Transaction

Ye Mo climbed the stairs following the waiter and arrived at the second floor.

There, he was faced with a long corridor with several lamps hanging on the walls and a red carpet on the floor.

Many doors on the side led to various rooms, but Ye Mo wasn't sure what was inside.

They continued on the corridor for a short time and near the end, they turned to their right and entered one of them.

The room was large, at least three times larger than his stone house and the interior was well decorated with paintings and tapestries along all kinds of furnitures which embellished the surroundings.

What was the most eye catching was the middle of the room where a man sat on a sofa in front of a transparent low table made of glass, calmly sipping on a cup of tea as he patiented.

He had neat, pushed back black hair and a goatee, the side of his hairs however were starting to turn white.

He looked just like a wealthy lord from a powerful family and gave off a dignified aura.

When Ye Mo and the waiter entered the room, he placed the cup down and looked at them.

"Master Hei, this is the person who wanted to talk to you." The waiter stated as he stepped aside, giving full view to Ye Mo.

The man nodded before the waiter left the room, leaving him alone with Ye Mo.

The forgemaster raised his hand and without a word, he invited him to sit on the sofa facing him.

When Ye Mo sat down he opened his mouth, "I heard you had something you wanted to talk with me? I am Hei Qiong one of the two best forgemaster of this establishment, but everyone here call me master Hei."

Hei Qiong presented himself, inciting Ye Mo to do the same.

He still didn't know the identity of this young man.

"My name is Ye Mo and as you might have heard, I am a student of the Tiger Martial Institute."

"Would you like some tea, Ye Mo?" Hei Qiong said as he reached for his cup again.

"Thank you mister Hei, but there is no need, I won't be here for long." Ye Mo said quickly showing his will to get to the point.

With the formalities done, the atmosphere of the room immediately turned into one of seriousness.

Ye Mo? Never heard of this name. Could he be one of those students that didn't show any potential and progressed slowly in the institute? No, he's so young but already has a cultivation of the 7th layer Qi Gathering realm, he definitely has talent. Then that means he's a newcomer that entered the institute recently.

Hei Qiong observed his interlocutor as he sipped his tea.

In one glance, he could determine much from him.

"I was told you can forge peak-tier spiritual weapons. I want you to make one for me." Ye Mo immediately conveyed the reason of his visit.

"I have produced a few in the past indeed, but even for me, it's difficult while often much materials are needed to create one and they must all be of first rate quality. This is mainly why it cost so much to forge powerful weapons and I am not sure you have the means to make this kind of request." Hei Qiong showed his disapprobation.

To produce a peak-tier spiritual weapon, it demanded a lot from both the customer and the forgemaster. Even clans would feel a headache over the sums needed to make them.

If Ye Mo can't persuade him, he won't attempt to forge one.

"You don't need to worry about the materials, I will provide them myself for the making of my weapon." Saying so, Ye Mo waved his hand and retrieved a chunk of scintillating iron from his pouch.

"This is pure iridescent iron!" Hei Qiong was shocked. 

This was a top-notch material for the creation of weapons and spiritual tools, it was very hard to come by.

However although he was taken aback, Hei Qiong has been in this trade of business for a long time and didn't reveal his surprise, instead he raised one brow and asked, "So? One chunk is far from enough to make a spiritual weapon, maybe a small blade at most, is that what you want?"

Ye Mo smiled as he replied, "I have three others the same size as this one in my possession."

This was a lie he told with a straight face. He collected more iron than that, but what use would there be in telling him so?

"As for the kind of spiritual weapon I want, here are the plans." Ye Mo placed several documents on the table with sketches of a spiritual weapon from different angles along all kinds of attributes and characteristics listed on the side.

Since Ye Mo obtained Wei Leng's map and intended to retrieve the iron, he put much thoughts on how to use it and benefit the most from this. The pure iridescent iron's principal use was either to make a spiritual weapon or to sell it for someone else to make one.

When he envisioned what kind of equipment he wanted, he planned all the details and wrote down the most important points during his free time in his stone house for this day.

"I want you to refer only to these plans during the making of the spiritual weapon. I won't tolerate any mistake so if you're not confident, say so now." Ye Mo warned him coldly leaking a bit of killing intent.

Hei Qiong's lips trembled for an instant as he understood the meaning behind Ye Mo's words.

It was no less than a veiled threat!

If you waste my precious iron and fail, i will come back in the future and kill you!

If the forgemaster expended the chunks to no avail then even if Ye Mo was refunded, the gold couldn't replace the pure iridescent iron.

There was hardly any supply of it in the market so even if he had the gold he couldn't recover what he lost.

He was using his position as a student of an institute to pressure Hei Qiong. If the old man wanted to kill him, with his cultivation, he could do so effortlessly, but it would be akin to putting one's head in the chopping board since the experts of the institute would come deal with him afterwards.

On the other hand, Ye Mo had an excellent cultivation for his age so in his eyes, he had good prospects, it was very probable for him to surpass Hei Qiong in the future and be able kill him. There was even a chance for him to join a sect and with the connections he makes in place, he could just send assassins to end his life, at this point there wasn't even a need to dirty his hands.

After all, Hei Qiong was a talented forgemaster and spent much of his days making all kinds of weapons and tools for the wealthy of the city so in turn, he had less time to devote to his cultivation so although he was relatively old and could enjoy plenty of ressources, his cultivation stagnated at the 6th layer of the Foundation Establishment realm.

With this understanding came also a hint of anger and indignation.

The nerve of this kid, doubting his abilities!

He thought this meeting with a young boy would be rather funny, but he was talking like they were two seniors on equal ground, indulging in affairs.

Actually, Ye Mo even gained the edge in the conversation, he was overbearing in his attitude and knew exactly what he was here for, there was no word for negociation.

"Please young man, don't belittle me, I won't have the impudence to say I am the number one forgemaster in the city, but I am confident enough to tell you no one will claim this title in my presence. I can assure you that I am fully capable of making this kind of weapon, particularly with a material like the pure iridescent iron which will render my task easier. If you won't believe me, we can sign a contract where our establishment will completely satisfy you one way or another if I am not true to my words."

"But let's talk about the contract later, we still need to discuss of the payment, this kind of weapon is much more difficult to make and requires more material than a classic sword. There is also the time I will use on this project which will make me unable to work on something else plus the facilities used and the tax taken by our establishment. In total, the Ironheart Weaponsmiths ask for twenty thousand gold coins to fullfill the transaction."

"Hahahah." Ye Mo laughed loudly before standing up, "I see that mister Hei didn't call me to indulge in affairs, but only to joke around. I think I will meet with the forgemasters of the Dragonfire Foundry or the Armament Artisans, maybe they are more inclined to take this seriously."

Ye Mo turned around and walked towards the door.

The price given by Hei Qiong was simply a scam, after seeing the pure iridescent iron, he took him for a mine of gold, someone extremely rich so he just gave an exhorbitant price without batting an eye, trying to exploit Ye Mo's young age and innocence.

"Wait, young man, I was indeed just joking to lighten the mood, it's my mistake. Please come back and tell me what price you had in mind exactly." Hei Qiong took an amiable attitude as he pleaded for Ye Mo to return.

When he heard Ye Mo mentionning to visit their rivals, the Dragonfire Foundry and the Armament Artisans, he immediately reacted and called him back.

He couldn't take the risk of losing an opportunity just to give it to their enemies instead. Creating a peak-tier spiritual weapon was extremely difficult, one appearing could change the position of the three establishments in the heart of people and hurt their reputation.

If one was to be made, it had to be from them.

Ye Mo silently sat back in front of Hei Qiong and looked at him in the eyes.

He wasn't angry that he tried to swindle him, it was just business. People had their own motivation and in this harsh environment, everyone tried to gain the most at the expense of others. It was the nature of trade and affairs to scam or extort among other means for one's own profits.

Someone too honest couldn't make a good merchant.

However, since Ye Mo knew he would have to go through this from the start, of course he made his own researches, how could he let others take advantage of him this easily?

Ye Mo smiled, "The price of an average peak-tier spiritual weapon is evaluated around twelve thousand gold coins, I agree that mine is harder to make and requires more iron than usual so let's say it's price range between fourteen and fifteen gold coins."

Of course it was just a general estimation, first there must be excellent materials gathered to forge one, then you must be successful in producing one and after that, if it wasn't immediately handed to a particular but left on display for the highest bidder to gain the weapon, it could often be sold at twice the original price.

"However, I am providing the materials myself so I am dividing the price by two and obtain seven thousand gold coins. Now since I am going to retrieve my weapon in one month, it has to be ready before this time so I want you to put full priority over this task, for your trouble I am willing to add five hundred gold coins. We have a total of seven thousand five hundred gold coins, that's the price I will pay." Ye Mo said confidently.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Hei Qiong blurted loudly, losing all composure.

"I am not even making any profit with such a transaction, no. You have to pay at least ten thousand gold coins!"

Ye Mo shook his head, "Don't forget I will be participating in the year-end competition. If I do well with the weapon in hand, you will be able to advertise where it comes from and get a huge boost in reputation and your sells will skyrocket, that's more than enough."

"That just if! What if you just get eliminated from the start? I want at the bare minimum nine thousand five hundred gold coins!" Hei Qiong grew exasparated as he put all his efforts to raise the price.

"Because of me, you might become the recognized number one forging establishment in Azure Water city, but here you are fretting over money. That's just a small price to pay." Ye Mo didn't relent.

"Nine thousand gold coins, this is my limit! I won't go below that so take it or leave it."

...

The two haggled back and forth and finally settled for eight thousand gold coins.

Hei Qiong breathed heavily, veins popping on his forehead. 

Although Ye Mo provided all the materials, no peak-tier spiritual weapon had ever been forged at such a price in the history of the Ironheart Weaponsmiths, but this kid always brought something else to his advantage and eventually, Hei Qiong exhausted all his justifications to raise it.

In the end, eight thousand gold coins was the limit both parties were willing to accept.

"If there is nothing else, let's sign the contract so you can leave. I shall not send you off." Hei Qiong said massaging his temples.

He had enough of looking at the face of this greedy little bastard.

"Actually there is another matter I want to talk to you about." Ye Mo laughed lightly, reaching in his cloak.

"What is it." Hei Qiong's attention was raised as he looked at him.

He was tired from the previous transaction and wanted to quickly send him off but soon, he recovered his focus.

Ye Mo retracted his hand and on his palm layed a big fly crouching silently with round red eyes and rows of small sharp teeths.

"This is regarding this blood tracking fly."