Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

“Fellow Daoist Yu Qi, I wish to purchase some flying swords,” Ning said.

“Flying swords?” Yu Qi was instantly delighted. He knew very well that Ning had more than a million kilograms of liquefied elemental essence on him. This was a major customer! He immediately said, “What sort of flying swords? Just tell me what you need. We have plenty of precious flying swords manufactured by Celestial Immortal Patriarchs, and in fact we even have flying swords with powerful formations within them.”

Ning shook his head. “I only require large-scale manufactured flying swords.”

“Large-scale manufactured…” Yu Qi’s face stiffened. The profit on those was incredibly low; after all, Ning could buy them at a 40% discount.

“I need a total of 720 high-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords,” Ning said.

Yu Qi’s facial muscles spasmed. Good heavens; Heaven-ranked flying swords? 720 of them? Was this a joke? It must be understood that even many Loose Immortals would generally use Heaven-ranked magic treasures; many of them would just use several particularly powerful ones. Even those who focused on victory through superior numbers would at most have a few dozen Heaven-ranked magic treasures, which was already quite incredible.

720 Heaven-ranked magic treasures? The number alone would terrify quite a few people! But in turn, the price was quite high as well.

“Fellow Daoist Ji Ning, are you certain you want 720? Are you able to afford them?” Yu Qi couldn’t help but add, “High-grade Heaven-ranked magic treasures are generally around 5000 kilograms per sword. If you want more than 700 of them, then you’d need to pay over 3.5 million kilograms.”

Ning frowned. Ugh! Earlier, he had felt that he was quite wealthy, but when he thought about the price of seven hundred Heaven-ranked magic treasures, he suddenly felt his heart ache with unbearable pain.

“Go ahead and give me a book on the types of mass-produced Heaven-ranked flying swords,” Ji Ning said.

“Alright. This way, please,” Yu Qi said hurriedly. The Heavenly Treasures Mountain both bought and sold mass-produced magic items to Ji Ning at a price of 60% the list price. On the surface, it would seem as though they didn’t earn any money at all. In reality, however, the mass-produced magic treasures which the Heavenly Treasures Mountain sold were all mass-produced by the mighty imperial clan of the Grand Xia, which stood behind them.

In truth, the cost for the imperial clan to mass-produce these magic items wasn’t really as high as 60% of the list price; at most, 30% to 40%. The reason they told the outside world that they were willing to both buy and sell these items at 60% was just to encourage more people to come shopping. After all, after an Immortal cultivator purchased a life-saving treasure, it was quite rare for them to later sell it off.

Thus, Yu Qi would earn quite a bit from this deal for 700+ Heaven-ranked flying swords, even if they were only mass-produced artifacts.

……

Ning was seated before a gazebo, staring at the rising sun and in quite a good mood. He had no idea that right now, on the streets outside, a Loose Immortal named Immortal Floatcloud was waiting for him impatiently.

“Here’s the report regarding the mass-produced Heaven-ranked flying swords.” Yu Qi handed Ning a thick, fur-clad book. Ning flipped it open, taking a look. By his side, the Whitewater Hound and Little Qing helped scan through it as well.

Mass-produced flying swords were rather cheap, because mass-produced flying swords mainly required only that the swords were sharp and hard to break. In other aspects, they were quite poor.

“Low-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords are 500 kilograms each? At a discounted price of 60%, that’s just 300 kilograms.” Ning mumbled to himself while reading. “Middle-grade is a bit more expensive; 1500 kilograms each.”

There were nearly a hundred types of low-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords.

There were nearly two hundred types of middle-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords.

There were far fewer high-grade Heaven-ranked flying swords; just eighteen.

As for top-grade Heaven ranked flying swords? There was no such thing as a mass-produced ‘top-grade’ flying sword. High grade was already the limit for Heaven-ranked mass-produced flying swords.

“High-grade, Heaven-ranked flying swords are all roughly 5000 kilograms each.” Ning frowned. “What should I do?”

He was going to purchase them for his Primaltwin to train in. The [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] was a technique where the more and the better flying swords he had, the more powerful it would be! However, controlling so many flying swords was incredibly taxing on the soul. Still, during his year of training in the underwater estate, Ning’s soul had improved dramatically, especially with the support of the Nuwa visualization technique and the fact that his Primaltwin’s soul was being nourished.

Ning was currently able to control all 720 Earth-ranked flying swords. But if they were to be changed into Heaven-ranked flying swords? Most likely, for at least a period of time, it would be hard for him to control that many.

“I’ll take 198 of these Redsol swords!” Ning pointed towards the book. “And these Netherblue swords, I’ll take 198 of them as well!”

“The Redsol swords were 5500 kilograms each, while the Netherblue swords are 3500 each,” the nearby Yu Qi said with a laugh. “All together, this comes out to be a price of 1,945,000 kilograms of liquefied elemental essence. At the discounted price of 60%, that comes out to be 1,185,300 million.

Ning felt resigned. After factoring in the money he had spent… the 2.3 million kilograms he had remaining had been almost completely used up, leaving just a bit behind. In addition, his Primaltwin actually needed elemental essence as well.

“Here!” Ning waved his hand, and instantly, the black dragon carriage appeared on the ground next to them. “I’ll sell this carriage to your Heavenly Treasures Mountain,” Ning said majestically.

……

The black dragon construct had the combat power of a Primal Daoist. Youngflame Nong had often ridden it about the various locations of the imperial capital of the Grand Xia; naturally, its price was extraordinary. In the end, Ning acquired not only his 396 Heaven-ranked flying swords, but also 60,000 kilograms of liquefied elemental essence.

“Fellow Daoist Ji Ning, there’s one more thing.” Yu Qi, after concluding their deal, suddenly winked and laughed, “Princess Xiyue wishes to meet with you.”

“A princess wants to see me?” Ning was startled.





* * *





Book 11, Chapter 19 - Peak Primal


“Master, it must be because you made a name for yourself during the Treasure Auction?” The nearby Little Qing immediately added, “That’s why this Princess Xiyue wants to meet you.”

Ning grinned as well. During the Treasure Auction, he had purchased the peacock plumes for 2.5 million kilograms of liquefied elemental essence. Even Youngflame Xiushui had lowered his head and retreated in the end. This news would definitely spread like wildfire, and later on, some of the major clans would come to befriend him and meet him. This was within his realm of expectations. However, for Princess Xiyue to invite him for a meeting while the Treasure Auction was still going on… his ‘fame’ was perhaps just a bit too effective!

“Might I ask who Princess Xiyue is?” Ning asked.

“Princess Xiyue is from King Yan’s Estate,” Yu Qi explained.