Fang Shi woke up, and walked to the glass doors to his balcony to view his pond. He felt at peace as he saw the slightly foggy scene of the water surronded by bamboo and pine trees. Today, he had woken up after sunrise and just let the puppet he created for the store watch the store for an hour or perhaps two.
Fang Shi went to take a bath before his breakfast was delivered, but when he came back to the main living room, he noticed a difference. His once bare walls now had several long picture frames hanging on them. He rubbed his eyes before looking again, but the framed wall scrolls were still there, so he walked over to the closest one. The first wall scroll was horizontal, and the picture showed fields of wheat, cotton, and rice paddies, and the top of the frame was labeled 'Field'. When he gave the image on the wall scroll a closer look, he felt like the picture was moving. From his point of view, it had appear that the crops would be planted, grow, and then be harvested, only to start again.
Fang Shi took note of this, and quickly moved to the other wall scrolls seeing 'Farm', 'Herb Garden', and 'Grove'. The farm had all the animals he had purchased before strolling and grazing inside, the herb garden was a smaller garden of Starlight Jasmine, and the grove was a fruit orchard surrounded by oak and pine trees.
"System", Fang Shi decided he had to know, "Where did these wall scrolls come from?"
'Answer: It has always been here', the system responded, 'On the first night, the host found the wall scroll and stored it in a closet.'
Fang Shi though about his first night after upgrading his house into a shop, and did remember finding a wall scroll that was rolled up. But he also remembered that when he opened it, it was blank, so he ignored it and put it away. He cursed his own ignorance, but soon the young male puppet had just arrived with his breakfast. It put the tray on the table, bowed, and returned downstairs. Fang Shi ate his breakfast, and remembered some of the feedback the customers gave. They mostly liked the place, but was disappointed there wasn't tea or wine. He did not have what he needed for wine, but tea should be easy to procure.
Fang Shi finished his breakfast, took this tray to the restaurant, and left the store to buy a few types of tea, and perhaps find a supplier for the artifact refinery. His first stop was store where he was able to buy small tea bushes to make black, red, and green tea. The quality of the bushes was not great, but he theorized that the system would be able to raise the plants well.
Fang Shi started to make his way towards the shop responsible for supplying stone, jade, and ore to other businesses.
He walked up to the employee standing behind the counter and heard, "Fellow Daoist, welcome to Celestial Stone Quarry, can I help you today?"
"I am, Fang Shi, the owner of the Heaven and Earth Pavilion that recently opened in the outer city", Fang Shi introduced himself, "I will be adding an alchemy and weapon refinery to my business in the future, and wish to purchase from you on a weekly basis. If you are able to deliver, I can pay well, but if not I can arrange couriers to pick it up."
"Ah, Daoist Fang, please come to a private room to discuss business with my manager", the man guided him.
Fang Shi walked into a smaller room, and did not have to wait long for an older, thinner man entered the room.
"Daoist Fang, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance", the man said, "I have been told you wish to do business with us."
"Yes, I will be opening a pharmacy and artifact refinery soon, but I need to train my personnel. I wish to receive weekly shipments of low quality ores and stones as well as a smaller shipment of higher quality goods."
The manager was pleased, and soon the two of them negotiated until they reached an agreement. In the end, Fang Shi decided to make a puppet with storage capacity that would travel here once a week to gather the shipment. This was because if anyone targeted the courier, the system could transport the puppet back. A chime was heard in his head to his surprise, but he made the choice to check it tonight.
Thinking about what happened yesterday, Fang Shi made two more stops before returning: First was a stop by an alchemy store that sold spiritual plants, and the second destination was the city office. At the alchemy store, Fang Shi purchase nine more spiritual herbs to plant in the herb garden. And at the city office, he purchased three more plots of land in connection with his own.
Fang Shi finally finished his errands and returned to the store, relieving the puppet of its duty. From what he could observe, the customers seem to have accepted the puppet without any problems. As he sat there and dealt with customers, he noticed that many of them wore one of two uniforms. Deciding whether he should question someone, a familiar customer came to him to check out. Peng Hui of the Dusty Peak School was placing his basket down when Fang Shi asked him a question.
"What are these uniforms that you and those other cultivators wear?", Fang Shi said.
"They are the uniforms of the sect we belong to", Peng Hui replied, "For instance, mine is from the Dusty Peak School, and the other one you see is from the Faded Star sect."
Fang Shi finished calculating the total, and Peng Hui paid, but the former was not ready to stop talking.
"So which sect is more powerful?", he asked.
Peng Hui looked embarrassed before answering, "It's unfortunate, but the Dusty Peak is a third rate school, while the Faded Star sect is second rate."
This confused Fang Shi even more, "How do they have a second rate sect if the city here is only built on a 3rd rate spiritual vein?"
"Their sect is not located in town, owner", Peng Hui remarked, "This just proves how great your products are for them to travel here."
"You definitely know how to say good things", Fang Shi laughed.
"I just wonder why your senior would choose you to watch his store", Peng Hui commented before adding, "No offense to you, owner."
"It's fine", Fang Shi said as he laughed, "I am not sure either, but why question the motives of the ones above."
Before Peng Hui said anything else, Fang Shi continued, "Anyways, what do you do for fun around here."
Peng Hui gave Fang Hui an odd look, "Fun?"
Fang Shi now felt like Peng Hui was strange, "Yeah, fun, I know you have to cultivate, but you don't do anything else? What do you do with your time?"
"Oh, I and my fellow disciples chase immortality", Peng Hui said with a twinkle in his eye, "cultivating is certainly one thing we do, but we also explore for opportunities, some dive into the mysteries of the professions, we listen to the lectures of our seniors, comprehend the Dao, and learn to become formidable warriors."
None of that sounded amazing to Fang Shi, "That's it? No games, no books, no one goes to see the fireworks, or drink tea in the garden?"
Peng Fui was shocked to hear the owner speak this way, and quickly rebutted him, "Owner Fang, no self respecting man would be speaking about such things out in public!"
"Oh, so none of those places are here?", Fang Shi looked depressed.
"They are here, but only those who have given up would frequent visit a place like that", Peng Hui wanted this conversation to end.
Fang Shi had been talking with Peng Hui while helping other customers, and saw all the eyes staring at him. He guessed it was not the best time to discuss this so he changed topics.
"So do you and all your fellow disciples use the same cultivation methods?", He asked.
"Yes, but there are a few exceptions", Peng Hui explained, "I have to apologize, no matter what, I cannot share the method with you."
Fang Shi gave a look at the man like he was stupid, "Why would I desire the same cultivation method that a few thousand other cultivators use? First of all, when I breakthrough, I will receive a method, but also, I can guess that only a handful of disciples advance to the inner court every few years."
Peng Hui was shocked because the owner was correct, just recently the school had an outer court competition and three disciples were accepted into the inner court. Then he remembered Fang Shi's first point, it was true, why would he want to steal his cultivation method when the senior behind him would give the boy one later.
Fang Shi's next question confused Peng Hui, "If you do not mind sharing, what is your spiritual root?"
"I have a root of four elements with fire being meduim quality, and earth, metal, and wood being low quality, but why do you ask?", Peng Hui couldn't help being curious.
"Is your cultivation method only focused on your fire root?", Fang Shi inquired.
"Of course", the disciple responded warily.
Fang Shi placed his hands together and bowed towards Peng Hui, "A moment of silence for horse forever chasing the carrot."
The whole store had mixed reactions, some were trying to hide their laughter, others looked upset, and the rest were watching the show.
"What is the meaning of this?", Peng Hui was upset, but knew he could not do anything. He could only save face before leaving the store.
"Tell me, Daoist Peng", Fang Shi enquired, "Say that an opponent attacked you and three of your friends, and you held a talisman that created a barrier based on the amount of Qi poured into it. You start pouring your Qi in but when you look, your three friends refrain from doing so. When is the barrier strongest? When it's just you or when you and your three friends work together?"
Peng Hui knew the answer, and he understood why the boy was asking him, but he could not relent.
"Cultivation is different than the situation you describe, and if I tried to cultivate all my roots, I would never gain the resources needed to succeed", he rationalized.
Fang Shi stood up from his chair, and pointed all around the shop, "Are you really saying that? You say you do not have access to the resources?"
"Do you think I can always come here to buy your goods?", Peng Hui retorted.
"Why not?", Fang Shi, "Are you saying you have no broken tools, mysterious items, cursed things, or cultivation methods or techniques you got from others that are useless to you?"
Peng Hui and the others in the store were speechless before a girl probably slightly older than Fang Shi spoke, "Owner, do you really buy items like this?"
"Why don't you try it first since it looks like you doubt me?", Fang Shi looked angry, but inside he was smiling.
A man around twenty wearing a robe from the Faded Star sect walked towards the evaluation artifact in the middle of the room.
"A few days ago, I was attacked by some wild beasts when I went out. I used this fan to protect myself, but it broke during combat, and repairing it useless.", the man put the fan into the artifact and activated it. Everyone watched to see the result, and soon a light screen appeared describing the name of the item, how it was damaged, and how much it was still worth. The man still did not believe, so it accepted the price and was overjoyed when the corresponding stones came out.
"It's true!", he stated, "I was going to clean out my bag soon and just destroy it. The artifact refiner I met said the cost was too high to repair, and he could only pay a couple stones at most."
Fang heard an achievement chime from the transaction, and was pleased as people in the shop suddenly lined up to use the evaluator. Two more chimes followed as everyone was taking turns getting rid of useless items for spirit stones, and Fang Shi decided to check the panel later tonight.
Peng Hui saw the situation, and thought of something, "Pardon Owner Fang, it seems my knowledge is shallow, so I must go to deepen it."
"You forgot your useless items at home, and need to go retrieve them?", Fang Shi teased the disciple.
Peng Hui took a moment to ignore the slights before bowing and leaving. The afternoon became much more interesting as the news spread, and Fang Shi was able to make a few sells. But like clockwork, once it hit dusk, Fang Shi left his seat to the puppet again to go to his room.
The first thing Fang Shi did when he entered his room was check the wall scrolls. Just as he thought, when he held the seeds to more land, the wall scrolls also grew in size. He threw the spiritual herbs he bought today into the herb garden, and heard a slightly different sound signifying that he has completed an objective of a quest, but did not complete the whole objective. He then spent the next few hours going through each wall scroll, managing the items being raised inside to meet his needs. He also created another puppet, and assigned it the task of carrying the materials from the quarry.
Finally, Fang Shi came to his favorite part of the day, checking his achievements. He selected the tab, and was pleased to see four entries:
[New! It's not What you know, but Who
New! Another Man's Trash is your Treasure
New! A Pox on both your Houses
New! Who reads the Instructions?]
Fang Shi selected the first:
[Its not What you know, but Who
Make a business deal with another business (completed)
Reward: Special talisman with the shop's name to gift to business partners. The talisman can be tracked, and you can speak with the holder of it.]
[Another Man's Trash is your Treasure
Purchase an craft item from a customer (completed)
Reward: a new function is added to the evaluation artifact - Recycler, as the name implies, this function will recycle items back to base materials with a slight lose.]
[A Pox on both your Houses
Buy a cursed object (completed)
Reward: a new function is added to the evaluation artifact - Purification, this function removes any curses on the object being evaluated once the sell is confirmed.]
[Who reads the Instructions?
Buy a cultivation method or technique from a customer (completed)
Reward: a new function is added to the evaluation artifact - Optimizer, the evaluation artifact will optimize any cultivation methods or techniques purchased from the customers].