Once all five types of pills had been successfully refined,
Ye Qingxuan made an estimate. Based on the Treasure Pavilion’s buyback rate of seventy percent of the market price, he could sell them for 389,970 low-grade spirit stones.
The cost of the spiritual herbs he had procured was only around forty thousand low-grade spirit stones. It was, by any measure, an immensely profitable venture.
Of course, other alchemists did not possess Ye Qingxuan’s heaven-defying pill success rate. It was common for alchemists to occasionally fail, resulting in the complete loss of an entire batch of pills.
After finishing the herbs, Ye Qingxuan instructed Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu to take all the pills to the Treasure Pavilion for sale, and to purchase some additional items for him while they were at it.
He himself began to study the artifact-forging legacy, preparing to use the ores and materials he had previously purchased to craft magical instruments.
Since Bai Wenyang was already acquainted with Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu, he did not send a prior message to Bai Wenyang to arrange things this time.
When the two brothers brought the pills to the Treasure Pavilion, Bai Wenyang was once again astounded.
He knew Ye Qingxuan’s alchemical talent was extraordinary, but this was beyond extraordinary! How much time had passed? Not only had he succeeded in refining second-rank pills, but he had produced so many? What kind of terrifying success rate was this?
If not for the constraints of the Dao Oath, he would have been sorely tempted to share news of Ye Qingxuan with a few close friends, just to see their shocked reactions.
But for now, Bai Wenyang could only entertain such thoughts in his mind!
After selling all the pills, the two brothers followed Ye Qingxuan’s instructions and purchased one low-grade True Artifact level alchemy furnace and one low-grade True Artifact level forging furnace.
These two furnaces alone cost Ye Qingxuan a full 2,000 mid-grade spirit stones, which converted to 200,000 low-grade spirit stones.
In the Di Xuan Realm, spiritual herbs were relatively easy to obtain, but spiritual ores were hard to come by!
This wasn’t because the Di Xuan Realm lacked ores. Rather, it was the prevailing custom. Like spirit veins, various spiritual ores were considered renewable resources, though the regeneration of ores was much slower.
Therefore, the major powers in the Di Xuan Realm did not engage in destructive mining of their ore deposits. This led to a relative scarcity of ore-based materials circulating in the market.
Hence the current market conditions: each step up in the grade of a magical treasure typically came with a dramatic leap in price.
Mid- and low-grade True Artifacts were commonly used by Purple Mansion cultivators, which explained why their prices were roughly thirty times higher than those of top-grade Magical Instruments.
In addition, following Ye Qingxuan’s orders, the two brothers also:
Purchased ingredients for 200 batches of second-rank Spirit-Cleansing Pills, costing 160,000 low-grade spirit stones.
Purchased 2,000 first-rank Spirit-Boosting Pills, costing 24,000 low-grade spirit stones.
The first-rank Spirit-Boosting Pills were bought for Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu’s cultivation. It wasn’t cost-effective for Ye Qingxuan to refine first-rank pills himself, so he simply procured them from the Treasure Pavilion.
The remaining five thousand or so low-grade spirit stones were all used to purchase first and second-rank spiritual ores and materials.
First-rank ores and materials were the primary components for crafting low and mid-grade Magical Instruments. Second-rank ores and materials were used for crafting high and top-grade Magical Instruments.
Depending on quality, first-rank ores cost between 60 to 100 low-grade spirit stones per cubic unit, while second-rank ores cost between 500 to 1000 low-grade spirit stones per cubic unit. One cubic unit of material was sufficient to forge one Magical Instrument.
Throughout the following year,
Without impeding his own cultivation, Ye Qingxuan refined two batches of second-rank Spirit-Cleansing Pills daily.
When sold to the Treasure Pavilion, one batch, with a stable yield of six pills, brought Ye Qingxuan a profit of 5,040 low-grade spirit stones. Over the year, this generated a total profit of 3,679,200 low-grade spirit stones for him.
Apart from this, Ye Qingxuan devoted his remaining time to studying the artifact-forging legacy.
By the third month, Ye Qingxuan successfully forged a high-grade Magical Instrument, officially advancing to the rank of a second-grade Artificer.
By the fifth month, he successfully forged a top-grade Magical Instrument, placing him just one step away from becoming a third-grade Artificer.
In the Di Xuan Realm, an Artificer capable of using first-rank ores to craft mid or low-grade Magical Instruments was considered a first-grade Artificer.
Following this logic:
A second-grade Artificer could use second-rank ores to craft top or high-grade Magical Instruments.
A third-grade Artificer could use third-rank ores to craft mid or low-grade True Artifacts.
A fourth-grade Artificer could use fourth-rank ores to craft top or high-grade True Artifacts.
A fifth-grade Artificer could use fifth-rank ores to craft mid or low-grade Spiritual Artifacts.
A sixth-grade Artificer could use sixth-rank ores to craft top or high-grade Spiritual Artifacts.
A seventh-grade Artificer could use seventh-rank ores to craft low-grade Spiritual Treasures.
An eighth-grade Artificer could use eighth-rank ores to craft mid-grade Spiritual Treasures.
A ninth-grade Artificer could use ninth-rank ores to craft high-grade Spiritual Treasures.
A tenth-grade Artificer could use tenth-rank ores to craft top-grade Spiritual Treasures.
As for Immortal Artifacts? Currently, no one in the Di Xuan Realm could forge them. Only an Immortal Realm powerhouse, using their own Great Dao laws to baptize a top-grade Spiritual Treasure, could cause it to transform into an Immortal Artifact.
The market price for a top-grade Magical Instrument was around 3,000 low-grade spirit stones, while the top-grade second-rank ore required to forge one cost 1,000 low-grade spirit stones per cubic unit.
Assuming no mistakes, forging one top-grade Magical Instrument could yield Ye Qingxuan a profit of 2,000 low-grade spirit stones.
In artifact forging, one cubic unit of material essentially produced only one item. No matter how extraordinary his comprehension was, Ye Qingxuan couldn’t create something from nothing. Therefore, the profit margin was far lower than that of alchemy.
Moreover, if sold to the Treasure Pavilion, this profit would be discounted by twenty percent.
However, Ye Qingxuan did not plan to sell the artifacts he forged to the Treasure Pavilion.
In the sixth month of that year, Ye Qingxuan sent Ye Zhaoheng to a market within the Xuantian Sect. After paying a deposit of one million low-grade spirit stones, they opened a small shop named “Heaven’s Blessing Store!”
Opening a shop in a Xuantian Sect market did not require rent, but a two percent tax was levied on the transaction volume.
However, shops of different sizes had different minimum annual transaction volume requirements.
For the small shop Ye Qingxuan opened, if the average annual transaction amount fell below one million low-grade spirit stones, the shop would be repossessed and the deposit forfeited.
This wasn’t a difficult challenge for Ye Qingxuan. After many years in the Xuantian Sect, he finally possessed his first piece of personal business.
After the Heaven’s Blessing Store opened, Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu took turns managing the shop’s affairs.
The various artifacts forged by Ye Qingxuan, along with a portion of his pills, began to be sold at the Heaven’s Blessing Store.
However, for the time being, Ye Qingxuan still chose to sell the majority of his pills to the Treasure Pavilion.
Although selling directly to the Treasure Pavilion meant a ten percent loss in spirit stones, the advantage was the fast return of funds. In the early stages, sufficient capital was essential for many endeavors.
Only after the Heaven’s Blessing Store established its reputation and sales volume increased would Ye Qingxuan gradually shift more of his pill sales to his own store.
Currently, besides selling products, the Heaven’s Blessing Store was also responsible for acquiring spiritual plant seeds and ores that Ye Qingxuan did not yet possess, accumulating resources for the advancement of his Grotto-Heaven Paradise.
That year, besides the mandatory first-rank planting task, Ye Qingxuan voluntarily completed two additional tasks for cultivating Earth Spirit Flowers, earning an extra 600 contribution points.
Combined with his annual stipend and the 32 contribution points he had remaining, Ye Qingxuan now had accumulated 1,352 contribution points.
However, this amount was still too small to be of significant help, so he did not use it.
As for the other areas within his Grotto-Heaven Paradise, Ye Qingxuan planted numerous first, second, and third-rank spiritual plants.
Most of the third-rank plants, including those used for refining third-rank pills, were planted within the Qingxuan Grotto.
His combined Qingxuan Grotto-Heaven and Paradise required only eight months to accumulate the energy sufficient for a first-rank spiritual plant to mature, unlike the twelve months typically needed in other Blessed Land cultivators’ paradises.
Based on Ye Qingxuan’s senses and estimations, the Qingxuan Grotto-Heaven Paradise would require about three years to cultivate a second-rank spiritual plant, and about ten years for a third-rank spiritual plant.
