Chapter 349: Cancel Outsourcing! Switch to Authorized Production!

Today was the first day of sales for the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator in Mingwang Province.

Even Ye Chen couldn’t help but pay attention.

While communicating with the immortal artifact and focusing on developing a short video application, he also awaited news from Mingwang Province.

When midnight arrived, Ye Chen’s Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator rang.

Taking a glance, Ye Chen smiled — it was a communication request from the Foreign Affairs elder.

With a thought, he accepted the request.

“Saint Master!” The elder’s voice echoed in his mind.

Ye Chen smiled slightly and asked plainly, “How are things on your side? Did any local factions cause trouble?”

In Yaoguang Immortal City, the Foreign Affairs Elder immediately shook his head and replied, “Saint Master, your recent battle shook the entire Mingwang Province. Here, you’re already recognized as one of the top three strongest individuals in the province. Not only did no faction dare to cause us trouble, but many even offered help.

“For example, Yaoguang Sacred Land waived a hundred years of rent for us and sent experts to help maintain order.”

Hearing this, the corners of Ye Chen’s mouth lifted.

In the cultivation world, where strength reigns supreme, power was indeed the most important thing — it deterred all threats.

However, Ye Chen thought ahead. As his business in Mingwang Province grew larger, not having a Great Advancement cultivator stationed there would eventually become a problem.

Even though his reputation was intimidating, conflicts would inevitably arise as Heavenly Origin Pavilion expanded in the province.

He couldn’t personally handle every issue in Mingwang Province.

Ideally, a Great Advancement cultivator could sit in his place and oversee the province.

The Great Advancement Realm was strong enough to handle most problems.

Unfortunately, the strongest individuals in his sect were currently only his master and Wang Changchun, who were both in the early Deity Transformation Realm — far from Great Advancement.

Wait…

Ye Chen’s mind flashed with inspiration.

He remembered that the sect had a Supreme Elder who had already reached the late Deity Transformation Realm and was quite renowned.

However, this Supreme Elder had entered closed-door seclusion 200 years ago, intending to break through to the Great Advancement Realm.

There hadn’t been any movement from this elder’s secluded peak, causing most cultivators in the sect to forget about their existence entirely.

If this Supreme Elder could break through, they would be the perfect candidate to oversee Mingwang Province!

The only question was whether the elder could achieve the breakthrough within their lifetime.

Ye Chen set these thoughts aside and asked, “How are the sales of the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator?”

The Foreign Affairs Elder, who had been waiting for this question, replied immediately, “Saint Master, today alone, we sold a full 10 million units of the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator. The number of authenticated users has already surpassed 5 million! And the line outside Heavenly Origin Pavilion shows no signs of shrinking.”

Hearing the report, even Ye Chen couldn’t suppress a smile.

Selling 10 million units in a single day?

This result was truly astonishing.

Even in Great Yan Province, when the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator was at its most popular, it never reached such terrifying daily sales figures.

Of course, several factors contributed to this.

For one, Mingwang Province had a much larger population — over 10 billion cultivators.

The province was also resource-rich, so its cultivators were wealthier.

At the price of just one mid-grade spirit stone, the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator was affordable for nearly all cultivators in Mingwang Province.

Even Qi Refining Realm cultivators could buy it without hesitation.

These factors combined created such an incredible sales record.

“Excellent! You’ve done well, Foreign Affairs Elder.” Ye Chen praised without hesitation.

However, the elder sighed and added, “Saint Master, today’s sales weren’t limited to just 10 million units. Due to our large-client services, major factions enthusiastically placed orders today. A total of 13 Sacred Lands and 52 first-rate forces in Mingwang Province have submitted orders for 140 million units.

“Since Mingwang Province’s stock is insufficient, I’ve already dispatched elders to deliver more.”

“140 million?” Hearing this number, even Ye Chen’s eyelid twitched slightly.

This was beyond his expectations.

With a profit of 70 low-grade spirit stones per unit after deducting outsourcing and material costs, 140 million units would generate nearly a million high-grade spirit stones in profit in just one day.

Of course, the profit from unit sales wasn’t Ye Chen’s primary concern anymore.

The real profit came from the user consumption generated after using the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator.

Elders and disciples of Sacred Lands and first-rate factions were high-value users with significant spending power.

Once they started using the communicator, it wouldn’t take long for them to generate massive revenue for Ye Chen.

Moreover, as high-ranking figures in Mingwang Province’s cultivation world, their adoption of the communicator would influence the rest of the cultivators in the province.

With the Sacred Lands and major factions leading the way, other forces would naturally follow.

This meant the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator’s future sales in Mingwang Province would be absolutely explosive.

While this was a cause for celebration, Ye Chen quickly realized something from the elder’s sigh. “Are we running out of stock?”

The elder immediately nodded. “Saint Master, you’re absolutely correct! We initially had 300 million units in stock, but with more large orders likely to come, half of our stock was consumed just today. At this rate, the remaining stock might only last a few days before we run out.”

The elder’s concern was valid.

Ye Chen had been stockpiling units in Heavenly Origin Sacred Land for this expansion into Mingwang Province, but he hadn’t expected the market to be this welcoming.

After a single battle, the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator had made a name for itself in Mingwang Province, causing demand to skyrocket beyond imagination.

Even 300 million units seemed like a drop in the ocean compared to the province’s massive market demand.

But running out of stock was unacceptable for Ye Chen.

Having recently achieved a perfect breakthrough, Ye Chen now required 500 million high-grade spirit stones to continue advancing.

This wasn’t a small amount.

Relying on the Great Yan Province market alone, which generated 2 million high-grade spirit stones per month, would take two years to accumulate the necessary resources.

Ye Chen wasn’t willing to wait that long.

The Mingwang Province market was crucial.

The faster the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator spread, the faster Ye Chen could progress.

Ensuring a steady supply was a must.

As he stroked his chin, pondering solutions, the Foreign Affairs Elder offered a suggestion,

“Saint Master, I believe we should increase the number of outsourcing partners to boost production. Additionally, we could consider outsourcing to local forces in Mingwang Province.

Based on my observations of the province’s major factions…

“The cultivation world of Mingwang Province surpasses our Great Yan Province in every aspect.

“Here, many factions have exceptionally strong artifact-crafting abilities. They can easily achieve a daily production capacity exceeding 500,000 units.

“If they are willing to handle production for us, the supply shortage we’re currently facing will be resolved effortlessly.

“Moreover, outsourcing production locally within Mingwang Province eliminates the costs and delays associated with inter-provincial teleportation arrays, significantly improving efficiency.

“But the problem lies in the labor fee we previously set for outsourcing. The factions in Mingwang Province might not be willing to accept it.

“After all, Mingwang Province is far more affluent than our Great Yan Province, with greater resources at its disposal.

“It’s likely that we would need to raise the labor fee to entice them.

“And if we increase the labor fee, our profit margin will decrease.

“This requires a decision from you, Saint Master.”

The Foreign Affairs Elder’s words were evidently well-thought-out.

After listening, Ye Chen shook his head. He had already devised a solution earlier.

Ye Chen had long ceased to care about the sales profit of Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicators.

Even if all three billion rings were sold, the profit would only amount to about two million high-grade spirit stones.

Nowadays, any single app generated monthly profits no less than that amount.

For Heavenly Origin Sacred Land, which earned 20 million spirit stones monthly, the revenue from selling the Little Spirit Communicator was a negligible percentage of total profits.

Yet, the two processes of partnering with production factions and selling the smart rings have consumed the majority of the Sacred Land’s manpower and resources.

The effort invested doesn’t match the output.

Instead of continuing this inefficient approach, it was better to abandon it altogether.

With this in mind, Ye Chen addressed the Foreign Affairs Elder, “There is no need to search for more production factions.

“Once the current inventory of Heavenly Origin Smart Rings is sold out, we will completely cease sales of the rings.

“The previous production partnerships will also be terminated.”

The largest production partner of Heavenly Origin Smart Rings was the Gu Clan.

However, due to Gu Yunyun’s deep trust in Ye Chen, she had uploaded many clan-exclusive techniques to the Immortal Net Sutra Pavilion without hesitation, even before it was officially launched.

This gave the Gu Clan a first-mover advantage.

As a result, the Gu Clan had made a fortune and wouldn’t be significantly impacted by losing the production business.

But the Foreign Affairs Elder stationed in Mingwang Province was utterly stunned by the Saint Master’s statement.

Stop outsourcing production?

Stop selling the rings?

How could this be possible?

Over the years, the elder had observed that selling the Heavenly Origin Smart Rings itself wasn’t highly profitable.

The real profit came from the activities and spending of users after they started using the rings.

But the problem is, without selling the Little Spirit Communicators, how would cultivators use them?

If cultivators can’t even buy the rings, how could the Sacred Land continue earning spirit stones?

Thus, the Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator seemed to be the foundation of everything.

I thought this was obvious, and surely, the Saint Master understood it as well.

So why did the Saint Master say such a thing?

For a moment, the Foreign Affairs Elder even doubted whether he had misheard.

However, Ye Chen’s voice came again, “The outsourcing model will be completely abandoned.

“Moving forward, we will adopt an entirely new licensed production model.

“We will directly sell Heavenly Origin Immortal-grade Core Iron Essence, certified by the Heavenly Origin Immortal Scroll.

“Any faction that purchases it will be authorized to use the iron essence to produce and sell Heavenly Origin Little Spirit Communicator independently.”

Hearing this, the Foreign Affairs Elder furrowed his brow.

Previously, the outsourcing model involved the Sacred Land providing the core materials, commissioning other factions for production, and then the Sacred Land would handle the sales.

In this process, the Sacred Land only needed to pay a small outsourcing fee, keeping the bulk of the profits.

But this new licensed production model seemed similar to outsourcing.

Both involved others producing the Little Spirit Communicators.

However, licensed production involved directly selling the core materials and allowing the buyers to produce and sell the final product themselves.

This would surely reduce the Sacred Land’s profits.

After all, selling raw materials would never be as lucrative as selling finished products.

No matter how he thought about it, the Foreign Affairs Elder couldn’t agree with this new model.

Thus, he cautiously asked, “Saint Master, wouldn’t selling only raw materials result in much lower profits?

“Even though our Sacred Land is already immensely wealthy, there’s no harm in earning even more.

“Why not continue with the current outsourcing model? I assure you, I can resolve the production capacity issues promptly.”

Ye Chen smiled upon hearing this.

He understood the elder’s concerns.

Selling only raw materials wouldn’t be profitable?

The chip giant Qualcomm from Ye Chen’s past life on Earth would surely disagree.

Qualcomm didn’t manufacture phones.

Yet, with its chips, it made 80% of phone manufacturers worldwide work for it.

Every year, phone manufacturers fought fiercely, with margins so tight they practically bled.

Meanwhile, most of the profits from the smartphone market were quietly pocketed by Qualcomm, which didn’t even make phones.

And this was exactly what Ye Chen intended to replicate!