Chapter 41: How a Trend Is Created

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: How a Trend Is Created

How do you make people love football?

The people of Earth had long provided the answers: profit, glory, passion, the desire to win, and grassroots appeal...

Li Ye simply had to copy them. Besides, all of these elements were fundamentally tied to a football club’s team emblem.

The manual labor required to build Sirius Valley, the supplies purchased in Weining City, the print shops churning out football brochures, the tailors manufacturing jerseys, the free food and accommodation during matches, the affordable price of fifty copper coins for three games, and even the sports betting...

Through all of this, Li Ye had subtly intertwined Weining City with the Fun People Club. Directly or indirectly, the citizens of Weining City were reaping considerable benefits from football.

Now, Li Ye had rolled out a youth training camp, promising a slew of welfare benefits and offering the locals a tangible future.

In the future, once the truth about football being a path to immortal cultivation spread, the imperial court would face fierce resistance from the populace if they ever tried to ban the sport.

Robbing a man of his livelihood was akin to murdering his parents—let alone severing his path to immortality!

...

The next day.

"When it comes to tea, I only drink from the Hongfu Tea House."

A gigantic promotional poster unfurled from the walls of Weining City. It featured Shi Xiang with his foot resting on a football, holding a teacup stamped with the Hongfu Tea House logo. This sight completely ignited the city’s fervor.

Sales at the Hongfu Tea House tripled that very day. The shopkeeper grinned from ear to ear, openly declaring that the endorsement fee had been a steal, completely forgetting the bitter reluctance he had shown when Li Ye first forced him to sign the contract.

Furthermore, that day’s edition of the Football Newspaper revealed Shi Xiang’s astronomical endorsement fee.

The players’ commercial image was suddenly brought to life. Enthusiasm for the youth training camp’s registration reached unprecedented heights, and the passion of Weining City’s populace was fully mobilized.

The city’s restaurants, tea houses, and silk merchants eagerly swarmed into Sirius Valley, desperate to negotiate business partnerships with Li Ye. Merchants were the shrewdest of all; they saw an immense commercial opportunity in the club.

The league rules had already been published. The Fun People Club would travel far and wide, playing away games, which meant their players’ fame would only continue to grow. As long as these merchants rode the club’s coattails, expanded their branches, and hired the club’s star players as spokespersons, an unimaginable windfall awaited them...

Some things worked exactly like this. You didn’t need to do too much. As long as you built the framework, other clever individuals would naturally step up and flesh out the details for you.

Li Ye was simply acting as the pioneer. In this Otherworld where football had never existed, he had conjured a massive new trend out of thin air and swept everyone into it. Watching the shopkeepers scurrying over to secure star endorsements, Li Ye knew he had succeeded. Seizing the opportunity, he hiked up the prices, elevating the players’ commercial value to entirely new heights.

For a football star, skills, special moves, and win rates ultimately boiled down to their commercial value.

Commercial value represented a player’s popularity. A higher value proved a greater level of fame, which in turn drove the value even higher. And in Li Ye’s system, higher fame meant stronger Spiritual Power within the body. Stronger Spiritual Power led to more spectacular performances on the pitch, which subsequently boosted their commercial value...

Having set everything on the right track, Li Ye’s club model had now formed a perfect closed loop. Even without his active involvement, it would continue rolling forward, expanding autonomously.

...

Meanwhile, the Demon Qi inside Li Ye surged exponentially alongside the club’s expanding reputation, growing at a rate that genuinely terrified him.

Although he still felt perfectly lucid, the looming threat remained: if corrupted by too much Demon Qi, he would lose his sanity and become a mere puppet of the demonic entity.

The growth of Demon Qi and the increase in his Derived Skills’ Attributes were two entirely different matters. Attribute growth vastly enhanced his Inner Strength and physical fitness. While the growth of Demon Qi also improved his physical vessel to some extent, it was primarily just accumulating within him. This Demon Qi helped him heal injuries and acted as an amplifier for his Inner Strength, functioning more like an alien catalyst or accelerant.

Since popularizing football in Weining City, Li Ye now felt that he could fight Murong Kaixin on completely equal footing, relying purely on the Demon Qi’s augmentation without even needing a football.

However, Xiangli’s prowess was the culmination of generations of imperial Grandmasters. Furthermore, he had possessed a demonic entity for at least two years, meaning his reserves of Demon Qi were likely vastly superior. Li Ye also had no idea what kind of Derived Skills Xiangli had awakened.

This was the true reason Li Ye allowed the Demon Qi to stockpile within him. Even if it meant risking becoming a demonic puppet, he refused to die in this world. Besides, ever since he had successfully bluffed the demonic entity, it had been incredibly quiet, silently enjoying the power boosts he provided. Perhaps he truly wouldn’t lose his mind after all!

At times like this, Li Ye couldn’t help but envy Shi Xiang and the others. They were sprinting joyfully through the comfort zone he had built for them, blissfully ignorant and completely devoid of any crisis awareness.

It was true what they said—ignorance was the true fountain of happiness! If the Demon Hunting Bureau had kept him in the dark and simply tossed him a demonic entity to enjoy an Otherworld isekai trip, how happy would he be right now?

...

Little did he know, the anxiety he had inflicted upon this world far surpassed his own.

Watching Weining City change drastically day by day, Wei Mingze was tearing his hair out in frustration. What kind of city was this? The farmers had abandoned their fields, the students neglected their studies, and the artisans ignored their crafts. Every single person was completely fixated on football. The streets and alleys were overflowing with people kicking balls around.

Football, football, football... He could scarcely hear a single word about anything else!

What depressed Wei Mingze the most was the fact that he was the one pulling the strings behind the scenes. The sports betting, the Football Newspaper—he had even leased out the city walls for the Fun People Club’s advertisements... While it was true that the Fun People Club gave him a tidy cut of the advertising revenue, if this continued, the nation itself would crumble into ruin!

Dispatching memorial after memorial to the Capital City, Wei Mingze prayed for a response every day, worrying himself gray. Why on earth did a monster like Li Ye choose his territory to settle in?

...

Meanwhile.

Radiating outward from Weining City, news of the grand spectacle between the Profound Light Sect and the Fun People Club spread at a blistering pace. Among the spectators that day were numerous Martial Artists hailing from Zhenjiang and Fu’an.

The barbaric nature of the match, the shockingly rapid healing of injuries, and the fact that Li Ye had fought Murong Kaixin to a near standstill had left a monumental impact on them.

Upon leaving the stadium, these Martial Artists couldn’t wait to share the news. A new rising star was emerging, and the hierarchy of the Martial World was about to be upended.

Consequently, an influx of Martial Artists began flocking toward Weining City, desperate to uncover more details. After all, this latest rumor in the Martial World was simply too bizarre to ignore.

...

In the Capital City of the Chu Country.

Emperor Xiang Ying sat in stunned silence after listening to Deputy Commander Wan Peng’s report.

It took him a long while to regain his composure. Surprisingly, he didn’t inquire about Murong Kaixin, but instead asked, "Are you telling me that people severely injured on this football pitch can heal in an instant?"

"I saw it with my own eyes," Wan Peng affirmed.

"And this applies to everyone, not just this ’Lord Li’?" Xiang Ying pressed.

"To answer Your Majesty, it applies to everyone on the pitch." Wan Peng hesitated for a moment. Then, right in front of Xiang Ying, he swiped a finger across the back of his own hand, carving a shallow gash. Blood immediately welled up.

Right before Xiang Ying’s eyes, the wound slowly stopped bleeding. Within moments, it had completely scabbed over.

Xiang Ying was utterly dumbfounded.

Dropping to one knee, Wan Peng said, "Please forgive my transgressions, Your Majesty. A few days ago, after hearing reports about Sirius Valley from two of my Households Commanders, I took it upon myself to investigate. I accepted Lord Li’s invitation to form a club, putting together a temporary team in Sirius Valley. That is how I acquired this ability.

"On that day, Third Elder Shen Tuhong of the Celestial Dao Alliance and Left Protector Xu Chuan of the Red Flame Sect were also present. Like me, they both received a Spiritual Seed from Lord Li.

"According to Lord Li, this Spiritual Seed functions similarly to the incense offerings and faith demanded by Immortals. It requires accumulating fame on the pitch to grow and thrive. This is his true motive for establishing the league.

"Based on my observations, Spiritual Power becomes exceptionally active during a match..."

GULP!

Staring at Wan Peng’s rapidly healed wound, Xiang Ying’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he subconsciously swallowed hard. He then rose to his feet. "Wan Peng, come with me."

He cast a sharp glance at the shocked attendants in the Imperial Study. "Wait here. No one is to leave without my explicit command."