Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Savagery (2)
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Pills were precious.
First off, alchemy itself was a profoundly difficult discipline.
It wasn't taught to just anyone, and the costs and time required to train even a single competent alchemist were no small matter.
Thus, even for a major sect, cultivating a group of skilled alchemists was no easy feat.
Moreover, technical expertise alone wasn't enough.
No matter how skilled the alchemist, without rare spirit herbs, no pills could be refined.
Without substantial wealth, one would go bankrupt from repeated failures before ever laying eyes on a single pill.
Naturally, for loose cultivators, pills were a pie in the sky.
What trick could they possibly use to obtain such treasures?
Alchemy was impossible even to begin learning, and even if one picked up scraps by peeking over a shoulder, practice was out of the question without materials.
Even low-grade pills leaking out from major sects couldn't be bought just by having a pile of spirit stones.
But now, they were half price.
And not some low-grade trash—these were premium pills.
Who could resist buying?
Seo-ran spared no means or methods.
She started by creating an addictive jingle.
She took a famous Central Continent folk song and tweaked the lyrics slightly.
Mass-producing recording artifacts and scattering them everywhere ensured that her jingle played no matter where one went in the learning district.
She also put up massive billboards featuring celebrities.
The model was, of course, herself.
In the billboard illustration, a glammed-up Seo-ran beamed brightly while holding up a round pill.
She threw in plenty of eye-catching slogans too.
'Premium pills for Qi Building—stock running out soon!'
'Skip this, and you'll regret it for at least a decade!'
'What did Goseong Wonyeong Ryu Seo-ran eat to grow so strong?'
'The secret pill my rivals must never know about!'
'Buy two, get one free!'
The epitome of advertising and marketing.
Central Continent loose cultivators were losing their minds.
It was their first time experiencing such promotions, but more than that, the pills' effects exceeded all expectations.
Coming from Black Bamboo Sect, it was only natural.
Eating pills alone wouldn't advance one's cultivation.
Cultivation wasn't that easy.
But if all other conditions were met, a single pill could break through a bottleneck.
The day after the half-price sale.
Some Qi Building cultivators succeeded in Foundation Establishment.
From then on, no promotion was needed.
Seo-ran swiftly changed her sales approach.
From now on, all pills would be sold in secret.
The reason: letting it be known that one possessed such treasures could endanger the buyer.
Loose cultivators actually preferred this method.
A weakling flaunting treasure only invited disaster.
Those who had hesitated out of fear of becoming targets now opened their purses.
No one suspected Seo-ran.
The source of the countless pills?
Her master must have found them in some deep ancient ruin.
The sudden pill sales?
She'd wanted to sell useless old pills even before becoming a Primordial Spirit cultivator but worried about lacking the power.
The insistence on secret sales?
It let her sell them for even higher prices than public listings.
There were no real suspicious circumstances.
Seo-ran had simply acted with caution.
At least on the surface.
Inquiries for pill purchases formed endless lines.
Foundation Establishment pills and Core Formation pills sold like hotcakes.
With secret sales, no one knew who bought how many or at what price.
Just how many spirit stones had Seo-ran earned?
It was beyond even speculation.
Only Seo-ran herself knew the true answer.
That was the core of money laundering.
*****
In her previous life, Seo-ran would think this whenever she saw news about financial crimes.
'What if I did it?'
Of course, even as a man, Seo-ran had been a model citizen.
She hardly ever jaywalked.
But imagination wasn't a crime.
In her fantasies, Seo-ran embezzled massive sums from her company, ran investment scams, and even manipulated stocks without hesitation.
It was her secret to making boring meetings fun.
Essentially, no different from a middle schooler's daydreams about 'how to fend off a terrorist storming the classroom.'
The difference was that her knowledge of the subject allowed for far more detailed schemes.
This bank run operation stemmed fundamentally from an inspiration that hit her in the shower in her past life.
Seo-ran sold pills to launder money.
This kind of market disruption succeeded best with ample funds at hand.
No matter how she crunched the numbers, lecturing obediently wouldn't amass satisfying capital.
So, she decided to take it from elsewhere.
Even now, caravans transporting spirit stones were crossing into the Central Continent via teleportation arrays.
The source of those spirit stones was tribute from the Merfolk Church.
Smuggling wasn't all that hard.
The deep Great Forest was entirely uninhabited.
Puppet exploration teams occasionally roamed the depths, but they stuck to profitable routes anyway.
Just avoid the Five Elements Treefolk patrols.
Central Continent spirit stones from the Western Continent turned into pill sales profits the very next day upon arriving at Taibon Valley.
No labels on the spirit stones meant no way to trace their origin.
This was a lie that could never be exposed.
Before long, the fall and winter lectures had all concluded.
The latter half of the year had been Goseong Wonyeong Ryu Seo-ran's solo stage.
She sucked in fame and spirit stones like a black hole.
The year-end awards ceremony was no different.
The backing of a major sect truly made a difference.
She shattered every record and swept every award.
In awards history, no one had ever dominated the winner's list with such brazen self-assertion.
With her twenty-seventh acceptance speech, the year-end ceremony drew to a close.
She had gathered more than enough spirit stones and fame.
All that remained was waiting.
Seo-ran spent her days as usual.
A few days later, several ascetics came to visit her.
*****
Twin Dragon Sect of the Ten Great Sects was in pandemonium right now.
A decade ago, spirit energy density around the Great Forest had plummeted for unknown reasons.
They burned astronomical maintenance fees daily, melting away vast quantities of spirit stones.
In the end, they barely averted bankruptcy by dipping into the bank's reserves.
Then, half a year ago, Ryu Seo-ran appeared and ruined everything.
When Goseong Wonyeong Ryu Seo-ran opened her fall lectures, countless loose cultivators withdrew their bank deposits.
Learning from a Primordial Spirit cultivator beat earning paltry interest.
The bank wobbled but held on.
Then she started the pill business.
Premium high-end pills, mid-grade pills with the best performance-to-price ratio, low-grade pills for the poor.
She even discounted prices for those slightly short on spirit stones.
Thanks to that, loose cultivators of all wealth levels could afford at least one pill.
Economically speaking, she pursued total revenue maximization over profit margins.
In plain terms, she sacrificed her own gains to fleece the loose cultivators' spirit stones.
Naturally, the bank took another hit.
Total deposits plummeted.
They had already lowered reserve ratios to the limit.
One misstep, and the bank doors would close.
If the bank collapsed, Twin Dragon Sect wouldn't survive either.
The leadership had no choice.
They hastily returned the leftover spirit stones from facility maintenance to the bank vaults.
It was a bitter pill, swallowed through tears.
Thanks to that, the bank dodged bankruptcy.
But Twin Dragon Sect's crisis wasn't over.
Now the Ten Great Sects were withering on the vine.
They needed massive spirit stones immediately.
The Twin Dragon Sect leadership met daily.
"Spirit stones, we need spirit stones..."
"Should we have the bank manager press the debtors? We've lent out quite a sum under loan names... Plenty of famous Great Forest lecturers owe us too."
"That won't work. We're already squeezing them to the max. There are more aggressive collection methods, but they all take too long."
"Why not sell some treasures from the warehouse? Useless if the sect falls."
"They've all squandered their stones on pills long ago. And in our desperation, we'd be lucky to get half what we paid. Think before you speak."
"Exactly. Survive this crisis, and we could sell for dozens of times more. Can't do that now. There must be another way."
"This isn't the time for complacency! No spirit stones in ten days, and the cultivation facilities shut down! Drop the greed!"
"What, you punk?! How old are you? You wet-behind-the-ears brat acting crazy!"
"Hey, stop fighting!"
"Do something! Break it up!"
"Everyone's on edge—keep voices down..."
"It's all falling apart. Twin Dragon Sect is done..."
"Chairman! Remove those two!"
The conference hall turned into a chaotic marketplace in an instant.
Shouts, finger-pointing, and scuffles erupted.
They looked ready to hurl spells at each other.
That's when someone yelled loudly.
"Wait, wait! I just had a great idea! Everyone, calm down for a second!"
The chairman asked in an exhausted voice.
"Fine, let's hear it."
"Common sense: who's the richest loose cultivator right now? Goseong Wonyeong Ryu Seo-ran, right?"
An angry voice shot back.
"What did you hear? We can't trade our treasures cheap in this pinch! You want to sell the sect's treasures at a loss?!"
"No, no! Change your thinking. Why sell at all? Use the treasures as bait to recruit Ryu Seo-ran into our sect. Rumor is she's young for her realm. She might even reach Incarnation stage."
The chairman, mulling it over, said,
"We do have a treasure a Primordial Spirit cultivator would covet."
The idea's proponent chimed in.
"Yes, the Wood Spirit Sword. We could throw in a few more depending on the situation. Once recruited, she's family—what's there to regret? In exchange, one request: deposit her spirit stones in our bank for a set period."
"Oh, that puts out the immediate fire."
"Yes, and once things improve, compensate generously—no hard feelings."
Afterward, Twin Dragon Sect held a proper meeting for the first time in ages.
And quickly reached a decision.
Primordial Spirit cultivator Ryu Seo-ran: top recruitment priority.
Orders went out to their Great Forest underlings.