Exotic Gold

After more than a month of refining, Zhou Yang had completed hundreds of orders. Within less than three months after Zhou Yang took charge of Yuquan Pavilion, the initially ordinary shop had become one of the most profitable shops in Jinsha Square City.

Thanks to the huge flow of customers brought in by the highly-demanded service of custom magical artifact refinement, more than half of the pills, magical artifacts, and spiritual  talismans had been sold. The sales from just a few short months of operation had already surpassed that of the past ten years.

And Zhou Yang had steadily earned nearly two thousand lower-tier spiritual  stones as Yuquan Pavilion's artifact refiner.

Though the shop's recent successes were mainly due to Zhou Yang's ideas and efforts, he was not selfish to keep them to himself. He decided to give Zhou Yu and Zhou Xiong who had been working hard as the shop's sales assistants a bonus of one hundred spiritual  stones each from the shop's sales. The money did belong to the clan but with how well the shop was doing, Zhou Yang didn't think they would have an issue with his decision.

Two months later, the number of custom orders for magical artifacts had declined, just as Zhou Yang had expected. The market had been saturated.

After all, magical artifacts were not one-time consumables like medicinal pills and spiritual  talismans. If cultivators frequently refined and maintained the upkeep of their magical artifacts, it was not impossible for them to be passed down for thousands of years, especially magical artifacts with higher ratings.

Regardless, Zhou Yang was not in the least bit worried. He and Yuquan Pavilion had already earned enough spiritual  stones to last more than ten years.

And ever since he discovered that cultivating in the Earth Fire chamber could help him open up his cultivation bottleneck, Zhou Yang had been staying there for twenty days a month, not to refine magical artifacts but to practice his spells while Earth Fire burned in the furnace.

It was a very effective tactic. After two to three months of cultivation in the Earth Fire chamber, the bottleneck preventing Zhou Yang from breaking through had let up even more. Zhou Yang could feel that there was only a thin layer left between his Qi Refinement Level 8 and the Qi Refinement Level 9.

All Zhou Yang needed now was to find a place with rich spiritual Qi for Closed Door Cultivation for a few days and he was confident he would be able to break through the thin layer and reach Level 9 of Qi Refinement.

Zhou Yang decided to go into Closed Door Cultivation at Yuquan Pavilion and immediately left the Earth Fire chamber.

Just as he arrived at the doorstep of Yuquan Pavilion, he heard Zhou Xiong arguing with a guest inside.

"Fellow cultivator, I don't want to argue with you either. But if you really think that what you have in your hand is such a precious treasure, you should go somewhere else to sell it. Let's see if they are willing to exchange an Advanced Grade 2 magical artifact for this lousy stone of yours!"

"Lousy stone? Kid, how can you say that? This is an exotic stone that can't be refined even with Earth Fire. It's at least a Grade 4 spiritual item, and a Grade 4 spiritual item can only be exchanged for an Advanced Grade 2 magical artifact of yours. Do you understand?"

"Do you think that any hard stone can be a Grade 4 spiritual item? It's not even emitting the slightest bit of spiritual Qi. You're lying! If you don't leave now, don't blame me for being rude to you!"

"Rude? How can a puny Level 4 Qi Refinement cultivator be rude? I won't stoop to your level. I want to speak to your manager. I heard that he is an Advanced Grade 2 artifact refiner. If he takes a look at this, he will know that I am not a liar!"

When Zhou Yang overheard the commotion, he immediately became curious and strode into the building.

Zhou Xiong was glaring at a burly middle-aged man who was holding a pitch-black ore the size of a human head in his right hand.

The burly middle-aged man was at Qi Refinement Level 8. No wonder Zhou Xiong was humiliated by him even in his own territory.

When Zhou Xiong saw Zhou Yang walk in, he thought he finally had some backup. Zhou Xiong started to act even more arrogantly as he said, "Zhou Yang, you came at the right time. This guy just waltzed in with a broken stone that doesn't have any spiritual Qi and claimed that it is some kind of exotic gold he could use to exchange for the Fire Cloud Banner!"

The Fire Cloud Banner was an Advanced Grade 2 magical artifact that Zhou Yang had obtained when he killed the sand bandits at the sand slope. It was a well-refined magical artifact that had inspired Zhou Yang to improve his Artifact Refinement Technique.

And since Zhou Yang was already satisfied with his collection of magical artifacts, he had decided to put up the Fire Cloud Banner for sale at Yuquan Pavilion, along with the other magical artifacts and spiritual items that he had seized from the sand bandits. 

With sales doing so well, the Fire Cloud Banner was the only magical artifact left that had not been sold due to its high price. Therefore, when he heard Zhou Xiong reporting to him, Zhou Yang immediately cupped his hands toward the burly middle-aged man and said, "I am Zhou Yang, the manager of Yuquan Pavilion. May I know if this brother of mine is telling the truth? Fellow cultivator, may I have a look at the spiritual  item in your hand?"

"You are Zhou Yang of Yuquan Pavilion? You look as young as the legends say, but I don't know if you are as powerful. Please don't let be undeserving of your name!"

The burly middle-aged man's thick eyebrows and big eyes sized up Zhou Yang with a suspicious look. He stretched out his hand and handed the pitch-black ore to Zhou Yang.

Zhou Xiong jumped up and shouted, "Zhou Yang, look, this guy is too rude. Please don't be fooled by him. We have seen many of these kinds of tricks. I dare to bet that this broken stone has been handled by other refiners at least ten times. If it was a treasure, it would have been claimed long ago. Why would he come to us now?"

"Don't worry, Zhou Xiong. I know what to do. How about you entertain other customers?"

Zhou Yang gave this clan brother a reassuring look. Then, he smiled as he reached out to receive the pitch-black ore that the burly middle-aged man handed him and carefully examined it.

He was not at a level where he knew the artifact refinement book collection of the Zhou clan inside out. But he had read the 'Book of the World's Treasures' that his father had given him. He knew that there were no less than a thousand types of ores and spiritual  items in the world. However, even after thoroughly examining the pitch-black ore with methods such as Mana Cleansing and Divine Sense Penetration Analysis, he was still unable to match it with any of the spiritual items in his memory.

The only thing he could be sure of was that this rock that did not have any spiritual Qi was indeed very hard. The burly middle-aged man was probably not lying when he said that even Earth Fire would not be able to refine it.

But Zhou Yang was having a hard time believing the burly middle-aged man's claim that this pitch-black ore was an exotic gold.

Exotic gold came from the upper realm and it would usually be of Grade 5 or above. Its spiritual Qi could be sensed even from hundreds of miles away. How could this pitch-black ore with no spiritual Qi at all be it?

But though this pitch-black ore was not an exotic gold, it was not a broken stone like Zhou Xiong had mentioned. Just based on its hardness and heat resistance, it was definitely not an ordinary item.

Zhou Xiong himself might have also known about this. The reason he said that the pitch-black ore was a broken stone was probably not only because he was angry at the burly middle-aged man for asking for too much, but also because he wanted to bargain.

If he could get this pitch-black ore at a lower price and bring it back to the clan for the clan leader to examine, perhaps the latter might be able to recognize it.

However, Zhou Yang knew that since the burly middle-aged man dared to ask for an Advanced Grade 2 magical artifact in return, he definitely wouldn't sell this ore at a low price.

Therefore, Zhou Yang pretended to continue examining the ore with wide eyes, as if he was trying to ascertain the ore's origin. But internally, he was figuring out the minimum price the burly middle-aged man would agree to.

After thinking for a while, he finally had a plan.

He looked at the burly middle-aged man with regret and said, "Fellow cultivator, please forgive my poor eyesight. I really can't see anything special about this ore of yours."

After saying that, he handed the ore back to the other party.

When the burly middle-aged man saw this, his face immediately sank. He couldn't help but snort coldly and say, "It seems that you are a person who does not live up to your reputation. You can't even recognize the exotic gold and you still have the cheek to call yourself a great artifact refiner!"

"Fellow cultivator, you can say whatever you want. In any case, you can't use this unknown ore to exchange for an Advanced Grade 2 magical artifact such as our Fire Cloud Banner. It's impossible to sell it for less than eight hundred spiritual stones." Zhou Yang faintly smiled, he wasn't agitated at all.

"What unknown ore? This is clearly exotic gold! Don't speak nonsense if you don't know what's good for you!" The muscles on the burly middle-aged man's face twitched as he angrily shouted in protest.

"That's right. We don't know what's good for us, and we've wasted your time earning spiritual  stones. Sir, since you insist that this is exotic gold, why don't you sell it to the shops of Yellow Sand School or the Chen clan? A treasure like exotic gold is not something that a small clan like us can appreciate. You should just go back to where you came from!"

Zhou Xiong had reappeared and retorted sarcastically at the burly middle-aged man.

In his opinion, this burly man had come to cause trouble at Yuquan Pavilion because he saw that its business had been booming recently. Since Zhou Yang had just given him a bonus of a hundred spiritual  stones due to the recent increase in the sales of the shop, he would hate for people to want to disrupt their business.

"You..." The burly middle-aged man pointed at Zhou Xiong with a face full of shame and anger. He wanted to scold Zhou Xiong, but Zhou Yang's eyes and aura suddenly turned fierce, making the man swallow the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

Of course, he had been to the shops of Yellow Sand School and the Chen clan, but the workers of those two shops were not as easy to bully as Zhou Xiong. After the appraisers and artifact refiners in the shops both denied that the black ore was a spiritual  item, they unceremoniously chased him out. But he did not dare to reveal any of this.

Zhou Yang softened a little and said, "Fellow cultivator, I respect you as a man and know that it is not easy for rogue cultivators to cultivate. If you truly like that magical artifact, I am willing to be friends with you and let you exchange the ore with our magical artifact if you just pay an additional five hundred spiritual  stones."

The burly middle-aged man was moved. He looked at Zhou Yang and hesitated for a moment. In the end, he nodded and said, "Alright, since the manager has said so, I, Zhong Quan, will accept your friendship and do as you say!"

Zhong Quan, also knew that the black ore in his hand did not look like the legendary exotic gold at all. It was just that he had found this item in a sinkhole in the Boundless Sand Sea. And because the item seemed to match most of the description of exotic gold, he decided to believe that it was.

However, no one had been willing to buy his claims, and he slowly became convinced that it probably wasn't exotic gold.

The only reason he was still relentlessly carrying on his bluff was that he was unwilling to sell it cheaply and waste the time and effort he had spent. Moreover, it was an item that he had obtained by chance.

Now that Zhou Yang was willing to buy it at the price of an Advanced Grade 2 magical artifact, he did not want to hesitate anymore.

If he missed this opportunity he would not be able to find anyone in the market who could offer a higher price than Zhou Yang. And if news of today's incident spread, others would probably only buy it at even lower prices.

Interestingly, the moment Zhong Quan agreed to the deal, it was as if he had let go of his obsession and his mind and spirit felt indescribably clear. The bottleneck he had been facing over the years to break through to the next level of Qi Refinement was starting to open up

This discovery pleasantly surprised him. He hurriedly took out five hundred spiritual  stones and handed them along with the pitch-black ore to Zhou Yang. When he received the Fire Cloud Banner, he hurriedly bade farewell to Zhou Yang and rushed home to prepare for his breakthrough.

When Zhou Xiong saw this, he couldn't help but curse. "This guy really has no manners. He ran away after taking advantage of us. Zhou Yang, you're too kind-hearted. If it were Seventh Uncle, he would have chased off this troublemaker. How could you allow him to behave atrociously here?!"

"Alright, Zhou Xiong. You should stop talking too much. I came back to explain something to you guys. I'm going to enter Closed Door Cultivation in the backyard to break through to Qi Refinement Level 9. Even if something big happens, don't disturb me."

Zhou Yang waved his hand to stop Zhou Xiong's cursing. After giving a few instructions, he put the spiritual stones and the black ore that Zhong Quan gave him into his storage bag and went straight to the Closed Door Cultivation room in the backyard of Yuquan Pavilion.