Profit

Yaoguang soon dispatched someone with this prototype flying sword to the Nine Cauldrons Sect headquarters. A few days later, Li Qingshan sought out Yaoguang in the Divine Kingdom-brand Virtual Spirit Realm. Arriving alongside him were Lou Yuyu, Deputy Hall Master of the War Hall; Xu Qiexing, Hall Master of the Artifact Refining Hall; and Liang Qiu, Hall Master of the Logistics Hall. "Hall Master Lou, I'm sorry to trouble you when there is so much going on in the East Sea, but we truly need your input for this meeting," Li Qingshan said, turning toward Lou Yuyu. "Hahaha, Sect Master is too polite! Right now, the East Sea is in an uncanny state of calm. After we crushed over three hundred elite Great Cultivators from the Xuanming Sect like dry leaves, the Great Yue Dynasty, Astral Sea Sect, Ancient Immortal Sect, and even the Great Sun Sword Sect suddenly fell completely in line. The sword cultivators who used to fly out on regular patrols have all retreated to their respective fortified islands, holing up and refusing to come out. Our people have been taking over island after island without encountering the slightest resistance. It's been remarkably easy." Lou Yuyu chuckled as he spoke. "Besides, with good news like the finalized design of the modified Zixiao-15 flying sword, I only wish Sect Master, Hall Master Yaoguang, and everyone else would disturb me more often!" Li Qingshan, Liang Qiu, Xu Qiexing, and the others all smiled. The sect master went straight to the point: "The reason the East Sea has fallen into an eerie quiet is that these sects can't figure out what method we used to wipe out over three hundred great sword cultivators of the Xuanming Sect in one fell swoop. But... it is foreseeable that in order to answer this question, they will inevitably conduct a round of probing. Otherwise, none of the powers surrounding the East Sea Archipelago will be able to rest easy." Lou Yuyu nodded solemnly. "We are already prepared for the coming storm. If the Xuanming Sect dares to strike back, we dare to take the fight straight to their homeland." "Good." Li Qingshan nodded. "The Xuanming Sect is nothing. If not for the Wuji Astral Palace backing them and the Great Sun Sword Sect shielding them in front, they wouldn't dare act presumptuously before our Nine Cauldrons Sect. To reclaim the East Sea, our true rival is the Great Sun Sword Sect, and we must even guard against the Shouyang Sect making trouble. In this environment, how many Treasure Weapons do you think the War Hall needs to be equipped with to ensure victory in the struggle for the East Sea?" "If you ask me, naturally the more the better. However..." Lou Yuyu glanced at Xu Qiexing and Liang Qiu. "...it depends on how much available funding I actually have." "The refinement of the modified Zixiao-15 flying sword has reached a world-class level, sufficient to rival the flying swords of ace battle academies in the Wuji Astral Palace, Myriad Beasts Sect, and Immortal Alliance. Even the ace battle academies of the Taiyin Sect, Fatian Pavilion, and Golden Divine Temple fall short by comparison. Therefore, even if we have to smash our pots and sell the scrap metal, we must equip your forces first." Liang Qiu said emphatically, "The funds allocated to spell cultivators and body cultivators can all be temporarily diverted to the sword cultivators to procure these flying swords." He added, "After all, if our sword cultivators can spearhead the offensive, they hardly need support or cover from body cultivators and spell cultivators." Xu Qiexing agreed with his assessment and turned toward Yaoguang. "The value of the modified Zixiao-15 can hardly be measured in spirit stones, given how advanced the craftsmanship within it is. The weakened third-generation superior flying swords exported by the Wuji Astral Palace sell for as much as two hundred thousand a blade. If your flying swords were put on the open market, people would scramble to buy them even at three hundred thousand. But... the Nine Cauldrons Sect cannot afford such a high price..." "I understand," Yaoguang said. "All supplies and raw materials can be procured internally from the sect. Furthermore, the Zixiao Institute's profits can be paid in other forms. For example, the Soul of the Stars would be very useful to me." A spirit treasure. Li Qingshan, Liang Qiu, Xu Qiexing, and the others understood what Yaoguang meant. "I agree." Before Liang Qiu or Xu Qiexing could speak, Li Qingshan gave his answer: "We will use the Hunyuan Bell spirit treasure as Hall Master Yaoguang's profit." "The Hunyuan Bell!" Lou Yuyu, Liang Qiu, and Xu Qiexing all changed color. "That is the spirit treasure Sect Master uses to stabilize your mind and nurture your divine sense..." "If I recall correctly, that spirit treasure doesn't belong to the sect, but is your personal possession, Sect Master..." Lou Yuyu and Xu Qiexing sent divine sense transmissions simultaneously. Little did they know that every one of these transmissions fell completely within Yaoguang's perception. "What's mine belongs to the sect anyway; there's no difference." Li Qingshan gave a slight smile. "Besides, out of the eight spirit treasures in our sect, three are in the Ancestor's hands, one is with Yuyu, one is with Murong, and as for the remaining spirit treasure alchemy furnace, Hall Master Yaoguang has no use for it. The one most suitable for him and currently providing the least value is the Hunyuan Bell on me, since I spend most of my time safely in the rear." He immediately added, "Furthermore, you all know the power of the Dharma Idol spirit treasure I acquired recently. With that artifact, I can anticipate and guard against any crisis well before it strikes." Hearing Li Qingshan mention that Dharma Idol spirit treasure, the others regained their composure somewhat. With that spirit treasure... Coupled with the sect master usually remaining safely behind lines at headquarters, his security was well assured. Surrendering the Hunyuan Bell was therefore not entirely out of the question. Seeing that they had no further objections, Li Qingshan turned to Yaoguang with a smile. "Hall Master Yaoguang, you must give us a favorable price." "The production cost of a modified Zixiao-15 flying sword is around one hundred eighty thousand spirit stones," Yaoguang said. "Profits on flying swords are generally around fifteen percent, so we can follow that standard." "No, no, that won't do. Given how superior the Zixiao-15 is, it's impossible to buy something like that at a mere fifteen percent margin..." Li Qingshan waved his hand. "Since Sect Master Li is willing to part with your own spirit treasure, what harm is there in me yielding a share of the profit? How about I produce six hundred modified Zixiao-15 flying swords for the Nine Cauldrons Sect at cost—one hundred eighty thousand spirit stones per sword?" Yaoguang offered. "One hundred eighty thousand..." Li Qingshan calculated quickly. Yaoguang was effectively valuing the Hunyuan Bell spirit treasure at sixteen million spirit stones. Still, six hundred modified Zixiao-15 flying swords... that was practically enough for every Rank 3 great sword cultivator to have one. If they could successfully re-equip their forces, even without relying on Yaoguang's strength as a Dharma Idol cultivator, the Nine Cauldrons Sect's sword cultivators could still dominate the East Sea and defend the East Sea Archipelago as though it were their own backyard. "Isn't that a bit too low? After all, the performance of the modified Zixiao-15 flying sword genuinely reaches the level of a fourth-generation flying sword. If you forgo all profits, how will you pay the wages of the personnel at the Zixiao Institute?" Li Qingshan asked. Ten fourth-generation superior Treasure Weapon flying swords could match the cost-effectiveness of a first-generation spirit treasure. After all, spirit treasures were far too extravagant for Foundation Establishment cultivators, yet too underwhelming for Golden Core cultivators. "It is enough," Yaoguang replied. "The salary issue is easy for me to resolve." He smiled. "Although the overhaul and retrofitting of the spirit-gathering formations has only just begun, my spirit stone income this year should already exceed two million based on that alone. Leaving those spirit stones idle would be a waste, so they can readily cover the wages of the three Grandmaster teams and twenty-six Master teams." Hearing this, Li Qingshan and the others could not help but laugh. Liang Qiu, Hall Master of the Logistics Hall, remarked with deep feeling, "Hall Master Yaoguang truly is the wealthiest person in our Nine Cauldrons Sect. In another ten or twenty years, once all the spirit-gathering formations are overhauled, earning tens of millions a year will be effortless." "Ten or twenty years? Tens of millions?" Yaoguang looked at him. "Hall Master Liang has it wrong. In ten or twenty years, we will surely have reclaimed the Shiwan Dashan and the East Sea Archipelago. It won't be as simple as tens of millions—it should be over a hundred million a year!" His words gave Liang Qiu pause, followed by a nod. "If that day truly comes, I imagine everyone in the Nine Cauldrons Sect will gladly pay out that hundred million. Hall Master Yaoguang would have earned every bit of it." "A hundred million... I really won't know how to spend it all when the time comes." Yaoguang looked toward Li Qingshan. "Sect Master, you need to urge Hall Master Wu. When will she be able to concoct Myriad Stars Pills? Once she can, I'll take as many as she can produce." "I'm urging her, I'm urging her," Li Qingshan replied with a rueful smile. The Myriad Stars Pill was a rather precious medicinal pill for cultivation in the Star Lord stage, classified as an inferior third-generation treasure pill. Regrettably, to this day, not a single person in the Nine Cauldrons Sect was capable of concocting it. Naturally, it wasn't as if Yaoguang would stop cultivating just because the Nine Cauldrons Sect couldn't produce Myriad Stars Pills. It was merely that... He bought them less frequently from alchemy shops operated by outside forces. Even so, paying several times the base price for a single bottle of pills pained him deeply. "I will do my best to forge two hundred modified Zixiao-15 flying swords before the Great Sun Sword Sect's inevitable probing begins, enough to equip two battle academies," Yaoguang said. Li Qingshan nodded. Liang Qiu added, "The Logistics Hall will fully cooperate with you. All the materials required for the flying swords will be transported to Longxiang City as quickly as possible." "Very well." Yaoguang coordinated and finalized details with Liang Qiu, bringing the meeting to a close. With the order of six hundred flying swords placed, the Zixiao Institute swiftly grew bustling with activity. The complexity of a superior flying sword was far greater than that of an inferior one. Let alone ordinary artifact refiners, even artifact refining masters who were not thoroughly skilled did not qualify to assist. Yaoguang had to handle key stages personally, which naturally kept the pace from being very rapid. Over the course of a month, only fifty modified Zixiao-15 flying swords were produced. Of course, this was because everyone was still unaccustomed to the process. As time went on, monthly output was expected to climb to a hundred blades. However, just as Yaoguang devoted all his efforts to forging the modified Zixiao-15 flying swords, and Lou Yuyu directed the Nine Cauldrons Sect's sword cultivators in a steady advance across the East Sea while keeping watch on reactions from the Great Sun Sword Sect and other powers, a piece of news disrupted everyone's plans. The Xuanming Sect! The Xuanming Sect had lost over three hundred Great Cultivators in one go, with thousands of high-ranking cultivators captured or slain. Compounded by the loss of the East Sea Archipelago, this sent massive shockwaves through the sect. After one or two months of fermentation, these shockwaves propagated from the leadership down to the lower ranks, prompting everyone in the sect to clamor for the Nine Cauldrons Sect to pay in blood. Yet the Xuanming Sect's higher-ups knew full well that they lacked the ability to retaliate against the Nine Cauldrons Sect, leaving them no choice but to suppress these outcries internally. This suppression only bred trouble. Having nowhere else to vent their fury, the Xuanming Sect disciples turned their sights onto a group of people who had fled to Xuanming territory for refuge after the collapse of the Artifact Sect. Although those people from the Artifact Sect era did not necessarily identify with the Nine Cauldrons Sect, the members of the Xuanming Sect did not care. In their eyes, those survivors from the Artifact Sect era and the Nine Cauldrons Sect were one and the same. All at once, their fury found a target. A large-scale campaign of targeting and massacring people from the Artifact Sect era... Had begun.