Chapter 716 - 716 722 The Plan

Chapter 716: Chapter 722: The Plan Chapter 716: Chapter 722: The Plan “Clan Leader, ever since the Sanding Sect was established, our family’s monthly income has been declining, and last year it decreased by fifteen percent in profit!”

The Elder in charge of trade said with an anxious face, “Moreover, the Sanding Sect is still recruiting disciples, which will make our family’s income less and less.”

Speaking of this, Li Wenli was also very troubled as he had been trying to figure out a solution to this problem.

It should be known that a considerable part of the Li family’s income comes from Loose Cultivators. Even though they can’t afford high-order Spiritual Objects, there’s no denying their sheer number!

But as more and more Loose Cultivators join the Sanding Sect, the Li family’s income has been unavoidably affected.

“That’s not right, isn’t the Sanding Sect a Sect established by a few Loose Cultivators with Nascent Souls? Even if those Loose Cultivators join, they won’t get any resources, and they’ll still have to buy Spiritual Objects from our family, right? And even if there’s an impact, it shouldn’t be this fast,” one of the Elders suddenly said.

Do you really expect Nascent Soul cultivators to help you refine Spirit Pills? Li Zhirui is still involved in Alchemy because he is nurturing Xiaoqing and also has a pair of children with needs.

Moreover, being from a Loose Cultivator background, they likely don’t have the time, energy, or financial resources to learn Alchemy.

Of course, now that they have established a Sect, they will certainly cultivate disciples to learn various skills.

But that would also be a matter of many years later. The Sanding Sect has only been established for one year, and there simply isn’t enough time. They could only make bulk purchases from the outside world or let the disciples figure it out for themselves.

And in the market for low-cost Spiritual Objects, the Li family has captured a large part of the market with their low prices, gaining some fame in the process. The Sanding Sect couldn’t possibly ignore them unless…

They were cut off by someone else!

It wasn’t difficult to investigate such matters, and soon the Li family discovered what had happened—the Xuanfa Pavilion had formed a partnership with the Sanding Sect!

In terms of closeness, it was even more profound than the relationship between the Li family and the Southern Edge Commerce Association!

At least the Li family managed to bring in the Xuanfa Pavilion to compete with the Southern Edge Commerce Association, avoiding a monopoly and the control of high-end Spiritual Objects by one single entity.

The Sanding Sect, however, not only allowed within its territory only the Xuanfa Pavilion as the major commerce association but even allowed its disciples to exchange Spiritual Objects there, with the Sect settling the accounts afterward.

It could be said that the Sanding Sect was not an independent Sect at all but more like a vassal force under the Xuanfa Pavilion.

This inevitably led to speculation that the Xuanfa Pavilion was the backer of the Sanding Sect.

After all, the hardships of cultivating as a Loose Cultivator are well known, so the sudden appearance of three Nascent Soul Loose Cultivators, coupled with this series of operations, naturally led to wild speculation.

“No wonder! I was saying that the Sanding Sect seemed to have popped out of nowhere, but it turns out they have such a big backer behind them.”

However, Li Wenli remained silent, flipping through the data from the previous year and shaking his head, “The reason for the family’s income decrease isn’t just the Loose Cultivators joining the Sanding Sect, but also because the Xuanfa Pavilion has reduced its purchases of low-order Spirit Pills.”

Starting from this point, Li Wenli linked all these matters together.

He heaved a heavy sigh and said, “It seems like the Xuanfa Pavilion has also set its sights on the profits of low-order Spiritual Objects and wants to get a piece of the action.”

Although the profit margins for low-order Spiritual Objects aren’t high, when paired with huge quantities, it’s a different story!

The Li family earns millions of Spirit Stones from it every year.

And the Xuanfa Pavilion, once a major distributor for the Li family, how could they not be aware of the massive profits involved?

Being a business established through commerce, now that the Xuanfa Pavilion knew about it, how could they possibly miss such a great business opportunity?

Upon hearing this, the faces of the present Elders instantly turned ugly, as this was practically digging at the roots of the Li family.

Especially now that the Li family has just begun cultivating the Fifth-Order Spirit Vein, they’re in direst need of Spirit Stones.

Unfortunately, with their powers greatly surpassing others, even if the Li family felt dissatisfied, what could they do? They could only pretend to be unaware of the situation.

“We can only try to open up new trade routes!” Li Wenli said after returning and organizing some ideas.

Indeed, the Li family’s merchant caravan had been established for many years, but it had always operated within Wanxian Province, and most of the time, they merely transported goods and didn’t resemble a true merchant group.

After all, initially, the numerous Loose Cultivators in Wanxian Province alone were sufficient to sustain the Li family, so there was no need to trouble themselves with traveling far and wide.

“To the north is the Profound Ice Sect, and although the Devil Race of Great Void Province lies in the middle, we can detour through the sea, and the distance isn’t too great. Moreover, there aren’t many Water Devils in that sea area, so it’s not too dangerous,”

The Elders also agreed with this assessment, but then again…

“Profound Ice State is the private domain of the Profound Ice Sect; they probably won’t allow us to conduct trade.”

Li Wenli shook his head, saying, “No matter, we won’t do business with Loose Cultivators. We’ll trade directly with the Profound Ice Sect.”

In his plan, the Profound Ice Sect was to be the replacement for the Xuanfa Pavilion’s franchise.

“That’s not a bad idea.”

Seeing no objections, Li Wenli continued, “As for the west, there’s no need to mention it. Sanding Sect is a vassal to Xuanfa Pavilion, and the other is the Fire Demon Sect, with whom we cannot possibly conduct trade.”

Excluding the vast ocean to the east, that left only the southern region of Cang Hai Province!

Cang Hai Province is vast in size and overall strength surpasses places like Wanxian Province, thus it also hosts a considerable number of Loose Cultivators.

If they could establish a foothold there, it might compensate for the lost profits from the departure of Loose Cultivators, and they might even reach new heights.

However, since the Li family hadn’t previously developed in this area, shifting their focus there now wouldn’t be something they could achieve overnight.

Li Wenli put forward his idea, and the Elders brainstormed together, discussing how to bring his plan to fruition.

In the end, they presented the near-perfected plan to Zhirui, to see what he thought.

“The method is good, but the journey is long, and without a powerful cultivator to oversee, problems are likely to arise,” he said.

How could such an obvious issue escape the attention of Wenli and the others?

“I still have a Soul Dividing Jade Slip on hand. When the time comes, I can give it to you to take along on your trading journey.”

Zhirui originally crafted three Soul Dividing Jade Slips, two of which he had given to his siblings, Li Chengsheng and Li Chengshuo, while keeping one for himself.

After thinking for a bit, he added, “You can also ask Fengwu and Xiaoqing if they’re willing to accompany you on the trip.”

The reason he wasn’t going himself was primarily because he was currently focusing on his breakthrough to the Divine Transformation and wished to avoid accruing Karmic Force from wandering around outside.

Moreover, traveling out too frequently could easily reveal his true cultivation level, which would eventually invite trouble for himself.

However, individuals like Jiang Fengwu and Xiaoqing didn’t have to worry about such concerns, as they still had a long way to go before their next breakthroughs.

“The situation in Cang Hai Province is different; we cannot simply sell low-grade Spiritual Objects. We must also take some expensive ones over there, to facilitate building a reputation.”

These high-grade Spiritual Objects have higher profit margins and are also better for establishing a firm foothold.