Chapter 558

"All right, the experimental segment is over, so the question everyone cares about comes up: how much does this ingot of sharp gold sell for?"

Yan Buji thought, according to the market in the West Sand River Basin and the fivefold transformation count of the sharp gold ingot, the price of one ingot should be around 120,000 to 150,000 low-grade spiritual stones.

Indeed, still poor, can't compare to the Dongxing Sea Region.

"Produced by Frontier Blade Imperial City, the price of this new fivefold-transformation spiritual material sharp gold ingot is set at.... 80,000 low-grade spiritual stones per ingot!"

"Ah?!"

"80,000, so cheap?!"

"Are you crazy?"

Yan Buji also widened his eyes, stunned for a moment: "This.... how do they make money?"

Ore spiritual material differs from other spiritual materials, and the sharp gold ore mined cannot be sold directly; it must be smelted. This step is not few, plus the spiritual material's transformation count is high, and the effect is not bad, so why sell it for so little?

Are they trying to seize the market?

"How many sharp gold ingots does Frontier Blade Imperial City have now? Our Cloud Bird Imperial City wants them all!!"

"Why do you Cloud Bird Imperial City need so many sharp gold ingots? Don't listen to him, we only need three thousand! Price is negotiable!"

"Our Great Fish Imperial City also buys; Frontier Blade Imperial City, however much you produce, we'll take it all!!"

The people present shouted loudly, excited to the point of almost going up to sign a contract with Liu Yuan and deliver spiritual stones.

However, Liu Yuan shifted tone, apologetically said: "Sorry, everyone, the major share of Frontier Blade Imperial City's sharp gold ingot quota has already been bought by the Chamber of Commerce, Bear City, and Dragon City; each month only about a hundred ingots are expected to remain."

"When do they...."

"Oh! It's that damned black sand storm that caused us to be a step behind them!!"

Yan Buji pinched his chin, looking at those beating their chests and stamping their feet; they all wanted to buy after seeing the sharp gold ingot's excellent quality and price, but it was already too late, and they regretted it deeply.

However, he thought this might be a marketing strategy of Frontier Blade Imperial City: release a little at first to create a shortage, then gradually increase output later to gain quick fame in a short time.

"So business can still be done this way." Yan Buji said he learned something, after all he hadn't been in his old trade for many years, so traveling around he always sees some novel business methods.

Yan Buji himself is actually good at buying low and selling high, controlling overall market price changes, but he's not very skilled at marketing strategies for a single product.

Of course, after realizing this, Yan Buji also understood the benefits of their doing so.

However, forging still requires one's own strength, but the sharp gold ingot is still a fine spiritual material; it should sell easily.

After seeing the sharp gold ingot, Yan Buji returned to his lodgings, pondering whether to steal some to study himself.

"Although I don't know the production cost of one of their sharp gold ingots, this price is far below the West Sand River Basin's fivefold-transformation spiritual material market, so it will surely cause a stir."

This is not just a cost issue; fivefold-transformation spiritual materials are hard to find, and cultivating them takes considerable time. Even if you mine ore and smelt it into metal ingots, ordinary furnace fire certainly can't do it; to smelt fivefold-transformation spiritual material, you at least need the spiritual fire of a Golden Core cultivator.

"In that case, if Frontier Blade Imperial City's sharp gold ingots are not hunger marketing, but the bulk really was consumed by those three and only leftovers remain, then doesn't that mean Frontier Blade Imperial City masters an efficient method of producing sharp gold ingots?"

Yan Buji guessed it's either in the mining or smelting stage; the production efficiency of these two stages must have been greatly increased to leave a quota of one hundred.

So Yan Buji is also quite curious; if it's not hunger marketing, then perhaps Frontier Blade Imperial City will truly develop into a major commercial power in the future.

However, for Yan Buji this isn't a primary concern; probing those secrets would surely get him caught in the past.

So Yan Buji still wants to buy a sharp gold ingot on the market, just in case it might be useful someday.

"What? Sold out?" Yan Buji's face looked strange.

"Yeah, you came late; last night people were already queuing here, and as soon as the door opened it sold out."

"Fine, can we pre-order?"

"Really unfortunate, it's been fully booked for the past five years."

"Sigh."

Yan Buji sighed, also didn't expect their purchasing power to be so strong.

It doesn't matter either way; I don't necessarily need that sharp gold ingot.

A few days later, the situation outside the city grew increasingly dire.

Nowadays the entire Phoenix-transforming City has been swallowed by the black sand storm, relying on formations for protection.

However, the attacking demonic beasts are growing more numerous, and the city guards are gradually insufficient.

Yan Buji also followed the big guys out to slay demonic beasts, waiting for the black sand storm to pass.

"We killed quite a few demonic beasts today, but unfortunately some were blown away; it's really not daring to go far outside to pick up the demonic beast corpses."

"This is correct; a few foundation-establishment cultivators with lard-clouded hearts saw the piles of demonic beast corpses outside the city and wanted to go out and pick them up as their own merit. The result? They were blown away by the wind and disappeared, not to mention possibly being devoured by the demonic beasts; one must know that staying alive is most important."

Yan Buji heard the surrounding cultivators' talk; these past few days quite a few things have also happened.

Because Frontier Blade Imperial City rewards city-defending cultivators with demonic beast corpses, most cultivators, while killing demonic beasts, also have to figure out how to collect the corpses; and because there are too many cultivators, fights over the corpses often occur.

Overall, defending the city isn't very smooth; however, because there are too many high-level cultivators, no chaos has occurred for now.

Most of the Golden Core cultivators who come to Frontier Blade Imperial City have backing; even if they help defend the city, they won't bother with the petty gains of loose cultivators.

Likewise, whenever Yan Buji takes action, no one will come to cause him trouble.

"Daoist Ji Bu, how many demonic beasts have you slain today?" Liu Yuan laughed, looking at Yan Buji.

"Not many, actually."

Yan Buji took out more than ten demonic king corpses; Liu Yuan's eyes lit up.

These days he saw that Yan Buji also exerted great effort defending the city; with a single golden wheel technique, even those demonic kings with sturdy bodies couldn't withstand and were all slain by him, showing this person is also a formidable loose cultivator.

He has no background, so Liu Yuan naturally had the thought of recruiting him, but Yan Buji had no such intention and politely declined.

Liu Yuan also didn't think much of it; formidable loose cultivators appear from time to time, and at this point his being able to help Frontier Blade Imperial City deal with demonic beasts is already good enough.

Yan Buji received the spiritual stones, nodded, and left.

Passersby looked at Yan Buji and asked Liu Yuan: "What's the background of this Ji Bu?"

"Not sure; he just came here. When he arrived he immediately ran into the black sand storm; I guess he's not feeling comfortable either." Liu Yuan laughed.

"Probably not that bad; I see his techniques are formidable—his low-level golden wheel technique cultivated to this day, with a single Magic Power Golden Wheel he can break through a demonic king's defense and slay it, showing he's a diligent cultivator."

Liu Yuan sighed: "Too bad he doesn't want to join us."

It also cannot be forced.