It was the next morning, and Fang Shi had just provided a breakfast service for his first guests before returning to his current residence. Knowing that two of the groups were in conflict with the third, he dedicated a small portion of his attention to watching over them. He didn't have the slightest intention of being a babysitter to everyone, but they were his guests and it would be a blow to his reputation of someone were to die after paying for a room. The rest of his attention was spent focused on the most important task, building his shop.
"So let's set our priorities", he organized his thoughts, "It seems highly unlikely that I will have other cultivators as customers for the near future. I will be serving primarily mortals, warriors, martial artists, or whatever other titles they give themselves."
Fang Shi wrinkled his nose at his current prospects before continuing, "Payment equal to the other branch stores will be difficult. Mortals use coins made of copper, silver, and gold."
He looked at the two crystals in his hand he had received as payment.
"I need to investigate these crystals", he said, "They radiate the same energy as one of the five main nodes of the natural array formation. Perhaps, I should look more into this first."
Fang Shi felt that just sitting there and thinking was unproductive so he looked at the map on his phone. He found the closest node which was in the center of the cove he had made his base. With a small motion, he changed to a fresh black jinbei and exited his flying ship. He made his way to the beach where his guests were currently staying, and took out a wooden sword. Everyone had exited their tents when they saw him step onto the sword.
"Boss", Liang Renwei nervously called out, "Are we in danger?"
"No", Fang Shi was unable to hide an annoyed look on his face, "I said last night that I will settle down here, and open a store. I have to make preparations and do some investigations."
Everyone seem to relax at his explanation, but he could tell they still had some reservations so he sent a mental command to the flying ship.
"I could sense everything that happens on this island", he vaguely explained, "I can understand that my absence might cause you worry, so let me reassure all of you."
In the blink of an eye, another man suddenly appeared next to Fang Shi. He had called the combat puppet from storage. It only had the power of an early Qi Gathering realm cultivator but that was enough against all these mortals. The appearance of the puppet caused the group of people to jump back in fear.
"My apologies, Senior", Liang Renwei bowed to the ground first, followed by the rest.
"This is a combat puppet of mine", Fang Shi cleared the misunderstanding quickly, "Should anything from outside or inside the island threaten the guest, it will ensure your safety."
Liang Renwei and the others stood up and looked at the puppet after hearing from him. In front of them was a puppet the same height as Fang Shi that wore robes of black with golden embroidery. The robes had an image of a mountain with clouds surrounding the summit, an image that matched Fang Shi's clothes. On its face a wolf mask was found, and a large straw hat covered its head. There was a sheath tied to its belt that one would guess held a curved blade.
"Thank you for your consideration", Garrick spoke first.
After hearing Fang Shi's words, he felt calmer. Especially the last sentence, this statement held the meaning that they didn't have to worry about enemies from the ocean or forest from attacking them. It also held a secret message that if the guests try to attack each other, there would be consequences.
Fang Shi didn't want to explain anything further so without anymore explanations, he will the sword he stood on forward. The nine left behind watched him leave before looking at each other, and then the puppet before returning to their tents.
It took almost an hour for Fang Shi to arrive at the center of the cove. It actually wasn't that far away, but he was having fun flying on the sword right above the water. In his past life, he had seen a video of a fighter jet flying meer feet away from the surface of the ocean and saw the huge jets of water (also called rooster tails) that sprayed from the engine thrust. In the name of acting like his real self, he spent this time trying to accomplish the same thing. Once he had his fill, he got serious and went to find the node.
He arrived where the strange aura was at it's strongest, and started the investigation. He pulled a talisman from storage, and applied it to his chest before diving into the ocean water. He didn't have to go down to far when a simple problem arose, the light of the sun started to fade as he went down. He removed two more talismans and activated them, illuminating his surroundings, and used a control spell to kept them in his general vicinity. Generally, he didn't have to use talismans for such a simple task but it was more efficient to use them instead of his internal Qi.
Once he reached the bottom, Fang Shi was greeted by an amazing sight. The sea floor almost looked normal except that the light from the talismans refracted and created dazzling rainbows. A quick glance at the source of this distortion let him identify the cause, crystals of various sizes littered the sand. These crystals ranged from light to dark blue, and he could feel the overwhelming water energy coming from them. He found the smallest piece he could, approximately the size of a fingernail and stored it.
'If this first site is any indication, each node should have similar crystals with corresponding elements', he theorized as he rose to the surface.
What followed was as expected, Fang Shi visited the other four nodes and collected a small sample from each. As he did, he noted characteristics of each node. Just the water crystals were found in the cove, the fire crystals were in the volcano, the earth crystals were in the center of the biggest mountain, the wood crystals were found where the biggest and oldest trees grew, and the metal crystals were found in a large iron mine. Another observation he made was that each node was a different size. The largest node was water, followed by earth and wood, then fire, and finally metal.
That evening, Fang Shi returned much to the relief of the nine guests. After serving dinner, he went back into the flying ship with the five elemental crystals. He pulled out the analyzer that was to evaluate goods, and placed the blue crystal in it.
[Small Low Quality Water Essence Crystal]
"System, what can you tell me about this?", Fang Shi was excited.
[Host, essence crystals are the result of qi and natural energy being fused together into a physical form.]
He wasn't sure what to ask about next so he reviewed what he had discovered during the day.
"I'll have to assume a few things about the current situation, but I think it's safe to say that these essence crystals didn't come into being until the giant array formation activated", he mused as he looked at photos he took at each node, "Also, each elemental node shows a similar structure, a center with a dense energy and outer layers with reduced levels of energy. I'm not an expert on this but I feel this is a similar situation to how spiritual veins grow. If this true, I should be able to use this natural array to my advantage. First, I noticed that the nodes aren't the same size. That should explain why the formation doesn't create as much qi as it should, it's not balanced. I can think of two ways to remedy this, accept essence crystals of the elements that are lacking as payment, or take a chance a chance and try to balance it on my own. Once the array is balanced, I can add more to strengthen the array to my requirements."
Fang Shi felt confident he could create an environment that was both comfortable to cultivate in and attractive to the people of this region. The next question was just as important as the first, 'I know what to accept as currency but what do I sell?'
With this question on his mind, Fang Shi laid down to get some rest. The next morning, he found himself back at the beach. After distributing breakfast to everyone, he found the perfect distance from the waves of the beach and set down several comfortable beach chairs with umbrellas. He laid down on one of the chairs, and turned his gaze towards the beach. He watched the waves for hours before he felt three people approaching him, the trio from Verdant Cross.
"Kadeem, is there something I can help you with?", Fang Shi surprised them by calling the leader out.
"I was just curious about these chairs you set down, boss", Kadeem answered his inquiry.
"Oh this", he responded, "Do you mind if I seek advice from the three of you?"
"Anything you need", "Of course, boss", "I will do my best", a chorus of responses were his answer.
"As I've stated before, I intend to open a store here", he continued, "Unfortunately, the situation here is not ideal. My senior has given me a mission requiring me to make this branch as successful as the other two branches. I'm already finding this challenging because this region is severely lacking spiritual energy. Even though I have thought of one solution, I'm hesitant to choose it."
"Why is that?", Mira asked before adding, "Boss."
"Hmmm", Fang Shi hummed, "Let me ask you a question. If you discovered a way to kill a thousand of your enemies, but the cost of doing so was eight hundred of your own countrymen, would you do it?"
"If I could kill a thousand empire soldiers…", Mira had a look of determination on her face before Kadeem interrupted her, "Boss, I understand your conundrum. I'll leave you to your thoughts for now."
Fang Shi nodded in agreement as the Kadeem took the other two away. It wasn't too long before the other six made their way to him.
"Go ahead and speak", Fang Shi dispersed with the formalities.
"We are just curious…", he cut Liang Renwei off, "If I reached a deal with your enemies?"
The young man looked embarrassed to see his thoughts predicted, "Yes."
"No", he sighed, "I'm stuck in a moral quandary."
"Immortals have those?", Liang Renwei replied.
"I do", Fang Shi admitted before asking, "Why can't humans work together towards a better future?"
"What do you mean?", Elias didn't understand.
"I got off topic", Fang Shi sighed, "The problem I face is that my business is strengthening my customers who in turn seek enlightenment. Although conflicts will arise, the ultimate goal is to seek one's Dao."
"What's the problem?", Markus inquired.
"There as two problems", Garrick answered for Fang Shi, "The first is that we have short lives compared to the boss here, we don't seek enlightenment. The second problem comes from the first, if we were to greatly enhance our strength, what would we do first?"
"Either become the emperor or take revenge on our enemies", Corvin decisively said.
"Right", Garrick nodded, "And our goals don't align with the boss's vision, so there would only be one choice and that would be to strengthen both sides."
"That's right", Fang Shi affirmed Garrick's reasoning, "Whether I sell to one side or all sides, it would result in a loss of customers. Thankfully, being able to speak to everyone has given me some ideas."
"It has?", Shen Lanyue quietly whispered.
"Yes", he replied, "Do you know one of the most important qualities someone with power should have?"
"Wisdom", Liang Renwei answered.
"That's a good answer", Fang Shi responded, "But not the one I was seeking. People should strive for strength, wisdom, and discipline."
"Why is it so important?", Elias asked in confusion.
"Look at me", Fang Shi used himself as an example, "How difficult would it be for me to travel to every island and subjugate them? Probably not very difficult at all I'd say, but I'm a man of discipline. I can only imagine that if an unorthodox cultivator at my level who uses blood or souls came, everyone would be wiped out without much resistance."
Everyone grew frightened at such a horrific example so Fang Shi thought for a moment before speaking, "Maybe that was a bit much. How about this? Everyone should have met at least one young master who takes of their position and backing to do as they wish. This person has a form of power and they are intelligent or wise enough to know who needs to be respected, and who has to respect them. Most people raised like this are probably disciplined men and women who will grow up to be great people but then there are those who are not. They have the same power and intelligence as the others, but are lacking in discipline. They cause harm to those under them, and conflict with others around them only to hide themselves when their antics cause events to spiral out of control."
As expected, when he used this example, several people's eyes would quickly glance towards Liang Renwei for a moment.
"Well, I still have work to do so I'll take my leave", Fang Shi bade the others farewell.
He felt the time spent conversing with his guests had been fruitful so he left the beach, and headed to the node located in the iron mine. This node was the smallest of the five, and it made him remember a saying from his past life, 'A chain is only as strong as its weakest link'. He used earth escape to enter the ground, and enter the mine. To be more accurate, this place was just a deposit of iron before but he had taken the time to dig tunnels making it a mine.
Fang Shi had decided to experiment with this iron node in two ways. First, if more iron was added to the node would the already present resource change the added material? Second, if this node did change the iron, could it also change other metals?
To find out, Fang Shi added several open spaces around the iron deposit before summoning blocks or metal from his storage. One spot had iron placed in it, other spots had gold, silver, copper, bronze, and quicksilver placed there. Then he decided to take a chance by adding a few more spots. In these places, he placed metal ores were filled with spiritual energy. Since the mine in the wall scroll had barely reached level 2, the quality of these metals weren't very high but he did a large quantity of them. Flame copper, Frost Iron, Star steel, Yang Gold, and Yin Silver were add before he covered everything in dirt and left the node. At best, the node would react to every metal placed by him, at worst, it wouldn't react to any of them. As long as just one would increase the strength of the node, that would be enough.
The second day finished with him serving dinner before going to bed.
The next day was much different than the first two. After serving breakfast, Fang Shi didn't keep his guests company. He stayed inside the flying ship sitting at his table with several scrolls of paper and ink. Yesterday, when speaking with his guests he had realized that it would be impossible to start with a big shop like he had in Tianbao and there were a few reasons why. If he sold weapons and elixirs, the people who could afford the most would probably attack those who couldn't. Selling household goods would be difficult because they were all powered by qi, something this region was lacking. So he knew the best choice was to focus on food and games.
It took most the morning, but Fang Shi was able to sketch plans for a store, restaurant, and entertainment lounge. Unfortunately for him, both models of the cultivation pods used too much spiritual energy and they couldn't function properly here. After designing the buildings, he had to create a new model for mortals. This model wouldn't need to supply qi to the user which greatly reduced its power consumption. After some thought, Fang Shi took inspiration from one of his favorite novels and drew up plans for a system that consisted of a small tower, a screen, a mouse, and a helmet.
Fang Shi took everything he designed, and feed it into the system. He wasn't an engineer or an architect so he relied on the system to take care of the details. He paid the system with spirit stones to receive the final draft, and headed outside with the artisan puppet. He started pulling out massive bundles of the lowest level spiritual wood he had packed, and placed them on the ground. The puppet took a piece of lumber and marked it before grabbing another piece and doing the same.
Once all the preparations were completed, Fang Shi followed the puppet to the site where the buildings were marked for construction. He went to the first location, and cast a spell. A perfect rectangle of soil six meters in depth disappeared into his storage ring, and a bundle of bags appeared in his hand. The puppet took the bags, and levitated the contents in the air before adding water. After mixing everything together, it started the process of pouring the foundation for the first building. Meanwhile, Fang Shi took the marked lumber and made perfect cuts.
Back at the tents the group was staying at, the sounds of construction couldn't be ignored. Although the three groups of people weren't currently hostile with each other, it would be a stretch to call them friends. After listening for awhile, all nine people were overcome with curiosity and they all went to see what was happening with the combat puppet following behind them.
Once they arrive, they were greeted with the strangest sight. Three giant holes shaped like perfect rectangles had appeared near the immortal's strange flying ship while a giant grey ball was floating above another puppet dressed similarly to the puppet behind them. The immortal was standing near a large stack of wood making small hang gestures. Each time his hand moved a piece of wood would fall from the board, and it would float to a new pile.
The group of people which normally would never watch the construction of a building was rooted in place watching these two. Hours went by as puppet poured the foundation for the buildings before setting up arrays to perfectly set and dry them. Fang Shi cut all the lumber, and watched the puppet work until dinner time. He went inside to prepare everything first and once it was ready, he went to the group that was still watching the show.
"Excuse me everyone", he announced, "Dinner is served and it's time to send the rescue signal again. Please follow me."
Reluctantly, everyone did as instructed, and soon everyone was enjoying their meal.
"Boss, where did you learn to build like this?", Kadeem couldn't hold back anymore and asked.
"I didn't learn anything", Fang Shi replied, "The puppet you saw was created by my master with the sole purpose of creating. I only follow its instructions."
"Would it possible to learn how to do this?", Kadeem enquired.
"Eventually", Fang Shi vaguely acknowledged, "It will take several days before everything is finished. If you're lucky, you might get to see it before you leave."
"I look forward to that", Liang Renwei was already making plans in his head.
"Enjoy the rest of the evening", Fang Shi left the group, and went to check on the puppet's progress.
Satisfied with its performance, he sat down to eat before going to bed ending the third day.
The fourth day was uneventful. Fang Shi and the puppet worked on the buildings all days while the others watched. All nine people didn't stay there all day, with the one's more interested watching the most while the younger members would return to the tents. Progress moved quickly as Fang Shi and the puppet used object control spells and certain arrays to speed up construction, and by the end of the day three buildings were finished. The puppet continued to work through the night on the interiors of the three buildings, placing furniture inside, decorating the walls, and installing all the appliances.
The night passed, and the sun rose for the fifth time since the arrival of the nine guests. The puppet continued to work drawing all the arrays needed, and Fang Shi started stocking the shelves with goods. It probably was too early to put food out, but he wasn't worried about it. The arrays carved into the building would keep everything on the shelves fresh for a long time. He was in the process of stocking when his senses picked up something. With a wave of his hand, he quickly moved the rest of the goods to the shelves all at once before leaving the building, and headed towards the tents.
Everyone immediately noticed when Fang Shi arrived, and Garrick was the first inquire, "Boss, did something happen?"
"Yes", Fang Shi replied with a smile, "You and the young master you are protecting sound pack up. You ride is here."