A sudden crowd gathered in front of Demon-Slaying City's Number One Forging Workshop.
"Miss Xiaoxiao, if you don't mind me asking, is it true there are over three hundred orders ahead of us?"
Yao Xiaoxiao didn't answer directly, instead retorting, "What do you mean by that? Are you suggesting I'm faking it?"
"That's not what I meant. I just wanted to confirm. I wonder if you have any proof, little girl?"
The rest of the crowd began to chime in.
"Exactly, exactly."
"We're just curious..."
"..."
Yao Xiaoxiao puffed out her cheeks. Following exactly what Xu Xian had taught her, she repeated his words: "We're open for business, and it's a mutual agreement. Believe it or not, it's up to you. Regardless, if you place an order now, you won't get your goods for another two months. You should all just leave. If you don't care about my Little Grand-Uncle, I certainly do. He's been smithing day and night—what if he starts balding from the stress?"
The crowd seemed to hear exactly what they wanted to hear, completely filtering out the girl's complaints. They immediately pressed for confirmation: "Is it true that delivery will take two months?"
"Yeah. If you can't wait, go somewhere else. It's not like ours is the only forging workshop in Demon-Slaying City."
"Two months for delivery? Really?" the crowd asked repeatedly.
Yao Xiaoxiao looked at them with a face full of bewilderment. "You people are so strange."
A cultivator wearing armor with his hair hanging loose squeezed to the front and made an immediate decision. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I'm placing an order."
Yao Xiaoxiao blinked her large eyes. She didn't say a word, just watched him quietly.
The man generously tossed out a blueprint and a storage bag.
He placed an order.
Yao Xiaoxiao processed it according to the standard procedure.
The man asked if the free gifts were still being given out.
Yao Xiaoxiao gave them to him.
The man then asked if he could get a refund when the time came.
Yao Xiaoxiao said, "Of course."
The man left, looking satisfied.
And then...
"I'll take one too!"
"Count me in!"
"Me as well..."
While they weren't exactly breaking each other's heads to get in, the rush to be first was genuine.
Yao Xiaoxiao registered them one by one.
As the number of orders in her hand grew, she wasn't happy at all. Instead, her heart was bleeding.
Because, even if she were a fool, she could see through these people's intentions.
Placing an order was a pretense; their true goal was her pills.
'Sob, sob!'
'This is a total loss, a total loss!'
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she was writing the orders through tears, but since it was her Little Grand-Uncle's instruction, she had to obey.
Yao Xiaoxiao wasn't the only one suffering.
The spies from the Seven Great Forging Workshops hiding in the shadows were all stunned.
"How is this even working?"
"Are these people insane?"
"I need to tell the two masters immediately..."
As the number of orders continued to rise, the sign that read '325' became irrelevant.
Especially for the latecomers.
With so many people already in line, what reservations could they possibly have?
A butterfly effect had been triggered.
They weren't placing orders; they were investing.
Leaving five carcasses here for a month would yield interest worth over three hundred spirit stones.
It wasn't a massive amount, but it was better than nothing.
After all, if they kept the carcasses themselves, they would just be waiting around anyway.
Now, they were hoping for two things: for the workshops to lower their prices, and for the price of demon carcasses to rise.
By the end of the day, the number of genuine orders had grown from zero to over a hundred. And as time passed and word spread, that number would only increase.
Xu Xian was confident that he could make even the hesitant ones rush in.
He would turn the wealth in their hands into his own bargaining chips.
When they met that evening, Liu Qinghui reported the situation first.
"Today we only collected twenty-five demon carcasses, which is half of yesterday's amount. It's strange—even though we raised the price, we're getting fewer."
"The seven rival workshops still have zero orders, just like the past few days."
"I received word that they're meeting tonight, likely to discuss a counter-strategy..."
Xu Xian narrowed his eyes slightly and acknowledged the report. He told Liu Qinghui to continue the buybacks tomorrow and raise the price by another hundred spirit stones.
Then Yao Xiaoxiao gave her report. The young girl was quite depressed, her tone low.
"I took over a hundred orders today and gave away so many pills. But looking at them, they don't seem like they actually want to forge weapons. They're just here to fleece the perks..."
Xu Xian chuckled and simply said, "Continue tomorrow."
Yao Xiaoxiao's face slumped. "Still continuing? Little Grand-Uncle, we're going to lose everything at this rate."
Xu Xian comforted her, "Don't worry. There will be a time for you to earn it all back."
Yao Xiaoxiao pouted. This Little Grand-Uncle of hers always loved being cryptic. He was only in his twenties, in the prime of his youth, yet he acted like those old fogies in the sect, shrouded in mystery.
"Fine!"
After their brief meeting, Xu Xian took the blueprints from Yao Xiaoxiao and began forging earth weapons according to the designs.
When Yao Xiaoxiao saw this, she was as startled as always.
She had a lot to say.
'You're forging them now?'
'What if it's all for nothing?'
'Won't the loss be even greater?'
Xu Xian remained silent from start to finish, so Yao Xiaoxiao had no choice but to shut her mouth and run next door to increase the heat for her alchemy.
It proved that even a chatterbox would go quiet in the face of silence.
Xu Xian didn't explain, but he had his own goals and plans, and he was very confident.
This gamble was based on three points: human nature, the market, and the price spread.
Human nature was universal, whether in the modern world or ancient times, among mortals or immortals.
Greed was inevitable.
The desire for small gains and unreasonable expectations...
Simply put, it was like trading stocks. The demon carcasses were the stocks, and their value was currently rising—rising continuously.
Those who had them were unwilling to let go, thinking they could rise further.
Those who didn't... had nothing to sell even if they wanted to.
But that didn't stop them from watching the show.
This was why Liu Qinghui was collecting fewer carcasses despite the price hike.
People buy on the rise, not on the fall.
Xu Xian wanted market control.
First, he wouldn't sell what he had.
Second, he would attract what others held into his own hands or buy it back, and still not sell.
He was creating scarcity to drive up the price.
Once that group from the Central Plains entered the fray, he would dump the market.
Just thinking about it was exhilarating.
Of course, explaining all this to Xiaoxiao and the others was too much trouble, so he didn't bother...
On the night Xu Xian started working, the group of spirit forgers from the Central Plains gathered once again to discuss their strategy.
Compared to the relaxed atmosphere of their last meeting, the mood this time was noticeably more solemn.
After all, their seven workshops hadn't received a single order, while Xu Xian's place was seeing actual intake.
Even though they knew it was all an illusion and that the customers' motives weren't pure, they couldn't help but feel a lingering sense of unease.
Some of them, in particular, sensed a hint of danger.
However, the two seventh-rank spirit forge masters remained as calm as ever. To soothe the morale, they spoke words of encouragement.
"Everyone, rest assured. What he's doing is nothing more than a self-deceiving charade. A month from now, he'll be the one crying."
"Indeed, there's no need for haste..."
The meeting ended quickly without any effective measures being decided upon.
They had only one plan: wait and see.
There was nothing wrong with the strategy, but they couldn't help feeling uncomfortable.
After all, when the seven of them had charged into this market, they had been aggressive. Yet in just a few days, Xu Xian had stolen all their thunder.
The attackers had become the observers.
Waiting? How was that any different from being on the defensive?
It was inevitably frustrating and stifling. But if they lowered their prices? Then they would truly be forging at a loss.
At the very least, they wanted to wait and see how things developed.
'A lack of patience ruins great plans.' They comforted themselves with such thoughts...
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