Forty Millenniums of Cultivation
chapter-267

In the luxurious lift for VIPs, Li Yao ascended to the VIP reception room on the 22nd floor.

The room was decorated in an ancient style, with many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures placed on the display racks around.

Li Yao glimpsed at them and was surprised.

The Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were rare and costly, many of which were as valuable as his forbidden scales, if not more.

Such precious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were just lying on the display racks working as ornaments! The Bountiful Treasures Pavilion was indeed wealthy!

Then Li Yao realized that this was a way to show the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion's stock, as well as a way to strike the customer's confidence.

If a customer walked into the room and saw so many precious materials, he would subconsciously believe that the items he was going to sell were not as valuable as they should be and thus give a lower quote for them.

"Mr. Fang, hello!"

A scholarly-looking middle-aged man with glossy hair walked to Li Yao, "I am Lin Cheng, the VIP client manager of the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion. Please sit down."

Li Yao nodded to him. Then he patted his backpack, indicating that he did not want to waste his time in small talk and would rather get down to business directly.

Smiling, Mr. Lin showed Li Yao to a giant crystal table.

The crystal table had been carved out of an intact, flawless crystal. Data and information were jumping nonstop inside the table, suggesting that it was an embedded crystal processor with amazing computational ability.

An ivory mist enveloped the crystal table.

"A hybrid of the liger-type demon beast and the dragon-type demon beast is very rare in the market. Also, according to the hologram that you sent to us, it is a mutated one, which makes the materials from it all the more valuable! Please rest assured, Mr. Fang. They will be worth a fortune, if they're truly authentic."

Mr. Lin talked straightforwardly, as if he were really on Li Yao's side. Li Yao, although aware that the manager would try to slash the price later, still felt that what he said was genuine and warm.

This was what a real business man should look like.

Li Yao took out two forbidden scales from his backpack and put them on the crystal table.

The ivory mist blinked, then it swelled and crowed to the forbidden scales which were carefully examined without any detail being left out.

Hundreds of pieces of data popped up inside the crystal table.

Typing fast on the virtual keyboard for a moment, Mr. Lin raised his eyebrows and said hesitatingly,

"Mr. Fang, not that I intentionally quote you at a low price, but things are complicated here. The two forbidden scales of a mutant lion dragon that you offered contain the power of both lineages. What's more, mutation has made their sturdiness much better than the scales on common dragon-type demon beasts. They're excellent materials indeed.

"However, their state of preservation is not very good, which seems to be a result of an intensive collision. They look good on the surface, but there are cracks everywhere inside them.

"Mr. Fang, you should know that materials like forbidden scales are best for the refinement of shields or armors. However, given that the two forbidden scales are full of inner cracks, the defense ability that they can provide is questionable. Therefore, their worth may not be as high as you expected."

Mr. Lin continued typing on the virtual keyboard for a while. Then he looked up and said, "Mr. Fang, this is your first time to do business with us. Forbidden scales of the mutant lion dragon are rare too. In light of our future cooperation, I'll quote you 50 million for the two forbidden scales. How does it sound?"

Li Yao didn't give an answer. He was very well aware that the two forbidden scales were in bad condition, otherwise he wouldn't decide to trade them in the first place.

Back when he was in the Thunderous Sound Mountain, in order to resist the scourge of the demon core explosion, he had raised all the three forbidden scales above his head as a shield, two of which were so seriously damaged that he could tell it with his bare hands.

The third forbidden scale was relatively intact. He couldn't bear to sell it and planned to refine an ancient-style light armor with the secret technique from 40,000 years ago as well as some other materials.

However, a quote of 50 million…

Li Yao didn't show any sign of approval or disapproval. He took out from his backpack a lot of neatly-conserved demon tendons, demon bones, demon paws and demon teeth which all came from the mutant lion dragon.

Mr. Lin was sort of surprised. He glanced at Li Yao quickly and then focused on the new materials wholeheartedly. A moment later, he nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. Good. All of the materials are from the same mutant lion dragon. Although they are all damaged more or less due to what seems to be a big explosion, they can help improve the defense ability of the forbidden scales if they're refined together."

Li Yao didn't stop. He continued bringing out the trophies he got from the infiltration squad of the demon clan, which finally caused Mr. Lin's eyes to light up with astonishment.

Although members of the infiltration squad were only at the demon general level, a lot of them had carried magical equipment of the Blood Demon Sector.

Strong magical equipment such as the Soul Stealer and the materials that were relatively unblemished were too valuable for Li Yao to sell.

But the poorer items that he brought out were enough to dazzle Mr. Lin.

Mr. Lin stopped talking. He picked up a pair of glasses which was in a bizarre shape and looked like an ivory mini-sized telescope from the bottom of the crystal table and put it on his nose. Two silver lights beamed out from the glasses. He scrutinized the items on the table.

After a long time, he exhaled and said, "Despite the bad state of preservation, there are really a whole lot of them. Together with the two forbidden scales, well…

"The two forbidden scales have 11 cracks and 14 cracks inside, resulting to a defense loss of 22% and 37% respectively. But since you've brought a lot of demon bones that are of the same origin with the forbidden scales, we can grind them and insert the powder into the forbidden scales to fill the cracks."

Before he was able to propose his new quote, Li Yao interrupted him, "After repairing, sturdiness of the two forbidden scales should be able to be recovered to above 85%, which is similar to another precious defense material named "Ink Snake's Seven-inch Skin". But Ink Snake's Seven-inch Skin can rarely be so large. Usually, it has to be stitched together to make it larger, and the joints are its fatal weakness!

"At market, an Ink Snake's Seven-inch Skin of such size is worth more than 70 million, and you may not have the chance to buy it even if you have the money.

"Although the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion is a black market, a quote of only 50 million for the two forbidden scales of the mutant lion dragon is still too unfrank. I think we can stop here if you insist on your quote."

Mr. Link was truly shocked by what he said. He changed his attitude from superficial hospitality to sincere respect.

He wiped the cold sweat on his forehead. Calculating in silence for a moment, he said, "Mr. Fang, you are an expert of the trade. Let's just call a spade a spade. It's correct that the two forbidden scales, once repaired, could be as sturdy as the Ink Snake's Seven-inch Skin. But they have been damaged in battle after all in the first place. Many rich Cultivators wouldn't like to spend a fortune on a battle armor made of renovated materials, however perfectly it has been renewed.

"Therefore, the price of the Ink Snake's Seven-inch Skin does not fit in this scenario.

"100 million.

"100 million for the two forbidden scales.

"And another 100 million for the rest of the stuff combined.

"Mr. Fang, this is the best that the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion can offer. As an expert, you should know that the quote is about their true worth. After all, we need to make profit, too."

Li Yao nodded slightly. 200 million was quite close to his estimation.

Through official channel, he could sell them at a price 30 to 50 million higher, but there would be traces of the transaction. The black market, on the other hand, was much more direct and straightforward.

"Okay. I want twenty soul-marked cards with face value of 10 million."

A soul-marked card was a special, anonymous gold transfer card provided by banks for the exchanges of significant size among Cultivators.

Although the card was anonymous, a Cultivator could leave a unique soul mark inside the card and bind the soul mark with other bank cards.

Once the card was stolen, the Cultivator could feel it immediately and transfer the money in the card to other cards telepathically. The soul mark could also be used to locate where the card was.

Since it was anonymous and theft-proof, the soul-marked card was quite popular among Cultivators.

It didn't take much time before twenty violet soul-marked cards were delivered to Li Yao.

Splitting twenty telepathic thoughts, binding the soul-marked cards one by one, and sensing the '10,000,000' in each and every of them, Li Yao was so dizzy that he felt he was standing on a pile of cotton.

A lot of feelings were rolling over in his mind.

A year and a half ago, he was still a boy of no fame or fortune among the Common Class students on the playground of Crimson Nimbus Second High School watching the prestigious Fiend Blade Peng Hai flying in the sky, saliva hanging on his lips.

At that time, he was told that Cultivators such as Fiend Blade Peng Hai were all billionaires. They seemed to be an unreachable dream for him.

But now, he had become a billionaire, too?

Taking in a deep breath, Li Yao found that among other feelings, there was not much excitement.

Because he was a Cultivator.

To be a billionaire might be a life-long dream for an ordinary man, but it was just the start line in the Cultivation world.

What's more, what he was pursuing could not be bought by money.

Mr. Lin smiled and said, "Mr. Fang, this is your first time here and you've already brought us such a big deal. I am personally benefited from you, too, with the brokerage that I'm going to get. Thank you very much, Mr. Fang. If there's anything else that you need, feel free to ask me. Although the Bountiful Treasures Pavilion is just a marketplace, we have a lot of connections in the Serpent City, and it is our top principle to serve the customers until they're satisfied."

Li Yao thought of something. He asked, "Besides purchasing materials, I believe you sell them, too?"

Mr. Lin nodded. He pushed a crystal processor over and smiled politely.

"Of course. The Bountiful Treasures Pavilion is one of the largest material exchange centers in the south of the federation. We provide whatever materials you're interested in. This is the latest inventory of materials we offer. Please take a look, Mr. Fang."

The crystal processor had an amazing performance. The moment Li Yao opened the inventory, he entered a Half-step Great Illusionary Land. Countless streams of information flowed into his brain, which were introductions to thousands of materials. It was just the table of contents. If going to details, there were millions of materials on the list.

Li Yao glanced through them and sighed. Whatever excitement he had when he just got the 200 million was completely gone now.

These materials were too expensive!

'It seems that 200 million for a Cultivators is no different than 20 thousand for an ordinary man. In the blink of an eye, it'll all be gone!'