Therefore, back at Qingyou Pool, his presence or absence wouldn’t have made the slightest difference.

Upon arriving in Celestial Spirit City, he immediately noticed a distinct change. The Celestial Spirit Sect’s movements were most directly felt here.

The entire Celestial Spirit City was several times more bustling than before.

The trade of various materials, in particular, was booming.

Zhang Deming made a few inquiries and discovered that the Celestial Spirit Sect’s operation this time was exceptionally large-scale.

Not only had they mobilized the Outer Sect and issued Sect-wide missions,

but the surrounding Cultivation Families had also been assigned regions and given specific quotas.

Even their subordinate sects had formed an alliance and begun to mobilize, following the Celestial Spirit Sect’s example.

It seemed the Celestial Spirit Sect had not only recognized the danger but had also grown weary of the year-long drag.

They planned to carry out a large-scale cleansing, plowing straight through everything.

One could say that the current level of effort was the greatest the Upper Sect would exert during its day-to-day operations.

Anything more would be on par with a wartime mobilization.

Without a beast tide breaking out, a full-scale wartime mobilization was impossible, so this could be considered the strongest mobilization possible under the circumstances.

Zhang Deming could just imagine how lively the Hengduan Mountain Range must be lately. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Just from his brief walk around, he had overheard several teams of Apprentice Level Loose Cultivators discussing venturing deep into the back mountains.

Not only had they gone, but they had also returned with some gains.

Normally, for Apprentice-level Loose Cultivators with little strength, venturing deep into the Hengduan Mountain Range was practically a death sentence. But now, with so many people around, it had become much safer.

This move by the Celestial Spirit Sect was certainly efficient, but it was rather damaging to the Hengduan Mountain Range.

...

As Celestial Spirit City boomed, the prices of many goods rose, while the price of materials actually dropped.

This caused many Loose Cultivators to become deeply resentful, constantly complaining that the Sect and Noble Family shops were sucking them dry and taking the opportunity to get rich.

As a result, the booming Celestial Spirit City hadn’t been so peaceful lately.

Zhang Deming shook his head. He wasn’t too concerned about such matters.

Before he could even return to his Cave Mansion, a contact signal came from his Spirit Nurturing Space.

’Right now, it seems only Qu Qizhong has my contact information, right?’

Zhang Deming entered his Spirit Nurturing Space. Qu Qizhong’s point of light was blinking incessantly.

With a wave of his hand, the point of light flew before him. He tapped it lightly, and a passageway appeared.

In the next moment, a dazed Qu Qizhong appeared before him.

"What is it?" Zhang Deming asked.

"Steward Zhang, the Spirit Nurturing Beads have been incredibly popular lately. The daily quota of four sells out in the blink of an eye.

The price has now risen to eleven Spirit Stones each, but it’s still the same.

This humble one would like to ask if we could ride this wave and produce more Spirit Nurturing Beads," Qu Qizhong said, looking at Zhang Deming.

Hearing this, Zhang Deming paused for a moment.

’With my current Tai Chi Cultivation,’ he thought, ’if I went all out, given my success rate and Spiritual Power Recovery speed, making ten or twenty a day would be all too easy.’

However, after the last incident, the Celestial Spirit Sect’s attitude had been inexplicable, and no one had contacted him.

That was why he had limited sales to about one hundred per month, fearing that producing too many might cause unforeseen problems.

He was no longer completely ignorant about Spirit Nurturing Masters. After half a year of cramming, he now had a decent understanding of them.

A beginner Spirit Nurturing Master, one who had just reached the Entry Level with the Spirit Nurturing Technique, would only be capable of this much, even if they were a Duality Great Cultivator.

Their limiting factor wasn’t Spiritual Power, but the success rate of the technique.

When creating a Spirit Nurturing Bead, the quality is determined by the Spirit Nurturing Master’s own comprehension of the corresponding technique, but the success rate is influenced by the Spirit Nurturing Technique itself.

Not everyone was like him, achieving Mastery right after reaching the Entry Level, and now he had even advanced to Tier Three.

His current Spirit Nurturing Technique could be said to have already reached a high level of proficiency, which was why he could achieve such results.

What’s more, the Spirit Nurturing Technique was his foundational Rune Core, which enhanced its effects considerably.

Many Spirit Nurturing Masters at the Three Talents Stage didn’t possess Zhang Deming’s level of skill.

If not for the fear of attracting attention and disrupting this rare period of stability, Zhang Deming could even create and sell Tier Three High-Quality Spirit Nurturing Pearls.

Zhang Deming weighed the pros and cons for a long time before saying, "Let’s increase it a little. I’ll allocate you a quota of one hundred and fifty per month. How you sell them is up to you."

"Understood, Steward," Qu Qizhong replied.

Zhang Deming asked, "Is there anything else?"

Qu Qizhong shook his head and said, "No."

Zhang Deming said, "Then that’s all. Oh, right, I almost forgot. Make an adjustment to the shop’s sales policy.

I don’t care what rules you set. The result I want is that, for the same price, more are sold to Loose Cultivators. Stop favoring the Noble Families."

Upon hearing this, Qu Qizhong paused, stunned. He looked at Zhang Deming and said hesitantly, "Steward Zhang, favoring the Noble Families is better for our shop’s development."

Zhang Deming nodded and said, "I know all that. Just do as I say."

Zhang Deming might not be a businessman, but how could he not understand basic principles like networking?

He knew this before and had tacitly allowed the situation.

So why bring it up now?

Because he was desperately short on Merit and urgently needed it to open up plug-in slots to increase his strength.

He had sold six to seven hundred Spirit Nurturing Beads in half a year. With a minimum forty percent success rate, that should have resulted in about two hundred successful uses, right?

But he had only received just over a hundred feedback scenes. Why was that?

It was because most of the Spirit Nurturing Beads were sold to the Noble Families.

And those families wouldn’t use the beads right away. Many were stockpiled as part of their foundation or saved as future rewards.

As a result, Zhang Deming’s income of Merit and Qi Fortune was only about half of what it should have been based on the actual number of Spirit Nurturing Beads sold.