Thousand Treasures had put all the biggest traveling merchants in the Dou Kingdom out of business because they could never move goods faster than Transportation Arrays over long distances. At least that was the case when they had access to every type of commodity. With the introduction of a new supply of items that Thousand Treasures didn’t have access to, many merchants who specialized in transportation were eager to show their support for the Prosperity Company. As long as the Prosperity Company stayed popular and wasn’t destroyed by the Four Major Businesses it would give them room to rise.

The Dou Kingdom has eleven provinces, and each of those provinces has on average ten counties. Every one of those counties also has around ten large cities of a similar scale as Lionheart Town. The Prosperity Company’s sixty or so locations couldn’t cover the thousand large cities, so in order for their products to spread everywhere in the Kingdom other merchants had to get involved. Thousand Treasures had grown to its overwhelming size by cutting these groups out, so they became an automatic support network for the Prosperity Company.

Many of the new products that were exploding in popularity were meant to be extremely cheap such that even Mortals could afford them. Normally Magical Tools and other miraculous things that Cultivators used were way too expensive for the average Mortal. Only when they were supported by Cultivators could they enjoy access to simple tools that improved their daily lives. Since Magical Tools required Qi or Spirit Stones to power them, they would need a Cultivator around to operate them or to buy them ‘batteries’. Since only about ten percent of the population were Cultivators, this left a lot of people still living under ancient standards.

The Prosperity Company had created a lot of small Blastids that could handle many everyday tasks quite simply. Even better, as they were basically Spirit Insects, they could recover their Qi on their own and just needed to be fed to keep performing their duties. Since they barely moved and acted on their own, these simple creatures let a Mortal carry the power of a Cultivator around with them. That said, Mortals could really only afford the first or second tier of devices, so these were mostly small things. Lighters, ice makers, fans, water boilers, flashlights, farming implements, cooking gadgets, and other simple powered devices.

The downside to the merchants bringing them all over the Kingdom was that they had to sell items at higher prices. They were middle-men after all. This meant only the wealthier Mortals could afford all these conveniences, and the more expensive of their products were now similar in price to Magical Tools that Thousand Treasures sold. This meant that the Prosperity Company gained the support of these transportation specialist merchants, but outside their core locations their products were not able to gain huge traction, instead just being known as oddities.

The support of the merchants didn’t serve to boost the Prosperity Company’s wealth, but they did much to improve their reputation. The Lang Clan’s Information Network was putting quite a lot of effort into contending with their counterparts from Lotus Valley. These many merchant groups did a good job in countering the rumors and helping to raise their reputation. Weird as it might seem to wear a bug as a bracelet, most in this world didn’t fear insects just for existing. The people here could always find a use for every creature. At the very least they’d find out if it was edible, and if so it would be eaten.

With or without the merchants, the Four Major Businesses realized that the Prosperity Companies products were popular because of their cost. They also offered similar items but they couldn’t sell them so cheaply. Since no business would be foolish enough to sell items at a loss for long, they realized that the Prosperity Company’s products had very low production costs. Their own attempts to undercut the Prosperity Company came to a stop as they couldn’t afford to bleed money for no reason. Selling similar items as the Prosperity Company at a lower cost didn’t seem to pressure the Prosperity Company, it only strained their own coffers. If the Prosperity Company had invested a lot into their products and then found they couldn’t sell, it would put them into a tight spot. Since they never showed any stress, it meant they hadn’t invested too deeply. Running their shops and filling them with products was quite easy for them to support even without any sales for months. It was quite easy for them to just not breed as many Blastids. They didn’t have many miners, farmers, hunters, tailors, weavers, or smiths to pay in order to maintain their supply lines.

Since these new goods had such high profit margins, the Four Major Businesses turned to their next idea. Industrial espionage. The Lang Clan learned of this new development when Lotus Valley covertly put the word out that they were looking for Insect Breeders and Tamers. The Blastids that the Prosperity Company sold couldn’t breed on their own, nobody would be foolish enough to sell products that reproduced themselves. It was only a matter of time until someone tried to steal the Lang Clan’s secrets, but since they were living creatures and not Magical Tools it was a lot more difficult for them to reverse engineer. As bio-engineers, the Lang Clan could now be considered experts, at least in the Dou Kingdom. With that being the case they had already learned of others in the Kingdom who followed the same path to share and mutually improve.

Once the Lang Clan learned of the Four Major Business’ intentions, they quickly contacted all of the experts they knew of and offered them shelter. Those who refused were forcibly captured and put under house arrest, nabbed by those following the assassin path in the clan. This led to a number of clashes with the Lotus Valley’s agents. Both sides fought over the same talents and more than a few of them were killed by accident in the crossfire. It was actually quite surprising that the Lotus Valley’s agents were calm enough not to purposefully kill the experts they didn’t get their hands on, but after some thought it made sense. If any of these experts were to escape from the Lang Clan’s control in the future, then they might have acquired useful knowledge from their captors. If the Lang Clan got these bug specialists would they really be able to improve the Lang Clan’s creations? None of them had made such useful and popular bugs before this, so why would they start now?

This back and forth inevitably led to what seemed to be a huge loophole in the Lang Clan’s plans: The Chong Clan.

While these random Insect Tamers and Insect Breeders had made enough progress in the field to earn a name for themselves, their accomplishments paled in comparison to the Chong Clan. Before the Prosperity Company released all these strange bug devices, if anyone asked about modified insects someone would immediately bring up the Chong Clan. The Wu in particular were notorious for having modified Centipedes into various forms of weaponry and armor. Worse yet, the Chong Clan was divided into many factions and more than a few of those factions were not on the best terms with the Lang Clan. It was a huge vulnerability in their business plans, but how were they going to handle another first rate power that was, on the surface, their ally?