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

Chapter 194: The High-End Thinking of Earthlings

Sun Yi surveyed the bustling plaza, nodding with satisfaction as he watched the chaotic swarm of rogue cultivators being organized into neat lines under Er Gouzi’s direction.

Beside him, however, Lin Hai frowned deeply. The new Hall Master of the Spirit Herb Hall looked at Sun Yi with evident confusion. “Headmaster, is it truly necessary to offer them such exorbitant terms?”

Sun Yi turned to him with a faint smile. “You believe they would have signed up just as enthusiastically if we lowered the benefits?”

Lin Hai nodded seriously. “Yes. To a starving man, a half-eaten bun is a feast. Offering them a banquet feels… wasteful. We should save those resources for our own disciples.”

Sun Yi chuckled softly but didn’t answer immediately. At that moment, Er Gouzi flew over, having finished delegating tasks to his subordinates.

“Changqing,” Sun Yi addressed his Vice Headmaster. “Lin Hai here believes we are being too generous with these rogue cultivators. What is your take?”

Er Gouzi straightened his back and answered with practiced loyalty. “Whatever the Headmaster decides is correct. I support it absolutely.”

Sun Yi rolled his eyes. “I’m asking for your brain, not your knee. Do you think the conditions are too high?”

Er Gouzi hesitated, scratching his head. “Honestly? Yes. It feels high. Even if we cut the welfare in half, they would still accept it with tears of gratitude.”

Hearing the Vice Headmaster agree with him, Lin Hai nodded vigorously.

Sun Yi shook his head, his expression shifting from amusement to that of a teacher addressing slow students.

“As the Vice Headmaster and a Hall Master, your vision cannot be limited to the present. You must look to the horizon. You need to open your minds.”

Er Gouzi and Lin Hai exchanged confused glances.

“Let me explain,” Sun Yi began, his voice taking on a lecture tone. “You’ve seen the growth of the Miscellaneous Arts Hall. With the Chaos Demon Commandery stabilized, our production capacity is about to explode. We will be churning out Spirit Weapons, Spirit Pills, Talismans, and Arrays at an industrial scale.”

“Do you think our own disciples can consume all of that?” Sun Yi asked pointedly. “We will have a massive surplus. To survive, we must sell to the external market.”

“But here lies the problem: To sell products, your customers need money. And they need to trust you.”

Sun Yi gestured to the crowd of ragged rogue cultivators. “If we enrich these people now, we are not losing money; we are cultivating consumers. We are putting Spirit Stones in their pockets so that later, when we release our high-end goods, they can afford to buy them. Furthermore, by treating them well, we buy their loyalty and brand recognition. When they have money, whose pills will they buy? Ours.”

“Don’t forget the Heavenly Saint Commandery’s merchant alliance,” Sun Yi warned. “They are established. Their brand is strong. If we want to compete, we cannot just rely on quality. We need to control the market itself.”

He turned his gaze to Lin Hai. “Lin Hai, have you calculated the yield of your one hundred herb gardens in ten years? In twenty?”

“Once the Alchemy Hall refines that yield, we will have mountains of pills. Are we going to do what traditional sects do and lock them in a dark vault to rot? That is foolishness.”

“A vault should hold a strategic reserve, yes. But the rest? It must flow. We sell the surplus to recoup capital, which we then reinvest into higher-grade materials to improve our craft. This creates a cycle of growth.”

Sun Yi’s words struck the two cultivators like lightning. The concept of ‘market liquidity’ and ‘consumer cultivation’ shattered their traditional understanding of resource hoarding.

“Consumers… need to be cultivated?” Er Gouzi asked, his mind reeling.

“Of course,” Sun Yi said, as if revealing a profound Daoist secret. “Think about it. The Chaos Demon Commandery has a fixed number of Golden Core cultivators. The Foundation Establishment market is weak because everyone is poor. If we don’t help them advance their cultivation and increase their wealth, who will buy our Tier-3 artifacts? Who will buy our high-grade pills?”

“We help them get rich so they can give their money back to us. It is the Dao of Commerce.”

“Investing in the future,” Sun Yi concluded, tapping his temple. “Although the Evil Spirit Valley Super Market is still under construction, the market preparation starts now. The resources we spend today are seeds. The harvest will be a thousandfold.”

Sun Yi left the two men standing there, their mouths slightly agape, processing the economic revelation.

“I’m going to the Refining Hall. Changqing, you handle things here.”

Sun Yi turned into a streak of light and vanished toward the sect’s industrial district.

Long after he left, Er Gouzi finally exhaled a long breath. Beside him, Lin Hai looked at the direction Sun Yi had flown with eyes full of reverence.

“The Headmaster… he is a peerless genius,” Lin Hai whispered. “His thoughts are like unconstrained heavenly steeds. Such foresight… it’s terrifying.”

“Indeed,” Er Gouzi agreed, shaking his head. “If he hadn’t explained it, I would have thought he was just being charitable. Who knew there was such a grand strategy behind a simple wage increase?”

“Whatever the Headmaster says is the truth,” Lin Hai said firmly, his loyalty now cemented by intellectual awe. “We just need to execute.”

Sun Yi landed at the entrance of the Refining Hall.

Two Foundation Establishment guards immediately snapped to attention, bowing deeply. “Greetings, Headmaster!”

Sun Yi smiled and nodded. “At ease. You’ve worked hard.”

“Not at all, Headmaster! Are you looking for Hall Master Yan? He’s in the main workshop. Shall I notify him?”

“No need. I’ll show myself in.”

Sun Yi walked into the hall. He was familiar with the layout, but the usual quiet of the entrance lobby was deceptive. As he passed through the corridors and stepped onto the floor of the main refining workshop, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He was prepared for activity, but the scene before him startled him with its intensity.