Auction House

Therefore, he did his utmost to make daily life more convenient for everyone, while preserving as much of their original way of life as possible, so that no one would be suddenly forced to break away from the surroundings they had called home for decades.

This arrangement meant that those who preferred to keep to their familiar routines had a place to stay, while those with ambition could still step out to seek broader opportunities.

Xiushui City was vast enough to hold countless people, and naturally, it had more than enough room to embrace the quiet little enclave of Xiushui District.

Though Liu Yunan did not relay these exact words verbatim, he made it clear that the Immortal Cult Sect had set up the new order not to restrict anyone from venturing out to carve their own path, so that the thoughtful villagers would not feel held back by unnecessary constraints.

Liu Yunan carefully walked the villagers through all the fine details of the upcoming changes.

Xiushui Village was not the only place that received this treatment. The Immortal Cult Sect had specially dispatched its disciples to every single village covered by the newly established Xiushui City to explain the adjustments clearly to local residents.

Under the Immortal Cult Sect's methodical arrangements, the construction of Xiushui City proceeded extremely smoothly. No unrest broke out among the city's residents, and even the few people who were initially confused or flustered were quickly soothed and reassured.

Next, the management team the Immortal Cult Sect had planned for the city stepped into their posts.

By the time the disciples who had been sent to the villages to calm the public had all returned, Lin Yun was already waiting for them in the City Lord's Manor.

At the same time, Village Chief Du from Xiushui Village had arrived at the manor's council hall with ten young people he had carefully selected from his village.

After Lin Yun received the task of administering Xiushui City from Lin Xiao, he had gone down the mountain to contact Village Chief Du and asked him to pick these ten capable young people.

Of course, Lin Yun had also recruited ten disciples through the Sect's General Affairs Hall to assist him with all aspects of managing Xiushui City, and these were exactly the disciples who had come down the mountain that day.

From then on, all matters related to cultivators in Xiushui City would be handled by these ten Immortal Cult Sect disciples. Based on their past performance in the sect, Lin Yun had temporarily appointed two of them as chief managers.

These two were Yuan Jinsheng and Xuanyuan Haoyue.

Yuan Jinsheng was himself a Golden Core cultivator, and among the younger generation of disciples, his age made him a widely respected figure.

As for Xuanyuan Haoyue, he was a top-tier disciple among those who started their cultivation from scratch, and he was thoughtful, meticulous, and well-versed in the ways of human relationships and social interactions.

However, the sprawling Xiushui City did not bar ordinary mortals. Even putting future developments aside, there were already countless affairs from all the incorporated villages that needed to be overseen. It was impossible to occupy the Immortal Cult Sect's limited number of sect disciples with all these trivial matters, so Lin Yun had discussed with Village Chief Du about selecting reliable young people from the villages to manage the day-to-day civil affairs.

This kind of position that came with both power and a generous salary was obviously a coveted good job, and Lin Yun naturally prioritized the people from the original Xiushui Village.

After all, one of the core purposes of building Xiushui City was to give the villagers of Xiushui Village more options to shape their own lives.

In addition, Lin Yun had already communicated with the imperial court in advance.

The topic of their discussion was the matter of court-appointed officials stationed in Xiushui City.

After all, the city was built on the territory of the Pusi Kingdom, and the imperial court had expressed its hope to send an official to reside in the city, so as to facilitate better communications between Xiushui City and the court in the future.

The Immortal Cult Sect had always maintained friendly relations with the Pusi Kingdom's imperial court, so they had no objections to this proposal at all.

However, Lin Yun stated that they hoped to be allowed to independently select this stationed official, and the court agreed to the condition.

The official assigned to be stationed in Xiushui City was none other than Tong Shuzheng, the former prefect of Lvju Prefecture.

Once the annual leave ended, he would officially take up his new post in the city.

After all the Immortal Cult Sect disciples finished introducing all the relevant policies and notices to the residents of every village within the scope of the new city, the village chiefs led everyone back to their homes to settle in.

The villagers were overjoyed, wandering around their new houses, touching every corner carefully, and testing the new facilities cautiously following the instructions the immortals had taught them earlier.

After Lin Xiao used his spiritual sense to confirm that no problems had arisen anywhere in the city, he returned to the Trade Affairs Center.

This small manor had been integrated into the construction of the new city. While its exterior had barely changed, its interior was fully upgraded with complete and sophisticated functions.

Registering transactions was only its most basic feature.

Inside the Trade Affairs Center, a very spacious space had been expanded.

This space was divided into many different zones, and the largest of them all was the auction house.

To help cultivators who wanted to hide their identities, especially those low-cultivation practitioners who carried precious treasures and feared being robbed, a special formation had been set up in this space. This formation would mask every cultivator's appearance, voice, scent, and even the spiritual energy fluctuations around them, making it impossible for anyone to identify who they were.

In this way, no cultivator who entered the space would be able to tell who they were dealing with.

The core purpose of this design was to support the auction business. Sufficient anonymity gave the auction house great appeal to both buyers and sellers.

The other smaller zones were set aside to provide space for cultivators who did not want to reveal their identities to set up stalls.

Although there were also many dedicated areas outside for cultivators to open shops and set up stalls, this space was distinctly different.

The public generally referred to this place as the "Black Market".

Lin Xiao did not reject the existence of a black market.

On the contrary, he believed that a black market was a necessary facility.

The reputation and direction of a black market depended entirely on what kind of order its administrators wanted to uphold.

The existence of a black market itself was simply to offer convenience to cultivators who preferred to stay out of the public eye. But precisely because everyone was hidden behind layers of cover, it was a place where fraud could easily happen, and where stolen goods could more easily change hands.

However, Lin Xiao reasoned that with the establishment of their Trade Affairs Center, a black market would emerge sooner or later anyway. Rather than letting some unregulated third party run an out-of-control black market later on, it was far better to take this potential source of chaos firmly into their own control from the very beginning.

After all, while the black market and auction house seemed to outsiders to be a completely anonymous space where no one could trace their identity, that was not the case for Lin Xiao, the founder of this entire place.

Every single situation and activity in Xiushui City was fully traceable in his system.

Moreover, he had delegated this oversight authority to the City Lord's Manor.

But only Lin Yun had the permission to access this function.

And to protect the privacy of ordinary cultivators, Lin Yun could not use this authority arbitrarily. He was only granted three opportunities to access the monitoring records each month.

Of course, if a major emergency truly occurred, Lin Yun could use his sect identity token to apply for temporary expanded access to the authority, and Lin Xiao would receive this application through the system at any time and approve it without delay.

No matter how prominent its role was, the black market was ultimately only a supplementary facility. The auction house was the main, legitimate, and public-facing feature of the space, so Lin Xiao named the entire enclosed space the Auction House.

The entrance to the Auction House was located under the trees on both sides of the road outside the Trade Affairs Center. But its exit was not fixed there. Instead, it would appear randomly in real time at low-traffic corners in various public areas across Xiushui City.

Every exit was also fitted with an extremely small illusion formation. Even if someone walked out of the Auction House, any passersby who happened to be nearby would hardly notice a thing.