His Ghost Candle was currently on version 1.3.
The QFS, in between market analyses, had offered subtle design improvements. A more stable Qi modulation array using twisted pairs of reclaimed copper wire, a slightly different capacitor discharge pattern that extended the active duration by another precious five minutes.
They were still crude, prone to fizzling if handled roughly, but undeniably better than his initial desperate attempts.
[QFS Suggestion: Increasing the resonance frequency of the output by 0.02 KHz may enhance signature masking against Tier-1 municipal sensors by an additional 3.7%. Consider for v1.4 prototype.]
Li Fang grunted an acknowledgement. He wasn't making a fortune from these, not yet.
With Dao Broker Xun shifting their arrangement to no more consignment. His discreet order fulfillment service would gradually bring him more clients. Like he envisioned, they would be info-brokers, petty criminals, or low-level cultivators needing privacy for sensitive meditations. They would place an order for 'Spark's Ambiance Regulators' with Dao Broker Xun. He renamed it to that in order to fool the networks that might be spying on his line. It's still an illegal product, after all.
Afterwards, he would then forward the anonymized request along with quantity and preferred dead drop sector in the Lower Layers to Li Fang. Now with Lilypad-01 online, they could use its secure network for clearer communication.
Li Fang would craft the devices, leave them at the designated, untraceable drop, and Xun would handle payment collection, taking his hefty but unavoidable commission before transferring the remainder to one of Li Fang's anonymous Qi-Credit accounts.
It was slow money. Maybe 5-10 Credits profit per device after Dao Broker Xun's cut. But it was his money. Earned through his own hands, independent of the QFS's direct manifestation. And it provided a small, undeniable income stream.
However, it was temporarily halted since they're currently holed up in the node. He could do the runs after they had finished setting up everything.
An hour or so later, the QFS flashed a high-priority alert, overriding the Radiant Fist analysis. It was related to their Mana Battery market position.
[Market Update: Confirmed. Eternal Spark Cultivator Supplies bulk purchase order for Grade-2 Shimmering Path Mana Batteries is actively filling across multiple exchanges. Price is increasing rapidly.]
[Current Average Market Price: +9.5% above Host Li Fang's weighted average purchase price. Market volatility is increasing.]
[Recommendation: Liquidate all holdings immediately to realize optimal profit before market correction or profit-taking by other traders. Delay risks diminishing returns.]
"Sell!" Li Fang commanded without hesitation as his focus snapped to the trading interface. He executed the sell orders across the various exchanges following the system's precise instructions for staggering the sales to maximize profit and minimize market impact.
The transactions cleared within seconds. His anonymous trading account balance, which had been a paltry 40 Credits moments before, suddenly jumped.
[Arbitrage Complete.]
[Initial Capital Investment: 460 Qi-Credits]
[Gross Revenue from Sales: 503.7 Qi-Credits]
[Net Profit (after exchange fees, network tariffs, and minor slippage): 43.7 Qi-Credits]
[Current Host Qi-Credit Balance: 543.7 Credits.]
Forty-three point seven Credits profit. Earned in under six hours, through purely financial maneuvering, guided by the QFS's predictive algorithms and validated by Xie Ruolan's market knowledge.
It wasn't a fortune and certainly not enough to clear his massive debt. But it was liquid.
It was real. And more importantly, it was repeatable as long as another opportunity arose. It's a proof of concept for generating capital without relying solely on the slow, uncertain returns of their loan portfolio. Perhaps if he used all of it, including the capital, it would be enough to pay the interest on his Qi-Credit debt for nearly a week and lower his negative karmic equity slightly. It would also be enough to fund more loans, enough to keep them operational.
But the choice had to be made later. For now, he just wanted to revel in the gain, no matter how small it was.
"Well done, Li Fang," Xie Ruolan said with a rare hint of genuine approval in her voice. She even allowed herself a small, almost invisible smile.
"A modest but successful first foray into active market participation. Now," Her smile vanished as quickly as it appeared as she turned serious again, "Do that ten thousand more times, consistently and without attracting undue attention. If you did, you might be able to afford to slash down your Qi-Credit debt and negative karmic equity."
Li Fang put on a tired grin. "Baby steps, Miss Xie. Baby steps towards that interdimensional empire."
He checked the foreclosure clock in his vision. It now reads: 21 hours, 33 minutes. The 543.7 Credits offered a precious sliver of breathing room, a temporary reprieve from the crushing weight of imminent deletion. Maybe, just maybe, they could survive this.
Just as that sliver of relief began to settle in, a discreet, encrypted notification pinged within the newly established Lilypad-01 network.
It wasn't an automated system alert or a borrower update. It was a direct communication, routed through Xun's signature obfuscation protocols. Not a text message either but an encrypted data packet.
Xie Ruolan's senses were instantly alerted. She quickly isolated and decrypted the packet within a secure partition of Lilypad-01.
It contained only two items. The first was a complex, beautifully rendered astrological chart, annotated with ancient Daoist symbols and modern financial market indicators, predicting a period of 'significant market turbulence and spiritual resonance shifts' focused specifically around low-level Qi Condensation resources and their associated financial instruments within the next 72 hours.
It was classic Dao Broker Xun. Arcane, allegorical, yet often uncannily accurate.
The second item was far more direct and far more chilling.
Li Fang narrowed his eyes. It was a high-resolution image of a freshly posted bounty notice, displayed on a public information kiosk in the Lower Layers of Sector Theta and dangerously close to where IronOx_7 lived and operated.
The bounty wasn't for Xie Roulan. And not for any known fugitive.
It offered 500 Qi-Credits, a substantial sum in the Lower Layers, for 'verifiable information leading to the identification and location of the source, individual or organization, responsible for recent unregistered, high-purity Qi infusions provided to independent cultivators in Sectors Theta and Phi'. Accompanying the text was a blurry, heavily pixelated, but still recognizable image.
It showed what looked suspiciously like IronOx_7. He was in mid-breakthrough and surrounded by a faint aura of pure, potent Qi. An image clearly taken from a distance, likely via a low-grade telephoto lens or a cheap surveillance drone.
Someone out there was connecting the dots. The whispers in the dark net, the sudden success of previously struggling cultivators… it was already attracting attention.
Their operation, barely a day old since establishing Lilypad-01, barely hours since his first successful arbitrage trade, was already attracting predators lured by the scent of disruption… and the promise of a hefty bounty.
The QFS flashed an immediate and urgent update.
[Threat Assessment Update: Localized Competitive Threat Detected (Probability: High - Bounty indicates targeted investigation)]
[Bounty notice directly references operational methodologies of Project Gilded Lily.]
[Photographic evidence suggests surveillance of the initial borrower 'IronOx_7']
[Probable Issuer: Rival Unlicensed Lender or Disgruntled Minor Sect-Corp losing potential recruit and revenue.]
[Recommend immediate enhancement of operational security protocols, investigation into surveillance source, and potential counterintelligence measures.
[Financial Cowardice Index currently stable, but inaction or operational stagnation will increase risk profile exponentially.]
Li Fang stared at the bounty notice, then at Xie Ruolan. The fragile sense of relief, the small victory of the arbitrage trade, evaporated instantly.
He realized that the hustle had just gotten a whole lot more complicated, and a whole lot more dangerous. Their ghost ledgers were now haunted by real hunters.