In ten years, once the Spirit Stones ran out, wouldn’t everyone still live the same life, licking the blade and enduring hardship just like before?
Mo Hua thought of Auntie Meng, Aunt Jiang, and Da’hu, along with the other familiar Monster Hunters.
He thought of the tears they shed in life, the blood they spilled in hunting monsters, their bitter suffering, and the perilousness of their existence.
Mo Hua felt an even heavier burden on his heart.
Was there a way to make these good days last a little longer for everyone?
This thought lingered endlessly in Mo Hua’s mind.
Mo Hua thought about it while eating, while cultivating, and even when he was Drawing Formations.
One day, while Mo Hua was flipping through Formation Books, he had a sudden flash of inspiration.
He ran to the storage of the Monster Hunting Guild and found Elder Yu.
A great number of Spirit Stones were stockpiled in the storage, and Elder Yu could not set his mind at ease, so he had been personally guarding it these days.
Mo Hua asked, “Elder Yu, how did the Qian Family make their fortune?”
Elder Yu was a bit surprised but still pondered for a moment and said,
“The Patriarch of the Qian Family started as a Monster Hunter. Later, he saved up some Spirit Stones, quit being a Monster Hunter, and started the business of Artifact Refining and Alchemy…”
“The Monster Hunters killed Monster Beasts and he would buy the materials they stripped off at low prices, hire Loose Cultivators to refine them into Spiritual Artifacts and Pills, then sell them to Monster Hunters at high prices.”
“As time passed, his business grew larger. The price he paid for materials dropped lower and lower, the lengths of time he hired Loose Cultivators for grew longer and longer, and the Spiritual Artifacts and Pills he sold became more and more expensive. Naturally, the Qian Family became richer and richer.”
Mo Hua asked doubtfully, “Didn’t anyone compete with them?”
“They couldn’t be competed with,” Elder Yu shook his head. “Others weren’t as ruthless or cunning; they couldn’t match the Qian Family.”
Mo Hua continued, “I’ve heard that the Qian Family started from nothing.”
Elder Yu scoffed, “That’s just the Qian Family putting gold on their own faces.”
“It’s not like that?”
Elder Yu scanned the surroundings with his Divine Sense, ensuring there were no irregularities, then sat down, drank a cup of tea, and began to speak to Mo Hua,
“I just said, the Patriarch of the Qian Family saved up some Spirit Stones. How do you think those Spirit Stones were saved up?”
Mo Hua thought carefully and suddenly felt startled.
Elder Yu raised an eyebrow, “We’re all Monster Hunters. Why couldn’t others save up, but he could? The amount of Spirit Stones necessary to open a Refinery Shop and an Alchemist’s Business isn’t small; a normal Monster Hunter couldn’t save up that much in a lifetime…”
Mo Hua’s gaze sharpened, “What did he do then?”
Elder Yu said, “The older generation of Monster Hunters told me that the Patriarch of the Qian Family was deceitful from young. When he went Monster Hunting with others, he even killed his companions to take the Monster Beasts’ inner cores for himself. Later he disguised himself as a bandit, robbing people on Big Black Mountain, and engaged in all sorts of swindling and cheating behind the scenes, willing to do anything for Spirit Stones. That’s how he accumulated his first fortune…”
Elder Yu let out another cold laugh, “No horse grows fat without being fed at night, nobody grows rich without ill-gotten wealth; where in the world does ‘starting from scratch’ truly come from?”
Mo Hua listened with a sinking heart.
After Elder Yu finished his gossip and moistened his throat with another cup of tea, he suddenly remembered something and said, “You came to see me for something more than just a chat, didn’t you? Is there something you need?”
Mo Hua’s eyes lit up, “Elder Yu, let’s also start our own Refinery Shop and Alchemist’s Business to earn Spirit Stones!”
Elder Yu let out a chuckle, “Silly child, the Qian Family could save up the Spirit Stones to start their business through murder and deception. Where would we get that kind of capital?”
Mo Hua smiled, “We don’t need to resort to killing or deception; we already have the capital.”
Elder Yu shook his head, about to say something, when his heart suddenly skipped a beat, and he turned to look at the storage room.
Piled up in the storage room were dense and numerous Spirit Stones—freshly mined from the Spiritual mines, and exchanged from the hands of the Taoist Court officials!
“But… Refining Artifacts and Alchemy aren’t that easy.”
“There are plenty of Alchemists and Artifact Refiners among the Loose Cultivators. If we’re short on manpower, we can just spend Spirit Stones to hire them,” Mo Hua responded.
Elder Yu frowned and thought for a moment, “The most troublesome part is the Artifact Furnace and the Alchemy Furnace. To scale the business up, we’d need large, high-quality Artifact Furnaces and Alchemy Furnaces.”
“Is making Artifact Furnaces and Alchemy Furnaces difficult?”
“Their creation requires a lot of manpower, material resources, and fine iron, but the trickiest and most crucial aspect lies within the furnaces…”
As Elder Yu said this, his heart suddenly pounded, and he couldn’t help but look toward Mo Hua.
The most crucial aspect… was the Formation inside the furnace!
Elder Yu connected the dots and experienced a moment of clarity.
They were ready for everything! They lacked nothing!
They had the Spirit Stones, they had the manpower, and for the most difficult part, the Formation… they already had Mo Hua.
Elder Yu found it hard to believe for a moment.