"Tianyu, you have fallen!" Wei Yuan exclaimed in deep grief and heartache. How long had it been? How could immortal silver have corrupted a pure Strength Shaman who had once pursued absolute power into such a state?
As the Lord of the Qingming Realm, a pinnacle Dharma Idol, the Creation Immortal Venerable of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the Military Commissioner of Dingxi, the Pacification Commissioner of Qingyang Commandery of Great Tang, one of the Palace of Grand Beginning's greatest geniuses, the Undefeated Dharma Idol, and the Descended Chess Immortal, Wei Yuan did not have even a single attendant at his side right now. Whenever something came up, he had to order the warriors from his mindscape world to run errands, which amounted to waiting on himself.
Compared to Tianyu, Wei Yuan was thoroughly defeated when it came to pomp and circumstance.
Tianyu let out a long sigh as his claws kneaded the iron body of the Shaman beauty beside him. "I didn't have a choice either," he said. "Strength Shamans have no brains, and they've been tricked so many times. If you don't drape yourself in gold and silver and bring along a few beauties to set the stage, they'll think you're a fraud. Yes, I'm talking about people like you."
Wei Yuan said, "Brother Tianyu, you really didn't need to add that last sentence."
Wei Yuan felt deeply aggrieved. Where on earth did he look like a fraud? Besides, Wei Yuan suspected that Tianyu simply wanted to surround himself with Shaman beauties and claimed it was a job requirement. Clearly, he was taking Wei Yuan for a fool as well.
Tianyu said, "I came this time with another three million jin of Thunder Sand, along with this item. Take a look and see if you can use it. If you can, we have plenty more where it came from."
Wei Yuan took it and looked. It was a peculiar grayish-white mineral shard covered in scale-like flakes. The moment it came into contact with moisture in the air, a fine white mist seeped out. When the mist touched Wei Yuan's hand, it produced a faint burning sting. The sensation was remarkably similar to water from the Thunder Pool splashing onto his skin; it was likely some kind of strong acid.
Wei Yuan immediately determined that this was likely another material for producing new gunpowder. The question was, how did Tianyu know?
Keeping his composure, Wei Yuan said, "I'll need to study this, but it should be useful. How do you plan to sell it?"
"The usual way—trade for brocade and wine. One jin of this mist stone counts as half a jin of Thunder Sand."
"Very well. I'm not certain it's useful yet, but bring me one million jin first to try out."
"I already have one million jin on me; brought it along," Tianyu said. "This batch is free, consider it a trial sample for you."
Wei Yuan was surprised once more. Had even Tianyu learned how to cast a long line to catch a big fish?
Tianyu added, "Here's another piece of news: the Xu family opened up another trade route and made contact with another major tribe, the Leize Tribe, selling them silk brocade. The Leize Tribe is now reselling part of that brocade deeper into the Shaman domains, which has hit our business. We've had to drop our selling price to thirty taels a bolt to match them."
Fortunately, this was still the familiar Tianyu—he had exposed how much profit he was making in a single breath. The fellow was pocketing more than a dozen taels of immortal silver on every single bolt of brocade he flipped, earning far more than Wei Yuan.
Yet Wei Yuan had allowed this intentionally. Without substantial profits, he never would have kept the Desolate Ancestor Tribe on the sidelines. If the Desolate Ancestor Tribe had joined the Land of Rain during the war back then, Wei Yuan wasn't sure he could have held out.
"How much brocade has Leize sold?" Wei Yuan asked.
"About a hundred and fifty thousand bolts. Because their price was lower than ours, they sold out almost immediately."
Wei Yuan was rendered speechless. If thirty taels a bolt could sell out in an instant, just how high had the Desolate Ancestor Tribe's previous price been?
Wei Yuan said, "With brocade, once a household buys a bolt, they won't buy a second one for a short while..."
Tianyu immediately shook his head. "No, we Shamans do. Many will keep buying until they've bankrupted their entire households."
"All right, you Shamans are... strangely endearing. I still have some inventory on hand; I'll give you one million bolts first. Sell every bit of it."
Tianyu was taken aback. "Th-that much?! Then I'll have to pace out the sales. What if we run out of stock later?"
Wei Yuan laughed. "Don't worry, there's plenty! Just wait a few more months, and you can have as much as you want!"
Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind them: "Where did you get so much brocade?"
The voice was so close that Wei Yuan jumped in surprise. Turning around, he saw the Sun of the Great Desolation's washtub-sized face right in front of him, so close it was nearly pressed against his own.
Only at such close range could one see the coarse, transparent hairs growing on the Sun of the Great Desolation's colossal face, standing stiff like iron nails.
Wei Yuan gave a polite salute and said, "This is stockpiled inventory from recent days. But brocade production over in Ningzhou is simply too slow, so I decided to set up workshops to produce brocade myself. Once the workshops are running, there will be plenty."
The Sun of the Great Desolation nodded and asked, "Then how much can you produce? How should we sell it?"
"What are your relations with the Leize Tribe like?" Wei Yuan countered.
"About the same as with the Land of Rain. The Leize Tribe are all Nether Shamans as well, and their tribal ancestor is Hongye's grand-uncle."
Hearing this, Wei Yuan understood. He said, "Starting next month, I will provide you with five hundred thousand bolts of brocade each month, with the condition that each month's batch must be sold out within that month. If the market price doesn't drop, I'll supply you with even more. If the price drops, keep selling at this volume until the price falls to ten taels of immortal silver."
Tianyu frowned. "Ten taels of immortal silver? Won't we make no money then?"
Wei Yuan said, "I will gradually lower the price—down to six taels, or even five taels."
The Sun of the Great Desolation chimed in, "The price you pay to purchase brocade from human artisans is already more than five taels. Would you be willing to take a loss?"
Wei Yuan said, "For the brocade I produce myself, I won't lose money."
"Don't tell me you don't pay the artisans wages?" Tianyu genuinely couldn't fathom how he wouldn't lose money, inadvertently striking close to the truth.
Wei Yuan did not answer the question.
Tianyu looked hesitant. "Even so, if the price gets driven down to ten taels, we won't make much."
Wei Yuan said, "You won't make much, but the Leize Tribe won't make a single copper, completely severing their source of wealth."
The Sun of the Great Desolation made the final call: "Then so it shall be!"
With the Sun of the Great Desolation present, the two parties swiftly reached a consensus and renegotiated their prices. Wei Yuan's brocade supply was tentatively priced at ten taels of immortal silver, while Thunder Sand was set at one tael of immortal silver per jin. Mist stone was half a tael of immortal silver per jin, and this current batch of one million jin was treated as a complimentary gift.
Thus, after this transaction, the Desolate Ancestor Tribe still owed Wei Yuan two million taels of immortal silver. They paid off one million taels with soul yingluo, and for the remaining one million taels, they offered Wei Yuan an ancient immortal plant seed.
Wei Yuan firmly refused.
The seed they gave last time had ended up entirely devoid of vitality, turning into a dead object that could only serve as medicinal ingredients for Xu Henshui. If not for the seaweed successfully sprouting, Wei Yuan would have settled that old score with Tianyu. An ancient immortal plant seed that might not even survive—and they wanted to offset one million taels with it?
The Sun of the Great Desolation stretched out a massive hand, revealing a sphere burning with golden-red flames. Its surface was mottled and inscribed with profound runes sealing away its vitality.
The Sun of the Great Desolation said, "This is the seed of a Flame God Flower that I risked my life to snatch from the Desolate Realm; the life-force inside is completely intact. While it falls short of that ancient immortal plant seed, it's still worth well over a million immortal silver. Why not choose this instead?"
Wei Yuan's heart skipped a beat, and he knew his opportunity had arrived. Maintaining his composure, he asked, "May I take a look at that ancient immortal plant seed?"
The Sun of the Great Desolation produced a large stone. No matter how Wei Yuan looked at it, it was just a rock.
Torn between the two, Wei Yuan finally said, "Can I have both?"
The scale of this trade was so immense that it took both sides two full days to complete the handover. Wei Yuan threw in an extra hundred thousand bolts of brocade, emptying his storehouse, and secured both immortal seeds.
The fire-attribute immortal plant was sent directly into the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, while the stone was handed to Yu Zhizhuo to study its material properties. After all, no matter how Wei Yuan examined it, it truly looked like a rock.
Just because the Desolate Ancestor Tribe was not skilled at lying did not mean they had never lied.
Having concluded the transaction, Wei Yuan was just about to visit the site prepared for the new workshops when he suddenly sensed an obscure aura rising at the edge of the realm. The aura was faint yet distinct, detectable only by Wei Yuan; it belonged to the mysterious Shaman who had approached him during the war.
Wei Yuan flickered into motion, appearing before the Shaman at maximum speed, intent on intimidating him with raw pace lest the fellow harbor any improper ideas.
The Shaman was still wrapped in a black robe capable of severing all aura. Seeing Wei Yuan appear, his aura fluctuated imperceptibly; he was clearly startled by Wei Yuan's speed.
In slurred human speech, he said, "The war is not over. Hongye is still alive, and My Lord is very displeased! The goodwill of the Desolate Ancestor Tribe is not free."
"During the final battle, I delivered myself right into their central army, yet Hongye still refused to cross hands with me. What was I supposed to do?"
The Shaman said, "My Lord does not want to hear excuses, only results. If you cannot do it, selling us the Yang bullet will do."
"Utterly impossible." The two Yin and Yang bullets had been refined using two hundred years of Wei Yuan's yang lifespan, tying them to his karma to an unparalleled degree. Under no circumstances would Wei Yuan hand those two bullets over to anyone.
The Shaman was visibly enraged, his killing intent surging. Wei Yuan naturally showed no fear, looking him dead in the eye without yielding an inch.
In the end, the Shaman reined in his killing intent and said, "Hongye is not without weakness. Others do not know his greatest vulnerability, but My Lord knows it all too well. On the borders of the Land of Rain, he hides a human woman, and that woman bore him a child. That is his greatest weakness.
"I will give you the location. You go and capture them, forcing Hongye to come to Qingming for a decisive battle with you, and then you give him a Yang bullet. As long as the Yang bullet hits Hongye and strips away three thousand years of his yang lifespan, your task will be considered complete whether he lives or dies."
Wei Yuan frowned. "That tactic is a bit despicable."
"As if you've done few wicked deeds yourself?" the Shaman sneered.
Wei Yuan shook his head flatly. "No, this goes against my principles as a human being. You have to... pay substantially more!"
The Shaman scoffed, wearing an expression that said I knew it, before extending his hand. Resting in his palm was a naturally spherical jade orb. Across the jade sphere was a streak of blood, strikingly red.
The moment the orb appeared, Wei Yuan's entire Dao Foundation trembled. Monstrous waves surged across the vast ocean within him, and virtually his entire Dharma Idol reacted with unrest.
Wei Yuan strove to suppress the turmoil inside him and asked impassively, "What is this?"
The Shaman chuckled darkly. "My Lord was right after all. Every cultivator from the Palace of Grand Beginning desires this beyond measure. Not long after the Founding Ancestor of your Palace of Grand Beginning attained the Dao, he ventured into our Wu domain. He inadvertently provoked a powerful enemy, and during a life-and-death struggle, even the boundary stone he carried was shattered. This is one of those fragments."
"One of them? How many fragments are there in total?" Wei Yuan asked.
"My Lord holds another piece in his hand. As for whether other fragments are scattered elsewhere, I do not know."
Wei Yuan had never imagined that the boundary stone used to establish the main mountain gate of the Palace of Grand Beginning was actually incomplete. But this payment made the offer impossible to refuse. He immediately said, "Tell me the location. In addition, I will need a Shaman identity."
Chapter 580