After hearing this, Ye Li realized how shallow his knowledge was. He had never thought about the issue of hiring an alchemist.
Mu Xiangyun glanced at him and continued, "Most of the business we do as merchants will try to avoid competing with the big chambers of commerce. After all, compared to them, our competitiveness is really not enough.
The money we want to make is the part they disdain to do, or are unwilling to do.
For example, you can take the trouble to hire people to go to various monster hunting areas to purchase monster pills and monster materials. The purchase price can even be slightly lower than what the big chambers of commerce in the city offer.
Most people would not care about this loss. They would not have to go to the city to sell monster materials, which would save them a lot of time.
Then, we will sell the demon pills and materials directly to those who need them, instead of refining them into finished products and selling them.
After all, compared to the big chambers of commerce, if we want to refine finished products, the cost is too high and there is little profit left."
After Mu Xiangyun's detailed explanation, Ye Li finally had the most intuitive understanding of what the peddlers did. Most of them made a living by buying and selling raw materials and semi-finished products.
This also indirectly reflects the importance of the platform that Li Xifeng and his team want to build. After all, what materials and semi-finished products need most is market scope, and traveling merchants have to support themselves with sales volume.
Once the platform is established, traveling merchants no longer have to travel to distant counties. They only need to sell their goods to traveling merchants in other counties at nearby trade fairs.
These goods will naturally spread through trade gatherings everywhere, generating huge sales volumes.
After Ye Li figured this out, he looked at Li Xifeng and the others with more respect.
If their goal can be achieved, I believe the world's business landscape will change a lot, and Li Xifeng and his four companions will surely become world-famous merchants in the future.
Afterwards, Ye Li did not stay here to chat. After all, he had been commissioned by others and he had to complete the task.
Although there was no disturbance in the venue, he still returned to the area he was responsible for and began patrolling.
The rally lasted for three days. Driven by the momentum of the first day, more and more people came to attend the rally in the next two days.
However, until the afternoon of the third day, no disturbance occurred in the entire venue.
It's normal to think that most of those who are attracted by the traveling merchants' things are below the Spiritual Sea Stage, and occasionally there will be some Spiritual Sea Stage talisman masters.
Talisman masters above the Lingdan stage have almost no use for the low-level products sold by upstream merchants.
Most of the talisman masters in the Lingwu stage are unwilling to cause trouble. After all, this level of cultivation is not really high.
This is also the reason why Li Xifeng and his team only looked for talisman masters in the Lingwu period when issuing commissions. After all, it would be useless even if they had higher cultivation levels.
Soon, the sun in the sky began to set and it was evening.
The rally was coming to an end at this point, and some peddlers who had sold out their goods early had already left the venue.
Most of the customers who came to buy goods have left, and only a few talisman masters with limited strength and financial resources are left. They are still waiting for the last minute to try to get some bargains, after all, there is a chance that some traveling merchants will sell the remaining goods at a low price.
Just as the rally was about to end perfectly, a series of heavy horse hoofbeats were heard in the distance.
The sound of hurried hooves came quickly from far away and rushed straight towards the gathering place.
Ye Li and the others became alert when they heard the sound of horse hooves. Meng Sheng even called out to everyone from a distance, and they all rushed to the main entrance.
Li Xifeng, Lin Shiyu and others also came to the door, wanting to see who the sound of horse hooves brought.
Most of the traveling merchants who had not yet left the venue were packing up their things, but now, because of the sound of horse hooves, many of them stopped what they were doing and looked towards the gate.
Ye Li was standing next to Meng Sheng at this moment, and Lin Shiyu was standing on the other side of him. The little girl Hongdou actually followed him out, quietly squeezed her head out from between Ye Li and Lin Shiyu, and looked into the distance.
They saw a horse team of about thirty people galloping towards them from a distance.
Through the dust raised by the horses' hooves, everyone could see the people on horseback clearly. Except for the middle-aged man with a pointed chin, monkey cheeks and triangular eyes who was leading the group, the rest all had their faces covered with cloth.
But now, a khaki bear head was embroidered on everyone’s chest.
Li Xifeng's expression changed when he saw them, and he asked, "Why are they from Mangxiong Village? What are these bandits doing here?"
It was the first time that Ye Li heard the name Mangxiong Village. Although he didn’t know them, since they were bandits, they must not be good people.
Just when everyone was wondering about the other party's intentions, the cavalry had already rushed in front of them.
"Herod, the law..."
A series of horse neighs were heard, and the cavalry stopped in front of everyone in an orderly manner.
The leading man with a pointed chin, monkey cheeks and triangular eyes jumped off his horse with one flip. Following his move, the other thirty or so men also jumped off their horses and stood beside him.
"Oh, it seems we are a little late. The rally is almost over and there are only a few people left.
I heard that your gathering was very lively. Dear big bosses, I guess you made a lot of money in these three days, right?"
The man with triangular eyes glanced at the traveling merchants who had not yet left the venue, and then spoke to Li Xifeng and others.
Li Xifeng and Lin Shiyu exchanged glances, then forced a smile and said, "Sir, you are joking. We merchants have always traveled a long way to earn a little money. It's hard to say how much we make. We just break even."
The man with triangular eyes frowned, looked at Li Xifeng with a half-smile, and said, "Don't be modest. After all, who would do something without any profit these days? If you can't make money as a traveling merchant, I don't believe you will continue to do it.
Okay, I won’t waste any more time talking to you guys, let’s get down to business.
The place where you set up the meeting venue is within the sphere of influence of our Mangxiong Village. According to the rules, you should pay us for using our land.
This piece of land here is not small. The rental fee for you to use it for three days is a total of 3,000 high-quality spirit stones."
As soon as he said this, the faces of Li Xifeng and others instantly turned ugly.
The other party's intention of coming here is very clear. They are obviously jealous of the successful holding of their trade fair and want to extort some money from them.
However, the five of them did not charge any commission from anyone for this trade rally. After all, it was the first time they held such a rally, and all the peddlers who came to set up stalls did so for free. They, the organizers, did not gain any profit from it, it was purely to promote this type of rally.
Now the other party asked for three thousand high-grade spirit stones. Not to mention that they did not charge commission, even if they did, it would be impossible for them to get so much.