As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 143 was originally intended to be evil.

Xu Yan thought for a moment and then asked Zhao Qian another question: if the Kuang Tie Club really closed down, had he ever thought about transferring to the Sui Xing Club to cultivate?

Zhao Qian shook his head and said that when he was financially well-off a couple of years ago, he was a gold card member of the Shattered Star Club and had experienced firsthand the sales tactics of the coaches there. He was a refined person who sat in an office all day, typing on a keyboard in front of a screen, but under the coach's various sales tactics, he unwittingly bought several powerful combat cards.

Well, all the products are high-quality. They are brand new, genuine cards from the four major card manufacturing companies, with clear patterns, well-organized runes, and absolutely guaranteed quality.

The remnants of the past sealed inside are all positive figures or even heroes from ancient times, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. Their combat power is definitely strong enough, and there is absolutely no problem of them turning against their master.

Even a frail scholar like him, whose life index is less than 15, can sweep a cement pillar as thick as a thigh in half with a single whip kick after being blessed by his guardian spirit.

The problem is that Dawn City is relatively safe, protected by high walls and no ancient monsters can infiltrate it, so why would he be so bored as to sweep cement pillars all day long?
Back then, I was earning a lot of money and full of confidence in the future, so I didn't take a mere credit card loan to heart.

Things are different now; we have to tighten our belts and make ends meet. Looking at the smiling coaches at the Shattered Star Club makes me feel a bit of a headache.

Especially when people were very attentive, offering him free private lessons, free drinks and massages, and taking care of him perfectly from head to toe, and finally bringing out the latest card catalogs from the four major card manufacturers for him to choose from, he felt even more embarrassed and thought to himself that he couldn't take it.

Surrounded by seven or eight seemingly honest coaches and beautiful "guardian spirit planners," he couldn't even bring himself to say "I have no money."

After all, they offer interest-free installments or even zero down payment, so you can bring home the once-powerful old grandfather without spending a penny.

Zhao Qian enjoyed the "free service specially given to gold card members" twice. Faced with the ambiguous smiles of the "guardian spirit planners", he thought it over and made up his mind to cancel his membership with Shattered Star directly.

If Kuang Tie goes bankrupt, he will not be able to return to Shattered Star.

At worst, I can just buy a few training cards and some simple training equipment, and practice at home to work up a sweat.

Use the money you save to buy more nutritional supplements, brain tonics, and the like. Just live one day at a time. When you actually get the Spirit Erosion Syndrome, or get laid off, or the company goes bankrupt, then you'll be completely relaxed!

Zhao Qian's words deeply resonated with the veteran members.

Kuangtie Club was their last choice; in this market segment where quality and price were not a selling point, there were almost no competitors.

Xiong Ruyue felt her forehead burning and her cheeks flush.

In fact, after the "comprehensive upgrade", she also planned to follow the example of the three major clubs and introduce more paid projects to achieve "service upgrade and multi-profit linkage".

Fortunately, she hadn't completely ruined the reputation of the Kuangtie Club, so the idea was nipped in the bud.

As noon approached, more and more members came to the Kuangtie Club for training, far exceeding the average number of members received on a normal workday.

Most people have no intention of canceling their cards or getting a refund for the time being; they are just checking out the operation of Kuangtie.

Finding the club well-organized and as always, I felt relieved.

By noon, there were even quite a few unfamiliar faces coming to inquire about the cardless training mode and pricing.

Xiong Ruyue was quite surprised. Upon asking, she learned that they had all heard about the Kuangtie Club from the newspaper. Xu Yan had guessed right again.

Shattered Star Club bribed major media outlets in Dawn City to smear Mad Iron Club from every angle, but they went a bit too far and it backfired.

In the past, Kuangtie Club had a certain degree of fame in the no-card-play circle.

However, the no-card strategy is already a very obsolete niche strategy.

Most ordinary citizens, even if they occasionally hear the name "Kuang Tie," will just let it go in one ear and out the other, and won't take it to heart at all.

Shattered Star Club, however, spent a fortune to give Crazy Iron Club an unprecedented amount of advertising.

Although the original intention was bad.

However, in terms of execution, in order to highlight Chu Zhifeng's grievances and strength, it was necessary to give a detailed introduction to the cultivation method of the cardless style, which subtly elevated the Kuang Tie Club to a level that could threaten the Shattered Star Club.

Even Chu Zhifeng's mentor, Xiong Tieshan, has been portrayed in many reports as a villain who is eager for quick success and instant benefits, and who likes to use simple and crude methods to forcibly stimulate physical potential, ultimately leading to his isolation and suffering the consequences of his own actions.

These reports devoted considerable space to exaggerating the dangers of practicing the "no-card" method.

The reporter who wrote the report failed to realize a problem—in today's Dawn City, many citizens facing layoffs or who have been unemployed for a long time simply do not care about the long-term side effects and aftereffects.

They only care about whether they can really push their physical potential to the limit in a short period of time, so that they can type a few more lines on the keyboard, work a few more hours, move a few more bricks, and find a new job that can barely make ends meet.

As a result, many readers selectively ignored the potential risks of cardless data transfer after reading the report.

All I saw was that the cultivation no-card path was incredibly cheap, incredibly cheap, incredibly cheap!
In particular, a photo published in the Dawn Morning Post captured the dramatic moment when Xiong Tieshan clutched his chest and fell backward.

However, behind Xiong Tieshan, several burly, muscular men with bare chests were also captured in the picture, which was quite eye-catching. These men looked like they were perfect for working overtime, perfect for being exploited, very tough and hardworking, and were exactly the kind of top-quality oxen and horses that every boss dreamed of.

Of course, most of the unfamiliar faces who came to the club had a big question mark in their minds about how long Kuangtie Club could last.

It's definitely not going to work out to get them to spend a lot of money on annual or semi-annual memberships.

But after a morning of this, Xiong Ruyue actually sold seven trial cards on a per-use basis and gained more than a dozen potential customers.

"Could it be as Xu Yan said, that I've been focusing on the wrong thing all along? Should I just tear down all the high-end facilities and keep only the most basic services and the roughest environment, and ideally open a 24-hour self-service area to try and dominate the lower-tier market?"

Xiong Ruyue was both surprised and delighted.

However, while things were temporarily stabilized with the members, devastating news came from the sponsors.

The three main sponsors were not optimistic about Kuangtie's performance in the "Dawn Cup" and proposed to terminate their cooperation.

(End of this chapter)