Chapter 537: Estimation

「Work's up, don't slack, hurry up! 」

Yan Buji raised his eyebrows and continued unloading cargo at the dock.

These days he posed as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, gathering information everywhere, with Wandering Heaven Gate as his primary target.

Because Wandering Heaven Gate is located quite close to True Yellow Island, which is in the central battlefield area.

Of course, because Wandering Heaven Gate is not weak, only part of its disciples have gone to True Yellow Island to assist in the war, so its defenses remain very strict.

It's not that there are no petty thieves looking to profit from chaos, but Yan Buji sees that most of them are either ambushing ships outside or simply collecting protection/toll fees, and he has no interest in cooperating with them.

Their courage is too small; they're not suited for big undertakings with me.

「If you're going to do it, you have to seize the most valuable things in an instant. These spirit cannons were purchased by Wandering Heaven Gate from the Heavenly Spirit Realm through an agent, then traded with True Yellow Island—meaning Wandering Heaven Gate's assets may have already been moved to the Heavenly Spirit Realm. 」Yan Buji pinched his chin, thinking carefully.

This isn't hard to guess either. Aside from immovable fixed resources, everything else can be converted into spiritual stones. And since they're spiritual stones, isn't storing them in a random storage bag safer than anything else?

As for Wandering Heaven Gate, being so close to the battlefield, once the fighting reaches it they may have to prepare for relocation. Although it's unclear what deal Wandering Heaven Gate has made with True Yellow Island, Yan Buji discovered that besides the spirit cannon trade at the dock, large quantities of ore and spiritual material produced in Wandering Heaven Gate's territory are also being traded in bulk.

This shows that Wandering Heaven Gate has begun liquidating its existing resources to consciously avoid risk.

But transferring assets is bound to be noticed, so even while inquiring at the dock, Yan Buji could find out how much resources Wandering Heaven Gate has recently moved.

Combining the resources Wandering Heaven Gate has purchased in the past and the goods it previously sold, Yan Buji went to work as a miner for a month at Wandering Heaven Gate's mine to make a rough estimate.....

「The resources here in Wandering Heaven Gate are mainly ore, with underwater spiritual fields as a supplement. Its main product is smelted sinking silver ingots. These sinking silver ingots are of high quality, an excellent material for forging accumulation devices, and are purchased by the Wind Spirit Sect. Judging by their mining speed... at most thirty thousand catties of sinking silver ore can be produced per month. But now that war has broken out, the Wind Spirit Sect has defected to the Sinking Dragon Association; openly, trade between Wandering Heaven Gate and the Wind Spirit Sect has ceased, and even any secret collusion would not be significant. 」

Thus, the thirty thousand catties of sinking silver ore Wandering Heaven Gate can produce each month can be smelted into ten thousand catties of sinking silver ingots. A one-catty sinking silver ingot fluctuates in price around 350 low-grade spiritual stones, because sinking silver ore is essentially just first-tier spiritual material, profit coming only from volume.

However, Yan Buji is not clear on how much spiritual stone ore Wandering Heaven Gate produces, as he couldn't infiltrate the spiritual stone mining area to gather information.

But from Wandering Heaven Gate's purchased resources, the sect disciples' welfare expenses, various industry incomes and expenditures, plus the post-war spirit cannon proxy business, Yan Buji calculated that Wandering Heaven Gate's total monthly expenditure is about 5.6 million low-grade spiritual stones, with monthly profits fluctuating around 3.6 million spiritual stones.

Among these, the sale of sinking silver ingots and other ore resources accounts for twenty percent of profits; the spiritual materials from the underwater fields are mostly used by sect disciples for daily cultivation, and it's said that some precious resources are traded, occupying eighty percent. The bulk of trade lies in purchasing spiritual pills and various other spiritual materials; Yan Buji also discovered that Wandering Heaven Gate is cultivating its own artifact refiners and alchemists, so expenditures in this area account for forty percent. Adding the spiritual stone expenditures of sect disciples, elders, and the sect master brings the total to about 5.6 million spiritual stones.

Thus, Wandering Heaven Gate's income and expenditure are completely unbalanced, because its expenditure items are too many and the profit from its income items is insufficient to cover its consumption, so its spiritual stone mine should make up this deficit.

「No, if you calculate it this way, Wandering Heaven Gate has at least a two-million-spiritual-stone deficit each month. If there were truly such a vast spiritual stone mine here, how could True Yellow Island possibly cede it to Wandering Heaven Gate? 」

Besides, even if True Yellow Island and Wandering Heaven Gate share the same origin, the Sinking Dragon Association isn't just eating dry rations. If the spiritual stone vein here could produce two million spiritual stones per month, wouldn't the Sinking Dragon Association have already attacked and seized it?

Judging by appearances, most of Wandering Heaven Gate's income comes from those precious resources; Yan Buji gathered some information and thereby calculated Wandering Heaven Gate's profits.

But Wandering Heaven Gate's spiritual stone mine may not have such high output; given this huge deficit, it's estimated that Wandering Heaven Gate also has other resources being sold, but since the internal situation of Wandering Heaven Gate is not accessible to Yan Buji, he naturally has no chance to inquire. However, since no trading situation of Wandering Heaven Gate has been found within the Boundless Sea, it's possible the route goes through the Heavenly Spirit Realm.

This also requires going to the Heavenly Spirit Realm to inquire.

「Moreover, speaking of precious resources... it's possible that the Heavenly Spirit Realm's trade is the key to Wandering Heaven Gate ensuring balanced income and expenditure. 」

Yan Buji is quite sensitive to spiritual energy density; in his view, even if Wandering Heaven Gate had set up a powerful protective sect formation, it couldn't completely prevent spiritual energy leakage, so the actual situation is that Wandering Heaven Gate's spiritual stone mine output is not high—perhaps it can only serve as a foundation to replenish the sect's spiritual energy and is not easily mined.

If that's the case, then the two-million-spiritual-stone deficit comes from where Yan Buji hasn't investigated; of course the real situation might not be so, but Yan Buji still plans to make a trip to the Heavenly Spirit Realm to understand the situation.

Soon after.

Yan Buji returned to the Heavenly Spirit Realm again, wandering the streets, passing many shops, and finally saw what he wanted to investigate.

「Boss, where did you get this red jade ingot? The quality isn't bad. 」Yan Buji smiled.

「Of course, I got it through connections. 」

「I don't recall anyone selling this before, do I? 」

「It's not that there's none, just rare. But in recent years our merchant guild reached a trade agreement with a customer, and we source the goods from them. 」

「Oh? Who is that customer? 」

The boss perked up upon hearing this: 「Why are you asking about this? Are you buying or not? 」

Yan Buji smiled and pushed over a bag of spiritual stones.

The boss coughed, took the spiritual stones, and said: 「These are sold by Wandering Heaven Gate of the Boundless Sea—don't say this emerging sect doesn't have good stuff. There are also goods from two other families that can be found in our Grand Merchant Guild.... 」

「Oh? What specifically? 」

Yan Buji makes a fortune off people; as long as one is willing to spend money, there's no information he can't uncover.

As an initial investment, Yan Buji spent three hundred thousand low-grade spiritual stones just to inquire about the origins of these goods in the Heavenly Spirit Realm; as for the purchase price, they don't disclose it, so even if Yan Buji spent more money he couldn't buy them.

However, from their selling prices and the overall market value of spiritual materials, Yan Buji discovered something interesting.

「According to those bosses, each month every shop can receive a quota of Wandering Heaven Gate's spiritual material sales from the Grand Merchant Guild's manager, and they never worry about selling it. So calculating it, including the red jade ore, Wandering Heaven Gate's trade in the Heavenly Spirit Realm amounts to at least 3.5 million spiritual stones! 」

Having figured this out, Yan Buji confirmed his hypothesis.

Wandering Heaven Gate's income and expenditure are completely profitable, and besides expenses, it actually has an extra 1.5 million low-grade spiritual stones of income each month!

Indeed impressive.