Chapter 286: Economic Warfare
The visit to the auction house had been a lot of fun for Benton. While the lady at the counter hadn’t been nearly as expressive as Kang Lin, the clerk had definitely been awe-struck, both by the sword she examined and the floating ones. The appraiser, though, had been the highlight of the visit.
It was nice to have one’s work appreciated, and the man was greatly impressed by the craftsmanship. Apparently, Benton might have overshot his mark by a bit. While he’d understood that masterworks were rare, he hadn’t realized how rare. And valuable.
Five to ten swords probably would have been more than enough for his purposes.
On the other hand, the appraiser’s reaction had been priceless. Dollar signs—uh, tael signs?—danced in the man’s eyes. He was surely in for a great bonus once all the swords sold.
Since he was developing active relationships with different parties and factions in Sixth Flawless Flowing City, Benton was paying more attention to the concept of social debt. More specifically, he realized that asking favors incurred such debt, so he sought to avoid doing that. Thus, he’d been relieved when he’d grasped that the appraiser would be getting an enormous boon from the swords being auctioned off. That fact swung the balance of the relationship way to Benton’s side, meaning it was completely okay for him to make the simple requests he’d desired.
All in all, the trip to the auction house had been absolutely perfect. He’d gotten to see some fun, gratifying reactions; found out that his wares were so much more valuable than he’d anticipated that he should easily earn enough to cover all the materials he wanted to purchase; and gained the manager’s assistance in keeping Benton’s identity as the crafter secret and in procuring materials.
And he’d done all that without doing the stereotypical entitled cultivator thing of scaring weak juniors into doing his bidding. Instead, he’d been affable and exceedingly accommodating and polite. And his charm offensive had worked like a … well, charm.
He felt really good about himself.
His next stop was the Poison Claw Sect, and he almost simply teleported straight into Kang Ya-Ting’s study. Just before he triggered his technique, though, he recalled his newfound resolve to behave more like a sect leader, and sect leaders visiting allied sects didn’t simply pop into a friend’s study.
No, they went through a bunch of bureaucratic rigamarole instead. He sighed. That meant the front gate. Which meant he needed his actual sect robes instead of the wandering cultivator ones.
For a moment, he considered purchasing a technique to instantaneously change clothes but stopped himself. While that would be neat and convenient, it was also a wasteful use of Sect Points. Besides, he recalled something he’d read in a book once where a ring stored different outfits and twisting the ring instantaneously equipped the one corresponding to that setting.
Now that would be cool. And something he could sell. Even better, he bet that Kang Lin would find it utterly flabbergasting that he’d use his talents as a Formations Master and Master Blacksmith to create something so utterly frivolous. If nothing else, her reaction was sure to make crafting it totally worthwhile.