The days passed.
Far too slowly.
Meditation at dawn.Training at noon.Endless Dao lectures at night.
Close your eyes.Feel the air.Feel the flow.Feel… nothing.
Adrián reached a simple conclusion:this world wasted time.
So he descended from the sect.
The commercial district of Tianxu was full of life… and completely stagnant.
Everything was done exactly the same way it had been a thousand years ago.
Handcrafted production.Chaotic distribution.Zero inventory.Zero planning.
An alchemist made pills when he felt like it.A hunter sold beasts when he needed money.A merchant inflated prices depending on the day.
No one produced at scale.No one accumulated stock.No one thought long-term.
Adrián walked slowly.
Not looking at the products.Looking at the bottlenecks.
"How many pills do you make per month?" he asked an alchemist.
"As many as I can," the man replied. "Depends on the fire, the mood, and the materials."
"And how many do you sell?"
"All of them."
Adrián nodded.
Limited production.Infinite demand.
Basic error.
He bought nothing that day.
Nor the next.
He dedicated himself to something more dangerous: taking notes.
How long each process took.Which materials repeated.Which parts required talent… and which only required hands.
He discovered something obvious and devastating:
Eighty percent of the work did not require cultivation.
Grinding herbs.Drying them.Sorting them.Packaging them.
All of that was done by mid-level alchemists… wasting valuable hours.
"This isn't alchemy," he thought. "It's badly designed manufacturing."
Three days later, he rented an old warehouse.
Nothing elegant.Low ceiling.Wooden walls.
He hired ordinary people.
Not cultivators.Not disciples.
Poor market workers.
He paid them little, but consistently.He gave them schedules.He gave them single, repeatable tasks.
One ground herbs.Another dried them.Another packaged them.
The alchemist only entered at the final stage.
Production tripled in a week.
The alchemist didn't ask how.He only asked how much he would earn.
Adrián answered bluntly:
"Less per unit. More by volume."
He accepted.
Everyone accepted.
Because no one had ever offered that before.
The next day, Ye Chen stood surrounded by disciples.
Laughing.Telling an exaggerated anecdote.
Adrián stopped two steps away.
"Ye Chen," he said.
Everyone turned.
"I heard you failed the same technique three times," he continued. "Not serious. Some talents take longer."
Uncomfortable silence.
Not a direct insult.Not anger.
Just a fact.
Ye Chen frowned.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing important," Adrián replied. "I just thought it was curious."
The system vibrated.
[Mission completed]Narrative impact: lowAura impulse generated: insufficient
Adrián turned around.
"Good day."
Then came the second step.
Materials.
Spiritual herbs came from independent hunters.Each sold whenever they wanted.Prices were unpredictable.
Adrián did the opposite.
He bought everything.
Not expensive.Not cheap.
Stable.
Simple contracts.
"You hunt.I buy everything you bring.Fixed price.Immediate payment."
Within a week, hunters stopped visiting other stalls.
Not out of loyalty.Out of stability.
The factory worked.
Numbers stabilized.Material turnover became predictable.For the first time since arriving in this world, Adrián felt something close to satisfaction.
Then the system vibrated.
Not urgent.Not violent.
Simply… insistent.
[Secondary mission activated]Object of devotion: Lin YueRequired action: Deliver a giftDeadline: Before sunset
Adrián closed his eyes.
"Of course," he murmured. "Right now."
He looked at the table.Took a standard pill.Not rare.Not valuable.Adequate.
He wrapped it with excessive care, as if protocol mattered.
Then he left, unhurried, heading toward the temple where Lin Yue received disciples and visitors.
When he arrived, he saw her immediately: the Saint, standing between jade columns, arms crossed, mouth curved downward in an expression that screamed I do not care about your existence or your opinion.
Adrián assessed the situation.No need for drama.No need for words.
With the same serenity as someone tossing a crumpled paper into a trash bin, he threw the gift toward her.
"There," he said, more to himself than to her. "Before sunset. Mission accomplished."
The pill landed at her feet with a soft plop.
Lin Yue looked at it. Her frown deepened.
The air filled with tension… or perhaps it was simply her usual disappointment toward the world's idiots.
Adrián turned on his heel.
He didn't look at her reaction.He didn't expect one.He didn't care.
"Perfect," he whispered while walking away. "Objective marked. Proceeding to ignore emotional reception."
And with long strides, he melted into the crowd of the plaza, leaving the Saint with her bad mood and the pill at her feet.
Because, Adrián thought, this world functioned through respect, devotion, and rituals.He functioned through efficiency.
And efficiency did not require applause.
The Saint picked up the pill with a sigh.
"What… just happened?" she murmured, unable to take her eyes off Adrián as he walked away.
Disciples surrounded her, expectant, waiting for the heroic reaction: gratitude, praise, perhaps even ritual acknowledgment. But Lin Yue was… confused.
"Why… doesn't he even look at me?" she whispered.
"And why do I care?" another part of her mind replied, more unsettled, more alarmed.
It was the first time he treated her like this, as if she no longer mattered, as if she were… irrelevant.
The disciples murmured:
"Is that… normal?""What's wrong with Adrián?""Why does the Saint seem… annoyed?"
Lin Yue frowned, unable to look away.
His behavior was unsettling. No respect. No fear. No interest. Only absolute indifference.
"Why did he change…?" she whispered. "And… why does it matter that he's leaving?"
Confusion churned in her chest.
She did not understand how someone could act so differently from what was expected.
Meanwhile, Adrián, oblivious to the commotion, walked toward his warehouse, reviewing figures on a scroll.
Nothing had changed for him, except that everyone's attention was now on him… and he entertained himself silently, with the calm of someone who completes objectives without letting emotion interfere.
Within a month, the inevitable happened.
Small stalls began running out of merchandise.
Not because Adrián attacked them.But because supply flow no longer passed through them.
Alchemists → factoryHunters → warehouseSects → large orders, constant, boringly efficient
A minor elder from a sect came to "ask questions."
"Young man, you are disturbing the market balance."
Adrián looked at him, genuinely confused.
"I didn't know there was one."
The elder did not laugh.
Lin Yue was practicing sword techniques when Adrián approached.
He didn't smile.He didn't interrupt.
He waited until she finished.
"Saint Lin," he said neutrally. "This is for you."
He handed her the pill.
She took it, surprised.
"Is this…?"
"To stabilize breathing," he replied. "Nothing special."
Silence.
No praise.No lingering looks.No romantic tension.
The system vibrated.
[Mission completed]Emotional evaluation: insufficientResult: acceptable
Adrián was already leaving when Lin Yue spoke:
"Thank you."
He raised a hand without looking at her.
"You're welcome."
Nothing more.
That night, the system vibrated.
[Warning]Structural interference detected.
Adrián was reviewing numbers.
"I'm not interfering with the story," he said. "I'm just producing better."
Silence.
Because, technically…
There was no rule against manufacturing.
When Lin Yue passed through the market, she no longer saw a stall.
She saw a building.
She saw orderly lines.She saw people working.She saw sect disciples waiting their turn.
And she saw Adrián.
Not cultivating.Not plotting.
Managing.
With professional boredom.
That was what unsettled her.
Because that was not a villain.
It was something worse.
Adrián closed the ledger.
The spiritual stones were not spectacular.But they were constant.Increasing at an acceptable rate. It was time to take the next step.
"This world believes power comes only from cultivation," he thought. "How adorable."
And if they knew about science…
Soon, he would create the first supply chain of the Great Tianxu Continent.