"Hmm."
Jaekyung examined the fruit from Mook-soo in his hand. Its size was similar to before. But just from its glass-smooth peel and the pleasant, subtle fragrance it emitted, it was clearly more of a spiritual fruit than before.
Of course, while fine wrappings don't guarantee the quality of the contents, it's safe to say you'll never find a treasure in a shoddy package.
Crunch!
An advantage of being in human form was the ability to feel the pleasure of eating. It was true when he drank wine, and it was true now. It wasn't sweet, but a refreshing coolness that seemed to wash over his entire mouth spread within.
And before he could even fully savor the taste, he felt his mind clear and even his very spirit feel purified.
"Excellent!"
The words escaped him naturally. The mental fatigue and burden that even spirit wine couldn't completely soothe seemed to vanish, and he felt that if he started practicing his cultivation technique right now, it would be more effective. Wooo- Hearing Jaekyung's exclamation, Mook-soo made a low, boastful sound, shaking its branches and body.
Ignoring the creature's antics, Jaekyung focused on finishing the rest of the fruit and feeling its effects. After eating the entire fruit, Jaekyung determined that it was undoubtedly a spiritual fruit, worthy of being called a spiritual object. Upon eating it, his mind cleared, and it even seemed to have the effect of purifying his spiritual nature.
To him, these effects were minor and didn't last long, but Jaekyung wasn't the least bit disappointed. Mook-soo was merely a tree demon. Yet the fruit it bore showed a slight effect even on him, a Great Spirit Beast.
How astonishing was that! If it was effective even for a Great Spirit Beast like him, it would surely have a much greater effect on the demon races below him. No, not the demon races.
Those beggars without a single spirit stone to their names didn't deserve to touch such a precious item.
'The humans.'
After tasting Mook-soo's fruit and getting a general grasp of its effects, Jaekyung wondered if he could sell it to the humans. The demon races were fundamentally poor. When they got their hands on something good, they devoured it according to their instincts, so what wealth or treasures could they possibly have?
It might be different for a powerful Great Spirit Beast or a Demon King, but those at that level wouldn't need Mook-soo's fruit. So, that left only the humans. Similarly, late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators or Golden Core cultivators among the humans wouldn't need the fruit, but they had families and sects, didn't they?
In other words, there existed cultivators who, while weak in skill, had deep pockets. Jaekyung believed they would show interest in this fruit. Considering the fanatical interest humans showed in spiritual objects, they would surely pay a handsome price.
"Excellent."
Jaekyung praised the preening Mook-soo, boosting the creature's spirits. And when Mook-soo demanded more food, he readily nodded. He could supply Mook-soo's food without issue even before, so now that he was the master of a water territory, it was even less of a concern.
Moreover, knowing that this food would return as shimmering spiritual fruits, he could provide as many spirit beast carcasses as it wanted, though human corpses might be a different story. * Gwak Jeong-shin had been in a very good mood lately. He was one hundred and twenty-one years old.
Although he was still considered a young Foundation Establishment cultivator, that too would not last much longer. A little more time, and he would no longer be called young, and his family would no longer classify him as a talent. The Gwak family had no discrimination between legitimate and illegitimate children.
As long as one carried the Gwak surname and the Gwak blood, that was enough. What truly mattered was not whose child someone was, but the individual's ability and talent. This ability and talent were judged in two fields simultaneously: as a cultivator and as a merchant.
Given the nature of the cultivation world where strength was everything, this was a very unusual case. Talent and ability as a merchant? Who would care about such things?
To put it bluntly, if you needed spirit stones, you could just find someone weaker than you and receive their storage pouch as a gift! Only a place like the Gwak family, which effectively owned the Prosperous Treasure Guild as a family business, possessed such a peculiar internal culture.
They acknowledged the influence of wealth on Cultivation more than anyone else, thus they valued the talent for earning spirit stones as highly as the talent for Cultivation. Some ignorant people scoffed at the Gwak family's culture, but the Gwak family paid them no mind. After all, such ridicule never reached their ears.
It was only natural. Who was the master of the Prosperous Treasure Guild, and who was the Old Ancestor of the Gwak family? Who would dare not to bow their head before them?
As a proud member of the Gwak family, Gwak Jeong-shin neglected neither his duties as a cultivator nor his work as a merchant. At the Western Twin Lake branch of the Prosperous Treasure Guild, he had established his own standing and, though he never let it show, he secretly had his heart set on the position of branch manager.
Once he became a branch manager, the power he could wield within the guild would rise to another level, and he would also receive more support from the family. To put it more bluntly, the grade of spirit stones he earned would change.
More resources meant faster Cultivation, so if he could sit in the branch manager's seat, there was no reason he couldn't aim for the Core Formation realm in the future. Gwak Jeong-shin was confident. He believed the branch manager position would one day be his.
The problem, however, was when exactly that "one day" would be. Cultivation has its seasons. One need not look far; Gong Byeok-un, the Black Shark Gang Leader who had recently lost both his life and his business to his partner, was a prime example.
Though his cultivation realm had reached the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, he was too old, his vital energy was declining, and his potential was exhausted, causing him to stagnate, unable to advance to a higher realm. Gwak Jeong-shin worried that the branch manager position would fall into his hands too late.
Turning wealth into Cultivation required a significant amount of time and effort; he wasn't worried about lacking effort, but he couldn't help but worry about the lack of time. Cultivation that relied solely on diligence without pouring in wealth yielded minimal results.
At this rate, he couldn't even guess whether it would take a few years or a few decades to reach the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. Reaching the mid-Foundation Establishment stage after a few decades wouldn't be terribly late, but for Gwak Jeong-shin, who dreamed of the late-Foundation Establishment stage and even Core Formation, this turtle-like pace of Cultivation was unacceptable.
It was then that he met a Rememberance Cultivator, and a demon race one at that—it was truly a stroke of luck piled upon luck. That demon race cultivator, unlike typical demon races, was extremely rational and easy to talk to.
In his opinion, such a rare existence was worth investing in for the future, even if they couldn't be a major client right away.
But... 'Truly...
I never expected it.' That a client he invested in for the future would bring him such a huge deal. Besides, the investment he had made was nothing special.
There was almost no material cost; at most, it was just a small expression of interest. The Meat-Scaled Fish business had brought him a handsome profit, but more important was the network of contacts he built while conducting the Meat-Scaled Fish trade. The thing cultivators cared about most in their Cultivation was the absorption and accumulation of spiritual energy.
In the Qi Refining Stage, it was only natural to care, as one needed to accumulate enough spiritual energy to advance their realm, and even after entering the Foundation Establishment stage, though the priority lessened slightly, absorbing spiritual energy and accumulating spiritual power was still important. Vital energy was, so to speak, the icing on the cake.
It was good if you could increase it, but it wasn't a big deal if you couldn't. Those old enough to worry about the decline of vital energy might be desperate for it, but otherwise, paying attention to vital energy was a kind of luxury.
That's right. A luxury.
That's why it was important. What is a luxury? Isn't it a privilege of the wealthy or the foolish, in other words, those from whom it's easy to extract spirit stones?
As a merchant, one must interact with such excellent customers, and no amount of such interaction is ever enough. In other words, the Meat-Scaled Fish business not only earned Gwak Jeong-shin spirit stones but also opened a more important path for him. A benefactor, he was a benefactor.
No, should I say an esteemed serpent, or an esteemed demon? In any case, that precious client had requested a meeting with him. He said he had something to discuss regarding business.
'What could it be?' It probably wasn't about the Meat-Scaled Fish business. After all, he had seemed satisfied when the payment was delivered just a short while ago.
Then could it be a discussion about a new venture? But what other business was there to be done on Black Flood Dragon Island? Surely he wasn't planning to capture and sell the humans in the Black Flood Dragon water territory?
As Gwak Jeong-shin exercised his merchant's imagination and arrived at Black Flood Dragon Island, he was greeted not by a giant serpent-like Great Spirit Beast, but by a pale-faced man sipping spirit wine.
'Astonishing.'
Gwak Jeong-shin's eyes sparkled. If this were the middle of the Great Capital, he would not have recognized this man with a cool demeanor as a Great Spirit Beast. His energy was so perfectly contained that not a wisp of demonic energy leaked out.
Who would think this man was a Great Spirit stage demon race?
"An amazing Transformation Secret Art. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say you've achieved great mastery."
"Great mastery? I'm still far from it."
After exchanging conventional pleasantries, praising each other with words like 'you look well' or 'your cultivation seems to have deepened', they soon got down to business. Neither of them was idle, and the purpose of their meeting was clear, so there was no need to waste time beating around the bush.
"Would you like to take a look?"
"Hmm? What is this?"
Gwak Jeong-shin was puzzled seeing the fruit Jaekyung took out, but his expression changed as soon as he held it in his hand.
"This is... a spiritual fruit?"
"As expected, you recognize it at once."
With a serious face, Gwak Jeong-shin carefully examined the spiritual fruit in his hand.
"My knowledge is limited, so I couldn't tell if this spiritual fruit has a name or not, but after eating it, it seems to have the effect of clearing the mind and purifying one's spiritual nature."
"Clears the mind and purifies one's spiritual nature?"
Seeing Gwak Jeong-shin's skepticism, Jaekyung smiled and gestured to him.
"See for yourself."
Gwak Jeong-shin seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then carefully took a bite of the spiritual fruit. And he confirmed that there was no lie in what Jaekyung had said.
"Dao Friend Jaekyung. This is........."
"It's quite something, isn't it?"
A small smile appeared on Jaekyung's lips.
"That spiritual fruit is especially beneficial to the demon race. As you know, most demon races, who build their Cultivation by eating this and that according to their instincts, have poor spiritual wisdom and a turbid spiritual nature. That spiritual fruit perfectly resolves this cultivation difficulty for the demon race."
Jaekyung's words might have been exaggerated, but the content itself was not wrong. Knowing this, Gwak Jeong-shin nodded silently.
"A group of demon races were fighting over that spiritual fruit, so I went and collected it. If nothing unexpected happens, I think I'll be able to harvest the spiritual fruit regularly in the future. I'm curious if human cultivators would be interested in that spiritual fruit."
Jaekyung's eyes gleamed, and Gwak Jeong-shin's eyes gleamed in return. In that moment, they were true Dao Friends.