Chapter 537: A Business Opportunity for the Gu Tribe

“It’s fine, I have emergency rations here, imported from another world.” Zhang Konghu truly lived up to being Commander Huang’s good friend.

He took out a bag of instant noodles from his storage ring.

Imported from the Mingzhong World.

Commander Huang: “…”

You all are feasting on fish and meat, wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to eat instant noodles?

Zhang Konghu read Commander Huang’s thoughts from his expression, so he took out another bag of seafood flavor.

Two bags of instant noodles, braised beef and seafood – the big fish and substantial meat.

“Isn’t the essence of dining about the atmosphere? Don’t you feel like something’s missing when I’m not at the meal?”

Commander Huang felt that as a mighty Unity Stage late-phase cultivator who could command wind and rain anywhere, how could he have so little presence in the Human Sovereign Hall?

Zhang Konghu thought for a moment, then asked in an uncertain tone: “Missing the sorrowful atmosphere?”

Every time Commander Huang eats happily, he can’t control his cultivation technique, enveloping the surroundings in a sorrowful mood.

When Commander Huang isn’t present, everyone eats quite joyfully.

“Come, come, now that we’ve finished eating, let’s do the Zhua Zhou ceremony.” Commander Ma cleared the dishes and began organizing things – this was the main event.

Zhua Zhou involves placing various items for the child to randomly grab; based on what the child picks, they speculate about the child’s future path.

Jiang Li asked: “Why do I remember that Zhua Zhou is done when the child is one year old?”

Commander Ma turned to ask Commander Zhuo: “Is that right?”

Commander Zhuo was also quite surprised: “I thought Zhua Zhou was conducted when the child was one week old. I thought seven days was too young, so I extended it to one month.”

Jiang Li began worrying about the child’s future – this couple had researched for centuries how to have a child, but hadn’t studied how to raise one.

“Everything is prepared already, it wouldn’t be appropriate not to let the child do Zhua Zhou. Why don’t we just continue like this.” Commander Ma didn’t care about such minor details, cleared the table, and arranged various small items.

Writing brush, jade flute, food, elixirs…

The infant made grasping gestures toward Zhang Konghu, still holding a grudge over Zhang Konghu’s misbehavior at the dining table.

Zhang Konghu thought his actions at the table had made the infant feel his goodwill and like him, so he made grasping gestures back at the infant.

After everything was arranged, Commander Ma lifted the infant like holding a radish and placed him on the table.

The little infant didn’t know what Commander Ma Zhuo wanted him to do. He couldn’t walk yet, sucking on his pacifier as he crawled randomly on the table.

Commander Zhuo was very nervous, not knowing what her child’s future would be like.

Commander Ma comforted his wife: “Don’t worry. If he grabs the writing brush, he’ll become a Confucian cultivator. If he grabs the jade flute, he’ll become a sound cultivator. If he grabs food, he’ll become a spirit chef. If he grabs elixirs, he’ll become an alchemy cultivator.”

Commander Zhuo was still worried: “What if he doesn’t grab anything?”

Commander Ma thought for a moment, then said: “That would mean he’s not proficient in any of the hundred cultivation arts, so he could become the Hall Master in the future.”

Hearing this, Commander Zhuo felt relieved.

But Commander Ma sensed a murderous aura behind him.

The little infant looked at the writing brush, disdainfully threw it aside, then kicked the jade flute, showing no intention of picking it up.

Food, elixirs, wooden dolls, rice paper… the infant wanted none of them.

Finally, he focused on a book. Because his hands were too small and he lacked strength, he could only grab one page of the book, managing to lift the entire book along with it.

The infant laughed very happily.

When Commander Ma saw the book’s title, his back instantly became drenched in cold sweat.

What his son had picked up was none other than the erotic literature that he and his wife had written.

Commander Zhuo pinched Commander Ma’s shoulder with a forced smile.

She felt her husband needed to properly explain today’s events.

“Let me explain, I just accidentally took it out from my storage ring, it was truly an accident!” Commander Ma vowed earnestly.

Heaven and conscience as witness, no matter what, he wouldn’t have placed erotic literature on the table.

Zhua Zhou was just for fun anyway – no one would take it seriously. Seeing that Commanders Ma Zhuo were having an intimate moment, Jiang Li didn’t disturb them but instead found Ayisu to discuss matters of the Gu Clan.

“Has the Gu Clan considered their path forward after emerging into the world?”

“We have. For the Gu Clan’s emergence, the first issue to solve is finances. In this regard, our clan has already conducted trials with very good responses.”

“What are they?”

“Right now it’s summer. For mortals, while there are industrially mass-produced Cooling Talismans so they don’t worry about heat, besides heat, summer has another problem.”

“What is it?”

“Mosquitoes.”

The mosquitoes in the Nine Provinces aren’t ordinary insects – they are mosquitoes with immortal insect bloodlines. Although their cultivation isn’t high, they’re agile enough to deftly evade mortals’ slapping attempts.

Some powerful mosquitoes have reaction speeds faster than Qi Refining Stage 9 cultivators.

“Our Gu Clan is most skilled at repelling insects, which naturally includes mosquitoes.”

“We’ve reached agreements with the city lords of several cities in Great Zhou – we’re responsible for driving away all mosquitoes, and the city lords pay us certain fees. If the results are good, we’ll establish long-term cooperation.”

The evaluation metrics for official promotions in Great Zhou are closely related to people’s livelihoods.

The Gu Clan’s first cooperation partner after emerging is Great Zhou. Great Zhou values laws and contracts, so there’s no worry about reneging. If it were the Great Witch Kingdom or smaller witch kingdoms near the Gu Clan, whether they could pay sufficient Spirit Stones would be questionable.

“Once our Gu Clan establishes a reputation in Great Zhou, more cities will contact us in the future.”

Jiang Li nodded slightly – the Gu Clan had truly found a good method. This was an extremely promising project, and Jiang Li genuinely hadn’t thought of anything that could compete with the Gu Clan in this area.

If they fully expand throughout the Nine Provinces, the Spirit Stones earned would be enough to elevate the entire Gu Clan by one level.

“How did you come up with this method?”

Commander Mu said quietly: “Hall Master, you haven’t heard the rumors in the martial world about the Beast Taming Sect, have you?”

“What about the Beast Taming Sect? Are they trying to reverse beast taming into human taming?” That was Jiang Li’s first thought.

“What human taming?” Commander Mu was confused.

“Never mind, continue.”

Commander Mu continued: “In recent years, the Beast Taming Sect has been dedicated to improving the strength of demon beasts. There are rumors that the Beast Taming Sect considers mosquitoes as part of the demon beast category, and they want to breed mosquitoes that can survive year-round and cultivate up to Core Formation Stage, even Nascent Soul Stage.”

As everyone knows, the Beast Taming Sect’s goals change with each new sect leader. According to Jiang Li’s knowledge, historically the sect has proposed goals like making demon beasts humanity’s best friends, creating harmony between demon beasts and humans, increasing demon beast diversity, establishing demon beast protection associations, and so on – some successful, some not.

Currently, the Beast Taming Sect’s goal is to comprehensively enhance demon beast strength.

“We don’t know if this rumor is true, but the prices of mosquito repellents and insecticides in the market are skyrocketing. After we two heard about it, we thought of this direction for the Gu Clan’s emergence.”

“…”

Jiang Li felt that the major sects of the Nine Provinces truly couldn’t stay idle for even a single day.

How idle must you Beast Taming Sect members be to include mosquitoes in the demon beast category?

Did the mosquitoes agree to this?