With New Year's celebrations finished and his birthday celebrated, Fang Shi proceeded to ready himself for the upcoming trip. He bought a tent with formations that would allow him to stay hidden while he slept or meditated, enough food for several years, his Tianmu, and plenty of talismans and arrays to defend himself. He took a puppet with him to act as his guard, but this time it would only be one. Li Xiaoyue would still be template for the puppet's character, and this time a 2nd second class body would house the puppet's soul.
Fang Shi visited the main office for the city to research where he would head next, and after a great amount of reading, he decided on the fortress city of Tianbao. Tianbao was built on the northern border of the Qiyun region, and was the defense again dangerous spiritual beasts and possibly real demonic forces. Cultivators that didn't follow orthodox practices were often called demonic cultivators, but they paled in comparison to actually demonic entities.
Fang Shi figured that this would be the perfect place to set up shop, and the resources that could be traded there would be greater than Blue moon city. Unfortunately, even though his speed riding a sword was very fast, it would still take a month or two to reach Tianbao. Flying ships did exist in this world but were rarely used, unless an emergency or war was taking place. This irritated Fang Shi somewhat because he had hoped to catch a ride up north at least part of the way, but reality smacked him in the face. In fact, Mayor Chen had told him that most trading was done locally, and only 1st order sects that had the strength would do long distance trading. It didn't happen often as the sect made sure to profit from the trades when they did do it, so not many merchants were excited to participate.
Several days later, Fang Shi and his travel companion stood at the front gate as a puppet made in his likeness waved to him and went upstairs. He had been worried that the store might have unnecessary problems if guests didn't see him, so he had a puppet made that looked like him and it would roam the property. If something happened or something needed to be done, he could still use the system panel to control the puppet, though the cost was high to do so. It was much easier to send a message to the puppet using his Tianmu, and have the system handle the issues, and less costly as well.
Both Fang Shi and his guard had mask on as they left the city limits. They walked until the city was out of sight, and then pulled out their weapons. Seconds later, the two were streaking through the air as the puppet smoothly rode on a sword, and Fang Shi stood on a saber like a snowboard. Even though he carried his Tianmu, it didn't have a map function yet, so all he could was take pictures and listen to music as he traveled. That being said, any pictures taken could only be viewed by himself as there were no way to share them at the moment, and he could only listen to the songs he downloaded before leaving since his Tianmu was outside city limits.
Travel outside wasn't too bad, but there were a few hassles. Ever since he started growing enough the Verdant purity herbs to sell, he had been using it himself as well. This had a significant change on his aura, as it condensed and purified Qi in his body. Normally when someone looks at a Qi Gathering realm cultivator, the Qi moving through the meridians and dantian looked as if it was in a gaseous state. When the cultivator mediated and used their cultivation method, it accomplished two objectives. The first was to absorb as much Qi as possible without harming themselves, and widen the meridians and dantian to allow a higher quantity of Qi to be stored. The second objective would happen in the late stage of the realm, and that was to condense the gaseous like Qi in a liquid form, which was a purer form of Qi. Since Fang Shi used the spiritual herb, his Qi quality was now amazing, but the quantity had fallen, and most spiritual senses focused more on the latter than the former. Fang Shi could fight on par with a mid Qi Gathering realm cultivator, but to everyone's senses, they would assume he was an early realm cultivator. The reason this caused problems for Fang Shi during his travels was that spiritual beasts and unsavory bandits would sometimes attack him assuming he was a very low level cultivator, and the puppet was just a nobody since it didn't give off any aura.
After a month of travel Fang Shi arrived at at Zenlong city, the mid point between Blue moon city and Tianbao fortress city.
"Of course maps in this world are unreliable", Fang Shi complained, "I thought I would be most of the way there, but I'm only halfway."
Since Fang Shi was staying in Zenlong city, he took around ten days to tour the city. The main attraction of the city was a solitary mountain the city was built on, Dragonseal mountain. From the distance, the mountain appear as if a curled up dragon was trapped on it, earning the name. He also strolled the the city, mainly visiting the trade quarter and craftsmen's district. He had wanted to view the array that said to seal the dragon in the mountain, but it was heavily guarded and a small low level cultivator like him was immediately rejected. Fang Shi spent the rest of the time looking through th stores and shops of the city, gathering information on what was popular and what wasn't. He also noticed that other cities were built on the side of the mountain, but after checking around, he found out they were sects and not normal cities. The Sky Dragon sky, Jade Lotus sect, and Ironblood sect had man members walking around the city as well, and Fang Shi found himself moving out of the way frequently to avoid causing trouble with disciples.
"This has been very informative", Fang Shi said to himself in the inn, "in my past life, I only knew about store with modern architecture. Everything I used to design the store in Blue moon was based off of the webcomics and games I used to play. It was good to see how others designed their businesses, I won't copy it, but it's helpful."
The next day, Fang Shi finished his look around the city and departed. He once again headed to the north at a quickened pace, hoping to arrive in Tianbao in less than a month. The second portion of the journey was the same as the first, peaceful some days, but occasionally the puppet had to defend Fang Shi from attackers. Fang Shi also fought, but most of his contribution was flinging talismans out in arrays to defend or attack a person or beast.
After twenty seven days, Fang Shi finally laid eyes on his destination as a giant walled off city appeared on the horizon, Tianbao. Not only the city had walls, but walls extended from city to form the border of the Qiyun region. He arrived at the main city gates before sundown where the guards begrudgingly allowed him to enter after much discussion. After entering the gates, Fang Shi asked around to find an inn, which didn't take long. The thing that bothered him though was the attitudes of the residents of the city, which was very harsh and brusque. Fang Shi rested for the night before heading out to explore the city the next morning.
As Fang Shi walked around, it became very apparent why he received such rough treatment the night before. Everywhere he went, the lowest level of cultivator was the late Qi Gathering realm and they were treated as servants. Undeterred, he set out to pick a place to set up shop when he received a notification from the system. Annoyed by the timing, Fang Shi found a quiet corner, and check the system panel:
[New! It's all about finding the best location]
[New! It's all about finding the best location
When you set up a shop, the location is crucial to your success. With your first store, the system didn't require you to select the best location, and expended extra resources to make your situation work. But as a now seasoned business owner, you should be able to select the perfect place to build the new store.
Task: Find the perfect location for your new store, you will be penalized if the system is forced to expend extra resources to find a 4th class or higher spiritual vein it requires to run.
Reward: Identify and mark the spot you wish to claim. If the conditions are right, the system will build your new store without extra cost. Pick wrong, and you will pay the difference.]
Fang Shi sighed, he was less knowledgeable back when he picked his first store, but he was feeling obstinate. No matter which place he choose then, the system would have still needed to drill down deep to lay claim to the 4th order spiritual vein. Now it wanted him to pick on his own, and would penalize him if he was wrong, something it had rarely done in the past. Something else that caught his attention was how the task was worded. Normally when he spoke to the system, it was say things like 'host' and 'this unit', but the task was definitely written in a different tone this time.
Fang Shi used the next few days to wander the fortress city within reason. The strongest part of the city was the inner city where the governing cultivators, 5 Nascent Soul cultivators, lived and ruled over the city. Unfortunately, he was unable to enter to check it out so he went to see the walls, a risky task. Something Fang Shi found out in his investigation was that this city had cultivator armies from five different sects stationed here, which is why the five Nascent soul cultivators were also stationed here as well. But there were also many mercenary units here trying to drink the soup leftover. He had to watch out in his wandering around because mercenaries had no qualms about 'convincing' lower level cultivators to join their company, and several times Fang Shi used talismans and arrays to hide himself from eager recruiters.
Unable to enter the Jade citadel, the name of the inner city, or closely inspect the walls, Fang Shi checked everywhere he could go, and found everything would expect in a rough fortress city like this: weapon shops, brothels, bars, and inns. Finally, confident he could accomplish his goal, Fang Shi arrived at the city hall responsible for renting stalls, shops, and stores.
Many cultivators were inside and Fang shi doubted that they were all their to receive a temporary deed to do business. After looking around for a few minutes, he saw his hunch was correct, this office not only took care of business m, but taxes as well. Fang Shi found the line for renting a shop and sat down as he waited for his turn. It didn't take long for him to realize he had attracted the attention of most of the others also waiting, but he ignored it and ate some snacks.
It took some time, but eventually his name was called, so he got up and headed to the counter where the official was sitting.
The man took one look at him and said, "Stalls are ten spirit stones a month unless you are here as a representative of a senior cultivator or company. If that's the situation, please present the token of your backer and wait twenty or more days as we conduct a background check."
"Elder, I'm here to rent a store", Fang Shi responded as he quickly showed a bag of spirit stones to assure the man he had the capital to do so.
The man carefully looked at Fang Shi before replying with a smile, "Of course, please look over this map real quick to pick an open space."
Fang Shi looked at the unrolled scroll on the table, and felt insulted. All the spots the man was showing him were in the worse places of the city. He knew because he had already investigated this part of the city.
Unsure what to do, he asked, "What is the going rate of these three places?"
The man quoted some numbers, and Fang Shi felt something wrong.
"Elder, those prices seemed to be triple the prices I've heard you quote to the ones before me", Fang Shi pointed out, "What is the reason for that?"
The man didn't look embarrassed at all even when he knew he was caught, "As such a low level cultivator, the safety of your shop would be impossible to protect unless the patrols are given extra incentive. If you want the place, you can either take it or leave it."
"Thank you for your time, elder", Fang Shi bowed.
Fang Shi got up and exited the building. If you saw his face, he looked under control, but internally, he was furious.
'They never had the intention of renting a place to me', he thought as he walked, 'It was a joke to that man the whole time.'
'Alert: An unknown man is following the host', the system suddenly interrupted his thoughts, 'Should your guard handle it?'
'No', Fang Shi said as he turned a few corners to a less crowded area, and slapped talismans on himself to disappear, 'There is no reason to invite trouble for ourselves.'
'Response: Acknowledged', the system said, 'Should this unit handle future threats in this manner?'
'As long as there is a chance they could be a future customer, I want it handled like this', Fang Shi instructed the system, 'If someone decides to proceed against me with no alternative except for death, then I will call for appropriate action.'
Fang Shi ignored the system at this point as he had parkoured his way to the roof. Soon after, four men came down the alley he had entered, and stopped.
"Where is he?", a tallest man whispered.
"I don't know, his signature has disappeared", a burly man replied.
Fang Shi wasn't one to gain happiness by watching others trip over themselves, so he left the area. Since he was using his talismans, he decided to stroll along the wall and check it out. The construction of the wall was actually very well done using strong stone and metals with fairly efficient and effective arrays inscribed on them. Fang Shi looked over everything with a pair of glasses he had made before leaving Blue moon city. With these glasses he could appraise items with the same accuracy as his artifact in the old shop.
Everything was going well until he heard something, "Hey, boy, stop where you are!"
Fang Shi looked at the guard that was quickly walking towards him carrying a spear and shield, and then looked at himself.
'Whoops', he felt embarrassed, 'I wasn't paying attention, and the talisman wore off.'
Fang Shi already had his fill of the city, and didn't wish to be captured so he jumped off the wall, and activated a few more talismans.
The guarded immediately activated a talisman of his own to send an alert to his fellow guards. Patrols of guards searched the area looking for the young man, but unfortunately for them, he wasn't there.
Fang Shi had took out his saber on the way down, and flown out into the wilderness before the arrays could be used to trap him inside.
Fang Shi had decided at this point that setting up shop in the city was undesirable, so he flew up into the air to gain the lay of the land. There was a giant mountain range in the north, so he started slowly follow it until he reached a place that was different than the rest. From his observations, there was around 50 kilometers of forest that seemed much more healthier than the rest, so he turned his saber towards it and settled in the center of the heaviest growth.
"System", Fang Shi firmly said, "I wish to open the new store here."
'Response: Acknowledged', the system replied.