CHAPTER 462: AN ABSURD IDEA

Lin Mo stared at the notification, his mind quickly connecting the dots to a conversation he wasn’t privy to. The old man had been busy.

"Ah, it seems Taihao’s little project is complete," Xingxing noted, seeing the look on his face. "A convenient upgrade for your intelligence-gathering problem, wouldn’t you say? Your request for guidance on the Vindicator armor was a good starting point but it was reactive. Lihua’s advice was to build your network. Taihao’s solution is to give your network a divine sense of smell for corruption. Consider it a system-wide upgrade to your early warning system. It’ll help you locate these breaches more easily."

"The Great Poison Demon..." Lin Mo murmured, the name feeling strange. The Poison Demon Cult would be thrilled to find out that the divine being they’re worshipping had become part of the Pantheon.

"He is now a part of the system," Xingxing confirmed with a wave of her hand. "A highly specialized, if morally ambiguous, sensor. His unique perception of chaos and decay, when filtered through the logic of the system, becomes a precise tool for locating the very ’spiritual poison’ I spoke of. Where it is thickest, a dormant Anchor is likely hiding. A most elegant, if ironic, solution."

Danzhu grunted in agreement. "A good tool is a good tool, regardless of its origin. Now, the evaluation. Xingxing, your thoughts on the specimens?"

Xingxing shot the old sage a playful glare before turning her attention back to Lin Mo, her expression becoming more analytical. "Very well. The state of the First Heaven is... worse than we anticipated. However, hope is not lost yet. You did a great job expanding the store’s influence to this much in less than a month, Shopkeeper. That was more than commendable."

She gestured, and a holographic map of the domain appeared between them. "The cultivators’ response to our lecture was... fervent. The desire for a cure, a path forward, is a powerful motivator. You have successfully created a demand. Now, you must manage the supply. Your new alchemical products will sell out in minutes. You will need to ramp up production, or find a way to let them produce their own, even if slightly inferior to our products."

Danzhu grunted in agreement. "My formulas are a starting point, not the final word. The true path is to establish a local production chain. Give your ’Pioneer’s Initiative’ a new target. Don’t stop at Anchors, but rare herb gardens, mineral veins, and other resource nodes. Let them gather the ingredients. Then, use your ’Mercenary’s Guild’ to commission alchemists to refine them. Turn all these assets into your personal alchemical workshop. Besides, more lectures will be held in the future, it won’t be just us."

Lin Mo’s eyes lit up. It was a brilliant, self-sustaining model. He was already doing something similar with the Barter System, but this was on a much grander scale.

"A convenient and highly profitable idea, Sage Danzhu. I will implement it immediately," Lin Mo said, his mind already racing with the possibilities. "But what of the threats? The Western Sacred Lands? The Outer Realms? My ’Realm Guardian Leaderboard’ is just a temporary solution."

"Do you truly believe it is merely a temporary solution?" Xingxing corrected gently. "You’ve given your patrons purpose. It has turned a defensive war into a competitive sport."

Lin Mo’s lips twitched when she used that comparison. A competitive sport where dying is also a possibility. They may not have faced difficulty yet but he knew underestimating the impact of the Anchors and Towers would be a critical mistake.

He did plan to use them to lift the capabilities of the store’s patrons but can it catch up to the growing threat of the Outer Realms and those hostile forces of the Western Sacred Lands? It would be nice if they could also be plagued by Anchors and Towers, making them busy defending their territory, but the Violethaven Temple had shown that they could also maliciously use these foreign threats for their own gain.

The most ideal path is to stomp out forces and organizations that would be detrimental to the defense of the realm but at the moment, the Divine Convenience Store only had one Void Refinement Stage cultivator, whereas those from the Sacred Lands would have a deeper lineage and strong experts hidden from the surface.

Seeing him fall into contemplation, Xingxing continued, "A new phase is coming. Your actions have not gone unnoticed. The Violet Deity and his ilk will continue being a hindrance. Taihao will deal with them up there. However, you must deal with their followers here in the First Heaven. The Outer Realms will also not stop at encroaching upon us. As more time passes and unidentified Anchors continue to be breached, you’ll be faced with stronger forces."

She paused, her expression turning grave. "They may even begin to send champions. Individuals who can bypass the suppressive laws of this Heaven more easily."

Danzhu added his own grim assessment. "The Anchors will also evolve. You have seen outposts and command bases. Expect to see fortresses, mobile strongholds, and perhaps even... living Anchors. The war is moving from a series of skirmishes to a strategic conflict of high-value targets. The store allowed us to intervene, but not to the extent that we could repel them all for you. Thus, you must not relent in spreading your convenience, Shopkeeper."

Lin Mo felt a chill run down his spine. Champions. Living Anchors. The scale of the threat was escalating far faster than he had anticipated. And yet, there’s not really an easy way to accelerate everyone’s growth.

"This brings us to the final point of this debriefing," Xingxing said, her playful demeanor returning, though her eyes held a new, sharp intensity. "And it brings us back to you, dear Shopkeeper. Your network is strong, but a network is only as strong as its nexus. Your own power is growing at an astonishing rate, but you are still just a Foundation Establishment cultivator. You are the most valuable and the most vulnerable piece on the board."

She leaned forward again, her amethyst eyes locking onto his. "Lihua’s advice was sound. You must delegate. You must build your team. But there is another path. A more... direct one. A path of refinement that goes beyond just polishing the soul."

"A convenient shortcut," Danzhu grunted, a rare flicker of something that looked like concern in his eyes.

Lin Mo’s guard went up. This was it. The ’vixen’ part Lihua had warned him about.

"What are you proposing, Your Divinity?" he asked, his voice carefully neutral.

Xingxing’s smile was a thing of breathtaking, dangerous beauty. "I am the Goddess of Beauty and Refinement. My domain is not just the polishing of gems, but the creation of them. I can refine a mortal’s soul, but I can also refine their entire being. Their bloodline. Their destiny."

She extended a single, perfect hand towards him. "Taihao gave you the foundation of a sovereign. But a sovereign needs a lineage. A partner whose own essence can harmonize with yours, to elevate both to a level that transcends the simple progression of cultivation stages. That spark of divinity in your chest. It can be accelerated through a convenient, symbiotic merger of power and destiny."

Her gaze drifted for a moment, as if looking through the walls of the store, towards the four women he had just left. "You have several... promising candidates. The princess with the royal dragon’s blood. The prodigy with the Heavenly Physique. The swordmaster with the Golden Core. Even the poison queen with her unique, chaotic vitality."

Her piercing gaze returned to him, "But their essences are still incomplete. Unrefined. They are fine materials, but they are not the perfect match. Not yet. To truly forge a divine lineage, you need a partner whose own Dao is one of perfection. One who understands refinement on a fundamental, conceptual level."

She winked at him, sending a jolt through his newly refined soul.

"I am proposing, dear Shopkeeper," Xingxing concluded as her voice turned into a silken whisper filled with the promise of divine power, "A partnership. A personal one. You have a store to run. I have an eternity of experience in creating... masterpieces. Together, we could create something truly... inconvenient for our enemies. What do you say to a divine marriage?"

As her last sentence registered in his ears, Lin Mo tilted his head in confusion. Is this Goddess joking with him or not? She must be.

A divine marriage... What an absurd idea.