Please show your spirit to our ancestors

Chapter 180: Chen's golden opportunity for development
……

Yixianfang Market.

Yixian Tower, inside Dengxian Pavilion.

On the main seat, Lu Qingxuan, who was wearing an elegant long dress and was obviously well-dressed, was half leaning on the back of the chair, holding a cup of spiritual nectar tea in her hand. While drinking it, she listened absentmindedly to Lu Haobo's report on the recent situation.

That damned Huangfu kid kept calling her "old witch", which really broke her defense, but also made her a little alert.

Even though she is only about eighty years old now, she is still young in the foundation-building stage.

But the foundation of four spiritual roots is different from that of three spiritual roots, and the aging speed will be faster. She still needs to pay more attention to maintenance and means of delaying aging...

"Qingxuan, Qingxuan?" Seeing that she became distracted while listening, Lu Haobo frowned and called out to her a few times.

Lu Qingxuan suddenly came back to her senses and said apologetically, "Uncle Jiu, it was Qingxuan who lost his mind. Please continue."

"Ah~~"

Lu Haobo sighed in his heart.

This niece of mine has been a disciple of Shuiyue Sword Tower since she was young. She has never suffered any setbacks and has a rather spoiled temper. Moreover, probably because she grew up in a sect, it cannot be said that she knows nothing about family operations and business dealings, but it is definitely not her forte.

But he, Lu Haobo, had to take her as his priority. The reason was that she had the support of the owner of Shuiyue Tower above her and a child with three spiritual roots secretly born to the owner below her. This gave her a huge influence in the past and the future.

If the Hedong Lu family really wants to make some plans and develop, they must rely on Lu Qingxuan.

Lu Haobo took a deep breath, forced away his dissatisfaction with his niece, and said again: "Qingxuan, we have received too many orders for Yixian slaves these days. The total number has reached 1386, and the number is still rising. We must stop accepting orders! Otherwise, we will not have enough time to produce."

Hearing this, Lu Qingxuan frowned and rejected it flatly: "No, we can't stop! This is a rare opportunity. Our Lu family has already grabbed more than half of the traffic in Sheshan Market. Although our market is also on sale, it can lay the foundation for our Yixian Market to become the number one market in Hedong County!"

"Besides, although we have received many orders now, many of them are from Shangguan Yulong, which are the needs of Shangguan's distribution channels in various regions. If we don't take these orders, Chen will definitely take action and use jade slaves to fill those blank orders."

Upon hearing this, Lu Haobo remained silent and his expression became more solemn.

He understood that Qingxuan was right, but the endless stream of orders had far exceeded Lu's current production capacity limit, which made him feel a little uneasy.

"We are facing many problems now." He calmed down and analyzed, "The first is that we can't stop this 20% discount promotion. Although we have already negotiated with Master Yulong that the % discount can be deducted from his share, but according to the share ratio agreed in advance, we will lose about spirit stones on average for every Yixian slave we produce."

"The more orders we get, the more losses we suffer."

"We have to occupy the market even if we lose money." Lu Qingxuan interrupted resolutely, "Only in this way can we completely squeeze Chen out of the market. The loss of one body is only 20 spirit stones, even if there are bodies, the loss is only spirit stones!"

Lu Haobo was choked for a moment and smiled bitterly in his heart.

"Only" a loss of 100,000 spirit stones?

This is what you can say, Qingxuan.

However, he was already used to Lu Qingxuan's behavior, and soon calmed down. He still said seriously: "Losing money to grab the market is indeed an effective business operation, but the problem lies in our production costs."

"According to the budget cost made by Master Qi Ban, even if we use a large-scale assembly line that can produce a thousand at a time, the pure material and labor cost of a single Yixian slave will reach 140 spirit stones!"

"If we want to carry out large-scale production, we have to make a huge advance payment to purchase raw materials in large quantities, recruit skilled equipment refiners, etc. Even if it is a production workshop with a scale of 1,000, we have to make an advance payment of hundreds of thousands of spirit stones at once. The deposit alone is far from enough to fill the gap."

Hearing Lu Haobo's complaints, Lu Qingxuan frowned even more tightly: "As an old-established foundation-building family, we can't even come up with a hundred thousand spirit stones?"

"call!"

Lu Haobo took a deep breath and held back the scolding that was about to come out of his mouth.

He explained in the gentlest tone possible: "Qingxuan, you didn't manage the family finances before, so you don't know much about the situation."

"Normally, no one would be able to prepare so many spiritual stones in stock. In addition, we have already spent a lot of spiritual stones to acquire Cui's shares in the market and merge their industries. The current spiritual stone reserves are far from enough to meet the production needs of so many orders at the moment."

"Then let's borrow money!" Lu Qingxuan said without hesitation, "Our Lu family has many high-quality industries, including various villas, spiritual fields, and mining areas. In addition, we also control 80% of the shares of Yixianfang City. We can definitely borrow enough spiritual stones."

If he wanted to seize the opportunity to occupy the market, he could not give up the order, but he did not have enough spirit stones. Lu Haobo thought about it carefully and felt that the only way out was to borrow money.

He pondered for a moment and began to analyze: "The only ones who can afford to mortgage and lend us a large amount of spiritual stones are some of the Jindan elite clans in the surrounding counties, such as the Yuwen clan in Hebei!"

"But those Jindan families are not easy to deal with. Lending money to them is too risky. They might take this opportunity to extend their reach to Hedong County, or even do something in secret and take the opportunity to swallow up our family's assets. We have to be on guard."

The more Lu Haobo thought about it, the more he felt that this path was too risky. He glanced at Lu Qingxuan, then leaned forward slightly and whispered, "Qingxuan, can you borrow 200,000 spirit stones from the sect through Senior Shuiyue's relationship? We can use our property as collateral."

"No." Lu Qingxuan quickly shook her head and refused. "Although he can definitely make this happen, the Chen family also has a lot of spies and connections in the sect. Once we borrow the money, the Chen family will get the news soon. Let's not talk about whether they will interfere. Even if they succeed in borrowing the money, they will most likely use this matter to make a fuss."

Seeing Lu Haobo's disappointed look, Lu Qingxuan spoke to comfort him, "In fact, the fight between the Lu and Chen families for the position of overlord is a fight for family interests. It's best not to involve the sect. Otherwise, if we can rely on the sect for help, the Chen family will also use the sect's relationship! By then, wouldn't it become an internal fight within the sect?"

"If the matter gets out of hand and attracts the attention of the Purple Yin Sect Master, he will most likely smooth things over and order both sides not to fight among themselves."

As soon as these words came out, Lu Haobo's face suddenly became a little ugly.

This doesn't work, and that doesn't work either. Where should I get so much spirit stones?

"Oh, right." Lu Qingxuan's eyes suddenly lit up, and she remembered something. "I met Princess Yunyi of the Great Wu royal family at a party. We can go to the Great Wu Royal Manor to borrow money through the princess."

"Dawu Royal Manor?" Lu Haobo was slightly stunned. "Isn't this Royal Manor always open to lending business only to the Jindan upper clan? Can our family do it?"

"Don't worry about that. Princess Yunyi and I get along quite well, and we even exchanged communication talismans." Lu Qingxuan said, "Besides, the lending business is one of the main business directions of Dawu Huangzhuang. We announced to the public that we would not cooperate with the foundation-building families, mainly because the foundation-building families are small and find it troublesome. Our family needs to borrow at least 200,000 spirit stones, and we have a lot of abundant resources as collateral. With Princess Yunyi as the middleman, it is enough to knock on the door of Dawu Huangzhuang."

Because Lu Qingxuan has someone above her, she knows much more intelligence and information than the local families, and her network of contacts is also much wider than that of ordinary local families. At this critical moment, her advantages in this area are reflected.

Now that the royal family is in decline, most of the power is divided and controlled by the three major sects, and the fixed income resources they can control are very limited.

They could only rely on their strong family background and do some lending business to earn some extra income to supplement and support the royal family.

Due to its own special nature, Dawu Royal Manor will not extend its influence externally, interfere with local forces, or plot against the Lu family. This is a business that is beneficial to both parties. Therefore, Lu Qingxuan is very optimistic about it and talked to Lu Haobo for a few more words.

After hearing Lu Qingxuan's words, Lu Haobo suddenly became energetic.

It would be great to have such an imperial manor that was only responsible for providing spirit stones and collecting interest.

"How about this, Uncle Jiu, go and draft a loan application, and I'll go visit Master Qiban." Lu Qingxuan stood up and said, "Our spirit stones are hard to come by, and I have to urge that guy to save us as much money as possible."

As she spoke, Lu Qingxuan left gracefully.

Looking at her departing back, Lu Haobo couldn't help but feel secretly relieved.

Although this great-niece has many shortcomings, her own advantages are also obvious, such as her connections and upper-class knowledge, and the means to deal with people like Master Qiban.

He just expressed his feelings briefly and then immediately plunged into the massive amount of work.

same day.

There is a workshop in a hidden valley in Yixianfang City.

The workshop is very large and is surrounded by fences. Inside are various simple-style workshop buildings, warehouses, furnace rooms, and everything else that is in good order.

This is where Master Qi Ban refines the Yixian Slave.

Although Master Qi Ban looks ugly and unkempt, he is extremely serious at work, especially when it comes to matters related to refining equipment. Not only are there many and complicated rules, but the requirements for details are also almost harsh.

Under his leadership, the entire workshop seemed busy but not chaotic. At this moment, Master Qi Ban was directing some equipment refiners to build a production line for Yixiannu. He was very dedicated during the work and paid great attention to every detail.

The weapon refiners under his command were all in awe of him.

Lu Qingxuan was wearing an elegant palace dress and walked carefully around all kinds of stoves and tools as she headed towards Master Qiban.

When the weapon refiners around saw her, they stopped their work and saluted her.

With such a big commotion, Master Qi Ban naturally noticed it quickly.

He was stunned at first, then showed a look of disgust, and immediately wanted to drive her away and tell her not to make trouble.

However, just as he was about to speak, he suddenly remembered something and quickly waved to Lu Qingxuan: "That woman, come here, I just happen to have something for you to do."

"What?"

Lu Qingxuan was upset by his attitude, but for the sake of the overall situation, she suppressed her anger and said coldly: "Tell me, what's the matter?"

"Manpower, materials, and venues." Master Qi Ban spoke directly, his expression full of impatience, "We are short of everything now, especially skilled refiners. Bring me as many as you can."

After saying this, he waved his hand.

"Go ahead, don't waste your time."

"..."

The corner of Lu Qingxuan's mouth twitched violently.

She really wanted to take out a whip and beat that bastard a hundred times.

Seeing that Master Qi Ban was about to leave after giving his instructions, she hurriedly stopped him and said, "I can help you recruit people, but you also have to do something for me."

"I hate people like you who bargain at work the most." Master Qi Ban folded up his sloppy cuffs and cast a look of deep contempt at Lu Qingxuan.

But even so, he still responded honestly: "Okay, since I can't beat the owner of Shuiyue Tower, tell me what's the matter?"

Lu Qingxuan took a few deep breaths, and then evened out his breath and said, "The production cost of Yixiannu is too high now. Can you think of a way to reduce the cost to around 100 spirit stones under the premise of large-scale production?"

"Are you sure?" Master Qi Ban's pupils shrank slightly.

"I'm sure." Lu Qingxuan nodded heavily.

"Where is the owner of Shuiyue Tower?" Master Qi Ban threw away the things in his hand and said seriously, "I want him to send me to the Thunder Prison of Yunyang Sect. I am willing to spend the rest of my life to atone for my past sins."

"Ah this..."

Lu Qingxuan was speechless after being confronted by him. She could only make the next best thing and extended her thumb and index finger to make a little gesture: "Then how about reducing the cost a little bit, to 120 spirit stones?"

"I hate talking nonsense with people like you who don't understand technology." Master Qi Ban's patience finally ran out. He frowned and glared at Lu Qingxuan, saying angrily, "Get out of here, get as far away as you can, don't waste my time here!"

"For your so-called cost, I have already made the structure as simple as possible. No matter how much I optimize it, it will not reduce the cost too much!"

"If we really do what you ask, it will definitely seriously affect the service life of the Yixiannu. Conservative estimates show that it will be reduced by at least half. In addition, it will have to be maintained frequently during subsequent use, otherwise even its basic functions will be affected!"

After hearing the first few sentences, Lu Qingxuan felt disappointed. However, after hearing the last few sentences, her beautiful eyes suddenly lit up: "The service life is reduced by half? And the maintenance frequency will increase? Isn't this a good thing..."

"?" Master Qi Ban looked at her as if she were a fool.

Is this brainless woman crazy?
"I've seen the lifespan of the Yixian Slave. If properly maintained, it can be used continuously for about fifty years. This is really too long." Lu Qingxuan shook her head with some disdain. "Our Yixian Slave is sold so cheaply, so its lifespan should be shorter. Those Qi Refining cultivators can't expect to buy a Yixian Slave and use it until they are old, or even pass it on to the next generation, right?"

"As for increasing the number of maintenance times, that's perfect. We're selling our Yixiannu at a loss, so we have to make some money from after-sales maintenance to make up for the loss, right? Of course, we can't have people do maintenance right from the start. You have to design it so that the first maintenance is only needed after three years. The later it is, the higher the maintenance cost will be!"

Master Qi Ban widened his eyes and stared at the woman in a daze.

After a long while, he said, "I think many monks on the black list are innocent compared to you."

"What do you think? I'll take it as you agreed to me." Lu Qingxuan's eyes were full of excitement.

She felt that she had found a solution. As long as she could significantly reduce costs, Lu's company would be able to completely occupy the market, and Chen's jade slaves would be further marginalized.

"Not so good. As a weapon refiner, I will never allow you to tarnish my work!" Master Qi Ban was furious. "Get out of here. I don't want to see you again."

Unexpectedly, Lu Qingxuan sneered, narrowed his eyes slightly and said: "Aren't you looking for Mr. Mo Ye's manuscript?"

"How did you know?" Master Qi Ban's face darkened and he immediately became alert.

"Don't worry about how I know that." Lu Qingxuan stared into his eyes and said, "I only know that thing is very important to you. If you agree to my small request, I will mobilize all my connections to help you search for its whereabouts."

In an instant, Master Qi Ban's face became uncertain, and he began to struggle with his conscience.

"Hesitation means being tempted, and being tempted means you've given up on your persistence." Lu Qingxuan no longer despised him, and patted his shoulder with a smile, saying, "Then it's settled. I'll go find Mr. Mo Ye's manuscript for you."

After saying that, Lu Qingxuan turned around and left, no longer paying attention to Master Qi Ban.

*****
While Lu's and Yixian Market were working quickly for Yixian slaves, on the other side, this year's Sheshan Market fair finally ended, and related sales statistics were gradually compiled.

After what Lu Qingxuan and the others did, the statistical data was naturally very ugly, even falling below the sales data of the big market ten years ago, causing some people in Sheshan market to panic.

Jade Cliff.

The main residence of the Chen family is inside Moxiang Pavilion.

The head of the family, Chen Ningtai, who announced to the outside world that he was in seclusion, was calmly presiding over a small meeting within the family.

In the room, many core members of the Chen family gathered together.

Because of the incident at the fair, the core members of the Chen family, who were supposed to disperse one after another after the ancestor worship, stayed together.

Although there were many people present, the atmosphere of the meeting was exceptionally quiet.

At present, Su Yushan, the biggest manager of Sheshan Market, bowed his head and reported respectfully: "Master, I have secretly organized more than a dozen groups of people according to your instructions. A total of 379 Yixian slaves have been ordered from Yixian Market, and no one knows that it is our order."

"Thank you for your hard work, Yushan." Chen Ningtai was very satisfied with Su Yushan's ability to do things, and his tone was particularly gentle when he spoke. "However, this number is far from enough. Keep trying to grab more orders for Yixiannu. Report to me when there are more than a thousand orders."

Su Yushan's face turned serious, and he immediately accepted the order: "Yushan promises to complete the task."

After saying this, he respectfully stepped aside.

"Grandpa." Chen Jingyun stepped forward and said, "Our family's four armed transport spirit boats have all been dispatched to various trade areas to intercept and purchase the raw materials of Yixiannu in advance. In addition to the large amount of raw materials stored in our warehouse, I believe it is enough to make Lu's family suffer. When do we start to raise the price of raw materials? I can't wait to create some trouble for Lu's family."

"No rush. The Lu family spent a lot of money to acquire the shares of Yixianfang City and other industries a few years ago. It is not easy for them to get a large amount of spirit stones in a short period of time. Let's continue to purchase materials at the original price and wait for them to raise the price first."

Chen Ningtai issued one command after another with a calm demeanor and confident command.

He has been in charge of the Chen family for forty years and has experienced many ups and downs. Naturally, he has a very mature grasp of the situation.

In his opinion, Lu's ambition and Shangguan's backstabbing may seem like a trouble on the surface, but for Chen, it is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for development.

……

(End of this chapter)