117 Chapter 117: Competition

"Master Null, you are not serious right?" Sheldon trembled as he asked.

"Not at all. Unless you want your ancestors to do the work for you." Dylan teasingly said.

" Some of them are guarding the sect and are most likely at your sect's sacred grounds. Am I right?" Dylan sounded like he knew about it and pointed downwards. But, in truth, he was probing Sheldon and Azelmek.

From his knowledge of reading novels, each prestigious power would have at least one old undying guarding the sect from sect destroying disasters. These ancestors ussually stay at the sacred ground of the sect which are preferrably an independent space.

"You know about our ancestors and the sacred grounds?!" Sheldon was absolutely shocked when he heard of this. The ancestors of the hall are beings which have lived for more than two thousand years and are at the late stages of the Immortal Saint Realm, and there are very few who know of their existences within the sacred hall. Some have decided to wander the world and get stronger while some decided to stay within the grounds of the Premier Hall and defend it in times of crisis.

"?!" Azelmek was also fairly shocked. The thing that shocked him the most was when Dylan pointed one finger downwards. but after a subtle deep breath, he was able to calm himself down. 'That can't be. He must be bluffing. The sacred ground has a special forcefield that prevemts Spiritual Awareness from entering!'

"Calm down. I won't do anything that would harm your sect despite kmowing where they are. It was just a mere joke." Dylan bluffed and glanced at Azelmek with a meaningful look.

'Has he really discovered about the sacred grounds under our Hall?! How much does he know?' Azelmek felt the cold perspiration in his back as he seemingly understood the meaning of that stare.

He instantly decided to shrug it off with a somewhat awkward laugh, "Hahaha, that's right. It was just a mere joke."

"That made me slightly nervous for second." Sheldon sighed in relief but he saw the glance that Dylan made and he somewhat had the gist of what was happening.

"Anyways, where were we?" Azelmek tried to change the subject. He may have sounded a bit desperate but he needed to or else he might have fallen victim to Dylan's mind game.

Dylan immediately took note of this as he smiled inwardly and thought, 'So, the entrance is within here, huh? How unfortunate. I was hoping to get more info though.'

Knowing Azelmek's desperate actions, Dylan simply followed, "We were talking about the plan involving you sneaking into the snake's lair."

"Oh, that's right. About that, we can make it work if we..." Sheldon took the initiative and started the next agenda of this meeting.

After two hours of discussion, the three eventually finished and Dylan bid farewell to the duo who respectfully guided him out.

"May the heavens bless you in your travels, Master." Azelmek said his farewell as he saw Dylan become submerge to the dense crowd ahead.

...

Inside the Azelmek's office, Azelmek and Sheldon sat there silently.

"Hallmaster, it seems that Master Null is even stronger than we originally thought!" Sheldon seriously said.

"Indeed, he was able to identify where the sacred ground is and even found out about the ancestors below us." Azelmek agreed with similar seriousness in this matter.

"The most important thing is that our ancestors did not even sense any Holy Sense! That means he is at least one sub realm stronger than our ancestors!" Sheldon shuddered in this thought! The strongest of their ancestors has already reached the 3rd Sub-Realm of the Immortal Saint Realm! Being stronger than that means that they have reached the peak of the Immortal Saint Realm!

"Has he truly reached the Immortal Law Realm or is he even stronger than that?! But beyond Immortal Saint?! That realm is a myth!" Azelmek's hands were trembling as he tried to sip the tea in his hands.

...

Meanwhile, at the Soaring Garden Herbal Store, Dylan just arrived and discovered that their customer count is lower than what he anticipated it to be.There were only 150-160 customers who came to his stores in three hours! If this keeps up, there would only be around 600 people that would come to his store.

At this rate, his speed of cultivation will be adveresely affected due to the lack of Millenial Stone.

"What's the matter? Why has the customer count reduced this much?" Dylan asked a tall brown skinned youth with wavy dark-brown hair named Gilbert.

"I'm not really sure, sir. But Scott told me that its most likely the new competition that we have three blocks north." Gilbert replied with an uncertain answer.

"New competition?" Dylan was a bit shocked by the sudden appearance of a new competition. "Is it a new business or an popular one?"

"Apparently, its a popular brand here in the city, "Gear Up!", a blacksmithing/weapon trading shop. Its Sect Ranking is 198 with about three throusand employes and eleven branches all around the city including the one near to our store." Scott who was at the side, shared the basic information regarding the new shop to Dylan.

"An extension branch? Then why would our customer count decrease that much if there is only one popular new store? There should be at least two other stores, right?" Dylan asked again.

"It's not only two but there are another three new extensions here in our street that replaced declining stores. One is 100 meters north and the next one is 76 meters south while the last one is 9 blocks south. All 3 our popular brand that are within the top 250 and possess at least 8 branches each!" Peter, a slightly muscular youth with a kind face, informed Dylan.

"Interesting. Business is as dynamic as ever. Four new businesses, huh? Seems like I still got a long way to go." Dylan smiled when he discovered about this. He felt like he was suddenly back in Earth. Consistently devising plans and methods that would enable his business to triumph against the other.

"So what are we going to do, now, sir?" Beverly asked.

"We will beat our competition, of course." Dylan answered with confidence.

"That's our Sir Dylan!" Ron said with a smile.

"Yeah!" The customers followed with a cheer

" It seems like we would need a little bit more time to reach the point where we could secure 1000 customers a day. Don't get too anxious, I will create a plan." Dylan was thinking of their current circumstances.

"First off, we need to know who we are dealing with. That's the most essential thing when it comes to a war. If you know your enemy well, you can create a counterplan and be unbeatable!" Dylan spoke as if he was a teacher.

"Yes, sir." The employees replied in unison.

"Sir, as mentioned before, there are 4 new business each our extensions of popular business chains which have at least 7 branches each. The closest one is Gear Up! which is 3 blocks north of our store. Next, is the business 9 blocks south from here which is called "Pill Clinic", like the name suggests, it is a business which specializes in selling pills with a side business of selling herbs. It has a total of 9 separate branches around the city. It's Sect Ranking is 227." A long brown haired simple beauty named Angeli imparted.

"The one which is 76 meters south is called the "Excellent Tailors". A business which is governed by Magical Tailors, a proffesion which is under the category of blacksmiths, however, it mostly deals with the use of magical garments that are used to sew robes, pants and other clothings. It is a popular business because it's efficiency is almost the same as heavy armor with the same cost and durability but lighter! It has a total of 11 branches all over the coty with rank of 201!" A fierce looking yet handsome youth called Joe added.

"Lastly, the farthest one which is 100 meters north is called the "Beast Farm"! A popular brand known for producing excellent mounts that are sold depending on the level! The domesticated Spirit Gathering spirit beasts within these farms are easy to control. Although it produces quite a few Origin Realm Beasts, it has registered about 4 to 5 dozen of Origin Transmutation Beasts, 20 at the Origin Foundation, and 7 Palace Formation Realm Beasts! It has 8 branches all over the city with an overall Sect Ranking of 241!"

"Very good! Looks like everyone has researched about the general information of the enemy camps." Dylan smiled as he praised his employees. He found joy that they were able to have the initiative to do such things.

"Oh, so all of our competition are quite formidable, huh?" Dylan fell silent as he contemplated for this predicament they were in. With such competition, it will be beyond difficult to raise their rankings. The rankings of the Soaring Garden herbal stor is only at the 1600s which is ways behind from their competition!

"For now, we will do our best to maintain the average customers of 600-650. We will stay low-key for one week. In this one week, we will do recon and probation. We will monitor the method of management of each business! To do this, we will have four employees who will station themselves 10 meters away from the 4 targetted businesses for three hours while giving out flyers for advertisement! The flyers are only cover up but they can also be an additional way for our store tp have more exposure. Even if the people passing by throw it away, as long as they are able to hear and see the name of our store that will be enough!" Dylan immedeately devised a plan for them to recognize the enemy!

"Won't the enemy be suspicious of us if we were to closely monitor their stores for several hours?" Arnold asked with seriousness on his brows.

"Of course not because if they noticed, they would most likely ignore such actions. Being high and mighty, they would of course be nonchalant of our seemingly futile effort. But, we cannot also exclude the fact that there might be careful individuals within their group so we would have to most likely prepare. To flawlessly execute this plan, the four guys who will monitor for a few hours will utilize the crowd as a coat that would render him/her less noticeable to the businesses! Not only that, I aslo plan for a few members to do detailed research in order to find reliable information and statistics of the busineses!"Dylan spoke calmly as he patiently calculated all possible scenarios during the recon.

"What about the following steps of the plan, Sir Dylan?" Scott asked while processing Dylan's plans.

" The next step of the plan is completely dependent to the first because it is the creation and deliberation of possible methods to be used against the 4 new business along the street!" Dylan smirked as he spoke.