Beyond the Timescape

Chapter 150: War Brings Opportunity

“The magical devices are on the third floor. Allow me to lead the way, Senior!” Upon hearing that Xu Qing wanted to shop for magical devices, this young woman, who had dealt with many Foundation Establishment customers, immediately knew that Xu Qing was also in Foundation Establishment. It was for that reason that she switched from calling him Elder Brother to Senior. Eyes shining, she led the way instead of waiting for Xu Qing to go ahead of her.

There was nothing rude about the way she led the way. In fact, as she climbed the stairs, her garment clung more snugly to her hips, making her curves even more obvious. She was very seductive, but at the same time, her pigtails made her seem charming and innocent.

Sadly for her, Xu Qing didn’t notice those things. When they reached the third floor, it was to the young woman’s disappointment that she didn’t get any sense Xu Qing was attracted to her. However, she quickly dismissed her disappointment and led Xu Qing to a private viewing room. There, she asked him for more details about what kind of magical devices he wanted to see.

“Weapons,” he replied. “Under 300,000 spirit stones.”

Nodding, she left the room. A short time later she returned with a tray, upon which were arrayed three items.

One of them was a blue shortsword, attached to which was a paper talisman that reduced its fluctuations by about ninety-nine percent. The second item was a necklace, inlaid with five finger-nail sized black pearls. It was also sealed with a talisman. The final item was a small red bell.

“The Frigid Mountain Sword contains the aura of the Forbidden Sea. Part of the forging process involves burying the sword for three years at the bottom of the sea, which imbues it with a shocking level of frigid coldness. With dharma force, you can control that frigid energy. It’s a very fast sword, and is incomparably sharp.

“This is the Fivebales Pearl Necklace. Each pearl contains a golden baleful aura that, upon being released, transforms into a golden lightning bolt of punishment that can kill anything it hits. Once hit, the victim must dispel the energy, or they will die. To operate the necklace, fill it with dharma force and inscribe the name of your opponent onto one of the pearls.

“Last is the Living Spirit Bell. By ringing this bell, you can shake your opponent’s soul into immobility. It is ineffective against grues, as it only works on opponents with fleshly bodies. This weapon has a weakness, as the wielder suffers the effects of the bell as much as the target. However, because it’s a very rare magical device related to souls, it’s more expensive than average magical devices.

“The Frigid Mountain Sword costs 270,000 spirit stones. The Fivebales Pearl Necklace costs 300,000 spirit stones. And the Living Spirit Bell costs 330,000 spirit stones.”

Xu Qing’s expression remained neutral as he looked over the three items. Inside, he was bemoaning the fact that magical devices were so expensive. But at the same time, he knew that, considering he couldn’t enter the profound radiance state, he really needed the added benefit of having a magical device. That was especially true considering that... war was coming. It made sense to start preparing now; once the official announcement was made, prices would start climbing.

Truth be told, he liked all three of these items. But he couldn’t afford them all. He still had jade talismans to buy, as well as all sorts of poisonous plants. After further inspection, he finally gritted his teeth and chose the Living Spirit Bell. Though the weapon had a weakness, he had a way of negating that weakness. He planned to attach the bell to his iron skewer, and have Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior use it. After all, the patriarch didn’t have a fleshly body. As a spirit automaton, he wouldn’t suffer the adverse effects.

“That one,” he said, pointing at the bell.

The clerk looked excited. Obviously, selling this magical device would come with a big commission for her. Being very respectful, she helped him take care of all the formalities of the purchase. Then, upon his request, she took him down to the second floor to browse the jade talismans. There, he purchased three defensive jade talismans and one talisman used for offense. In total, he spent 120,000 spirit stones on them.

After leaving the shop, he rubbed his bag of holding and sighed. Back in Qi Condensation, he had believed cultivation resources to be expensive. Now that he thought back, he realized that the things he had believed to be too expensive actually weren’t so bad. The jade talismans and magical devices required in Foundation Establishment were really expensive.

Upgrading my dharmaskiff is also going to require a lot of spirit stones....

Shaking his head, he tried not to think about how much money he had spent and headed toward the Second Peak’s Clearspirit District to shop for medicinal plants. After all, the medicinal plants available in the Clearspirit District were on a different level than those available in the Port District.

He also wanted to see if he could find some ghostlonging horseshoe crabs and chrysanthemum mollusks to buy. Both were critical in attracting sea beasts to open his dharma apertures.

However, as he was on his way to the Clearspirit District, his identity medallion vibrated, and he took it out to find that Zhang San had just sent him a voice message.

“Xu Qing, are you back?”

“I got back yesterday,” Xu Qing replied.

“Where are you? Can you come meet me? Or I can go to you. I have a business proposition I want to talk to you about.”

“I’m heading to the Clearspirit District to shop for medicinal plants.”

Xu Qing was curious what it was about, and wondered if it had anything to do with the Captain’s visitor requests back in his mansion grotto.

“Okay. Do you know the Hundred Plants Workshop in the Clearspirit District? Why don’t we meet there?”

Xu Qing thought the matter over as he headed to the Clearspirit District. Eventually, he found the Hundred Plants Workshop, which was a very large establishment. In fact, it was one of the most famous Second Peak shops there was.

Even before he got close, he spotted Zhang San waiting outside.

Zhang San sat on one of the stone steps smoking a pipe, looking very unremarkable in his gray daoist robe. When he saw Xu Qing, he grinned, stood, wiped the dust off his rear end and hurried over.

Pulling Xu Qing off to the side, he lowered his voice and said, “Junior Brother Xu Qing, did you happen to talk to the Captain since you got back?”

“I haven’t seen him,” Xu Qing replied, looking curiously at Zhang San.

“Okay, good. The crazy loon has been going around borrowing money like there’s no tomorrow. He even tried to get me to put my port development rights as collateral for a loan. Said something about buying a technique to disguise yourself as another species. He keeps saying if he can get that technique, he can get a one thousand percent return on his investment. I have the feeling he’ll hit you up for money eventually. Anyway, Junior Brother Xu Qing, do you still have your port development rights?”

“Yeah,” Xu Qing nodded.

“Awesome!” Zhang San said, laughing heartily. “Xu Qing, would you be willing to transfer your port development rights to me? It took some convincing, but I already got the Captain to give me his. If I add yours into the mix, we can make a really big investment.

“I got some very reliable information indicating that the sect is going to war with the Seazombies soon. Of course, many people have speculated this will happen. But information like this means different things to different people. Everything is about context.

“When war comes, some people worry about personal safety. Some people think about earning merit points. Some people are just downright scared. Some people realize war can make you rich, but just don’t know how to actually make it happen. Many of those people think that hoarding important resources to sell later is the way to go. But I’m different.” Having reached this point in his explanation, a look of pride appeared on Zhang San’s face.

“I’m telling you, Xu Qing, when war breaks out, it’s the perfect opportunity to get really rich. If I were you, I wouldn’t even think about some sort of hoarding scheme. It’s useless, and also, most people hate that behavior. No, we’re not going to make money off of fellow disciples. We’re going to make money off the sect!

“The sect is definitely going to make a very big deal about this war with the Seazombies. And when the time comes, they’re going to make full use of the harbors. Whether it comes to storing magical devices, prepping battleships, or providing transportation for disciples from the various mountain peaks, everything is going to focus around the harbors.

“Furthermore, there are limited harbors available. Therefore, if I take three harbors and develop them together into one larger harbor, the sect will definitely put that one on the top of their list to use.

“And of course, we’ll charge for that. Therefore, we need to get this thing up and running before the war starts, with at least a few buildings and some extra berths. Based on my calculations, if the war lasts for three months, we’ll make our entire investment back in that time. If it lasts for a year, we’ll make quadruple profit! And if the war lasts even longer, then we could be sitting on the kind of opportunity that only comes around once every hundred years. We have to do this!”

Hearing this explanation from Zhang San, Xu Qing’s eyes went wide, and he felt deep admiration for him. Zhang San obviously had great instincts when it came to making money, far beyond that of ordinary people.

Seeing the look on Xu Qing’s face, Zhang San threw his head back and laughed.

“You look just like the Captain did, Xu Qing. By the way, I don’t need a single spirit stone from you. Just transfer your port development rights to me, and I’ll handle the initial investment. After we break even, then we’ll split the profit between you, the Captain, and me. 25/25/50.

“Of course, we can keep the harbor running after the war, and we’ll still keep making money.”

Zhang San looked expectantly at Xu Qing, awaiting his answer. Xu Qing considered the matter, then took out his port development authentication device and gave it to Zhang San.

Zhang San’s face lit up with enthusiasm. “I guarantee that within a year, I’ll be handing you at least a few million spirit stones of profit!”

Laughing again, he took out his identity medallion and started contacting people in his network to start the project. Then he waved goodbye and left.

Xu Qing watched him go. He couldn’t help but think that Zhang San really was a genius. Not only was he amazing with equipment forging, he also seemed to make good progress in cultivation, and also was amazing at making money.

I hope that in a year I really do get a good split of profit. The thought of making millions of spirit stones as Zhang San had mentioned caused Xu Qing’s heart rate to increase a bit. To someone with a nearly empty bag of holding like Xu Qing, talk of that much profit was just too much of a temptation.

Finally, Xu Qing took a deep breath and entered the Hundred Plants Workshop.

After enough time passed for two incense sticks to burn, he walked out with all the poisonous plants he needed. Although he had spent a lot of spirit stones, he was satisfied with his purchase. This shop actually had more poisonous plants than it did vital yang plants. As far as Xu Qing was concerned, this was what a shop was supposed to be like that claimed to specialize in plants and vegetation. After all, in the final analysis, the vast majority of medicinal plants were actually poisonous‌ if used correctly.

He even managed to buy a lot of plants that, to date, he had only read about in the medicinal codex Grandmaster Bai had given him. He was now very eager to work with them. Sadly, he hadn’t found any ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. However, the shopkeeper had placed an order for him, and told him he should be able to pick it up in about a month.

I need to concoct some poisons that will quickly kill someone in Foundation Establishment. And also something that works on Seazombies!

With that, he rose into the air and hurried back to his mansion grotto on the Seventh Peak.

Time passed.

As Xu Qing worked on poison concocting in his mansion grotto, half a month went by. Then, a bit of news started spreading that caused the atmosphere in Seven Blood Eyes to grow very tense.

“Seven Blood Eyes is going to wage full-scale war on the Seazombies!”

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