But what should he do?
What would be the best way for everyone to think well of him without sticking out like a sore thumb?
He was currently in Drifting Specter Royal City. It was a place filled with experts.
Even though he had grown much stronger after soaking in the Lucid Lunar Lake, he was not so arrogant as to think that he was already invincible.
Putting everything aside, it might be hard for him to defeat Qi Yue in a proper battle.
Achieving a breakthrough in one’s zhenqi cultivation was wholly different from making a breakthrough with one’s physical body.
The latter allowed him to become nigh invincible in close-quarter battles, but once the opponent realized his weakness and kept his distance, he would be in grave danger. Not only would he have trouble attacking, he would have difficulty trying to defend himself.
The ability of Celestial Gods to tap into the power of nature should not be underestimated.
For this reason, while trying to earn the recognition of others to gather the Anima of Yearning, he had to make sure not to go overboard. Otherwise, he might draw unwanted attention, and that would only lead to endless trouble in the future.
Zhang Xuan turned to Zhuo Feng and asked, “What do you recommend I do?”
It had not been long since he arrived in the Firmament, so he was not familiar with how things worked there. In contrast, there should be many cultivators who had tried all sorts of ways to gather the Anima of Yearning in the past. It would be much safer to follow their footsteps than to come up with something on his own.
“Well, the fastest way to generate Anima of Yearning is to challenge the God Monarchs directly. That’s how the Heaven Subjugation Monarch came to prominence. Once you succeed, your name will spread far and wide around the Firmament, and you’ll receive an endless supply of Anima of Yearning!” Zhuo Feng replied.
“You are joking, right?” Zhang Xuan asked with widened eyes.
If he did that, he would probably die in a heartbeat!
He might have never met a God Monarch before, but he had just gotten a glimpse into the overwhelming power that a Conferred God King possessed. It would probably only take a mere finger for Qi Meng to crush him to death, let alone the stronger God Monarchs!
“Haha, it’s just an afterthought.” Zhuo Feng chuckled to himself.
He would not usually joke like this, but it seemed like he was a little too overjoyed at his son’s breakthrough, so he was not as careful as he usually was.
“The conventional way to obtain Anima of Yearning is to reach the top of an occupation, for example, blacksmith. As long as your weapons are powerful and useful, and cultivators view obtaining your weapon as a great honor, the amount of Anima of Yearning you earn will naturally increase correspondingly. The same goes for apothecaries. If your pills are effective yet inexpensive, it’s natural that people will be thankful to you,” Zhuo Feng explained.
“Pills?” Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up as a thought came to his mind.
He was unskilled in smithing, and it was no easy feat to mass produce weapons. However, when it came to pills… all it took was just a surge of his Heaven’s Path zhenqi!
As long as he could gather sufficient low-tier God Essence Pills, he could produce as many Beauty Pills as he wanted. Not only would it accentuate one’s appearance, smoothening their skin and enhancing their disposition, more importantly, it could heal their internal traumas and clear their meridians, allowing them to overcome their bottleneck!
The only issue with that was… the price.
The Beauty Pill was currently priced quite exorbitantly, making it a commodity that most people could not afford.
If he sold them too cheaply, it would tear down the market that had just barely been built up. It would surely incur much dissatisfaction among those who had spent lots of money to buy them, and this was significant given that a God King of the Qi Clan had just made a bulk purchase.
“What kind of pills are cheap and accessible to all cultivators in Drifting Specter Royal City?” Zhang Xuan asked Zhuo Feng.
There was no need for him to rely on the Beauty Pill to make his name. He could infuse his Heaven’s Path zhenqi in other stuff. Back when he was still on the Master Teacher Continent, he used to infuse his Heaven’s Path zhenqi into vats of wine!
Zhuo Feng pondered for a moment before replying. “Well, the best-selling pill in Royal City is definitely the God Essence Tablet. It’s basically a simplified version of the God Essence Pills, and you can buy around ten of them with a single Divine Coin. There are no restrictions on how many of them you can buy. Most cultivators usually bring dozens around with them as even though the effects are inferior to those of God Essence Pills, they can allow people to swiftly recover their strength in times of danger.”
“I guess that’ll be it then!” Zhang Xuan nodded as his mind swiftly churned to formulate a feasible plan.
He needed something cheap and inexpensive for him to earn the gratitude of others.
Focusing on the higher-end market would only bring him more money. It would be difficult for him to earn the gratitude of others quickly through that.
So, his current plan was to continue producing the Beauty Pills to win over the high-end aesthetic markets, and he would produce a counterpart to the God Essence Tablet in order to win over the ordinary cultivators. With that, he would make the cultivators of Drifting Specter Royal City go crazy over him!
Of course, he would have to make sure to control the amount of Heaven’s Path zhenqi that he infused into each pill carefully.
Each Beauty Pill would have a surge of Heaven’s Path zhenqi, and for each God Essence Tablet, he would probably just infuse a hundredth of that. This way, it would still be effective, but it would not be as obvious.
Otherwise, the market of the Beauty Pill would collapse.
Not only so, it would also cause a huge commotion. If one sold a highly effective pill at a low price, it would disrupt the markets. He might still be able to win people over, but at the same time, he would make enemies out of those in the pill business.
Some might even send assassins after him in hopes of learning the formula behind his pill so that they could copy him.
“Thank you!” Zhang Xuan said with a smile.
It was lucky that he had consulted Zhuo Feng about this matter, or else it would have taken him some effort to figure this out as an outsider.
“It’s nothing at all. Zhang shi, if there’s anything you need, feel free to tell me. I’ll do my best to help you,” Zhuo Feng explained.
“Ah, there is something that I’ll really need to trouble you for. I need to acquire a huge amount of God Essence Tablets. If you are free, General Zhuo Feng, I would really be thankful if you could help me buy as many God Essence Tablets as you can,” Zhang Xuan said.
“That’s no trouble at all. Our military has connections with the suppliers, so I should be able to get them for you at a low price,” Zhuo Feng replied with a chuckle.
“That would be great!” Zhang Xuan nodded. “Help me get as much as you can, and I need them in seven days’ time. Money is not an issue.”
“Alright, leave it to me!”
Zhuo Feng had no idea what Zhang Xuan was up to, but he was glad to be of help to his son’s benefactor. He bade farewell and left the residence.
Right after Zhuo Feng left, Zhang Xuan called Qi Ling-er and Sun Qiang over. “I need you two to carry out something for me.”
“Young Master, feel free to relay your orders!” The two of them bowed deeply.
“Firstly, I need you to help me acquire at least ten thousand God Essence Pills. I’m intending to forge all of them into Beauty Pills and sell them. I need you to get it done within seven days.”
“I can handle that. Buying ten thousand God Essence Pills isn’t feasible in Twilight City, but here in Royal City, I should be able to bring them to you within half a day!” Qi Ling-er nodded. “As for selling them, while our clan head has said that he wants all of them, I doubt that the Qi Clan has the financial resources to buy ten thousand of them in one shot.
“That being said, with the influence I have from the Qi Clan, I should be able to sell at least half of them within seven days.”
Given her new position as the head of the Lucid Lunar Market, as well as the implicit backing of the old ancestor, she could tap into most of the resources in the Qi Clan for this. Even with the popularity of the Beauty Pills, selling ten thousand Beauty Pills was no easy feat due to the high price. Nevertheless, as long as she laid the groundwork properly and built up sufficient momentum, she should be able to do it.
Of course, there was a great deal of work that she would have to do beforehand in preparation for that.
“Other than that, I need you to help me mass purchase jade bottles. They must be cheap but look decent. They must also be able to store medicine properly without allowing any spiritual energy to leak out. Similarly, I need as many of them as possible.
“Last but not least, I need you to tap into the influence of the Qi Clan to gather renowned figures and ordinary cultivators of Royal City together. I’m looking at a crowd of at least a hundred thousand people. At the same time, I also need a venue large enough to house all of them. I need you to get all of this done within seven days,” Zhang Xuan said.
If he wished to build a good reputation for himself in the shortest time possible, this was probably the way to go. He had to do it large and do it well.
And he would also need a decent-sized crowd in order to get the word out. It would be similar to what Qi Ling-er had done back in Twilight City. The effect would be the greatest if people could see it with their own eyes!
“I’ll start working on it right now,” Qi Ling-er said with a nod.
It would have been difficult for her to handle something of this scale in the past, but now that she had the full support of the clan head and the old ancestor, it was no exaggeration to say that there were no resources in the Qi Clan that she could not tap into. As long as she used what she had at her disposal well, it was not impossible to get everything done within seven days!
After receiving an affirmative response from Qi Ling-er, Zhang Xuan turned his gaze to Sun Qiang and instructed, “I’ll leave the second matter for you to handle. I need you to rent a hundred shops within the city. They don’t have to be too large, probably around ten to twenty square meters would do. Renovate them to make them look professional, and change their name to… Zhang Xuan’s Pills!”
“Zhang Xuan’s Pills?” Sun Qiang’s cheeks twitched a little.
It was not that he was trying to put down the young master, but was the name not a little too direct? It felt like a celebrity wannabe desperately trying to plaster his name everywhere!
“This is the easiest way for me to get everyone to remember me. Most cultivators won’t remember the name of the apothecary who forged the pill they are eating. So, the only way for me to force them to make the association is to label all the stores under my name. This way, they will have no choice but to think of me each time they eat my pills!” Zhang Xuan explained with a smug smile.
He could do it in a more implicit and refined manner, but the effectiveness would be reduced. Sometimes, the simplest and most coarse method was the most effective.
Zhang Xuan’s Pills did sound a little awkward, but that was precisely what would help him spread his name all around town. Once everyone associated his name with the pills that he made, the Anima of Yearning would start rolling in!
More importantly, once he started making his name, it would only be a matter of time before Luo Ruoxin or Luo Qiqi heard about him. Perhaps they would come and look for him, which would be far easier than him searching around in vain for them.
“I’ll give you ten days to source and renovate those shops. Are you confident in getting it done?” Zhang Xuan asked.
“This…” Sun Qiang hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth in determination. “I’ll definitely get it down somehow!”
To procure over a hundred stores and renovate them within ten days was definitely no easy feat. He would have to keep tabs on the progress of each of the stores in order to ensure that they would be ready by the tenth day. However, as long as the cost was not an issue, it should still be possible to get it done if he could find a good intermediary to work with.
“Good. Time is tight, so you should start getting to work,” Zhang Xuan said.
“Yes!” Qi Ling-er and Sun Qiang quickly walked out of the room to start on their work.
Once I gain enough fame, I’ll have a steady supply of Anima of Yearning… What I have to do now is leave my Soul Imprint in the Netherworld Pool. The Netherworld Pool of the Demon Monarch Qiankun is probably out of access to me, but I can try dropping by Drifting Specter Royal City’s Netherworld Pool, Zhang Xuan thought as he rose to his feet.
Naturally, he also had things to do.
What he had to do first was leave his Soul Imprint in the Netherworld Pool, or else he would not be able to gather Anima of Yearning even after he had spread his name.
He had learned quite a bit about the various places in Drifting Specter Royal City through the books in the Master Teacher Pavilion, so he knew his way around. Since he had time at the moment, it was best to get it done now lest he forgot about it in the future.
So, he left his residence and headed toward the Netherworld Palace.
Four hours later, a magnificent palace appeared in his line of sight.
“Outsiders aren’t allowed to enter the Netherworld Palace! What business do you have here?”
As soon as Zhang Xuan walked up to the entrance, the two guards on duty immediately raised their spears to block his passageway.
“I wish to make a trip to the Netherworld Pool,” Zhang Xuan replied.
“You wish to visit the Netherworld Pool? Do you have a reservation? Are you meeting someone?” a guard asked with a frown.
