After the creation of the locking ring, due to the need for Cold Jade Essence, Lingxian Sect did not list the ring among the items they sold. However, they did send a ring to Yuan Bi, the head of the Yuan family, and to Elder Yuan Ruogu.
After all, these two had already been certified by the system as reliable allies.
Additionally, given Lingxian Sect's close business ties with the Yuan family, sending the two locking rings helped ensure smoother communication between them. This way, they could contact the Yuan family directly whenever necessary, rather than waiting for the Finance Hall's traders to pass on messages during their trips. It also saved them the cost of using the Heaven and Earth Transmission Disk, which wasn't a small expenditure in terms of spirit stones.
Along with the locking rings, Lingxian Sect also revealed the fact that they originated from the mortal realm to Yuan Bi and Yuan Ruogu.
After three years of cooperation and business exchanges, the Yuan family had become one of Lingxian Sect's most loyal partners in the cultivation world.
Whenever Lingxian Sect needed to search for rare materials or special items, the Yuan family always did their utmost to help, only failing to find the rarest of items. As a result, after a discussion within the sect, Lingxian Sect decided to share their origin story with Yuan Bi.
The Yuan family had been sincere with them, and it didn't feel right to keep this secret hidden any longer.
Though the cultivation world and the mortal realm were far apart, even with the locking ring's use of a very small-scale formation, the energy consumption was still considerable.
Fortunately, Lin Xiao had already reached the Nascent Soul stage, so the energy drain wasn't too burdensome for him.
The connection was quickly established.
"Patriarch Lin?" Yuan Bi's voice came through the ring.
This was the first time Yuan Bi had spoken to Lin Xiao directly since receiving the locking ring, aside from a test call with Qin Jianghe, which had been within the same realm. Now, Yuan Bi was properly communicating with someone in the mortal realm from the cultivation world.
When Yuan Bi sent out his brief message, he immediately felt the consumption of his spiritual energy.
Though it wasn't much, it was comparable to the energy used for casting a basic Fireball Technique, not a significant drain for a Golden Core cultivator like him.
Still, the novelty of the experience surprised him.
"Patriarch Yuan, I apologize for disturbing you," Lin Xiao responded quickly. "My sect is currently facing a challenge and would like to seek the Yuan family's help."
"Patriarch Lin, if there's anything I can assist with, please don't hesitate to ask. Whatever aid my Yuan family can provide, we will not falter!"
Lin Xiao had saved the Yuan family's elder, which, in Yuan Bi's eyes, was akin to saving the entire Yuan family's status in Yuanling City. Without the elder's recovery, the Yuan family's influence might have already waned. Many factions had long been eyeing their position, and if it became known that their elder wouldn't recover, those enemies wouldn't hesitate to strike.
Yuan Bi didn't see the help provided to Liu Chun's sister with the Bibo Hot Spring as significant repayment—it was, in his view, a mere token of gratitude.
Additionally, their ongoing business dealings had convinced Yuan Bi of Lingxian Sect's reliability. Lingxian Sect had never tried to exploit them or cut corners in their transactions.
Not to mention that Lingxian Sect was located in the mortal realm.
Yuan Bi, who had operated in Yuanling City for many years, knew a bit about the struggles in the mortal realm. Resources there were scarce, and cultivation was difficult.
However, despite these hardships, Lingxian Sect had produced talents like Lin Xiao and continued to supply the Yuan family with a steady stream of valuable goods, proving that they were far from ordinary.
So, Yuan Bi was more than willing to help Lin Xiao.
The favor of saving the Yuan family's elder was too great to leave unsettled. Strengthening their connection would only deepen their future cooperation, leading to more opportunities for larger-scale business.
Seeing that Yuan Bi agreed without even asking for specifics, Lin Xiao smiled and explained his request:
"Patriarch Yuan, our sect is currently in need of a significant amount of spirit stones for development. However, we're facing a shortage at the moment, so I'd like to ask if the Yuan family would be able to lend us 100,000 spirit stones, to be repaid in five years. Would that be convenient?"
Yuan Bi chuckled.
"I wondered what the difficulty might be. Though my Yuan family isn't the wealthiest, we can certainly manage 100,000 spirit stones. In fact, we originally prepared 100,000 spirit stones to buy an Ice Spirit Essence for our elder's recovery, but thanks to Patriarch Lin, we never had to spend a single one."
"If your sect needs them now, we're more than happy to lend them. Don't worry about the five-year repayment either—just return them when your sect is more financially stable. I wouldn't want you to stretch your resources too thin."
"Should I send the spirit stones through your representative, or would you like to wait until your sect's next delivery?"
Yuan Bi didn't mention anything about waiving the repayment, though it had crossed his mind.
He knew Lin Xiao wouldn't agree to such terms.
Moreover, if the debt was canceled, that would settle the old favor, ending the special bond between their families.
To maintain a long-lasting and deep relationship, it was best to keep this cycle of giving and receiving alive.
Their initial partnership had been built on the foundation of the elder's recovery, which had added a layer of trust between them.
With Yuan Bi's quick agreement, Lin Xiao sighed in relief—the first step of solving the problem was now complete.
"Thank you, Patriarch Yuan. Our elder Qin Jianghe will be visiting in a few days to deliver our goods. Could I trouble you to pass the spirit stones to him at that time?"
"Of course, Patriarch Lin. I'm quite familiar with Elder Qin; I'll have the spirit stones ready for him when he arrives."
After discussing the matter of the spirit stones, Lin Xiao inquired briefly about Elder Yuan's health and the situation in Yuanling City before ending the call.
With the spirit stone issue resolved, Lin Xiao glanced at the papers spread before him and decided to store them away. He pulled out a comprehensive guide to formation arrays and began studying.
Though he had already mastered spatial formations, his research into defensive formations was still lacking.
Moreover, the formation he needed to create couldn't just be defensive. It had to incorporate features for artifact crafting as well, especially since he would soon be purchasing the Ling Di turtle shell from the system.
The formation would need defense, settlement, surveillance, and control functions...
Meanwhile, on the other side, Qin Jianghe and Liu Yunan were diligently drafting the plans for the construction of the trading hub.