Chapter 217: Side Job Matters (Seeking Subscriptions)

Regarding Yang Feng's little scheme—which seemed like a slip of the tongue but was actually intentional—Du En merely glanced at him, not paying much mind.

The current situation could be considered a bargain for himself.

Two hundred and three third-tier spirit beasts awaiting culling; one hundred sick ones were killed and buried, one hundred old ones were killed and eaten.

Spirit stones were thus squeezed out, making purchases in other areas seem a bit more affordable.

Hmm, Dream Stone, bought!

Du En did not hesitate and quickly made his decision.

As the spirit stones were spent with a clatter, an exquisite box was teleported over, floating before Du En; from the faint precious glow radiating from it, one could tell it was quite extraordinary—it was a special complimentary storage vessel.

Yang Feng, this old City Lord, was still performing his little act, unable to resist glancing up again, his eyes filled with curiosity and amazement toward the precious box, yet also appearing cautious and restrained.

Time and again... it still did not stir any emotional fluctuation in Du En.

After receiving it, he did not open the box, instead using his divine sense to probe it, and soon knew the general situation.

The Dream Stone inside the precious box was a special type of mineral spirit object, cut into a cube the length of a finger; it was grayish and emitted a faint light, appearing elusive and flickering, while its substance seemed both like a fixed, actual form and yet illusory and ethereal, possessing a clear sense of haziness.

It was, quite simply, very peculiar!

According to the methods of refining magical treasures, this strange object was produced at the boundary between reality and the dream realm, which is why it possessed such illusory, flickering, and hazy characteristics.

Such characteristics were exactly what the Thousand-Change Magical Treasure required!

Regarding the first strange object he had officially obtained, Du En, after a brief observation, very ordinarily tucked it into his storage bag.

Now, having spent three hundred on spells and seven hundred and twenty on the Dream Stone, the total was one thousand and twenty, plus the two hundred and three for the reserved spirit beasts, making it one thousand two hundred and twenty-three.

After subtracting that, only a few dozen high-grade spirit stones remained on his person.

"That guy Tang Yiping, as a dignified Outer City Superintendent, is so stingy with his wealth; it really is unseemly..."

Looking at the dazzling array of treasures available for exchange, Du En couldn't help but think this at the moment.

However, in reality, the reason he only obtained two hundred high-grade spirit stones and some miscellaneous third-tier items was mainly due to the issue with the storage bag.

When he performed a destructive raid to seize Tang Yiping's third-tier storage bag, he could only salvage about twenty percent.

His level of artifact refining was still too low!

Thus, following the spark of inspiration that had just emerged, Du En asked Yang Feng, who was outside the door: "City Lord Yang, if I go to the city's artifact refining workshop to help with refining and production, can I receive corresponding compensation?"

Simply put, a side job!

"Yes, of course you can!"

Yang Feng answered with great certainty, only adding: "However, given your current cultivation level, the requirement for this side job would be third-tier magical artifacts, and furthermore, the compensation for this side job is actually not high; the wage is only three high-grade spirit stones per month."

He was somewhat hesitant and stammering.

He actually wanted to exceed the permitted scope to help Du En out significantly.

But Meng Changqing's attitude made him afraid to do so, even though helping Du En was actually a roundabout way of currying favor with the other party.

Overall, the scale needed to be carefully weighed, so he had previously chosen to focus on emotional manipulation, repeatedly and intentionally fawning over Du En, but unfortunately, it was like performing for a blind man and had no effect at all.

Now that he was asked about practical matters, and it wasn't the compliant matter of culling old and weak spirit beasts, he immediately felt it was quite thorny, hence his timid behavior.

Du En did not make an exorbitant demand, but calmly said: "Following normal procedures is fine, but can I take the leftover materials from refining to refine magical artifacts for my own use?"

"Yes, no problem! Regarding the retention of materials in this aspect, there is actually such a concept; it is an invisible benefit for the artifact refiners."

Yang Feng let out a sigh of relief and immediately spoke thusly.

Of course, it was only because it was Du En that he spoke so convincingly.

Firstly, he trusted Meng Changqing's judgment and felt that this person must have some real skills; secondly, if it really didn't work out, his own wealth accumulated over several hundred years was quite abundant, and he could privately and reasonably cover the deficit for him.

In other words, under normal circumstances, the level of those artifact refiners in the city was such that, let alone retaining materials, they often had to add their own materials and artifacts just to complete the finished products that had to be submitted on a fixed schedule and quota.

Du En knew the nature of the Falling Feather Immortal Sect, so he could imagine such things without much thought.

"However, if one truly has talent for artifact refining, one can indeed stand out through this; although the overall situation remains the same, it is also constantly sifting, filtering out talent as much as possible..."

He thought to himself.

This matter of artifact refining could be considered a path, and it was very compliant and legitimate.

He looked at the exchange list again.

Other strange objects required for his life-bound magical treasure could not be found in the ordinary exchange list; they were all in the merit exchange list.

Flame Flower, one blossom requires one Lower-Ding merit.

Thousand-Change Micro-Light, one wisp requires one Upper-Ding merit.

Azure Sky Leaf, one leaf requires one Lower-Bing merit.

"City Lord Yang, how exactly does this merit system work?"

"Four ranks and twelve levels, which is to say the four ranks of Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding, then further subdivided into Upper, Middle, and Lower levels."

"Understood."

Du En nodded and then proceeded to look at the merit exchange list.

Overall, there were not many more items than those available for spirit stone exchange.

There were two main reasons: one was that these were third-tier items, which corresponded to a relatively low level of the Golden Core stage, so there weren't that many things that needed to be exchanged with merit.

Because merit was clearly a higher-tier currency of the Immortal Sect than spirit stones, it would likely gradually replace spirit stones in the future; it was estimated that by the stage of Great Cultivators, spirit stones would basically lose their monetary value.

The other reason was that his authorization level for purchases was high enough that the items available for purchase were too numerous, clearly diluting the visual impact of the merit exchange list.

Therefore, there were actually still many good things in the merit exchange list.

Mainly strange objects and secret techniques.

He only glanced at the strange objects, then Du En's thoughts shifted, and he flipped through the secret techniques section.

He discovered that the secret techniques available for merit exchange here were mostly used on the battlefield, with very obvious characteristics of combined efforts, as well as a dazzling array of suicide-style techniques.

The move that those seven hundred armored soldiers had used as a trump card earlier, which had almost blown him to pieces, was also prominently listed among them.

"Life-Ending Ash Thunder, requires one Middle-Bing merit; the formation-array cultivators must work with one heart, aggregate their will to die, remain motionless, and use their lives as a sacrifice to transform into streaks of annihilating ash thunder; the specific power depends on the aggregated cultivation level."

Seven hundred top-tier elites, silver-armored death soldiers with cultivation at the perfection of Foundation Establishment, are capable of killing a genius who has realized their Dao foundation and formed a Golden Core once they have gathered together.

(End of this chapter)