In my twilight years of cultivating, I became a Supreme Daoist of the Longevity Path

Chapter 43: 040: Wealth and Connections [Continued Reading] _1 Chapter 43: 040: Wealth and Connections [Continued Reading] _1 “Immortal Master, please enjoy the tea!”

Within Boss Hu’s Four Tigers Artifacts Shop, Chen Dengming was ushered into the VIP room for the first time.

A charming little innate maiden with bright eyes and white teeth approached him with a tray, bashfully and respectfully offering Chen Dengming some tea.

Chen Dengming accepted the tea with a smile.

Next to him, Boss Hu laughed heartily, “Brother Chen, you’re quite influential these days.

However, you seem to lack a few attendants.

How about I send this girl over to your residence to serve you?”

Chen Dengming glanced at the pretty and refined little maid, shaking his head with a smile, “Just the tea will do.

I currently don’t even have a proper residence in this gathering area, let alone a mansion to accommodate these maids.”

With a hearty laugh, Boss Hu dismissed the now slightly sullen maid with a wave of his hand, puffing on his pipe as he continued, “With your abilities, Brother Chen, Lord Xu would surely arrange a mansion for you.

...

I’ve heard that you’re a man of refined tastes, even going against Luo Xuning to take someone from the Zanhua Building to the Luo Mansion?”

A thought flashed through Chen Dengming’s mind, realizing that Boss Hu was testing him.

He took a sip of tea and laughed, “Boss Hu, where did you hear such news?

How would I dare offend Lord Xu?

However, I did indeed intend to take Xu Wei with me.

I have yet to pay the ransom, and I’ll do so soon.

As of now, Xu Wei is staying with the Luo Family.”

Boss Hu was taken aback, his smile widening on his face as he responded, “Brother Chen, you’re quite something, managing to have someone placed within the Luo Family.

That’s quite an achievement.

Xu Wei is lucky to be with you, and I’m sure Lord Xu wouldn’t dare to accept the ransom money.”

“Boss Hu, you’re going to flatter me to death.

I don’t have such abilities.

It’s all down to Xu Wei’s perseverance, and Miss Luo’s gracious acceptance.”Chen Dengming quickly denied.

However, these timely words answered Boss Hu’s inquisition perfectly, leading him to believe that Chen Dengming held significant favor in Miss Luo’s eyes and that he had a promising future ahead.

Boss Hu then burst out laughing, skillfully changing the subject to discuss the recent hot topic of Gu poison and the weapons and defensive equipment that Chen Dengming wanted to customize.

Chen Dengming also took the opportunity to inquire about the recent events in the gathering area, such as why the people from Iron Forest Hall were mobilizing their forces to kill cultivators outside the gathering area.

…

Half an hour later.

Chen Dengming wore a robe as thin as cicada wings over the clothing made by Xu Wei.

This robe could indeed protect his new clothes.

With a smile on his face and steady strides, Chen Dengming left the artifact shop.

He was highly satisfied with the custom-made artifacts in Boss Hu’s shop on this homecoming trip.

He originally thought that Boss Hu would just give him a ten percent discount at most.

But when it came to customizing the artifact sword, he was exempted from the customization fee, and both the final piece and the materials were given a thirty percent discount.

In addition, the defensive robe was presented to him free of charge by Boss Hu.

Although it was just a low ranking defensive robe called the Profound Wood Robe, it was still worth at least ten lower grade Spirit Stones on the market.

Even if Boss Hu owned an artifact shop and had a lower production cost, this was still quite generous.

Chen Dengming had no choice but to accept it after repeatedly declining the gifts, allowing the pretty maids to dress him.

Of course, he was well aware of Boss Hu’s intentions.

Firstly, he was interested in the Gu poison, Gu objects, and Gu refining techniques he had, and secondly, he wanted to build a good relationship with someone who had influence with Miss Luo.

The former represented money.

The latter represented connections.

In fact, the latter was much more important and was Boss Hu’s main goal.

After all, for a businessperson, money could be earned at any time.

But some connections might take a lifetime to build, even with diligent effort.

Of course, Chen Dengming would never admit that he had any influence with Miss Luo.

He even denied it outright, saying he was just a insignificant person.

Unfortunately, people didn’t believe him.

That’s the way it is in reality – people only believe what they see and hear, thinking that’s the true story.

In Boss Hu’s view, half a year ago Chen Dengming was just a wretched fishmonger in the old shanty street on the west side.

Even his fishing gear was rented from Boss Hu’s shop.

But half a year later, Chen Dengming had transformed into a second-level Qi cultivator, had stayed in the Luo family for more than three months, completed Miss Luo’s reward task, and even managed to shelter a woman of the night in the Luo family’s house.

Could such a person be a nobody with no connections?

Who would believe that?

When a person is weak, no one can hear him no matter how loudly he cries out.

But when a person has proven his strength, everyone naturally believes in him, even if he doesn’t say a word.

In the end, Chen Dengming didn’t take up any of Boss Hu’s offers.

He was no fool, eagerly accepting just anything promised by someone who merely offered a gift or said a few nice words.

Boss Hu wouldn’t be so naive either.

True cooperation would require more interactions.

However, through Boss Hu, he was able to vaguely understand the situation with Iron Forest Hall.

The recent frequent movements of Iron Forest Hall seemed to represent some attitudes of the Zhu Family.

The future might not necessarily be peaceful.

If the Zhu and Luo cultivation families have disputes or even go to war, all the loose cultivators in the gathering area will be involved.

A sense of urgency surged in Chen Dengming’s heart.

He needed to take advantage of the current peace to make some money and gather cultivation resources.

That way, he could hide when chaos erupted and wouldn’t have to worry about not having the resources to rapidly increase his power.

…

Even with his current strength, he still remembered his initial resolution.

After leaving the artifact shop, he first wandered over to the shanty district to check on his old home.

Seeing his former dwelling, the main door had been replaced, but the hand-drawn door spirits he’d sketched in passing moments were still on the door posts.

He sighed a bit, said hello to a couple of familiar faces who recognized him as their old fishmonger, and turned to leave.

The older clientele watched him go, surprised and flattered – whispering their admiration and sighing themselves after he left.

“Master Chen is such a good person.

Even when he was selling fish, he never short-changed anyone.

He even gave away any additional fish and fish parts for free.

Despite making it as a cultivator, he doesn’t put on airs.”

“This is what a real cultivator is all about, someone who doesn’t use their status to bully others.

Even his acquaintances have reaped the benefits of his progress, take Ms.

Xu for instance, she’s probably leading a pretty easy life now.

Just by having such a neighbor, we’re truly blessed.”

“Shh, keep it down, lest the other passing cultivators hear us.

Do you wish to die?”

…

Chen Dengming manipulated his movement technique, bouncing from one rooftop to another, and arrived at the market district in no time.

Surveying the area, he noticed many stalls with signs indicating they wanted to purchase gu poisons and gu objects on the market.

He grew optimistic.

“The market is really not bad.

Done right, this could be a piece of big cake…with great profit potential…”

Chen Dengming’s eyebrows relaxed, then knitted back together – his expression shifting between optimism and contemplation as he brainstormed the pros and cons, as well as business opportunities.

He was not Luo Bing, who seemingly had an endless reserve of cultivation resources.

He had to fight for what he wanted.

The hundred low-grade spirit stones he had couldn’t sustain his soul snatching array for long either.

If the gu poison and gu object market was managed well, it would become his main source of income in the future, ensuring a stable supply of cultivation resources for a long time.

However, with great profit came great risk.

Sometimes, when one’s wealth exceeds one’s intelligence and strength, the person would lose their wealth even faster – it gets redistributed to those with greater wit and power.

Earning what he could, eating what he could; that was Chen Dengming’s guideline through his years of experience in the Nanxun Kingdom.

He roamed the market area and painfully spent thirteen low-grade spirit stones to purchase two books – “Godspeed Skill” and “Vajra Shield Skill”.

After making his purchases, he left.

Arriving at a deserted alley near Gold Word Workshop in the city center, he felt the soft fabric of his robe and immediately gestured to activate it.

Spiritual energy was injected into the robe, and the embedded Wood Light Shield Array was instantly activated.

Immediately, the fibers in the robe became extremely tough under the influence of the spiritual energy.

Additionally, a layer of spiritual light shield also appeared on his body.

The Wood Light Shield is a third-tier of the first-order skill.

It is comparable to the same level spiritual light shield and golden light shield, but has relatively poor defense.

Nevertheless, after engraving it into the robe, it can be triggered instantly with an injection of spiritual energy, even without learning the necessary skill.

However, this low-grade robe could only activate its array twice within a day.

Chen Dengming hadn’t tried it in Boss Hu’s shop earlier, but now decided to test its capability.

He tapped his right ear.

Whoosh—

The Blood Centipede Gu flew out, following Chen Dengming’s instructions.

Suddenly, it opened its pincer-like mouth and fiercely bit on the Wood Light Shield.

The Wood Light Shield quivered, creating some ripples.

It seemed its spiritual energy structure had been disrupted, and in the next instant, it broke straight away.

“Half a breath…”

Chen Dengming nodded slightly, looking at the robe that maintained its protective state, as tough as steel wire, and had a clear assessment of the robe’s defensive power.

There were two forms of defense for the robe.

The first was the Wood Light Shield, and the second was the robe itself.

The defensive strength of the Wooden Light Shield was weaker than his state after executing the Diamond Vajra Zen Dharma, and the protective power of the robe itself was about equivalent to when he was in the Diamond Vajra Zen Dharma state.

With this level of defense, it was enough to deal with cultivators within the same realm, or even those at the third layer of Qi Cultivation.

However, this defense was paper thin against cultivators at the fourth layer of Qi Cultivation or above who had mastered a fourth-level Skill.

Considering the potential conflicts between the Zhu family and Luo family in the future…

“It seems I need to find out when the Dark Market opens and buy a mid-grade defensive artifact that no one knows about.

The low-grade ones are just too weak.

Besides, after making a breakthrough, I need to quickly learn the third order of ‘Vajra Shield Skill’…

I currently have the Golden Silkworm Gu and the Blood Centipede Gu, but I lack a defense mechanism.

This is obviously hitting high and defending low; it’s almost doing the assassin’s job, but running the gu poison market…”

Chen Dengming calculated in his heart with flashing eyes.

Buying all his artifacts and keeping his defense up only in Boss Hu’s shop was not a wise idea as it may be sold out.

But dealing in the Dark Market, where nobody knows his identity, buying a defense artifact there for self-defense, would be the safest bet.

Having calculated that, he straightened his clothes, left the alley and headed straight to Gold Word Workshop to meet Xu Ning…

…

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