Chapter 329: 252: Exchange Meeting
Chapter 329: Chapter 252: Exchange Meeting
Although Yun Shu’s promotional methods were a bit too aggressive, the advantage was that they spread very efficiently. As the saying goes, “good news stays inside, bad news travels a thousand miles.” The reputation of Memory of a Thousand Years spread further and further due to the conflict between Yun Shu and Ban Que.
As a result, many connoisseurs of wine grew curious and wanted to taste it for themselves.
Soon, Jiang Cheng sold eighteen jars, subsequently completing the task of selling Elixirs.
As for the remaining inventory of wine, he was not in a hurry. After all, the longer the wine aged, the better it became. There was no rush to sell it immediately. Releasing too much at once could flood the market and lead to a drop in the price of Memory of a Thousand Years.
Following the completion of the task of selling Elixirs, ten thousand Contribution Points were unsurprisingly added to Jiang Cheng’s Disciple Jade Badge.
In the sect’s records, Jiang Cheng now had ten thousand historical Contribution Points to his name.
While ten thousand historical Contribution Points were nothing to scoff at, there was still a long way to go before he could meet the requirement for an Elder position.
Fortunately, Jiang Cheng was well-versed in completing tasks. As long as he maintained a steady pace, it should be possible to accumulate enough historical Contribution Points to qualify as an Elder within a hundred years.
One day, Jiang Cheng encountered a task that was safe but offered a high return.
The task reward was thirty thousand Contribution Points, and involved risk-free promotional work.
Using information provided by the Task Hall, Jiang Cheng smoothly located the issuer of this task, Elder Wu from the Inner Propaganda Hall.
Upon seeing Jiang Cheng and Liu Qing, two Foundation Establishment cultivators, Elder Wu’s heart sank.
“Are you two the ones who took this task?”
Jiang Cheng replied, “That’s right.”
Elder Wu, scratching his ears and looking restless, said, “Could you reveal your sect, if it’s convenient? It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I want to get to know more capable cultivators.”
Jiang Cheng mentioned the great name of Yun Shu.
Elder Wu’s hanging heart finally gave out.
He warned, “This task isn’t as easy as you think.”
Jiang Cheng nodded, “I know, we don’t take easy tasks.”
Elder Wu warned again, “This task comes with a penalty fee. If the promotional results are not satisfactory, it’s not just a simple task failure, you’ll have to pay compensation.”
Having recently made a handsome profit from Memory of a Thousand Years, Jiang Cheng felt confident he could afford the compensation, and so he once again indicated his understanding.
Seeing that Jiang Cheng could not be deterred no matter what, Elder Wu reluctantly explained the task details, hoping Jiang Cheng would back out.
“The Yuan Wu Sect, Flying Feather Sect, Cloud Thunder Sect, and several other righteous sect Masters will be visiting Tongtian Sect. One of the events is an ‘Immortal Technique Exchange Meeting.’ The goal is to foster exchange of Immortal Techniques between the righteous sects and facilitate collective progress. I know you don’t want to hear all this grand talk, so I’ll be straightforward.”
Elder Wu refined his language, “In short, the Immortal Technique Exchange Meeting requires a group of disciples to participate. Naturally, the more the better, but we need at least one thousand to fill up the seats at the event. It’s to avoid making the visitor sect Masters feel undervalued, like Tongtian Sect isn’t taking them seriously, and appearing stingy. But as you know, our disciples from the various peaks are dispersed, and their willingness to go out is not that high…”
Jiang Cheng got the point.
He refined Elder Wu’s meaning further in his mind: It’s like arranging for a thousand college students to fill seats at a meeting for leaders.
“Elder Wu, I understand. I just need to find a thousand people to fill the seats, right?”
Elder Wu expressed his difficulty, “It’s not that I want to make things hard for you, but filling the seats is just the minimum requirement. Ideally, the cultivators participating in the exchange meeting should have a wider variety of cultivation levels. If it’s just a crowd of Qi Training, Foundation Establishment, and some Core Formation cultivators, it’ll seem too fake. How are they supposed to exchange techniques with sect Masters from other sects? But considering you are new to the Immortal Sect and are also a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, I guess you’ll have a hard time networking with higher-level cultivators. So my advice is, you’d better not take this task. Otherwise, in case of compensation… it will be no small amount.”
“No worries, Elder Wu, you don’t have to worry, I can afford it.”
Seeing Jiang Cheng’s confidence, Elder Wu felt it was improper to persuade him further, so he reminded, “Well then, let’s give it a try, I’ll give you two months. After two months, give me a list of participants. And another thing, for this exchange meeting, our Inner Propaganda Hall has set aside an activity fund of one million low-grade Spirit Stones. However, its use requires an application and must be justifiably reasoned. Do you understand?”
“Understood.”
After confirming the details of the task, Jiang Cheng began to consider ways to recruit people.
Given that there was a fund of one million low-grade Spirit Stones for the activity, the simplest way to recruit people was to offer money.
One million low-grade Spirit Stones for a thousand people, on average each person could get one thousand low-grade Spirit Stones.
That was not a small amount of money; Jiang Cheng believed that as long as they distributed one thousand low-grade Spirit Stones among the Foundation Establishment Cultivators within the Sect, over half of them would be willing to attend the exchange meeting.
However, this would only attract Qi Training, Foundation Establishment, and some Core Formation cultivators.
Core Formation cultivators, including those above Core Formation, often would not care for a mere one thousand low-grade Spirit Stones.
Yet Elder Wu’s requirement was to bring more high-level cultivators to the exchange meeting.
A bunch of Qi Training and Foundation Establishment cultivators going to exchange Immortal Techniques with Unity Realm sect Masters from other sects? Wouldn’t that just be an insult? Any discerning person could tell that the Inner Propaganda Hall was just going through the motions.
Therefore, the key to completing this task lay in how to mobilize Tongtian Sect’s high-level cultivators to attend the exchange meeting.
Using the pretext of “exchanging spells” certainly wouldn’t work, because if high-level cultivators wanted to exchange Immortal Techniques, they could go on their own; they didn’t need to be mobilized.
After much thought, Jiang Cheng decided to mobilize based on the interests of higher-level cultivators.