The Decisive Liu Qinghui

Xu Xian said, "You also need to find me a few disciples from the Merchant Hall to handle the skinning and deboning..."

Liu Qinghui replied, "Fine!"

"I'm not covering their wages..."

"Fine."

"I need an advance payment..."

"Fine."

"Paid in immortal gold."

"Fine."

"I want a hundred pieces."

"Fine!"

"I need them by the day after tomorrow at the latest..."

"Fine..."

Xu Xian fell silent and took a tactical sip of his tea.

Liu Qinghui asked with an unperturbed expression, "Is there anything else?"

Xu Xian shook his head. "That’s all."

Liu Qinghui smiled. "Then, Little Grand-Uncle, it’s a pleasure doing business with you!"

Xu Xian’s throat bobbed. Even though everything was within his expectations, this Liu Qinghui had done nothing but nod since he walked through the door. No matter what demand was made, he didn't even think—he just gave a one-word answer: Fine, fine, fine, fine.

It honestly left Xu Xian at a loss for words.

He asked tentatively, "Deacon Liu?"

"Yes?"

"Forgive me for asking, but does your word actually carry weight?"

Liu Qinghui took a deep breath and said with absolute certainty, "It does. Of course it does."

Xu Xian muttered skeptically, "Well, that’s good then."

He felt that while Liu Qinghui wasn't much for small talk, he was very decisive and had a unique vision. When he saw a business opportunity he liked, he just went for it.

Though he lacked a bit of social polish, in a place like Demon-Slaying City, dealing with those decisive and lethal demon hunters actually made him more effective.

This business deal was proving to be quite comfortable.

"Fine, then that’s it for today. I won't keep you; I still have to hit the forge, I’ve got a mountain of orders," Xu Xian said.

Liu Qinghui drained his tea in one gulp, stood up, and took his leave. Xu Xian paced along to see him to the door.

Liu Qinghui proactively asked, "Little Grand-Uncle, should I wait until I’ve gathered the deep sea meteoric iron you requested before coming to collect the goods?"

Xu Xian said generously, "No need. You’re so straightforward, I won't be petty either. Whenever you find people to do the skinning, just come right over."

Liu Qinghui stopped in his tracks and looked at Xu Xian seriously.

Xu Xian was slightly surprised. "What is it?"

Liu Qinghui said solemnly, "I can do the skinning."

"Huh?"

Before Xu Xian knew it, Liu Qinghui was gripping an earth-grade life-bound sword from the Sword Mound, looking eager to start. "How about we begin now? I’ll give you a demonstration, Little Grand-Uncle..."

Xu Xian was caught off guard. "Is there such a rush?"

Liu Qinghui said righteously, "For the sake of the sect, and for the sake of the Little Grand-Uncle, every second counts."

Xu Xian thought, 'I shouldn't have even bothered seeing you out.'

And so, Yao Xiaoxiao refined pills, Xu Xian forged swords, and Liu Qinghui spent his time in the backyard skinning beast hides.

Busy! Everyone was busy!

Aside from Wen Qingxue and Yao Zhijian, the two of them had nothing to do but cultivate every day.

Dull. And monotonous.

As dawn broke, three more disciples from the Merchant Hall arrived at the forging workshop and joined the ranks of the skinners.

Xu Xian had only one requirement: not a single bone was to be missing. As for the blood, meat, and hides, they could take them as they pleased.

After a day of skinning, Liu Qinghui went out once. When he returned, he brought the immortal gold Xu Xian had requested.

A full hundred pieces.

With Xu Xian’s one hundred percent success rate, these hundred pieces could be forged into a hundred earth weapons.

During a break in the payment process, Liu Qinghui suggested to Xu Xian that perhaps he should take the demon beasts away to skin them elsewhere, to avoid making the forging workshop reek.

Xu Xian, of course, had no objection. He only mentioned that they would need to use their own storage bags.

After all, ever since the first floor of the Sword Tower was completed, the Sword Mound had become Xu Xian’s storage space. The storage bags he had on hand had all been pawned off back when he was researching alloy ores.

For the Merchant Hall, such a small matter was naturally no problem at all. Liu Qinghui agreed immediately.

Thus, Xu Xian took out a thousand demon beast corpses from the Sword Mound in one go. They were piled high, filling the courtyard to the brim.

The storage bags Liu Qinghui and the others brought were all full and still couldn't hold everything, forcing them to make several trips back and forth.

The Merchant Hall had a territory in Demon-Slaying City used for docking Cloud Boats and stacking goods.

Seeing how much trouble they were going through, Xu Xian said, "Next time, I’ll just bring them over to you directly to save you the trips."

"How could we impose like that?"

"It’s no trouble at all!"

"Then I shall thank the Little Grand-Uncle in advance."

After Liu Qinghui finished transporting everything with his people, he didn't forget to clean up the empty space in the backyard for Xu Xian.

Xu Xian was very pleased, praising Liu Qinghui for being a man of integrity.

With his materials replenished, Xu Xian rolled up his sleeves and continued forging. Using immortal gold to forge earth weapons significantly improved his efficiency.

Originally, Xu Xian needed three quarters of an hour—that is, an hour and a half—to refine spirit ore into immortal gold. Now that he was using immortal gold directly, that step was skipped entirely.

From the purification of the immortal gold to the shaping of the blade and finally the spirit infusion, the total time was compressed from two hours to just over an hour. Efficiency had clearly improved by a large margin.

Although the cost of using immortal gold was more than ten times that of spirit ore, after two months of operation, the price of fifth-grade demon beasts had risen, and the value of their hides and meat had increased accordingly.

With the sixty-forty split, Xu Xian did a rough calculation. He could get about 500 spirit stones from the meat and hide of one demon beast. A high-tier earth weapon could be exchanged for ten beasts, which meant he could get 5,000 spirit stones. The price for a piece of ordinary deep sea meteoric iron immortal gold was over 1,000 spirit stones, so he could still profit over 3,000.

Even with a low-tier earth weapon, he could still make a small profit of around 1,000.

After weighing it all, in order to temporarily boost efficiency, Xu Xian planned to use immortal gold to forge a batch of earth weapons first to clear out his backlog of orders. Once the orders stabilized in the future, he would return to using spirit ore to forge earth weapons.

In short, Xu Xian’s plan was not just to collect a hundred thousand skeletal remains; he also had to lay a foundation in advance for the next three floors of the Sword Tower. As for spirit stones, the more the better.

In the days that followed, Xu Xian continued his forging. As his efficiency with immortal gold improved, a batch of orders was delivered ahead of schedule.

In the blink of an eye, several months passed. Autumn arrived.

Demon-Slaying City grew more prosperous by the day, with increasing crowds. Xu Xian’s business continued as usual. Although there weren't as many orders as at the beginning, they remained stable.

In the Demon Suppression Abyss, the conflict between humans and demons grew increasingly fierce. Not only were large numbers of cultivators pouring in, but the demon tribes of the Eight Desolate Tribes were also flooding into Spirit Elixir City on a large scale.

With more people in the Demon Suppression Abyss, the demons naturally increased as well. Humans killed demons to exchange for equipment; demons hunted humans to refine human elixirs. Instead of decreasing, the demons seemed to multiply the more they were killed.

Of course, many demon hunters never returned. Fortune is sought in danger, and lost in it as well.

Xu Xian and the Wendao Sword Sect were the primary beneficiaries of this conflict. On Xu Xian’s Divine Sword Pool, beast bones were piled like mountains. The Merchant Hall’s trade volume in Demon-Slaying City had tripled compared to previous years.

Once a business in this world became a monopoly, the money came in faster than if it were stolen. Currently, the business of fifth-grade demon beast meat and hides in the entire Central Plains was handled only by the Wendao Sword Sect. Other sects and merchant associations were green with envy.

In the shadows, they cursed Xu Xian for being a market spoiler. Everyone was supposed to be sharing the cake, but he had to go and eat it all alone. Who could stand for that?

Consequently, the Three Sects and several large merchant associations made secret contact, moving one after another with the intent to hunt down Xu Xian in Demon-Slaying City...