CHAPTER 469: FINAL EXAM?

Lin Mo smiled. The seeds he had planted would once again grow into a forest overnight. The community was self-organizing, self-correcting, and innovating at a startling pace.

"Boss, what are you smiling at?" Xiaoyu asked, peering at his screen. "Oh! People are still talking about the raid! It was so cool! I wish I could have used my [Nine Heavens Storm Fist] on that big metal guy’s face! I’m not strong enough yet. Hehe"

"You’ll get your chance," Lin Mo said, his expression softening. "Speaking of which, how is your own cultivation? After the lecture, you feel... different."

Xiaoyu’s eyes sparkled as she grinned and gave a thumbs-up. "Oh? You can feel that now, Boss? Nice."

"I feel clearer. Goddess Xingxing’s lecture was amazing. It learned more about control, Boss! My Nine Heavens Exquisite Body gives me a lot of raw power, but sometimes it feels like I’m trying to hold a thunderstorm in a teacup. Her method... taught me how to be the teacup and the thunderstorm at the same time."

She looked at her hands, and a faint golden lightning seemed to swirl around them. "I’m close, Boss. Really close. I can feel I only need more spiritual energy. Maybe after we help Elder Yu, it’ll be my turn."

"When it comes, you’ll be ready," Lin Mo said with confidence. "And I’ll be there to guard you."

"Oh. You better be!" She replied as she jovially hit his shoulder.

Their carriage arrived at the Jade Hollow hub in a blink. From there, they transferred to the small, silver falcon ship construct that Wu Meiyu had arranged to wait for them. The vessel shot into the night sky, heading towards the distant, icy peaks of the Northern Arctic Dominion.

An hour later, they arrived. The ship descended into the hidden vale, the temperature dropping precipitously. Lin Mo had to hug himself because of the cold but Xiaoyu laughed at him. After all, he’s no longer a simple mortal. He could use his spiritual energy to protect himself from the cold.

The young woman dashed away as she was certain Lin Mo was about to flick her forehead again.

And from there, they soon reached their destination.

The camp was a small, orderly island of warmth and light in the vast, frozen wilderness.

The members of the expedition team, seeing the royal vessel, were already on alert, but their tension melted into awe as Lin Mo and Xiaoyu disembarked.

"Shopkeeper! Sister Xiaoyu!" Little Spring and Meiling greeted them with cheerful smiles before respectfully bowing.

"It’s good to see you all safe," Lin Mo replied, his gaze sweeping over the camp. The slight redness of his face was already masked by the cold wind.

Then, he saw them.

Standing near the shimmering portal to the Secret Realm were two women. Chu Yueying leaned against a rock, her crimson robes a splash of defiant warmth against the snow, a teasing smirk already on her face. If she and Venom Master Xun stood side by side, many men would definitely find it hard to choose which one is the most alluring between them.

"Finally decided to grace us with your divine presence, Shopkeeper? Say, did you miss us already?"

Lin Mo ignored that last part and just nodded. Then, he turned his gaze to Yu Qingyan standing beside her.

Compared to the last time he saw her, the beautiful and capable Emissary seemingly experienced a profound, qualitative change. Her aura, once like a clear, flowing river, was now a deep, vast, and tranquil ocean.

The aura of her Golden Core radiated from her, stable, pure, and perfect. It was a presence that commanded respect not through effort, but through its existence.

"Shopkeeper," Yu Qingyan said, and her voice, though still gentle, now carried the resonant depth of a perfectly struck bell. A radiant, confident smile bloomed on her face, free of the last vestiges of the doubt that had once plagued her. "You came."

"I did," Lin Mo said as he put on a genuine and appreciative smile. "Congratulations on your breakthrough, Miss Yu. It seems my visit was... conveniently timed for the celebration."

"You could say that," She replied, her eyes twinkling in satisfaction. "But I must delay that celebration, Shopkeeper. We are still at an impasse. The path is blocked."

With that, she led them to the shimmering wall of emerald light within the Secret Realm. Master Xiu, the old formation master, was there, still studying it with a look of frustrated awe.

"It is a seal of pure, conceptual law, Shopkeeper," the old master explained, bowing deeply. "I tried everything but the formation was too formidable. It was locked, which requires a specific key. Unfortunately, we were stumped on what kind of key it should be."

"A conceptual law, huh? I’m afraid that if Master Xiu is stumped with it, this humble me, who’s not even a formation master, can figure it out," Lin Mo said, "But since Miss Yu asked me to come and check, I hope my insight can be helpful."

At his words, the woman in verdant green robes, Yu Qingyan, looked at him with eyes full of hopeful expectation. He had solved every other impossible problem. Surely, he could see something they could not.

"Let’s see. From your message, your group had already passed a few challenges. Yet you still believe you’re far from the location of the legacy?" Lin Mo asked, turning his full attention to her. Since all he had to go on was the hint from his Celestial Providence about Yu Qingyan’s fortuitous encounter, he needed to understand what exactly happened here. He needed the full picture and the data before formulating a hypothesis.

Yu Qingyan nodded, "Correct. The rewards we received were substantial, but they felt like... tools. Not the ultimate inheritance. The voice mentioned a legacy, but these tests feel more like a curriculum. A series of lessons. You were right to assume that I have already grasped a portion of its true meaning."

She began to recount the trials in detail. "The Archive of Whispers tested us in sorting information. Creating order from data chaos. The Weaver’s Loom was a test of logistics. We untangled a complex system and restored its operational harmony while defending against those who would disrupt it. The Sculptor’s Garden was a test of unified creation, of a team sharing a single vision to produce something new from raw materials. Each one is a core principle of a functioning enterprise. Or so that’s how I see it. What do you think, Shopkeeper?"

Her question carried a certain expectation as she waited for Lin Mo to finish digesting her words.

In a while, Lin Mo’s smile widened. Yu Qingyan truly grasped what she experienced.

"Information, Logistics, and Production. The three pillars of any successful business. And the first test, which you passed before even entering, was about finding comfort and camaraderie. That’s ’company culture’, if you will."

As much as he wanted to deny that this Secret Realm had to do with his ’convenience’, the evidence showed it was closely related. Or at least, it’s not the usual trials that he had read in a webnovel before.

It’s making his interest in the expert who left behind this Secret Realm rise.

He didn’t happen to be a divine being of the Pantheon, right? He thought.

Meanwhile, a wave of understanding washed over the faces of the expedition team. He had just laid out the entire philosophy of the Secret Realm in simple, modern terms.

"So what’s next?" Liu Xiaoyu asked, tapping a finger on the shimmering emerald wall. "If they’ve covered the internal operations, what’s left? Sales? Marketing? Do we have to pitch something to this shiny wall?"

Her words were meant as a joke but that sparked a flicker of realization in Lin Mo’s mind.

He looked at Yu Qingyan, at the Distributor Token that was subtly glowing on her belt, and then back at the seal.

"Liu Xiaoyu," He said as an audacious idea clicked into place. "You’re truly my prodigious assistant."

"Heh, I know, right? Wait, what did I say?"

Lin Mo didn’t answer her directly. He turned to Yu Qingyan and Chu Yueying.

"She’s right. It’s waiting for a sales pitch. This entire Secret Realm is not a dungeon to be conquered. It’s looking for a successor. It tested you in different subjects. Now, you’re possibly standing in front of its final test. Or an exam. You believed that you’re still far from the actual legacy but that’s because you might have to use everything you learned in order to pass it."

He gestured to the emerald wall. "It’s waiting for a proposal. A business plan. And you, Miss Yu, as the Official Distributor of the Divine Convenience Store, are uniquely qualified to deliver it. Please try it out along with your team. Xiaoyu and I will stand behind. We’re just going to be spectators."

Yu Qingyan stared at him, her mind racing to connect the dots. A sales pitch? A business plan? It was an absurd idea. But coming from the Shopkeeper, it made a strange, terrifying kind of sense. The puzzles had never been about their cultivation strength but their specific mindset.

A newfound, blazing confidence ignited in her eyes. This was her fortuitous encounter, and he had just handed her the key. "I understand, Shopkeeper."

She turned to her team, who were looking at her with a mixture of confusion and dawning belief. "Everyone, gather around. We have a presentation to prepare."