Chapter 140 - Chapter 140: Chapter 103: Three Years of Change, Underground Auction [Subscribe now]

Chapter 140: Chapter 103: Three Years of Change, Underground Auction [Subscribe now]

The gains from the trip to Green Lotus Temple in Lianzhou were obviously much better than Zhou Chun had anticipated.

Therefore, when he left, his mood was very good as well.

After leaving Lianzhou, he didn’t rush back to report the good news to the Zhou Family, but instead detoured to Hongya Marketplace.

Zhou Chun hadn’t been to Hongya Marketplace since he was called back to serve as the Clan Leader’s secretary.

This time he went to the marketplace, intending to deal with the Magic Artifacts and Talismans that had accumulated in his Storage Pouch.

Naturally, the best way to handle these items would have been for the Zhou Family to purchase them at market price for clan members to exchange.

However, the problem was that following the battle with the “Qiyun Alliance,” there was no shortage of Magic Artifacts in the Zhou Family’s treasury.

And since there were only so many Zhou Family members, and the turnover of Magic Artifacts was slow, they didn’t hold much interest in the middle-grade artifacts of the first order.

So Zhou Chun had no choice but to go to the marketplace himself to deal with them.

Upon entering the marketplace, he naturally went first to the Spirit Beast Restaurant, where he had worked for several years.

The current shopkeeper of the Spirit Beast Restaurant was still Zhou Jiasheng, but the assistant had been replaced by Zhou Chun’s clan brother, Zhou Zhengqiang, a 27-year-old youth at the fifth layer of the Qi Refinement Realm.

As Zhou Chun stepped through the doorway, Zhou Zhengqiang, who was sitting on a stool behind the door, heard the footsteps and hastily stood up and looked towards the newcomer.

When he saw that their visitor was Zhou Chun, he was startled at first, then smiled and greeted Zhou Chun with a cupped-fist salute, “Little brother pays respects to brother thirteen. What brings you to the marketplace today?”

Zhou Chun responded with a smile as a greeting before scanning the shop and then asking, “Are you alone in the shop, Sixteenth Brother? Where is Uncle Sixteen?”

“I heard that someone at Li’s Herbal Shop was selling a treasure. Because the value of the treasure was considerable and Manager Li was having difficulty determining the authenticity of the treasure on his own, he sent for Uncle Sixteen and several other shopkeepers to help assess it.”

Zhou Zhengqiang replied in a soft tone, a hint of envy in his speech.

Zhou Chun certainly understood why he was envious.

A treasure that even the manager of Li’s Herbal Shop didn’t dare to conclusively purchase was bound to involve a capital of at least five to six hundred Spirit Coins.

And such treasures could generally double in value once acquired.

That would be a very impressive performance for a shop.

Nevertheless, considering his current standing in the Zhou Family, Zhou Chun was in a higher position than Zhou Jiasheng, the shopkeeper of the Spirit Beast Restaurant, and such matters no longer disturbed his mind.

Therefore, he didn’t inquire further and instead asked Zhou Zhengqiang, “How has the shop’s business been recently, and how are the sales of the ‘Touch of Despair’?”

“Business has been fine, mainly regular customers. ‘Touch of Despair’ sales are actually growing. It seems some Loose Cultivators have discovered a business opportunity, and pooled money to buy ‘Touch of Despair’ from us in bulk to sell in the neighboring states!”

At this point, Zhou Zhengqiang’s tone became indignant as he added, “In my opinion, our Zhou Family should send people to sell ‘Touch of Despair’ in other places themselves. Why should those Loose Cultivators be making money off it!”

“You’re mistaken about that,” said Zhou Chun, shaking his head and carefully educating his clan brother. “You need to understand that the primary purpose the Zhou Family developed ‘Touch of Despair’ wasn’t to make big money from the product, but to attract popularity and drive the sales of other items.”

“To do as you suggest, not to mention whether we can meet the demand for ‘Touch of Despair’ with our current production maxed out, but also the safety of those transporting the goods cannot be guaranteed.”

“You have to think more long-term and know what money can be earned and what money is not worth making.”

As he spoke, he was caught up in the teaching moment and immediately sat down with his younger clan brother to continue. “Doing business is like a team adventuring together to hunt Demon Beasts. If only you make a profit, eventually no one will want to team up with you.”

“Take ‘Touch of Despair,’ for example, since output is limited and our family doesn’t have the capacity to open branches in other states, we’re bound not to make much money off it, so it’s better to let it become a reputable product for our shop.”

“The bit of money the Loose Cultivators make from reselling it is nothing to our family, but it allows them to make a decent profit.”

“As a result, they’ve made money through this venture and will become even more trusting and supportive of the Zhou Family. In the future, when our family launches new products or recruits Loose Cultivators for certain tasks, they will definitely be prime customers and respondents.”

“This is what you call a win-win, understand?”

Zhou Zhengqiang certainly wouldn’t grasp the concept of ‘win-win’ that quickly.

However, Zhou Chun’s explanation managed to quell the indignation in his heart.

He nodded immediately and said, “I understand now, thank you for the guidance, Thirteenth Brother.”

After checking the shop’s accounts and seeing that Zhou Jiasheng had not yet returned, Zhou Chun simply left the shop without waiting any longer.

Upon leaving the shop, Zhou Chun did not go to the usual street market where he would deal with Magic Artifacts.

He had over a dozen Magic Artifacts in his hands, and it would take at least ten days or half a month to sell them all in the street market, and it wasn’t guaranteed that he would get a good price for them.

Therefore, he went directly to a reputable Magic Artifact specialty store in the Marketplace.

This store, known as “Treasure Pavilion,” was owned by a well-known Foundation Establishment stage Loose Cultivator from Lanzhou, who was also a leader of a Loose Cultivator organization.