WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: WeTried Translations
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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈
Chapter 65: A New Business
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“Hmm.”
Jegyeong turned the Muk-su Fruit over in his hand, examining it from every angle.
It was about the same size as before. Yet its glass-smooth skin and faint, pleasant fragrance made it far more like a true Spirit Fruit than before.
Of course, appealing packaging did not guarantee that what was inside would be good. Still, it was safe to say that poorly packaged goods rarely held anything worthwhile.
Crunch!
One advantage of taking human form was being able to enjoy eating.
It was the same when drinking wine, and it was the same now.
The fruit was not sweet, but a refreshing sensation swept through his mouth as though it had washed it clean. Before he could fully savor the taste, his mind cleared, and he even felt as if his soul had been purified.
“Excellent!”
The words slipped out on their own.
The mental exhaustion and burden that even Spirit Wine had failed to soothe completely seemed to fade away. He felt that if he began cultivating his cultivation method right now, he would be able to cultivate more effectively.
Wooo-
Hearing Jegyeong's praise, Muk-su let out a low, smug sound and swayed its branches and body.
Jegyeong paid it no mind. He finished the rest of the fruit while focusing on its effects.
After eating an entire fruit, Jegyeong concluded that it was undoubtedly a Spirit Fruit, something worthy of being called a spiritual treasure.
It cleared the mind the moment it was consumed and seemed to purify one's Spiritual Essence as well. The effects felt faint to him and did not last long, but Jegyeong was not disappointed in the slightest.
Muk-su was only a Wood Demon.
Yet the fruit it bore had shown even a faint effect on him, a Great Demon Beast in the Great Demon Realm.
How remarkable was that?
Since it could affect him, it would have an even greater effect on members of the Demon Race beneath his realm.
No, not the Demon Race.
Those beggars without a single Spirit Stone did not deserve to touch something so precious.
‘The Human Race.’
Having tasted the Muk-su Fruit and roughly grasped its effects, Jegyeong considered whether he could sell it to Human Race cultivators.
The Demon Race was poor by nature.
When they obtained something good, they devoured it on instinct. How could they possibly possess wealth or treasures? Powerful Great Demon Beasts or Demon Kings might be different, but beings of that level would have no need for the Muk-su Fruit.
That left only the Human Race.
Likewise, late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators and Golden Core cultivators would not need the fruit, but they had families and sects, did they not?
In other words, there were weak but well-funded cultivators from privileged backgrounds.
Jegyeong believed they would be interested in this fruit. Considering the Human Race's fanatical interest in spiritual treasures, they would certainly pay a generous price for it.
“Wonderful.”
Jegyeong praised the smug Muk-su, encouraging it.
Then, when Muk-su demanded more food, he readily nodded.
He had always been able to provide Muk-su with enough food. Now that he had become the master of an entire water region, there was even less reason for concern.
Besides, now that he knew its food would turn into gleaming Spirit Fruits, he could provide as many Demon Beast corpses as it wanted. Human Race corpses might be another matter, but Demon Beast corpses were plentiful.
* * *
Gwak Jeongsin had been in an exceptionally good mood lately.
He was one hundred and twenty-one years old.
People still called him a young Foundation Establishment cultivator, but that would not last much longer. Once a little more time passed, no one would call him young anymore, and his family would no longer classify him as promising talent.
The Gwak Family did not discriminate between legitimate and illegitimate children.
All that mattered was bearing the Gwak name and sharing Gwak blood. What truly mattered was not whose child someone was, but their individual abilities and talents.
Those abilities and talents were judged in two fields at once: cultivation and commerce.
Given the nature of the Cultivation World, where strength was everything, this was highly unusual.
Talent and ability as a merchant? Who would care about such things? To put it bluntly, if one needed Spirit Stones, they could simply find someone weaker and receive their Storage bag as a gift!
Only a place like the Gwak Family, which practically regarded the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association as its family business, possessed such a peculiar clan culture.
They understood better than anyone how wealth affected cultivation, so they valued the talent for earning Spirit Stones as highly as talent for cultivation.
Some ignorant people mocked the Gwak Family's culture, but the Gwak Family did not care.
Those jeers never reached their ears anyway.
How could they?
Who owned the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association, and who was the Gwak Family's ancestor? Who would dare not lower their head before them?
As a proud member of the Gwak Family, Gwak Jeongsin neglected neither his cultivation nor his work as a merchant.
He had established a solid position at the Yangseo Lake branch of the Spirit Talisman Merchant Association. Though he never showed it, he had also set his sights on the branch manager's position.
Once he became branch manager, the power he could mobilize within the association would rise to another level, and he would receive greater support from his family.
To put it more plainly, the grade of Spirit Stones he earned would change.
More resources meant faster cultivation. If he could sit in the branch manager's seat, there would be no reason he could not one day hope to Form a Golden Core.
Gwak Jeongsin was confident.
He believed that the branch manager's position would eventually be his.
The problem was when that day would come.
Cultivation had its proper timing.
One need only look at Gong Byeok-un, the former Hall Master of the Black Sect Hall, who had recently lost both his life and his business to Gwak Jeongsin's business partner.
Gong Byeok-un had reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, but he had grown too old. His Qi and Blood had declined, his potential had run dry, and he had been unable to advance any further.
Gwak Jeongsin worried that the branch manager's position would fall into his hands too late.
Turning wealth into cultivation required considerable time and effort. He did not worry about lacking effort, but he could not help worrying about lacking time.
Cultivation that relied solely on diligence without pouring in resources produced meager results.
At this rate, he could not even guess whether it would take years or decades to reach the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. Reaching it decades later would not be terribly late, but Gwak Jeongsin dreamed of the late stage of Foundation Establishment and even Forming a Golden Core.
He could not accept cultivation progress as slow as a crawling turtle.
Then, by sheer coincidence, he had met a Forget-Me cultivator, and a Demon Race Forget-Me cultivator at that.
Unlike ordinary members of the Demon Race, that cultivator was extremely rational and easy to speak with.
Gwak Jeongsin had thought that such a rare being might not become a major customer right away, but was still worth investing in for the future.
But...
‘I never imagined this.’
Who would have thought that a customer he had invested in for the future would bring him such a large deal?
His investment had not even been much. He had spent almost nothing materially, offering little more than some attention.
The Fleshscale Fish business had brought him a tidy profit, but more important were the connections he had built while trading the fish.
What cultivators cared about most was absorbing and accumulating Spiritual Energy.
At the Qi Refining Stage, they had to accumulate enough Spiritual Power to advance, so they could not help but focus on it. Even after entering Foundation Establishment, though its importance decreased somewhat, absorbing Spiritual Energy and accumulating Dharma Power remained vital.
Qi and Blood, one could say, was the icing on the cake.
It was good if it could be increased, but not terribly important if it could not. Those old enough to worry about their declining Qi and Blood would be desperate for it, but for everyone else, caring about Qi and Blood was... a kind of luxury.
That was right. A luxury.
And that was why it was important.
What was luxury? Was it not the privilege of the wealthy and foolish, in other words, those whose Spirit Stones were easy to take?
As a merchant, he had to trade with such excellent customers, and no amount of such trade could ever be enough.
In other words, the Fleshscale Fish business had not only earned Gwak Jeongsin Spirit Stones but also opened a path even more important than that.
A distinguished benefactor.
No, should he call Jegyeong a distinguished snake, or perhaps a distinguished demon?
In any case, that treasured customer had requested a meeting with him.
Jegyeong had said there was something to discuss about business.
‘What could it be?’
It would not be about the Fleshscale Fish business. Jegyeong had looked satisfied even when Gwak Jeongsin had delivered the payment not long ago.
Then was it a discussion about a new business?
But what other business was there to conduct on Black Shark Island?
Surely Jegyeong was not planning to capture and sell the Human Race inhabitants of the Black Jiao Waters?
When Gwak Jeongsin arrived at Black Shark Island with the imagination expected of a merchant, he was greeted not by a colossal snake-like Great Demon Beast, but by a pale-looking man sipping Spirit Wine.
‘Remarkable.’
Gwak Jeongsin's eyes gleamed.
Had this been in the heart of a great city, he would not have realized that this cold-looking man was a Great Demon Beast.
His Aura was so thoroughly concealed that not a trace of Demon Energy leaked out. Who would think this man was a member of the Demon Race in the Great Demon Realm?
“Your Transformation Technique is remarkable. It would not be an exaggeration to say you have achieved great mastery.”
“Great mastery? I still have a long way to go.”
After exchanging the usual pleasantries about how well the other looked and how much their cultivation seemed to have improved, they quickly moved to the main matter.
Neither had time to spare, and the purpose of their meeting was clear. There was no need to waste time circling around the subject.
“Would you like to take a look?”
“Hmm? What is this?”
Gwak Jeongsin looked puzzled at the fruit Jegyeong took out, but the moment he held it, his expression changed.
“This is... a Spirit Fruit?”
“As expected, you recognized it at once.”
Gwak Jeongsin carefully examined the Spirit Fruit in his hand with a grave expression.
“My knowledge is limited, so I could not tell whether this Spirit Fruit has a name. But after eating it, I found that it seems to clear the mind and purify one's Spiritual Essence.”
“It clears the mind and purifies Spiritual Essence?”
Gwak Jeongsin appeared doubtful, so Jegyeong smiled and gestured to him.
“Why not see for yourself?”
“...”
Gwak Jeongsin hesitated for a moment, then cautiously bit into the Spirit Fruit.
He soon confirmed that Jegyeong had not lied.
“Fellow Daoist Jegyeong, this is...”
“It is quite good, is it not?”
A small smile appeared on Jegyeong's lips.
“That Spirit Fruit is especially beneficial to the Demon Race. As you know, most members of the Demon Race build their cultivation by devouring whatever they find according to their instincts. Their Spiritual Intelligence is poor, and their Spiritual Essence is muddled. This Spirit Fruit perfectly resolves such cultivation obstacles for them.”
Jegyeong's words were exaggerated, but their substance was not wrong.
Knowing that, Gwak Jeongsin silently nodded.
“A group of the Demon Race was fighting over a Spirit Fruit, so I went and collected it. Unless something unexpected happens, I believe I will be able to harvest Spirit Fruits regularly from now on. I am curious whether Human Race cultivators would be interested in them.”
Jegyeong's eyes gleamed, and Gwak Jeongsin's eyes gleamed as well.
At that moment, they were true Fellow Daoists.
Footnotes:
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