Ellora Trade City!
The street adjacent to the main road, renamed the Theatre Street was bustling with activity, a sharp contrast from three years ago when it was a narrow street with hardly any human activity.
Luxurious carriages arrived on the Theatre Street as poshly dressed men and women got down one after another. There was a queue of uniformed youths, the staff of the place. They offered valet services, bringing the carriages to a parking lot.
When the place was originally a shopping street, the road was narrow. The buildings too were arranged in a haphazard manner. But now, all of them had been demolished. And standing in their place was a ten-storey building, with each floor serving as a theatre.
On the ground floor were artists of small, but decently recognised troupes. They performed to smaller audiences. The higher the floor, the greater the troupe’s renown, and so were the customers visiting to watch their plays.
There was an open ground on the end of Theatre Street where people performed unofficially to entertain crowds with little to no money. If anyone gains renown from there, they would eventually be asked to perform on the ground floor of the Theatre.
The Theatre didn’t have any name, for it was the first of its kind. The owner even purchased sole rights of ownership for the name and form of establishment.
The nobility all made their way to the topmost floor which was gargantuan in size, for the entire floor was a single theatre room.
The cheapest ticket here cost 40,000 Pella. In other words, 1000 Parute Fruits. Despite that, it was a house full, for the event happened only once a month.
Drinks were offered to the seated guests as the curtains were drawn on the stage. The highlights focused on the figure of Inala who bowed at the audience and exclaimed, “It fills my heart with joy to have all the seats filled. Without further ado, I present you today’s tale,”
“The Soul Society Arc!”
The claps resounded in full swing as a row of puppets came on the stage. They began to speak, appearing almost real. Sounds accompanied their actions, enhanced by a bunch of puppets who shouted the related sound at regular intervals.
It had been rehearsed plenty of times for the past month, hence the result was perfect. Each puppet was controlled by a Body Stage cultivator, repeating the actions as practiced perfectly. There also existed puppets to unleash the effects of the attacks unleashed by the characters on stage.
Standing backstage and observing the play proceed successfully, Inala smirked, ‘I’ll be making a lot of money today too.’
Today’s play was a perfect rip-off of the anime, Bleach. One of its best arcs, the Soul Society Arc was being enacted today. Of course, Inala had to make a lot of changes to the original story to make it perfect for theatre.
The play would span a total of six hours, with an hour’s break in the middle. Therefore, it was more concise. Hearing the cheers, bouts of shock, and surprise from the crowd, Inala felt proud. It had taken him three years to reach this point.
After making Maharell sign that unfavourable contract, Inala opened his Comedy Troupe, advertising it to the customers of Maharell Wares and Services. While the latter hesitated to take action, Inala procured a decent crowd.
It was soon a big hit as more and more customers came, oftentimes beyond their seating capacity. At that time, the shop owners of the narrow street joined hands with Inala to create a larger venue.
Moreover, Inala vowed to help them all accordingly, promising them cultivation resources. But, the shop owners refused and instead asked him to take care of their relatives who were struggling to make a living in different parts of the Kingdom.
Only their direct family that was part of the gang was annihilated. They still had family relations outside. Of course, Inala was happy to get the extra hands, since that would free up his schedule too.
Once they arrived, Inala selected the talented ones among them and fed them a Low-Grade Elixir each, bringing them to the Body Stage. And the mineral he selected for them to fuse with was the Kirenal.
It was a material that upon fusing with the Spirit Container improved the cultivator’s strength and control of their psychokinesis. That was its only function. It didn’t increase one’s lifespan. It was simply a material equivalent to a Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beast.
Moreover, upon reaching the peak of the Body Stage, a cultivator that created a Human Avatar out of Kirenal would only have 160 Prana. It wasn’t valuable at all. Anyone worth their salt chose some other mineral to have a future.
Which was exactly why Inala picked it. The reason was simple. Control over psychokinesis was exactly what he needed here, since he wanted them to control puppets.
Following that, Inala modified the Iron Kinesis Art, the cultivation technique practiced by those who intended to make a Human Avatar out of Kirenal. This cultivation technique was the weakest of them all and seldom used, hence dirt cheap to procure.
Through the Mystic Skill Creator, Inala used his inspirations from the Puppetry Skill to modify the Iron Kinesis Art, making it more geared to controlling Spirit Weapons, especially puppets.
He then created a watered-down version of his Puppetry Skill, one that could be activated through the Iron Kinesis Art, teaching both to the people who served him.
Following that, Inala created more Skills to be used for the Iron Kinesis Art, with each geared towards a certain character.
For example, he created a Naruto Puppet Skill. The one that trains this Skill would be able to control a puppet looking just like Naruto and make it talk, behave, run, and fight like Naruto—Skills exclusively for characters. 𝑜𝔳𝗅𝐞xt.𝓬𝑜𝗆
Depending on the popularity of the characters, the puppet skills of the respective characters were priced accordingly. Once Inala publicised the modified Iron Kinesis Art, the lowest rungs of society that wanted to gain fame but were unable to do so jumped at the offer.
Inala trained another batch of people who were focused on building puppets. The ones that wished to have a troupe and perform at a theatre learnt the Iron Kinesis Art, purchased a Character Puppet Skill, and bought the respective Puppet.
They then performed it in the open ground at the end of Theatre Street. And those that gained fame moved into the Theatre to perform, creating a market of talent.
Eventually, Inala could simply pick the cream of the crop to perform at his theatre, earning money without lifting a finger. He had become a Theatre Owner.
