On the third day since Xu Xian accepted the challenge, Demon-Slaying City remained a scene of green mountains covered in snow, with bright candles lighting the southern sky.
Under the murky sky, everything was a uniform shade of white.
The sound of forging within Demon-Slaying City's Number One Forging Workshop did not rest for a single day.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A young girl stepped out into the snow, her light gauze sleeves sweeping the accumulated flakes off a wooden board.
She wiped away the previous number and changed it to 325.
Observing this from the shadows, the spies from the Seven Great Forging Workshops all let out sneers of ridicule.
"They're just deceiving themselves."
"Interesting."
"They're not even putting on an act anymore..."
In front of the various forging workshops, figures stood scattered about, yet not a single person entered the shops. In this freezing weather, it was better to watch the show.
Outside the high city walls draped in icicles, a new face among the cultivators was still shouting, offering high prices for the complete corpses of fifth-grade ferocious beasts.
Furthermore, the price he offered was a hundred spirit stones higher than yesterday.
"Him again?"
"You know him?"
"I saw him here the day before yesterday buying fifth-grade ferocious beast corpses. He's back again today, and his offer has increased by another hundred spirit stones."
"Who is this person? How can he be so generous?"
"Who knows? Maybe he's connected to those eight forging workshops in the city..."
Someone grew curious and stepped forward to ask, "Fellow Daoist, aren't you afraid of losing money by buying these fifth-grade ferocious beast corpses at such a high price?"
The man only smiled and said, "No comment."
He was keeping things quite mysterious.
As time passed and noon approached, people began to sell the corpses of fifth-grade ferocious beasts one after another.
Most of these people were rogue cultivators or demon-slaying squads within Demon-Slaying City. They killed beasts specifically to sell them for a good price.
They weren't looking to exchange them for earth weapons.
Fearing a price drop in the spring, they figured selling now was the best strategy.
Originally, they had planned to exchange them for earth weapons at the forging workshops to profit from the price difference. But now that everyone was waiting to see if prices would drop further, they decided it was better to simply sell.
At the city gates, people were coming and going, making it quite a lively scene.
A man and a woman wearing veiled hats to hide their faces suddenly appeared, putting on a performance that drew the attention of many onlookers.
The man spoke with a sneer, his voice slightly raised, "Buying back at such a high price? Aren't they afraid of losing everything?"
The woman replied with a cold snort, "You can call a merchant wicked, but you can't call them stupid. They're as sharp as needles."
"Oh... and where exactly is the sharpness? I really can't see it."
"Tsk tsk. Right now, a low-tier earth weapon can be exchanged for just three ferocious beast corpses, and it's even custom-made. Let me ask you, what is the price of an earth weapon? And what is the price of a ferocious beast?"
"A low-tier earth weapon is worth about 6,000 spirit stones, so a ferocious beast is naturally worth around 2,000, right?"
"Then if he's buying them for 1,800 now, how is that expensive?"
"Oh?"
"Don't forget, among those eight forging workshops in the city, there are seventh-rank spirit forgers present. In the entire world, there are no more than thirty-six such masters. The weapons they forge are worth far more than 6,000 spirit stones. If he buys these beast corpses and exchanges them for earth weapons, he can turn around and sell them in the Central Plains for a profit of at least 1,000 spirit stones..."
The two of them went back and forth, their logic sounding perfectly sound, causing many people to glance over frequently. Their attention was unconsciously drawn to the conversation.
Someone even tested the waters by asking, "Based on what you're saying, miss, the price of fifth-grade ferocious beasts is still going to rise?"
The woman said with absolute certainty, "It's definitely going to rise!"
A burly man walked over from a distance and laughed heartily, "Hahaha, you two must be in Demon-Slaying City for the first time, right?"
"What do you mean?"
The burly man crossed his arms and said, "Everyone in Demon-Slaying City knows that the ferocious beasts of the Great Desolation are like wild geese in the sky—they're afraid of the cold. As soon as winter hits, they retreat deep into the Great Desolation, and they only return when spring arrives. Therefore, the beast trade in Demon-Slaying City is busy in spring and summer and slow in autumn and winter. Once spring comes, more beasts will be hunted. Things are valued for their rarity; when there's an abundance, how can the price rise instead of falling?"
The crowd murmured in agreement. The logic was indeed sound.
The woman in the veiled hat let out a mocking laugh.
"Heh..."
"Do you think I'm wrong, miss?" the burly man asked.
The woman replied with a hint of derision, "If we go by your logic, why are there so many people in Demon-Slaying City in the dead of winter? How could a tiny frontier town in the Unordered Lands open eight forging workshops? I suspect that even if you have the money, you wouldn't be able to buy the earth weapon you desire."
The implication was clear.
Times had changed. The current Demon-Slaying City was no longer the city of the past; old rules no longer applied.
The words were blunt, but the logic was sound.
The burly man was left speechless.
The crowd instinctively nodded.
"That makes some sense."
"Indeed. If the forging workshops are still in a price war, they will definitely continue to lower their prices. If it drops to two beasts per weapon, the earth weapon is still an earth weapon; the materials and craftsmanship are still there. To recoup the losses, the price of fifth-grade ferocious beast corpses will definitely rise..."
"Hiss... hearing it put like that, it really might rise to three thousand?"
"..."
The surroundings became noisy as everyone began to discuss and speculate, their suspicions growing stronger.
Seeing the crowd waver, the man and woman in veiled hats exchanged a glance and added more fuel to the fire.
The man said deliberately, "So, according to you, we should keep these ten ferocious beasts we have and wait for the price to rise?"
The woman playfully punched his arm and scolded, "Are you stupid? Why keep them? Of course we should go to Demon-Slaying City's Number One Forging Workshop to place an order!"
The man feigned ignorance, "Didn't you say the eight workshops are in a trade war and prices will drop further? If we go now, won't we lose out?"
The discussions around them quieted down as many gazes once again fell on them simultaneously.
What the man asked was exactly what they were wondering.
The woman laughed, "How could we? Haven't you seen how many orders the Number One Forging Workshop has already? A full 320 or so. He's just one person; how many can he forge in a month? At most, three hundred."
The woman stopped there, and the man suddenly realized.
He said excitedly, "I get it! You're saying that in a month, we can just cancel the order and walk away with a free third-grade Soul-Nurturing Pill and three Foundation Establishment Pills?"
"You're not completely hopeless."
"Right, I'm going now."
With that, the two of them strode away toward the center of the city. The remaining crowd also snapped out of it, and the sound of discussion reached a fever pitch.
"Right! Why didn't I think of that?"
"A third-grade Soul-Nurturing Pill plus three Foundation Establishment Pills... that must be worth at least 300 spirit stones."
"More than that."
"Then should we go too?"
"I just feel that over three hundred orders in three days seems a bit fishy. Could it be a trap?"
"What are you talking about? The Wendao Sword Sect is a famous righteous sect—they're so righteous it's almost scary. Faking numbers? Impossible. Besides, he's a Little Grand-Uncle. When people were returning goods the other day, how straightforward was he? He didn't hesitate for a second."
"True. I suppose I was judging a noble person with a petty mind."
"Let's go, let's go..."
Where there was one, there were two, and then three. At the city gate, the cultivator who had been in the middle of a transaction also felt his heart stir.
He snatched back his storage bag, pulled out the money he had just tucked into his pocket, and handed it back.
"I'm not selling anymore."
"Wait... we already agreed."
"Sorry, I'm not selling, I'm not selling!"
With that, he left the merchant behind and hurriedly fled into the city.
Rate on N.U.
