Hoa Van Move On Its Own

Only a few days after Thien Bao Pavilion laid its first foundations, the eastern district of the Hoa Van Forward Camp had already changed noticeably.

What drew Hao Nhien’s attention most was not the speed of the craftsmen, but the way the entire project had been broken into smaller parts and carried out in parallel, almost without anyone needing to stand in the middle constantly urging everyone forward.

One group treated the timber while another erected the frames. The workers digging foundations already knew the exact locations and dimensions in advance, so they did not have to wait for the materials to arrive before beginning. Goods entering the construction zone were immediately inspected, recorded, and sent directly to wherever they were needed.

The formation masters surveyed the underground spiritual currents while burying formation flags at predetermined points, and the builders behind them simply followed the plans and continued with their own work.

Hao Nhien watched for quite some time before realizing that Thien Bao Pavilion’s speed did not come merely from manpower or cultivation.

More importantly, everyone knew what they were supposed to do, when they would need their materials, and how their work had to connect with the person who came after them.

Three days later, the main frame of a three-story building stood on land that had previously been empty.

Desert timber, once properly treated, became nearly as hard as stone while retaining much of its lightness. Refined sandstone formed the foundation to resist blowing sand and reduce heat, while dust-repelling formations, preservation formations, and a small spirit-gathering formation were installed one after another.

When the main frame was completed, Luu Van personally brought over a large wooden sign.

Four dark-gold characters had been carved prominently across its surface:

HOA VAN TREASURE PAVILION

The name Thien Bao Pavilion did not appear directly, but the pattern and seal beneath the characters were enough for anyone who had dealt with the merchant organization before to recognize the power standing behind it.

Luu Van stroked his beard.

“Chief Steward Lang has already reviewed it and approved. This place will first be known as Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion, and only after that as a branch of Thien Bao Pavilion.”

Hao Nhien studied the sign and nodded.

“That is better.”

He did not want the eastern commercial district to become a piece of land that belonged to Thien Bao Pavilion, but neither did he have any reason to conceal the backing of such a major merchant organization.

Thien Bao Pavilion’s reputation was itself part of what gave this branch value.

On the day the sign was raised, a large number of people from the forward camp came to watch.

A warrior from a smaller tribe stood near the edge of the crowd and quietly asked the man beside him:

“Will we really be able to buy pills here in the future?”

“I heard it will not just be pills. Weapons, talismans, tools, cloth—they will have all of it. Eventually, people will even be able to send goods through the merchant caravans.”

“We will not have to cross the desert ourselves to reach Tam Thanh?”

“Not if the trade route becomes stable.”

The first man stared at the building for a while before murmuring:

“If that is true, staying in Hoa Van for the long term might not be so bad.”

Hao Nhien stood not far away and heard every word, but he did not turn around.

He did not need newcomers to immediately regard Hoa Van as their homeland, nor did he need declarations of loyalty.

As long as they began to think that life here might be better than what they had before, Hoa Van had gained another reason to endure.

Over the following days, Hao Nhien began applying some of the organizational principles he had observed from Thien Bao Pavilion to other parts of Hoa Van, though he adopted only what suited the settlement.

Construction teams were required to report the materials they would need for the following day before nightfall. The warehouses then separated those supplies in advance, while ordinary labor shortages were filled through the mission board instead of forcing supervisors to search for people every morning.

Patrol teams also received their schedules ahead of time. Routine problems were handled directly by the people responsible for them within their authority. Only matters that exceeded their resource limits, involved multiple groups, or touched upon core security needed to be brought before the council tent.

The results appeared quickly.

In the past, constructing a row of houses meant waiting for timber. Once the timber arrived, someone still had to find craftsmen. By the time work finally began, they might discover that foundation stone was missing or that no one had been assigned to guard the material yard.

Now, most supplies arrived the evening before. The next morning, those who had accepted the assignment simply reported to the proper location and began working.

There was more work in the settlement than ever before, yet fewer and fewer matters actually reached Hao Nhien’s hands.

Only then did he understand something more clearly.

Rules were not meant to help the person at the top control more things. Their real purpose was to allow ordinary matters to continue without waiting for the person at the top to make every decision.

Meanwhile, Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion completed the first section of its main hall.

The primary warehouse was still under construction, the second floor remained unfinished, and several preservation formations had yet to be fully connected. Even so, the main hall, temporary warehouse, and appraisal counter were already sufficient for trial operations.

The original two-month deadline for completing the branch to Thien Bao Pavilion’s standards had not changed. Only the start of trading had been moved forward.

Hao Nhien summoned Luu Van, Luu Thanh, Luu Tan, the warehouse supervisor, and several representatives from the groups currently residing in Hoa Van.

The first question was not what goods they should sell, but how people without many spirit stones could trade conveniently.

Spirit stones were common in the Eastern Plains, but many tribes of the Western Wastes barely accumulated them at all. Their wealth existed in beast hides, beast cores, ores, medicinal herbs, and materials found only in the desert.

If Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion accepted only spirit stones, then it would ultimately serve only those already accustomed to the commercial system of the Eastern Plains.

Hao Nhien placed three jade tokens on the table.

“Spirit stones will remain the primary unit of value. Hoa Van merit points record contributions to the settlement, but trade between many different types of resources needs another intermediary layer.”

Luu Van looked at the third jade token.

“Trade credits?”

“Exactly.”

Hao Nhien nodded.

“When someone brings beast hides, beast cores, ores, or medicinal materials to Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion, the goods will be appraised and assigned a spirit-stone value. If they do not want to receive spirit stones, they can instead take the equivalent amount in trade credits stored within a jade token and use those credits to purchase something else.”

A tribal representative asked:

“What gives those credits value?”

“Actual goods.”

Hao Nhien pointed toward the warehouse inventory.

“Spirit stones, grain, tools, medicinal materials, basic artifacts, and pills can all serve as reserves backing the system. The total number of credits issued must never exceed what the warehouses can safely redeem according to the reserve ratio we agree upon.”

Luu Van asked:

“Will transfers between people be allowed?”

“Yes. If they cannot be transferred, it will be difficult for them to function as a medium of exchange.”

Hao Nhien continued:

“But the initial issuance must remain small. The amount issued and the amount already spent must be reconciled regularly. Commodity prices will not remain permanently fixed either; they will be adjusted according to the market. If we find a loophole, we fix it. If some part proves useless, we remove it. For now, this is only an experiment.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Luu Van considered the idea for a while before nodding.

“Thien Bao Pavilion will handle appraisal and the price lists. Hoa Van will manage issuance and the reserves backing it. Both sides will maintain separate ledgers for reconciliation.”

“That is what I had in mind.”

The experiment was approved.

During the initial phase, pills became one of the most important commodities supporting the system.

Not because Hao Nhien wanted Hoa Van to survive by selling pills, but because pills were something the settlement currently possessed a clear advantage in producing, while the Western Wastes suffered from an obvious shortage.

Hao Nhien looked around the table.

“Pills are the strongest commodity in our hands right now, so we will use them to establish the foundation. But Hoa Van eventually needs grain, transport, ores, tools, artifact forging, medicinal materials, and many other industries. We cannot let an entire town stand on only one leg.”

Luu Van smiled.

“So pills are both merchandise and proof that Hoa Van has genuine value.”

“Exactly.”

Hao Nhien replied:

“A promise can make people listen, but someone who exchanges for something useful here will speak for us without being asked.”

That evening, the names of those who had accumulated the most merit during the first construction phase were posted on the mission board.

Duong Sa had earned eight hundred merit points after repeatedly detecting spirit beasts approaching transport routes and participating in supply escorts.

Thach Moc had accumulated seven hundred after leading a construction group that completed thirty-two houses ahead of schedule.

Han Phong had earned nine hundred merit points during the current phase alone, but when his earlier patrol, escort, and combat assignments from the first days of the forward camp were included, the total stored in his jade token was considerably higher.

When Han Phong went to Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion intending to exchange some of his merit for healing medicine and cultivation supplies, he unexpectedly stopped in front of a newly posted pill catalogue in the main hall.

Near the bottom was a single entry:

Realm Advancement Pill

Only a few were available, and the merit requirement was relatively high.

Han Phong stared at the line for a while before handing his jade token to the manager.

“Do I have enough?”

The manager checked the token, then compared it with Hoa Van’s records.

“You do.”

Han Phong hesitated.

“I can really exchange for one?”

“With your current merit, yes.”

His decision was almost immediate.

“I want one.”

After the corresponding points were deducted, Han Phong also used some beast cores and hides he had accumulated previously to exchange for a Meridian-Protecting Spirit Elixir on the recommendation of the appraisal counter.

The transaction was recorded in two separate ledgers, one kept by Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion and the other sent to Hoa Van’s warehouse for reconciliation.

By the time Hao Nhien heard about it, Han Phong had already returned with the pill.

Near midnight, the spiritual energy around the western side of the forward camp began to fluctuate.

Luu Thanh immediately ordered everyone to keep their distance so they would not disturb the breakthrough. Hao Nhien also arrived after receiving the report.

The aura inside the stone house rose and fell unpredictably. Twice, the true qi nearly dispersed from its condensed state, making those outside believe Han Phong might have failed.

The Realm Advancement Pill could not transform true qi into spiritual power by itself.

It merely pushed the accumulation Han Phong had built over many years closer to the threshold before which he had been standing for far too long.

The final step still had to be taken by Han Phong himself.

The process lasted nearly four hours.

By the time the desert wind outside the house had turned completely cold, the surrounding spiritual energy suddenly contracted toward a single point.

The aura of Qi Condensation gradually withdrew.

After a long silence, an entirely different presence slowly spread outward.

The door opened.

Han Phong stepped outside with a bloodless face, his clothes soaked through and his breathing still unstable.

He stood before the doorway for a long time, staring at his own hands as though he could not quite believe the result.

“I succeeded…”

A moment later, his voice suddenly grew louder.

“I succeeded! I reached Foundation Establishment!”

Cheers quickly rose throughout the western district.

An elderly cultivator standing near the edge of the crowd tightened his grip around his merit token.

Hao Nhien stood close enough to hear him quietly say to the person beside him:

“If working here can truly earn things like that... perhaps the younger ones in my tribe will not have to spend their entire lives relying on luck.”

A single Realm Advancement Pill had not created a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

But to those standing around them, something else mattered just as much: Han Phong had used merit he had personally earned to exchange for the resource at Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion.

He had not needed to beg anyone for a reward.

By the following morning, the story had spread through almost the entire forward camp, and the mission board was noticeably more crowded than before.

At the same time, a daily pill exchange list was posted in front of Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion.

During the initial trial, only Qi Recovery Pills, Clear Heart Pills, and Body Strengthening Pills were available, with no more than twenty pills released each day. The proportion of each type changed according to inventory.

Residents of Hoa Van could exchange merit at the published rate, while outsiders could pay with spirit stones, approved goods, or trade credits.

Luu Van studied the number on the board.

“The alchemy hall can currently supply more than this. Young Master still wants to limit it to twenty?”

“Yes.”

Hao Nhien replied.

“Twenty is an amount we can still maintain if one furnace fails, ingredients arrive late, or Phong Van Tu has to stop refining for several days. I would rather make people wait than sell fifty today and have only ten available tomorrow.”

Luu Van nodded.

Hao Nhien continued:

“We also need this period to test the entire process—from appraisal and credit recording to warehouse release, dispute handling, and exchange-rate adjustment. If twenty pills a day are enough to throw the system into disorder, increasing that to two hundred will only make us collapse faster.”

“So we sell while testing.”

“Exactly.”

Hao Nhien looked toward the notice board.

“As long as the supply remains steady and people find the pills effective, word will spread on its own.”

The reaction came quickly.

On the first day, the entire pill allotment was exchanged before noon.

By the second day, noticeably more people were studying the mission board, while jobs that had previously required someone to search for workers—hauling stone, repairing roads, transporting water—began attracting volunteers on their own.

Outside tribes also started bringing medicinal materials, beast cores, hides, and ores to exchange for goods or trade credits.

Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion accepted only the categories listed publicly, used spirit stones as the standard reference for valuation, and divided goods into clearly defined quality grades.

Disputes naturally still occurred.

Some people believed their goods had been undervalued. Others disagreed with the grade assigned to their medicinal materials. A few tried to exploit price differences between different commodities for profit.

Hao Nhien did not regard any of this as failure.

That was precisely why the system was being tested while it was still small.

Luu Van adjusted the price lists. Luu Tan revised the warehouse intake procedures. High-value goods were required to receive confirmation from two separate people, while the amount of trade credits issued, the amount already spent, and the reserves backing them were periodically reconciled by both sides.

Every loophole discovered was recorded before it was corrected.

The system matured through its earliest mistakes.

What satisfied Hao Nhien most was not the number of pills sold, but the cycle that had begun to form around them.

People who wanted to accumulate merit voluntarily accepted assignments, allowing roads, houses, and warehouses to be completed faster.

As the infrastructure improved, merchant caravans gained places to stop and resupply, while wagons returning to the Eastern Plains no longer traveled empty. Instead, they carried spirit beast hides, ores, beast cores, and medicinal materials from the Western Wastes.

Lower transport costs then allowed ordinary supplies such as cloth, salt, well-digging tools, nails, treated timber, and long-lasting food to be brought into Hoa Van in greater quantities.

More supplies allowed construction to accelerate again.

Things that had once existed as isolated pieces were beginning to pull one another into motion.

Ten days after the new division of responsibilities was implemented, Hao Nhien passed the council tent early one morning.

Out of habit, he nearly stepped inside, only to realize that no one was waiting outside.

There were no people asking for additional timber, arguing over transport carts, or waiting for him to assign guards to construction sites.

Luu Thanh had just returned from patrol.

Hao Nhien looked at him.

“There is nothing to deal with today?”

Luu Thanh laughed.

“There is. More than before, actually.”

“Then where is everyone?”

“Anyone looking for work checks the mission board. The warehouses already have allocation limits. Construction teams submitted their needs last night, and patrol shifts were arranged in advance. Only matters the people below cannot resolve are brought here.”

Hao Nhien looked at the nearly empty tent.

“How many matters have been brought up recently?”

“Three over the last few days.”

“And before?”

“Sometimes more than three in a single morning.”

Hao Nhien laughed.

He did not feel that the authority in his hands had diminished.

If anything, for the first time Hoa Van seemed to have developed a skeleton strong enough to stand on its own instead of requiring him to support every step.

By the third week, the nearest tribes were bringing wagons to Hoa Van more regularly.

Several small merchant caravans traveling from the direction of Tam Thanh also began testing altered routes that passed through Hoa Van, because their return journeys could now carry goods from the Western Wastes instead of sending empty wagons back.

News spread gradually through merchants and travelers.

People in the Western Wastes heard that Hoa Van maintained a regular supply of pills. Merchants from the Eastern Plains learned that the settlement purchased Western Wastes resources at publicly posted prices. Independent cultivators heard that there was water here, work to be done, and opportunities to exchange labor for cultivation resources.

By the end of the first month, the eastern road, once marked by only scattered wagon tracks, saw small caravans almost every day.

A temporary market formed outside Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion. Two rows of guesthouses were added, the eastern warehouse began expanding, a third well was dug, and the road from the eastern gate to the central district was compacted with stone so that heavy wagons could pass more easily.

The limit of twenty common pills per day remained unchanged.

Hao Nhien merely instructed Luu Van to continue recording the number of people arriving to trade, the pills most frequently requested, the resources brought in, the number of returning customers, remaining inventory, and every dispute that arose.

Only when the system proved capable of handling greater pressure without destabilizing its supply would the daily limit be increased.

Pills were Hoa Van’s spearhead for now, but Hao Nhien had never intended for them to become the single pillar supporting the entire town.

One day, this place needed to be stable enough that even if he personally never refined another pill, the merchant caravans would still come, people would still stay, the market would still open, and construction would continue.

That afternoon, Hao Nhien stood atop the newly completed section of the eastern wall.

Tieu Lan walked up beside him.

From there, they could see merchant caravans unloading goods in front of Hoa Van Treasure Pavilion, people studying the mission board, alchemy students and members of the Hoa Ky Tribe carrying spirit herbs toward the sorting area, and farther away, smoke from the alchemy hall drifting into the evening wind.

There was more work than before and more people as well. Disputes and mistakes had naturally not disappeared, but no one below was standing idle simply because Hao Nhien had not yet told them what to do.

Those looking for work knew to go to the mission board. Those who needed supplies knew to go to the warehouses. Merchants knew where to have their goods appraised, while matters beyond someone’s authority were passed upward step by step.

Hao Nhien watched the scene for a long time.

In the past, he had thought he was building Hoa Van through every wall, every pill furnace, every water route, and every relationship he drew toward this place.

Only now did he understand that something else mattered more: creating the conditions that allowed all of it to keep functioning even after he removed his hands.

Tieu Lan stood beside him for a while before asking:

“Young Master, what are you thinking about?”

Hao Nhien watched the wagons slowly passing through the eastern gate, a faint smile appearing on his lips.

“I used to think I was building Hoa Van.”

Tieu Lan tilted her head slightly.

He looked down at the land that continued moving without waiting for him.

“But it seems Hoa Van has begun building itself.”