Fully Prepared

Thinking of the preparations Lin Xiao had asked him to make the day before, Liu Yunan asked, “Brother Xiao, didn’t you say yesterday that we were planning to invite Prefect Tong’s family and the imperial clan to the annual gathering? Should we also send an invitation to the Qinghe Sect?”

“Send one,” Lin Xiao replied with a nod.

“And don’t forget the Lord of Zhao from the Huanyou Kingdom.”

“Don’t worry, Brother Xiao. I’ve already prepared the invitation for the Lord of Zhao.”

To get the trading center off to a good start, connections would be crucial. They needed more channels to help promote it; relying solely on the Li imperial clan’s slow and limited outreach was far from enough.

Thus, Lin Xiao planned to use this annual gathering to invite several organizations that had fairly good relations with their sect.

It was time for their sect to reveal a little of its strength to the outside world.

As he thought about it, Lin Xiao felt that inviting only these few groups still wasn’t enough.

“Let’s send invitations to all three major sects as well. We need more people to spread the news about our trading center for us.”

“And send one to the Azure Lotus Sect of the Jinyuan Kingdom too.”

When they had descended into the Jishi Stone mine, Lin Xiao remembered that the people from the Azure Lotus Sect had brought out their sect’s ancestral treasure without hesitation to shield everyone from the Jishi energy. So, although the Lingxian Sect had had little contact with the Azure Lotus Sect over the past few years, Lin Xiao still had a favorable impression of them.

They had also prepared several blank invitations to give to the Li imperial clan, asking them to help invite sects from other countries that had reasonably good reputations.

With that, the arrangements for the annual gathering were settled.

The preparations then proceeded in full swing.

Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe handled the various arrangements for the gathering, with Yang Jinshu assisting from the sidelines.

Lin Xiao, meanwhile, began putting the trading center’s city into place, with Mo Yuanjiao and Mo Que helping him.

As for the building materials, the supplier had confirmed that everything would be delivered by the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month.

So, over the next few days, Lin Xiao and the others sorted through the materials that had already arrived while checking and reinforcing the various formations.

Lin Xiao also brought Mo Yuanjiao to the Artifact Refining Hall, where they refined many more items to enhance the city.

At the same time, he used the building synthesis function to create several structures in advance. These would later serve as offices for the various administrative institutions within the city.

After the synthesis function had been upgraded, buildings no longer had to be placed immediately after being created. The function now included a space for temporarily storing synthesized structures, which was exactly what Lin Xiao needed while constructing the city.

As for the hundred mu of farmland at the small estate the villagers of Xiushui Village had gifted to their sect at the foot of the mountain, Old Master Lin had already led the members of the spirit-farmland team in converting it into spirit fields and planting various spirit plants there.

The members of the spirit-farmland team were thrilled to have gained this additional estate.

However, they also knew that it would eventually be opened to outsiders, so most of the spirit plants they planted were common varieties of relatively low value, such as ordinary spirit grains.

Even the major sects in the mortal world cultivated these more common spirit grains. The difference was that, due to factors such as spiritual energy, cultivation methods, and available resources—and because pills were both scarce and expensive—these spirit grains served as substitutes for spirit-replenishing pills among the sects of the mortal world.

They were called substitutes because those sects had no truly capable spirit chefs.

They could not turn these spirit plants into dishes with effects surpassing those of pills.

Thus, over the past two years, as the Lingxian Sect’s reputation gradually spread, the Lingxian Food House in Xiushui Village had also come to the attention of many cultivators.

It was only because no cultivator had taken the initiative to spread the news that the spiritual dishes at the Lingxian Food House had remarkably powerful effects that its reputation had yet to become known to everyone.

After all, there were already more than enough people lining up to fight for a place at the Lingxian Food House. If even more came, it would only become harder to get a seat.

Furthermore, although cultivators possessed great strength, they still could not use it to bully others here, because this was the Lingxian Sect’s territory.

Previously, some Foundation Establishment cultivator from who-knew-where had tried to bully a mortal who was waiting in line at the Lingxian Food House. He had immediately been driven out of Xiushui Village by an unknown force.

After that, no one dared to cause trouble in Xiushui Village again.

By the time Lin Xiao and Mo Yuanjiao had finished reorganizing the small estate at the foot of the mountain, created all the administrative buildings, and prepared countless miscellaneous items, the building-materials supplier delivered all the materials ordered by the Lingxian Sect as promised, on the night before New Year’s Eve.

The amount of material required to build a city was enormous, and the cost of purchasing it was equally staggering.

However, ordinary mortal currency was not a problem for the Lingxian Sect. Over the past few years, they had established businesses in the mortal world, and in addition to the income from the Lingxian Food House, they also received a substantial share of the profits from the restaurant in Xiushui Village.

Moreover, because the trading center was being built within the borders of the Pusi Kingdom—and because the Pusi Kingdom would naturally benefit from it—Qin Jianghe had not hesitated to ask the Li imperial clan to cover part of the expenses.

Li Zhouxuan, despite being asked for a considerable sum, was not unhappy in the slightest. Instead, he was delighted and immediately sent people to deliver the money. He even asked in an especially friendly manner whether they had enough, adding that he could provide more if necessary.

Therefore, the Lingxian Sect had encountered no shortage of funds when making its purchases.

Once all the materials had arrived, the sect’s storehouse could no longer hold them. Lin Xiao did not occupy any of the sect’s land, but simply stored everything in his own private treasury.

Mo Yuanjiao stared in amazement.

“Senior Brother Sect Master, your storage space is huge! When will I be able to get one too?”

Lin Xiao only smiled without answering.

That was probably going to be difficult.

“Keep working hard at your cultivation. Once your cultivation is high enough, you’ll have one eventually.” He could only encourage Mo Yuanjiao this way.

Of the few Golden Core cultivators remaining in the sect, Mo Yuanjiao had the fastest cultivation speed. Lin Xiao was very confident that he would become the sect’s next Nascent Soul cultivator.

That way, the Lingxian Sect would publicly have three Nascent Soul cultivators. With such a display of strength, establishing and supporting the trading center in the mortal world would be entirely secure.

Oh, right. Now that he had reached the Nascent Soul stage, he also needed to find time to take Senior Liao to the cultivation world and search for the final fragment of his soul.

Lin Xiao made a mental note of this. After organizing the materials in his private treasury, he prepared to begin synthesizing the city.

Mo Yuanjiao watched from the side, nervous and excited in equal measure. His eyes shone as he gazed at Lin Xiao.

“Senior Brother Sect Master, are we really building the city now?”

Lin Xiao nodded.

“That’s right. Tomorrow, our sect is hosting an annual gathering and has invited people from many other sects. I want to get the city established today. Once tomorrow’s gathering is over, those guests can help promote our trading center, and it can begin operating sooner.”

“In that case, won’t all the sects be coming here to trade in the future? There’ll be a bustling city at the foot of our mountain, with cultivators arriving from all over the place! Hahaha, just imagining it is impressive. I never thought our sect would actually build a city!”

Just thinking about it made Mo Yuanjiao’s blood race.

This was far too exciting!