How Strong Is the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce?

"Where's the stationmaster?" Just then, Zhou Mo dashed up onto the wall, looking around blankly before turning toward Monkey, who was standing nearby. "Didn't I just see the stationmaster right here on the wall? Where did he go?" "The young master went to take a bath." "Something good happened again?" Zhou Mo was taken aback at first, but quickly caught on. Every time something wonderful happened to the stationmaster, he always went to bathe first. Zhou Mo scratched his head with a wide grin. "Well then, double congratulations to him! I happen to have some good news to report to the stationmaster as well." "What good news?" "I have to tell the stationmaster in person." "Right." Sick Monkey curled his lips and pulled his gaze back from Zhou Mo without saying anything more. Before long, Chen Fan returned after bathing and changing his clothes. Taking his place on the wall once more, he confirmed his selection for the "qualitative change" upgrade path. The instant he made his choice, the cannon tower installed atop the wall began to transform rapidly. The original Level 5 cannon tower was a cubic structure built of brown stone bricks, measuring one meter in length, width, and height. In the center of the side facing the enemy was a rectangular opening, inside of which hung a white paper lantern. Now, with the upgrade underway, the brown stone bricks across the tower's surface rapidly melted away. In the blink of an eye, it morphed into... an upright Ghost Eye! It stood one meter tall, relatively slender. Its exterior was blanketed in a network of dark purple veins. A light tap on its surface revealed it to be warm, smooth, and rock-hard, without the slightest hint of stickiness. In the eye's pupil churned an endlessly spinning, bottomless dark vortex, while the sclera was laced with blood-red patterns. Immediately afterward, the vertically slit Ghost Eye slowly closed, its eyelids completely sealing the pupil within. Perched on the wall, it looked just like a statue of a slit-pupiled eye. Only when activated would the Ghost Eye open once more. "Holy mother of..." Chen Fan stared in shock at this Level 6 Ghost Eye Cannon Tower, momentarily forgetting even to check the upgraded qualitative change options. Upgrading a cannon tower to Level 5 or Level 6 required materials—such as mourning lanterns, Ghost Eyes, and the like. Any such material would do; supplying just one was enough. Only now did he realize that while different materials could all upgrade a tower, the resulting towers had entirely different appearances, and almost certainly possessed different methods of attack as well. At present, he still had no idea whether a tower upgraded with a Ghost Eye or one upgraded with a mourning lantern was stronger. He shifted his focus to the panel floating before him. "Qualitative change initiating..." "Qualitative change complete." "Option 3: This cannon tower's attack range is reduced to one meter, but its power is massively increased. (Rare)" Chen Fan stared impassively at this qualitative change effect. Cannon towers ought to have had attack ranges all along, but he had never known the exact figures and had never paid much attention to them. After all, cannon towers could only strike enemies within the perimeter of the outpost. And an outpost's area was generally not all that large. In the vast majority of cases, the outpost's grounds were undoubtedly larger than a tower's attack range, so there was no need to worry about it. However—reducing the attack range down to a single meter made the limitation glaringly obvious. Could this thing even hit anyone at that range? If a three-meter-tall ghost creature walked right up to the base of the wall, the tower wouldn't even be able to reach it. The distance was simply insufficient. Even with a massive increase in power, it felt difficult to make up for such a shortfall. After a brief silence, he decided to test it out first, immediately activating the outpost's very first Level 6 Ghost Eye Cannon Tower. The next instant, the vertical pupil snapped open! The dark vortex within the pupil accelerated into a fierce spin. Instead of firing beams of light or crossbow bolts, it unleashed a beam of dark brown radiation. Its greatest distinction from the ordinary light beams was that it didn't pulse or interrupt! The light beams fired by standard cannon towers were intermittent; each beam lasted for roughly a single breath before cutting off, pausing briefly before unleashing the next. But this dark brown ray was completely continuous. Furthermore, it could sweep freely. One could easily imagine that once it struck an enemy, it would cling to them like maggots on rotten bone. While the Ghost Eye Cannon Tower was unsuited for crowd control and lacked chain-attack capabilities, it was extraordinarily effective against singularly powerful ghost creatures. There was just one catch... Though the dark brown ray emanated an intimidating aura, it stretched a mere meter long, waving back and forth outside the wall. "Hmm..." Chen Fan looked at the Ghost Eye Cannon Tower thoughtfully. Its attack range was short, but its power was terrifyingly high. If he treated the ghost king as his hypothetical enemy, under what circumstances would the ghost king ever come within a meter of this tower? His expression gradually turned peculiar as he glanced down from the wall at Wang Kui, who was busy hauling cargo below. "Wang Kui." "Is the ghost skin peeled off Qiu Kui back at the old outpost still in the warehouse?" "It is!" Wang Kui blurted out the answer without an instant of hesitation. He had been conducting daily inventory checks of the warehouse supplies; he knew every single item inside like the back of his hand, waiting for this very moment. "It is properly preserved inside the Vitality Chamber. The flesh hasn't rotted at all. A'le skinned it himself, and his knife work was superb—there's virtually no damage." "Good." Chen Fan nodded without another word, waving his hand to signal Wang Kui to get back to work. If that was the case, perhaps he truly could lure the ghost king within reach of the Ghost Eye Cannon Tower. Sentient ghost creatures were certainly tricky to deal with. Yet sentience also meant having weaknesses. Sentimental attachments and romance could be considered a person's greatest vulnerabilities. Just like a man's vitals—once someone had a grip on them, there was no fighting back. "So really, what's the point of romance...?" He let out a wistful sigh, continuing to simulate the scenario in his mind. Then, while the opponent was emotionally unsettled, he could trigger the Wind Tower's Storm Inhale. While Storm Inhale couldn't lift anything too heavy, catching the target off guard might just do the trick. He preferred to hypothesize all manner of emergencies in his head and devise solutions in advance. That way, when an unforeseen event truly occurred, he wouldn't be caught flat-footed. All that talk about remaining unshaken though Mount Tai collapsed before one's eyes, or staying composed though the Yellow River breached its banks overhead, was pure nonsense. Anyone who could genuinely manage that only did so because the disaster hadn't touched them personally. Not even saints could pull that off. But so long as one simulated enough unexpected scenarios, when that day finally arrived, one could remain unflinching—not because of supreme composure, but because the scene had already played out in one's mind countless times. He didn't consider himself exceptionally brilliant. Making up for his shortcomings through diligence was his only choice. *** The first half of the night passed in this manner. By the time the latter half of the night arrived, Sick Monkey and the others had all drifted off to sleep, unable to hold out any longer after such an exhausting day. Even men of iron would have collapsed. Ever since the Spirit Accumulation Pavilion had been constructed, virtually no one had stepped inside; over the past few days, only Chen Fan had gone in to cultivate. There simply wasn't any time. Even Zhou Mo had only gone in once right at the beginning to comprehend the Water-Severing Saber Technique, after which he hadn't found a single moment to return. Ironically, Chen Fan had become the most idle person in the entire outpost. Chen Fan stepped into Warehouse No. 1. Standing outside the Mustard Seed Chamber, he broke into a grin as he looked at the mountain of ghost stones suspended in midair, wrapped in emerald mist. Ghost stones? He didn't see ghost stones. All he saw was the canyon littered with corpses once Meat Grinder Phase Two was fully activated. "Stationmaster," Wang Kui reported excitedly from the side, clutching a ledger in his hands. "The outpost currently holds a total of 92,022 ghost stones! This flesh worm ghost tide brought us several tens of thousands in profit—the equivalent of more than a dozen of Weiwei's dung pits! This batch of ghost stones is enough to establish several Pingtian Chambers of Commerce." "Rumor has it that the head of the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce is a native of Jiangnan. Back in the day, he took five thousand ghost stones and built the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce, which now holds monopolies over multiple industries in Jiangbei City. Still, that doesn't count as a truly large chamber of commerce. If we could reach the scale of the Jiangbei Chamber of Commerce, that's when we would truly be raking in money hand over fist." "The Jiangbei Chamber of Commerce?" Chen Fan grew thoughtful. He had some fragmented memories regarding the Jiangbei Chamber of Commerce, but they were scattered and sparse. "Tell me more about it." In truth, his understanding of merchant groups was rather limited. "Uh... Stationmaster, you might want to ask Wang Mazi about this instead. Before he joined the Jiangbei Chen family, he worked as an itinerant peddler. He knows far more than I do." "Go fetch him." Before long, Wang Mazi hurried into the warehouse behind Wang Kui, asking eagerly, "Stationmaster, you sent for me?" "Yes. Once the rainy season ends, opportunities like tonight to earn ghost stones by slaying ghost creatures will become increasingly scarce. We will definitely need to establish our own merchant group. You have experience as an itinerant peddler, and I intend to have you head our merchant group. However, I'm not clear on how chambers of commerce actually operate or how profitable they are. Tell me everything you know." "Right away!" Wang Mazi's eyes lit up as though he were gazing upon a glorious future. Ever since childhood, he had loved roaming around. For a man who had once been nothing more than a rural peddler, becoming the head of a chamber of commerce was an astronomical leap. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his throat a few times, weighed his words carefully, and began. "Let's start with treasures. Since the descent of the Eternal Night, there have been three categories of treasures: exotic treasures, heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and spirit treasures. Exotic treasures drop from slain ghost creatures and cannot be crafted by human hands. Heavenly materials and earthly treasures are birthed naturally by heaven and earth. Spirit treasures are forged by artifact refiners." "Merchant groups are also divided into four tiers: large, medium, small, and unranked." "Unranked merchant groups primarily deal in ordinary goods consumed by mortals—rice, flour, linen clothes, hoes, and the like. They earn mere pennies and employ no armed escorts; almost everyone in this line of work is a mortal. Moreover, they rarely travel far, operating only between cities and nearby villages. A group has at least a dozen people; staying a single night at an outpost costs over ten ghost stones, which is more than the profit from an entire haul. Therefore, the only merchant groups that make real money are the large, medium, and small tiers." "To begin with, a white-grade exotic treasure generally sells for around five hundred ghost stones at the Jiangbei Market. This isn't because the treasure is only worth five hundred ghost stones, but because those with the means to purchase it are limited to that crowd; set the price any higher, and it simply won't sell." "However, if you transport that same exotic treasure to Jiangnan or even wealthier regions, its price can skyrocket to one thousand, or even two thousand ghost stones. Its value multiplies several times over." "Yet how to transport it there is the real challenge. The journey is long, the lodging fees at outposts along the way add up quickly, and one might encounter bandits on the road. It requires powerful experts as escorts, as well as sufficient prestige. Otherwise, passing through another faction's territory invites outright robbery. And no matter how strong the escorts are, they can't withstand cannon towers... One blast, and everyone is wiped out. Small merchant groups lack the qualifications and the capital to handle long-distance transport. If a single trip fails, not only are all the ghost stones lost, but everyone dies." Wang Mazi paused, cleared his throat, and continued. "Therefore, across Jiangbei, small merchant groups are usually responsible for scouring marketplaces and other venues to hunt for bargain exotic treasures, heavenly materials, and earthly treasures, which they then sell to medium-sized merchant groups like the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce at a slight markup. Medium chambers of commerce typically dominate an entire city. For instance, the small merchant groups in Jiangbei City can only sell what they gather to the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce. Then, the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce marks up the prices slightly and sells them to the Jiangbei Chamber of Commerce—the largest chamber of commerce in all of Jiangbei. Finally, the Jiangbei Chamber of Commerce escorts the treasures to Jiangnan, turning a massive profit." "If we want to build a chamber of commerce, we can head to Jiangbei City after the rainy season and establish a small one. Qi Cong and A'le used to work under the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce; with a bit of networking, we should be able to find a contact person." Chen Fan furrowed his brows, lost in thought for a long moment. "If I purchase a white-grade exotic treasure for five hundred ghost stones and sell it to the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce, how many ghost stones do I get?" "Six hundred." "Only six hundred?" "Yes, a profit of a hundred." "What if my white-grade treasure is exceptionally powerful? Would they still give me only six hundred?" "That depends on the circumstances." Wang Mazi took a breath and continued. "When exotic treasures are acquired, they are all in an unappraised state, and no one knows their specific effects. At that stage, the treasure is referred to as 'unopened,' with a standardized price tag of five hundred ghost stones. Once an exotic treasure has been appraised and opened, it can be identified. If you buy an unopened one and pay someone out of your own pocket to appraise it, you bear the risk whether you gain or lose. You can also spend thirty ghost stones to have someone appraise it before selling. If it turns out to be a white-grade treasure with powerful effects, the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce is willing to pay a bit more. But if the effect is poor, the price drops even lower. Generally speaking, people sell them unopened. After all, with white-grade treasures, the probability of getting a poor effect after appraisal is far too high." Chen Fan nodded slightly. "I get it. What you're saying is that after going through all the trouble of setting up a merchant group, I would only make a measly hundred ghost stones per treasure, with the risk of taking a loss if it gets appraised, right?" "Uh... that's the gist of it." Wang Mazi hesitated for a moment before whispering, "Actually, earning a hundred ghost stones is quite a lot. Back when Wang Kui worked as a stationmaster for the Wang family, his monthly wage was only ten ghost stones. It took him an entire year to make a hundred." "If you're explaining business, stick to business! Why bring me into this?" Wang Kui snapped testily from the side. "How strong is the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce?" Chen Fan asked. "Inferior to us," Wang Mazi answered decisively. "Although I don't know the exact defenses of their territory, they are definitely inferior to ours. In fact, even the defenses of Jiangbei City and the prominent great families can't hold a candle to ours." "Then we take out the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce and start directly as a medium chamber of commerce." "They won't be easy to take out..." Wang Mazi shrank his neck and said in a hushed voice, "Well, Stationmaster, wiping out an established faction requires extensive planning. After all, we'd be fighting on their home turf. Cultivators launching a frontal assault against someone else's territory is essentially suicide... But we can proceed step by step. For instance, we could first establish contact with the Jiangbei Chamber of Commerce and set up a supply channel with them. Then, we can buy off the small merchant groups in Jiangbei City, convincing them to give us priority on their goods. We can slowly cut off the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce's supply sources. That way, we can gradually swallow them whole."