There were already people who said that they absolutely wanted to see the match between the two of them. Some of them were Shang Clan elders whom Shang Xin Ci would have to accommodate. That wasn't to say that she couldn't charge them for this privilege.
And like that word wormed its way up the Shang Clan City ranks until they reached the clan head himself.
The biggest shock to her was the fact that even Shang Yan Fei, her father, expressed his wishes to view the event.
Shang Yan Fei had not been expecting things to escalate to this level between Fang Yuan and Liu Nan. However, if the two of them were going to go at it, he definitely wanted to be there. Fang Yuan and Liu Nan seemed to be powerful Gu Masters who would play a pivotal role in the future. One was Rank Five peak stage, the other Rank Five middle stage. Knowing them and knowing their mindsets; they could very well become the Shang Clan's allies or enemies in the future.
In case they would become allies, he wanted to see their resolve on the battlefield, and in case they would become enemies, this would be a chance to learn about what gu worms they used and prepare countermeasures against them.
"Make sure to arrange for a proper seat for me, Shang Xin Ci," Shang Yan Fei said.
"Of course, Father," Shang Xin Ci answered. "We will find a spot within the VIP Zone just for you."
This had actually been within Fang Yuan's expectations. As a matter of fact, it was this expectation which opened up various doorways for them.
The Shang Clan elders first heard of this.
"Young clan head is showing favoritism, isn't he?"
"This cannot be counted as favoritism. Shang Xin Ci is merely hosting an event, and he is purchasing a ticket to it. What favoritism is there in that? It's a simple business transaction."
"Yes, yes, haven't most of us already expressed our desires to purchase tickets for the event?"
"It is a fight between a dragon and a tiger - without a doubt, the clan head wishes to view this with his own eyes. It does not matter who hosts the event, he would without a doubt be interested in it. This is not favoritism - this is the clan head being prudent against two potential threats!"
"That's right, these two Gu Masters could well become external elders of the clan."
Very soon, many of their problems vanished into thin air.
Once Fang Yuan leaked this news to everyone, the other Shang Clan Young Masters's hearts immediately froze. They had been plotting and conspiring amongst themselves on how to make things difficult for Shang Xin Ci.
But now, conspiring against here seemed to be tantamount to conspiring against their father! None of them had the fortitude to go ahead and do that!
It was clear that it wasn't just their father - the entire Shang Clan top brass when it came to the mortal realm was interested in this fight. None of them wanted to be the one who would end up causing it to be delayed. If they did so - wouldn't the wrath of all of these individuals fall upon them?
Shang Chao Feng was the first person to fold. He managed the fighting arenas within Shang Clan City and had been one of the parties involved in blocking Shang Xin Ci's road to success.
Fang Yuan snorted coldly in his heart when this proud gentleman approached them for an alliance. In the future, he knew that this person would be Shang Xin Ci's greatest opponent when it came to competing for the Shang Clan leader position. However, before the influence of his father, he had decided that 'If I can't beat them, I might as well join them.'
Not that he was one to give up so easily. He had first tried to bribe Fang Yuan to his side. When that failed, he had gone to Liu Nan. Although Liu Nan had said that he wanted to oppose Fang Yuan in everything to Shang Ya Zi, that was before Fang Yuan had agreed to the fight.
"Since Fang Yuan has already agreed to this, I don't really care about the terms of who organizes it, and I don't want to involve something that might jeopardize that," Liu Nan said.
This gave Shang Chao Feng no other choice but to approach Shang Xin Ci. He offered to set up an arena for her. "What do you say, Sister? We can go ahead and split the profits of the match. I know of two coliseums perfect for the fight."
Ultimately, Shang Xin Ci declined his offer to share a portion of the business expenses in lieu of certain profits and decided to rent them outright. She was still wary of Shang Chao Feng, despite his friendly demeanor.
"That was a wise choice," Fang Yuan commented.
Shang Chao Feng raised his price slightly, but that was no deterrent to them. There was a limit to how much he could price-gouge as well given so much pressure was put on them.
Next they needed special Gu Masters in order to keep the fight safe. Several experts would have to be hired, some of them needing to be coaxed out of retirement. They needed to be compensated appropriately.
Fang Yuan was cognizant of many of the current city's experts based on his memories from his previous life. He managed to gather a few of them, convincing them with his Rank Five strength.
Shang Xin Ci handled more mundane matters, such as refreshments, the seating arrangements, as well as selling the actual tickets. The tickets were sold out from day one, despite their decision to raise the prices by about 50 percent from their initial estimate based on the demand.
"Look at that, Teacher," Shang Xin Ci said to Fang Yuan. "We've already got nearly a million primeval stones!"
However, they still had to deduct their other business costs, as well as their upfront investment. They were still not in clover yet.
"There's another way that we can earn money," Fang Yuan said.
"Oh, and what is that?" Shang Xin Ci asked.
"We can use Audio-Visual Gu in order to record the fight, then sell them later to those who could not attend," Fang Yuan said.
It was like taking recordings of a fight and selling DVDs or videocassette sets of it later on. He was able to think of this because of his experience on Earth where such things were common.
Now, fights would be recorded anyway but these recordings were usually kept as clan records or to ensure that no cheating happened in case they had to be accessed at a later date.
However, the idea of mass-producing recordings of them to sell to the general public was his own spin on the idea.
"All right, then, Teacher," Shang Xin Ci said. They would now need to purchase a large batch of Audio-Visual Gu Worms.
Things were set up for the fight, but Fang Yuan's preparations were not done yet. He needed gu worms for this fight. And that required refinement resources.
If he had been able to sell Shang Ya Zi his Gu Worm recipes earlier, he would've had most of his burden alleviated. Now though, he had to resort to other means in order to obtain funds.
He and Bai Ning Bing went back to Bei Gu Mountain. Fang Yuan nearly milked the entire place dry with what he extracted from it before returning back to Shang Clan City and focusing on refining a set of Gu Worms for the battle.
"Good luck with the fight," Wei Yang said to Fang Yuan the evening before the battle. He had resolved to simply observe, but the clan head had asked him to test Fang Yuan before the upcoming fight.
"Thank you," Fang Yuan said.
"Actually-" Wei Yang said. "I know that I shouldn't be doing this, but there is some information that I managed to pick up regarding Liu Nan, your opponent. It turns out that he has purchased some Dark Path refinement materials recently. It appears that he is a Dark Path Gu Master."
"Is that so?" Fang Yuan said, not batting an eyelid. "Alright then, thank you for this piece of information."
"No problem," Wei Yang said. "As I said, don't let anyone know the information came from me - but, in this upcoming fight, you are my favorite to win! I felt like giving you every advantage that I could."