Under their inquiring gazes, Lin Mo introduced Jiang Jianxin to the five people, "This is Lady Jiang Jianxin, the Sword Fairy, one of our store’s Golden Patrons."

The title ’Golden Patron’ was foreign to them since Lin Mo hadn’t mentioned it to them yet. However, the aura she passively radiated was a universal language. Despite actively suppressing her golden core, they could sense the sharpness of her Sword Intent. If Jiang Jianxin willed it, she could cut them all down without lifting a hand.

"A Golden Patron..." Luo Lanyi muttered in awe before hurriedly shaking her head to clear her thoughts. She then presented the ledger to Lin Mo as well as the accomplishment reports regarding the takeover of the Seven Valleys Alliance’s territory, headed by Tiger Lord and Iron Pan.

"Shopkeeper, 90% of our stocks have been successfully traded to Star-Forged Iron. The remaining 10% were used as supplies by the Harvesters and the Iron Crane guards to secure the new territories and pacify the remnants of the Seven Valleys Alliance."

Lin Mo took the heavy bamboo ledge, brushing his thumb over the meticulously carved characters. He didn’t need to read every line within. The summary provided by the Divine System Interface overlay confirmed her calculations.

The integration of the Seven Valleys Alliance territories had resulted in a massive influx of raw materials. Over two thousand tons of raw Star-Forged Iron had been stockpiled in the merchant house’s warehouses, alongside crates of rare, high-altitude spirit herbs that only grew in the desolate peaks of this fractured plane.

In exchange, the initial stock of [Taihao Spicy Noodles], [Heavenly Dew Soda], [Clear Sky Mint Mints], [Fruity Healing Tablets] and [Stamina Gum] had been completely liquidated. And it created a new dependency on the store’s consumables among the martial artists.

Lin Mo gave Luo Lanyi a single, approving nod. The young merchant had executed his vision flawlessly. She had built the market.

Next, he dove into the reports regarding the absorption of the Seven Valleys Alliance territories. Like he had commanded, Tiger Lord and Iron Pan didn’t drive away the local leaders of the dozens of villages and several cities. They abolished the tax that the Alliance was collecting and set up collection points where the residents could trade their valuables for food or other resources, take up jobs, or join the Harvesters.

The former Valley Elders also obediently followed the arrangement, and whenever some dissent would arise from those local leaders, they voluntarily resolved it before the two Aether-Knights could even intervene.

Having experienced the terror of Lin Mo beating them down one against twelve, the Valley Elders had long recognized a simple, unyielding truth: rebellion offered a swift death or a slow starvation, whereas compliance offered a steady diet of miraculous recovery pills and stamina-enhancing sweets. Furthermore, they even had a chance to be bestowed with that wonderful set of armors that could elevate a 5th Gate master to contend against a 6th Gate expert without any side effects.

With Lin Mo’s ’convenience’ effectively conquering a region in a matter of days while also defeating a 7th gate expert, the leaders of the neighboring region had begun actively sending people to find out what exactly happened.

And with Ying Sha and her Shadowblade Union turning their efforts to rooting out dissenters and gathering information, Luo Lanyi made contact with those people, introducing the ’convenience’ Lin Mo was spreading.

Ling Qiumei also didn’t idle. Her Silent Rain Sect had already been rebuilt and taken up the role of handling Internal Affairs. The City Lord of Sleeping Dragon City was even removed from its position which effectively transformed the whole city into the Divine Convenience Store’s Distribution Hub.

"Great job. With this, the Distribution Hub can be considered complete. It’s time to make it official." Lin Mo nodded as he closed the bamboo ledger. He then waved his hand, producing a [Distributor Token] in his hand. It differed slightly from the ones he handed to the three Official Distributors. It has only one function for now: direct communication with him that can traverse the dimensional membrane. It cannot yet access the main store’s inventory directly due to the differing laws of this plane and the store’s current tier limitations.

However, it signifies that Luo Lanyi will be the officially recognized proxy of the Divine Convenience Store in this Fractured Plane.

Luo Lanyi received the token with both hands, her head bowed in deep reverence. She didn’t need to speak to convey her understanding of the immense authority and responsibility she had just been handed.

From a small merchant house’s daughter, she had been propelled to something akin to a governor in Lin Mo’s growing economic empire.

With the administrative formalities concluded, Lin Mo turned his attention to the logistical triumph sitting in the city’s warehouses.

Naturally, he didn’t require carts or a caravan to transport the acquired wealth. He just needed to put them all in his inventory.

Accompanied by the awestruck local leaders, he walked to the sprawling storage district that the Divine Convenience House constructed.

Standing before massive warehouses filled to the brim with dark Star-Forged Iron ore and carefully crated rare herbs, Lin Mo simply raised his hand and sucked them all in.

.

The space within the warehouses seemed to fold inward before the disbelieving eyes of the martial artists. Two thousand tons of heavy, dense ore and hundreds of crates of herbs dissolved into streams of digitized light, flowing directly into the void and vanishing into the store’s inter-dimensional inventory.

In less than a minute, warehouses that would have taken a fleet of wagons a month to empty were completely bare.

[Inventory Updated: Star-Forged Iron (Raw) x 2,140 Tons.]

[Inventory Updated: Assorted High-Altitude Spirit Herbs x 450 Crates.]

[System Note: Raw materials have been flagged for the Professional’s Foundry. Refining commissions will be generated automatically upon the Shopkeeper’s authorization.]

Lin Mo dismissed the notification with a satisfied internal nod. The supply chain was officially established. The Martial World would feed the Foundry, the Foundry would supply the Eastern Abyssal Domain, and the Domain would conquer the Anchors. It was a perfect, closed-loop ecosystem of convenience.

Of course, he also now has enough Star-Forged Iron to temper his physique. But that has to wait until he returns to the Realm of Nine Heavens.

With his primary objective for this visit achieved, Lin Mo turned to Jiang Jianxin, who was quietly waiting by his side.

"Sword Fairy, this is Ling Qiumei, the successor of the Silent Rain Sect." Lin Mo gestured to the young woman who hurriedly walked over to them.

Without the [Legionary Set], her presence could only be compared to a Spirit Condensation Stage cultivator. Nevertheless, with her sword held in her hand, the Sword Fairy had long taken note of her existence.

Likewise, Ling Qiumei couldn’t help but feel restless ever since their arrival. She kept taking glances at Sword Fairy and each time, she would be awed at the sharp sword intent effortlessly radiating from the Golden Core cultivator.

"S-sword Fairy." She said, stuttering from nervousness, "... are you a sword master?"

Although she was aware how laughable her question was, given the title she just uttered, she had no idea how to open up that conversation.

Jiang Jianxin succinctly nodded, "You can say that."

With her eyes sparking, Ling Qiumei respectfully withdrew the battered, blood-stained beast-skin scroll that contained the [Sky-Rending Sword Manual] from her robes.

"T-this is my sect’s legacy technique. At the moment, it’s still too profound for me to practice. Please take a look at it."

She offered it to Jiang Jianxin with both hands, treating the exchange with the solemnity of a religious rite.

She understood that the Shopkeeper’s companion this time was too high a level. She wouldn’t covet her legacy, and she might even be able to help her comprehend it.

With her eyes narrowing slightly, Jiang Jianxin accepted the scroll.

The moment her flawless fingers brushed the worn material, a visible ripple of sword qi emanated from her body, interacting with the latent martial intent still lingering within the ancient text.

Within Jiang Jianxin’s mind, the technique written on the scroll seemed to be rapidly deconstructing. Unlike the ones she received from the tower, she instantly comprehended it.

Then, slowly but surely, the fragmented, physical strikes to understand the profound, ethereal [Heaven-Rending Sword Scripture] began to flash in her head.

It was akin to looking at the shattered, crude foundation of a ruined building to understand the architectural blueprint of the magnificent skyscraper it was originally meant to be. The fragmented manual acted as a necessary filter, stepping down the blinding complexity of the immortal-grade scripture into something her current Golden Core could process and assimilate.

Jiang Jianxin closed her eyes, entirely entering a state of deep, standing meditation right there in the middle of the storage district.

All of a sudden, the ambient martial qi of Sleeping Dragon City began to swirl around her, drawn by the pull of her sudden enlightenment.

"Eh? W-what happened?!" Ling Qiumei exclaimed. Luo Lanyi, Ying Sha and the others also couldn’t help but back away, marveling at the sight.

Seeing her enter this critical state of comprehension, Lin Mo wryly smiled. He thought she still needed to feel the environment of the Martial World. But by simply being in contact with Ling Qiumei’s manual, she was already in a state of enlightenment.