Moreover, once an effective industrial chain is formed, everyone in Earth-Prime Hall will have to rely on him to earn immortal stones. If he wants them to do anything, can they refuse?
Would they even dare refuse?
In that way, he would also indirectly control Earth-Prime Hall.
And the Saint Alliance doesn't just have one hall—it has a total of one hundred and eight halls.
When those other halls see Earth-Prime Hall making money, won't they get jealous?
It would be strange if they didn't get jealous.
When that happens, they'll definitely come looking for Ian Song.
The more that come, the better—he only worries they won't come.
By then, the entire Saint Alliance will be selling pills for him while he lies in bed counting immortal stones. He'll have indirectly taken control of the whole Alliance.
As for whether they'll turn on him once they've made enough immortal stones?
Ian Song doesn't need to worry about that at all.
As the saying goes, it's hard to go from luxury back to frugality, but easy to go from frugality to luxury.
Once they're used to spending immortal stones freely, who would want to go back to living tight and stingy days?
What's more, everyone has a greedy side to their nature.
If someone earns ten thousand immortal stones, they'll want a hundred thousand; if they earn a hundred thousand, they'll want a million. Only a few are content with small fortunes. Besides, immortals live for ages—a single windfall might last decades or centuries, but after that?
So only by constantly earning immortal stones can they secure their future lifestyle.
Half a month later.
Adrian Moon, Queenie Green, and Piper Willow returned one after another.
All the top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills they carried had been sold, and at a price of one hundred sixty immortal stones each.
So in just one trip, they earned a huge amount of immortal stones.
This kind of profit was beyond their wildest dreams. In all the years since becoming immortals, they'd never made so many immortal stones. Yet in just half a month, they'd earned tens of millions, and their gratitude toward Ian Song was heartfelt.
They even confessed that Ian Song's profit margin for them was almost too generous. They said they'd be happy earning just twenty immortal stones per top-grade Immortal Yuan Pill.
"You guys have no ambition! Is that little bit of profit really enough to scare you?"
Ian Song said this with a hint of disdain.
Queenie Green instinctively wanted to argue, but in the end, she just opened her mouth and couldn't find the words.
Ian Song lectured them, "The reason I sell you pills at ninety immortal stones each is so you can open up the market fast. If you just chase after tiny profits, you're missing the big picture!"
"Is it really wrong for us to charge a higher price?"
Queenie Green finally couldn't help herself and spoke up.
"Of course it's wrong!"
Ian Song replied confidently. He pulled out a map and pointed: "Look—within a month's travel for a Golden Immortal, and outside the Eight Immortal Domains, Thirty-Six Cave Heavens, and Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, there are over 3,700 cities. Their total population is more than ten billion, and more than eighty percent are Human Immortals!
So there are eight billion Human Immortals—potential customers for us. If Earth-Prime Hall can turn all eight billion into buyers, even if each only buys one Immortal Yuan Pill a year and you earn just ten stones per pill, how much would you make?
"That would be eighty billion immortal stones, right?"
Piper Willow blurted out the number, her eyes wide with shock.
"Smart girl!"
Ian Song nodded. "Now imagine—if you used those eighty billion stones to grow Earth-Prime Hall, just how powerful could it become?"
"Eighty billion stones every year to build up Earth-Prime Hall? We'd be the strongest and richest of all 108 halls in no time!" Queenie Green was stunned by the figure.
Ian Song kept going: "So your top priority now is opening up the market. Make sure every pill shop in those thousands of cities sells only our pills—even if it means sacrificing some profit! Once we've squeezed out the other suppliers, those shops will have no choice but to accept our prices, even if we raise them!
Even if we bump the price by just one stone, that's another eight billion stones. What if we raise it by ten?
"A single conversation with you is worth ten years of study. Young Master Song, you're a born business genius!" Adrian Moon said, full of admiration.
Queenie Green and Piper Willow were starstruck, their admiration for Ian Song reaching new heights.
Ian Song smiled and went on, "Of course, taking over more than three thousand cities isn't something you can do overnight. So you need to recruit more people, get more hands to help you expand the market. Understood?"
"Understood!"
The three replied together, each secretly deciding to contact their Golden Immortal friends right away to help run the market.
As they were leaving, Ian Song handed them thirty million top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills and reminded them to collect as many Immortal Medicines as possible. If buyers could pay with Immortal Medicines, even better.
All three, now fully convinced by Ian Song, nodded enthusiastically.
"You really are sly, husband!"
Diana Toba walked over, half-smiling. She'd read plenty of business books back in the Main World, and she could tell her husband was turning those three—and the future Earth-Prime Hall—into long-term labor, without even paying them.
"I don't really have a choice!"
Ian Song sighed. Before he got the Primordial Chaos Body, he hadn't cared much about immortal stones. But now, cultivating the Primordial Chaos Body devoured so many stones that even if he gathered every stone in the Immortal World, he might still not finish the art.
Several months flew by.
Thanks to the efforts of Adrian Moon, Queenie Green, and Piper Willow, they quickly became the biggest supplier of top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills in more than seventy cities. Following Ian Song's advice, they gave up most of their profit, buying pills from Ian at ninety stones each.
They turned around and supplied pill shops in other cities at just one hundred and twenty stones per pill.
They even applied Ian's business logic, persuading pill shop owners to give up some profit to grow the market.
As a result, the price of top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills dropped to just one hundred and fifty immortal stones in those seventy-plus cities.
A fifty-stone price cut is huge for lower-level Immortals.
No one knew if prices would go back up to two hundred stones, so even Immortals who hadn't planned to buy ended up picking up one—or even several—top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills for their cultivation. Thanks to the lower price, pill shop owners actually made more money than before.
That surge in demand fired up their enthusiasm.
Adrian Moon and the others could barely keep up with the deliveries.
It's worth noting that the three offered high rewards to recruit some of their Golden Immortal friends to Greenvine City.
Ian Song then suggested another incentive: anyone who could recruit a Golden Immortal friend would earn ten million stones, and anyone who brought in an Earth Immortal would get a million stones.
So the newly arrived Golden Immortals started recruiting their own friends right away. In just a few months, the new Earth-Prime Hall had more than seventy Golden Immortals.
They also brought in over three hundred Earth Immortals.
And more than five thousand late-stage Human Immortals—all at the peak of their realm.
Except for not having a Profound Immortal in charge, the new Earth-Prime Hall had already surpassed its old self by far.
Adrian Moon, Queenie Green, and Piper Willow grew ever more grateful to Ian Song.