"Fellow Daoist Luo Feng, this is our Luotian Association's Forging Hall."
"Within the hall, there are over a hundred forging apprentices, presided over by Forging Master Duan Feng himself. His family heritage is distinguished and can even be traced back to the Tianfan City lineage."
"Presently, we are already capable of steadily forging mid-grade flying swords, and high-grade magical artifacts are produced from time to time."
"Now that we have acquired the flying barque forging techniques of the Divine Craft Sect, our future prospects are even broader. As for the ores you mentioned, our future demand will be quite high. In terms of price, there is certainly room for negotiation."
...
"Fellow Daoist Chen, your side's craft in tailoring Dharma robes is renowned across Tianlan—unrivaled and known to everyone!"
"However, the jade cattail silkworm silk and amber silkworm silk you require are constrained by the output of the major sects."
"Our Luotian Association's Spirit Beast Hall is currently preparing to rear these spirit beasts on a large scale. When the time comes, our yield will certainly not be meager, and we will be able to supply your needs."
"You need not worry about production in the slightest!"
"I have already leased the spirit grounds that formerly belonged to the Geng family, and all of it will be used to raise various spirit beasts. It is even possible that we may successfully cultivate green gold silkworms."
"You may fully consider cooperating with us going forward!"
...
"Regarding the Myriad Wonders Pills, the output of our Luotian Association's Pill Hall is indeed not particularly high. If we supply them all to Peach Mountain, the variety of pills in our Danxia Hall within the immortal city will be far too limited, which would be detrimental to our business."
"However, our President has always held the illustrious name of Senior Xuan Yu in high esteem, and he is very eager to collaborate with Peach Mountain."
"How about this: if you agree to allocate a portion of the immortal peaches produced by Peach Mountain for us to sell, I will make the executive decision to partner exclusively with Peach Mountain for this business."
"Fellow Daoist Qiao, what do you think?"
...
"The geographic environment over at Changliu Gorge is indeed excessively yin-chilled, and you truly have a great need for Yangyuan Pills to warm and nourish your cultivators' dantians."
"In light of how vigorously you celebrated my Foundation Establishment today, I can agree to your request. Henceforth, one-third of all Yangyuan Pills produced by Luotian's Pill Hall will belong entirely to the Chang family."
"However, your side must also agree to sell a portion of Yin Gorge spiritual water to us. Fellow Daoist Chang Dongliu, you must be aware that cultivating ink mulberry relies heavily on Yin Gorge spiritual water."
"The price offered by Yuzhen Daoist Temple?"
"No, no, no! That is far too exorbitant. Our Luotian Association will only accept seventy percent of that figure!"
"Whether you are willing or not depends entirely on your choice, Fellow Daoist."
...
Deal after deal.
Through Sima Huiniang's measured discussions, shrewd bargaining, and assertive negotiation, intentions of cooperation were steadily finalized one after another.
It was not until late at night that the numerous Foundation Establishment True Cultivators lingering at the Luotian Association gradually took their leave.
After seeing off Qiao Xiyue, Sima Huiniang could not help but let out a long sigh of relief.
Beside her, Min Longyu retracted the formation, feeling a pang of heartache over the mid-grade spirit stones consumed that day.
To sustain the Rosy Cloud Rainbow Bridge, over a hundred stones had been spent in just this single day.
That amounted to more than ten thousand low-grade spirit stones!
Seeing his distressed expression, Sima Huiniang could not help but chuckle and shake her head.
"Elder Min, there is no need to fret. The expenses incurred today will surely be recouped a hundredfold, even a thousandfold, in the days to come."
Min Longyu offered a wry smile.
Gazing at the gradually quiet Danxia Peak, his expression grew somewhat dazed.
"Even though I personally experienced everything today, Min still feels as though he were wandering through a dream!"
"A century ago, at the absolute height of the Danxia Min family's prosperity, I fear we did not possess even a tenth of today's grandeur."
Sima Huiniang also could not help sighing with emotion. "This is precisely where the President's brilliance lies. The guests who came today were not all friends of the Luotian Association, yet by leveraging the momentum of every party, he orchestrated a harmonious outcome in the end."
Min Longyu resonated deeply with her words.
During the latter half of the day, he and Duan Feng had accompanied Sima Huiniang the entire time as she negotiated with the representatives of those various factions.
Business agreements that ordinary people would have found agonizingly difficult to secure had seemed blessed by divine intervention today, with mutual intentions being finalized in just a few exchanges.
Yet they knew that no gods had aided them.
There was only President Luo Chen, who had spent days plotting and maneuvering with painstaking care to ultimately engineer this grand stage, laying a rock-solid foundation for the subsequent negotiations.
Even if they were to attempt it a second time, it would likely be nearly impossible to achieve such an effect again.
Exchanging a mutual glance, the two tacitly took their leave of each other.
Collecting her thoughts, Sima Huiniang summoned a maidservant.
"Where is the President?"
"He is still drinking."
"Is he with Chu Kui, that late Foundation Establishment cultivator?"
"Hall Master Wang is there as well. Earlier, the Hall Master of the Spirit Beast Hall also drank with them for a while, but he left early once night fell."
Sima Huiniang nodded.
Dismissing the maidservant, she walked toward the Luotian Grand Hall.
The Nine Halls of Luotian were nine administrative departments, but Luotian Hall and Huixin Hall were two standalone palaces reserved exclusively as workspaces for Luo Chen and Sima Huiniang.
Arriving outside Luotian Hall, Sima Huiniang slowed her steps.
"Caiyi?"
Gu Caiyi turned around and looked at her in surprise.
"Is the Director-General finished with her affairs?"
Sima Huiniang nodded with a smile.
Having concluded negotiations with so many people, she ought to have been exhausted, yet she remained glowing with vitality, as though an inexhaustible reservoir of energy surged through her body.
It seemed the adage that power was the finest aphrodisiac for a man held true for women as well.
Extending her spiritual sense, she gauged the situation inside the hall.
"Still drinking?"
Murmuring softly under her breath, Sima Huiniang looked at Gu Caiyi.
"The night is deep and the dew is heavy. Caiyi, you should go back and rest first!"
"But..." Gu Caiyi glanced inside.
"It's fine. They are almost done drinking. If there is any need, I can instruct someone else just as easily."
With a flick of her sleeves, Sima Huiniang walked straight into Luotian Hall.
Standing outside, Gu Caiyi watched her back—still adorned in full ceremonial regalia, exuding high-spirited vigor with every stride—and an inexplicable sense of urgency welled up in her heart.
During this small gathering of Foundation Establishment True Cultivators, she could only keep vigil alone outside the doors, whereas Sima Huiniang could step right in and partake.
At times, closeness in personal ties could not bridge every chasm.
A gap in cultivation realm was an innate barrier that gave anyone pause.
...
"Huiniang is here! Hurry up and take out your celebratory gift!"
Luo Chen's eyes were glazed with wine, showing a rare trace of drunkenness.
During the day's celebration, he had consumed a great deal of spiritual wine without taking the time to refine and dispel the alcoholic vapory essence. Come evening, that fellow Chu Kui had decided the Luotian Association's spiritual wine was lacking in kick and produced two jars of the Du family's Taibai wine. Mixed together, the various brews had truly drunk them into a stupor.
Wang Yuan was the only one present in a relatively composed state.
Seeing Sima Huiniang enter, Chu Kui laughed heartily.
"I already told you I'd only give it once she arrived in person, yet you're the one in a rush! Very well, let me show you whether my gift carries enough weight!"
Before his voice had even faded, he flicked his wrist, and a white wax pellet the size of a longan fruit appeared in his hand.
"What is this?" Sima Huiniang walked briskly to the wine table in high spirits and curled her knees to sit beside Luo Chen, her graceful eyes looking at the wax pellet with curiosity.
Luo Chen and Wang Yuan peered over curiously as well.
Seeing their intrigued expressions, Chu Kui chuckled smugly.
"You wouldn't know it, would you? This is a bizarre first-rank insect—the Lingxi Gu!"
"A Gu?"
The three of them were stunned.
"Indeed!"
Seeing them look like total bumpkins, Chu Kui grew even more self-satisfied.
"The art of Gu insects is most prevalent in the Southern Border. Back in the day, after slaying a rogue cultivator, I obtained this creature from his storage pouch."
Luo Chen curled his lip. "It is merely a first-rank Gu insect. What great use could it have for Huiniang?"
"No, no, no!"
Chu Kui waved his hands repeatedly and pointed at the wax pellet in his palm. "Although this insect has little offensive or defensive utility, its effects are remarkably profound. The Lingxi Gu is an imitation of the ancient Shared Life-and-Death Gu!"
Seeing that the three still looked puzzled, Chu Kui sighed and resigned himself to explaining the wonders of the Shared Life-and-Death Gu to the three country bumpkins.
That creature was a fifth-rank Gu insect!
Born in pairs, it could be used by all cultivators up to Soul Formation grandmasters. Once implanted, both cultivators shared life and death directly: if one died, the other perished immediately. If one lived, then even if the other was trapped in a mortal peril, activating the Gu would allow a sliver of their soul source to survive unbroken.
It truly meant living together and dying together.
Not only that, the party with the lower cultivation realm could passively share in the cultivation efficiency of the higher-stage partner. Even if they merely partook in a meager sliver, it could yield a manifold compounding effect.
It was truly a miraculous Gu!
Luo Chen listened in fascination and asked whether a Qi Refinement cultivator sharing the Gu with a Soul Formation grandmaster would see their cultivation speed take flight.
The response was an eye roll.
"No Soul Formation grandmaster would ever share this Gu with a Qi Refinement cultivator. Otherwise, wouldn't they become just as fragile as a Qi Refinement cultivator?"
The counter-question left Luo Chen somewhat embarrassed.
He steered the topic back to the Lingxi Gu. "Then does this small imitation possess similar effects?"
"Naturally not. After all, the effects of the Shared Life-and-Death Gu are both a divine miracle and a profound drawback," Chu Kui said, speaking with practiced fluency as he gently peeled away the wax shell to reveal two milky-white Gu insects as fine as downy hairs. "The function of the Lingxi Gu is to forge a telepathic connection between the two cultivators. It can guide them toward each other across distances, and it can also sense whether the other is alive or dead."
"Oh, and one more thing: this Gu possesses the capacity to grow. If nourished with vital blood up to the third rank, should one party die, the vast majority of their cultivation attainments will be absorbed by the other."
"Hence, in the Southern Border, the Lingxi Gu is also known as the Demon Heart Gu."
At the mention of the name Demon Heart Gu, Chu Kui's expression turned uncharacteristically solemn.
It was solely because raising it to the third rank was excruciatingly difficult; otherwise, this Gu would have long inundated the cultivation world.
One would merely need to plant it, nurture it to sufficient maturity, and finally murder the host. The one who cast the Gu would instantly reap the vast majority of the victim's cultivation attainments.
Especially when attempting a breakthrough that demanded a burst of explosive power, the sheer convenience of it was a quintessential hallmark of the demonic path!
Shaking his head, Chu Kui sealed the wax coating with spiritual qi and handed it to Sima Huiniang.
"This Gu is still nascent. Its subtle utility at the first and second ranks is more than enough for people of our standing, and in critical moments, it can serve as a hidden trump card."
Sima Huiniang looked hesitantly at Luo Chen.
Seeing him nod gently, she accepted the item.
With the congratulatory gift delivered, having familiarized himself with most of the Luotian Association's Foundation Establishment figures, and having drunk to his heart's content, Chu Kui did not linger any longer and took his leave immediately.
Three people remained.
Wang Yuan acted with crisp efficiency, retrieving an item from his storage pouch and presenting it to Sima Huiniang as a Foundation Establishment gift.
It was precisely the peak-grade magical artifact he had captured from Shen Gongyi during the battle against the Dan Yuan Sect—the Net of Heaven and Earth.
This artifact possessed the power to bind foes and was remarkably wondrous. Wang Yuan did not rely excessively on spiritual qi; had it been any ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator back then, Shen Gongyi might truly have captured them on the spot.
After presenting his gift, Wang Yuan departed as well.
Within the grand hall, only a man and a woman remained.
Toying with the two items in her hands, Sima Huiniang broke into a radiant smile.
Leaning lopsidedly against the low table, Luo Chen could not help but chuckle. "Look at how happy you are. It's merely a peak-grade magical artifact and a first-rank Gu insect."
Sima Huiniang wrinkled her nose and huffed, "It's far more than that!"
"The gifts received today were simply too numerous. Even setting aside the business partnerships we finalized, the gifts alone have recouped the entire cost of hosting this celebration!"
"Let this concubine tally them up for you!"
"Wei Bofan of Mount Xuchen arrived first and gifted a thousand-year ginseng bearing tens of thousands of rootlets, the longest measuring over half a zhang! That single stalk alone can fetch seven to eight thousand spirit stones!"
"And there's more, there's more!"
"Sect Master Zuo Song of the Iron Sword Hall presented a piece of iron essence. Duan Feng examined it and confirmed it is a third-rank ore material—splendid stuff that can be used to forge magic treasures, worth a fortune!"
"The Flowing Cloud Flying Sleeves gifted by Fellow Daoist Qiao Xiyue of Peach Mountain are quite extraordinary as well, exceptionally suited for female cultivators."
"The most precious of all was undeniably True Disciple Tantai's offering. Once those three gifts came out, everyone on the scene was completely floored! While negotiating business today, quite a few people made veiled inquiries, hoping to borrow a glance at that Core Formation Secret Technique. But I told them it was single-use and bound by restrictions, and specifically designated for you, President, so I dared not presume to make that call. Only after hearing that did they dismiss those improper notions."
"In truth, the other items are quite wonderful as well. For instance..."
Perhaps because the occasion had been so grand and the crowd so immense, Sima Huiniang had maintained the dignified composure of an accomplished True Cultivator for far too long.
Now that all outsiders were gone, she had relaxed completely. As she inventoried the various gifts, she chattered away with lively excitement.
In Luo Chen's eyes, this scene somehow gave him the bizarre illusion of a newlywed couple staying up after their wedding, sitting together to count their gift money.
How much this family gave.
How much that family contributed.
How close or distant their ties were, and how much reciprocal gift money would need to be returned when the other party hosted an event in the future.
The little abacus of daily life was clacking away briskly.
The actual scene was practically identical to that.
Luo Chen shook his head vigorously, amused by the inexplicable feeling!
He swallowed another mouthful of Taibai wine, letting the searing liquid wash over his throat and surge through his sea of qi.
Seeing his cup emptied, Sima Huiniang paused her tallying and poured him another cup with practiced grace.
As the woman lowered her head, her slender, elegant neck revealed a dazzling swath of porcelain white.
Luo Chen shifted his gaze away, politely refraining from staring.
Sima Huiniang looked up and said, "With so many gifts, I couldn't possibly use them all by myself. President, let me give you..."
"No need. Since they were given to you, keep them," Luo Chen said, shaking his head. "As the Director-General, you cannot always rule by sheer intimidation alone. Keep these items; when subordinates perform well, you will have worthy rewards to bestow upon them."
Only by balancing grace and authority could rule endure!
In the past, Sima Huiniang's cultivation realm had been insufficient, so she could only govern with heavy-handed severity. Now things were different: she had the capability to anchor the overall situation, so combining firmness with gentleness was naturally the superior path.
Sima Huiniang blinked, realizing there was truth to his words.
Even so, when she considered that the total value of all those treasures likely exceeded a hundred thousand spirit stones, she still felt somewhat uneasy.
"Still..."
Seeing that she wished to decline further, Luo Chen quickly changed the subject.
"Among so many gifts, which one do you like best?"
Faced with this question, the woman showed not the slightest hesitation.
The answer tumbled almost instantly from her lips.
"This one!"
She pointed a slender finger at her chest, at the snow-white Daoist robe that draped her frame in a snug, impeccable fit.
Luo Chen followed her gesture, falling silent for a moment.
This was the Foundation Establishment congratulatory gift he had given her.
With him silent, Sima Huiniang fell quiet as well for reasons unknown.
The atmosphere within the hall gradually grew subtle.
An inexplicable sentiment seemed to drift between the man's wine-laden breath and the woman's faint fragrance, slowly unfurling and enveloping them both.
Having practiced Bright Spirit Fiend Breaking for years, Luo Chen possessed tremendous willpower. Sensing something amiss, he straightened his posture at once, preparing to rise.
"The night is deep, I should—"
The moment she saw him stand, Sima Huiniang threw herself instinctively into his embrace.
"President, don't go."
The murmured plea, accompanied by warm, fragrant breath, surged into his nostrils.
Luo Chen parted his lips, his hands frozen stiffly in midair, before he ultimately let out a sigh.
"You are drunk."
The woman raised her head from his chest, her crystalline eyes shining like stars.
"Yet I drank no wine."
Indeed.
The one drinking had been Luo Chen, not her.
She was indeed drunk, but not from wine.
A rogue cultivator who had once drifted through hardship, never knowing whether tomorrow would come after today, had experienced a magnificent grand celebration this very day.
A rainbow bridge to welcome immortals, with cultivators from all directions arriving to offer their congratulations!
And all of this had been bestowed upon her by the man before her.
Even her very life!
"President, I am very happy today."
"I want an even happier ending to conclude it."
Her fair cheeks gradually flushed crimson.
Her makeup, already painstakingly applied for today's celebration, took on a breathtaking, intoxicating beauty amid the tender, sultry atmosphere.
Gulp.
A distinctly audible swallow echoed in the quiet hall.
Luo Chen, who could have circulated his cultivation technique at any moment to dispel the wine's influence, chose at this juncture to let it take hold.
He had not been particularly happy today!
Without hesitation or lingering reluctance, Luo Chen wrapped his arms around the beauty and kissed her.
Chapter 314