been a mistake here. I just had to not think of Aoyin. That was that this was business. I had to separate the two situations at the moment.
Thank you elder Xiaoli. I would be willing to sign over at least twenty percent commission for your support, and the vast majority of the value will be going into our joint business, I added and she nodded at that.
The reports that have been sent have been an amusing diversion. But the start up costs are quite a bit. A green ocean lily will certainly put things into overdrive for your business plans. The sample box? she asked me and I removed it from my spatial ring.
She looked it over and then put a hand on the box. Under high pressure. Very high pressure. But that is good, so the flower doesnt degrade. At least you know your handling procedures, so the value hasnt degraded in the slightest. Thirty percent of the profit, will be my percentage. I didnt forget you mentioned profit not revenue in our last discussion. I will handle the sale directly, she said.
Thank you elder, I replied.
While an auction is always a possibility, that normally happens with subpar items. A direct sale would be best. We can get a total of at least 50,000 rank 3 spirit coins, she said the last bit with a nod. This is why I came to her and didnt try to go another route.
First it would have been an insult to her as my supporter. By bringing the green ocean lily to sale through her, I was strengthening our partnership. If I tried to go through someone else, I would be touching on the politics of the Imperial Sect which I wanted to stay out of.
The second big reason was to get the best price. For incredibly rare items like this, elders wouldnt quibble over a 10 to 20 thousand difference in the price. Sure, there was a market price, but I didnt have a green ocean lily that had washed up on shore. This was one retrieved from the soil, completely intact, and under high pressure to preserve it perfectly.
Finding the right buyer would be impossible for me. Instead of drawing negative attention to me with an auction it would be better to do a direct sale. The Imperial Sect would do something similar. Their published rate was forty percent. It hurt to give up thirty percent, instead of twenty percent, but the increase was also a rebuke.
That sounds perfect Elder Xiaoli. If I could have a document of some sort verifying all of this, I said and she nodded. I relaxed at that. It was entirely possible she could have scammed me out of the green ocean lily. But with a document in hand, it would be too much of a loss of face for her to steal from me so blatantly.
We will use a standard one of the Imperial Sect, she said and pulled out three sheets of paper. Some fields were quickly filled in, saying the name of the item I was handing over, the percentage the elder would take, and a clause that another ten percent would be taken for an immortals of the Imperial Sect to give their backing to the transaction.
It would be nice to sit around and just earning money from deals and people using my name. But that guarantee also promised protection for 10 years and confidentiality with the transaction. If people could just rob anyone doing business with the Imperial Sect, it would be a slap across their face. The time period of 10 years was considered a small period of time, but long enough for someone weak like me to get more backing, or for someone to run and hide.
I would keep one document, elder Xu Xiaoli would keep another, and then the Imperial Sect would keep the third copy. As an elder of the sect, she had authority to sign on their behalf. As much as I liked to think this was a special situation, there were only two sects cultivators could sell these high level ingredients through, the Imperial Sect, and the Blazing Sun Sect.
Five days later, the payment was finalized through the Imperial Sect, and I was sitting with Zheng Ting reviewing the planned rollout strategy and the challenges she had faced with her test city.
The biggest hurdle is communication and leaving people to their own devices. I have ten city level directors ready to roll out and handle mining tasks, but getting more people is a challenge, Zheng Ting said, and I nodded at this.
You did my test idea? I asked and she nodded at that. Communication was always going to be an issue. We just thought of many different scenarios and made a guidebook for her people to memorize and follow. Then they would be tested.
Yes. But Imperial City is not a good place for recruitment. People here are too stubborn. Also, some were hesitating about the lack of investment, she said.
Well use your best judgement? But we are ready to roll out? No issues with permits or anything else? I asked.
Minor issues, but things I have worked out the last couple of years. The biggest challenge will be as things get further away from Imperial City. There will be a lot more independence. A rotating senior director to help get things set up and stabilized, before moving into traveling about picking up ore as part of their travel itinerary, Zheng Ting explained.
You have things well in hand, I said, while relaxing slightly.
It hasnt been easy, but your return stabilizes things. So, 30,000 rank 3 spirit coins? she asked me. I chuckled at that. That had been the planned goal, and my eyes had gotten bigger at the higher numbers. But in the end, I got the amount I had heard here in the city. But that was incorrect, since the amount Zheng Ting had given me, was the sale amount from the auction house. The final payout to the person in question had probably been around 12,000 rank 3 spirit coins. You dont advertise a smaller number. You hype that number up to appear larger.
Yes. After the fees and payment to elder Xu Xiaoli, that is how much is left. I saw your prosed budget. A third for expanding. A third for building an ore compressor formation. A sixth for operating the array and general operating expenses, I said while tapping on the sheet of paper in question.
Each new city is going to cost 80 rank 3 spirit coins. It is more expensive, but there might be competition. We will need to outbid, she replied.
Wait, competition? Why havent you said this before? I asked.
Since there are only rumors. But we dont have a monopoly. If someone from the Imperial Sect moves in on our business model, we need cash on hand to get cities. Hence the bigger budget, she replied.
That is 125 cities. No where near enough, I replied.
The main value is in the compressor array we will purchase from the Imperial Sect. With that, I can buy up spirit ore, and ship it at cost to turn a profit, she replied.
That will work? I asked.
There is one other operation that does something similar. But caravans go to them, to sell ore at set rates. I wont be directly competing with them in Imperial City, but rather out in all the other cities.
Their backers? I asked the most important question.
The Han family. They are the biggest family in Imperial City. One of the immortals holds that family name, she said. Thank you, Zheng Ting, for telling me the obvious. I closed my eyes as I processed this.
This didnt come up before? I asked.
They are using a branch family with a different last name. The Han family is insulated from casual knowledge. This only came out in the last few days with your return and Zhou Holding Company Limited, moving into full gear, she replied.
Set up a meeting. We might be able to come to an agreement, I replied. I had Zheng Ting break out the details on the compression array, since that was the big bottleneck.
The fact was, it wouldnt be active all the time. I could easily guess that from all the reading I had done. Running an array like that full time would be too costly. The issue was that there just wasnt enough ore to run the array on a regular basis, it was underutilized. They had too much capacity, but not enough supply.
How my cultivation plan was sub-par. How I had no true backing. How I was a complete idiot. How I was born to pigs in the forest and raised by beasts. I sat there calmly taking all of the verbal abuse. It was amusing and I was curious to see where she was going with all of this.
She had even eaten her meal while gesturing at me and ranting. I had my line in the sand. I would obey all minor requests, but I wasnt going to agree to anything major, and about any business deals I wasnt backing down.
She snapped her fingers again and servers cleared out the plates. I got several dirty looks, but no one said anything. I decided to take a gamble. Please tell the chef what little I could taste before being told to spit it out was delicious and most appreciated, I said. Everyone paused at this. I then pulled out five rank 3 spirit coins. For the wait staff as an apology for the hassle.
Thank you Master Cultivator, one of the servers said and took the money, before rushing off. Sorry to interrupt you. You were saying something about how my parents must have been part pig? There was silence at this, and I noticed the servers were listening much closer to the exchange. Han Xingjuan was looking much more nervous now.
Go, speak of this to no one, she said. They all nodded and finished clearing the table before leaving. That ensured they would speak, at least to their boss.
That you think the food is so nasty I needed to spit it out? I asked with a smile.
No! That isnt what I said. Stop twisting my words. Ahhh! She let out a scream and threw the butter knife at me. I saw it coming thankfully, and moved my head to the side and it sank into the side of one of the mortal servers who was leaving. They let out a scream and collapsed. Han Xingjuan looked surprised at what had happened. You throw things at home much?
The server was quickly carried out of the room and there was silence and the faint smell of blood in the air. Going to attack me too? I asked. At least it was only a light wound on the server. But actual violence here at the heart of the Imperial Sect, should have been cracked down on. Her connections would save her, but I needed to step lightly with such craziness.
No. He should have dodged, and you shouldnt have, she told me.
Well, I think we are done. I draw the line at getting attacked. Even if the array was free to use, I wouldnt want to do business with you, I said and stood up.
No! she yelled out and then mumbled something.
I missed that last part, I replied.
I am sorry. But this needs to go well, she countered. I was at a crossroads. I could walk out of here and get the crazy out of my life. But that choice would cost me thousands of rank 3 spirit coins and create a deep grudge from this cultivator towards me.
Even if I was insulted, bullied, or hassled, she still had the martial robe of the Imperial Sect on her and was clearly favored to be such a young cultivator, with the knowledge she had. She was crazy, and I was crazy for even considering this. I sat back down.
Half is impossible. If the costs are too high, it is cheaper to build my own array, I countered.
Ah, but ours is a rank 8 array. We dont advertise it, and it is rare we make something so high grade, but it is possible, she said.
I need to be able to sell the spirit metal and profit. I am investing and doing the work. I am more than happy to invest in an array of my own. The offer of 2,000 rank 3 spirit coins plus operational costs was more than reasonable, I countered, and she grew pensive at this.
I was also incredibly annoyed at being bullied and attacked while trying to work this out. Thirty percent and you cover operational costs. We can help you sell the metal, she countered.
I plan to handle the selling portion through elder Xu Xiaoli. I brought up my backer to give her pause. I can agree to ten percent of profit made and operational expenses, since elder Xu Xiaoli owns twenty five percent.
She opened her mouth and then closed it. I had thought about this, but I was willing to go this far. It was better to get her side invested into this venture then start a pointless and cost feud. They had the compression array to make high rank spirit steel from low rank spirit iron. I had a business model to get all the ore.
I also brought up elder Xu Xiaoli, since I couldnt give her family more than what I was giving the elder. It just wasnt possible. If the Han family had sent in someone with more cultivation to this meeting, then I would have had to give up more of my share of the profits. But ten percent for literally doing nothing but share their infrastructure that wasnt in use was more than enough.
Fifteen percent, she countered with much more business savvy than I thought she would have. The fact she didnt ask for twenty percent showed she understood the position she was in.
And your side assists with the compression of the spirit iron and using the array, but we arent charged for that assistance, I countered.
Deal, she easily replied.
You can speak for the Han family? I asked.
Puh-lease, I am Han Xingjuan, the 69th descendant of Immortal Han Jiayi. My guess was that it was a status thing, how close they were related to the immortal in their family. And while the number 69 was amusing it was quite far away from the number one and being the main descendant of the Immortal. Like someone saying they were 69th in line for the British throne. While an amusing thing at a bar, and the person was probably well off, it wasnt like they got to have tea at Buckingham Palace.
Still, if she really did buy the green ocean lily, combined with her youthful appearance, meant she was cultivation focused and had backing I couldnt ignore as much as I wanted to. Even if she had a more toxic personality than an actual demonic cultivator.
Well goodbye peasant. Hopefully we never see each other again. I will have someone send over a contract on what we agreed to, she replied.
Perhaps. But I wont accept any additions or tricks you plan to sneak in. I will be asking elder Xu Xiaoli to read through it, I countered any shenanigans before they could happen.
I just need to wait for you to die. Your cultivation is a mess, and you should be ashamed of yourself, she said as she got up. It might be a mess, even more so with Aoyins actions, but she was telling people to spit food out at a business meeting and stabbing people.
She didnt give me a moment to reply as she walked out of the private dining room. I just sat there for a moment and a server came back in. From the chef personally. He hopes you enjoy it, the man said as he set down a single serving black cake in front of me.
The server, will they be okay? I asked.
They will be, he said.
My apologies. That shouldnt have happened. While I cannot take responsibility for Han Xingjuans actions, please give this to the server. I pulled out another rank 3 spirit coin. For any treatment he might need.
Ithank you, the sever said and hesitantly took the coin before rushing away. Since the chef in charge of this place was going to be nice to me, I was going to show some care back to his staff. People would talk and get a reputation. I would have to make a point of following up with an information broker about Han Xingjuan.
I had no doubt I would be seeing her again and our paths would cross. What a truly obnoxious individual. As I ate the incredibly delicious cake, whose taste I couldnt place, it reminded me of chocolate and home.
The chef doing the cooking was amazing. I should have become a cultivating chef, not a business person as my side job to cultivating.
My mind drifted back to Han Xingjuan and her about face at the end. Was it all a ploy? It could very well be. Well as long as the deal wasnt bad, I could handle fifteen percent of the profit. That still left me sixty percent, once everything was finalized.
