Chapter 248 - 146: Profound Plain True Fire
Yang Jing accepted the Storage Bag from Yang Jingxu. After scanning it with his Divine Sense and confirming the number of Spirit Stones inside, he put it away with satisfaction.
The Shangshui Yang Family was certainly generous, paying thirty thousand Spirit Stones outright.
An ordinary Artifact Refiner would never be able to command such a price.
"Once word of the Flying Spirit Shield gets out, I expect many people will come asking me to refine Spiritual Artifacts. You can accept all of those commissions for me,"
he said to Yang Jingxu.
Yang Jing realized that possessing the Four Elements Spiritual Fire gave him an incredible advantage in the art of Artifact Refining. It even allowed him to transcend the limitations of the Five Elements Refining Technique.
If he had relied solely on the Five Elements Refining Technique, refining those three pieces of Turtle Shell into a Spiritual Artifact would not have been nearly so easy.
Yang Jingxu nodded and backed out of the study.
"Wait. Wasn’t the Flying Spirit Shield given to you to bond with?"
Yang Jing asked curiously. He couldn’t sense the Flying Spirit Shield’s aura on Yang Jingxu.
His senses were already sharp, and since he had refined the shield himself, he was certain that Yang Jingxu had not bonded with it.
"The Ancestor gave the shield to my cousin,"
Yang Jingxu said, his expression calm.
Yang Jing nodded.
"If you can bring me some Turtle Shell, I can refine a set for you. I’ll only charge you ten thousand Spirit Stones."
"Thank you, Senior Brother."
Yang Jingxu bowed.
After that, just as he’d expected, Immortally Cultivation Clans began arriving at his door with Refining Atlases and Spiritual Materials, imploring Yang Jing to refine Spiritual Artifacts for them.
Yang Jing turned no one away, accepting commissions to refine even the most obscure Spiritual Artifacts.
The Seven Nations Ticket Shop began to run smoothly, freeing up a great deal of his time. Aside from reporting the Ticket Shop’s operational status to Meng Sima once every fifteen days, he confidently left all other miscellaneous matters for Yang Jingxu to handle.
Each time Yang Jing successfully refined a Spiritual Artifact, he would earn a reward ranging from ten to thirty thousand Spirit Stones. Even if he failed, he would only have to compensate for one-third of the cost of the Spiritual Materials—and he was the one who had insisted on this compensation policy.
With Yang Jing’s skill in Artifact Refining, he would only fail once in about every six attempts. And even in failure, he could use his Four Elements Spiritual Fire to recover a good portion of the Spiritual Materials from the ruined Artifact Embryo.
Even after compensating for one-third of the materials’ cost, he would still make a small profit.
If not for the fact that he lacked a Metal Element True Fire—the most suitable flame for refining Flying Swords—Yang Jing would have already begun refining the Celestial Waterfall Sword.
Just as he was thinking about the Metal Element True Fire, the General Managers of the Taichang Trading Company and the Celestial Treasure Tower arrived together.
"Secretary Yang, it’s been a while! You’re looking as distinguished as ever."
Li Xishan was the very picture of amiability, his smile as pleasant as a spring breeze.
"Shopkeeper Li, Shopkeeper Zhang."
Yang Jing had Yang Jingxu serve tea to them.
"So, what brings you two here today?"
The two men exchanged a look. Li Xishan then took a Jade Box from his sleeve, placed it on the tea table, and pushed it in front of Yang Jing. With a wave of his sleeve, the box opened.
Inside, a speck of platinum-colored True Fire burned gently atop a piece of Spiritual Gold. This flame was unlike other Spiritual Fires; it gave Yang Jing a distinctly sharp, piercing sensation. It was truly extraordinary.
"We heard that Secretary Yang is an expert in Artifact Refining, so the two of us went out of our way to find this Profound Plain True Fire for you."
Fearing Yang Jing might not recognize its value, Li Xishan quickly explained:
"This fire seed can only be born by chance within a Geng Gold Vein. It burns by absorbing the Geng Metal Essence Qi from the vein and is considered a nuisance by the Cultivators of the Central Continent. If a Profound Plain True Fire appears in a vein and isn’t removed promptly, the Geng Metal within will degrade into common iron in just over a decade."
Because its Spirit Veins were not old enough, the Western Continent had no such Top Tier Spiritual Ores as Geng Gold Veins.
"This particular Profound Plain True Fire was discovered in a Tier Four Geng Gold Vein. By the time it was found, it had already turned over thirty jin of the surrounding Geng Metal into common iron, raising its own Tier to Three. The Steward responsible for the vein secretly sold the fire to our Celestial Treasure Tower in the Central Continent, hoping to acquire more Geng Metal to cover the loss. When I heard about it, I immediately had my colleagues in the Central Continent send the fire here to the Northern Domain."
The Profound Plain True Fire is indeed unpopular in the Central Continent. It’s an exceptionally rare Metal Element True Fire, and because it contains the piercing intent of Geng Metal, ordinary Cultivators find it nearly impossible to Refine. Even if they succeed, it is incredibly difficult to control.
Yang Jing closed the Jade Box containing the True Fire.
"Over thirty jin of Geng Metal... wouldn’t that make the price of this fire over one and a half million Spirit Stones? This gift is far too valuable. I cannot accept it."
Because the Western Continent doesn’t produce Geng Metal, what’s shipped from the Central Continent is extremely expensive. One jin costs around fifty thousand Spirit Stones, and when supplies are tight, the price can even soar to seventy thousand.
Li Xishan waved his hand dismissively.
"You’re overstating things, Secretary Yang. Not only does Geng Metal only cost ten thousand Spirit Stones per jin in the Central Continent, but how could this Profound Plain True Fire possibly be compared to Geng Metal? It’s nowhere near that valuable."
Yang Jing nodded.
"In that case, I will be so bold as to accept. If you desire any kind of Spiritual Artifact, Shopkeeper Li, please don’t hesitate to come to me."
Li Xishan nodded.
The three of them chatted idly for a long while before Zhang Boxiong asked, as if by the by:
"Secretary Yang, I heard the Seven Nations Ticket Shop is planning to open new branches. I was wondering what the procedure for that will be?"
Li Xishan added,
"Some of the smaller trading companies are saying that the new branches of the Seven Nations Ticket Shop will be entrusted to them to manage. That absolutely cannot be allowed to happen. Those small companies are unscrupulous and only care about profit. Many of them even collude with Tribulation Cultivators, laundering their ill-gotten gains."
"If our Seven Nations Ticket Shop branches are handed over to them, they’ll likely return to their old ways and collude with Tribulation Cultivators. It would ruin the name and reputation of the Seven Nations Ticket Shop!"