Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 924: Counters

The fact that the Four Major Businesses used bandits, and conspiracies before attempting to compete in the business field was only further justification to the Lang Clan that they chose correctly. If this was how they handled all their business, then it was time for someone to knock them down a few pegs.

In addition to guarding against physical attacks outside the cities and dealing with harmful agents, the Prosperity Company also began to face actual pressure in their business dealings. The Four Major Businesses started setting up exclusive contracts with other businesses. These other small businesses could no longer buy or sell goods from the Prosperity Company. Without being able to buy more raw materials from others, the Prosperity Company had to become completely self-sufficient. Lang Clan artisans no longer had the materials they needed to keep producing Magical Tools, Alchemical Pills, Talismans, and many other things. They were forced to stop selling all these smaller products and had to confine their offerings to the myriad of Blastids and other living tools.

The Lang Clan worked to quickly collect its own natural resources, but in the meantime they still continued to sell the popular new items and offer their pampering and entertainment services. Each Prosperity Company location had started to resemble a multi-story mall, with a spa, waterpark, restaurants, movie theater, gym, and many themed shopfronts. These shopfronts were set up like specific rooms of a home to show off how all the different living tools could be used. Curtains that opened themselves, bed warmers, lights that turned off with a snap of the fingers, and big soft beds with fluffy blankets. Tiny Blastids were a much more efficient way to accomplish small tasks than Magical Tools. They were extremely cheap in comparison, such that wealthy Mortals could easily afford them. Magical Tools required multiple Spirit Stones worth of materials to create, while the lowest level Blastid could be nurtured with basic goods which could be purchased with gold coins. Higher level Blastids had greater costs, but simply showing off a myriad of special little tools in use for daily life was very enticing. The Prosperity Company had to close many locations and abandon some of their internal storefronts showing off other types of products, but even so they continued to grow.

The Four Major Businesses moved on to trying to best them at their own game. They, as well as many other smaller businesses, copied the themed shop display idea. Instead of a storefront filled with furniture, the inside was rearranged into different rooms to show off how each piece could look in combination with others and with different decorations. This was a very simple idea taken from Earth that Sage had mentioned in passing, and now the rest of the world had already caught on. Lotus Valley tried to copy the full Spa treatment that the Prosperity Company offered, and they even spent a huge fortune to create Magic Tools to produce hot water and create projections. They included even more expensive additions, like making the water heal injuries and extend lifespans. Their projects included feelings of warmth and cold, the wind and rain, and even created scents to match what was going on. To provide these services, they required high level Cultivators constantly on duty powering and controlling formations and Magical Tools, yet they offered these services at a slightly lower price than the Prosperity Company did.

Even worse, Thousand Treasure began to undercut them as well. They chose or created a new tool that was analogous with each of the popular Blastids of the Prosperity Company and offered them at a slightly lower price. A tool that cost twenty Spirit Stones to create could be offered at a price of only a single Spirit Stone, simply to entice customers to buy from Thousand Treasures and not the Prosperity Company.

Faced with these increasing pressures, the Lang Clan didnt seem to mind that their Prosperity Company had become a large showroom for others to steal ideas from. They merely tightened up security around their movie theaters and continued to do business as usual, which was very slow. The only consistent draw became their films which people still flocked to in droves. Lotus Valley had people watch them and then use their own memories to reproduce the film to play with their own projections that included far more senses, but the Prosperity Company had thousands of years worth of new films to play which kept people coming back for more.

The Lang Clan knew that Lotus Valley and Thousand Treasure were hemorrhaging money to pressure them with this undercutting tactic. The water features and projections the Prosperity Company used needed only a trickle of power to operate, they used to take a few Spirit Stones a day, but now that role was filled by cheap Blastids. The more elaborate and powerful versions that their competitors used required fifth rank Cultivators to act as laborers, working for hours a day to run Magical Tools for common Mortals. All the Lang Clan had to do was keep the doors open on the Prosperity Company and two of the Four Major Businesses would slowly bleed money.

The Information Network brought them news that multiple meetings of the Four Major Businesses had been conducted lately. They were likely discussing how to next deal with the Lang Clan. Yating and Ling declared that Lotus Valley and Thousand Treasures were pressuring the Black Dog Company and Iron Mountain to share the financial burden. If only two of the businesses were forced to burn money every day while the other two did nothing, then it would create a power imbalance. Thousand Treasures and Lotus Valley wouldnt want to defeat the Lang Clan only to end up falling victim to Iron Mountain and the Black Dog Company.

The Lang Clan had no idea if their guess was true, but the Four Major Businesses did come out with a new plan. Many customers were being offered Exclusive Contracts, which promised them large discounts on specific products but required they could only do business with suppliers from a list of their partners. The specific products were of course the ones that competed directly with the Prosperity Company, and the contracts were basically created to forbid these buyers from doing business with the Prosperity Company in its entirety.

Unfortunately, only smaller buyers were stupid enough to fall for the Four Major Businesses plan. Larger buyers could tell from the Prosperity Companies calmness that they werent worried. Some of them specifically chose to sign the Exclusive Contract to guarantee discounts on certain high level products knowing they wouldnt need the cheap offerings from the Prosperity Company, but most did not. Many mortals were eager to sign, but many rumors suddenly started to spread among the populace to be wary. The Exclusive Contracts only offered a percentage discount. They could promise to give you a fifty percent discount on a certain good for life, but what if they just doubled the normal price?

Faced with this sudden realization of the hole in the contracts rules, they realized if they signed, theyd be forced to only buy from a specific list of stores that were all subordinate to Thousand Treasures and Lotus Valley. Didnt that mean they would all become prisoners to these stores? If everyone signed up, would they just raise all their prices to the roof? Most people didnt realize how scary a monopoly could be until many horror stories of such things started to spread among the people. Theyd only thought of the Four Major Businesses as the most prestigious and impressive stores, not as villains bullying the other businesses.

All the merchants that had been bullied out of a job by Thousand Treasures and the small businesses that tried to expand into multiple cities stepped forward to tell the people about what the Four Major Businesses had done to them. The enemies the Four Major Businesses had made along the way finally found a good time to step forward, especially since they all got some encouragement from the Lang Clan. With a few promises of protection and future cooperation, these disgruntled businessmen were eager to step forward and air their grievances.

The unshakeable reputation of the Four Major Businesses suddenly dropped.