Changing One's View

Sun Yigao had spent the past two days in the alchemy room, busy refining pills with Senior Liao.

Yesterday, as soon as the superior-grade Naling Pills came out of the furnace, the excited Liao Pantu dragged him into researching how to refine supreme-grade Naling Pills. He simply had no time to discuss anything with Lin Xiao, managing only to mention it in passing when Liu Yunan came to the alchemy room to coordinate some miscellaneous affairs.

“What is it?” Lin Xiao asked curiously.

“Yigao said he’s been considering cooperating with the imperial court to establish several more Lingxian Academies in other locations,” Liu Yunan replied.

Lin Xiao immediately became interested. “Oh? Has he already chosen suitable instructors?”

Liu Yunan nodded.

“He said he has several candidates in mind, enough to rotate them. Going out to teach would even be beneficial to their cultivation.”

“As long as we have candidates, that’s fine. We’ll find some time later to plan this properly,” Lin Xiao said.

Liu Yunan nodded. He sipped his tea and glanced at Lin Xiao across from him. In the end, he couldn’t hold back the concern he had been harboring about handing all external trade over to the Li imperial clan.

“Brother Xiao, is it really all right to hand the entire authority over to the Li clan like this?”

It wasn’t that Liu Yunan didn’t trust the Li clan, with whom they had worked for several years. However, even someone as young as him knew that wealth could move the heart.

In the past, although they had also handled supplies for trade with the three major sects, the quantities had been within the losses their sect could afford. They hadn’t been very large, and even if something had gone wrong, they could have seen the Li clan’s true nature and severed ties with them.

But things were different now.

Allowing the Li clan to establish a presence in the Trade Affairs Center and completely manage all external trade was undoubtedly a tremendous risk.

What was more, with the three major sects now serving as experienced partners, they had expanded the types of goods they could produce to order. From now on, the amount of materials and spirit stones handled by the Li clan each month would be far greater than before.

If the Li clan developed any ulterior motives, it would certainly become a serious problem.

In his heart, Liu Yunan still hoped that everyone could work together harmoniously, which was why he felt somewhat uneasy.

Lin Xiao naturally understood his concerns.

“Yunan, you need to change the way you look at this,” he said.

“What way?” Liu Yunan asked, puzzled.

Lin Xiao asked him, “If we handed this matter over to Jiang He, would you still have these concerns?”

“Of course not.” Liu Yunan shook his head without hesitation.

“Exactly. You wouldn’t, because in your heart, you regard Jiang He as one of your own and trust him completely.” Lin Xiao dipped his finger into the tea and drew a circle on the table. “This is the circle we have now. Everyone inside it is one of our own—people we can entrust with things without worry.”

“But if we want to develop according to our plans, we can’t rely on just ourselves forever.” Lin Xiao looked at Liu Yunan and spoke slowly, each word distinct.

“Giving authority to the Li clan does carry risks, but it also brings benefits. The risk is that we might lose a great deal of materials and spirit stones, as well as gain another hostile relationship. The benefit is that we might gain an ally willing to help us wholeheartedly—and one who could very well develop into a fellow cultivator walking the same path.”

Lin Xiao drew another circle beside the one on the table. Then, using his spiritual power, he merged the two circles of tea into one larger circle.

“Although the Li clan can sometimes be overly cautious in the way it handles affairs, they are also steady and reliable. They can be considered people worthy of friendship.”

He smiled. “After our cooperation over this period of time, the Li clan has clearly proven itself a partner worth taking a risk on.”

The discussions in the meeting room of the Trade Affairs Center continued until evening.

Even the Li clan, experienced as they were, had been busy for a long time.

This time, there were simply too many sects involved in the trade, and Lingxian Sect had also increased both the types and quantities of materials it was offering.

There were production orders as well.

The other sects and the imperial clan were dealing with these orders for the first time. Some of them had no experience producing the requested goods at all, and could not compare with the three major sects of the Pusi Kingdom, which had already become familiar with the work.

Fortunately, Li Zhanying had brought two clansmen with him who had previously been chiefly responsible for handling trade with those three major sects. Otherwise, as someone who usually concerned himself only with the overall direction and left the details to the clansmen under him, he might truly have been unable to keep up.

After receiving the preliminary lists of supplies that had been finalized, along with reservations for the many basic materials their own sects needed, the people from the various sects and the imperial clan were all filled with excitement.

If all of this was real, it represented an enormous amount of supplies!

As long as the trading market in Xiushui City could continue operating, what would they have to worry about in their future cultivation?

The representatives carefully placed the roughly finalized lists of goods into their storage bags.

Many of them also remembered what Elder Liu of Lingxian Sect had said before the auction began about the shops in Xiushui City’s commercial district.

Given the current situation, those shops, which came with a year of rent waived, might truly be an incredible opportunity.

However, after leaving the meeting room, they tried to find someone from the Trade Affairs Center to ask about the shops. They were told that, because it was New Year’s Eve, all departments in Xiushui City would be taking a holiday starting that afternoon. The holiday would last until the seventh day of the first lunar month, so all official business would have to wait until after that date.

The cultivators were utterly bewildered by this explanation.

It was one thing for ordinary mortals to celebrate the festival, but why did the cultivators of Lingxian Sect need a holiday as well?

Still, since that was what they had been told, there was nothing they could say. They could only wonder whether they should return to their sects first and come back after the seventh day of the first lunar month, or remain there until then.

However, as they walked out of the Trade Affairs Center, the Lingxian Sect disciple who had escorted them out smiled and said:

“My sect elders left a message. They said that if the honored Daoists have time in the coming days, you are welcome to stay in Xiushui City and celebrate the New Year with us.”

Inviting guests who had traveled from afar to celebrate the New Year was simply Lingxian Sect’s hospitality as host.

Whether the guests wanted to stay or not was another matter entirely.

Still, the cultivators were quite surprised to hear the invitation.

They had never expected anyone to invite them to spend the New Year here.

To be honest, it had been a very long time since they had celebrated the New Year.

Although they didn’t know what was so worthwhile about celebrating a mortal festival, they still intended to discuss the matter of a year’s rent-free occupancy for the shops with Lingxian Sect. Thus, they all accepted the invitation.

After returning to their lodgings in Xiushui City, the sect masters and elders of the various sects privately and carefully reviewed everything they had seen and heard during their visit.

Night fell.

Although it was the cold season, the chilly wind in Xiushui City was not biting.

The villagers living in the newly renovated houses—who should now be called residents of Xiushui City—had initially assumed, upon moving in, that the weather had warmed early this year. They had even begun considering whether they should start sowing seeds and raising seedlings earlier than usual.

But after they grew accustomed to the comfortable temperature indoors while wearing only light clothing and then stepped outside, where the cold wind made them shiver, they realized in surprise that it was not the weather that had warmed up.

It was simply that the temperature inside their homes was pleasant.