“Master! I... I...” Perfected Jingyuan panted, so agitated he could barely form a coherent sentence.
“You are an alchemist; you could manage to become a Guest Elder at the Yuxuan Sect, but the Yunjin Sect needs alchemists too!” Daoist Yuhong shattered Jingyuan’s beautiful dream. Seeing Jingyuan’s face instantly deflate, he sighed. “What is the rush? If you all reach the Nascent Soul stage, you can go wherever you please.”
Jingyuan could only comply. He thought to himself, *How come Junior Sister gets to run around? Sigh, I suppose I don't have a legitimate reason. Junior Sister is going to find her husband—that reason is as legitimate as it gets!*
Li Xue and Li Lin were overjoyed. Once Yu Ming stabilized her cultivation, Daoist Yuhong would bring her and Xiao Yin to Planet Jinxing. To prepare for this, Li Xue made a special trip to the market to purchase a residence.
The price of land in the Yuxuan Market was predictably exorbitant. The land prices in a super-market were like those of a first-tier city in the modern world; without millions of spirit stones, securing a good location was absolutely impossible. And mind you, the spirit stones mentioned here were all middle-grade.
Li Xue had her reasons for wanting to buy a residence in the market. Although she and her son received stipends from the Yuxuan Sect, it was only enough for their cultivation needs. To collect high-level spirit herbs, one needed vast amounts of spirit stones. If she had her own shop in the market, the profit from selling pills and materials would be far greater than selling them to the sect's collection points.
Moreover, it would provide a place for her own people to stay. While the Yuxuan Sect had many guest courtyards, those were always someone else's property; they lacked a sense of belonging.
Li Xue’s original intention was to buy a small residence with a tiny shop, even if the location was remote, as the prices in the central district were simply too high. When Bai Fenghua heard this, his phoenix-like brows furrowed. “Such pettiness. You are truly a disgrace to my Fenghua Alchemy Courtyard!” With a flick of his wrist, he elegantly tossed a storage bag to her.
Li Xue opened it and saw nearly two thousand high-grade spirit stones. Her eyes turned red with greed; in two lifetimes combined, she had never seen so much money.
Swallowing hard, she asked, “Daoist Lord, is this... a loan?”
Bai Fenghua’s phoenix eyes narrowed, and then he offered a slight smile—a smile so breathtakingly beautiful it made Li Xue’s heart skip a beat. She quickly composed herself as she heard him say, “Consider it an investment on behalf of the Bai family of Planet Mangyun.”
Li Xue grew even more suspicious. *An investment from the Bai family of Planet Mangyun? Why? Is it because of my relationship with them? Is he thanking me for bringing them together to recognize their kin?*
Bai Fenghua asked with a half-smile, “Why do you want to set up your own shop? What are your thoughts? Let’s hear them.”
Li Xue felt a bit embarrassed. She figured her little schemes had likely been seen through by Bai Fenghua, who had lived for over a thousand years. After a moment of thought, she said, “I was thinking that if the elders of my sect come out, it wouldn't be right for them all to stay in the Yuxuan Sect's guest courtyards.” Seeing that Bai Fenghua had no intention of interrupting, she continued:
“Furthermore, many of the pills we alchemists refine aren't needed by us personally, and the sect isn't lacking them either. If we have our own shop, we can sell whatever we can, which would be a decent source of income.
My thought is this: even if one hasn't reached the Golden Core or Nascent Soul stage, it's good to come out and broaden one's horizons. As cultivators, regardless of our level, we shouldn't be confined to one place, one planet, or even one star system if conditions allow. They say opportunity is a part of one's strength, but if one doesn't travel, where will those opportunities come from? If we have a foothold, my family and friends will have a transit point. They won't have to worry about having nowhere to stay.” Li Xue ended with a small joke.
Bai Fenghua found her words quite reasonable at first, but when he heard the bit about "nowhere to stay," he couldn't help but shake his head. Though the girl spoke bluntly, it was the truth.
He fell into deep thought, reflecting on how he had spent a thousand years to reach the late Nascent Soul stage, navigating the politics of the Yuxuan Sect for the sake of the Bai family, acting with constant caution. He, too, had once been an unrestrained cultivator who loved freedom. He wondered how long it had been since he had acted willfully back in the Bai family.
Then his thoughts turned to the Yuxuan Sect. Having been there for a long time, he was privy to certain secrets. The Yuxuan family's Tribulation Transcendence ancestor was nearing the end of his lifespan—a thousand years at most. Outsiders naturally didn't know this, but he could see the signs.
Otherwise, why would the Yu family allow their genius artifact refiner to join the sect of the Wanderer of No Return from the Outer Realms, and even permit him to follow his master abroad? This was clearly a move to secure a future path for the Yu family's outstanding descendants.
The Yu family was currently doing everything possible to help several Deity Transformation cultivators advance, but that was easier said than done! Once the Yuxuan Sect's ancestor passed away, Planet Danxia would inevitably change hands, and a period of bloody conflict would follow.
The situation of Planet Danxia was well-known in this star system; countless major sects coveted it. Under the pressure of various forces, how could the Bai family withdraw unscathed? Although the Bai family's ancestors were of the Bai Sha lineage in the Luotian Realm of the Celestial World, a Great Immortal of the Luotian Realm could not casually interfere in the affairs of the lower realms. No one could predict what losses the Bai family would suffer then.
At this thought, Bai Fenghua’s expression darkened. Seeing this, Li Xue felt a surge of nervousness. *Did I speak too bluntly?*
Seeing her nervous look, Bai Fenghua couldn't help but smile. “Xiao Xue, you are quite right, and your ideas are very insightful. Tell me, what if it were a whole family? What should be done then?”
Li Xue’s mind raced. She had her own views on the so-called "ten-thousand-year-old clans" of the cultivation world. Since Bai Fenghua asked, she didn't mind plagiarizing the wisdom of the ancients. She said boldly, “The world under heaven, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. I believe there is no such thing as an eternal sect or family.”
Bai Fenghua’s heart jolted, and a sudden moment of realization struck him. “Long divided, must unite; long united, must divide... An interesting saying, and very logical. So, what do you think should be done?”
Li Xue suddenly thought of the modern chain store model. “For a family, like the Bai family, which has always focused on pills, you could open a chain of Bai Family Pill Shops in various places. You could go to different cultivation planets, even different star systems. As long as the shop uses the Bai family name and has a family member stationed there to supervise, it doesn't matter whose pills are being sold inside.
In fact, it's better to sell pills from several different sources. That way, even if someone wants to cause trouble for the Bai family and smash the shop, the suppliers from other families wouldn't stand for it, would they?”
Having started, Li Xue couldn't stop. She continued, “Even if you offend some powerful cultivator in the future and he wipes out the Bai family on Planet Danxia, he can't possibly wipe out every Bai family shop on every planet. Even if he is strong enough to destroy a star system, he surely couldn't destroy every Bai Family Pill Shop across ten, dozens, or even hundreds of star systems, could he? Does he even have that kind of power?”
