Strongest Businessman of the Cultivation World

Spiritual Hearing is an art of listening to the energies of nature. When you pay attention, you can identify the quiet whisperings of wind, rustling of the leaves or even the vibrations from the earth.

When flames burn, they also crackle. The sloshing sound of the flowing water is like music to a thirsty person's ears.

Curiously, the energy itself is neutral. It is the physical surroundings that decide its element.

In a windy valley, the energy takes on the wind attribute. When the flames burn, the energy also becomes fiery. Deep inside a cavern, one can find the purest earth attribute energy.

In the sea of water, you can find water energy and in the sea of stars, space energy is aplenty.

Other than the five basic elements, there was one another factor that could affect the neutrality of  energy; the Soul. Also called the Spiritual Body, it grants life forms the ability to gather, absorb and utilize energy.

All the other attributes were derived from the interactions amongst the five basic elements and the soul.

Moony's Shadow energy was one such derivative.

When Ikasa first heard Moony's energy through his spirit, he couldn't hear anything. The extreme silence was one of the characteristics of Space Energy and the shadow energy resembled it.

Then he heard the gentle and quiet disturbances in the energy, like that of a mother humming very very softly. This was the sign of a soul attribute mixed with Space Energy.

'This is an amalgamation of Space Energy and Soul Energy. Maybe Moony can learn skills related to space or soul in the future?'

Ikasa slowly opened his eyes and looked at the little fox with a smile. He  gently caressed Moony's head, tracing his finger down his spine.

Gru!

Moony growled with enjoyment, his tail patting the floor. As Ikasa spoiled the little critter, his mind wandered to what he knew of the Soul energy.

Usually, the sound of a being's soul energy portrays the most impactful memory. And Moony's soul energy sounded like a mother humming a lullaby.

This puzzled Ikasa.

'Why would a beast's most impactful memory be of a human singing a lullaby?'

'Was he cared for by a female human before? If so, what happened to her?'

'Is it a happy memory or a traumatic memory?'

Ikasa had no way to know. He looked down at the little fox lying in his lap, quietly enjoying his caresses.

He looked carefree and happy, but it would be foolish to treat him like any other pet. Even though he was just a cub, the little black and red fox was after all a mighty foundation stage beast!

While ministering the little guy in his lap, Ikasa wondered.

'Just what is your background, Moony?'

—--

While Ikasa was training his Spiritual Hearing, other members of his Gold Heart Business Group were frantically doing their best to finish their assignments.

In the study of Ikasa's damaged villa, Xin Ruo and Yin Ying were surrounded by stacks of reports from the past few months. They compared the information given to the events that happened and information from other sources.

Quickly, Yin Ying noticed a pattern. She picked reports of a few people and checked them again.

"These five sent the most misleading information."

Yin Ying asked, pointing to the reports of five of her men. When she looked at their current whereabouts in the list of informants, she was shocked to know that their information was missing.

These people had disappeared after the trial, leaving no trace behind. It was only when the girls went through the reports did they discover their trace.

"Were you aware of their leaving?"

Xin Ruo shook her head with disappointment. She lamented her inability to monitor her subordinates.

This information network was supposed to help Ikasa prepare against external and internal threats. It was supposed to protect the Gold Heart Business Group from infiltrators, spies and traitors.

Instead, that organization itself had been infiltrated and no one knew of it until it was too late!

Xin Ruo accepted the fact that she had failed. She had been thrust into a position she was not ready for and the results were disastrous.

Seeing her gloom, Yin Ying consoled her.

"You weren't supposed to be in this position. In fact, their rebellion may have to do with the fact that I was absent to keep them in check. So don't worry, and look towards the future."

This was the longest Yin Ying had spoken to Xin Ruo. The consolation meant a lot when it came from her.

Xin Ruo did not spend time to bemoan her failure and instead started to organize the documents with Yin Ying.

While going through the reports they had not only identified the traitors, but also the trustworthy. It was time to segregate them into inner and outer members of their wing.

—---

In the administrative hall of the Gold Heart Business Group (GHBG), Chu Kuang, Feng Yan, Yin Ying and Xin Ruo handed over the respective lists of their people.

"This is the list of all the workers in the Herb Garden and wages they are paid."

Chu Kuang said, placing his stack of rolled papers next to a number of other scrolls of paper.

Seeing the large number of scrolls before him, Ikasa felt the dire need to hire an accountant who could parse through this mountain of paperwork.

He quickly checked the total number of people employed under him.

"124 Gold Heart Guardians?"

Ikasa spoke, looking at Feng Yan. The old man nodded proudly in response. Those Gold Heart Guardians also included the combatant classes of the Special Talent Programme.

"Each person is paid 10 Gold as salary per month?"

Feng Yan nodded once again.

'124 x 10 = 1240. For a year it would cost me almost Fifteen thousand gold. It is manageable.'

Ikasa calculated in his mind and moved on to Chu Kuang. He picked up the list of Herb Garden's workers and read through it.

"40 permanent workers and about 130 daily wage workers? Why do you need so many?"

Ikasa asked with astonishment. According to his estimates, 20 people were more than sufficient to run the Herb Garden.

Hence, his surprise.

Chu Kuang had his answer ready.

"Only 20 people help me in the matters of Herb Garden and managing the shop. The other 20 are Elder Yi's people responsible for producing medicinal concoctions."

Then he addressed the issue of 130 daily wage workers.

"Some herbs need to be harvested in a certain time frame. 20 people are nowhere near enough to meet the deadlines. At such times, I hire the out of job Sal City residents to help me."

Hearing the answer, Ikasa had no complaints.

"So they are seasonal workers. Okay. 80 coppers multiplied by 130 is about 10 gold. That is not as expensive as I assumed."

Ikasa muttered, next looking at the wages of the permanent workers of Herb Garden.

"30 Gold? Are they really skilled enough to demand such high wages?"

Chu Kuang nodded, "Worth every single copper."

Ikasa trusted Chu Kuang and moved on. An amount of 1200 Gold per month was tolerable to him.

He next checked the informants list compiled by Xin Ruo and Yin Ying.

The informants were first of the people to be paid with Contribution points. They could exchange their points for Silver coins, Manuals or a few other occasional goods like Energy-Infused Water.

Xin Ruo had carefully devised the system of exchange and the rates were also below the market price. It had made most of the informants loyal.

However, there were a few ingrates who decided to bite the hand that fed them.

'They are already dead. So cool down, Ikasa!'

Ikasa breathed in and out to control his rising temper.

After calming himself, he looked at total expenses. Xin Ruo had allocated 1000 Gold (10k silver) for exchange with Contribution points.

Every contribution point was worth 1 silver. She had done a great job of maintaining the records of their exchange.

Ikasa appreciated her system a lot. He liked it so much that he was thinking of implementing it across the entire GHBG.

The only hurdle was he lacked a person who could maintain the records on a large scale.

'Only if I had a computer or something like that.'

Ikasa put away his wishful thinking and gave Xin Ruo a go ahead for a new inner and outer member system.

In the new system, only the vetted and contracted Inner members of informants will have access to Top grade manuals.

As for outer members they could redeem silver to a limit and some lower grade manuals.

After he had gone through all the lists superficially, he quickly noted the number of his employees.

'124 Gold Heart Guardians + 40 Herb Gardeners + 12 Inner informants = 176'

'Whoa, I already have 176 permanent employees! That is excluding the people managing my shop and the one's gathered here. Adding everyone, that number goes to 186!'

Ikasa's eyes widened. Even on Earth, his company had reached the 100th employee after 3 years of founding. And here he already had 186 in six months!

Ikasa gazed through the list once again.

'Unfortunately, most of these people are not contracted. I should do something about this situation.'