This chapter has been brought to you by me, WanderingGummiOfDoom, warlord212 and cactuar0.
My editors are amazing people who managed to edit this whole load of chapters, part of which you have been reading the last few days, before their own holiday rush.
So thanks, editors!
Chapter One Hundred and Six – The Half-Finished Product Processing Maniac
“You know I do not have jingshi.” Zuo Mo could only say.
“Oh, you can just owe me.” Pu Yao said unconcernedly, “This time, you spent two pieces of fourth-grade jingshi. Oh, adding on my wages, seeing that everyone is so familiar, let’s give a discount, just eight pieces of fourth-grade jingshi. In total, ten pieces of fourth-grade jingshi. Oh, repay it in three months. One month over, it will be two times the number.”
Zuo Mo’s limbs felt cold, “Pu, this price is too outrageous… …”
“Oh, no no no, I’m a Sky Yao, my appearance fee is very expensive!” Pu Yao shamelessly said.
Ten pieces of fourth-grade jingshi, that was five thousand pieces of third-grade jingshi… … three months… …
Zuo Mo felt dizzy. He made one last effort, “This is impossible to complete!”
“Oh, don’t worry, I like interest!” Pu Yao gave an intoxicating smile.
In Dong Fu, Zuo Mo sat in the store, all his attention on controlling the Stalagmite fire. In that ball of white flame, there was a glowing liquid boiling. A xiuzhe was standing at the side, not daring to breathe, as he stared nervously at the milky white ball of flame.
Suddenly, the Stalagmite fire disappeared, a clear medicinal fluid floated silently in front of Zuo Mo. A fragrance instantly spread out in the air. Zuo Mo skillfully urged the medicinal fluid into the already prepared jade bottle. When the fluid entered the bottle, he instantly shoved a cork in.
“Your Bell grass fluid, twenty pieces of third-grade jingshi.” Zuo Mo expressionlessly said.
“Bro, can you be a bit cheaper? This is the ninth time I’ve come here!” The xiuzhe pleaded.
Zuo Mo raised his expressionless face, “My appearance fee is very expensive.”
The other was speechless and could only painfully take out twenty-pieces of third-grade jingshi. Zuo Mo didn’t even look, just shoved it into the Hundred Treasures pouch at his waist before closing his eyes to recover ling energy. After a while, he opened his eyes, “Next one.”
Li Ying Feng hurriedly let another person in. Ever since Zuo Mo had come to the store, she was shocked at the popularity of the business. Zuo Mo Shidi had gotten a strange white fire from somewhere that was extremely icy. Zuo Mo Shidi had also displayed his business skills. He received all kinds of weird jobs, like purifying and making medicinal fluids, forging certain raw materials. These jobs that she had never heard of before, Zuo Mo Shidi could do all of them.
She quickly found that all the jobs that Zuo Mo Shidi provided were middle-men jobs such as purification. He actually did not take requests for dan-making. She had once been extremely puzzled at this. Zuo Mo Shidi was most skilled in dan-making! Only later did she understand the meaning of it. That was efficiency. Just making the intermediate product, with Zuo Mo Shidi’s terrifying recovery rate, the efficiency was shockingly high.
He was like a human-shaped stove, not knowing exhaustion.
In comparison, Shidi’s terrifying control of fire did not shock her too much!
Up until now, Zuo Mo Shidi had not failed once. Li Ying Feng was amazed but not shocked. Zuo Mo Shidi was a genius at dan-making. It was normal for him to be skilled at controlling fire. His terrifying success rate quickly became famous in Dong Fu. Everyone knew that Dong Fu had a store called the Wu Kong Grocery store that had a zombie-like guy who had godly talents at controlling fire, and even rarer, it was a white cold fire. The grade of that white cold fire was not high, but it was extremely powerful. The processed products that were created were all of high quality.
Cold fire was hard to find in the first place, and the number of xiuzhe that had cold fire was pitifully few. Usually, a xiuzhe that had a fire was either skilled in dan-making, cooking, or forging. Who was willing to work on intermediate products? A xiuzhe that only made intermediate products suddenly appearing out of nowhere, the xiuzhe that had a need instantly flowed in.
This person was wearing a hat. When he saw Zuo Mo, his steps paused.
“What do you want me to forge?” Zuo Mo said, not even raising his head.
“Fourth-grade Cold Magnet.” The other said.
Zuo Mo was slightly surprised. He raised his head to glance at the other and shook his head, “I can only process third-grade. Fourth-grade is out of my limits. Please find someone else.”
Stalagmite fire was only a second-grade fire seed. If it wasn’t that his consciousness was strong, and his ability to control fire was high, he could only process second-grade items. Even so, third-grade was Zuo Mo’s present limit. He didn’t even need to think about the fourth-grade Cold Magnet.
The other said in a deep voice, “Can you cut this fourth-grade cold magnet into four pieces?”
Cut? Zuo Mo thought and then said, “I can try.”
The other took out a black stone. Embedded in the rock was dots of blue ice. He handed it to Zuo Mo.
Zuo Mo didn’t take it, “The payment will be two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi.”
“Okay.” The other replied simply.
Rich person! Zuo Mo’s heart was full of disdain but his hand quickly took this fourth-grade cold magnet.
The reason that he had thought of making intermediate products was that he had been forced by the demand for jingshi. After taking on the huge debt of five thousand pieces of third-grade jingshi, Zuo Mo had to work his mind to find ways of earning jingshi. Planting Fiery Red flower was a pretty good method, but that meant that he had to rent a ling garden five times what he had rented before. What he felt helpless about that was, even if he used all the ling farmer spells he had, the growing period of the Fiery Red flower wouldn’t be shorter than five months!
He unhesitatingly dismissed this plan. If it went over a month, it would multiply. Five months meant that Zuo Mo needed to pay back twenty thousand pieces of third-grade jingshi.
Without any other way, he could only plan around the Stalagmite fire.
Hoping that he could earn five thousand third-grade jingshi by selling dan in three months was not realistic. After he finished learning, it would have been too late. An idea had suddenly sparked and he thought of making intermediate products. He was extremely practiced at purifying and concentrating ling grasses right now. The purification and tempering of forging was not hard to learn.
Stalagmite fire was a rare cold fire, extremely suited for processing those yin and cold attributed ling materials and ling grasses. The number of xiuzhe that had fire seeds was pitifully small, those that had cold fire was even less, and Zuo Mo was the only one willing to make intermediate products!
Originally, this business was not very profitable since it was just for intermediate profits and he could only take the processing fee. However, after getting the yao seed, Zuo Mo’s control of fire increased dramatically. The Stalagmite fire was almost alive in his hands and the efficiency was astonishing. With the mo matrix, his ling energy recovery rate was extremely high. After meditating for a little while, he would be back at full power.
Zuo Mo had not solved the problem of storing ling power. Even though his absorption rate of ling energy had increased and the effects showed in tempering his body, but the increase in his cultivation had been limited. Due to this problem, he had gone to discuss it with Pu Yao many times. There was too much of a difference in the mo matrix from what Pu Yao had advertised and the reality. Zuo Mo had requested a reduction in his debt.
In the face of reality, Pu Yao could only admit it and reduce Zuo Mo’s debt by one thousand third-grade jingshi.
The debts of four thousand third-grade jingshi caused Zuo Mo to take a breath of relief. He quickly found the most effective method of using the mo matrix. Since its ability was to increase the speed of taking in ling energy, then he would rapidly use up the ling energy, then quickly replenish it. If he repeated it like that, wouldn’t it work?
He quickly found that the yao seed with the Stalagmite fire was the perfect combination with the mo matrix!
Other than the business being average the first few days, the following days, the business was extremely hot because xiuzhe were coming in to Dong Fu from the outside to attend the Dong Fu Sword Test Conference. Zuo Mo’s processing fee was not cheap. Basically, it started from twenty pieces of third-grade jingshi. If it was something good, it would immediately jump to forty pieces of third-grade jingshi.
Yelling two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi was just him being outrageous, and he had not thought that the other would unhesitatingly agree.
According to his normal income, he would take in, on average, two hundred pieces of jingshi per day. According to this speed, he would quickly pay off his debts. This kind of business depended on the time. If this wasn’t the time of the Dong Fu Sword Test, just with the local Dong Fu xiuzhe, it would have been good if he could earn forty piece of jingshi every day.
However, he had gained quite a lot from this kind of furious labor.
He managed to learn and arrange the Stalagmite fire into a Three-Turn fire formation which could greatly increase the effect of the fire to the point of being able to melt some fourth-grade ling grasses. However, he did not easily take jobs involving fourth-grade materials. The main reason was the risk was too high. If he accidentally ruined someone’s material, then he couldn’t even pay them back.
The price of fourth-grade materials, it was sky high.
This time, the other only asked him to cut the Cold Magnet. Zuo Mo felt the risk was not that high. Since the other had not even negotiated on his opening price of two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi, he felt the profit was extremely high.
Speaking of sharpness, nothing was as sharp as flying swords. However, some materials could not be cut with flying swords because it would ruin the material. Cold Magnet was one of those materials. There were many considerations in cutting a Cold Magnet. The magnetism was not evenly distributed. It was extremely complicated to try to preserve the magnetism of each piece.
However, this was not too hard for Zuo Mo. The yao seed seemed to have been born for [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. Even he felt afraid at the speed of improvement in his spirit. After his consciousness became stronger, it didn’t require much effort to inspect third-grade materials. It was not that easy for fourth-grade material, but if he used those spiritual tentacles, he could quickly finish it. Other than increasing his control fire, it allowed him to study the material very well, and made him much more efficient at processing it.
Since it involved two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi, Zuo Mo was extremely careful. Each time he worked on a fourth-grade material, it was a rare experience.
Closing his eyes, he inspected this middle-sized Cold Magnet multiple times with his spiritual tentacles. After he was completely certain of the magnet location, he opened his eyes.
The black-gauze hat wearing customer only saw Zuo Mo holding the cold magnet and resting for a long time before suddenly opening his eyes.
The Cold Magnet in Zuo Mo’s hand slowly floated into the air. At the same time, a milky white flame quietly appeared, the surroundings becoming cold.
Behind the black gauze, a surprised expression flashed in the eyes.
Zuo Mo sat calmly, no expression on his face. Only that pair of eyes could make others feel his concentration.
The pair of hands half resting before his chest started to move and change, stirring a string of afterimages.
The Stalagmite fire floating in the air turned into an extremely thin white flame thread, swimming around the cold magnet like an extremely slender white snake.
Suddenly, the snaking fire thread speeded up. The black gauze hat wearing customer felt the white fire was like lightning, circling around, the head reaching the tail!
A Three-Turn fire formation suddenly formed!
Translator Ramblings: Anyone want to do the conversion to second-grade jingshi? Zuo Mo is obviously starting to learn things from Pu Yao.