Beastmaster of the Ages

Tianming recalled Feiling mentioning something about him working for a salary and immediately understood.

”That’s the position I managed to get for you. It has a pretty good salary! The Brightflame Zone is where we of the second branch conduct our sales. The Grade-nine Department is for the sale of grade-nine divine artifacts. As supervisor, you’re to manage the department. Lin Goudan will tell you more later,” Dongshen Yue said.

”A sales position? Supervisor? Salary?” Tianming was quite overwhelmed. He really wanted to tell her that he was a cultivation genius and that sending him to do sales was a waste! Too bad, he had to feign being a hundred years old, and anyone of that age who wasn’t a stellaminor wouldn’t be considered a genius.

”What? You don’t want to go? Are you trying to rely on your wives to work for you while you slack off at home? Feng’er, you’re the heir of our line. Men can’t just lay around doing nothing! Even if you have to start from the very bottom, you have to give it your all, capisce?!” she said sternly.

Tianming almost freaked out.

She continued, ”Granny’s doing this for your own good. Once I finish setting the girls on the right track, I’ll come check on you. Even so, it’s still important for you to make your own progress in the clan, whether it be your disciple grade or merit points. Those are the most crucial parts of accessing cultivation resources in the clan. With regards to your grade, there isn’t a chance to raise yours, like the competition for the daisy ranking, so you can only focus on increasing your merit points. Given your current cultivation level, it isn’t realistic for you to go on missions to earn them. So, the only way for you to do so is to take up a position in the trade union and gain merit points to raise yourself up.”

Tianming blankly stared at her.

”Foolish child, don’t worry. Honestly speaking, your age, level, and talent don’t qualify you for a position like the supervisor of the Grade-nine Department. You really struck it big! At the end of the day, it’s an honorary position that’ll automatically give you a monthly salary. At the same time, it’s an opportunity for you to get to know the Lin Clan. Our clan rose to prominence through trade and business, after all.”

”It’s just honorary? A good position?” Tianming finally understood. He had thought that Dongshen Yue was actually going to send him to do actual work! Since it wouldn’t take much effort on his part and would also allow him to integrate into the clan, and with merit points to boot, he more than welcomed it. ”Then, Grandma, how many merit points do I get each month?”

”Fifty.”

”Fifty? That’s barely anything! My Ling’er got a thousand by taking first place!”

”You think that’s nothing? Foolish child, you have no idea what merit points represent. Fifty a month means you’ll be getting six hundred in a year. Xiaoxiao’s reward for second place is just six hundred, and only those three got any merit points at all. Hundreds of thousands of other children of the clan don’t even get anything. You can’t compare your salary to their prize reward.”

Didn’t that mean that Feiling and the rest were quite rich? ”What can I trade six hundred merit points for?”

”Let’s take the Grade-nine Department as an example. You should be able to obtain a grade-nine divine artifact in exchange for the points.”

Tianming made a mental calculation. A year’s worth of work was worth a grade-nine divine artifact. In a hundred years, he would have sixty thousand merit points. A century wasn’t a long time, according to those of the Lin Clan that lived for millennia. Grade-nine artifacts were still used by top geniuses like Lin Xiaopo and Lin Manman; it was already rather decent for Tianming to be able to get one such artifact by barely doing any work.

”You’re right, Grandma. Looks like it’s the only thing a pathetic hundred-year-old piece of trash like me can do to get merit.” Doing missions was completely unviable, too. Given his identity, he would more than likely be kidnapped for ransom if he left the Infinitum Swordsea.

”It’s only an honorary position, so you don’t really need to do much or spend time on it. However, you have to make an appearance to officially take up the position today. Familiarize yourself with the books and the structure of how trade is conducted. Once I’m finished dealing with the girls, I’ll bring you back to cultivate.”

”Okay! But where’s the Brightflame Zone?”

”It’s the main sector of our clan in the Infinitum Swordsea, located at the very front part of it. There’s a gigantic city where our Prime Myriadsword Corporation is based. That’s the largest corporation of our clan and it operates under the banner of the Prime Infinitum Trade Union. Ebonians from all over go there to buy things. Disciples of our clan can also use their merit points to trade there. That’s where the Brightflame Zone is. Lin Goudan will bring you there later in his mini ship. He’ll give you the details later. We have to leave now.”

”Got it!” In other words, Tianming only had to step up to claim the position before he could start planning his own cultivation.

”Remember! You got your position through connections! Others can’t get it even if they want to!” Dongshen Yue added before taking the girls with her.

”Bye, Big Brother!”

Tianming melancholically watched as they were forced to part.

......

Not long afterward, the mustachioed and sneaky-looking Lin Dan arrived. Waving, he said, ”Nephew, take a look at your new ride!”

It was a gigantic black sword about five hundred meters long, a mini ship made by the Lin Clan that was ideal for travel in Ebonia.

”Come take control of the core. After that, it’s yours.” The process was a rather simple one. Tianming gave it a look and realized that the structure of the mini ship was more complex than that of the Divine Sun Palace, despite its size. It could even fly much faster. The miniaturized nova source was located near the hilt of the sword and was much smaller than he was used to. The ability to shrink nova source to that size was a sign of impressive technical prowess. That product alone showed the intellect and wisdom of the Ebonian cultivators.

Lin mini ships were also available for sale; they were the flagship products of the Swordgod Lin Clan. Tianming noticed, however, that his mini ship slightly differed from those available to the market. The logo on the ship identified him as a member of the clan, which should give him some measure of influence should he head out.

After taking control of the ship, he found that it wasn’t as agile as the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, but it was far lighter than the Divine Sun Palace. Together with Lin Dan, he flew toward the Prime Myriadsword Corporation. Lifebound beasts were all over the mountains, waters, and airspace of the Infinitum Swordsea. The entire clan was always busy.

On the way, Lin Dan explained some details of the department to Tianming.