Chapter 25

"Everyone is either a class leader or a researcher." Helin smiled happily and proudly.

"That's good." Lixian nodded in satisfaction. Now that everything was on the fast track, the power of industry was about to roar in this world.

Unfortunately, Helin's words interrupted Lixian's reverie, "But young master, we have the textile machines, but there's not enough raw material. The old lady searched the entire Anyang and only found enough raw material for two thousand bolts of cloth; there's still a shortage of at least eight thousand bolts of cloth raw material."

"Uh... it will be available soon." Lixian immediately thought of the task he had given to Shangguan Yong, Zhang Quan, and Yuan Zhao before leaving.

Seeing everything was going smoothly, Lixian found Songxing, "Songxing, take my token and ride to Wuyang City as quickly as possible. Find Shangguan Yong, Zhang Quan, and Yuan Zhao, and have them send all the textile materials they have collected as soon as possible, the faster the better."

"Yes." Songxing shouted happily and set off with a few brothers that very night. Recently, Songxing had been very excited. From a runaway bailiff, he had become one of Lixian's close confidants, a step up to the sky.

Songxing and his brothers were all at the fifth or sixth level of the Qi Cultivation stage. They rode hard and returned to the capital, Wuyang City, by dusk the next day.

"Hey, tell me quickly, what did Brother Xian say?" Yuan Zhao was very concerned about his "younger brother" who was actually half a year older than him.

Songxing and his group wanted to laugh but didn't dare to, "Master Yuan, the young master only said to send all the textile materials to Anyang as soon as possible, the faster the better. He didn't say more to us, but it's probably all in the letter."

"Oh, wait a moment, let's see."

The three letters were labeled with the names Shangguan, Zhang, and Yuan. Each of them took their own letter and read it.

Yuan Zhao shouted, "Wow, Brother Xian has such a big mouth, asking us to prepare raw materials for 20,000 bolts of cloth and sales channels before the New Year. He can't be forcing the entire Anyang to produce textiles. That wouldn't be right; it would collapse Anyang."

Zhang Quan squinted his eyes and calculated, "20,000 bolts of cloth, that's about 2,000 dan of raw material. I've collected 800 dan, what about you?"

Yuan Zhao laughed, "I've collected 1,100 dan! Haha, if we distribute the sales of cloth based on the amount of raw material, I win!"

Shangguan Yong smiled awkwardly, "Well... I only collected 600 dan. The money was all used... cough... in the brothels, hehe..."

When Zhang Quan heard Shangguan Yong's words, a trace of disdain flashed in his eyes, but he said, "It's still good, this should be enough for Brother Xian to be busy."

After saying this, Zhang Quan looked at Songxing, "Go back and tell your young master that we will send all 2,500 dan of textile raw material in at most three days, and we will personally escort it. It's mainly cotton, hemp, and silk. All the dyes and other materials are also ready."

"Yes, I'll take my leave." Songxing and his group didn't rest; they just changed to new horses at the Li residence and returned that same night. For cultivators at the fifth level of Qi Cultivation and above, staying awake for three to five days was no problem; they would just be a bit tired. The most important thing was to inform the young master as soon as possible.

After completing their task, Songxing and his group finally had the chance to observe Wuyang City. In just a few dozen days, the entire city had completely changed. Colorful lanterns hung along the streets, and at night, Wuyang City was like a celestial thoroughfare, dazzling and bright.

"Wait, those lanterns aren't from our production!" Songxing, with his sharp eyes, immediately noticed that one of the lanterns was different from those produced by their own shop. Compared to the brilliant star lanterns, these lanterns lacked the transparent glass casing, which made them less luminous.

Songxing spurred his horse forward and approached a shop assistant at the door, immediately taking out ten copper coins, "Little brother, where did you get these lanterns?"

The shop assistant happily took the coins, "Big brother, if you go forward 30 paces, you'll see a neon lantern shop, that's it."

"Thank you."

Songxing led the way forward and indeed saw a more dazzling, three-story building not far away. It didn't have the bold decoration of the Brilliant Star lantern shop, such as the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

The Brilliant Star lantern shop, of course, also sold such large floor-to-ceiling glass windows at a reasonable price. However, as direct competitors, they couldn't afford to lose face, which was understandable.

But one shouldn't underestimate others' wisdom. Although they didn't have large floor-to-ceiling glass windows, they used white jade to create a mural of a sea of clouds and decorated it with many lanterns, giving it a bit of a "fairy" feel.

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed the "Neon Lantern Shop." Next to the shop hung a palm-sized jade plaque with the characters "Wang Family" written on it.

"The Wang Family's business?" Songxing's eyes turned, and he suddenly had an idea, "Wait here, I'll go in and take a look."

"Brother Song, be careful." Chen Jinbing was a bit worried. Their young master had beaten the Wang Family's young master to death, and the enmity between the two families was irreconcilable. If his identity was discovered, Songxing might not be able to come out.

"Don't worry, I'm just a customer." Songxing strode in confidently. Once inside, he began to observe carefully.

Uniformed staff, equally courteous and smiling, half of the room was set up as a lounge; the lanterns on the shelves were categorized and clearly priced. It was evident that Lixian had forever changed the commercial atmosphere of the Immortal Realm—at least the commercial atmosphere of the Great Xia Kingdom had begun to change.

As Songxing was engrossed in his observations, a shop assistant followed him, explaining.

"Have you also made switches?" Songxing was most concerned about this. Having been with Lixian for so long, Songxing knew what was crucial. Glass, arrays, and other things didn't matter much to Lixian; what Lixian cared about most was the seemingly insignificant switch.

"Of course, switches aren't that difficult. As long as one has a deep understanding of arrays and delves into research, one can develop this small switch."

"Hmm, not bad." Songxing naturally said something insincere, walking, observing, and picking out a few portable and representative lanterns.

After looking at all the lanterns on the first floor, Songxing naturally asked, "How long do your lanterns last?"

"One year."

"Why don't you have those... um, those lanterns with glass casings?"

"They will be available soon. We have already mastered some production methods for glass."

Songxing asked about "glass," but the shop assistant answered with "glass." This was a significant difference. Under Lixian's influence, everyone referred to the pure and transparent material as "glass" and the colored and mixed material as "glass."

Mentioning "glass" made people think of clarity and purity, while mentioning "glass" made people think of mixed colors and vulgarity. This was a commercial concept promoted by Lixian.

So Songxing followed up, his tone seemingly a bit unhappy, "I asked about glass, not glass."

The shop assistant remained calm, "Sir, we indeed haven't mastered the production of glass yet, but the existing lanterns are also very beautiful, and the price is 20% lower than those from the Brilliant Star lantern shop."

"Alright, wrap these up and tell me how much it costs?" After gathering the information, Songxing was ready to leave.

"Sure, it's a total of 48 taels of silver."

Without hesitation, Songxing took out a small gold ingot, five taels. The shop assistant respectfully returned two taels of silver.

Songxing left the shop, and the group immediately set off, leaving Wuyang City before the city gates closed.