And so, True Sovereign Qingmu Huasheng—the market maker behind the Spirit Mist Grass speculation in Li Fan's twelfth life—abandoned his role as the house in this life and plunged into the fray in pursuit of profit.
There were many other behind-the-scenes players who harbored the exact same thoughts as Qingmu.
Driven by these figures, the price of Spirit Mist Grass briefly held at 35 points before launching into its second surge.
On the second day after the news had fermented, the price spiked to 50 points at one point.
Then it fell back to 45 points.
It fluctuated between 45 and 50 points.
By this time, the fact that Spirit Mist Grass had more than doubled in price in such a short window became the hottest topic on countless cultivators' lips.
Their faces flushed with excitement; to hear them talk, it sounded as if the price of Spirit Mist Grass was destined to rise to at least a hundred points.
Gradually, many latecomers were inevitably drawn in as well.
Numerous cultivators who had never even heard of Spirit Mist Grass before now began paying close attention and joining the scramble.
Under this momentum, on the third day, the price of Spirit Mist Grass successfully broke through the 50-point barrier, climbing to 54 points.
Inside Thousand Li Hall on Wanxian Island.
"Fellow Daoist Jiao, surely we can cash out now?" Li Fan asked once more.
Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes were consumed by sheer greed as he shook his head violently. "No, no, no, this is barely the start!
"Right now, this Spirit Mist Grass is still just Spirit Mist Grass. Only when Spirit Mist Grass ceases to be just Spirit Mist Grass will we truly make our fortune!
"Soon! I can feel that we're only one final push away!"
He Zhenghao's opinion aligned completely with Jiao Xiuyuan's.
"Fellow Daoist Li Fan, remember: hold fast to the Spirit Mist Grass in your hands.
"Don't listen to those people claiming the price will plummet. Those are just rumors deliberately put out by folks who haven't entered the market yet and want to push the price down.
"Trust my judgment! Spirit Mist Grass will keep rising!"
...
As if validating the two men's words, over the next few days, the price of Spirit Mist Grass rose through waves of fluctuation, climbing all the way to 66 points.
Within the Heavenly Profound Mirror, Li Fan shook his head.
"It seems all that's missing before true madness takes hold is a single spark.
"Of course, it could also burst the bubble entirely."
Li Fan looked at the 2,900 stalks of Spirit Mist Grass currently in his possession and chose, without hesitation, to sell 1,000 stalks first.
At this point, Li Fan discovered yet another perk of joining the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' establishment.
Depending on one's clearance level, a set number of official buybacks was granted each year. Li Fan was currently Yan Five, which allowed him to sell materials at the actual market price recorded in the Heavenly Profound Mirror three times a year.
Thus, Li Fan sold off the Spirit Mist Grass at the price of 66 contribution points.
Sixty-six thousand contribution points landed in his pocket in an instant.
Without a ripple of emotion in his heart, Li Fan continued to watch how this storm would unfold.
When the price of Spirit Mist Grass hit 69 points, its upward momentum was finally halted.
A few individuals who had previously been swept up in the frenzy began to feel that the price had indeed been hyped too high, carrying the risk of a collapse at any moment.
And so, like Li Fan, they chose to lock in their profits.
They even tried speaking up to advise the friends around them to stay rational.
The price did dip slightly as a result, but it was quickly pushed back up by an even greater number of speculating cultivators.
Yet it never managed to break through the hurdle of 69 points.
The bulls and the bears engaged in a brutal tug-of-war here.
It lasted for five or six days without a clear victor.
Just as the stalemate dragged on, a turning point emerged in a manner Li Fan had never anticipated.
The variable Jiao Xiuyuan had spoken of truly arrived.
On that day, the slightly deranged voices of Jiao Xiuyuan and He Zhenghao reached him simultaneously.
"Hahaha, Fellow Daoist Li Fan, how's this He Zhenghao's foresight? The price of Spirit Mist Grass is about to shoot through the roof!"
"It's here! The business opportunity for dozens-fold profit is finally here!"
Li Fan jolted awake from his cultivation and glanced at the price of Spirit Mist Grass.
At first glance, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
One hundred and thirty-five contribution points per stalk.
Li Fan froze for a second, then looked again.
One hundred and sixty-six contribution points per stalk.
Moreover, the number was climbing at an astonishing speed.
"How could this happen?" Li Fan was stunned.
He hurried to inquire.
Jiao Xiuyuan and He Zhenghao answered one after the other, their voices trembling with excitement.
"News just came in!
"Qianlong Abyss, Fengwu City, Cangmang Mountain...
"Several of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' major cultivation grounds for Spirit Mist Grass were attacked simultaneously by unknown cultivators!
"All the cultivated Spirit Mist Grass was destroyed!
"Those lunatics went completely mad—they even thoroughly destroyed the special environments used to cultivate Spirit Mist Grass in those plantations!
"This means that across the entire Alliance, not a single new stalk of Spirit Mist Grass will grow for a very long time to come!"
...
"Those people... they really dared..."
Li Fan fell silent.
He could not help recalling the well-known maxim from before his transmigration:
*With 10 percent profit, capital is guaranteed to be used everywhere; with 20 percent, it becomes lively; with 50 percent, it takes positive risks; for 100 percent, it will trample on all human laws; with 300 percent, there is not a crime it will scruple to commit, even at the risk of the gallows.*
Even in another world, it remained just as true.
What was more, the gains at stake right now were far more than a mere three hundred percent.
The news that the plantations had been attacked simultaneously ignited the price of Spirit Mist Grass like powder in an instant.
In merely the span of an incense stick, it skyrocketed from over 160 points to 212 points.
And it continued to climb without any ceiling in sight.
Those cultivators who had unloaded their Spirit Mist Grass in the sixties bought back in with tears of bitter regret in their eyes.
And seeing the signs of another parabolic surge, those who already held Spirit Mist Grass and still had funds to spare could not resist buying even more.
For a time, inside the Heavenly Profound Mirror, the price of Spirit Mist Grass went utterly wild, defying all reason.
Two hundred and fifty-five, two hundred and eighty-two, two hundred and ninety-nine...
Soon, its price surpassed three hundred points.
By this stage, the vast majority of cultivators knew full well that the price of Spirit Mist Grass had become a pure bubble.
Yet they were all gambling.
Gambling that they could make a clean exit before the bubble burst, picking up contribution points along the way that an entire lifetime of mundane labor could never earn.
Human greed was laid bare in its entirety.
This kind of rally, which could detonate at any moment, sent a chill through Li Fan as well.
A thick wave of unease surged in his heart. When the price hit 310 points, Li Fan sold off all of his remaining 1,900 stalks of Spirit Mist Grass without the slightest hesitation.
They did not stir up so much as a ripple, swallowed whole in an instant by the manic cultivators who had lost all reason.
Five hundred and eighty-nine thousand contribution points.
Adding in the 66,000 points from earlier, Li Fan looked at his grand total of 655,000 contribution points, feeling as though he were dreaming.
Chapter 191