Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 195 Foundation Building Competition
"Junior Brother Zichen, sometimes when you encounter obstacles, you have to think more about your own reasons. I heard that since you took over the Qingfengfang shop, you have changed the rules for shop allocation?" Song Xian looked at him and asked, his words more stern.

When Feng Yan was the head of Qingfengfang, she had Jiang Zichen and Mu Hong under her. The rule set at that time was that half of the dividends given by the sect would be used as dividends, half of which would be given to each individual, and the remaining half would be recorded in the account book and distributed to each person in proportion.

For example, when Jiang Zichen was on duty, he sold a total of two thousand spirit stones worth of Jade Fragrance Pills. According to the rules, the sect would distribute one hundred spirit stones to the entire team.

Then he personally gets fifty spirit stones, and the other fifty go to the team. According to the proportion, Feng Yan gets twenty, Jiang Zichen gets fifteen, and Mu Hong gets fifteen of these fifty spirit stones.

This not only shows the team's unity, but also ensures that individuals get more pay for more work.

But after Jiang Zichen took over, he changed the rules. He also recruited two monks, but changed the original distribution plan to give the two monks an additional fixed reward of 100 spirit stones every year.

Qingfengfang earns more than 20,000 spirit stones every year, and the sect gives more than 1,000 spirit stones as rewards. He alone gets more than 800 spirit stones, and only gives 100 spirit stones to the two recruited disciples.

Song Xian never mentioned this matter because he had already said that 50% of the profits would be given to Qingfengfang Shop, and Jiang Zichen would have the final say on how to distribute the profits to the team.

He didn't want to interfere too much in the specific management of the shop, but in the past three years, the sales of Qingfengfang shop have been decreasing year by year, and he had to give it some attention, so he kept it and gave it a warning.

Jiang Zichen's face suddenly flushed when he heard this: "I feel that the newly recruited junior sister has no experience, so I changed it to a fixed annual salary."

"They have no experience, you have to be responsible for teaching them, otherwise why did you recruit them? No one is born with the ability, doesn't it all come slowly?" Song Xian's expression was no longer so pleasant, but a little more serious.

"You want the horse to run, but you don't give it good grass. How can that be possible? If you don't give them a share, how can they have the motivation to do everything they can to sell the pills? After all, the spirit stones earned are the same whether they put in the effort or not."

"Qingyun Sect can't continue on the same old path. I've handed the Qingfengfang shop over to you. Originally, I didn't want to interfere with how you manage it, but now the shop's performance is deteriorating, and it's the sect's interests that are being harmed. I have no choice but to say a few words to you."

"Junior Brother Zichen, you are an elder of the sect. We have come all the way from Qingyun Sect, and have endured countless hardships and received countless cold stares. You have witnessed our sect's development from its initial precarious state to its current success. You should know that the interests of the sect should be prioritized in everything we do."

"Back then, you wanted to learn puppet-making, but later you couldn't stand the boredom and wanted to go to the shop. It's up to you. Now you're not young anymore, you can't be so willful anymore. You should take responsibility."

"Originally, I wanted you to be fully responsible for the sect's business affairs, and take over from Junior Sister Feng Yan in the future. Given your current performance, how can I trust you with that?"

Jiang Zichen's face flushed, and he stood up from his seat, feeling very uncomfortable. "It's all because of my incompetence. I promise I will do my best to stop the decline in sales."

"You've been in charge of the Qingfengfang shop for three years, and its profits have plummeted. This clearly shows that that management method isn't working. It's better to revert to Junior Sister Feng Yan's previous distribution plan! From now on, all shops will follow this distribution plan. No further changes to the management distribution plan will be allowed. All shops will be managed by Junior Sister Feng Yan. If she wants to change the plan, she must consult with me."

"Yes. I will do as you say immediately when I get back and follow Senior Sister Feng's method." Jiang Zichen lowered his head, like a child who had done something wrong.

"It's been three years since you took over, and the shop's profits have been declining every year. Although you are an elder in the sect, you must give the sect a reasonable explanation for this matter."

"Disciple is willing to accept punishment."

"Your punishment is to find a way to halt this decline and improve the store's operations. I'll give you two more years. If you can't reverse the decline in profits within two years, you'll be removed from your duties."

"Yes, the disciple obeys."

"Okay, go ahead! Think about the problem and find a solution."

"Disciple takes leave."

Jiang Zichen lowered his head and walked out of the hall.

"Master, are you really planning to replace Junior Brother Jiang?" Zhong Wenyuan said with a frown after he left.

"Let's see what happens! If Qingfengfang continues to see declining performance under his management, then we'll have to fire him and replace him with someone else."

"Junior Brother Jiang has been following us since Qingyun Sect. Even if he hasn't made any contributions, he has worked hard over the years. If we take him down, wouldn't it be telling everyone that he doesn't have the ability? That would be too embarrassing for him."

"I didn't mean to embarrass him; he embarrassed himself. It's precisely because Junior Brother Zichen is a sect elder who followed us all the way here that I've turned a blind eye these past few years. The Qingfengfang Shop is the sect's main source of revenue. We gave him such an important position, yet he failed to manage it well. We can't be too protective of him; we need to give everyone in the sect an explanation."

"If the Qingfengfang shop still doesn't improve in the next two years, who will the headmaster replace him with?"

"Isn't Mu Hong doing a great job? Her shop has sold a thousand pills this year. If Junior Brother Zichen really can't do it, let her take over!"

"She was recruited by Junior Sister Feng Yan. Since Qingfengfang is such an important position, wouldn't it be better for her to be trained in another sect?"

"The capable are promoted, the mediocre are demoted. As long as they can bring more benefits to the sect, their backgrounds don't matter. Junior Sister Feng and Junior Brother Qi were also our later recruits, and they have made great contributions to the sect's development over the years. Now, under the leadership of Junior Sister Feng, the Humen City shop has become the sect's second largest source of revenue, and it is thriving. Anyone with talent should be promoted and given important positions. This is the key to the sect's development."

Zhong Wenyuan insisted, "It is precisely because Junior Sister Feng has been appointed as the head of commerce that I feel that the Qingfengfang shop should be replaced by a direct descendant trained by the sect."

"Mu Hong was originally recommended by Feng Yan to join the sect. The two have a close relationship. If we allow them to completely control the shop trade, they will easily form a clique and become too powerful to be controlled, which may cause trouble in the future."

"It may not be a good thing for the sect. This concerns the sect's finances. I think we need to balance the internal selection of merchants and traders."

"Brother Wenyuan, I understand your concerns. But they are all disciples of the sect, so we can't be prejudiced against them. We should wait until there's a problem before we solve it! Besides, Mu Hong is doing a good job, and being promoted to a better shop is a reward and incentive, which helps everyone work hard. We can't deliberately suppress her just because she was recruited by Junior Sister Feng Yan."

Song Xian certainly knew that Zhong Wenyuan had always favored disciples from the sect's direct lineage, and was always wary of the disciples he recruited.

In fact, he himself is the same. He has deeper feelings for Jiang Zichen, Zhang Ningyuan, Lu Yuan and other fellow disciples who have been through hardships together with him since Qingyun Sect, and he respects them more than others.

Therefore, important positions were assigned to each of these people, and Lu Yuan was fully responsible for the sect's finances.

Zhang Ningyuan is responsible for external affairs and material procurement for the entire sect.

Zhang Yi has now taken over the purchase of raw materials for Yuxiangdan in the Alchemy Hall.

Shen Fan is in charge of the Puppet Hall.

Xu Ning also runs a shop.

It could be said that he had already done his best to assign any lucrative positions to these elders from the Qingyuan Sect. However, as the Sect Master, at least on the surface, he could not show any favoritism and must be fair and impartial.

The performance of the shop that Jiang Zichen is in charge of has been declining for three consecutive years. If he does not intervene and take measures, not only will the interests of the sect be damaged, but even the prestige of the headmaster will be questioned.

Zhong Wenyuan was speechless and did not continue to dwell on the matter. He changed the subject: "Master, do you know? Junior Brother Zixiang has now broken through to the tenth level of Qi Refining."

"Oh? Really? When did it happen?" Song Xian was also happy when he heard that.

Ever since he discovered the second-grade inferior spirit pool, George Lam has stayed in the Water Curtain Cave for 365 days a year.

In the past few years, he had only returned to the mountain gate twice, once when Song Xian got married, and once to participate in the sect competition held by Luoyun Sect. Apart from that, he had never left there, and he did not even participate in the annual sect financial meeting.

He was a person who devoted himself to cultivation. When he was at the mountain gate before, he did not ask about the specific affairs of the sect. Now that he has a suitable training room, he devotes himself even more to cultivation.

Song Xian was very happy to see this. Lin Zixiang was the most powerful person in the sect who had built a foundation. He wanted Lin Zixiang to concentrate on his cultivation, so he naturally would not let anyone disturb him. He only asked Zhang Ningyuan to send him food regularly.

"About a month ago! Junior Brother Zixiang said that he would participate in this year's Beastmaster Sect Foundation Establishment Trials."

The so-called Beast Tamer Sect's Foundation Building Selection Competition is a competition hosted by the Beast Tamer Sect to select foundation building talents. It is held in the five cities under the jurisdiction of Xijiang County, once every ten years, and is a rare event.

The winners are decided through competition. Each city has one quota, which allows them to go to the Beastmaster Sect’s mountain gate to build their foundation.

In order to build a foundation, a cultivator needs to have a large amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth poured into his body, and then merge it with the spiritual energy from the Linghai acupoint to form a qualitative breakthrough. This requires a place where spiritual energy gathers.

If the spiritual power between heaven and earth is insufficient, a large amount of spiritual energy cannot be gathered in a short period of time and the foundation-building stage cannot be completed.

Therefore, cultivators who are striving to establish their foundation must find a spiritual vein with rich spiritual energy before they can build their foundation. At least a spiritual vein of the second-level medium quality or above can gather sufficient and pure spiritual energy in a short period of time.

Spiritual veins of this level are all occupied by large forces. If other small forces and independent cultivators want to build their foundations, they must borrow space from the large forces that occupy these spiritual veins.

The Beastmaster Sect's Foundation Establishment Selection Competition was set up for this purpose. It is held every ten years with the aim of recruiting cultivators in Xijiang County who have the ability to establish a foundation.

Because there is only one spot available and it is a foundation-building selection, the participants must have profound cultivation and strong personal strength.

The participants are all Foundation Establishment reserve candidates. You must have at least the ninth level of Qi Refining to participate in this kind of selection competition! Otherwise, wouldn't it be humiliating?

Therefore, those who can pass the selection must be the best among the cultivators in each city, the absolute elite among the elites. People with such strength have a higher probability of successfully building the foundation than ordinary cultivators who have reached the great perfection of Qi training.

The Beast Taming Sect gave them their own spiritual vein territory and granted them the opportunity to build their foundation. In this way, all the elites who passed the competition owed the Beast Taming Sect a favor.

In the future, if the Beastmaster Sect has any matters that are inconvenient for them to handle themselves, or if there are not enough people, they can ask these foundation-building cultivators to do it. This is a powerful force that cannot be ignored.

In addition, the Beastmaster Sect provides free spiritual veins to others to provide opportunities for foundation building, which also makes its reputation and word of mouth better, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

And those cultivators who have the ability to build a foundation naturally flock to it.

First of all, the spiritual land that the Beast Taming Sect provides to the winners of each city for building their foundation is the third-grade high-quality spiritual vein at its mountain gate.

It can be said that there is no such good place in the entire Xijiang County. The higher the level of the spiritual vein, the purer and richer the spiritual energy, and the greater the probability of successful foundation building.

Therefore, even a sect like Luoyun Sect, which has a second-grade superior spiritual vein, its disciples who are about to build their foundation will participate in the competition held by the Beastmaster Sect.

Not to mention the benefits of obtaining a third-grade superior spiritual vein to build a foundation, just from the perspective of the competition itself, this is also an opportunity to become famous.

The participants in the competition are basically the best at the tenth level of Qi Refining and the great perfection of Qi Refining. It goes without saying that they can defeat everyone and win the championship.

In the entire Xijiang County, only the Beast Taming Sect would organize such a competition. This was because it was powerful enough and was not afraid of the threats posed by the Foundation Establishment cultivators. Therefore, it was willing to offer its mountain gate spiritual veins in order to make friends with these future Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Sects in other cities, such as Luoyun Sect, although they occupy the second-grade superior spiritual veins, will never give them out for free to others to use for foundation building.

The reason is simple. If other forces in Bianxi City possess foundation-building cultivators, even if the relationship between this force and Luoyun Sect is very close, it will pose a potential threat to Luoyun Sect.

For a force like the Luoyun Sect, giving its own spiritual veins to others to use and helping others build their foundations is equivalent to digging its own grave. How could they possibly do such a thing?
Although Lin Zixiang has only reached the tenth level of Qi Refining, which is still a long way from the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, if he can win the championship in the Bianxia City competition in one fell swoop, he can use this quota to go to the Beastmaster Sect's mountain gate to build his foundation after he has cultivated to the Great Perfection, so he will definitely not miss such an opportunity.

"Brother Zixiang is participating in the Beastmaster Sect's Foundation Establishment Trial. This is of course a good thing, but there are many hidden talents in Bianxi City. It may not be easy for him to win the championship."

"Junior Brother Zixiang is also in the mood to give it a try. Winning would be the best, but even if he fails, it's just a chance to gain experience. Once he reaches the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, he can participate again. After all, the Beastmaster Sect's selections are held every ten years, so there's always a chance."

“It’s good to have this mentality.”

The two chatted for a while, and then Song Xian returned to the mansion.

As soon as I entered the inner room, I saw an old man with a face full of flesh and white hair jogging towards me.

"Oh! My dear grandson, you are finally back."

This person was none other than Old Man Hu. Song Xian felt a little overwhelmed when he saw him, knowing that there must be trouble again.

Ever since Old Man Hu brought his family to the mountain gate, he has hardly had a peaceful life. He has always been domineering and arrogant, relying on his status as Song Xian's grandfather.

Others knew his identity and did not dare to confront him, which made him even more arrogant. Even when he met disciples of the sect, he was not polite to them, let alone other mortals in the mountain gate. He became the bully of the mountain gate, and others had to avoid him when they saw him.

But Song Xian didn't know about this. He had no time to take care of these trivial matters, and no one would tell him. As the saying goes, strangers cannot separate close relatives, so how could an outsider complain about his elders to his grandson?

Besides, it’s not a big deal, so I won’t talk about it.

(End of this chapter)