Before Sage could even ask for help, it seemed he was recognized by Wan Ling. The girl turned her furious gaze away from her Uncle after she heard the introductions of those at the table. They were all reasonably popular Elders in the Sect, with the exception of Sage. Instead he was currently quite famous for his disastrous business launch. Normally a failing business wouldn’t be of any note, such things happened all the time. The noteworthy part was the utter failure of the launch party. Everything had been done in such a strange way that it actually made the rest of the business seem like even more of a farce.

Wan Ling actually smiled when she saw Lang Sheng and even chose to sit beside him. Wan Yuhan made a loud toast and started to chatter with Tigrous Yuan Hu and the Monkey Qiu Hou. At the same time Wan Ling spoke with Sage, immediately drawing his attention.

“I’ve been meaning to find you. ‘Future Horizons’ may be an utter failure now, but it has such marvelous potential.”

Sage would have blinked a few times in amazement, but his serpentine nature kept his face from showing any surprise. Instead he was simply quiet for a moment as if in cold calculation before he spoke, “Is that so? Is now the time when you are going to offer to purchase it all from me at a low price, then make a few changes before earning a fortune?”

Wan Ling chuckled, shaking her head at how ruthless he thought she would be. She laughed at her own reputation before speaking, “Hah, my reputation is not as it seems. I did use a few ruthless tactics to dispose of some rivals, but that was merely based upon exposing their wrongdoings. I turned their dark dealings and evil business practices into a weapon against them.”

Sage stayed silent, letting her continue to speak. He hadn’t ever heard of this woman before, having never paid attention to any of the business side of things. It was truly a failure on his part, since that had led to his failed business opening.

“I don’t plan to purchase your business out from under you. From what I’ve seen of the place I see untapped potential. In fact, I’d much rather we be partners. To the Meng Li Company and others like them I’m merely a useful tool to grow their business. What I need is exactly something like the ‘Future Horizons’. I can take your rough stone and carve it into a diamond.”

She actually seemed to look off into the distance as she continued to speak, growing more passionate, “I’ll open up branches of the store across the continent and grow such wealth and power that no one will ever dare to talk down to me again.”

Smiling, Sage felt the passion of her dream and couldn’t help but find this too lucky of a coincidence. His smile fading away as he gave the woman a cold glare, “What a passionate speech. How could a failing business owner resist the allure of a beautiful woman offering to become partners and raise his business to the skies? Oh how fate has miraculously brought us together.”

The look of an impassioned woman chasing her dream suddenly left Wan Ling’s face, replaced by a calculating smile. She licked her ruby red lips and chuckled, “It seems you are not as naive as I thought you were. An informant told me you were here so it was child’s play to convince my Uncle to come here for a drink. You’re right, this was a calculated meeting. You are also wrong. What I said about being partners was correct. I could easily pick any industry or business and make great profits. What I truly want is the mind behind the ‘Future Horizons’. While the business is a complete mess, I can see the potential in such devices that no one has ever seen before.”

They took a short break from the conversation, Wan Ling called over a waiter to bring them fresh wine and fill their glasses. Each of them drinking a few cups before they continued the suddenly intense discussion.

Sage finally grey impatient and broke the silence, “So, what exactly is your offer?”

Seeming pleased she hadn’t been the one to speak first, Wan Ling smiled, “We become partners. We split all the profits eighty for me, twenty for you. In return you don’t have to do anything at all except to create more of your unusual devices for me. I’ll make businesses out of them and handle everything else that comes long with it.”

“Nice try, but these devices are one of a kind. You want me to slave away creating them non-stop to populate these businesses of yours and all I get is twenty percent? What about my initial investments in the property and prototype creation? I’m going to have to spend a fortune researching new devices. There’s no way this is going to happen without being equal partners.”

The woman’s smile grew wider, “Done, equal partners it is!”

Sage suddenly felt like he’d been tricked at which point she laughed and continued, “Negotiation is an art. Thankfully, you won’t need to learn it. I’ll handle it in the future. We shall be equal partners and there will be no demands on you to create new devices or produce the old ones. We can hire our own Smiths to produce them.”

Sage shook his head, “I wanted to have them built on consignment from the Sect, but I’m not sure how to approach such a thing. I suppose you can handle this for me?”

She nodded, “Indeed. It will delay my plans a bit, but it would definitely get us on the Peak Master’s good side. We can discuss the details later.”

With the business deal concluding, the other four at the table had overheard some of it after all, the whole table raised their glasses and drank to at least one of their friend’s biggest problems starting to move towards resolution. Of course this also led to another round of drinking away tears for the others who weren’t any closer to fixing their own issues.

A few days later.

Sage was at his home, discussing some of the details of the new business plans. Recreating the plans for his devices in simple and complete forms that Wan Ling could use to negotiate terms and deals with the Holy Flame Sect’s Blacksmithing Pavillion. He aimed for many of the parts of the devices to be produced by Apprentice Blacksmith’s and later assembled in full by only a few trusted persons. It would give a source of income for the Apprentices while also protecting the secrets of the devices construction. Sage hoped that the devices could improve the quality of life for non-cultivators while at the same time running a profitable business. If left in his own hands, there was no way he could make such a thing work, but there was hope Wan Ling could do it.

Next up was Wan Ling’s plans for how to remodel the current ‘Future Horizons’ into a more profitable venture. More plans and paperwork was drawn up for her to use and they discussed it for hours before coming to a good solution.

“Now we just need a little more capital and we can try again.” Sage said after taking a seat and trying to calculate how much all this would cost him.

At this point they were suddenly distracted as the sound of loud knocking came from Sage’s door. Getting up, he went and opened the door to find a man wearing the satchel of an official sect messenger. It was one of the tasks that could be performed by any Outer Sect Disciple, and the satchel was a special type of storage bag that confirmed their identity as a messenger and the validity of the messages contents. Sage had to touch his Sect Talisman to the bag and then the message entered his hands.

It was a summons from Peak Master Zhen Zhen.