Chapter 202: The Cunning Rabbit

The artifact forging shop started off smoothly, but problems gradually emerged, because Mo Hua heard Elder Yu cursing again.

Mo Hua went to inspect the array in the forging shop, then saw Elder Yu chatting with Yu Chengyi.

As they chatted, Elder Yu began hurling abuse at Qian Hong again.

Calling him a "bloodsucking parasite," a "old turtle wearing a Wang Ba shell," a "treacherous beast," and so on.

He cursed in endless variations.

While cursing, Elder Yu noticed Mo Hua eavesdropping nearby, jotting things down with obvious delight.

He muttered under his breath, "You can curse like that?" and "Why didn't I think of that?" and similar phrases.

Elder Yu cleared his throat, stopped, and said to Mo Hua:

"You heard nothing."

"Yes." Mo Hua nodded. "I heard nothing!"

Elder Yu's anger subsided; he found a chair and sat down squarely.

Mo Hua poured a cup of tea and handed it to Elder Yu. "Did the Qian family cause trouble again?"

Elder Yu had grown accustomed to chatting with Mo Hua; now he said everything in front of him—except curses.

Elder Yu drank the tea Mo Hua poured, exhaled slowly, and nodded. "Our spiritual weapons aren't selling."

"No one wants them?"

"Of course some cultivators want them—after all, vine armor and crude blades are always useful—but I've asked several merchants and some beast-hunters from other Xianchengs, and they all say the price is too high."

Mo Hua was puzzled. "Aren't our prices already quite cheap?"

Because the forging shop was large and produced in high volume, their spiritual weapons were priced one or two spirit stones lower than market rate.

"It's the Qian family—they're driving prices down."

"The Qian family is undercutting?"

"Yes." Elder Yu's anger flared again. "The Qian family treats cultivators like livestock—forcing overtime, stockpiling spiritual weapons in advance, waiting for us to start production so they can dump theirs cheaply and crush us."

"That turtle son of Qian Hong, Wang Ba..."

Mid-curse, Elder Yu glanced at Mo Hua and silently swallowed the rest of his words.

Mo Hua frowned, but after thinking, he had no better solution. Seeing Elder Yu angry yet not truly worried, he asked:

"Elder, have you already thought of a plan?"

Elder Yu raised an eyebrow. "You noticed?"

Mo Hua said: "If you had no plan and were truly anxious, your curses would be far worse than now."

Compared to before, Elder Yu's current curses were already relatively "mild."

Elder Yu looked embarrassed, thinking he should curse less next time—at least avoid cursing in front of Mo Hua.

Mo Hua was still a child; he shouldn't learn such vile language...

Elder Yu cleared his throat to cover his embarrassment. "I do have a plan."

Mo Hua poured Elder Yu another cup of tea. "Tell me, please."

Mo Hua looked curious.

Elder Yu thought for a moment, deciding this was teachable, and explained patiently: "I told the merchants: whatever price the Qian family offers them, we'll undercut them by five fen of spirit stone."

"Five fen..."

No wonder Elder Yu was so meticulous—he cut prices by five fen at a time...

Mo Hua thought.

"Five fen is plenty." Elder Yu snorted. "With this many spiritual weapons, small amounts add up—five fen isn't insignificant."

"And then?" Mo Hua asked.

"As long as we sell and recover spirit stones, the Qian family won't be able to compete with us," Elder Yu declared.

"Why won't the Qian family compete with us?" Mo Hua didn't understand.

Elder Yu glanced at Mo Hua, sighed, and said helplessly: "Because of your array."

"The Qian family keeps their forging furnace secrets tightly guarded—I couldn't find out anything—but I've seen the spiritual weapons they produce..."

"Their spiritual weapons are quite good, but still slightly inferior to ours. Besides Chen Shi's craftsmanship, another reason is their forging furnace is definitely inferior to ours..."

"Their furnace is Grade One, ours is Grade One too—but the difference lies in the array inside."

Elder Yu drank more tea and added: "I suspect their furnace also has a Grade One Melting Fire Array. Compared to our small furnaces, theirs are nearly identical—but compared to our large furnace, they're vastly inferior."

Mo Hua suddenly understood.

The large furnace bore the Grade One Melting Fire Control Spirit Complex Array—an array far more potent than ordinary Grade One arrays.

"Will the Qian family find out about our large furnace?" Mo Hua asked.

"Furnace secrets are always guarded. I couldn't learn theirs, and ours certainly won't be revealed to them," Elder Yu said.

"But won't they find out eventually?"

"As long as they don't know now, it's fine. Even if they learn later, it'll be too late."

"What's the strategy here?"

Elder Yu explained patiently: "Undercutting is a losing game—it can't last. The Qian family is undercutting because they believe their furnace is superior and their output higher, hoping to crush us in one blow—take losses at first to eliminate us. But they don't know our furnace is better and our output even higher."

"Once we turn the tide and produce more spiritual weapons, if they keep undercutting, they'll be cutting their own flesh—doing nothing but losing money."

Elder Yu sounded almost gleeful.

"So if we just survive the beginning, we won't have to fear the Qian family anymore?" Mo Hua asked.

"Exactly!" Elder Yu beamed. "Then our forging shop will be larger, our furnace superior, our artisans more numerous, our output greater, our quality better—then the Qian family won't be a threat at all."

Mo Hua nodded, understanding vaguely, but felt there were still gaps—if things unfolded this way, both sides would merely compete, with his side holding a slight advantage.

That still didn't explain why Elder Yu was so triumphant.

Mo Hua glanced at Elder Yu with suspicion. "Elder, do you have some other method?"

Elder Yu faltered for a moment, glanced at Mo Hua, and said helplessly, "How are you just like a little fox?"

Mo Hua's eyes lit up as he waited for Elder Yu to continue.

"There's one more move, and that's 'removing the firewood from under the cauldron.'"

"Removing the firewood from under the cauldron?"

Elder Yu said, "The Qian family's artifact-forging workshop is rushing to meet deadlines, so the artifact forgers beneath them must be laboring day and night. Their own family's artifact forgers are still fine, but those hired artifact forgers must surely harbor resentment—they're just doing it to earn a living, after all. Who would be willing to truly slave away like a horse or an ox…"

"I've had people secretly go and win them over, offering them more spirit stones, and they won't have to forge artifacts day and night. After some time, these artifact forgers will come over and forge artifacts for us instead."

"I've also notified all the demon hunters that the materials obtained from hunting demons are not to be sold to the Qian family—we'll purchase them ourselves."

"I've notified the market towns run by loose cultivators as well. For the time being, none of them will do business with the Qian family. If the Qian family gives them trouble, they can come to me, and I'll step in to handle it."

A hint of playfulness flickered in Elder Yu's eyes. "In the future, when the Qian family wants to forge artifacts, they'll lack both materials and forgers. That's what we call removing the firewood from under the cauldron."

On the surface, they were undercutting prices against the Qian family; behind the scenes, they were poaching their artifact forgers and cutting off their source of materials.

Mo Hua sighed with feeling, "Elder Yu, you're so devious!"