Facing Zhu Fatian’s interrogation, Zhao Yuanji was momentarily at a loss for words, not knowing what to say.
Seeing Zhao Yuanji remain silent, Zhu Fatian said flatly:
“Fellow Daoist Zhao, this purchase of the Nuclear Explosion Pill formula cost 16 million high-grade spirit stones. According to the contract we signed, please pay the 8 million high-grade spirit stones that you are responsible for.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yuanji instinctively touched his storage ring, his expression turning slightly awkward. He ventured tentatively:
“How about… we first find a few alchemists, artifact refiners, talisman makers, and formation masters to try refining the Nuclear Explosion Pill?”
He had spent all these years in quiet cultivation at the Xuantian Sect without taking on any sect missions, so he only had a little over 3 million high-grade spirit stones saved up.
This was also the reason he had become so fixated on the Nuclear Explosion Pill formula after seeing how popular it was.
Seeing Zhao Yuanji try to change the subject, Zhu Fatian’s eyes instantly narrowed, and he said coldly:
“Fellow Daoist Zhao, you wouldn’t happen to not have enough spirit stones, would you?”
What Zhao Yuanji suggested had naturally crossed Zhu Fatian’s mind.
But even if alchemists, artifact refiners, talisman makers, and formation masters could work together to refine the Nuclear Explosion Pill,
the labor costs would increase significantly, and the Zhu Merchant House’s profits would shrink.
Moreover, if the production of Nuclear Explosion Pills couldn’t keep up, their time to recoup their investment would be extended indefinitely.
This was completely different from what they had initially discussed. Relying on the Nuclear Explosion Pill to earn back 16 million high-grade spirit stones would be absolutely nowhere in sight.
For the Zhu Merchant House, not being able to recoup their investment quickly meant taking a loss.
Therefore, Zhu Fatian decided to first collect the 8 million high-grade spirit stones that Zhao Yuanji was supposed to pay, to recover at least part of the loss.
But he never expected that a dignified true disciple of the Xuantian Sect wouldn’t even be able to come up with a mere 8 million high-grade spirit stones.
Seeing that he couldn’t brush it off, Zhao Yuanji looked somewhat embarrassed. After a moment of silence, he finally took out 3 million high-grade spirit stones, handed them to Zhu Fatian, and said:
“I only have 3 million high-grade spirit stones for now. I’ll give you the rest after some time.”
Seeing that Zhao Yuanji really couldn’t produce more spirit stones at the moment, Zhu Fatian could only give him a deep look and let it go, saying:
“Fellow Daoist Zhao, you’d better handle this properly!”
After all, Zhao Yuanji was still a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, and Zhu Fatian didn’t want to push him too hard.
Besides, with the contract in place, Zhu Fatian wasn’t worried about Zhao Yuanji backing out.
Even if this matter was brought before the Xuantian Sect, the Zhu Merchant House would still be in the right.
Hearing Zhu Fatian’s words, Zhao Yuanji just nodded silently and turned to leave.
After Zhao Yuanji returned to the Xuantian Sect, the sect gained a new hardworking true disciple from that day on, as he frantically began taking on various sect missions.
After the people from the Zhu Merchant House left, Tianfu Shop didn’t stop there.
Because after Zhu Chuixiang spread the word, seven more factions had contacted Tianfu Shop through connections within the Xuantian Sect.
The seven factions were:
The Starlight Merchant House, the Li Merchant House, the Liu Merchant House, the Heavenly Saber Sect, the Ancient Alchemy Sect, the Spirit Beast Sect, and the Ten Thousand Medicines Valley.
These seven factions were all third-rate powers with Nascent Soul stage cultivators as their anchors, mostly based in Liguang Prefecture or the areas around it.
Because the Zhu Merchant House had gone first, these factions didn’t waste any words and directly agreed to the price offered by Tianfu Shop under the same conditions.
One after another, they signed contracts at the price of 16 million high-grade spirit stones, under the witness of the Xuantian Sect’s External Affairs Hall.
But with these factions, Ye Qingxuan gave them more options.
For the 16 million high-grade spirit stones, these factions could either pay entirely with spirit stones,
or they could use the market price to substitute spirit stones with spirit plant seeds, spirit ores, or spirit beasts that their factions produced or dealt in.
The only restriction was that they couldn’t buy them externally on the spot.
If they could buy resources externally to offset the spirit stones, Ye Qingxuan would definitely end up receiving all sorts of resources—and that wasn’t what he wanted.
Ye Qingxuan also didn’t include spirit herbs, finished pills, or magical treasures in this transaction.
With enough spirit stones, purchasing these things within the Xuantian Sect wasn’t difficult. Besides, Tianfu Shop already had channels to refine pills and magical treasures.
Among the spirit plant seeds, spirit beasts, and spirit ores that could be used to substitute for spirit stone payments:
Spirit plant seeds –
Tianfu Shop would only accept spirit plant seeds of the fifth rank or above.
Quite a few seeds of the fifth rank and above had been preserved, but not an overwhelming number, so Ye Qingxuan didn’t impose a quantity limit.
As for spirit plant seeds of the fifth rank or below, they weren’t difficult to collect, so Ye Qingxuan didn’t include them in the transaction list.
Then various spirit beasts –
For spirit beasts, a catalog had to be provided first for Tianfu Shop to select from. Only the chosen spirit beasts could be added to the transaction list.
The Qingxuan Cave Heaven Blessed Land was still lacking a bit of liveliness, and Ye Qingxuan planned to take this opportunity to raise a batch of spirit beasts to relieve his boredom.
And also to see if there were any spirit beasts that could assist in the growth of the cave heaven blessed land.
As for spirit ores –
Ye Qingxuan would only accept those of the second rank or above.
For spirit ores of the second rank and above but below the fifth rank, Tianfu Shop would only take 10 cubic units of each type. The ores provided by the seven major factions could overlap.
For spirit ores of the fifth rank or above, there was no such restriction.
The Qingxuan Cave Heaven only needed 1 cubic unit of a spirit ore to complete its analysis of the elemental rules within that ore and improve itself.
The reason Ye Qingxuan loosened the quantity restrictions was to prepare for building his own commercial platform once he advanced to the Golden Core stage and condensed his avatar.
He had never intended to have his external avatar struggle alone out there. Collecting resources by one person—how could that compare to building a commercial platform to gather resources?
To build a commercial platform outside the Xuantian Sect, spirit stones, resources, and strength—all three were indispensable.
Ye Qingxuan was only entertaining this idea for now. The specific operations and the choice of a suitable starting location hadn’t been determined yet.
After Tianfu Shop laid out the conditions under Ye Qingxuan’s instruction,
the seven major factions naturally tried their best to trade with spirit plant seeds, spirit ores, and spirit beasts, since they had this option.
After all, if the transaction was based on market prices, then using resources they could produce themselves would significantly lower their costs.
Ye Qingxuan was fully aware of this.
But procuring some resources through these seven major factions outside the Xuantian Sect could save him a lot of trouble and time.
Besides, Tianfu Shop’s current rate of earning spirit stones wasn’t slow, so Ye Qingxuan wasn’t short on spirit stones for the time being.
Anyway, this batch of spirit stones came in quickly, and spending them didn’t hurt his heart—as long as they didn’t substitute all of the payment with resources.
The restriction Ye Qingxuan had initially imposed—that the resources couldn’t be bought externally on the spot—was precisely to prevent that.
In the end, among the seven major factions:
The three major merchant houses—the Starlight Merchant House, the Li Merchant House, and the Liu Merchant House—all completed the transaction using various spirit ores instead of spirit stones.
These three merchant houses dealt in such items, so it wasn’t difficult for them to gather resources worth 16 million high-grade spirit stones that met Ye Qingxuan’s requirements.
The Heavenly Saber Sect handed over spirit ores worth 6 million and 10 million high-grade spirit stones.
The Heavenly Saber Sect was mainly known for its saber path and saber-type magical treasures.
But Ye Qingxuan wasn’t accepting magical treasures, so they could only take some spirit ores from the sect’s inventory to offset 6 million high-grade spirit stones.
The Ancient Alchemy Sect and the Ten Thousand Medicines Valley each handed over spirit plant seeds worth 1 million high-grade spirit stones and 15 million high-grade spirit stones.
There was no way around it. The main industries of the Ancient Alchemy Sect and the Ten Thousand Medicines Valley were pills and spirit herbs.
But Tianfu Shop didn’t want those. And although they had plenty of spirit herb seeds, after all, they were just seeds, and their market price wasn’t high.
However, these two factions weren’t short of spirit stones either, so the bulk of the payment was settled directly with spirit stones.
