A streak of blue light, like a shooting star, fell within Fushan. The blue light spun on the spot and transformed into Ethan Foster. “Old Brooks, Old Brooks...” he called out as he entered Adam Brooks’s cave dwelling. Adam Brooks chuckled and said, “Young Foster, is your power out again?” Ethan Foster shook his head. “No, this time it’s a bit more troublesome. That kid David Reed has already figured out the treasure artifact you wanted, but he can’t make it. We need to find a master craftsman.” “That fast?” It hadn’t even been three months, and David Reed had already tinkered it out—Adam Brooks was genuinely surprised.

“Do you know any master craftsmen, Young Foster?” Adam Brooks asked. From the start, Ethan Foster hadn’t wanted to get involved in these matters. Hearing this, he looked troubled and said, “I do know a few people, but as you know, master craftsmen in the Immortal Realm are all people of great status. How could they possibly agree to forge something that’s only at the treasure artifact level for you?”

Adam Brooks’s eyes shifted, and he changed the subject: “Young Foster, do you know what I’ve been doing in the lower realm lately?” Ethan Foster: “...”

A moment later, after some discussion, Adam Brooks and Ethan Foster reached an agreement. Ethan Foster patted his chest and promised to find a suitable master craftsman for Adam Brooks. Adam Brooks didn’t promise anything in return, but if Ethan Foster couldn’t handle his business in the lower realm, the young master of Yaoyuan Hall definitely wouldn’t let him off.

In the lower realm, Adam Brooks opened the magazine in his hand and flipped to the rankings page. The number thirty-five beauty was at the top of the list, already leading the second place by nearly a hundred thousand votes. With two weeks left until the final moment, the championship was basically decided, and the suspense was gone.

But Adam Brooks didn’t dare slack off. He called Benjamin Brooks in City D, telling him to keep buying fifty thousand magazines every week and keep dumping votes.

A weekly magazine’s domestic circulation was only a little over a hundred thousand copies, but the magazine publishers weren’t fools. The print run for the last few issues had all been over three hundred thousand copies, and even that wasn’t enough to meet demand. Benjamin Brooks had to go through the provincial distributor to get that many magazines.

Back in the Immortal Realm, Adam Brooks hadn’t even warmed his seat when Ethan Foster burst in energetically: “Old Brooks, quick, I’ve already found the person. Come with me and take a look.”

A master craftsman who met Adam Brooks’s requirements wasn’t easy to find. They needed to have a certain level of skill, not be too famous, and be able to keep secrets. Meeting one of these conditions was easy; meeting two was already difficult, let alone all three. Ethan Foster hadn’t expected to find someone so quickly either. As luck would have it, yesterday someone spent thirty top-grade immortal jades to buy a plot of land on Ningyao Mountain. Ningyao Mountain was prime real estate in the Immortal Realm, and setting up a business there wasn’t cheap. Thirty top-grade immortal jades—equal to thirty million standard immortal jades—could only buy a piece of land the size of a mat on Ningyao Mountain.

Before Adam Brooks could ask for details, Ethan Foster grabbed him and, with a third-level immortal technique “Floating Duckweed Step,” gracefully headed toward Ningyao Mountain. Poor Adam Brooks was still not very adept at using his first-level immortal technique “Soaring Leap.” Seeing that Ethan Foster hadn’t spent much more time in the Immortal Realm than himself, yet had already reached the level of a third-level immortal, Adam Brooks couldn’t help but feel envious.

In no time, Ningyao Mountain was already in sight. Third-level immortal techniques really couldn’t be compared to his pitiful “Soaring Leap”—they arrived so quickly.

In Ningyao Mountain, there was a treasured spot, with banners fluttering everywhere in a dazzling display. Countless eye-catching cloth banners waved in the wind, each bearing different words—impossible to miss, impossible to ignore.

Adam Brooks naturally recognized this as a prime location in Ningyao Mountain: each banner represented a shop. The banners served as both signboards and teleportation gates. If you were interested in a shop’s goods, you just had to stand under the banner, and you’d be teleported inside. As for where the shop actually was, that was anyone’s guess.

Land in Ningyao Mountain was worth its weight in gold. It wasn’t that there weren’t wealthy people who could open shops here, but for the vast majority of immortals, planting a banner and opening a shop nearby, attracting customers through the teleportation gate, was the most economical way to do business.

“See that? Right over there.” Ethan Foster pointed, and Adam Brooks looked over to see a pitch-black banner, standing out like a chicken among cranes, its pole as thin as a chopstick, planted on a piece of land no bigger than a palm. The banner had two words written on it: 鬼炼.

Adam Brooks shook his head. “This guy’s business can’t be very good.” Ethan Foster chuckled and said, “Old Brooks, you just don’t get it: this is called a gimmick. The more low-key it is, the more it stands out in the bustling Ningyao Mountain. I checked it out yesterday—this guy’s business is actually pretty good. The genius is in that word ‘鬼’ (ghost).”

Adam Brooks said, “Oh, is he a soul immortal?” “It’s not that simple,” Ethan Foster replied. “He is a soul immortal, true, but more importantly, that word ‘ghost’ puts those with guilty consciences at ease. Among those who come to Ningyao Mountain, some inevitably have requests that can’t see the light of day, so this ‘Ghost Refinery’ fits their needs perfectly...” Adam Brooks gave a faint smile and whispered, “Just like us?” Ethan Foster smiled and nodded, not noticing that Adam Brooks had already successfully changed “I” to “we.”