(A/N: I won't make excuses, I was super busy IRL and didn't have time to write, so I hope you guys and gals can understand. Join our discord to talk with fellow readers and complain about my release schedule.

Link: discord.gg/SC9HNKVj5e

)historical

Years ago, around the time Hao Huizheng was having his first fortuitous encounter, another person in the Divine Central continent had to pass a test to prove that they were competent enough to work in the family business. That person was Feng Huiyan, the Feng family's young miss.

The primary area of concentration in the other powerful families of the Divine central continent is some form of cultivation, whether it be the cultivation of the body, the cultivation of Qi, formations, pills, and so on. In contrast, the Feng family, who are already wealthy enough to buy what they require, are more concerned with expanding their wealth in order to support their extravagant way of life.

In order to achieve this goal, they require all of their children, whether they are from the main family or one of the branch families, to begin working in one of their branch stores so that they can acquire experience and become familiar with the ins and outs of salesmanship.

It stands to reason that this was of even greater significance in the main family, given that the future leader of the auction house and family would be chosen based on how well the potential heir performed in their first task in a branch store.

The same was true for Feng Huiyan, who had reached the age where he was qualified to begin working in a branch store. Because she was skilled in cultivation and had a sharp mind for business, the family head and the elders decided to test her abilities even further by giving her a task that was more difficult than usual so that they could observe the full extent of her power and abilities.

Her mission was to establish a brand-new auction house in the region of the Lian continent, which is located to the west of the Divine Central continent. When compared to the Divine Central Continent, the Lian continent is like a backwater valley in terms of cultivation and powerhouses, despite the fact that it is famous for its beautiful green forests and rivers.

For a mercantile family like the Feng family, the opportunity presented by the Lian continent was one that they just could not pass up. The Lian continent was like an uncut gem. In light of this, they were unable to make direct entry onto the continent because they would have had to contend with a coalition of merchant families from the Lian continent who were not willing to cede control of the market to the Feng family. Even though they had the means to utterly destroy all of them, doing so would be extremely expensive. Furthermore, because they would have to concentrate their resources, including money, time, and energy, on that region, it would create a vacuum in the Divine Central continent. This could end up being disastrous to their hegemony in the market, and no reasonable merchant would be willing to risk losing the largest market in the world for a market that has the potential to expand.

That being said, if they were to send a member of the younger generation there it would be almost effortless for them as it would be a test of ability for that person and the chance of Lian continent native families becoming hostile from the very beginning would decrease significantly. Sending a younger generation member would also provide an opportunity to bridge cultural gaps and introduce modern technology, potentially improving the relationship between Lian continent natives and their visitors. This would be advantageous for the younger generation member as well; not only would they be exposed to a new culture, but they would also have the chance to prove their worth.

Because of this, Feng Huiyan decided to pack her bags and embark on a journey to the Lian continent. The journey from one continent to another is not as simple as one might believe, and there is a very good explanation for this difficulty: the beasts that live in the ocean.

When it comes to the ocean, humans are out of their element and are more susceptible to being influenced by their surroundings than they are on land. Despite the fact that humans rule the land, they are at a disadvantage in the ocean. When it comes to the sea creatures, not only are they where they belong, but they have also had sufficient time to mature to such a terrifying level that you will perish if you enter the wrong creature's territory by mistake.

The ocean can be an unforgiving place, with strong currents, sudden storms, and even more dangerous creatures lurking beneath the surface that are capable of taking human life in an instant.

Despite these dangers, humans still find ways to explore and make use of the ocean's resources, or to simply use it as a means of travel. There have been many maps created over the years about beasts and their territories, safe spots, and even the cultivation realms of those creatures.

With these creatures being used as ingredients for pills, potions, and even weapons and armor, the rewards outweighed the risk for many, and a big industry is built on this harvesting of these ocean creatures. This practice has continued for hundreds of years, these brave cultivators often worked alone and without the support of any family, sect, or authority, so their success and failures were entirely dependent on themselves.

Over the years, these cultivators started to work more in groups and formed a family of their own, which have dominated the seas to this day. These families now rely on the success of their collective in order to survive and thrive, taking the risk out of individual exploration and allowing them to focus on bigger rewards while still maintaining their individual identities and goals. As the years went on, these families grew and developed more sophisticated methods of harvesting and cultivating these creatures, developing expertise in the field that their predecessors could never have dreamed of.

The collective of these families is called the Hailong family, which is considered one of the nine big families despite really being one family. Here instead of the branch families, we have a lot of families which try to join the main one with merits.

Feng Huiyan was able to travel to the Lian continent without much apprehension thanks to the assistance of the Hailong family. They devised a trip plan for Feng Huiyan and her entourage that included both sea and air travel in order to maximize their chances of survival.

She didn't use any of the resources that the Feng family provided her to travel and establish the branch here as she wanted to have the maximum available liquidity so that she wouldn't have much difficulty in handling the money over there. She used her own savings over the years to pay for this trip.

After a lengthy journey spanning multiple weeks, Feng Huiyan finally arrived on the Lian continent. She was received by a group of merchants from the local coalition. These merchants were concerned about the new auction house that the Feng family was planning to put up. Feng Huiyan was able to sway their opinion in spite of their initial reluctance thanks to her endearing personality and competence in the business world.

To the elders of the Feng family's surprise, she was able to build the auction house and make deals with the local merchants. Her success in doing so surprised them. Because of Feng Huiyan's tenacity and consistent effort over the course of a few years, the auction house that was located on the continent of Lian eventually became an enormously prosperous business. Her name spread all over the Lian continent as a result of her success in the economic world, where she rose to prominence as a prominent figure.

As a result of these accomplishments, Feng Huiyan was easily recognized as the leading candidate in the succession race, and when she returned to the Divine Central Continent, she was able to celebrate a significant victory and enjoy an even larger windfall in her own finances.

During the early stages of her stay on the Lian continent, she came into contact with Hao Huizheng, who was a teenager at the time of their encounter. She made quite a few purchases from him, and she considered him to be her lucky duck because he always brought one-of-a-kind or rare items to her auction house. As a result, she was able to profit from the publicity that the items brought to the auction house by establishing it as a trustworthy source for high-quality items.

When she was having trouble competing with the locals for market share during one of these instances, Hao Huizheng showed up again and auctioned off a few items that helped her tremendously in gaining more attention at a time when they needed it the most. This benefited them immensely. The gesture of appreciation that Hao Huizheng carried with him today was identical to the one that she presented to him many years ago. The token Hao Huizheng carried today, is the exact one she gave him years ago.