Chapter 2701 - 2693: Spirit Stone Crisis (Second Update)

Chapter 2701: Chapter 2693: Spirit Stone Crisis (Second Update)

Ever since Feng Jun arrived at White Pebble Beach, he has never lacked Spirit Stones.

It started with ordinary Spirit Stones, then medium-grade ones, then high-grade ones, and now he’s collecting top-grade ones without ever being tight-fisted.

However, ever since he began crafting the Virtual Combat System, the ordinary Spirit Stones in his hand started diminishing rapidly—just think about it, during crafting, there must be someone dedicated to scattering Spirit Stones, so the consumption is immense.

To this point, he has already crafted nearly twenty Magical Treasures, so the shortage of ordinary Spirit Stones is quite normal; even the Spirit Stones excavated from the Australian Sea Region were used by him—after all, these things are not suitable for use in the Earth Realm.

The stock of ordinary Spirit Stones reaches a crisis, but he’s a bit reluctant to use medium-grade stones, so he’s considering taking a trip to the Ice Plates where he and Yi Jue have shares in a Spirit Stone mine, currently around two million; he’ll first use that for the urgent situation.

The bottom line is a lack of planning; if he could have found patrons willing to exchange ordinary Spirit Stones for medium-grade ones in advance, things would have been easier.

However, Feng Jun also doesn’t want to rush into things; firstly, the exchange rate might not be cost-effective, secondly, he would owe favors.

Using medium-grade stones to exchange for ordinary Spirit Stones wouldn’t be one-for-one-hundred; if it were, he might as well directly use medium-grade stones, but exchanging for an ideal rate poses quite the difficulty.

The High-Rank Practitioners in the Kunhao Realm generally lack medium-grade stones, so theoretically it’s easy to secure a high exchange rate; however, Feng Jun wants to exchange a significant amount, and if he goes all-in, he might knock down the market price for medium-grade stones in Kunhao, which is evidently inappropriate.

And the major powers of the Tianqin Main Plane generally have stable sources of medium-grade and high-grade stones; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to support their domestic needs.

Take the Lingzhi Sect as an example, Yi Jue herself has some Spirit Plants that can extract medium-grade stones from ordinary ones, the extraction ratio is about one hundred and thirty to one, so Feng Jun could not possibly exchange for two hundred ordinary Spirit Stones from one medium-grade stone when dealing with the Lingzhi Sect.

Currently, Yi Jue is still attempting to cultivate plants that can extract high-grade stones, the distance is still significant but the path is clear.

Moreover, Kunhao itself does not have high-grade stone mines, so where do the high-grade stones held by the major powers come from? If they truly lacked medium-grade stones, they’d naturally find appropriate channels to procure them.

Simply put, using high-priced exchanges for medium-grade stones is a situation faced by Loose Cultivators, as for major powers... high-grade stones might be somewhat scarce, but relying on them to buy large quantities at high prices is definitely unrealistic.

So Feng Jun could hurriedly negotiate bulk high-price exchanges, it’s possible, but would undoubtedly cost him favors.

He’s currently instructing the members of White Pebble Beach to start a Spirit Stone exchange business, while he himself plans to travel to the Higher Realm to secure some Spirit Stones for emergencies.

After all, as long as the issue is given regard, it’s not truly an issue; while it can’t be resolved hastily, having some buffer time is enough.

Before leaving, he gives Yi Jue a heads-up, saying if you’re willing to continue designing formations here, I’ll go by myself; just bother you to give me a commission, I’ll also take your Spirit Stones.

Yi Jue still has some interest in researching formations, but after hearing his words, she curiously asks, "You crafted so many Magical Treasures, did you not earn any Spirit Stones and instead became tight-handed?"

Feng Jun slaps his forehead, then realizes the biggest issue: all his expenditures were recorded as debts to the Jing Ling.

The truth is, he crafted so many Magical Treasures without any income, the incoming top-grade stones were all taken by the Guardian and Jing Ling, essentially like he was supporting two potent beings for their recovery.

The inflow of medium-grade and high-grade stones still remains relatively healthy, but the way ordinary Spirit Stones are consumed, the medium-grade ones might soon reach the bottom too.

The high-grade stones, however, remain sustainable since he can collect transportation fees into the Void, but the issue is... using high-grade stones to exchange for ordinary Spirit Stones requires an incredible level of foolishness!

The income and expenditure are unreasonable! Feng Jun realized his biggest issue... those two truly consume large amounts of Spirit Stones.

The debt from Jing Ling will eventually be repaid—as long as it doesn’t drop off midway, but the process is cumbersome; and once it repays with ordinary Spirit Stones, Mountain Master Feng’s ordinary Spirit Stones will once more overflow.

How to adjust the structure of these Spirit Stones? Feng Jun started to worry, though he learned business management, current circumstances entail currency structure issues, making him feel somewhat overwhelmed.

If he’s willing to give up some interests, like directly using high-grade stones to craft Magical Treasures, the crafting process would also become easier, however... isn’t he reluctant to do so?

His nature doesn’t care much for wealth, but the issue is he still wants to accumulate a profound foundation, even squandering has limits, doesn’t it?

After considering for a while, he can only make a difficult decision: the speed of crafting Magical Treasures... must slow down!

Simply put, he needs the circulation of ordinary Spirit Stones to become healthy, while appropriately using high-grade and medium-grade stones.

He spent a day and a night thinking through this issue, then informed Yi Jue.

Yi Jue is not one to ask many questions. Knowing he made this decision was enough; she didn’t ask for reasons and simply said, "I’ll go with Cang Jing to the Ice Plains; having her present makes it easier for us to get dividends."

Feng Jun didn’t discuss this matter with Jing Ling because he knew it would be useless—given its character, it would definitely reply, "Use middle-grade or high-grade Spirit Stones to refine Magical Treasures, then put them on my account."

Could Feng Jun do that? Absolutely not. Basic risk control awareness is essential—not to mention it might default in the future, what if... what if it suddenly disappears?

He wouldn’t bet heavily on such a thing, even without considering risks; the relationship isn’t there yet. If it were Yi Jue... he might consider it.

So before leaving, he had someone send the Yin-Yang Mirror back to Earth.

However, once Jing Ling’s aura disappeared, all the cultivators at White Pebble Beach knew something happened and came asking.

Feng Jun seized the opportunity to announce, "I want to exchange a large amount of ordinary Spirit Stones; middle-grade is one to one hundred and high-grade is one to thirty thousand."

This news isn’t surprising to many large factions. Feng Jun’s process of refining Magical Treasures is secret, but many practitioners could deduce some steps, so many knew he used ordinary Spirit Stones for refinement.

To these large factions, this practice is really understandable, even very normal. If ordinary Spirit Stones could be exchanged in time, none would foolishly use middle-grade Spirit Stones.

If you’re not managing the household, you don’t know how expensive firewood, rice, oil, and salt can be. The larger the faction, the more they pay attention to these details; both expanding resources and conserving them can’t be ignored.

So encountering such situations at White Pebble Beach is also very normal.

Xuanyuan Buqi was the first to jump in, saying, "How much do you want to exchange? My Xuanyuan family will cover it!"

Through this exchange, the Xuanyuan family would surely lose, but that’s not how the accounts are calculated. Anyway, the family is big and wealthy, Spirit Stones are abundant, opening exchange for high-grade and middle-grade Spirit Stones isn’t convenient. Ordinary Spirit Stones... who wouldn’t have plenty of these?

I’m mainly targeting Loose Cultivators! Feng Jun politely declined him, thinking to himself how True Sage Buqi wanted the Soul Exit Pill, but it wouldn’t be so easy.

The Taixu Sect also made a significant offer, saying, "We have a Spirit Stone Mine at the Yangmi Plateau; if you offer twenty thousand high-grade Spirit Stones, we’ll give you half the shares. That Spirit Stone Mine has at least four billion Spirit Stones, equivalent to exchanging ten thousand ordinary Spirit Stones per high-grade Spirit Stone."

Considering manpower, consumption, and security, one high-grade Spirit Stone would probably exchange for seventy or eighty thousand Spirit Stones, which feels reasonable.

But then considering that these resources can’t be extracted all at once, it would take three to five centuries to mine, yielding only a few million Spirit Stones each year, which is somewhat uneconomic.

If it were in the Earth Realm, it wouldn’t be worth it. On Earth, we value wealth growth; having twenty thousand high-grade Spirit Stones could be invested elsewhere with better returns over centuries. At least it must be worth a hundred billion Spirit Stones to consider placing it here.

However, in the Tianqin Plane, we don’t calculate like this. Here, cultivation resources are consumable, Spirit Stone Mines are fundamental, and most are held by large factions. Anyone willing to share Spirit Stone resources shows great goodwill.

The Taixu Sect willing to promise this also has an important factor; the Yangmi Plateau isn’t within Taixu’s power range, it’s not only out of range but very far away. Initially, it was taken over from a declining clan for its inexpensive price.

Until now, Taixu Sect occupies it but hasn’t developed it extensively—not because they’re afraid, mainly because they have many mines to develop. This particular mine is troublesome, so small-scale development is sufficient.

If a Spirit Stone Mine isn’t developed, it not only helps preserve it but also allows more Spirit Stones to form. However, if it’s never developed, ownership disputes may arise. Taixu Sect transferring shares also hopes to borrow Feng Jun’s reputation for paying off and formally commence excavation.

Wait, does Taixu Sect need to borrow Feng Jun’s influence? That’s indeed the case. Feng Jun is far from one of the seven great gates, but just knowing the principle of "making friends more and enemies less" isn’t exclusive to Huaxia citizens.

In fact, whether it’s seven gates eighteen paths, or various clan powers, handling resources like Spirit Stone Mines, eating alone is rare. It’s not due to inability, but eating alone is too troublesome; sharing some profits saves effort—why not?

Like Feng Jun on Earth Realm, who already plays big but still has Luohua’s Sansheng Wine paying protection fees to thugs—not because he can’t challenge them, but spending some money avoids unnecessary troubles, which is worthwhile.

This is precisely why Feng Jun discovered a Spirit Stone Mine at the Ice Plate, located in the Xuanshui Sect Branch’s territory, and local clans dared approach Xuanshui Sect seeking shares.

Can small clans really challenge Xuanshui Sect? That’s purely ridiculous. It’s just Tianqin Plane’s rules of conduct—try your luck whenever possible.

To prove this, Xuanshui Sect indeed refused their requests, but there was no threat of violence because it matched the rules.

Another mine? Feng Jun felt tempted momentarily.