Spirit Beast Abode, Uncle-Nephew Conflict

Chapter 48 Spirit Beast Abode, Uncle-Nephew Conflict

Hongyafang Market.

Early that morning, the crisp sound of firecrackers suddenly rang out from the southeast of the market.

Upon hearing that sound, experienced cultivators in the market knew that another new shop had opened.

Generally speaking, such commotion is only permitted when a new shop opens in the market.

Otherwise, shops or individuals who make such a big commotion in the market would normally have to pay hefty fines or even go to jail.

In principle, when a new store opens, the prices of goods should be slightly lower in the first few days or month to attract customers.

So whether they were there to watch the excitement or to take advantage of the bargains, many idle cultivators in the market flocked to the newly opened shop.

Spirit Beast Abode!

This is the name of the newly opened store today.

Just from the name, you can tell that this shop's business must be related to monsters.

Meanwhile, outside the shop, the newly appointed manager, Zhou Jiasheng, was all smiles, bowing and greeting everyone in all directions.

"Welcome, fellow Daoists, to my shop! I am Zhou Jiasheng, and I have been entrusted by my family to serve as the shopkeeper. Today is our grand opening, and all goods are on sale at a 10% discount. Fellow Daoists, don't miss this opportunity!"

Zhou Jiasheng is 62 years old this year. His hair is starting to turn white and fine wrinkles can be seen on his forehead. He no longer looks young.

He had a mustache and a constant smile on his face, giving him the natural air of a shopkeeper.

Zhou Daoyi chose him to be the manager because he had relevant experience and had a high level of expertise in identifying various common spiritual items, making it less likely for him to be fooled and receive counterfeit goods.

The reason for choosing Zhou Chun as a helper was that Zhou Chun had recently made many contributions and deserved to be rewarded.

Secondly, it was also known that Zhou Chun liked to read and study, and his theoretical knowledge had already surpassed that of his peers. If he could follow Zhou Jiasheng in the shop for a few years to learn and practice, he could turn his theoretical knowledge into real knowledge and be of great use in the future.

At this moment, upon hearing Zhou Jiasheng say that all goods were offered at a 10% discount today, many cultivators who had come to watch the excitement were tempted.

Immediately, someone walked into the shop while loudly asking, "Shopkeeper Zhou, what kind of treasures do you sell? Judging from the shop name, do you perhaps sell spirit pets and mounts?"

"Fellow Daoist, you are right. Our Spirit Beast Pavilion does indeed sell spirit beast eggs, and we also release some domesticated demon beast cubs for pre-order and sale every now and then."

Zhou Jiasheng nodded with a smile, confirming the matter.

Then, changing the subject, she continued, "But our main products are still pills that enhance the cultivation of spirit beasts, secret-recipe beast-repelling medicine, secret-repelling insect medicine, and secret-recipe spirit beast food. We can also customize breakthrough methods for spirit pets stuck at their bottlenecks—no success, no money!"

After saying that, he raised his hand in a gesture of respect and continued, "Of course, our shop will also buy all kinds of monster eggs and cubs, as well as various spiritual herbs and ores, and even information about certain monsters at fair prices!"

After hearing his words, many cultivators present immediately realized that it would be difficult to gain this advantage today.

Not everyone can afford to raise a spirit pet. Even among cultivators from immortal cultivation families, it's rare for only two out of ten to be able to afford one.

Since the Zhou family's "Spirit Beast Shop" mainly sells spirit pet supplies, what use would they have for buying it?

However, since they were already there, and considering that the shop also sold secret-recipe beast-repelling medicine, insect-repelling medicine, and other useful items for travelers, the cultivators still entered the shop with the intention of broadening their horizons.

Inside the shop, Zhou Chun, dressed in a light gray robe, greeted each cultivator who entered with a smile and offered his services to those who asked questions.

However, at his suggestion, notes were posted next to the counters in the store, clearly indicating the approximate effects and prices of the relevant goods.

The original custom of opening shops in this world was to "tailor the price to the customer's plate," meaning that the prices of all goods were kept in the mind of the shopkeeper and the shop assistant. When a customer inquired, the shopkeeper would sell the goods at a higher price if possible, and would also give the customer room to bargain.

However, Zhou Chun knew that doing so had both advantages and disadvantages, and it wouldn't be of much benefit to a newly opened shop like "Ling Shou Zhai" that needed to build a reputation and brand.

Therefore, before the official opening, he successfully persuaded the clan chief Zhou Daoyi to set prices for all goods and sell them at those prices, with no room for negotiation.

This is essentially like opening a supermarket in a cultivation world.

Zhou Chun didn't know if any other shops in the world had ever done this.

But he had never seen Hongyafang Market.

In this way, even if the "Spirit Beast Pavilion" approach is not easy for cultivators to accept at first, it will at least leave a deep impression on those cultivators who have been there and make them remember the shop.

This was the most practical reason Zhou Chun used to persuade Zhou Daoyi.

Moreover, the supermarket model has another advantage: it reduces the customer's inquiry process, allowing Zhou Chun, the shop assistant, to say less meaningless repetitive things.

After all, if the price isn't clearly stated, many cultivators, regardless of whether they can afford it or not, will try to inquire about the price and haggle over it first.

At this time, many cultivators who entered the shop were indeed surprised by the peculiar way of selling "Spirit Beast Shop", and many people expressed their opinions.

Some people think it's outrageous not to haggle, while others think that as long as the price is fair, it will save them a lot of trouble.

In short, many people look at it, but few people buy it.

After all, no one's spirit coins come easily; they're not something that can be used immediately, so most cultivators won't easily part with them.

What interested these cultivators the most was the "Spirit Beast Pavilion's" acquisition of monster eggs and information about monsters.

Many people are asking about the purchase price, and some are asking if they know information about the appearance of a certain monster and whether they can sell it to "Spirit Beast Pavilion".

They only want to earn spirit coins from the "Spirit Beast Shop"!

Fortunately, Zhou Chun was somewhat prepared for this.

He would give cultivators who inquired about monster eggs and monster cubs a general reference price for low-level or mid-level monsters, saying that the specific price depended on the quality of the monster itself.

When people asked about the acquisition of demonic beasts, Zhou Chun pointed directly to a white cardboard sign in the shop, which currently displayed several pieces of information about demonic beasts acquired by Zhou family cultivators.

The first item was Zhou Jiapeng's announcement about the acquisition of a female Ironfeather Falcon.

That's right, most of the information about the monsters acquired by the Zhou family was for the purpose of finding monsters suitable for breeding.

The cultivation world is so vast, and cultivators' footprints are everywhere. It is certainly much more convenient to use the help of a large number of cultivators to find information about the appearance of certain demonic beasts than to search for them on your own.

The fact that one can earn a considerable amount of spirit coins simply by providing a message has left a deep impression on many cultivators who come to the shop today regarding "Spirit Beast Pavilion".

After a flurry of activity, the first day finally came to an end.

When the night was deep and quiet, and most of the cultivators in the market had already gone to sleep and rested, Zhou Chun was still accompanying Zhou Jiasheng to take stock of the day's business income and expenses.

"Today, we sold a total of three low-level demon beast Firebird eggs, one low-level demon beast Gale Eagle egg, three bottles of [Beast Spirit Pills], fifty-six portions of secret beast-repelling medicine, thirty-two portions of secret insect-repelling medicine, and seventy-eight portions of secret spirit beast rations... The total income is seven hundred and fifty-six spirit coins."

"In addition, today we acquired a hundred-year-old Red Candle Fruit, a section of lightning-struck spirit wood, and two low-level demon beast Crimson Blood Serpent eggs... The total expenditure was 439 spirit coins."

Inside the shop, Zhou Jiasheng and Zhou Chun looked rather grim after tallying up the day's revenue and expenses.

On the first day of opening, which is when customer traffic is at its peak, it's normal for one day to be equivalent to a month's worth of business.

The fact that the income of spirit coins has not even reached a thousand is truly quite embarrassing.

There's not much to say about the expenses; they're all reasonable.

"Nephew Zheng Chun, what do you think of today's income?"

Behind the counter, Zhou Jiasheng closed the ledger and looked calmly at Zhou Chun.

Although he didn't seem to blame him, Zhou Chun knew that his insistence on clearly marked prices had indeed displeased this elder.

This is actually quite normal.

The longer a person works in a certain industry and the older they get, the more likely they are to be limited by their experience and become arrogant.

In Zhou Jiasheng's eyes, no matter how much Zhou Chun has contributed to the family or how smart he is, he is just a young junior who is only twenty-five years old and has no experience in running a shop.

He wouldn't have any objections to having a junior follow him around to learn how to run the shop; in fact, he'd be happy to have more people helping him.

However, the fact that such a junior colleague interfered and changed the store's operating model as soon as he arrived caused him, the store manager, to lose his authority.

How could he not be angry?

If Zhou Chun's transparent pricing has made today's operating revenue look very good...

Even if Zhou Jiasheng felt uncomfortable, he would no longer have any objections to it.

Unfortunately, the revenue on the first day did not meet expectations, and was even significantly lower than expected.

This made it impossible for Zhou Jiasheng to hold back his anger.

The calmer his expression, the more it reveals that the anger within him is burning ever brighter, requiring him to forcefully suppress and quell it.

But since he had asked, Zhou Chun still had to say what he needed to say.

He immediately cupped his hands in greeting and said solemnly, "Uncle Sixteen, you are wise. In my opinion, although today's income was somewhat below expectations, it does not mean that we have failed!"

"I'm sure you saw and heard it today, Uncle Sixteen: even those customers who didn't buy or sell anything at our shop were talking about our clearly marked prices. I'm sure you'll hear a lot of discussion about this tomorrow when you go out and about."

"With word of mouth spreading like this, even cultivators who aren't in the market today will hear about our Spirit Beast Pavilion's reputation when they arrive and come here out of curiosity to verify its authenticity."

"In that case, I believe that our Spirit Beast Pavilion will be bustling with customers for the next month, and we won't have to worry about the number of customers."

"As long as there are more customers, some of them will need the goods in our store, and it's normal for them to buy some goods on their way."

"Therefore, I believe that looking at one day's income alone doesn't prove anything."

However, after he finished speaking these righteous words, all he saw was Zhou Jiasheng's barely concealed sneer.

I'm rushing to finish! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the final chapter of Desert should be updated tomorrow!

(End of this chapter)