Please, Young Master, Slay the Demon!
Chapter 640 - 3: The Current Situation [Seeking Monthly Tickets!]_1

Chapter 640: Chapter 3: The Current Situation [Seeking Monthly Tickets!]_1

"Senior, with your high cultivation, you don’t have to pretend to be a disciple of Shu Mountain. We would respect you regardless," Qi Lingshan comforted.

"Why would I pretend to be a disciple of Shu Mountain?" Chu Liang said helplessly, "If I were to pretend, wouldn’t it be better to pretend to be a disciple of the other Nine Heavens Immortal Sects?"

With these words, the gaze of the others became even more strange.

Qi Linmu spoke, "Perhaps senior isn’t pretending, he just hasn’t returned to Shu Mountain in a long time and has been absent from the Jianghu."

"Indeed that is the case," Chu Liang nodded.

"Since the rise of Red Cotton Peak, Shu Mountain won the Immortal Sect Conference, and has been making fast and impressive progress in the following years. The plight of Shu Mountain’s disciples has improved significantly," Qi Linmu further explained, "Other Immortal Sects tried to follow suit, but none of them could create a second Red Cotton Peak. Today’s Shu Mountain may lack divine artifacts but the benefits it offers its disciples far surpass those of other Nine Heavens Immortal Sects."

"Better than Taotie City?" Chu Liang asked.

Qi Lingshan said, "We all heard when we were young that Taotie City was the largest market in the Immortal Cultivation World, but now it’s about to fall to the third."

"Third?" Chu Liang was perplexed, "Apart from being overtaken by Red Cotton Peak, who else can compete with Taotie City?"

"The Immortal District." Qi Lingyue added, "Ever since the Sixth Princess of Yu Dynasty took over the Immortal District a few years ago and drastically reformed it, the Immortal District has risen dramatically."

Through his conversation with these three, Chu Liang got a rough understanding of the changes in the business landscape of the Immortal Cultivation World in recent years.

Initially, the rise of Red Cotton Peak split the market in the Southern Region. Taotie City didn’t pay much attention to this and even invested in it. Of course, Red Cotton Peak also returned a large amount of dividends. The investment in Red Cotton Peak was a bloodbath for Taotie City in terms of returns.

But if other aspects were considered, it might not be wise.

At first, Red Cotton Peak only copied the model of Taotie City. But later, Red Cotton Peak began to take the high-end service route.

They trained a team proficient in sword flight, dedicated to home delivery service. Any major or minor Sect listed in the Yu Dynasty, or surrounding small countries and forces, could receive the dedicated delivery service of Red Cotton Peak. Red Cotton Peak would register customers’ cultivation and technique needs and create a customized cultivation plan for them.

There are few cultivators in the Immortal Cultivation World who can afford to purchase a lot of expensive resources. Most resources are consumed by Sects and other networks. By securing these high-end customers, Red Cotton Peak monopolized most of the market, extending its claws out of the Southern Region and began eating into the Four Seas and Nine Continents.

Later on, loose cultivators who spent a certain amount could also receive a tailored service.

In the past, disciples of various Sects had to visit Taotie City to shop and had to search hard for what they wanted on their own. The bigger Taotie City got, the more time-consuming and exhausting shopping became. And there were risks to personal safety.

Now Red Cotton Peak delivers directly to your door. You can receive the items you want without leaving your home. In some cases, before you even know what you want to buy, the recommendation letter from Red Cotton Peak has arrived at your door.

Physical stores were hit hard, and the shops under the flag of Red Cotton Peak can cooperate with them to transform. The shops in Taotie City were in a miserable situation, leading to wide-scale closures.

In this way, the attraction of Taotie City to the disciples of various Sects could only be amusement.

But even in terms of entertainment, Red Cotton Peak does it better. They have reduced the emphasis on shopping and increased the emphasis on entertainment. They host festivities, fireworks, and carnivals during major holidays and have introduced their mascot, a colorful carp and the divine beast Baize, which attract a large number of sightseers every day.

Today’s Red Cotton Peak is a large commercial hub integrating food, entertainment, and shopping.

In any aspect, cultivators no longer need to go to Taotie City, and this once dominant city in the North Region fell rapidly.

If only Red Cotton Peak existed, Taotie City wouldn’t have declined so quickly. After all, it’s deep-rooted accumulation over the years still has a significant advantage in resource collection, covering many things that Red Cotton Peak does not have.

But the Immortal District also happened to reform suddenly.

Under the leadership of the Sixth Princess of the Yu Dynasty, the Immortal District abandoned most of its high-end market and focused on some low-priced goods and resources. Such as a large demand for elixirs, talismans, or high-end magic artifact imitations. With the court’s own channel advantages, it captured the low-end market in the Immortal Cultivation World as soon as it made a move.

The upper and lower ends of the market were blocked, almost choking off the life of Taotie City.

Taotie City didn’t fail to struggle. The City Lord of Taotie City declared war on Red Cotton Peak three years ago, announcing that all shops in the city could only operate locally, severing ties with the power of Red Cotton Peak. Competing with Red Cotton Peak for resources across Four Seas and Nine Continents. After all, many rare resources are fixed in number. If I get it, you can’t. For this, they did not hesitate to significantly increase prices.

With such a strategy of hurting the enemy by a thousand and damaging themselves by two thousand, Taotie City still persists, hoping to exhaust Red Cotton Peak with its deep foundation.

The strategy that Red Cotton Peak responded with was the introduction of the "Cotton Loan" system for advanced consumption.

That is, even if you don’t have money now, you can still come to Red Cotton Peak to consume. Depending on your sect’s background and past consumption, you will be given an overdraft limit. If you exceed the deadline and still can’t pay back, you can use other resources or items as collateral.

In this way, many cultivators, who were stuck at a bottleneck, could obtain resources in advance to break through, and then repay the debt later. Moreover, no interest had to be paid, and it was a considerable benefit, naturally stimulating more consumption.

Of course, if you decide not to pay the debt, Shu Mountain does not lack a professional "Debt Collection Team".

With this strategy, Shu Mountain was able to withstand the mutually destructive offensive from Taotie City.

The past three years have been tough for both of them in the competition, but for suppliers like Gao Yue Country, these were absolutely good times.

Originally, the price of Cyan Moon Grass sold to anyone was the same, but then when both parties started grabbing for it, the price of Cyan Moon Grass increased year by year, serving them big profits.

Soon, it would be the time when a new batch of Cyan Moon Grass matured. Red Cotton Peak and Taotie City both attached great importance to this and sent their respective personnel to negotiate with Gao Yue Country.

...

Listening to their descriptions, Chu Liang did not feel too shocked.

Most of these development strategies were set by him initially and had been discussed with the people from Silver Sword Peak. Only the strategy for developing the lower-end market ended up in the hands of the Immortal District.

After some consideration, he thought it was a clever move.

The foundation accumulated by Taotie City over the years was so vast that it was impossible for the newly rising Red Cotton Peak to compete with it in terms of financial power. At this point, offering a portion of the market, and even proactively providing strategies to help the Immortal District develop, aligning allies to first knock down the most powerful Taotie City, was an absolutely superb strategy.

However...

It was already quite a feat for his pals to extend the strategies he left behind. If there was any added breakthrough on top of that, there must be a guiding hand behind the scenes.

Out of curiosity, he asked, "Who is running Red Cotton Peak now?"

"The Four Tyrants of Shu Mountain are responsible for most affairs," answered Qi Lingyue. "Above them, controlling everything, is the Silver Sword Peak Master of Shu Mountain, Empress Feng!"

When Qi Lingyue mentioned Empress Feng, she seemed completely star-struck, obviously admiring this intelligent and beautiful power woman.

Chu Liang interrupted decisively: "That’s absolutely impossible."

He was clear as day about what kind of person his master is - if you asked her to physically defeat Taotie City, it should be easy; if you asked her to outmaneuver the opponent in terms of business... the end result would likely involve physical altercations.

He would believe her leading a debt collection team, but leading the entirety of Red Cotton Peak? He would rather be dead than believe it.

As he was about to ask further, suddenly a dragon’s roar sounded from the distance.

"Roar-"

This roar was eerie and carried a violent aura.

"An Evil Dragon!"

The three people from Gao Yue Country immediately became alert upon hearing this dragon roar.

"Senior, we came here to trace the princess’s whereabouts. We have pressing matters and have to postpone detailed discussions with you," said Qi Lingmu, gazing into the distance.

Chu Liang perceived the dragon’s strong aura, thinking that these young people would probably find it hard to deal with. He just came down from the mountain and wanted to test the strength of his Dragon tribe heritage.

"Fine," he agreed and quickly stood up, saying, "We hit it off quite well in our conversation, so I will give you a hand."