Bai Xiaochun’s mind raced, and then he quickly plastered a look onto his face that made him seem flustered and exasperated. He even glared a bit at Chen Xiong.
Chen Xiong smiled faintly; the tumult of the crowd was exactly what he had expected would happen. Furthermore, the look on the face of this person who had struck such fear into the hearts of the other noble and aristocratic chosen left Chen Xiong feeling very pleased with himself. A snide look appeared in his eyes as he coolly said, “Just enhance that jade pendant. However, it's very expensive, so don’t even think about ruining it!”
Bai Xiaochun flicked his sleeve and contemplated how to put this person in his place. “The cost for my services is based on how many spirit enhancements the item has already received!”
Chen Xiong smiled in response, then tossed over a soulhoarding pagoda.
“The soul medicine in this pagoda will cover the cost. Well, get to work! And by the way, if you ruin my item… Then you’ll compensate me in full measure! However, if you succeed, then I’ll pay you ten times your normal price!”
Everyone in the audience was shocked. The prices charged in this shop for spirit enhancements were already high. The fact that the price for this item would be ten times the normal price was shocking to the extreme. And yet, even more shocking was the price that would be paid in the case of a failure.
“Now this is a bet….”
"He has to compensate him if he fails, but if he succeeds, then he’ll reap a huge reward!”
“The bet seems fair to me…. Let’s just see whether or not the shop owner agrees.”
Chen Xiong stood there with a cold smile on his face. He had promised to get Bai Xiaochun out of Arch-Emperor City within a month, and was naturally confident in being able to do so. Although the jade pendant didn’t look particularly impressive, it was actually a gift from the imperial clan, and as such, he could name virtually any price he wanted as its value.
Even if this Bai Hao succeeded, he could then demand to have another spirit enhancement performed. At some point, he would definitely fail, at which point Chen Xiong could start to cause some real problems.
Chen Xiong was an insidious fellow, and had worded things very well. Although it was clearly a bet, he hadn’t worded it in a way that would make it a formal wager. He had also said it in a way that didn’t give Bai Xiaochun any room to maneuver.
Even if Bai Xiaochun refused, he would return the next day with another challenge. And he would also have his followers come with similar challenges. Before long, he would definitely win.
If Bai Xiaochun continuously refused to accept the challenges, it would be difficult for him to stay in business, which would also count as a win. None of this counted as bullying with force. After all, in the world of spirit enhancement, the issue of failure rates meant that compensation was always an issue. Besides, the fact that he had offered a reward of ten times the original cost meant that not even the Giant Ghost King would be able to complain about the arrangement.
Most importantly, this was only the first step in his plan. There was also a second step, and a third. With all of this combined, Chen Xiong was absolutely confident in being able to win.
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Chapter
726: Calculating The Bill Wrong
“Well?” Chen Xiong said sneeringly. “Yes? Or No?”
Bai Xiaochun blinked a few times. Before he even had a chance to finish digging the pit for this pink-robed young man to fall into, he had jumped in of his own accord.
“This guy really is insidious. This jade pendant is probably extremely valuable…. And based on how confident he seems, it’s obvious that if I succeed, he’ll just ask me to do another spirit enhancement, and then another and another….” After reaching this point in his train of thought, an imperceptible glint appeared in his eyes. Then his expression turned grimmer. Shivering, and even panting a bit, he forced his eyes to turn bloodshot.
“There’s no job I won’t take!” he shouted, seemingly incapable of revealing how he was actually very unconfident about it all. “But when I perform spirit enhancements, I charge with each successful enhancement! And if you don’t have enough soul medicine, I….”
Everyone looking on would think that he actually didn’t want to accept the job, and was trying to make it sound like the customer couldn’t afford to pay.
“That’s fine,” Chen Xiong said. “We can calculate the bill based on every success!” At this point, he frowned slightly. Something about the situation seemed off. Although he was trying to control everything, it almost seemed like Bai Xiaochun had pushed him into a corner. Eyes flashing, he reviewed his plan, and then chuckled coldly.
“Seems he’s on to me,” he thought. “However, there is no way he could possibly guess how determined I am to succeed, nor the fact that I’m actually prepared for the fact that he can perform spirit enhancements up to the fourteenfold level! Besides, there’s even a high likelihood that he’ll fail somewhere from the eleventh to the fourteenth spirit enhancement!” Although Chen Xiong’s actions all seemed a bit rash, he had actually investigated Bai Hao, and come to the realization that he was equipped almost entirely with fourteenfold spirit enhanced items.
“What a pity that I have items that not even he could compensate me for if he destroyed them. Furthermore, even if he does succeed in raising them to the fourteenfold level, if he gives up after that, my efforts will be equally effective!” Chuckling he agreed to all of Bai Xiaochun’s demands.
When he saw the ashen look on Bai Xiaochun’s face in response to that, he felt a bit more comfortable.
Although Bai Xiaochun appeared to be scowling on the verge of tears, he was actually smiling broadly in his heart. And yet, he kept his teeth gritted, and then flicked his sleeve as he took the jade pendant into the back room.
Before long, he came out, and the jade pendant had no more silver designs on it. Instead, it had a single golden design. Furthermore, it looked different from before. It was a bit smaller, and it emanated spiritual power fluctuations that caused everyone in the area to stare in shock.
“He actually did it!”
“An elevenfold spirit enhancement….”
When Chen Xiong saw it, his expression remained the same as ever, but inwardly, he sighed.
As for Bai Xiaochun, he proudly stuck his chin up and then announced, “Soul Aide, please explain my spirit enhancement pricing method to the young prince here, and calculate how much soul medicine he owes me.”
Bai Hao stepped forward. “When creating something from nothing, the first spirit enhancement costs 1,000 portions of soul medicine. Going from onefold to twofold is 2,000. Twofold to threefold is 4,000. And so on and so forth. Fourfold is 8,000. Sevenfold is 64,000. Ninefold is 256,000. Tenfold is 512,000…. As for the eleventh, the total soul medicine cost would be…. 1,024,000.”
Gasps could be heard among the audience in response to Bai Hao’s words. Although some had already calculated the numbers involved, to hear them spoken out loud was a shocking thing.
Bai Xiaochun stood there looking proudly at Chen Xiong, who simply smiled coolly as he produced a soulhoarding pagoda.
“There are 5,000,000 portions of soul medicine in this soulhoarding pagoda. Keep performing more enhancements. I'm not happy with only eleven.” Another buzz of surprised talk went through the crowd. The kind of bet that they were witnessing was so exciting that many of them were already sending messages to friends using transmission jade slips.
Before long, all of Borough 89 was buzzing, and countless soul cultivators were rushing toward Bai Xiaochun’s shop. There were also numerous streams of divine sense which came to focus on the shop.