Everyone burst into laughter, convinced it was just idle fantasy.

  “Grandpa,” Lauren said seriously, “my master isn’t letting us live here for free. We’re expected to manage his businesses.”

  Preston nodded solemnly.

  “We know. From now on, the Evercrest family will serve the Immortal Venerable with everything we have.”

  “Master’s businesses span the entire Cultivation Continent,” Lauren added. “For now, we’ll be in charge of the Pill and Talisman trade. Once we prove ourselves, we’ll gradually take over more.”

  Medicinal pills and talismans—two of the most profitable trades—would now be handled by the Evercrest family together.

  The head manager of the Pill and Talisman Shop was already at death’s door.

  Lauren personally brought Preston to meet with her, slowly guiding him through every facet of the shop’s operation. The Evercrest family had dealt in talismans for generations, so adapting to the business came easily—it was only a matter of time before they fully took over.

  A month later, Lauren prepared to leave.

  Before she departed, she handed Preston a thick set of cultivation manuals.

  His expression changed instantly.

  “Lauren, we can’t accept this. Even someone from a small town like me knows that techniques from the righteous sects are never allowed to be passed on.”

  Lauren pressed the book back into his hands.

  “Grandpa, this isn’t from any righteous sect. I picked it up by chance. Just keep it. If we make enough money later, we’ll go to an auction house and see if there’s something even better suited for you.”

  Hearing that, Preston finally accepted it.

  Lauren then went to see Odessa and took out the Kotobuki Genka Pill and the Appearance-Stabilizing Pills she had bought earlier.

  “Mother, take these. Cultivate diligently here—breaking through to Core Formation is close now.”

  Odessa was overjoyed. “Our Lauren has truly grown up.”

  “You have to take good care of yourself,” Lauren said softly. “You must live long and stay healthy.”

  “I will,” Odessa promised with a smile.

  Nelson’s aptitude wasn’t bad, but the spiritual energy in their old remote home had severely limited his progress. Now that they were in Sunspire, where spiritual energy was far denser, reaching Core Formation on his own would no longer be a dream.

  ......

  After settling the Evercrest family’s affairs, Lauren resumed her worldly travels—still collecting debts for her master.

  This trip was exhausting, tedious, and endlessly annoying. She genuinely couldn’t understand why Drake insisted on running so many businesses.

  Before her, this kind of work had always been handled by her senior brother.

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  Now she seriously suspected that her master was secretly training her to be some kind of immortal CEO.

  Two months later, she finally finished reconciling all the accounts and collected every last spirit stone owed for the year.

  When she returned to the mountain, she delivered everything directly to Drake.

  “Master, the accounts are all here. The spirit stones are all here as well. Please check them.”

  Drake hummed absentmindedly.

  “Mm. Has your family been properly settled?”

  “Yes. Thank you very much, Master.”

  Drake accepted the spirit stones, didn’t even glance at the ledgers, and casually pushed the account books back toward her.

  Lauren: “…”

  “I’m getting old,” he said lazily. “These businesses will belong to you sooner or later anyway. You can decide everything yourself. You don’t need to report every detail to me.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  After a pause, Lauren couldn’t help asking, “Master… did you enjoy doing business when you were young?”

  “Enjoy it?” Drake snorted. “Of course not. I only opened a Treasure Pavilion in the beginning.”

  “Huh?”

  Drake fell into quiet reflection.

  “That year, during one of my training expeditions, I witnessed a Foundation Establishment cultivator of mediocre talent have his only Foundation-Building Pill stolen. He couldn’t bear the blow and committed suicide out of despair. That was when I decided to open a Treasure Pavilion. If cultivators stored their valuables properly, tragedies like that wouldn’t happen.”

  So that was it.

  Her master’s original intention for doing business wasn’t profit—it was protection.

  “Then how did you end up with an inn, a Pill and Talisman Shop, a materials shop, an armor shop… and even a teleportation array?”

  Drake sighed heavily.

  “Your senior brothers and sisters all followed my example and opened shops of their own. After they died, all of it fell into my hands to manage.”

  Lauren was completely stunned.

  After leaving him, Lauren went straight to Elder Zane to ask about Indiana.

  Elder Zane said, “Ever since you injured Timothy, Herbert has refused to let her step inside the sect.”

  “So she’s still outside the Moonlit Sect?”

  “Yes. She’s been lingering near the mountain gates this whole time.”

  Lauren frowned. Staying there for months—what exactly was she trying to accomplish?

  “Keep watching her,” Lauren said.

  “Understood.”

  Back at the lodgings, Lauren asked thoughtfully,

  “Do you think she knew things would go south the moment she left the Moonlit Sect—so she’d rather lose face than leave entirely?”

  Edmund replied calmly, “Losing the Moonlit Sect as a powerful backer would bring her nothing but trouble.”

  “Will the higher-ups still intervene?”

  “Not anytime soon. One day up there equals a year down here.”

  Lauren blinked. “That big of a time gap?”

  “Otherwise, with the death toll in the Upper Realm as high as it is, where would they find enough cultivators to plug the endless graves without a time differential?”

  Lauren stared at him strangely.

  “So we risk our lives clawing our way upward, only to become bottom-tier nobodies… and then maybe get our throats slit by accident?”

  “Who didn’t start from the bottom?” Edmund said lazily. “If you went back to Mistvale now, you’d be invincible across the entire city.”

  ......

  These days, Lauren’s life had finally slowed to a rare moment of peace.

  She gathered materials, refined talismans, and tended the small plot of spiritual land inside her inner space. Her master had told her not to rush her cultivation—she would only resume serious training after returning from the Far North with Dante and the others.

  Besides cultivation, she also needed to truly comprehend her Ice Domain during the trip to the Far North.

  When Herbert came last time, her Ice Domain had been completely shattered.

  She had never intended to rely on that array plate forever anyway. Against a truly powerful opponent, such plates would shatter in a single strike and become useless in the later stages.

  What surprised her, however, was that Edmund turned out to be a surprisingly good gardener.

  Under his care, the Ice Spirit Flower was thriving.

  Lauren circled the plant for a while, then asked,

  “How many years has it been blooming? When will it bear fruit?”

  Edmund glanced at her indifferently.

  “If you let that old man raise it, it would never bear fruit in its lifetime.”

  “…”

  Lauren hesitated. “Then what if you raise it?”

  “In another three to five years.”

  “So long?” Lauren muttered. “Then the Ice Spirit Fruit must be insanely effective, right?”

  “Of course. This isn’t even a native spirit plant of the cultivation world. The seeds came from an unknown realm. Even in the Upper Realm, it’s an extremely rare treasure.”