Chapter 524

It was a simple-looking black square wooden plaque, with a strange beast pattern drawn in eerie red pigment in the center, resembling both a tiger and a bull.

【Tiancheng Token】: Possession of this token grants entry to Tiancheng. This token is one of twelve qualifying tokens for candidacy as City Lord; if ultimately unsuccessful, it still grants permanent tax-exempt status within the city.

It was said to have once been one of the multiversal free-trade markets across all realms, but later bankrupted itself through excessive taxation.

"There was such a thing."

He could never forget this thing—every time he saw it, Su Lin's heart bled.

Once, the foolish self had thought the points in the system were free, like the spicy strips bought from the desk mate after class—free to eat, delicious, so spent without a second thought.

One million, one million!

And I ended up drawing this thing—a City Lord candidate? You might as well just give me a whole Tiancheng.

"The economy's bad now. Sacred Sects and noble families spend heavily, and business isn't doing well."

Ye Fan's gaze remained glued to the token Su Lin was idly turning in his hands. "Besides, the profit from a hundred ordinary magical artifacts is less than that of a single Great Sage weapon; the profit from a thousand Great Sage weapons is less than that of a single King's Divine Weapon."

Su Lin's hand stopped moving. "Do your things even have costs?"

Ye Fan chuckled, waving his hand to pull out a pile of artifacts from his Wheel Sea. "Currently, apart from King's Divine Weapons and Sacred Weapons, all other artifacts have production costs—we're a legitimate business, after all."

Since Ma Xianhong and other armorer-artificers paired with artificial intelligence and elevated Ru Hua to sentience, the lowest-end and mid-tier artifact production lines no longer require manual labor.

The production line still consumes raw materials, earning only the thinnest profit—the lost revenue is treated as a discount to open up the market.

Besides, even if you split Weigong Shilang into seventeen pieces, you still couldn't have Li Huowang inspect the production floor every day.

"Besides weapons, we sell Yan Di's pills, Liu Li Ge's ten-thousand-year spiritual plants, offensive and defensive spells gathered and modified from other worlds, and the bones Shi Hao has gnawed—there's nothing we don't deal in. Even prenatal cultivation courses for unborn disciples and longevity items for elderly cultivators nearing death—we cover it all."

Ye Fan waved his hand, and amid Su Lin's "Are you fucking kidding me?" expression, Ru Hua rolled forward several display cabinets.

"But here's the problem: we've stockpiled plenty of resurrection artifacts, rejuvenation items, and otherworldly cultivation techniques—but in this world, we dare not openly sell them."

Ye Fan picked up a resurrection artifact with an acquisition cost of three eighth-grade spirit stones, selling it exclusively to prodigies and Sacred Sect elders.

After all, they're wealthy families with vast fortunes—they don't care about the money.

The Sacred Sects and noble families that once hunted Ye Fan are a separate account—but these vast powers, enduring for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, are premium clients in Ye Fan's eyes.

As long as they can afford the resources, he has no objection to helping their descendants begin cultivation even before birth, and even bundles the "Duan De Blood Oath" service—promising not to dig up their ancestral graves.

End-to-end service from birth to burial.

"Using scarcity to monopolize trade—how much markup do you plan to make on this?" Su Lin asked.

Ye Fan smiled. "Not much. One hundred."

"One hundred eighth-grade spirit stones?" Su Lin narrowed his eyes. This guy was truly heartless.

Ye Fan shook his head. "One hundred times."

Su Lin: "?"

So you're the guy who started from nothing in his twenties, bought a luxury car, and snapped up two Sihe Academies in the capital?

If not for this guy getting the cultivation script, he'd probably, in a few years, be scrolling through rebirth novels on Earth and casually say: "This isn't even satisfying."

Su Lin once again recognized the potential of the Primordial Ancient Capital Body, while Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan had long since grown accustomed to it.

To be honest

He, Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan, had also made a fair share.

How could these noble families not want to capture Ye Fan and force him to make pills?!

Every drop of blood absorbs the life essence of heaven and earth and all living beings—bite one mouthful and you're instantly flat on your back.

"I told him to split the profits fifty-fifty, so I could just become his Chamber of Commerce's bodyguard. But he refused again," Shi Hao said, sipping a cup of Immortal Happy Tea. "Isn't that simpler?"

Fifty percent? You're trying to kill Ye Capital.

Wait a minute—you're getting a share of the Chamber of Commerce's dividends too, Beast-Milk Kid, stop daydreaming!

"In short, you've seen the current situation."

Ye Fan pointed at the surrounding items.

"Some products have too many orders, others have too much inventory. Cash flow is shrinking, accounts receivable are rising, and raw materials are piling up."

"Moreover, with Tunyun Dashi rising, interstellar routes haven't yet recovered. Even if I wanted to expand to other star regions, I'd have to clear out these inventories first."

Su Lin thought it over and decided Ye Fan's reasoning made sense.

"I've restarted Simulation Universe 1.0. You can go there and keep running your Chamber of Commerce."

"The low-end market among Song Shuhang's cultivators is gradually saturated, and the high-end profits won't be much either—that's why I want to check out your Tiancheng."

Ye Fan explained.

The Cycle Space is fine, but there are too many competitors—even if we engage in price wars, some prices were already crushed by predecessors.

Had business expansion not outpaced expectations, Ye Fan probably wouldn't have shifted his cultivation focus yet—he'd already amassed more than enough resources, enough to absorb for twenty-four hours a day for decades without ever running out.

Su Lin lowered his legs from the jade table, sat upright, and tossed the token to Ye Fan.

"What's it like over there?" Ye Fan caught it, curious.

Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan and Meng Qi hurried over. The token's material was unknown—it felt like wood, yet the pattern carried an inexplicable, profound aura.

Meng Qi was certain: even if he unleashed his full power, he could not destroy this token.

"You ask me? Who do I ask?" Su Lin retorted. "I've never been there."

The crowd, still gawking at the novelty, suddenly froze and looked up at Su Lin.

Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan asked: "You've never been?"

"Most people who get this thing," Meng Qi's expression was odd, "don't they rush off in ecstatic excitement to check it out?"

"My schedule is packed. Wherever I go, isn't it all just traveling?" Su Lin pulled out a scroll and placed it on the table, signaling Ye Fan to sign and stamp.

Everyone fell silent. The air around them was deathly still.

Not bro

Don't you test your golden finger the moment you get it?

A well-fed man knows not the hunger of the starving; this guy is utterly inhuman.

"By the way, help me sell this pile of stuff." Su Lin opened his extradimensional vault and used spiritual power to summon dozens of wooden crates floating out, each marked with English labels.

A dull thud echoed as fragments of dried rice straw, used as padding, drifted down. "Back when I was with Li Huowang, I bought these weapons from an old classmate in Florida."

Su Lin had originally planned to shuttle between worlds as a trader, but couldn't figure out how to extract items from the system, so he gave up: "I've consecrated these with holy water—don't sell them cheap."

Meng Qi: "."

Without doubt, that life was real—both he and Su Lin had experienced an entirely different existence in Baiyu Jing.

But what exactly did you do during those years studying in America?

Ye Fan pried open a wooden lid with a crowbar beside the crate, glanced inside at the AKs and their accompanying ammunition, and involuntarily twitched his lips twice.

He looked at the pen and scroll Su Lin handed him, then spoke slowly:

"Can I inspect the goods first?"

Who is the strongest candidate for Tiancheng's lordship?

Zhang Sanfeng: Hmm. It should be Shang Yue, that young friend from Earth.

Bu Jingyun: It depends… but probably Lord Shang Yue—though that's just my personal view.

Beiwunan Gua: Isn't it Mr. Shang Yue? If we include Ruyi Zhenxian, the situation might change.

Unknown merged cultivator: It should be someone other than me and Ruyi Zhenxian.

Shang Yue smiled faintly at the interviews within Tiancheng; thirty-eight years had passed since he obtained this token.

Once an ordinary merchant from Earth's Huaguo, he was now eighteen, a man who had won life with three beloved companions he would never trade away.

"Life is truly lonely as snow."

He set down a bottle of Awakening-Spirit Essence-Replenishing Red Wine brewed by a technological civilization, wrapped himself in a bathrobe, and stepped out of his private bathhouse to the very edge of the tower's topmost level.

"Invincible is so~ so lonely~ Invincible is so~ so empty~"

Humming a song he vaguely remembered from the movie he watched on his last day before rebirth and transmigration, Shang Yue gazed at the Tiancheng Transit Station, now thriving with over ten thousand traders from countless realms, and a confident smile curled on his lips.

"Little Yueyue, check how many system points are available for exchange right now?"

A violet-haired girl in a pale purple long dress, its hem fluttering in the wind and embroidered with delicate floral patterns, materialized from the air beside him.

Her gentle smile seemed capable of melting all things: "Including today's transaction commissions and our own shop's revenue, we've accumulated enough points to unlock the second phase of the former lord's hidden treasury."

"Excellent. Perfect." Shang Yue pulled the girl into his arms: "With this, my gap with Beiwunan Gua will widen again. Little Yueyue, when I become the official lord, we'll hold a wedding witnessed by all realms atop the revived Tiancheng."

"But I've always been yours," the girl blushed, squirming shyly.

Shang Yue smiled warmly.

Little Yueyue—the system's auxiliary spirit—was the legacy system left by the former lord of Tiancheng, awakening at a specific time after his reincarnation.

He was the former lord's reincarnation, but because those two great enemies struck too brutally, it took countless years for even a trace of the original lord's spiritual essence to repair itself within Tiancheng's cycle, eventually becoming the present-day Shang Yue.

Hmm. He's essentially another person—over ninety-nine percent of memories and soul have been erased.

But it doesn't matter. Shang Yue fully accepts this.

In its prime, Tiancheng could forcibly levy a thirty percent transaction tax on all goods traded within its walls.

Moreover, one had to pay an entry tax to enter, a cultivation tax to practice, and a residency tax for long-term stays.

Generally, merchants and sellers raised their prices slightly, shifting the burden onto buyers.

But once, according to Xiao Yue, a naive Xian Emperor visiting for the first time didn't know the rules—he sold a pile of goods, only to find he hadn't made a profit but actually lost a fortune.

The Xian Emperor came demanding a refund; the former lord refused, and as they fought, another demon god—long resentful of the transaction tax—interfered, causing the former lord's demise.

Serves him right.

Such a ruthless bastard—Shang Yue thought, who else would collapse if not him?

Though Tiancheng has only been in its early stages for less than five hundred years, since Shang Yue's return, it has gradually been flourishing.

It now includes worlds from some of his past-life novels, as well as many others with entirely different styles.

Once he completes trade volumes across realms to earn transaction points and unlocks the former lord's hidden treasury, retrieving its contents as trade goods—

Then obtaining full control of Tiancheng through the final trial will be ridiculously easy.

But there's one prerequisite.

"Have we left that previous void region?"

A flicker of unease passed through Shang Yue's eyes.

"Confirmed unanimously by all candidate lords, we've activated Tiancheng's backup hidden energy source—we've shifted to a new void dimension, and invitation tokens are being redistributed."

Xiao Yue nodded obediently, still shaken: "That revived power was terrifying. I wonder who exactly this Lu Mingfei is that enraged him."

Cassel Academy-level student.

Shang Yue had wanted to say that—but the thought brought an inexplicable feeling.

First, he'd seen a twelve-winged silver-armored dragon god racing through the void governed by the Dark Forest Law, galloping with a horse, then shouting "Lu Mingfei" in Chinese—yes, Chinese.

Reverse Great Heaven.

Upon hearing that name, Shang Yue's past-life novel memories violently assaulted him.

But it must just be a coincidence—same name.

Through Tiancheng's Ultimate Observation Array, he and all other traders within Tiancheng had witnessed that being: as it awoke, a terrifying, indescribably horrifying universe collapsed onto the tip of its spear.

Infinite ashes, cosmic extinction, countless calamities descended—yet that demonic figure stood firm in the void, devouring all within light and heat.

Without hesitation, every candidate lord agreed to Tiancheng's relocation and packed their bags overnight, returning to their own worlds.

"It can't be that useless guy I know."

Shang Yue looked down on the protagonist of that book—he had no patience for pathetic losers. As a real-life achiever and Tiancheng's prospective lord, he despised that cowardly, weak, whiny loser from the bottom of his heart.

"Forget it. Let's get back to business."

He pressed his index and middle fingers together, lifted Xiao Yue's chin, and smiled:

"Life is as easy as flipping your palm."

Under the girl's half-rejecting, half-accepting motion, Shang Yue's lips slowly drew nearer.

【Qiongqi Tower activated successfully】

A cold voice echoed throughout all of Tiancheng; the boundless void was colorless and formless, yet within this city, star-screens and lanterns shimmered in mutual radiance.

In an instant, a tower rose from the ground, its exterior resembling a tiger, sized like an ox, with a pair of winged sculptures forming its peak, ascending until it vanished into the false starry sky.

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