Chapter 88: "Night Raid on Xuzhou".
"..."
Fat Long glanced doubtfully at the thin young man sitting on the ground, hesitated, and then turned to look behind him at Chen Qiu, who nodded and began walking towards the depths of the Deserted Forest before he casually said to the young man,
and likewise followed Chen Qiu's pace.
"Let's go, let's hear your explanation."
"Thank you, thank you so much!"
Seeing this, the skinny young man quickly scrambled up from the ground with grateful eyes and followed the two into the jungle.
...
After the group had left,
the burly man who had been full of fear suddenly became lively in spirit and looked at the remaining two people left behind by the group.
One looked to be a taciturn fellow, short in stature with a full beard.
The other, a scholar with disabled legs, sat cross-legged on the shoulders of the bearded man.
They didn't seem to be very capable of fighting.
The burly man seemed to move casually towards another part of the Deserted Forest and tentatively asked, "May I inquire what your Cultivation is?"
As soon as he finished speaking,
the bearded strong man's Foundation Establishment Cultivation was unmistakably revealed.
"Not bad."
The initially escape-minded burly man immediately stopped moving, expressionlessly looked down at the crimson soil beneath him, and absentmindedly fiddled with the dead grass around him, resigning to the fact that it seemed like he was fated to die there that day.
...
"Um..."
Deep in the Deserted Forest, the skinny man glanced at Chen Qiu and whispered to Fat Long, "We used to be fellow villagers, and this gentleman, this gentleman..."
"We're all fellow villagers."
Fat Long said irritably, "Just say what you want to say."
Chen Qiu, standing to one side, took out a soundproofing charm from his chest, activated it, and enveloped the group to ensure their conversation could not be heard by others.
"This gentleman is also a fellow villager?"
The skinny man looked at Chen Qiu with a flash of astonishment in his eyes, then took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Since we're all fellow villagers, let me introduce myself first. I am an offering from the 'Yuncheng Wang Family.'"
"My name is Liu Zide."
"You may not have heard of the 'Yuncheng Wang Family,' but since you're in Fufeng City, you must surely know about the Nine Ox Festival. I was the one who planned the whole event. With just that one event, we earned thousands of Spirit Stones, which is the total profit of the Yuncheng Wang Family for over a decade!"
"Oh?"
Chen Qiu, who had shown little interest at first, suddenly perked up and sized up Liu Zide, a glint of appreciation flashing in his eyes, "You were the one who organized that festival?"
"Gambling spirit and ability combined, not bad at all."
Last time, he'd felt that the person who orchestrated the festival was quite talented, perfectly seizing upon the lack of entertainment in this world, and profited heavily. He hadn't expected that it was his fellow villager who did it, which made him far more interested in the man before him.
"The gambling spirit is something the master possesses; it has nothing to do with me."
Seeing that Chen Qiu acknowledged his past achievements and even showed admiration, Liu Zide finally relaxed, letting out a long sigh of relief. With this, the subsequent conversation would be much easier.
He naturally knew that Chen Qiu was the leader of these people.
I just didn't know that Chen Qiu was also a fellow villager.
When I first arrived in Fufeng City, I saw Fat Long shouting about the Sky-bursting Gang. Although I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or a case of the same name, I still took note of it in my heart. I tentatively shouted earlier and, unexpectedly, it really was a fellow villager.
"Let's have a formal introduction."
With a serious expression, Liu Zide looked at the two of them and said word by word, "I used to be a small owner of an MCN, with hundreds of marketing accounts under my banner, mainly profiting from generating traffic."
"In my previous life, I didn't learn any skills, except for how to manipulate traffic."
"Since we are all fellow villagers, I'll just speak frankly. I've smelled a big business opportunity, but it's too big for me to handle alone, I need to find partners to cooperate."
"I recorded the scene of the Nine Ox Festival onto Memory Stones, and I have already started to spread it wildly in two cities. Initially, my plan was to sell Memory Stones to let various city factions help spread them, thereby quickly increasing the lord's fame."
"Just like that, in one day, I spread it across two cities and successfully got the lord onto the list before yesterday's midnight."
"But after last night's midnight, after seeing the content of the Heavenly Dao Blessing, I realized the value of the Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pill far exceeds the cost of the Memory Stones. I noticed that you two are already on the list; you must know the Heavenly Dao Blessing provides the Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pill."
"No need to speak more on the value of the Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pill."
Having said this,
Liu Zide's whole demeanor became extremely agitated, and, with an excited expression, he said excitedly, "In my initial plan, I calculated the cost of the Memory Stones, but now the profit from the Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills has far surpassed the cost of the Memory Stones!"
"We can completely ignore the cost of the Memory Stones, distributing them for free through all channels!"
"With enough Spirit Stones for activation, I can mass-produce at least three celebrities with hundreds of followers!"
"The more vulgar and exaggerated items attract more attention. This world has not yet experienced the dirty baptism of capital. Just a few coarse, exaggerated things entering the market, especially for free, will attract a lot of attention and bring massive fame to the protagonist!"
"For instance, one female with nine males!"
"Nine men with their faces covered, only revealing one woman to gain fame."
"To be more sensational, you could even add some plot, like nine evil cultivators and one pure, unblemished Daoist Holy Daughter."
"Brothels are everywhere in this world, but no one shoots this kind of thing. This is a huge market gap, as watching the excitement and visiting brothels are not conflicting activities. We could even cooperate with brothels!"
"Or take those with unique talents, for example!"
"For example, find two people with entries like 'Nine Ox Power' and 'Bull Strength,' record them with Memory Stones, and the spread would definitely be wide, boosting their fame tremendously!"
"I can think of countless ways in my mind!"
"Everyone deemed 'Da Xia's No.1 Array Repairer' and such would not rank in terms of fame. Ordinary people who don't care about Cultivation won't care who Da Xia's No.1 Array Repairer is. They love whom they love; it has nothing to do with them."
"But precisely these ordinary people are the ones with the greatest base numbers. They may not care who the No.1 Array Repairer of Da Xia is, but they definitely won't be able to resist something like 'Nine Ox Power' and 'Bull Strength', which they may have never even heard of!"
"As long as we control the three hundred people we promote, the Heavenly Dao Blessings they receive every day will be ours!"
"That's nearly a thousand Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills every day!"
As if already seeing fruit of victory, an agitated Liu Zide, with his neck swollen and face flushed red, said, "That will be a tremendously huge interest, and in the early stage, it only requires a portion of Spirit Stones as startup capital."
With Da Xia Territory divided into nineteen provinces and 365 large cities, both Fufeng City and Kai Mountain City belong to 'Xuzhou' province."
"And 'Xuzhou' is a large state, with a total of 47 large cities."
"The territory of Da Xia is too vast. We obviously can't reach all the cities, but we can take over all 47 cities, and the ordinary people in these 47 cities will be an important force for us to climb the charts!"
"The only key element of this plan is speed!"
"Before others have time to react, we'll take over all the cities within 'Xuzhou' in an instant. So even if others catch on and want to imitate us, they will have to move to other provinces."
"Although we'll lose some profits to competition."
"There is a silver lining. If any major family is envious of us, their energy will definitely focus on how to expand into other provinces, not us, at least we will be lower on the priority list to plunder our fruits."