Cultivation, Inc.I Use Capitalism to Fix a Dying Sect

Chapter 176: I Have Ultimately Become the Person I Once Hated

Zhao Lun presented a jade slip to Sun Yi with a respectful bow. “Headmaster, the inventory is complete.”

Sun Yi scanned the list with his Divine Sense. His eyebrows shot up.

“Over 150 million Spirit Stones worth of assets,” Sun Yi whistled. “The Zhou Family was a fat sheep indeed.”

“That much?” Elder Jin Jue gasped. That was enough to fund a sect for decades.

But Sun Yi quickly lost interest in the raw wealth. His attention shifted to the Zhou Family’s library—specifically, their Lifebound Spirit Beast manuals.

The technique allowed a cultivator to bond with a beast from the egg, creating a companion of absolute loyalty. If the cultivator died, the beast died. If the beast died, the cultivator suffered backlash. It was a high-risk, high-reward system perfect for the Qingyun Sect’s combat style.

“This is gold,” Sun Yi muttered. “We will establish a Spirit Beast Hall. All these manuals go there. We’re going to mass-produce beast tamers.”

He turned to Han Yun. “Elder, distribute a reward of 100,000 Points to every disciple who participated in this operation.”

Zhao Lun’s eyes widened. 100,000 Points? That was enough to buy buckets of Qingyun Dew.

“Headmaster,” Han Yun hesitated. “That is… extravagant. Are you sure?”

“It is an investment,” Sun Yi countered. “Points are useless if they sit in a ledger. I want those points converted into cultivation bases, weapons, and pills immediately. We are buying power with paper.”

“Understood!” Han Yun beamed.

“Now,” Sun Yi looked at the map of the Zhou territory. “This Third-Grade Spirit Vein is too good to waste. But we already have the Black Wind Stockade for our headquarters and Evil Spirit Valley for commerce.”

He tapped the map.

“We will turn this place—and every other captured spirit vein—into a Spirit Herb Garden. We will establish a Spirit Herb Hall to manage industrial-scale agriculture. We need to be self-sufficient.”

“A wise plan,” Jin Jue nodded, but his face fell. “But Headmaster… we don’t have the people. Our disciples are stretched thin building Dao Palaces and hunting demons. Who will farm the herbs?”

Sun Yi rubbed his chin. “Then we hire them.”

“Hire?” Jin Jue blinked.

“Social recruitment,” Sun Yi grinned, using a term from his past life. “We issue a recruitment order. We hire rogue cultivators and skilled mortals to manage the gardens for a salary. We pay them well, but they are contractors, not disciples.”

“But the secrets…” Jin Jue worried.

“They won’t see the secrets,” Sun Yi assured him. “They stay in the gardens. We send a few core disciples to supervise. It’s a classic outsourcing model. When our own numbers grow, we can take over fully.”

Jin Jue’s eyes lit up. “Brilliant! We use outsiders to do the labor while we reap the benefits!”

Sun Yi forced a smile, but inside, he winced.

Labor outsourcing. Zero benefits. Exploiting the gig economy.

He looked at the sky, feeling a pang of guilt.

I have become the capitalist boss I used to hate. Fine. I’ll just make sure I pay them better than Meituan did.

Sun Yi sighed inwardly. “唉，我终究活成了自己曾经讨厌的样子。” (Alas, I have ultimately become the person I once hated.)