Chapter 36: The First-Grade Market

After Li Luo and Song Yunfeng fought to a draw, his results for this preliminary exam were firmly locked within the top twenty.

According to the standard procedure, the top twenty would usually be ranked further, but Li Luo had no interest in this. In his view, such a struggle for ranking was meaningless; after all, whether one was twentieth or first, it only granted the qualification to participate in the Academy Grand Exam.

If he exposed too many of his trump cards here, and then encountered a strong opponent at the Academy Grand Exam, the opponent would have too much information on him, which would undoubtedly add unnecessary difficulty for himself.

So, isn't it better to develop in a low-key manner? Even if he got first place in the preliminary exam, that stingy old Dean wouldn't give him any rewards.

In fact, regarding this match against Song Yunfeng, if the other party hadn't been hell-bent on dancing on the edge of death, Li Luo would likely have chosen to concede.

After all, he didn't think there was anything shameful about admitting defeat when one couldn't win. Li Luo even felt it wasn't worth it to have exposed his improved "Water Mirror Art" here.

So when Xu Shanyue came to ask if he would participate in the competition for the top twenty rankings, he flatly refused. With that time, wouldn't it be better to absorb more Spirit Water and Strange Light, work hard, and try to raise his "Water-Light Resonance" to the sixth grade before the Academy Grand Exam arrived?

Xu Shanyue was not surprised by Li Luo's choice, only telling him to work hard and prepare for the Academy Grand Exam.

The results of the top twenty ranking competition were released the next day. In the end, two people from the Second Institute were selected: Li Luo and Zhao Kuo. However, both could be considered brothers in misfortune, with Li Luo in fifteenth place and Zhao Kuo in sixteenth, just barely making the cut at the tail end.

Li Luo's ranking clearly had a lot of room for improvement; if he were willing, entering the top ten would be no problem. But because he gave up on the ranking competition, he was ultimately assessed at this position.

These twenty people would, in two weeks, represent the Nanfeng Academy to participate in the Academy Grand Exam and vie for admission spots to the Saint Profound Star Academy.

As the most prestigious academy in the Great Xia, the Saint Profound Star Academy issued a number of admission spots to each prefecture every year. These spots had to be fought for by all the academies within each prefecture through the Academy Grand Exam. In previous years, the Nanfeng Academy had always won the most admission spots, which had gradually solidified its golden signboard as the number one academy in Tianshu Prefecture.

However, the Nanfeng Academy was not without rivals. The Dongyuan Academy was a formidable enemy. Although the Dongyuan Academy's foundation was not as deep as the Nanfeng Academy's, its rise had been quite rapid, and it had the support of the Tianshu Prefecture Viceroy's Office behind it. In the Academy Grand Exams of previous years, it had posed no small threat to the Nanfeng Academy.

It is said that this year, the Dongyuan Academy is still eyeing the golden signboard of the number one academy in Tianshu Prefecture. Presumably, there will be a fierce battle at the Academy Grand Exam.

After the preliminary exam, the Nanfeng Academy would have a holiday of over a week. Students could choose to go home or continue training at the academy, and Li Luo, of course, chose the former without hesitation.

The old residence, the attic of Li Luo's room.

Li Luo's eyes were tightly shut, his body wreathed in a faint glow. On the coffee table in front of him lay a used fifth-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light.

The absorption lasted for a long time before Li Luo gradually opened his eyes, a blue light flashing across them.

"This was the last bottle of this batch."

He looked at the empty crystal bottle in front of him and couldn't help but scratch his head. Up until now, Cai Wei had already helped him purchase eighty-three bottles of fifth-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light, which had consumed over four hundred thousand Heavenly Gold. This was a huge sum; if Cai Wei hadn't sold off some of the Luo Lan Mansion's industries in Tianshu Prefecture, it probably wouldn't have been able to sustain his consumption.

After absorbing so many fifth-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light, Li Luo's fifth-grade "Water-Light Resonance" had indeed improved a lot, but there was still some distance to go before it evolved to the sixth grade.

But he had to raise his Water-Light Resonance to the sixth grade before the Academy Grand Exam arrived.

Although this battle with Song Yunfeng ended in a draw, Li Luo did not feel any complacency, because he knew that if it weren't for the time mechanism of the preliminary exam, the one who would have lost in the end was him, having exhausted his Resonance Power.

And at the Academy Grand Exam, such a draw would absolutely not occur.

To win an admission spot to the Saint Profound Star Academy, one must rely on true ability.

At the Academy Grand Exam, the top students from all the major academies in Tianshu Prefecture would participate. The competition would be so fierce that it would be far beyond the Nanfeng Academy's preliminary exam.

Additionally, Li Luo had already selected an energy guidance technique to switch to, and its minimum requirement was a sixth-grade Resonance.

Therefore, this sixth-grade Water-Light Resonance was the top priority.

"According to the current progress, to evolve to the sixth grade, I should need one last batch of fifth-grade Water-Light Resonance."

"But Sister Cai Wei has been avoiding me lately, as if she doesn't really want to see me." Li Luo expressed some distress. Cai Wei hadn't even eaten breakfast at the old residence these past few days, likely fearing he would ask for another few dozen bottles of Spirit Water and Strange Light.

After all, fifth-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light were not cabbages; they cost about five thousand gold per bottle. Fifty bottles would cost two hundred and fifty thousand Heavenly Gold, which was already approaching the annual profit of the Luo Lan Mansion in Tianshu Prefecture in the past.

So Li Luo understood this well. A perfectly good gold-medal chief steward, after arriving in Tianshu Prefecture, could only rely on constantly selling off the Luo Lan Mansion's industries to maintain operations. This was simply a huge stain on her professional career.

That Cai Wei hadn't resigned yet made Li Luo feel that her heart was as broad as the sea.

But Li Luo had no choice. His acquired Resonance was simply a gold-devouring beast. It was fortunate that his father and mother had left him the Luo Lan Mansion; otherwise, he felt that in five years, he would likely just drop dead.

"Let's go to Xiyang House first."

Li Luo pondered slightly. Now that the Luo Lan Mansion was beset by internal and external troubles, he couldn't always sit and eat away at the foundation by constantly selling off the Luo Lan Mansion's industries. Although Jiang Qing'e had handed over the industries in Tianshu Prefecture for him to squander at will, he couldn't really run the place into the ground. If he did, the people under the Luo Lan Mansion would have opinions about him, the Young Mansion Master.

Most importantly, this would make people suspect that he, the Young Mansion Master of the Luo Lan Mansion, might be an idiot—a point Li Luo clearly could not accept.

With some ideas in mind, Li Luo tidied up a bit and left the old residence, heading to Xiyang House.

Upon arriving at Xiyang House, he went straight to Yan Lingqing's refining room. When he pushed the door open, he saw two familiar beautiful figures sitting together, seemingly discussing something, and both women's faces carried a hint of worry.

They were Yan Lingqing and Cai Wei.

Seeing Li Luo's figure, both Cai Wei and Yan Lingqing were startled: "Young Mansion Master?"

"What are you talking about?" Li Luo walked in with a smile, and then he saw several bottles of Spirit Water and Strange Light on the table in front of the two women, one of which was the first-grade Azure Green Spirit Water he had refined earlier.

"We were discussing Xiyang House's sales performance this year." Cai Wei did not hide anything from Li Luo and said directly.

"Performance isn't good?" Li Luo's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this. The Luo Lan Mansion's annual profit in Tianshu Prefecture was contributed mostly by Xiyang House. If the performance here worsened, it would clearly affect his grand evolution plan.

Yan Lingqing pointed her jade finger at the crystal bottles in front of her, her voice cold: "Currently, there are two main competitors in the first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light market in Tianshu Prefecture. One is our Xiyang House's Azure Green Spirit Water, and the other is the 'Sunshine Strange Light' produced by Pine House, which is under the Song family. The quality of the Spirit Water and Strange Light from both houses is similar, so in the past few years, the two combined accounted for nearly eighty percent of the first-grade market."

"However, recently, for some reason, the quality of the 'Sunshine Strange Light' produced by Pine House has improved, with an average refining power reaching about fifty-seven percent, which is almost close to the highest quality of our Xiyang House."

"So recently, the Song family has been heavily promoting their Pine House's 'Sunshine Strange Light', which has led to them occupying most of the first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light market in Tianshu Prefecture, while the sales of our Azure Green Spirit Water have weakened significantly."

"If this situation continues, Xiyang House will completely lose to the Song family in the competition at the first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light stage. This will be a huge loss for Xiyang House, and of course, most importantly, it will affect Xiyang House's reputation in Tianshu Prefecture."

Hearing this, Li Luo's expression turned serious, and he asked: "What is the production rate of Xiyang House's first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light?"

"The Xiyang House in Tianshu Prefecture can produce five bottles of first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light per day, which is one hundred and fifty bottles a month. The market price for first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light is about fifty Heavenly Gold, so over a year, Xiyang House's total sales in first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light will reach about ninety thousand Heavenly Gold. Excluding all costs, the profit is thirty thousand gold." Cai Wei said without hesitation, clearly having a thorough grasp of all the industries and data of the Luo Lan Mansion in Tianshu Prefecture.

Li Luo first gave Cai Wei a thumbs-up to show his appreciation, then made a slight calculation and was immediately surprised, because the profit from this first-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light alone accounted for one-tenth of the Luo Lan Mansion's annual income in Tianshu Prefecture. From this, one could see how much profit the Spirit Water and Strange Light market held.

However, this was normal, because high-quality Spirit Water and Strange Light were not something everyone could squander at will. Most people who bought first-grade and second-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light did not do so because their own Resonance was only of that grade, but because they could not afford to consume large amounts of higher-grade Spirit Water and Strange Light, so they could only use lower-grade ones as a substitute.

It was just that the efficiency of this improvement was clearly far lower than using high-quality Spirit Water and Strange Light, and the speed of impurity accumulation would also be faster, but there was no way around it; not everyone had the family business Li Luo had at the start.

After knowing this information, Li Luo's first feeling was that Xiyang House must absolutely not be affected, otherwise it would definitely affect the rhythm of his future evolution of the Water-Light Resonance.

"Why has the quality of the 'Sunshine Strange Light' produced by the Song family's 'Pine House' improved this year?" Li Luo asked.

"The things that affect the quality of Spirit Water and Strange Light are nothing more than three: the formula, the refiner's experience and strength, and the quality of the source water and source light."

Yan Lingqing said coldly: "I have checked that 'Sunshine Strange Light'. After my analysis, it should be that the formula has been slightly modified. I think it is highly likely that the Song family spent a great price to invite some experts for guidance."

Cai Wei crossed her arms, supporting her right elbow with her left, and then lightly touched her snow-white chin with her right hand, her willow brows tightly furrowed: "Also, that Zhuang Yi has been constantly using this as a pretext to attack Lingqing, saying that this result is because of her, and wants her to withdraw from Xiyang House."

Cai Wei stood with Yan Lingqing, but she was unaware that this unintentional movement of hers immediately made the already surging waves somewhat dazzling, especially by comparison, for which Yan Lingqing could only be described as miserable.

Yan Lingqing seemed to notice something and expressionlessly reached out to pull Cai Wei's left arm down.

Cai Wei didn't react for a moment, but soon a blush flew onto her gentle and charming oval face, and at the same time, her hand under the table pinched Yan Lingqing next to her in shame and annoyance.

Then, the two women cast sharp gazes at Li Luo, and the latter was stunned for a moment. Instead of panicking, he said with a serious face: "When discussing serious matters, don't engage in small actions. You are both grown up; if there is a next time, I will criticize you."

Li Luo's serious words ultimately only drew a cold snort from the two women, and they both quickly skipped over the matter.

"Is that Zhuang Yi still causing trouble?" Li Luo returned to the main topic and asked.

Mentioning this Vice President Zhuang Yi, Yan Lingqing's cold face showed some annoyance: "This guy is looking for trouble all day, causing internal conflicts in Xiyang House. The decline in the quality of Xiyang House's products this year is not unrelated to him."

"It seems this is a scourge. Can we find a way to expel him?" Li Luo grinned, also very unhappy. I need large sums of money here; if you don't hurry up and earn money for me, you're still burning fires in my backyard?

Cai Wei's brows were tightly locked: "Currently, Xiyang House is like a group of dragons without a leader. Lingqing is new, after all, and her prestige is not enough. Zhuang Yi is an old-timer, and some of the Resonance Refiners in Xiyang House still trust him very much. So, without a legitimate reason, forcibly expelling him would likely cause panic."

"And behind him, after all, there is the support of that Pei Hao."

Li Luo frowned. That white-eyed wolf Pei Hao was the greatest scourge of the Luo Lan Mansion. This Zhuang Yi was only affecting Xiyang House's sales, while Pei Hao wanted to take away the entire Luo Lan Mansion.

This was simply cutting off his lifeline. If the Luo Lan Mansion were taken away by you, how would I fill this bottomless pit of an acquired Resonance? By relying on my face?

However, now that Pei Hao had already gained momentum, while he was just starting out, he simply didn't have the strength to fight him. So, for the time being, he could only hide behind Sister Qing'e and develop in a low-key manner.

Just as Li Luo was turning these thoughts over in his mind, someone suddenly came to report.

"Young Mansion Master, Chief Steward, Vice President Yan... Vice President Zhuang has suddenly summoned all the management of Xiyang House, saying there is a major matter to discuss, and invites the three of you to participate."

Hearing this report, Li Luo, Cai Wei, and Yan Lingqing were all startled, then looked at each other, their brows furrowing at the same time.

This guy is going to cause trouble again.

(End of chapter)