"How many?" Li Fan's clone's eyes flickered.
"Haha, don't tell me you cleaned out the entire ruins of the Medicine King Sect, Fellow Daoist?"
Jiao Xiuyuan chuckled merrily. "Not quite. It was just good fortune—I happened to unearth the ruins of a workshop. Although the vast majority were discarded, unusable defects, I still managed to recover a full twenty-eight intact cauldrons."
"Twenty-eight?" Li Fan was slightly startled. He had not expected there to be so many Small Medicine King Cauldrons.
This quantity far exceeded his expectations.
Recalling the scene from his twelfth lifetime when he was hunted down because of the two Small Medicine King Cauldrons in his storage ring, Li Fan fell into deep thought.
That Nascent Soul cultivator had locked onto his position instantly, clearly possessing some method to sense the cauldrons' presence.
It could have been a secret art, or perhaps it was because the cultivator also carried a Small Medicine King Cauldron.
And the reason for fighting over them was evidently the return of the true Medicine King Cauldron.
*The opportunity within the Medicine King Cauldron is definitely tied to these smaller cauldrons from the same sect.*
*My being hunted back then was likely just one scene in a brutal, grand scramble.*
*However, in this life, the more Small Medicine King Cauldrons there are, the better it is for me!*
His thoughts raced, and in an instant, Li Fan formed a plan.
Only then did he pick up where Jiao Xiuyuan left off, answering, "Haha, Daoist Jiao, your luck truly is remarkable.
"Still, I don't need that many cauldrons. For ordinary planting, two are plenty. Buying two more as spares would be more than enough!"
Jiao Xiuyuan hurriedly said, "Fellow Daoist, you are mistaken. I have personally appraised these Small Medicine King Cauldrons. Worthy of an ancient great sect's magical artifacts, their miraculous effects are extraordinary. Their efficacy in nurturing spiritual plants far surpasses today's crudely made artifacts. Not to mention their long history, possessing..."
Li Fan smiled and cut him off. "Haha, you and I have weathered hardships together, Fellow Daoist. An honest person speaks frankly. You're simply worried that with current medicinal herb prices so low, these Small Medicine King Cauldrons will be hard to sell, which is why you're pushing so hard for me to buy more, aren't you?"
Jiao Xiuyuan had not expected Li Fan to be so direct, and laughed hollowly to mask his embarrassment.
Just as he was about to explain, Li Fan spoke again: "Rest assured, Fellow Daoist. Since I was the one who asked you to search for these Small Medicine King Cauldrons, I naturally won't let you take a loss.
"In my view, selling these small cauldrons for a hundredfold—or even a thousandfold—their price would be no difficult task!"
His tone was arrogant, yet brimming with conviction.
Hearing this, Jiao Xiuyuan could not help growing curious. "I would gladly hear your brilliant counsel, Fellow Daoist."
Li Fan smiled faintly. "You must understand that the price of a commodity actually has little to do with its inherent value.
"How much an item ultimately sells for depends solely on how much the buyer is willing to pay.
"Take these Small Medicine King Cauldrons, for instance. If they are merely magical artifacts used to nurture spiritual plants, then no matter how much you boast and exaggerate their benefits, a price of a thousand-odd contribution points is the absolute ceiling.
"Do you agree, Fellow Daoist?"
Jiao Xiuyuan nodded slowly. "Indeed. A thousand-odd contribution points is even an overestimate on your part. With the herb market completely crashed, fetching five or six hundred contribution points apiece would already be considered good fortune."
"Therefore, if you want to sell the Small Medicine King Cauldrons at an exorbitant price, you must unearth other value from them..." Li Fan said slowly in an airy tone.
"Other value?" Jiao Xiuyuan was stunned. "These small cauldrons have no other use, do they?"
"Haha, if there is no value, then create value for them," Li Fan said with resounding firmness.
"Fellow Daoist, do you know the ancient tale of how Liu Ruchen of the Medicine King Sect used the cauldron as a vessel, leading the sect's entire congregation to shatter the void and depart?" Li Fan asked.
Jiao Xiuyuan nodded. "Naturally, I know of this..."
Then he caught on, his tone filled with shock. "Fellow Daoist, do you mean...?"
Li Fan chuckled softly. "What if the True Medicine King Cauldron, after wandering beyond for thousands of years, is about to return to the Xuanhuang Realm, and only those who possess a Small Medicine King Cauldron can enter it...?
"Fellow Daoist, what do you think the price of these Small Medicine King Cauldrons would become then?"
Jiao Xiuyuan considered it, and his tone instantly grew somewhat agitated. "If that were truly the case, it would involve the secrets of an ancient sect from before the great tribulation.
"The value of the Small Medicine King Cauldrons would truly be immeasurable. Even with an asking price of a hundred thousand contribution points each, plenty of cultivators would surely scramble to buy them."
Li Fan immediately said, "Precisely!"
Jiao Xiuyuan thought it over, but then felt something was amiss. "Isn't that just deception? That goes against my merchant Dao!
"Besides, these cultivators are all exceptionally shrewd. They wouldn't just believe whatever I say, would they?"
Li Fan let out a light laugh and spoke leisurely: "That depends on how you orchestrate it. As the saying goes, rumors repeated often enough become accepted as truth; repeat a lie thousands or tens of thousands of times, and people will treat it as gospel.
"When the time comes, spend heavily to bribe a few divination masters to release the news.
"Others will have no choice but to believe it.
"As for calling it deception, heh..." Li Fan suddenly scoffed coldly.
"Commerce is simply a matter of a willing buyer and a willing seller, with both sides consenting. Furthermore, the return of the True Medicine King Cauldron might not even be false news!
"There truly is a sliver of probability that the True Medicine King Cauldron, which flew away in the past, will return to the Xuanhuang Realm. Even if that probability is infinitesimally close to zero, as long as it is not absolute zero, then across an infinite span of time, it is bound to happen.
"As for how many cosmic kalpas from now that will be, and whether the Xuanhuang Realm will even still exist by then...
"Well, that is an entirely different matter."
Li Fan's words shook Jiao Xiuyuan's mind to its core.
The philosophy and values within were vastly different from the Way of Commerce he had always upheld.
Heavenly Venerable as his witness, though he, Jiao Xiuyuan, occasionally indulged in petty gains in business, he had never engaged in false advertising so blatantly and openly.
Thousand Li Hall had always taken integrity as its foundation.
Yet deep down, Jiao Xiuyuan vaguely felt that Li Fan's words made immense sense.
Over the years, the scale of Thousand Li Hall's business had long hit a bottleneck, and because of this, his Dao of Myriad Puppets had also been unable to break through.
*Applying this across the board, such methods don't only work on the Small Medicine King Cauldrons. Any commodity in the world could be handled this way. When that time comes...* The moment Jiao Xiuyuan allowed his imagination to wander, he grew so thrilled that his very soul seemed to tremble.
He then heard Li Fan continue in full flow: "To maintain the hype around the Small Medicine King Cauldrons, you could hold an auction at set intervals, selling off a few of the cauldrons through bidding.
"Not only would this maximize profits, but it would also promote Thousand Li Hall's business. It accomplishes multiple goals in a single stroke."
Chapter 221