Hunter Nine had left behind one thousand jin of desolate iron, sparing Wei Yuan any immediate concern over raw materials.
Calculated carefully, Wei Yuan had invested four hundred strands of azure qi to elevate the quality of the desolate steel, followed by a strand of Power Shaman karmic luck, ultimately walking away with a full thousand jin of desolate iron and a portion of sacrificial power.
The Power Shaman karmic luck had mainly come from Hunter Twenty-Seven, while Hunter Nine and Hunter Thirty-Five had each contributed a strand as well, all of which were advanced karmic luck. Converting between different types of karmic luck was rather difficult, but several hundred strands of mortal luck certainly could not match the advanced karmic luck of a Dharma Idol-level Power Shaman, not even with an extra zero tacked on.
Setting aside the inflow and outflow of karmic luck, Wei Yuan had essentially turned raw materials worth a hundred jin of desolate iron into a net profit of nine hundred jin of desolate iron and an immeasurable portion of sacrificial power—all in the span of a single quarter-hour.
Making money like this gave even Wei Yuan a twinge of a guilty conscience.
Only after Hunter Nine, Grand Smith Kaishan, and the rest departed did Wei Yuan officially open for business. His inventory was pitifully sparse; all he had to sell were arrowheads and tower shields. Yet the gathered shamans swept through the stock, clearing out two hundred arrowheads in the blink of an eye, and someone even bought the tower shield.
In the time it took Wei Yuan to step inside for a cup of tea, the shelves outside were stripped bare, yielding another seven hundred jin of iron out of thin air.
Wei Yuan called Hunter Thirty-One over and asked, "Did we sell them too cheap?"
"Definitely too cheap. On paper, our prices are about the same as Grand Smith Kaishan's, but we don't attach conditions to our weapons!"
"What? Selling weapons comes with conditions?" Wei Yuan could hardly believe his ears.
"Aye. Anyone wishing to buy Grand Smith Kaishan's desolate steel weapons usually faces conditions—all sorts of them. Things like not being allowed to use the weapon against certain shamans, or needing the Grand Smith's personal consent to use certain functions, and so forth. If a pretty shaman goes to buy a weapon, as long as she's willing to spend a whole day having an earnest talk with the Grand Smith about life as a shaman, the conditions become much more lenient."
"Business can be done like that?" Wei Yuan felt his eyes had truly been opened.
"There are even more outrageous examples. Grand Smith Kaishan once forged a powerful repeating crossbow out of Great Desolate Divine Iron and even dispatched an entire squad of shamans to accompany it. If the buyer wanted to fire it, the Grand Smith's people had to undo the restrictions and operate it personally. The hiring fee for those shamans alone cost a thousand jin of desolate iron a year."
Wei Yuan was thoroughly shocked. "What kind of squad costs a thousand desolate iron a year?"
"Supposedly that squad had over a hundred shamans, and food and lodging weren't even included."
"A divine iron crossbow not only sells for a thousand, but requires another thousand every year just to hire people to shoot it?" Wei Yuan felt his brain struggling to keep up.
"The crossbow sold for five thousand."
"That's absurd too. The arrows can't be outrageously expensive as well, can they?"
"You truly possess divine foresight!" Hunter Thirty-One was deeply impressed, striving to contribute karmic luck, but failed.
Wei Yuan's impression of Grand Smith Kaishan completely flipped. He too was deeply impressed and nearly contributed karmic luck himself, only managing to rein himself in at the brink.
Grand Smith Kaishan's methods provided Wei Yuan with profound inspiration. He realized that in the Desolate Realm, this wondrous world of Power Shamans, the possibilities were truly boundless.
The most pressing task was to study the sacrificial power first. After some thought, Wei Yuan drew up a long list and had Hunter Thirty-One and Zhengang split up to make the purchases. Meanwhile, Wei Yuan set to work clearing and renovating the courtyard on the left, preparing to turn it into his laboratory.
When Hunter Thirty-One received the list, he was completely baffled. Fire crystal stones unique to the Desolate Realm were understandable enough, but one hundred and twenty colored glass bottles—forty large, forty medium, forty small; several slender desolate iron pipes; several miniature crucibles capable of withstanding high temperatures; and several crystal lenses...
Looking at these entirely unrelated items together, Hunter Thirty-One could not fathom their purpose. Fortunately, he was exceptionally reliable, scouring the entire market until he had gathered everything on the list.
Once the components were in hand, Wei Yuan began assembling them. He then divided the sacrificial power into ninety-nine portions and formally commenced his research.
Wei Yuan was not adept at using sacrificial power, but fortunately he had plenty of samples. Thus, he applied methods used for studying karmic luck to one part, and methods for studying karmic debt to another. In this manner, Wei Yuan divided himself into ninety-nine incarnations and launched into his research within the small courtyard.
Just as the investigation was in full swing, a knock sounded at the courtyard gate, and an ordinary-looking shaman walked in. Zhengang stepped forward to receive him, saying, "The Craft God's wares are sold out. If you want something, please come earlier next time."
The shaman smiled faintly and said, "This market belongs to me. I heard that a Craft God arrived who can forge equipment on the spot using sacrificial power, so I came specifically to pay a visit."
Zhengang felt a chill run through him. He had not expected the market master to show up so quickly. He hurried to the left courtyard at once and explained the situation to the busy Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan simply said, "Let him wait."
Zhengang could not afford to offend either side, so he could only relay the message. The market master proved remarkably even-tempered, actually waiting without complaint—and he waited for a full two hours.
When Wei Yuan finally appeared, the market master seemed not the least bit annoyed. He said to Wei Yuan, "I finally meet the Craft God. I hear you forged a Great Desolate Divine Iron artifact using sacrificial power?"
Wei Yuan said, "That is correct. Many shamans were present to witness it."
Sure enough, the market master said, "I happen to have some sacrificial power on hand. I wonder if I might trouble the Craft God to forge two pieces of divine iron equipment for me? The starting price per jin of divine iron ranges from one to two thousand, depending entirely on its grade."
"How many jin of divine iron will be needed?"
"One arrowhead, one jin. One dagger blade, four jin. Five jin in total."
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment before saying, "This old man employs the Soul-Sacrificing Forging Method; what comes out from beneath the hammer depends entirely on heaven's will. I fear the sacrificial power required might be rather substantial."
The market master directly produced four boxes and said, "Four portions of sacrificial power. Is that enough?"
Wei Yuan opened the boxes to look. The sacrificial power inside was a purplish black, its aura pure and uniform, of a quality clearly far superior to Hunter Nine's portion.
Wei Yuan immediately put on a moved expression and said, "What magnificent generosity!"
Moving Wei Yuan with a mere four portions of sacrificial power was no easy feat. Though Wei Yuan had never held sacrificial power in his hands before, he had taken plenty of beatings from it; he had been struck by great curses countless times, and the sacrificial power spent upon him amounted to at least eighty or a hundred thousand portions.
The market master laughed heartily, wearing an expression that said he had expected as much. "This shaman is merely running errands for those above."
So humble? Wei Yuan felt this market master seemed somewhat out of place in the Desolate Realm.
The market master was exceedingly magnanimous, stating that all four portions of sacrificial power could be handed over to Wei Yuan as consumables, and that he did not care how much Wei Yuan actually used.
A single portion of such sacrificial power could bless a cover cloth for five years, valued at two hundred jin of desolate iron in the Absolute Domain. Generous though he was, the market master had one additional condition: Wei Yuan had to forge the items on the spot, and he was willing to wait.
After brief consideration, Wei Yuan agreed. Naturally, as a Craft God, his forging techniques were closely guarded secrets, so he could not possibly allow anyone to watch.
With the advanced karmic luck from Hunter Nine and Hunter Thirty-Five in hand, Wei Yuan was not the least bit worried about failing to produce Great Desolate Divine Iron. Thus, he planned to pocket all four portions of sacrificial power for his own research.
The market master held a unique status and possessed a humility uncharacteristic of Power Shamans, giving Wei Yuan the impression that he had met a worthy opponent. Wei Yuan did not count on extracting karmic luck from the master himself, but with his assistance, getting other Power Shamans to contribute karmic luck would be child's play. As for how to go about it, careful scheming was still required, depending primarily on the quality of the two pieces of equipment he was about to forge.
Thus far, Wei Yuan had forged two pieces of Great Desolate Divine Iron equipment across three forgings, and their spiritualities had differed each time. If distinct spiritualities emerged once more, Wei Yuan's new concept could finally be put into practice.
Chapter 880