Chapter 174 An Early Morning Visit

April 17th, 2018, 7:12 AM.

Su Zhou was on his way to the Samsara World, before the 'First Su Zhou Fan Club Management Offline Meeting' began.

Invited by his friend, Su Zhou arrived at the 'Xiyue' Hotel, located near the center of Xijing City, which had only recently started its promotion.

"Not bad, this place. The decorations are quite elaborate."

When Su Zhou said this, the hotel was not yet open, and Shao Qiming was standing beside him.

The two had already explored the entire hotel and were now standing in front of a tall spirit tree, planted in the center of the welcoming hall as a decoration, carefully examining it.

This was a willow tree that had already awakened its spirit, and could be considered a spiritual material. Its verdant branches and evergreen leaves were constantly absorbing all the surrounding turbid air, converting it, and releasing gentle wood-attributed spiritual energy, filling the entire hotel.

Eating here would not only stimulate the appetite but also prevent one's mood from being disturbed by polluted air and other factors.

Using spirit trees to improve one's living environment was something that any cultivator with even a little money wanted to do.

In fact, small spirit tree bonsai were currently the most popular luxury items on the global market.

But buying bonsai was easy; keeping them alive was difficult.

Not to mention keeping alive a willow tree, which was not particularly resilient, in a bustling downtown hotel.

"The person behind this Xiyue Hotel has some clout!"

Admiring the spirit tree before him, Su Zhou rarely nodded in approval and praised, "The person who transplanted it used their own power to create a cycle of heaven and earth spiritual energy for the willow tree and laid out an invisible spirit-gathering formation inside the hotel."

"It seems like they're just using the willow tree to suppress the hotel's turbid energy, but in reality, they're using the five turbid energies as a guide to gather the heaven and earth spiritual energy from half the street around it, creating a cycle of purity and turbidity."

"Very clever, and a win-win. It can purify the filth and nurture the spirit tree, allowing it to slowly grow even in the city!"

"Is that so?" Shao Qiming simply chuckled and continued to lead Su Zhou to the highest suite in the hotel.

Then, he showed him a plaque hanging in the highest-level suite.

"'Zhu Zhao Group'? What does that mean?"

At first, Su Zhou was quite puzzled. He stroked his chin and wondered, "Speaking of which, it's similar to my true form's name… Wait."

Seeing this, and thinking of the spirit tree in the center of the hotel, even Su Zhou, who hadn't thought of it at all at first, quickly realized it. When he turned to look at his friend, he was a little surprised. "I see—no wonder you dragged me here early this morning. I was wondering why you'd call me to a hotel when it's not even mealtime."

"I didn't expect it, Qiming. You've actually become a hotel owner!"

This was just a joke. Su Zhou knew very well that since Shao Qiming had used the name Zhu Zhao Group, it meant that its industries were definitely not limited to just one. The Xiyue Hotel was, at most, just a representative example.

And, sure enough, Shao Qiming said the same thing.

"To be precise, it's not just a hotel. The Zhu Zhao Group doesn't currently involve many industries. The focus is on related spirit beast breeding and spirit plant cultivation. The hotel is just a promotional outlet, a storefront to earn a bit of attention."

At this time, Shao Qiming was tidying his hair, sweeping the ebony, root-like strands from his shoulders to his back.

Because he had cultivated a related sacred tree inheritance, his hair was not as fragile as that of ordinary humans. Instead, it was slightly thick and tough, and it would move spontaneously with the rise and fall of spiritual energy, like an automatic spiritual energy compass—which was certainly a useful ability, but if he were in a particularly chaotic area of spiritual energy, Shao Qiming's hair would probably dance like struggling octopus tentacles.

Regarding Su Zhou's point, Shao Qiming just smiled slightly. He first nodded, then shook his head and said, "You're mistaken about one thing."

"The Zhu Zhao Group is not my industry—it's our industry."

"Ours?"

Su Zhou raised his eyebrows. He was a little surprised, and even easily uttered a momma's boy remark: "When? I don't remember joining? Speaking of which, I haven't seen how much my salary is. My bank card and other accounts are all with my mom…"

"You joined from the beginning, you fool."

Seeing the bewildered Su Zhou, Shao Qiming sighed. He motioned for Su Zhou to sit down, told the staff to bring tea, and then sat in the seat opposite Su Zhou, explaining calmly, "You think only money counts as joining? Seriously, A'Zhou, without your connections, how could I have convinced my father to invest in me and applied for a loan from the bank?"

"Not to mention the various inside information you intentionally or unintentionally revealed, just the fact that relevant departments won't make things difficult for me is already a convenience that money can't buy."

As he said this, Shao Qiming sent Su Zhou a list of industries through his proxy terminal and motioned for him to take a look. "For a while, the Zhu Zhao Group was operating at a loss, but when the news about Qingqiu Star came out, I keenly sensed the opportunity—now, the Zhu Zhao Group is the semi-official organization second only to the Zheng Guo Ministry of Agriculture, providing food assistance and related breeding and cultivation technology guidance to Qingqiu Star. It not only has subsidies, but also has priority investment rights in Qingqiu Star in the future."

"Of course, it's called semi-official, but because of your existence, the Zhu Zhao Group is very free. As long as we don't do anything outrageous, it's convenient for us to do whatever we want. And I won't tarnish your reputation for the sake of money. You can rest assured about that."

Su Zhou looked at the proxy terminal on his left hand—this watch-like personal terminal would be officially popularized in Zheng Guo in two years—the terminal projected a light screen, on which a large amount of data flashed rapidly at a speed that ordinary people could not see clearly.

"Isn't this not so good?" After reading it, Su Zhou frowned. He put down his left hand, looked at Shao Qiming, and said hesitantly, "This makes it seem like I'm a member of the privileged class…"

"Otherwise?"

Su Zhou's words shocked Shao Qiming instead. The young man, who looked very gentle on the outside, blinked and carefully sized up the other person for a while. He said in confusion, "Haven't you already advanced to become a Hegemon, an Earth Immortal?"

"That's true, but… you know, I've always been indifferent to this kind of thing."

At this time, the staff brought tea for the two. Su Zhou picked it up, took a sip, and then frowned. "The official resources I use usually don't cost me any money—of course, I never refuse when the authorities send me on missions. But that's a working relationship. I work for the Zheng Guo authorities, and they give me compensation."

"But this…"

"Alright." Shao Qiming knew very well what his friend was feeling awkward about. He understood very well why the other person was so resistant to this.

At the end of the day, Su Zhou was still a very pure idealist. He didn't like his actions being tied to interests.

He hoped that his actions were motivated by his inner desires, not by profit, because that would make him feel that his motives were not pure, and therefore unable to 'fairly' criticize 'good and evil'.

So, the young man interrupted the other person and said directly, "To be honest, the day after I first thought of building the predecessor of the Zhu Zhao Group, many people came to me, saying they could provide assistance, including many official people."

"Su Zhou, do you think that a future immortal god who is desireless, doesn't love money, doesn't love power, and doesn't seem to have any reliance on the world, except for their relatives and friends, how frightening would they be to people?"

"I understand why this is happening…"

Su Zhou wasn't stupid either. He knew very well that since he had the strength, there would naturally be groups formed because of him—whether it was the New World Exploration Department, which was specifically formed to accommodate him, or the Zhu Zhao Group established by Shao Qiming, they were all part of the laws of society.

Unless he deliberately demanded 'not to form forces around him', this was bound to happen… And since it was bound to happen, it seemed like the least bad choice for his best friend to control it.

So in the end, Su Zhou just let out a breath, not knowing what to say. "I just hope this world can become better—humanity is happy and healthy, and there is no more evil in the world, that's all."

"Immortals and gods may not care about the views of humans, but humans need to care. They need peace of mind."

Hearing this, Shao Qiming also took a sip of tea. He looked at Su Zhou and said calmly, "Don't worry, you don't have to do these things yourself… If there really are some dirty things in this group in the future, then I will solve them for you and not let them affect your reputation…"

"No."

However, upon hearing this, Su Zhou suddenly interrupted Shao Qiming.

He leaned forward, looked directly at the other person, and said seriously, "I will personally sweep away those guys."

"This is my job, don't even think about taking it away."

"…Okay."

Regarding Su Zhou's tough attitude, Shao Qiming was slightly stunned, and then chuckled, "What you said is also right. If there really are some bad people in the group, then letting you handle them will instead better salvage its reputation."

Speaking of this, he seemed to remember something. Shao Qiming raised his hand to Su Zhou, and naturally showed the back of his hand to the other person. "Speaking of which, A'Zhou, it's not just the Zhu Zhao Group."

"In fact, if it weren't for your relationship, the members of my other team and I wouldn't have been able to receive so many scarce missions to accumulate points, let alone get enough 360,000 points before the end of the school year to exchange for the Zheng Guo lineage of sacred tree inheritance."

Su Zhou wanted to be modest and say something like, 'What's this? Do we need to be so polite between us brothers?'

But soon, he noticed something was wrong.

Because Su Zhou saw that at the tip of the finger that Shao Qiming showed him, there was an incomparably bright light, shining as pure spiritual energy condensed.