I run a casino in the immortal realm.

Cangyan Peak, the sacred site of the Seven Elders.

Li Zhan had just emerged from meditation, and before his spiritual energy had fully dissipated, the restrictions outside the dojo were struck.

"Seventh Uncle!"

Li Xian's voice carried an barely suppressed impatience.

Li Zhan frowned, then with a flick of his sleeve, the restriction dissipated. Li Xian practically stumbled in, his robe damp with dew, clearly having rushed there overnight, his face ashen.

"What happened?"

Li Xian stood in the hall, took a couple of breaths, and lowered his voice.

"The people of Heishan Market have all perished."

Li Zhan stopped holding the teacup.

"All four of them were killed on the spot by the man surnamed Gu who was next to Zheng Yifei."

Li Zhan remained silent.

Li Xian continued, "Not only that, Gu Jianhua brought the entire Zheng family into the Qingyun Sect overnight."

Zheng Dashan's family now lives in a courtyard house in the Zongmen East District, which was approved by Jin Zhengyuan of the General Affairs Department. His younger brother and sister's enrollment procedures at the children's school were completed on the same day.

The hall was quiet for five breaths.

The teacup in Li Zhan's hand had a crack, and tea seeped out along the crack, dripping onto the table.

Two more breaths passed, and the bowl shattered.

Broken porcelain pieces and tea splattered on the ground; this was the second cup he had broken in three days.

"Where's the storage bag?" Li Zhan's voice turned somber.

"It was taken by Gu Jianhua and should have been handed over to Zheng Yifei."

Li Zhan closed his eyes.

"Seventh Uncle, what should we do?"

Li Zhan opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping across the night outside the window. In the direction of the main peak, the spirit lamps of Tianyuan Hall were still lit.

Sect Master Xu Tianyang, half-step Nascent Soul.

Three days ago, he personally bestowed upon Zheng Yifei a top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill.

Taking action against Zheng Yifei's family at this time is tantamount to slapping the sect leader in the face after he has already bestowed a reward. If this is discovered, it won't just be a matter of being penalized or demoted; it could mean the extermination of the entire family.

"Seventh Uncle, are we still going to make a move?"

Li Xian tentatively spoke up.

Li Zhan sighed: "From today onwards, stop. No more harm to Zheng Yifei's family, no more underhanded dealings within the sect, and no giving anyone any leverage over you. Wait."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Wait until he makes a mistake."

Li Zhan lowered his voice to the lowest level: "A cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining, sitting in a middle-level manager's position, is extending his reach further and further, from taxation to gambling dens to newspapers. Sooner or later he will cross the line. When that happens, we won't need to lift a finger; the sect's rules will take care of him."

"What about the evidence he has?"

"Find a few people to take the blame and settle their families. As for the losses, I'll make up for them from Zheng Yifei sooner or later."

Li Xian accepted the order and left.

The temple fell silent again.

Li Zhan stood by the window, staring motionless at the lights of the distant main peak.

Three days later. Sujiafang Market.

The main street was just starting to get lively in the early morning, and stalls selling spirit fruits for breakfast had already been set up, with the steam from the steamers mixed with the aroma of spirit rice wafting across half the street.

Su Qingwan stood at the entrance of "Dingfeng Spiritual Weapon Shop", followed by a tall middle-aged man with a square face and thick eyebrows. He had a high-quality spiritual sword hanging at his waist and a calm aura—late stage of Foundation Establishment.

Su Zhendong, the eldest son of the Su family, Su Qingwan's elder brother, and the next generation heir of the Su family.

He was originally an inner disciple of the Qingyun Sect, but he had left the sect in order to inherit his family's legacy.

"this one?"

Su Zhendong looked at the three-foot-tall spirit wood cabinet at the entrance of the shop, tapped the outer shell with his knuckles, and produced a dull sound.

"You dragged me out of bed this early in the morning just to see this wooden box?"

Su Qingwan ignored him and turned to bow to the shopkeeper.

"Manager Lu, this transfer machine will be placed at your door. We'll pay you one spirit stone per month for the rental. You just need to make sure the machine isn't damaged. You don't need to worry about anything else. Our Su family will send people to maintain it every day."

The shopkeeper, surnamed Lu, was nearly fifty years old and at the seventh level of Qi Refining. He had spent most of his life in the business of spiritual artifacts. Hearing that the eldest daughter of the Su family had come to discuss the matter in person, he dared not be negligent.

But after looking at it for a long time, I still couldn't figure out what it was for.

"Young Miss, this machine..."

"Just watch."

Su Qingwan took out a spirit coin from her sleeve, inserted it, and pulled the lever.

The wheel spins, tick-tock tick-tock.

Spiritual fruit, spiritual sword, spiritual fruit. Failed.

Manager Lu blinked twice.

The second one. Elixir, elixir, elixir.

Ding ding ding ding—

The coin dispenser spewed out five spirit coins, which glittered in the morning light.

Manager Lu was speechless.

"This thing... you put spirit coins in it... and it spits them out by itself?"

"If the pattern matches, spit it out; if it doesn't, don't."

Su Qingwan patted the top of the machine: "Place it at your door. If passersby find it interesting, they'll put in spirit coins to play. With more foot traffic at your door, more people will come into your shop. You'll not only earn rent, but you can also attract customers to your shop."

Manager Lu rubbed his hands together and nodded repeatedly.

Su Zhendong watched the whole thing from the side, and the indifference on his face had faded by a third.

The two left the magical artifact shop and headed towards the next drop-off point, Su Qingwan talking as they walked.

"Fifty machines have all been deployed today, covering the three main streets and two squares of the market area."

You assemble a team, assigning someone to patrol daily, maintain the machines, and store and retrieve the spirit coins from them. Three people must work together; if any one is missing, the coin storage compartment cannot be opened.

Su Zhendong was a beat slower than usual.

"Can it only be opened by three people?"

"There are three restrictions. Each person must remove one. The formation automatically records the number of coins inserted and dispensed for each machine. It will then be reconciled with the actual number of spirit coins. Even a single coin difference can be detected."

Su Zhendong raised an eyebrow.

He had managed the Su family's spiritual material warehouse, and his biggest headache was his subordinates stealing from it—it was impossible to prevent. This design, which involves three people unlocking the equipment and using an array to count, effectively minimizes the possibility of human cheating.

Who designed this thing?

"Zheng Yifei".

Su Zhendong paused for a moment.

That chief inspector at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

He didn't know Zheng Yifei, but those three words had been appearing too frequently in the Su family lately. Qingwan mentioned them, his great-grandfather mentioned them, and even his father mentioned them twice during meals.

"Let's go, there are still forty-nine units left."

Su Qingwan has already taken three steps.

It took a whole day to deploy the fifty transfer machines.

Su Qingwan personally led the team, and she had scouted out the location of each vehicle in advance, ensuring it was in a place with high foot traffic, a wide field of vision, and no more than 100 feet away from the patrol team.

When the last vehicle landed in front of the teahouse in the central square of the market, the sun was already hanging over the western hills.

Su Zhendong leaned against a pillar in the teahouse, looking at the newly placed transfer machine. Three rogue cultivators had already gathered around. One of the young men took out a spirit coin, hesitated for a moment, and then put it in.

Pull lever. Reel. Click-click-click—

Spiritual fruit, spiritual fruit, spiritual sword. Didn't succeed.

The young man's companion laughed and pushed him aside, then threw a coin himself.

Spirit sword, spirit sword, spirit sword.

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

Ten spirit coins tumbled out of the coin slot.

"Holy crap! Ten times the amount!"

People immediately surrounded them.

Su Zhendong watched the group of rogue cultivators scrambling to stuff spirit coins into the coin slot and remained silent for a long time.

That night, Su Qingwan sat in the accounting office of the Su family business association.

The data from the first day of the fifty transfer machines was verified one by one by Su Zhendong's team and then compiled in front of her.

A single sheet of paper, fifty lines of data, each line containing three numbers—the number of coins inserted, the number of coins dispensed, and the net profit.

Su Qingwan read from the first line to the last line, then flipped back and read it again.

She put down the memorial paper, picked up the teacup, took a sip, and then put it down again.

"Big brother."

Su Zhendong sat opposite him, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Um."

"Fifty machines, total coins inserted on the first day: 4,312; total coins dispensed: 3,490; net profit: —"

She pointed to the number at the very bottom of the memorial paper.

"Eight hundred and twenty-two spiritual coins."

Su Zhendong remained silent.

"On the first day,"

Su Qingwan repeated those two words again: "Most people don't know about this yet. Only the flow of people in three streets has come into contact with it. Once word spreads, the daily average data will at least triple in a month."

Su Zhendong's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

That's three times the daily amount, which is 2,500 coins. That's 75,000 coins a month, equivalent to 750 spirit stones.

Fifty units.

What if it's 500 units? Or 5,000 units?