Chapter 171 - 127: "Mortal Realm Level 1 Trusted Influence
This had a huge impact on their core business.
"..."
The night was deep.
Darkness enveloped the land as it always did. The West Lake Tower Master sat expressionlessly in his chair, listening to his subordinate’s report. After a long silence, he walked alone to an area in the very heart of the camp.
A Vehicle Workshop was encircled by a Level 3 City Wall.
He strode inside.
The entire Vehicle Workshop came into view. He looked toward an old man bustling about in front of it and asked calmly, "Elder Qiu, how goes it?"
"I’ll try again."
Elder Qiu wiped the sweat from his brow and took a deep breath before slowly closing his eyes once more. In the blink of an eye, the pile of Ghost Stones beside him instantly transformed into a milky-white liquid and surged into the Vehicle Workshop.
Soon.
A rumbling sound echoed from within the Vehicle Workshop. Moments later, a newly-crafted Skeleton Horse was slowly carried out on a conveyor belt.
"It’s still no good."
A hint of frustration flashed in Elder Qiu’s eyes. He lowered his voice, sounding dejected. "I am a Level 7 Architect, so I can already control the energy loss from the Ghost Stones to a decent degree. However, the Vehicle Workshop itself consumes a massive amount of energy. Even when I control the flow with the utmost precision to minimize the loss..."
"The cost to craft a single Skeleton Horse is still 1,278 Ghost Stones."
"..."
The West Lake Tower Master stood to the side, his expression blank, saying nothing. Activating the Vehicle Workshop required an Architect to personally convert Ghost Stones into their liquid form and channel them into the facility.
Whether it was for crafting buildings or for this process, some energy loss was inherent.
The higher the Architect’s Level, the more precisely they could control the energy, allowing them to create higher-level structures and... reduce the rate of energy loss.
But—
Elder Qiu was already a Level 7 Architect, yet the best he could manage was a production cost of 1,278 Ghost Stones.
At that price, they had already lost any hope of competing with the Mortal Realm.
Other factions had a production cost of 1,500 Ghost Stones and a minimum selling price of 1,600. Of course, he could keep cutting his prices, dropping the retail price to 1,500 Ghost Stones, but his profit margin would become razor-thin. Besides, he had a strong suspicion the Mortal Realm would just lower their prices even further.
Just to drive him out of business.
And monopolize the market.
"Right now, the highest-level Architect in all of Jiangnan is the Pavilion Master of the World Pavilion, who is a Level 9 Architect. I strongly suspect that Chen Fan must be a Level 10 Architect, or perhaps even higher. Otherwise, he could never achieve such high production volume."
"Sigh."
The West Lake Tower Master let out a soft sigh, unsure of what to say. ’I always thought my undoing would come at the hands of my sworn enemy,’ he mused, ’not some faction from Jiangbei.’
Elder Qiu had touched upon the most critical issue.
Production volume.
Their daily output was limited. The process of an Architect channeling Ghost Stones to create Skeleton Horses was mentally exhausting; they couldn’t produce very many in a single day. Ten was pretty much their absolute limit.
But the other party... their production seemed limitless.
They had the attitude of, ’Tell us how many Skeleton Horses you want, and we’ll produce them as long as you have the Ghost Stones.’
He even had a wild suspicion that Chen Fan might be a Level 15 Architect.
Just then—
A young woman in a red dress walked over, leaned on his shoulder, and whispered, "Father, are we going to engage in a price war with the Mortal Realm?"
"..."
The middle-aged man, who had been quiet all this time, remained silent for a long while before gently stroking his daughter’s head and murmuring, "We can’t fight them. In a price war, we can’t win. And even if we somehow did, the moment they get desperate, they’ll just roll out the Dragon Carriage."
"You saw what happened to the Pill Sect."
"We can’t stop it."
"Then what should we do?"
The young woman looked up at her father, her heart aching for him. He seemed to have aged years in an instant after receiving the news. She couldn’t help, and she didn’t know what she was supposed to do.
"The rise of the Mortal Realm is an unstoppable tide. They’ve already built their momentum, so resisting them head-on would be foolish. If we embrace the change, we might find a way to survive."
"For example—"
"Over the years we’ve been selling Skeleton Horses, we’ve built up extensive trade routes and connections. We could buy Skeleton Horses in bulk from the Mortal Realm and then sell them elsewhere, like the more distant Guanxi Plain."
"For years, the major factions on the Guanxi Plain have been locked in constant, chaotic warfare. The atmosphere there is tense, and their demand for Skeleton Horses is extremely high."
"It’s difficult for other factions to get a foothold there."
"But since we’ve been supplying the Guanxi Plain with Skeleton Horses all these years, we’ve earned the trust of many of its factions. We can leverage the Mortal Realm’s production to increase our supply and sell even more Skeleton Horses to the Guanxi Plain."
"That way, even though our profit margin on each Skeleton Horse will be lower, our volume will be much higher. We might even end up making more money."
"Really?"
The young woman’s eyes lit up. "Father, you’re brilliant!"
"That’s just the best-case scenario."
The middle-aged man chuckled wryly. "We’ll set out tomorrow and arrive in Jiangbei the day after. As for the details, I need to go to the Mortal Realm and see for myself. It would be even better if I could meet Chen Fan and have a word with him in person."
A clan should never pivot or change its business model lightly.
No one ever knows if such a change will be for the better or for the worse.
But now, he had no choice.
He had to pivot. He was being forced to.
...
The night grew late.
The factions that had yet to leave Mortal City were all resting in their inns.
Chen Fan, meanwhile, had returned to Cave No. 1 within the Celestial Pit on Nameless Mountain. He sat in his usual spot, a rocking chair atop the City Wall, listening to the excited chatter of Lame Monkey and the others.
"Young Master!"
Lame Monkey reported excitedly, "The first day’s results were perfect!"
"All twenty slots for becoming a Level 1 Trusted Influence of the Mortal Realm were snatched up! In total, we sold 1,509 Skeleton Horses and 129 Ghost Camels. The carriages didn’t sell as well; we only sold seven of them."