Clearly, quitting was out of the question.
But just like Li Luo had realized, the Suncreek Villa had many problems. There were three that were particularly serious.
First was the resonance artificers who had left. Ex-president Hanzhi had taken close to half of them with him. It was a terrible loss. After all, resonance artificers were their production power. Without them, the production volume of the Suncreek Villa would be compromised.
Second was that the Suncreek Villa lacked high-level resonance artificers. There used to be five fifth-grade resonance artificers, including Hanzhi and Pang Qianchi. With the former betraying them, and the latter put on leave, they only had three left. It was a pitiful number.
The other top 10 villas in the Xia Kingdom, such as the Bigswamp Villa from House Duze, had dozens of fifth-grade resonance artificers, and even a generous handful of sixth-grade artificers...
The gap was incredible.
The third problem was that the spirit liquid formulas the Suncreek Villa used were not considered high-grade. They could only barely be considered middle-grade.
In the Xia Kingdom, formulas were classified into five star grades, with one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest.
The Suncreek Villa's formulas, such as the Azure Jade spirit liquid that Li Luo was most familiar with, was only considered a two-star.
Li Luo had only defeated the Inkwater Villa's Blackstar spirit liquids thanks to the brute-force domination that his seventh-grade watersource provided him. Their Blackstar spirit liquid was a three-star formula.
Li Luo flipped through all of the formulas that the Suncreek Villa had. The highest was their main product, the third-grade White Feather spirit liquid, which used a three-star formula.
As for four-star formulas, they did not even have a single one.
If the Suncreek Villa was to become a top 10 villa in the Xia Kingdom, a single three-star formula alone was not going to cut it.
Li Luo frowned and looked over to Zheng Ping. "Elder Zheng, start recruiting resonance artificers as quickly as possible, or our production will not be able to keep up."
He could only deal with these problems one at a time. He couldn't summon expert resonance artificers from the ether, nor could he create a formula on command. Those things took too much time to research, so there was no choice but to buy them.
However, the price of high-star formulas was a real nail biter. The Suncreek Villa could not afford them.
"Yes, Sir," Elder Zheng Ping said.
He paused. "Young Lord, how soon will that high-purity watersource be provided to headquarters?"
Li Luo was again getting the feeling that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Although half the Suncreek Villa artificers were gone, the volume produced was still more than Tianshu's branch. Of course, that meant that they needed more watersource as well.
And he was just a Tenth Seal kid!
How could he feed all these ravenous artificers?
But he had already made the promise, and he could not renege on it now. That would be the end of the Suncreek Villa's reputation.
"I'll make some preparations. I should be able to provide headquarters with a batch soon," Li Luo said with a reassuring smile and a sinking heart.
Elder Zheng Ping nodded, eyes gleaming eagerly.
Li Luo did not dare linger. After sending out some more orders, he concluded business for the day and then left the headquarters with the three women.
He felt that the most urgent thing for him now was to quickly break through to the Resonant Master Stage. Otherwise, this frail body of his would not stand up to the merciless watersource wringing that was to follow.
But before that, he had to make a trip to the Golden Dragon Bank, where he had left his final two pieces of wood and earth materials for a long time. He had to temper his second acquired resonance.
...
The next day, Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e met and set out for the Golden Dragon Bank.
Although security in Xia City was good, Li Luo still brought a few third-tier Resonant Master bodyguards along with him. Just in case.
Although it was a mid-sized power in the Xia Kingdom, the Golden Dragon Bank's position was special. Its headquarters was located in the most prosperous district, and it took up a sizable plot of land as well. It was far more magnificent than the branch at the Tianshu Province. From afar, it was a towering behemoth stretched out across the land that struck fear and awe into people's hearts.
Outside the Golden Dragon Bank's headquarters, a constant stream of people flowed in and out of the majestic, bronze doors. Although three huge doors were open, the crowd was still bottlenecked—such was its popularity.
Li Luo followed them in, stepping into a hall so big, it felt like a courtyard. The dome was about a dozen meters high. From it hung an expensive, crystal chandelier, lighting up the hall as bright as day.
There were many different desks arranged around the hall, and many ushers dressed in the rich uniform of the Golden Dragon Bank were directing customers.
Li Luo did not pause here, continuing down the corridor.
At the end of the corridor was a high-level area, where there were fewer people and the noise of the crowd fell to a whisper. The brightly-lit hall sparkled with crystal cabinets, where rare and luxurious goods were displayed.
These were evidently far higher in quality than those displayed outside.
Of course, the prices were different as well.
When Li Luo walked in, he was immediately met by a beautiful and sexy female usher. Her looks and manner were a class above those outside.
"Sir, what do you require today?" The beautiful girl bit her lip as she stared at Li Luo. She had seen many people in her time at the Golden Dragon Bank, but such a handsome youth was a first for her.
Behind her, a few other young girls stopped, frustrated that she had beaten them there.
Li Luo gave her an unconcerned smile, already immune to such struggles over him.
"I need rare materials that have wood and earth properties," Li Luo said.
"Of what energy grade, Sir?" she asked carefully.
Rare materials were also divided into grades, such as the 100-grade, 1,000-grade, 10,000-grade, etc. These were indicators of the energy that the materials held.
Put simply, the maximum amount of energy that these rare materials could reach.
Li Luo thought about it. "Let's look at the 1,000-grades first." Most of the rare materials he had seen at the Tianshu Province's branch were 100-grade materials. There were far fewer 1,000-grade materials, and none of them were suitable.
"Certainly. Follow me, please."
She smiled happily. 1,000-grade rare materials were valued in the thousands of gold. The nonchalance of his tone indicated that this youth was very rich indeed. She liked these customers best.
She turned and walked ahead, making sure to accentuate the sashay of her hips.
Li Luo couldn't care less. He was already used to such womanly wiles from Cai Wei. This little minx held no attraction for him at all.
As he followed her onwards, there was a beautiful girl on the second floor who had spotted him. She was dressed in green and white, with lacy socks below her short skirt.
Her bored eyes suddenly lit up with pleasure.