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Chapter 692: Chapter 698: Ambush
"Fellow Daoist is worrying too much."
Li Wenli shook his head, seeing that the person was still unsatisfied, a glint rapidly flickered in his eyes, he spoke softly, "I presume Fellow Daoist can roughly guess how many Spirit Stones my Li family accounts for each day, which shows how profitable such a monopoly can be."
The cultivator involuntarily nodded, then impatiently said, "But those heaps of Spirit Stones are being earned by you, which has nothing to do with us."
These cultivators mingling in commerce associations, unlike those in sects and families, sought to improve their status from within, and their own strength wasn’t the primary factor, but rather their ability to make money was!
Of course, if there were an Elder of Divine Transformation, then these rules naturally wouldn’t apply to him.
In the face of absolute strength, so-called rules can be broken.
If the Li family were allowed to continue this way, it was foreseeable how low their profits would be this year, and by that time, it was feared that all the members of the commerce association working within the Li Clan’s territory might receive the lowest of evaluations!
"Who says it’s unrelated?"
It wasn’t until now that Li Wenli revealed his true purpose, "Your association has been of great help to our family over the years, we aren’t the sort to be ungrateful, so we would like to invite your esteemed association to join us, to monopolize the market together!"
"But the association doesn’t have that many cheap Spiritual Objects available."
To say they weren’t tempted would be impossible. During this time, who didn’t know that Spirit Stones were flowing towards the Li family from all directions? Even Loose Cultivators from neighboring State Domains came running.
The Li family’s territory was already a vast market, but with this move from the Li family, suddenly there were tens of thousands more consumers!
If they could share a piece of the pie, their evaluation would undoubtedly look very good!
"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist, even if my Li family earns a bit less, we can’t let down our friends!"
Li Wenli assured with utmost seriousness, "If your esteemed association is willing, I can decide to give up forty percent, no! Fifty percent of the lower-end Spiritual Objects to the association."
"Are the words of Fellow Daoist truly sincere?" The cultivator’s eyes lit up, his mind muddled by huge profits, not bothering to consider why the Li family was willing to give up such significant benefits, his only thought was to expedite this arrangement.
"Once a word is spoken, even a team of four horses cannot retrieve it!"
After a pause, Li Wenli added, "Since we are joining forces to monopolize, our two sides must maintain a unified price. If we fall into the trap of competitively reducing prices, it would be extremely detrimental to both our families."
"Of course! We wouldn’t do something that harms others without benefiting ourselves," the man assured, patting his chest.
"Great! My Li family can sell low-end Spiritual Objects to your esteemed association at eighty-five percent of the current market price. How does that sound to you, Fellow Daoist?"
As the Store Manager of the Li Clan’s regional subsidiary, he had a decisive say in this matter. Once he’s taken care of, everything else should follow suit.
"Fellow Daoist, isn’t the price a bit high?" Although they already stood to make a fair profit, who wouldn’t want to increase their own?
Upon hearing this, a bitter expression immediately appeared on Li Wenli’s face as he said, "Fellow Daoist, if we reduce it any further, we would earn nothing at all."
As for such a claim, anyone who believed it was a fool!
After a back-and-forth exchange, they finally agreed to provide the Southern Edge Commerce Association with thirty thousand bottles of low-tier first-grade Spirit Pills, two thousand Magic Artifacts, ten thousand Talismans, and so on, at eighty percent of the market price, with a total value of around one hundred fifty thousand.
Even with this, the Li family still had a profit margin of more than ten percent!
Afterwards, Li Wenli personally saw the man off from Wanxian Island, watching his anxious departure, he couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh, "Finally managed to sell off those stocks!"
When he initially opened up the foundational knowledge of the crafts, his intentions were quite admirable, yet as time went by, the drawbacks became apparent.
Among these clan members, even those with some talent could only produce low-quality spiritual objects when starting out—their success barely worthy of the name, with quality utterly abysmal!
Moreover, the vast majority of the clan members possessed no such talent.
External-use spiritual objects like talismans and magic artifacts were one thing, but spirit pills had to be ingested, oftentimes rife with pill toxicity. How could the Li family possibly permit clan members to consume them?
However, if not used, they would just pile up. They couldn’t possibly be simply disposed of, could they? After all, they represented a considerable amount of spirit stones.
As a result, these low-end spiritual objects accumulated more and more, to the point where their storage was bursting at the seams!
Eventually, after convening with the elders to brainstorm, they came up with the idea of dumping these goods at low prices, and from the beginning, they set their sights on various commerce associations.
Because low-end spirit pills contain a higher amount of pill toxicity and offer lower drug resistance, loose cultivators might experience the effects after consuming only about fifteen to twenty bottles.
If not leveraging the commerce associations, in just a year or two, those spirit pills from the Li family would become unsellable!
Now that they had settled the deal with the Southern Edge Commerce Association, other commerce associations would surely follow suit. When the time came, the Li family would only need to act as a supplier, even though the profit wouldn’t be as high as selling on their own, the overall income would definitely increase.
With this influx of spirit stones, the Li family would have significantly more funds to allocate, allowing them to engage in activities more beneficial to the clan, such as nurturing Spirit Vein, purchasing spiritual objects, methods, and so forth.
Each of these activities was a substantial drain of spirit stones.
——
In the distant seas, seldom traced by human tracks.
A slightly smaller Sea Devil, judging from its aura, having just broken through to the fourth tier, was hunting in the shallow sea, cautiously probing its surroundings. At even the slightest disturbance, it would immediately flee into the deep sea.
"Damn featherless beast!"
"This time, we must capture it, making it endure the most excruciating torture without dying, tormenting it day and night!" 𝚗o𝚟pub.𝚌𝚘𝚖
Several massive Sea Devils were lying in ambush nearby, communicating with each other through voice transmission. Despite the silence, one could feel their anger through their words.
In the past few years, Xiaoqing would come every few months to hunt a fourth-tier Great Devil. While there were occasional slip-ups, the Sea Clan had become increasingly vigilant, and his gains grew sparser.
Especially last year, when he didn’t catch a single fourth-tier Great Devil!
Xiaoqing knew that the fourth-tier Great Devils were afraid, hiding away, not daring to show themselves. Although they were numerous, he moved without a trace, elusively unpredictable.
So Xiaoqing rested for a year without taking action, with the intent of letting their guard down and seizing the opportunity to strike.
And sure enough, a few months ago, he acted suddenly. In an alliance with Feng Peng, he managed to capture a fourth-tier Sea Devil, which they devoured together.
This event sent a ripple of fear among the average-strength fourth-tier Sea Devils, knowing they could not hide forever in the depths of the sea, where food was relatively scarce and insufficient for their consumption.
Why are Sea Devils generally so massive in size? Apart from innate factors brought by their bloodline, it is also because they often consume vast quantities of flesh and blood.
Gradually, this became a deep-rooted habit, leaving them ravenous at the mere thought of skipping a meal.
