Chapter 1730: Base Observations, Old Day Illusions

Feisu Chinese.

In Xia Duo's impression, the Ether Plane did not have many valuable specialties, and the vast majority of things from the Ether Plane could not be brought back to the Material Plane.

Of course, whatever could be brought back was good stuff; although one might not see any use for it for the time being, at least it could be considered a keepsake.

After hiding his identity and entering Base No. 3, Xia Duo discovered that there were quite a few people inside the base, mainly concentrated on two streets, one horizontal and one vertical, both of which were almost packed with stalls.

The items on these stalls were also diverse, with almost everything imaginable. Xia Duo walked around in a circle and finally stopped in front of a stall with the greatest variety of goods.

Seeing a Mage stop in front of his stall, the stall owner immediately greeted him enthusiastically, "My lord Mage, what have you taken a fancy to? Tell old Bali, and I will certainly give you the best price!"

This was said too skillfully, and Xia Duo highly doubted whether the "best price" the other party spoke of was the highest or the lowest. However, since he could have a free guide, it was only right to pay a little, so he asked the stall owner:

"I am here for the first time. Logically speaking, only Advanced Rank Mages would dare to enter the Ether Plane to hunt, so why are there still quite a few ordinary Adventurers?"

"I won't hide it from you, my lord Mage. Those Adventurers are actually trapping Ether Creatures around the base. You can also see that some of the flesh, bones, and fur materials on my stall were consigned by Adventurers."

"Then what about this painting?" Xia Duo pointed to the picture frames that occupied a large area of the stall and asked, and judging by the height, there were at least five or six more underneath.

"These paintings were also consigned by Adventurers, and some were brought back by Mages who went outside."

"Not consigned?"

"This—" The stall owner seemed a bit embarrassed. He looked at Xia Duo, then looked at the other stall owners around him, and finally lowered his voice and said, "These paintings cannot be taken out, so the Mages sold them to us at a cheap price."

"So that's how it is!"

Xia Duo nodded, pretending to have a sudden realization. The traces of performance from this stall owner were still too heavy for him. Was he deliberately showing sincerity to gain his favor and thus acquire another purchasing channel? Or was he preparing to fleece him?

"Then how are these paintings sold?"

"My lord is not from the Seven Towers, are you?" the stall owner asked tentatively.

"How did you tell?"

"I have paintings here that Mages from the Seven Towers sold to me. If you were from the Seven Towers, it shouldn't be hard to buy them inside the Seven Towers, and you wouldn't even stop at my place."

However, by the time he finished speaking, the stall owner's voice became smaller and smaller, and finally, he asked cautiously: "Does my lord really have his eye on these paintings?"

"Not really, I'm just asking about the price. Is that not allowed?"

"It is, it is, absolutely allowed. My lord, feel free to ask. These paintings are called 【Old Day Illusion】 by the lords of the Seven Towers. Different prices are set according to their completeness. Most of mine are relatively complete, with a minimum price of 200 Gold Coins per piece."

Watching the other party say the price of 200 Gold Coins with a serious face, Xia Duo truly felt an indescribable sense of incongruity. To him, 200 Gold Coins might not even compare to what leaked through his fingers.

But for ordinary people, it would probably take at least a year to save up that many Gold Coins (a salary analogy, approximately equivalent to 40,000 RMB).

The residents in Daxia Territory who had already been granted land and participated in the development work organized by the Development Department had a minimum wage of 100 Gold Coins per month.

And if they chose to start their own business, like Lier who opened a tavern, earning dozens of Gold Coins a day was truly easy, and that was a conservative estimate.

Currently, the commercial field of Daxia Territory was almost a blank slate. As long as the first entrants weren't stupid, almost all of them could make a fortune. For later entrants, even if they lived on subsidies, their income wouldn't be much less than working for the Development Department.

But even so, 200 Gold Coins was not a small amount for them.

Perhaps only Adventurers or Mages could casually take out this sum of money!

And this 200 Gold Coins was already the manufacturing cost of a generation of Communication Magic Tools in the Tower of Time. If he wanted everyone in the Territory to be able to afford Communication Magic Tools, the wealth transfer needed to be intensified.

At the same time, it was also necessary to continuously tap into the creative potential of ordinary people; otherwise, it would be difficult for one-sided output to last long.

……

Seeing Xia Duo staring at the paintings and falling into silence, the stall owner Bali couldn't help but speak up:

"Does my lord need to buy one? The Arcane Union sells Magic Scrolls in the shops within the base that can fix these paintings. Once used, they can be brought back to the Material Plane. Like now, an 【Old Day Illusion】 from the Ether Plane outside can sell for at least 500 Gold Coins!"

"Such a good deal that makes money so easily, why haven't you done it?" Xia Duo asked back.

"This—I haven't learned how to use that kind of Magic Scroll yet. If I learn, I will definitely do it!"

Bali looked very earnest. Xia Duo couldn't help but shake his head when he saw this, "I advise you not to do so. Go and find out how much the actual transaction volume is outside first!"

In fact, even if the transaction volume was okay, Xia Duo didn't intend to mess with these. On one hand, this small money of a few hundred here and there was too slow to earn, and on the other hand, he felt that this might just be something the Seven Towers created to fleece people.

Xia Duo could see the essence of these paintings almost at a glance. They were indeed, as named by the Seven Towers—【Old Day Illusion】, manifestations formed in the Ether Plane by certain scenes from the Material Plane.

A Spellcaster could reproduce these scenes through certain means, but that was all.

A Spellcaster could already summon Old Day Illusions directly in the Material Plane, and the completeness and accuracy were much higher than those converted through the Ether Plane.

If these paintings really had such great value, why wouldn't the Seven Towers just digest them internally?

Like now, on these two streets of Base No. 3, not to say every stall had this Ether version of the 【Old Day Illusion】, but if one averaged out all the paintings, at least every stall could get two or three.

With such a large quantity, the value was almost self-evident.

……

Just as Xia Duo was about to ask about other items on the stall, the stall owner at the next stall poked his head out and said mysteriously:

"I heard that not long ago, someone found a Mage's secret treasury in the Material Plane through a painting. I don't know if it's true?"

"I heard that too." Another stall owner also began to chime in.

But these words of theirs, in Xia Duo's view, were full of holes. Not to mention that no serious Mage would set up any secret treasury outside, even if there really were a secret treasury, how would the news reach here?

And it just happened to be said by the person next to him when he was feeling a bit uninterested.

What a coincidence!

However, it wouldn't hurt to buy one. Xia Duo was indeed quite curious about what one could see through an 【Old Day Illusion】. He hadn't mastered the means to Scry an Old Day Illusion yet, so it wouldn't be bad to experience the Ether version first.

Anyway, it was only a few hundred Gold Coins!

Thinking this way, Xia Duo pointed at the picture frames on the ground, and several overlapping frames immediately floated up and were laid out one by one in front of him.