Chime. Ring. Ding.
"Welcome to Chicken Palace! Oh, it's young master Yi. Welcome back, young master."
A beautiful girl around 16 years old greets Yi Xian as he enter a chicken restaurant that looks similar to a very popular franchise on earth.
"Thank you, Mei. Don't mind me and please continue with you work."
Yi Xian briefly greets the girl and continue to find and empty seat to seat down. This is the fifth similar chicken he visited in this medium-sized city of Qian Kingdom.
Yi Xian is conducting his regular inspection on the Chicken Palace restaurant. This location is the latest branch of the Chicken Palace franchise in the city. It has been opened for only two weeks and it looks like the operation is running smoothly.
This town is called North Gate. It is the biggest town near the border. The city has around 100,000 populations. It is considered a medium-sized city in Qian Kingdom. While the vast majority of Qian Kingdom citizens are mortals, about 1% are made of cultivators.
Cultivators staying for a prolonged duration in Qian Kingdom will experience a great delay in cultivation since they are not able to refine the qi on the land. Hence, most cultivators only temporarily visit Qian Kingdom to buy things or for vacation.
At lower cultivation, a delay in cultivation for too long will affect their cultivation foundation. Except for some cultivation families related to the Merchant League, all cultivation family are unable to solve the cultivation problem in Qian Kingdom, including the thousands years family like the Yi family.
Only cultivators above certain level will reside within Qian Kingdom for a decade or two since such duration is considered insignificant compared to their very long lifespan due to their high cultivation.
Every cultivators or other mortals from outside Qian Kingdom need to register their identity before entering the kingdom. They will be brief about the laws. Generally, everyone follow and abide to the law of Qian Kingdom. However, the strong must always be respected.
It only takes a slap from even a rank 1 Martial Apprentice to kill a mortal. While the Martial Apprentice will lose his life under the law of Qian Kingdom, the mortal is already dead and the kingdom can only offer some minimal compensation to the bereaved family.
Yi Xian is very conscious of this issue. While it is unseen, Yi Xian is always accompanied by a bodyguard. Using his money and old connection of the Yi family, Yi Xian managed to contract the protection of a rank 6 Martial Knight as his personal bodyguard for a duration of 2 decades. Yi Xian is confident that such time is enough for his to grow into a towering giant. The bodyguard is sufficient to ensure his safety against any unforeseen circumstances.
A rank 7 Martial Commander can live over 500 years. Such an expert is usually a resident supervisor in a medium-sized city life the North Gate City. The Merchant League rotates such experts throughout the Qian Kingdom every decade.
The current mayor of the North Gate City is a rank 6 Martial Knight. While the position is chosen through a referendum every 5 years similar to an election, as expected of a cultivation world. Cultivation is still very important for a person to gain fame. It is not impossible for a mortal to be elected, only that it is very challenging for mortal candidates to convince the masses on their ability other than cultivation strength since strength is the most popular on this world.
Back to 2 years ago.
After proposing to Aunt Su to jointly open a restaurant, Yi Xian had to spent over 2 months to convince her to go along with his sudden request. Similar to everyone in Yi family, Aunt Su is also completely clueless about business.
Yi Xian had to spent 2 whole months to explain the concept of business to the couple and a few more weeks to finally convince them to join him with his venture.
Aunt Su was very skeptical at first since business was a very scary subject for the Yi family. The family greatest defeat in their long history is to the unscrupulous businessmen of the Qian Capital.
Even the defeat to other great sects of the Cultivation Mainland did not traumatized them as the business experience in the Qian Capital. The concept of business is very foreign to the Yi family. Hence, the fact that the young master suddenly being so knowledgeable about business is baffling. Fortunately, this cultivation world has a word to describe the event where a person suddenly gain a great knowledge.
Enlightenment.
Enlightenment can easily explain everything.
A mortal can turns to a rank 7 Martial Commander overnight after an enlightenment.
A carp can transforms into a dragon after an enlightenment.
A stone may turns into a fairy after enlightenment.
Even a fool can turns into a sage after an enlightenment.
So, young master Yi turns into a genius businessman after a night of enlightenment.
Such an explanation is enough for the people in this cultivation world.
To be honest, Aunt Su and Uncle Su did not fully convinced with the Yi Xian's idea. However, they are fully loyal to Yi family and to young master Yi. They are willing to go along with anything Yi Xian wants to do, even of they have to stake their lives for it. Their only concern is for the safety of the young master. Young master Yi is the last blood of the Yi family. Since the young has a proper plan for everything, the couple decided to support him with his plan.
Before leaving his family compound for a more populated city, Yi Xian has to prepare many things. Yi Xian has decided for the simplest and the most delicious food on earth, the fried chicken.
Yi Xian describes the fried chicken that he tasted on earth. The crispy chicken skin. The mixture of herbs and spices on the frying batter. The juicy chicken meat. The tantalizing varieties of coating sauces. As well as the compulsory sides of fries and cola drinks.
Aunt is proven to be a MasterChef. Based on Yi Xian's descriptions, she managed to reinvent cola and a fried chicken recipe using ingredients in the cultivation world. Thus, the first fried chicken set of the cultivation world was created in the Yi family compound. Yi Xian decided to invest all his family heritage into his venture.
The 50 acres of land is planted with various ingredients required for the chicken recipe. Yi Xian hired villagers from the villages near his land to work on his land. Within 3 months, he manages to secure the vital ingredients for his chicken business. After leaving the family compound to Uncle Su, Yi Xian and Aunt Su and travel to North Gate City to open the restaurant.
Half a year after Yi Xian transmigrated to this world, a business called 'Chicken Palace' is registered with the Merchant League at the North Gate branch. The people living in the city wear the clothes similar to the ancient Chinese people like many cultivation novel. Due to the existence of superpower called cultivation, the technology is much less developed but the city life is not less convenient than the modern world.
The peace and security of Qian Kingdom allowed the mortal civilization to prosper. Despite being a kingdom, a form of democracy has begun to emerge. The current ruling government of Qian Kingdom is closer to a constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom on earth than a total monarchy.
It is ironic that this qi barren land is the last piece of heaven on this chaotic cultivation world. Any other countries on this world follow the law of jungle where the might makes right. The survival of the fittest reigns supreme outside Qian Kingdom.
Within Qian Kingdom, the civil law is supreme. The Constitution of Humanity is the highest law of Qian Kingdom. It was dated from the founding of the kingdom and the Merchant League. It was already over 2000 years since the foundation of Qian Kingdom. Yi Xian suspected that a transmigrator is involved in the event.
Unlike most part of cultivation world, every citizen of the kingdom is properly documented and registered. Every organization and business also need to be registered with the Merchant League.
It can be a bit confusing but the Merchant League is responsible for everything related to commerce and financing the kingdom as well as providing the ultimate high-end martial experts to the kingdom.
All other government functions including civil security are handled by the kingdom officers.
Trademark is recognized by the Merchant League. Infringement of copyright is a great offence within Qian Kingdom where the Merchant blood runs deep.
After he registered his business. Yi Xian visited the Land Office. He rented several building in different locations throughout the city. Most of the locations he rented were very and close to the residential area.
In this mainly resembling ancient Chinese city, businesses tend to concentrate at the central commercial area where the land values are very high. However, Yi Xian preferred locations near the housing areas where the price was much cheaper.
The famous restaurants in Qian Kingdom at the time are usually very big with total area of a few acres. They are decorated luxuriously and only serves selective guests such as prominent figures, nobles, VIPs and the wealthy.
Yi Xian thought differently. Although it was not obvious, the masses of Qian Kingdom are a true power. While a luxurious brand is very influential and profitable, it is the common people brand that carries the most weight. Yi Xian had decided on creating a brand for the common people.
Yi Xian had rented a location away from the city center with a pretty large area. He plans to build a central kitchen to prepare the cooking. The chicken will be processed there where all process except for the last frying and serving steps will be done. The secret ingredients for the recipe, the marination and the whole cooking process will be completed here under Aunt Su's supervision. The kitchen will also prepare the cola drinks and any other sides offered by Chicken Palace.
This location will be kept secret and each part of the workers will be segregated. It will be unknown to the workers what they were working for other than completing the task like mixing chicken parts into an unknown marinade mixture.
Yi Xian had learned from the earth that nothing ensures exclusivity more than keeping a trade secret completely a secret. Like a certain white uncle's chicken restaurant on earth, the secret 11 herbs and spices had baffled many competitors for decades throughout the world.
The chicken parts that are ready to be fried will be packed. Everyday, marinated chicken packages will be delivered to the serving restaurant locations throughout the city. At the location, the workers will simply open the packages and start frying. Customers will be served with freshly fried and hot fried chicken. This is an ultimate business model on earth. Proven by many brands of chicken restaurants.
It took Yi Xian a year and a half to open the fifth chicken restaurant location in North Gate. Unsurprisingly, the fried chicken is a great hit with the people in Qian Kingdom. The combination of cola fizzy drink and the crispy fried is proven to be irresistible. No matter commoners or nobles, mortals or cultivators, everyone finally fall in love with fried chicken set.
The fried chicken, cola drinks and fries are registered as copyright products of chicken palace. Due to the immense popularity, there are businesses that come to the shop locations to offer to buy the business from the shop managers. Unfortunately, these managers are only working for Yi Xian. They are only responsible to the manage the location operation.
The identify of the business owner is a secret only to a few people working directly with the Yi family and some people in the Merchant League. As a family with thousands of years heritage, there are various way to ensure loyalty within the Yi family. On the other hand, the Merchant League is the most credible entity with thousands of years of history on the cultivation world. The privacy and confidentiality in the Merchant League is guaranteed by their foundation charter.
Yi Xian is known to the restaurant workers as 'young master Yi' who is a supervisor from Chicken Palace HQ. He frequently visited the restaurant at various hours for unscheduled inspection. He is very casual and friendly to the workers. None of the workers and managers at the locations ever suspected him as the owner due to his youth and low cultivation.
The Chicken Palace restaurants at all five locations are always full. Customers start lining outside the restaurants from the opening hour at 9 in the morning until the closing at 6 in the evening. The restaurant received a lot of great and bad reviews.
Great reviews mostly praised that taste of the food. Some even called the chicken set as the greatest invention in Qian Kingdom history.
On the other hand, there are a lot of bad reviews complaining about the lack of Chicken Palace location near their residential area. Some complained about the restaurant refusing to extend the business hours. Some complained about limited amount of order per customer.
There are various problems that occur during the past a year and a half of Chicken Palace operation.
Within two months of the operation of the first Chicken Palace restaurant location, the taste of the fried chicken set went viral with the local community. People started swarming the restaurant to get the fried chicken set. The booming business immediately caused the jealousy and envy among other business competitors.
There are various attempts to copy the recipe of the fried chicken. Some even went as far as creating a fake Chicken Palace restaurant location. However such attempt is quickly thwarted by the Merchant League.
Chicken Palace is a trademark registered with the Merchant League. Any infringement of the trademark is a challenge on the majesty of the Merchant League. It was fortunate that Yi Xian decided to register with the Merchant League before the operation of the Chicken Palace.
There were also incidents where several customers were ordering very large amounts of fried chicken sets. Then, it was discovered that several private restaurants were reselling the chicken sets at a very high price to VIP customers. Such action was no different from those concert ticket scalpers back on earth. While Yi Xian was a bit impressed by creativity of these businesses, their scalping activities were irritating other normal customers. The orders volume from these scalpers were getting excessive to the point that there was not enough chicken for the normal customers. Due to the amount of complainys, Yi Xian decided to limit the amount allowed for a single order.
At the same day of the first location opening, a sly merchant brought a chicken set bought from the location to the Merchant League branch in North Gate City. The merchant tried to register the product under his company. Of course, he failed to do so because there is a previous registration.
A representative of the Merchant League contacted Yi Xian about the incident. Moreover, the representative also reported that there were several similar attempts by other companies within a week of the opening of the first restaurant.
It is unsurprising why the Yi family failed to enter the business circle in Qian Kingdom. The merchants are too unscrupulous. This is in the North Gate City near the border. The businesses in the Qian Capital are infamously know to be even several times more unscrupulous.
The business illiterate Yi family entering the capital was suicidal. It was sending food to the jaws of hungry wolves. Yi Xian even admired the Yi family ancestors for retaining even a little bit of inheritance that he finally received.
The merchants are the life blood of the Qian Kingdom. They hold the most influence in the kingdom. The Merchant League is an organization of merchants. The elites of the elites among merchants. While wealth and cultivation are the 2 most observed qualities in Qian Kingdom, Yi Xian has notice another trend. The common people of the Qian Kingdom are gaining significant influence.
One way to gain support of people is by seizing their stomach. Yi Xian has decided to seize the public opinion as a way to rebuild the Yi family to it's former prominence. He may not be able to cultivate and his transmigration cheat is currently nonexistent but he has another way to gain strength in this cultivation world. He will first seize the heart of the common people through their stomach with his chicken restaurants!