The following day.
A massive influx of fifth-grade beast corpses suddenly flooded the market, priced at 2,500 spirit stones each.
The collection points were crowded to the point where not even a drop of water could trickle through.
Upon learning of this, Liu Qinghui rushed to the forging workshop in a panic to find Xu Xian, who was currently busy at his craft.
"Little Grand-Uncle, this is bad! Something has happened!"
Xu Xian unhurriedly fueled his spirit furnace and asked leisurely, "What is it, Deacon Liu? What could possibly have you in such a fluster?"
"The Seven Great Forging Workshops have counterattacked."
Xu Xian’s interest was piqued. "Oh? Have they lowered their prices?"
It had been less than ten days.
By his estimation, the opposition should have been able to hold out for at least half a month, perhaps even twenty days.
Liu Qinghui panted heavily. "It’s not about lowering prices. It’s them—all seven of them have dumped their entire stock of beast corpses."
Xu Xian’s brow furrowed. This was indeed unexpected. Selling fifth-grade beast corpses?
"Are you certain?"
"Absolutely certain. And it’s not just a small amount; I estimate there are at least one or two thousand corpses."
Xu Xian did a silent calculation. The price had risen to 2,500 spirit stones per corpse. How much would one or two thousand corpses be?
Several million spirit stones.
That was no small sum.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That’s strange. How do those seven workshops have so many fifth-grade beast corpses? Hmm... they must have kept everything they exchanged for recently and hadn't had the chance to transport them back yet..."
Seeing Xu Xian muttering to himself, Liu Qinghui advised, "Little Grand-Uncle, let’s stop while we can. It’s not too late to pull back. They clearly have a calculated plan."
Xu Xian glanced at Liu Qinghui, his expression unchanged. Instead of answering the concern, he asked, "How many spirit stones do I have left in my account?"
Liu Qinghui blinked, startled, then answered truthfully, "A bit over five million spirit stones."
Xu Xian hummed in response. "Five million. That is a bit low."
Over the past year, Xu Xian had almost monopolized the entire fifth-grade beast market in Fanzhou, earning over six million spirit stones.
It was a lot.
Yet, it also wasn't that much.
That six million was his net profit after all costs were deducted.
It didn't include the remaining beast bones. In fact, over the past year, to ensure fifth-grade beasts could be sold for higher prices, he had held back a third of the corpses.
He hadn't counted them exactly.
But there were definitely several thousand of them.
In other words.
In reality, he had earned tens of millions of spirit stones this year.
Of course.
That was only theoretical. After all, the current price was something he had forcibly driven up; it was highly inflated.
"Little Grand-Uncle, you have to make a decision! Are we still buying or not?"
Xu Xian said nonchalantly, "We buy. Of course we buy. Buy them all."
Liu Qinghui’s eyes went wide. He double-checked, "Are we really buying?"
"Yes."
"But those few million spirit stones will be completely gone!"
Xu Xian gave a mysterious smile and reached out to drape an arm over Liu Qinghui’s shoulder. "Little Liu, do you trust me?"
Liu Qinghui looked a bit dazed. He hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. "I do."
Xu Xian grinned. "Then do you dare to do something big with me?"
Liu Qinghui swallowed hard. "How big?"
Xu Xian leaned in and whispered into his ear. As Liu Qinghui listened, cold sweat began to pour down his face. He cried out, "We're playing for stakes that high?"
"Scared?"
Liu Qinghui shook his head like a rattle. "Of course not. I’m just worried about you, Little Grand-Uncle..."
Xu Xian was full of confidence. "Don't worry, I know what I’m doing. At worst, I’ll just consider this past year a waste of effort. It doesn’t matter."
Seeing Xu Xian’s firm attitude, Liu Qinghui stopped trying to persuade him and replied, "Fine. I’ll listen to you, Little Grand-Uncle."
"Go on, then."
"Right!"
Liu Qinghui left.
Xu Xian watched his retreating back, and as he thought about the situation, he suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hehe!"
"Hehehe!"
Wen Qingxue poked her head out from the room, finding his behavior utterly bizarre. She asked, 'Little Grand-Uncle, are you alright?'
Xu Xian waved a hand and pressed his lips together. "I’m fine."
He turned back to continue his forging, talking as he struck the metal:
"Trying to fight me!"
"I’ll play you all to death!"
"A bunch of idiots..."
"Just wait until you're all crying!"
He admitted.
These people had some cleverness, but not much.
He also understood their intentions.
Didn't they just want to copy others and crash the market?
It was a pity.
The chips in their hands were too few.
They also underestimated Xu Xian’s strength and resolve.
His original plan was to drive the price of beasts to the ceiling to force the opposition to lower their prices willingly.
After all.
If the price of beasts was high, they wouldn't lose money even if they lowered their weapon prices. Then, he would crash the beast prices into the ground.
He wouldn't say he'd make them bankrupt.
But a crippling blow was inevitable.
He hadn't expected them to try and crash the market first without even lowering their prices.
Since they were willing to hand over their leverage, Xu Xian naturally had no reason to refuse.
This was a gamble.
The larger the stakes, the more one could win—and naturally, the more one could lose.
Therefore.
After hearing this news, he wasn't worried at all. Instead, he was somewhat excited as an even bolder plan began to brew in his mind.
He thought that since the opposition was being so cooperative, he had no reason not to accept the challenge.
He was afraid his capital wouldn't be enough, so he told Liu Qinghui to mortgage all the beast corpses they had bought with the six million spirit stones to the Merchant Hall for a loan of four million.
If he lost.
All the corpses would go to the Merchant Hall, and he wouldn't take a single cent.
If he won.
They would split the profits fifty-fifty from then on.
Liu Qinghui had no reason to refuse. Even if the prices really dropped, the six million worth of corpses would, at most, only lose half their value.
Over this past year, the profit the Little Grand-Uncle had brought to the Merchant Hall was far more than a mere four million. Even if everything was lost, there was no reason not to help with this favor.
And what if they won?
To be honest.
His confidence in Xu Xian had reached the point of near-blind faith.
Very quickly.
Liu Qinghui had his people buy up the entire batch of fifth-grade beast corpses—over two thousand in total. Five million spirit stones were spent without so much as a blink of an eye.
For a time, the city was in an uproar.
Rumors were flying everywhere in Demon-Slaying City.
"Someone couldn't hold back and sold off a massive batch of beast corpses!"
"I bet with so many corpses hitting the market, the prices are about to crash..."
The Seven Great Forging Workshops were already celebrating prematurely, holding a victory party.
They believed that after this hammer blow, others would surely follow suit and sell their stock. Even if the people from Wendao Sect held their ground and gritted their teeth to buy them all, they would surely end up losing everything in the end.
Furthermore, Li Xun’s plan was to proceed in two steps.
First: If the Wendao Sect couldn't handle the influx and the price of fifth-grade beasts fell, it would trigger a sell-off wave. At that time, those who were waiting on the sidelines would definitely sell to stop their losses and immediately place orders to exchange for earth weapons.
By then, with their superior production capacity, they could seize the market and break the deadlock.
Second: If the Wendao Sect did handle the influx and the beast prices rose slightly, they could lower their prices a second time.
They would directly set the price of a low-tier earth weapon at two beasts.
With the price of beasts rising, they could still break even.
However, Xu Xian would be in a difficult position then.
He was the one who said he wouldn't lower prices.
If he lowered them, he would be slapping his own face. If he didn't, he would be facing a cancellation wave.
At that point.
They would have enough beast corpses coming in to stabilize the market and encircle the Wendao Sect.
As for the beast corpses the Wendao Sect had bought back, if they wanted to recover their costs, they would have no choice but to sell them at a lower price.
They would lose no matter what.
The Seven Great Forging Workshops would naturally profit from the situation.
Once Xu Xian couldn't hold out any longer.
They would simply raise the prices back up.
The predicament would be solved.
A two-pronged attack where neither side of the plan could fail.
Xu Xian felt victory was in his grasp.
They also felt victory was in theirs.
Both sides believed they were destined to win. Within Demon-Slaying City, an economic storm triggered by a trade war was drawing closer and closer...
Rate on N.U.
