By the second year, Ye Qingxuan began refining third-tier pills and low-grade True Artifacts, preparing to enter the third-tier market.
Under normal circumstances, after a Fortune Cultivator gains control of a Blessed Land, they can fully utilize the land’s power to refine pills, magic tools, and other items that are one tier higher than their own cultivation level.
Therefore, Ye Qingxuan wasn’t worried about exposing all his hidden cards by entering the third-tier market within the Xuantian Sect.
As soon as the second year arrived, Ye Qingxuan sent Ye Zhaoyu to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to purchase the spirit herbs needed for third-tier pills and the third-tier spirit ores required for refining low-grade True Artifacts.
Meanwhile, Ye Zhaoheng was currently minding the shop at the Tianfu store.
The concentration of spiritual energy within the Xuantian Sect’s market district was even higher than that in the Qingxuan Blessed Land. Moreover, the daily accumulation of spiritual power wasn’t like breaking through a cultivation bottleneck, where one needed to worry about external disturbances.
Thus, Ye Qingxuan didn’t have to worry about hindering the cultivation progress of his two subordinates.
With experience under his belt, Ye Zhaoyu easily found Bai Wenyang this time and quickly procured the required spirit herbs:
Third-tier Spirit-Boosting Pills: Spirit herbs required for refining cost 10 mid-grade spirit stones per set. 100 sets purchased. Current market price: 10 mid-grade spirit stones per pill.
Third-tier Spirit-Merging Pills: Spirit herbs required for refining cost 10 mid-grade spirit stones per set. 100 sets purchased. Current market price: 10 mid-grade spirit stones per pill.
Third-tier Grass-Returning Pills: Spirit herbs required for refining cost 45 mid-grade spirit stones per set. 50 sets purchased. Current market price: 80 mid-grade spirit stones per pill.
Third-tier Spirit-Restoring Pills: Spirit herbs required for refining cost 38 mid-grade spirit stones per set. 50 sets purchased. Current market price: 70 mid-grade spirit stones per pill.
Third-tier Cleansing Pills: Spirit herbs required for refining cost 120 mid-grade spirit stones per set. 100 sets purchased. Market price: 320 mid-grade spirit stones per pill.
There were actually other third-tier pills with greater refining difficulty and higher prices.
However, the market for those pills was too small. Currently, Ye Qingxuan’s main goal was capital accumulation, so he temporarily planned to only refine these pills which had a large market and high profit margins, or were useful for his own cultivation.
These spirit herbs cost a total of 20,400 mid-grade spirit stones. Converted, that amounted to 2,040,000 low-grade spirit stones, causing Ye Qingxuan’s assets to shrink by more than half in one go.
Adding the one million low-grade spirit stones spent as a deposit to open the Tianfu shop, he was left with just over 600,000 low-grade spirit stones.
The third-tier spirit ores needed for refining mid and low-grade True Artifacts, depending on their quality, cost roughly between 300 to 1000 mid-grade spirit stones per cubic unit.
Ye Qingxuan’s remaining 600,000-plus low-grade spirit stones, when converted, only amounted to a little over 6,000 mid-grade spirit stones.
Therefore, following Ye Qingxuan’s instructions, Ye Zhaoyu only purchased 20 cubic units of third-tier, low-grade spirit ore priced at 300 mid-grade spirit stones per unit.
After obtaining these materials, Ye Qingxuan entered seclusion within the Qingxuan Blessed Land.
It took only half a month for Ye Qingxuan to advance in both pill refining and artifact forging, officially becoming a third-tier Pill Refiner and Artificer.
Subsequently, over the next four months, Ye Qingxuan exhausted all the spirit herbs and spirit ores.
Although he was now refining third-tier pills, Ye Qingxuan’s pill furnace had also been upgraded to a low-grade True Artifact level.
Thanks to the terrifying spirit-absorbing effect of the low-grade True Artifact pill furnace, which continuously drew in the surrounding spiritual energy and channeled it into the furnace during the refining process, ensuring sufficient energy supply.
Consequently, Ye Qingxuan’s success rate for third-tier pills was almost the same as for second-tier ones.
For each type of pill, aside from the first three batches where the success rate was unstable, the subsequent batches stabilized: third-tier Spirit-Boosting Pills and Spirit-Merging Pills at 8 pills per batch; third-tier Spirit-Restoring Pills, Grass-Returning Pills, and Cleansing Pills at 6 pills per batch.
After exhausting all the materials, Ye Qingxuan had refined:
Pills: 796 third-tier Spirit-Boosting Pills; 796 third-tier Spirit-Merging Pills; 295 third-tier Spirit-Restoring Pills; 294 third-tier Grass-Returning Pills; 594 third-tier Cleansing Pills.
Artifacts: 30 low-grade True Artifacts.
Needing to recoup funds urgently, Ye Qingxuan sold all the pills he refined this time to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion. After a 30% discount on the selling price, he recovered 175,119 mid-grade spirit stones.
The 30 low-grade True Artifacts were placed in the Tianfu shop’s storeroom.
Bai Wenyang, upon procuring another batch of pills brought by Ye Zhaoyu, had become completely numb to Ye Qingxuan’s talent in pill refining.
This transaction brought significant benefits to Bai Wenyang.
After all, he was the team leader of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, and he facilitated the business, so his commission was not low.
After seeing Ye Zhaoyu off, Bai Wenyang sat in his private booth, beginning to dream of a prosperous future.
What he didn’t know was that this would essentially be Ye Qingxuan’s last transaction with the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.
After over a year of development, Ye Qingxuan’s Tianfu shop had gradually built a reputation and started accumulating a number of regular customers.
Furthermore, since Ye Qingxuan himself no longer planned to refine first and second-tier pills, he had Ye Zhaoheng discreetly contact a number of first and second-tier Pill Refiners and Artificers.
Contracts were signed with these refiners, with the Tianfu shop taking only a 25% cut.
Ye Qingxuan’s move wasn’t intended to compete with the Hundred Treasures Pavilion. It was simply to fill the gap in the first and second-tier markets for his own shop. Therefore, he instructed Ye Zhaoheng to find very few people, ensuring it wouldn’t disrupt the market dynamics of the commercial district.
After recouping sufficient funds, Ye Qingxuan’s Tianfu shop began purchasing various first-tier spirit ores and spirit plants on a large scale.
For each type of spirit plant, only ten seedlings or seeds were purchased; for each type of spirit ore, only one cubic unit was acquired.
All of this was in preparation for his own Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land to advance to the second tier.
In the following months, Ye Qingxuan would refine 5 batches of pills daily, occasionally forging one low-grade True Artifact.
Out of the 5 pill batches, 2 were third-tier Spirit-Boosting Pills and Spirit-Merging Pills respectively, while the other 3 batches were all Cleansing Pills.
As for the market for third-tier Spirit-Restoring Pills and Grass-Returning Pills, after some consideration, Ye Qingxuan ultimately decided to outsource their production.
Because compared to other pills, Cleansing Pills had the highest refining difficulty and also the highest profit margin.
As for third-tier Spirit-Boosting Pills and Spirit-Merging Pills, they were needed for his own cultivation. Pills refined by the cultivator themselves had slightly stronger effects when consumed personally, allowing Ye Qingxuan’s cultivation speed to increase by a tiny margin.
Though the increase was small, grains of sand accumulate to form a tower. Over a long period, the effect would eventually become apparent.
Currently, the fervor within the Xuantian Sect for venturing into the Outer Domain Battlefield was intensifying. Every day, many disciples purchased various pills in preparation for their journey.
Thus, there was no shortage of market demand for Cleansing Pills of various tiers that could expel demonic energy; in fact, supply sometimes couldn’t meet demand.
This fervor had swept through the entire Inner Five Domains of the Di Xuan Realm.
Facing the occasional news from the outside world, Ye Qingxuan merely observed quietly. What he needed to do now was leverage this wave of enthusiasm to accumulate sufficient cultivation resources for himself.
The daily output was 8 third-tier Spirit-Boosting Pills and 8 Spirit-Merging Pills each. However, for his own cultivation, Ye Qingxuan consumed 3 Spirit-Boosting Pills and 3 Spirit-Merging Pills daily.
The remaining 5 third-tier Spirit-Boosting Pills, 5 third-tier Spirit-Merging Pills, and 18 third-tier Cleansing Pills, after deducting the 20% tax, could bring Ye Qingxuan a daily income of 4,384 mid-grade spirit stones.
In addition, Ye Qingxuan’s Tianfu shop sold, on average, one low-grade True Artifact forged by himself every two days.
For a low-grade True Artifact, the material cost was 300 mid-grade spirit stones, and the selling price was around 1,000 mid-grade spirit stones. After tax deduction, one artifact could bring Ye Qingxuan a profit of 560 mid-grade spirit stones.
Coupled with other outsourced business, although the shop only earned a 5% cut, the sheer volume made up for it.
