Within the Immortal Gate, for those at the Foundation Establishment level, making money was not a difficult task.

After all, every Foundation Establishment cultivator, as long as they were willing to spend time, could basically obtain a second-tier professional certificate in one of the hundred arts of cultivation.

Speaking of which, it’s a bit embarrassing, but Chen Mobai, the top talisman student of the 5012 class, although he had succeeded in Foundation Establishment, was still only a first-tier talisman maker.

His classmates, Si Guanyu and Zhuang Jialan, had studied diligently and passed the second-tier talisman maker assessment during their fourth year.

If it weren’t for Chen Mobai’s rapid advancement in cultivation, he probably would have already lost the title of “Top Talisman Student.”

A Foundation Establishment cultivator, with a bit of effort, could basically earn over a million Good Deeds in a year.

Chen Mobai calculated the amount of Good Deeds he would need to purchase longevity pills from the Yan Shou Academy to supplement 180 years of lifespan.

The life-extending pill at 8800 per pill, 30 pills would be 264,000 Good Deeds.

The longevity pill at 128,000 per pill, 9 pills would be 1,152,000 Good Deeds.

Since he couldn’t purchase the turtle longevity pill, he might have to endure the drug resistance and continue taking longevity pills after the 9th pill.

Yu Rulin once said that the Yan Shou Academy had conducted experiments; if the same person took the 10th longevity pill, the effect would only supplement 9 years of lifespan.

After that, each pill would decrease the lifespan by one year, and by the time the 20th pill was taken, the effect of the longevity pill would be the same as the life-extending pill.

However, there was still an effect; if one continued to take it, each longevity pill would still supplement 1 year of lifespan, until after taking 30 pills, there would be no effect at all.

If one took 30 pills of both the life-extending pill and the longevity pill, it would supplement 177 years of lifespan, almost exactly offsetting the side effects of the fruit of the Tree of Longevity.

He quickly calculated the price in his mind and soon had an accurate number.

4,104,000 Good Deeds.

Four million…

Chen Mobai’s mouth twitched slightly.

It was a bit pricey. The fastest method, naturally, was to resell the Foundation Establishment Treasures from the academy using academic credits. These items were in high demand throughout the Immortal Gate; as long as there was stock, there would be no shortage of buyers, and they would even pay a premium.

But this method could only be used in emergencies. Chen Mobai would eventually graduate and couldn’t always exploit the academy.

He still needed to find a way to secure a stable income. After all, although resources were scarce in the Immortal Gate, there were plenty of good things. It was always useful to save up some Good Deeds in advance.

After much thought, Chen Mobai also reviewed the legal texts of the Immortal Gate and found that most of the ways to make money had already been taken by others.

The most profitable was naturally pill-making.

But the six major pill factories of the Immortal Gate occupied most of the market, and the rest were places like the Yan Shou Academy, which specialized in certain areas and nearly monopolized the market.

And those areas of pill-making that the six major pill factories and the major universities of the Immortal Gate didn’t care for were unimaginably competitive. Chen Mobai had only inquired a little from Wang Xingyu before he gave up on the idea of making money from pill-making.

He had originally thought about smuggling medicinal materials from the Divine Wood Sect in the Tianhe Realm to sell here, but Wang Xingyu said that in the Immortal Gate’s medicinal herb industry, every herb that entered the market needed to be stamped by the Immortal Gate’s Medicinal Herb Supervision Bureau.

Privately, one could refine and consume some without following this rule, but if one wanted to sell in large quantities, it was impossible to bypass this hurdle.

The origin of the medicinal materials had to be clear, from planting to cultivation, to harvesting and storage, the process had to be transparent and complete; missing any part would mean no stamp.

Without the endorsement of the Immortal Gate’s stamp, no pharmacy would buy them.

After pill-making, the next most profitable were talismans and magical instruments.

Talismans had penetrated into every aspect of life in the Immortal Gate and were considered consumables. The competition here was relatively stable; as long as one could produce them and had a professional, certified talisman maker to stamp the practice seal, there would be buyers.

However, this relied on reputation, and even if Chen Mobai immediately passed the second-tier talisman maker exam, he probably couldn’t compete with those third-tier or even fourth-tier talisman makers who operated large factories.

As for the magical instrument industry, the most profitable were various household utensils, but Chen Mobai had no connections.

Formation infrastructure was even less worth considering, as he knew nothing about it.

After much thought, he still ended up turning back to pill-making and talismans.

He was familiar with talismans, and for pill-making, he had connections in the Tianhe Realm.

However, Chen Mobai was still just in the thinking stage and didn’t make any immediate decisions.

He decided to consult a professional.

Opening his phone, the avatar of the owner of the Wooden Spirit Talisman Shop he frequented in Danxia City was still lit up. Chen Mobai sent a private message.

The shopkeeper indeed remembered him, this big customer, and spoke warmly.

However, when Chen Mobai inquired about how to run a good talisman shop, the other party sent back an expression of speechlessness.

Who asks their competitors?

But this shopkeeper didn’t have any grand ambitions, and his shop was just a personal workshop, so he shared some of his experiences and insights from running the shop over the years.

After listening, Chen Mobai deeply felt it was not easy.

Without professional equipment and machinery, the shopkeeper had to painstakingly mix his own talisman ink. Fortunately, there were some small tools to help crush cinnabar, merge spiritual materials, and control the temperature with timers and thermometers.

If this were in the Tianhe Realm, where everything had to rely on experience and manual labor, Chen Mobai would have given up directly.

The advantage of a small workshop was that there were no maintenance costs for large equipment and no costs for hiring cultivators. Talisman paper could be purchased, and if the talisman brushes were well-made, they could be used for several years.

But the downside was that it couldn’t grow big.

The profit margin for talismans was already slim, and since any talisman maker could draw them, the competition was fierce.

Due to the industrialized system throughout the Immortal Gate, labor costs were saved, and the talisman industry had only about a 5% profit margin.

Even so, every year, at least a hundred new talisman shops registered for bankruptcy.

The Wooden Spirit Talisman Shop being able to operate for ten years on the Immortal Net and even make a slight profit each year was already a very good example within the industry.

[Generally, us Qi Refining cultivators, even if we pass the second-tier talisman maker exam, can only barely maintain a modest living. But those Foundation Establishment cultivators are different; if they are willing to settle down locally, places like our Danxia City are willing to allocate a piece of land to them for free to start their industry, and there are even various tax incentives.]

[So within the Immortal Gate, only cultivation level is everything. It’s just a pity that I failed at Foundation Establishment and now owe a large loan to the bank. Although I have cultivated back to the ninth level of Qi Refining, I probably won’t be able to advance further in this lifetime.]

[I can only hope now that my younger brothers and sisters who are attending university can succeed in Foundation Establishment, so that our family can have a chance to get out of debt and turn things around.]

Towards the end, the shopkeeper of the Wooden Spirit Talisman Shop seemed to be touched and sent a series of long messages, lamenting his hardships over the years.

Chen Mobai comforted him a few words and added his real-life contact information before calling his mother.

“What, you want to open a talisman factory?”

Tang Pancui exclaimed in surprise when she heard Chen Mobai’s plan.

“Yeah, I heard that Danxia City has a policy of giving land to Foundation Establishment cultivators who settle there, and I’ve just established my foundation, so I can’t waste it.”

Chen Mobai’s household registration had been moved to Chicheng Dongtian when he went to university.

Now that he found out there were such benefits to moving back, he naturally wouldn’t miss out.

“Son, I’m very happy that you have such entrepreneurial spirit, but starting a business is not a simple matter. After getting the land, you need to build a factory, where will your startup capital come from? Even if you build it, the subsequent operation and management team is another big problem. Even if all these are completed, there’s still the issue of sales channels for the talismans you produce…”

Tang Pancui, who had worked in a talisman factory for over twenty years, was very clear about the ins and outs.

“How about, for now, starting a small shop to accumulate some experience?”

Chen Mobai was lectured and felt that he had been a bit inconsiderate, but his entrepreneurial spirit was still alive.

As a trader between two worlds, he felt it was necessary to open a legitimate factory in the Immortal Gate as a cover for future large-scale smuggling.

“That’s best, and if you really plan to return to your hometown to start a business after graduation, I have a way.”

Tang Pancui suddenly said something that surprised Chen Mobai.

“Mom, you’re just a worker, and you have a way to start a business?”

“Our boss is said to be about to break through to the sixth level of Foundation Establishment. If he wants to go further, he definitely can’t stay in a small place like Danxia City; he must go to one of the big Dongtians to make his way. In that case, he will have to deal with his factories, and if I talk to him, if you’re really interested, he might be very willing to sell to you.”

Chen Mobai remembered playing in his mother’s talisman factory as a child.

He had also seen the boss a few times, a very gentle person.

Named Wu Shangru, he was a graduate of Danzhu Academy, who had succeeded in Foundation Establishment during his school years and was introduced as a talent by the Danxia City government. After years of hard work in talisman making and business, he had acquired his current industry.

But gains come with losses; the resources and spiritual energy of Danxia City couldn’t compare to those big Dongtians, and while he had earned tens of millions of Good Deeds, his cultivation progress was undoubtedly much slower.

If Chen Mobai remembered correctly, this Wu Shangru should be about eighty years old. If he couldn’t cultivate to the ninth level of Foundation Establishment within the next forty years and miss the peak of his body’s vital energy, he would basically have no hope of forming his Golden Elixir.

If he still had further ambitions, Wu Shangru should indeed go to a big Dongtian.

Obviously, this top graduate of Danzhu Academy still had aspirations.

In the evening, he personally called Chen Mobai.

Chen Mobai politely called him uncle, after all, he was an elder who had watched him grow up, and the latter was very pleased with this title.

Wu Shangru had long planned to leave Danxia City, but he had started his business with the help of the Danxia City government, and the current city lord took this as a favor and was not very willing to let this talent leave.

Although it’s said that the Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Immortal Gate’s seventy-two blessed lands mostly flowed out to the thirty-six Dongtians, the longer they could be delayed, the better. The city lord of Danxia City just didn’t agree to Wu Shangru’s departure.

And his Feitian Talisman Factory was also one of the local pillar industries. Although Wu Shangru promised that when he left, he would hand over his factory to local entrepreneurs, so there wouldn’t be a large-scale unemployment problem.

But if it wasn’t taken over by a renowned Foundation Establishment cultivator, this factory with an annual output value of several million would definitely only decline, eventually leading to bankruptcy and liquidation.

That’s why Wu Shangru, who should have left Danxia City five or six years ago, was held back here.

He had already found a way out; as long as he transferred his household registration to Huayang Dongtian and had the experience and dedication of working in the number one talisman factory of the Immortal Gate for sixty years, he could qualify to purchase a Water Yuan Jie Jin Pill.

Wu Shangru had actually joined the company twenty years ago, and now he was just short of the household registration.

Now that Chen Mobai had come to him, it was just right for Wu Shangru.

With this hottest talent from the Weapon Dancing Academy of the Immortal Gate taking over for him, Danxia City would probably send him off with drums and gongs to get Chen Mobai’s household registration moved back as soon as possible.

“Nephew, you’re helping me out of a bind. How about this, I’ll hire you as the spokesperson for my Feitian Talisman Factory, and I won’t pay the endorsement fee. After four years when you graduate, I’ll give you my industry in Danxia City, how about that?”

Wu Shangru proposed very sincere conditions from the start, and Chen Mobai thought about it and agreed immediately.

“Alright, then starting tomorrow, I’ll arrange for your mother to take over the talisman factory, and if you have time, you can come back to sign the contract. If you’re busy, I’ll personally come to Chicheng Dongtian to find you.”

Chen Mobai thought about it and felt it was better to go there himself.

After all, he had made a big profit, getting a fifty-year-old talisman factory with a good reputation for four years of endorsement.

Although the land belonged to Danxia City, the factory buildings and equipment together were worth at least nearly ten million Good Deeds.

Even if he put himself into it, he had originally planned to find a quiet place that didn’t attract much attention after graduation to quietly cultivate and improve.

Danxia City, his hometown, was just right.Before returning, Chen Mobai made a phone call to Qing Nv, but unfortunately, she was busy enhancing herself. Moreover, Danxia City would evoke her memories of Kong Feichen and Yang Jing, so she had no plans to return.

“By the way, since you were able to appear in Xiao Chi Tian, could it be that you are also in Chi Cheng Dong Tian?”

Chen Mobai suddenly thought of this question, but Qing Nv replied that she was not there.

“The spiritual vein of Chi Cheng Mountain is actually one of the ancient dragon veins. In theory, it can flow through most places of the Immortal Gate, which is why we chose to open Xiao Chi Tian here.”

“The four major Dao Institutes and the ten great Academic Palaces all have internal projection routes allocated by the Immortal Gate to enter Xiao Chi Tian. It’s just not as stable as in Chi Cheng Dong Tian, and the number of people who can enter is limited.”

“However, after this period of internal testing, Xiao Chi Tian has become more stable. Once the core fifth-order spiritual treasure is invested, the dragon vein of Chi Cheng Mountain will be fully activated, covering the entire Immortal Gate. By then, those Foundation Establishment cultivators who graduated from our four major Dao Institutes long ago will be able to enter one by one. Your unbeatable winning streak might be at risk.”

Hearing Qing Nv’s words, Chen Mobai simply chuckled.

“I’ve always been waiting for someone who can defeat me to appear.”