Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

In the corners of famous websites, on the walls of the skyscrapers in major cities of the federation, and before popular entertainment shows were aired, this advertisement named ’Ten Days Among Demons’ was played and replayed.

At first, many took it as just a random advertisement.

But soon, the delicate quality, the soul-stirring content, and especially, the fighting scenes from the first-person perspective of the Demon Beast Detector quickly distinguished ’Ten Days Among Demons’ from cliché commercials.

Many people watched the advertisement more than once since it was so breathtaking.

’Ten Days Among Demons’ was shot in a very skilled way. The protagonist never showed his face from beginning to end. The fighting scenes were controlled at the level of cold weapon. There were no dramatic, over-exaggerating scenes. The functions of the Demon Beast Detector were highlighted.

After watching the advertisement, the audience would feel that if they had a Demon Beast Detector, they could do exactly the same.

When they learnt that the advertisement was adapted from a true story, naturally, they felt more interested and scanned the rune with their mini crystal processor which led them to a website on the Nexus.

In the website, there was a brief introduction to Li Yao, as well as the interviews of several instructors of the Thunder Training Camp done by ’Predator’, confirming the authenticity of the whole event.

Other than that, Li Yao provided a series of preliminary sketches of the Demon Beast Detector. Shang Tianling also hired several artists to decorate the website with highly distinctive concept paintings, which were handsome guys and beautiful girls fighting demon beasts in Thunderous Sound Mountain.

An interactive game was installed to the website, too. Once the audience uploaded their photos, the website would automatically generate pictures of the audience hunting down demon beasts in the Thunderous Sound Mountain wearing the Demon Beast Detector.

Every time they refreshed the website, there would be a different demon beast that they were fighting.

Many users on the site refreshed hundreds of times in order to find the most satisfactory photo of them wearing a Demon Beast Detector.

Through the aggressive marketing campaigns, the Demon Beast Detector became popular among ordinary people. The slogan ’Demon Beast Detector, guardian of your life’ quickly became a catchphrase.

…

For Qiu Guanyu, the young master of the Zephyr Guild, and better known as the ’shark’, the past month had been pretty rough.

To suppress the Demon Beast Detector, the Zephyr Guild had invested countless resources.

Once the measures failed, not only would the resources be completely wasted, similar magical equipment refined by the Zephyr Guild would risk losing a large portion of their market share, which was the fatal problem that was facing the Zephyr Guild.

Qiu Guanyu didn’t have the slightest clue how the Mountain Sea Sect raised so much money and why it was spending the money in such a crazy way.

An advertising war was costly.

Qiu Guanyu had watched ’Ten Days Among Demons’ dozens of times without leaving out any details.

He was certain that the advertisement was created by the most professional culture-type Cultivators. The production of the advertisement alone could cost several hundred million.

Now that the advertisement had been released to all the major media in the federation, the advertising expense of the Mountain Sea Sect this month would be astronomical.

Even Qiu Guanyu felt a little shocked at the money-burning rate and the Mountain Sea Sect’s bravery, if not somewhat confused, too.

”The eligible crystal camera suppliers of reasonable scale have all been closely monitored, none of which had any plan to cooperate with the Mountain Sea Sect in the foreseeable future.

”The major magical equipment dealers haven’t received any message from the Mountain Sea Sect to sell its product yet.

”Which meant that it’s impossible for the Mountain Sea Sect to refine enough Demon Beast Detectors, nor can it sell the products to the terminal market.

”Then, why is the Mountain Sea Sect spending such a large amount of money on promoting a piece of magical equipment that it can’t manufacture and sell?

”Based on the current speed, the Mountain Sea Sect is going to bankrupt within the next fortnight without me doing anything because of the huge advertising expenses.”

Qiu Guanyu had thought that the Mountain Sea Sect might be able to find a new investor and raise another sum of money. But he had expected the Mountain Sea Sect to look for alternative suppliers to provide crystal cameras for the Demon Beast Detector to resolve the critical problem at hand. Then, it would need to renegotiate with several influential dealers to reestablish the distribution network.

Qiu Guanyu had stationed heavy troops on both paths. He had made sure that the Mountain Sea Sect couldn’t find a single qualified crystal camera supplier, or a single magical equipment store that was willing to sell the Demon Beast Detector.

However, it didn’t occur to him that the Mountain Sea Sect just bypassed his impregnable lines of defense.

Naturally, Qiu Guanyu felt uneasy, as if he had stepped off a step onto nothing.

The uneasiness soon turned into reality.

”The Mountain Sea Sect has found Jade Tripod Tower, Frostbite Valley, and Phoenix Union to provide the crystal cameras?

”What the hell?!”

Reading the latest investigation report in his crystal processor, Qiu Guanyu was stupefied.

The three suppliers that the Mountain Sea Sect found were all insignificant sects that never appeared on the list of the top 500 sects of the federation. They were not even professional refining sects.

The crystal cameras they refined were of low resolution and lousy quality, which had nothing special at all.

If the Demon Beast Detector utilized the inferior crystal cameras as its core component, its precision would be greatly diminished. Which Cultivator would buy that?

Is the Mountain Sea Sect committing suicide?

Qiu Guanyu was puzzled.

But the remaining part of the report dazzled him even more.

”What?

”The Mountain Sea Sect is releasing a cheap version of Demon Beast Detector targeting ordinary people?”

There seemed to be a lightning flashing in his head.

All the time, he had been trapped in the mindset that the war between the Mountain Sea Sect and the Zephyr Guild would burst out in the premium market for the Cultivators.

It never occurred to him that the Mountain Sea Sect would retreat and turn to the lower end of the market aiming at the ordinary people!

Countless ordinary people lived on the Grand Desolate Plateau.

Some of them were miners working for the major mining groups, some were the residents of the cities and towns, and some were the military soldiers and their families.

The number of ordinary people was hundreds of times larger than that of the Cultivators.

At a time when demon beasts went rampant, they needed to identify demon beasts, too.

A cheap version of Demon Beast Detector with a low-resolution crystal camera might not be able to meet the needs of the Cultivators. But for ordinary people, it was good enough to help them identify the type of the demon beasts, the toxicity of the demon beasts, the ways the demon beasts attack, or simply distinguish the demon beasts from regular beasts.

The Demon Beast Detector’s price had not been high in the first place. The price of the cheap version was even lower. After all, the most valuable component of a Demon Beast Detector was its crystal camera. A loss of resolution by half could result to a reduction of price by three quarters.

Qiu Guanyu finally understood why the Mountain Sea Sect was spending so much money on advertising.

It was trying to impress the ordinary people with the extraordinary functions of the Demon Beast Detector.

Cold sweat was appearing on Qiu Guanyu’s nose. He took a deep breath and asked his subordinate as calmly as he could, ”What’s the share price of the Mountain Sea Sect right now?”

”The Mountain Sea Sect has been suspended on the stock market. It is holding a press conference. A new shareholder is joining the Mountain Sea Sect,” his personal assistant answered nervously.

”Excellent. We’ll know who’s backing the Mountain Sea Sect now.”

Qiu Guanyu gnashed his teeth. The news was within his expectations.

Without strong reinforcement, the capital chain of the Mountain Sea Sect would’ve broken down long time ago, and the advertising war wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

The press conference that was being streamed on the Nexus soon began.

”’Twin Dragons Union’, a new sect led by Fiend Blade Peng Hai who is the youngest expert to arrive at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage in the federation, has agreed to buy shares of the Mountain Sea Sect, to the extent that the Twin Dragons Union will be the third largest shareholder of the Mountain Sea Sect!

”Fiend Blade Peng Hai also gladly accepted the invitation from Shangguan Jia, leader of the Mountain Sea Sect, to be the honorary chairman of board!

”Li Yao, inventor of the Demon Beast Detector which is the star product of the Mountain Sea Sect at present, is Fiend Blade Peng Hai’s junior brother and a shareholder of the Twin Dragons Union.

”After the admission, the collaboration between the two parties will be closer. It is also a sign that they are both confident about the future of the Demon Beast Detector project!”

With a darkened face, Qiu Guanyu watched as Shangguan Jia, Jiang Wenbo, Guan Xiong, Fiend Blade Peng Hai, and the rest merrily entered the conference hall surrounded by countless journalists.

Fiend Blade Peng Hai picked the crystal microphone and said with a smile, ”Friends of the news industry and financial industry, the press conference today has three purposes.

”Firstly, we would like to disclose the partnership between the Mountain Sea Sect and myself.

”Secondly, we’d like to take this opportunity to introduce to you the ’Young Pioneer Version of the Demon Beast Detector’, the latest magical equipment refined by the Mountain Sea Sect.

”It is designed to be a piece of affordable magical equipment for the people who live and work on the Grand Desolate Plateau. While most of the functions of the original Demon Beast Detector are maintained, our new product’s price has been set to a much lower price. The speed and manner of information presentation has been specially optimized for ordinary people.

”I believe most of you have watched an advertisement called ’Ten Days Among Demons’. In real life, the narrow escape of Li Yao, my junior brother, was based on the magical equipment of the same type.

”But before I dive into the details, allow me to introduce another distinguished guest to you. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you—”

”Shua!”

The curtain behind Fiend Blade Peng Hai was opened, revealing a banner that read: ’New Product Launch Conference. Co-hosted by the Mountain Sea Sect and the Moon Splitting Sword Guild.’

Fiend Blade Peng Hai intentionally uttered very slowly, ”Bu Changfeng, deputy leader of the Moon Splitting Sword Guild!”

As a short, stout man with a glowing face walked to the front, whispers of attendees grew louder and louder.

Everybody had heard a thing or two about Fiend Blade Peng Hai buying shares of the Mountain Sea Sect. But how was the Mountain Sea Sect related to the Moon Splitting Sword Guild?

Besides, wasn’t the Demon Beast Detector solely refined by the Mountain Sea Sect? Why was the Moon Splitting Sword Guild co-hosting the conference?

”What?!”

Qiu Guanyu’s face changed. He stood up uncontrollably.

The Moon Splitting Sword Guild was among the top 500 sects of the federations, which boasted a lot of potential.

However, for a long time, the Moon Splitting Sword Guild had been a pure sword-training sect which was adept at the refinement and utilization of flying swords. It had nothing to do whatsoever with either the Zephyr Guild or the Mountain Sea Sect.

Never had he heard that the Moon Splitting Sword Guild intended to march into the business of precise magical equipment refining.

The shadow of uneasiness inside Qiu Guanyu’s mind quickly expanded.

”Flying sword and Demon Beast Detector are two kinds magical equipment that can’t be more distant. What’s the deputy leader of the Moon Splitting Sword Guild doing here?”