Quote of the Day: "When entering a den of wolves, do not bring a sword. Bring a feast, and let them know you control the slaughterhouse."
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The Blue Spirit City Commerce Guild hall was a monument to established power. Polished Bloodwood pillars soared to a ceiling inlaid with jade formations that glowed with a soft, expensive light. The air was thick with the scent of rare incense and the subtle, crushing pressure of high-level cultivators who had long since stopped seeing people as anything other than assets or obstacles.
Lin Feng walked in alone. He had chosen simple, unadorned grey robes, a stark contrast to the silks and spiritual-weave garments of the other attendees. Elder Bai had argued for something more impressive, but Lin Feng understood theater. In a room of peacocks, a hawk stands out by being still and sharp.
He felt their gazes the moment he crossed the threshold. The representatives from the Void-Severing Pavilion, a stern-faced elder and, notably, Chu Yue sitting slightly behind him. The delegation from the Azure Mist Sect, ethereal and aloof. The bluff, loud merchants of the Jin Consortium. Dozens of smaller sects and businesses, all orbiting these three suns. He was the new comet, and they were calculating his trajectory, deciding whether to capture him or shatter him.
The Guild Master, an ancient, wizened man named Hong who radiated the profound aura of a Foundation Establishment expert, opened the session with a monotonous recitation of trade volumes and tax allocations. Lin Feng sat silently in the assigned seat for "Serene Heart Teahouse," a designation that felt pathetically small. He didn't fidget. He didn't take notes. He simply observed, his newly enhanced senses and [Customer Insight] passive absorbing everything.
He saw the Pavillion elder's barely concealed contempt. He saw the Jin merchants' calculating greed as they eyed him. He saw Chu Yue's neutral, analytical expression, a mask that gave nothing away.
Finally, Guild Master Hong's eyes, sharp as fractured crystal, landed on him. "We have a new entity among us. Lin Feng, of the Serene Heart. Your recent... activities... have drawn attention. This guild governs fair trade. Some members have raised concerns about your 'catalytic agent.' They question its safety, its legality, and its disruptive effect on established markets for purgative elixirs."
It was a direct, public challenge. The Pavillion elder leaned forward, a faint smile on his lips.
Lin Feng stood. The movement was fluid, controlled, projecting a calm that belied his youth and low cultivation level.
"Guild Master. Honored delegates," he began, his voice carrying without strain, amplified by a trickle of Qi. "The concerns are understandable. Fear of the new is a natural reaction from those invested in the old."
A ripple of displeasure went through the room. He had not defended; he had reframed. He had called them afraid.
"My product, the Catalytic Qi Solution, is not a medicine. It is a tool. A spiritual reagent," he continued, pulling a small, ordinary-looking vial from his robe. It contained not the potent solution, but the heavily diluted, slow-acting variant he used for his franchises. "It does not compete with the Pavilion's excellent Golden Purge Pill. It creates a new market entirely."
The Jin Consortium leader, a bulky man with a jade-ringed fingers, snorted. "Word games. You sell a thing that fixes a problem. So do they. That's competition."
"Is a plow a competitor to a bucket?" Lin Feng asked, his tone genuinely inquisitive. "Both are used to manage water, but one is for prevention and the other for extraction. The Golden Purge Pill is a bucket. It removes stagnant Qi after it has become a blockage. My solution is a plow. It breaks the hard ground before planting, allowing for better growth and preventing blockages from forming in the first place."
He had positioned his product not as a treatment, but as a cultivation aid. A prophylactic. It was a masterstroke of market segmentation.
"Preposterous!" the Pavilion elder snapped. "You claim a mere liquid can prevent heart demons and Qi deviations?"
"I claim it can increase the absorption efficiency of spiritual herbs by up to twenty percent, reducing the chance of impurity-based blockages," Lin Feng countered smoothly. "The data from my franchise operations, which are under Dao Contract and thus verifiably truthful, supports this. I am not here to sell you vials of liquid."
He paused, letting the suspense build. Every eye was on him.
"I am here to offer the Guild itself a licensing agreement."
The silence was deafening. Even Chu Yue's mask of neutrality cracked with surprise.
"For a nominal annual fee, paid to the Guild's coffers to fund city improvements, every licensed alchemist and apothecary in Blue Spirit City will have the right to use the Serene Heart catalytic process as a finisher in their own brews and refinements." He placed the vial on the table before him. "This will not harm the Pavilion's pill sales; it will enhance them. A pill refined with our catalyst will be more effective, allowing the Pavilion to command a higher price. It will, however, devastate the unlicensed, black-market pill trade that currently evades Guild taxes and undercuts all of us."
He had turned his weapon into a public utility. He was offering his greatest competitors a way to make more money, while using them to crush the underground market they all despised. He was selling the entire city a plow, and making the other farmers pay him for the privilege of having better fields.
The Guild Master, Hong, was staring at him with intense interest. The city's tax base was his primary concern. Lin Feng was offering to expand it dramatically.
The Pavilion elder was purple with rage, but he was trapped. To refuse would be to admit he cared more about monopolistic control than communal profit, a bad look in a guild setting. The Jin merchants were already nodding, seeing the bottom-line logic.
"But why?" one of the smaller sect leaders asked, bewildered. "Why share it? You could have a monopoly!"
"A monopoly on a small pond," Lin Feng said, "is inferior to a royalty from a vast ocean. The Serene Heart Conglomerate's future is not in selling reagents. It is in innovation, management, and the systems that make such reagents valuable. We will profit from the growth we create for everyone."
It was the ultimate capitalist pitch: a rising tide lifts all boats, and I own the dock.
[Karma Score Significantly Increased!]
[Trait 'Visionary Outlook' has been acknowledged.]
[Trait 'Holistic View' has been unlocked and utilized.]
[Trait 'Inspiring Presence' effect magnified in a leadership context.]
[Dao Heart Stability: 75/100.]
The System's approval was a warm, grounding hum in his core. He was on the right path.
The debate that followed was fierce, but the direction was clear. Lin Feng had not begged for a seat at the table; he had redesigned the table and charged a rental fee. The motion to form a committee to discuss the city-wide license was passed.
As the meeting adjourned, Lin Feng was surrounded. Not by enemies, but by potential partners. The Jin Consortium wanted to talk distribution. A minor alchemy house wanted to sign a preliminary agreement.
Through the crowd, he saw Chu Yue approaching. The Pavilion elder had already stormed out.
"That," she said, her voice low, "was the most brazenly brilliant thing I have ever witnessed. You have just conscripted your biggest rivals into being your sales force."
"It's more efficient than building my own," Lin Feng replied.
"He is furious," she said, meaning the elder. "You've made a powerful enemy. But you've also made the Pavilion as a whole more money. It puts me in a... interesting position."
"All positions are temporary," Lin Feng said. "Only growth is permanent. Tell your superiors I am open to discussing a joint venture for the development of catalyst-based formation breakers for mining operations."
He turned and walked away, leaving her standing amidst the chattering crowd. He had not just secured his place in the guild; he had defined it. He had entered a den of wolves and turned them into a pack, with himself as the newly appointed hunt master.
The gauntlet had been thrown, and he had not merely picked it up. He had melted it down and forged it into a key.