Chapter 147: Unexpected Fortune
Gu Yue noticed Yuan Ming's action, looked over, and said, "Brother Yuan, do you want to buy a magic weapon? This magic weapon shop is indeed quite famous in the East City."
"Oh, how famous?" Yuan Ming asked.
"The quality of the magic weapons in this shop is quite good. Although they are all low-grade magic weapons, many low-level cultivators come here to admire them. If you want a medium-grade or above magic weapon, you can't satisfy you here." Gu Yue said.
"There is a refiner in this magic weapon shop. This person is quite strange. The magic equipment he refines is excellent. He even accepts reservations from customers, but this person has a rule, that is, he only refines low-grade magic weapons." Seeing Yuan Ming's puzzled expression, Gu Yue continued to explain.
"Oh, there is actually such a refiner." Yuan Ming was still a little puzzled.
According to his understanding of refining, the soul power and mana of a foundation-building cultivator are enough to infuse the runes of a medium-grade magic weapon. This person actually didn't try to refine a medium-grade magic weapon.
You know, the price of low-grade magic tools is mostly around 40 to 60 spirit stones, while the price of medium-grade magic tools can be as high as 500 to 600 spirit stones, which is almost ten times higher. Even if the quality of the medium-grade magic tools is poor, it is not a problem to sell them for 300 to 400 spirit stones. Doesn't this person want to make money?
"Hehe, I heard that this tool refiner is extremely obsessed with rune engraving. He studies all day long, which delays the mastery of other steps of tool refining. That's why he simply refines low-grade magic tools." Gu Yue said.
Yuan Ming nodded slowly. Tool refining is a delicate job. Any slight mistake in any of the four steps may lead to the failure of tool refining. The difficulty of refining medium-grade magic tools is indeed not comparable to that of low-grade magic tools.
"How are runes bought and sold?" he asked.
Yuan Ming got the engraving methods of more than 40 runes from Master Heimu's notes. Unfortunately, due to his cultivation, he could not infuse spirits, so those runes were temporarily useless.
Since this tool shop buys runes, he doesn't mind selling them if the price is not low. Ask the shopkeeper to copy the rune, and he can also fill his storage bag.
What he wants now is not only the ice spirit material, but also several materials needed for the Thousand Machine Mask. If he wants to participate in the Bailuqiu Alliance in half a year, he must prepare not only the magic tools, but also the elixir. Each of these requires spirit stones. Moreover, after coming here and opening his eyes, he realized that the price of immortal cultivation items is really unlimited.
"I am not familiar with this. I only know that runes are the lifeblood of weapon refiners and talisman masters. Most of the rare runes are unwilling to be taken out. A few days ago, I heard that someone exchanged a rune for a hundred spirit stones." Gu Yue thought for a while and said.
"One hundred spirit stones!" Yuan Ming was secretly happy.
He knew that the value of runes was not low, but he didn't expect it to be worth so many spirit stones. He had accumulated so much for so long day and night, but it was only worth seventy spirit stones.
And there are as many as forty-five runes recorded in the black wood notebook!
Yuan Ming immediately asked Gu Yue to wait outside and entered the magic tool shop alone.
There were no customers in the shop, only a bald man sitting behind the counter, holding a thick book and reading with relish, occasionally chuckling.
This man was born with a strong back and a face full of flesh. If he was said to be a robber, basically no one would doubt that such a fierce man was holding a book and studying hard. This situation was indescribably weird.
Yuan Ming's expression was a little strange. Could this person be the weapon refiner? He was indeed a weirdo.
"This guest needs a magic weapon. Our shop only sells low-grade magic weapons. Please forgive me." Seeing a customer coming to the door, the bald man hurriedly put down the book in his hand and stood up to greet him.
Yuan Ming did not mention the sale of runes, and walked to a shelf next to him.
The shelves were all ordinary magic weapons such as knives, swords, whips, and guns. The shape was quite rough, wide in front and narrow in the back, tilted up and down, and looked like they were made by poor blacksmiths.
However, these ugly magic weapons all flowed with a cold light, which made people dare not underestimate them.
"Can I cast a spell and try it?" Yuan Ming asked, picking up a fiery red long sword.
"Of course." The bald man said generously.
Yuan Ming used his magic power to inject it into it, and the red long sword made a crisp sword sound, and shot forward a foot-long red sword light that stretched and retracted.
He cast the magic of driving objects, and the red long sword flew out of his palm, slowly circling around, and the speed was getting faster and faster.
"Go!"
He pointed his finger, and the red long sword stabbed a large green stone in the corner of the store. The stone was covered with holes and cuts, which was obviously for customers to test weapons.
With a light "puff", the red long sword easily pierced into the stone and went straight to the handle.
Yuan Ming pulled out the long sword, and the blade was as smooth as before, without a scratch.
"Good sword!" He praised secretly.
These weapons may be ugly, but the material and the runes engraved inside are good. No wonder Gu Yue said that the low-grade magic weapons in this store are all fine.
Ever since he saved Ha Gong's wife and daughter last time, Yuan Ming had set a rule for himself in his mind: Don't try to stand out without strength.
Now there is another rule to be added to this rule: Don't choose a magic weapon based on its appearance.
"Daoyou have a good eye. This Fire Cone Sword is the masterpiece of my master last month. It is mixed with a piece of Fire Copper Essence. The rune engraved is 'Armor Breaking'. It has strong attack power and only costs 60 Spirit Stones." The bald man introduced.
"I only earned five Spirit Stones from you." Seeing that Yuan Ming didn't say anything, the bald man thought he thought it was too expensive, so he added.
Fire Copper Essence is a medium-grade spiritual material. A piece as big as an egg costs 50 Spirit Stones. If you add other materials, wouldn't it be a loss?
Yuan Ming did not expose the big man's lie, put the long sword back on the shelf, and said: "Let's talk about buying swords later. I saw outside that your store buys runes?"
"Yes, you have some?" The bald man said after a pause.
"Of course, I wonder what type of runes you need? How much is the price?" Yuan Ming said calmly.
"As long as it is a rune that our store does not have, we will take it. As for the price, I will not disappoint you." The bald man said with a smile.
Yuan Ming smiled slightly when he heard this.
There are forty-five runes in Hei Mu's notebook. He knows that most of them should be common, but since Hei Mu is known as a genius weapon refining master, there must be a few rare runes in his collection throughout his life. This store cannot have all of them.
"It seems that you have some confidence, please." The bald man laughed, but he didn't think so in his heart.
He has been collecting runes for many years. He already has common runes, and even a lot of rare ones. Most people who want to make a fortune from this end up returning in disappointment.
Yuan Ming took out a pen and paper and wrote down the names of four runes.
Runes have been handed down from ancient times to the present day, and each has a corresponding name. These are considered basics for weapon refiners, but the runes themselves, especially the trend of starting, turning, and ending, are the key.
The bald man glanced at it and shook his head and said, "All of these are available."
Yuan Ming picked up the pen and wrote four more, and the bald man still shook his head.
Yuan Ming's original enthusiasm cooled down halfway, and he stopped talking a little bit, and simply wrote down all the remaining runes.
The bald man looked surprised. In the past, people who came to sell runes at most took out seven or eight runes, but Yuan Ming actually took out dozens of runes at once. This person must be an unworthy son of a weapon refiner family, who stole the family's rune secrets to sell for money.
"Why, have you collected all these runes?" Yuan Ming asked with a sinking heart when he saw the bald man's strange expression.
"That's not the case. Please wait a moment, sir." The bald man said, concentrating on checking the names of the runes on the paper.
His eyes lit up quickly, and he said, "We don't have the runes of Tingfeng and Phantom in this store, so you can take them."
Yuan Ming breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was quite disappointed to sell only two runes, these forty-five runes were all accidental, and even if he only sold one, he would still make a profit.
"The price of the runes is determined by my master. Please wait a moment, I will ask him to come out." The bald man said, and walked quickly into the inner room of the magic weapon shop.
A moment later, the curtain inside was lifted, and a short and skinny old man walked in quickly, but he looked like a Central Plains man.
"Do you have the runes of Tingfeng and Phantom?" the skinny old man asked anxiously.
"Yes." Yuan Ming answered calmly.
"Good, great! When I was young, I saw a magic weapon with the rune of Tingfeng, and the effect was magical and unusual. The rune of Phantom was also what I had been looking for for many years. I didn't expect to find it at the same time today!" The skinny old man's pale cheeks were flushed with blood, and he looked very excited.
"I'll take these two runes, two hundred spirit stones each, what do you think?" The skinny old man quickly came back to his senses and said.
Yuan Ming was a little stunned when he heard this.
Not long ago, Gu Yue mentioned that a rune sold for a hundred spirit stones, and he was still daydreaming. Now it's his turn, two runes can actually sell for a full four hundred spirit stones?
But the old man looked very fond of these two runes, and it didn't seem to be fake.
"Do you think it's too little, fellow Daoist? These two runes are indeed rare. Daoist is willing to take them out, so you must have made a lot of determination. How about this, two runes for a total of five hundred spirit stones." The skinny old man saw that Yuan Ming didn't say a word, and said again.
Yuan Ming came back to his senses and was about to say something, but he heard the old man grit his teeth and said impatiently:
"Six hundred spirit stones, no more!"
"Not enough!" Yuan Ming blurted out.
When the runes were rejected by the bald man one by one, let alone 300 each, he might be willing to sell them even if he could get 100 spirit stones for each.
But seeing the skinny old man's excited look, he almost had the words "I must!" written on his face.
If he doesn't raise the price now, when will he?
"One more condition, help me make a magic weapon for free in the future!" Yuan Ming tried.
"Deal! What are you still standing there for? Hurry up!" The skinny old man glared at the bald man.
The bald man had half opened his mouth when he heard the price, and only reacted when he heard the scolding. He hurriedly took out six walnut-sized spirit stones from the storage bag on his waist, three yellow and three green, and the spiritual power fluctuations emitted were much stronger than ordinary spirit stones. He also took out two black jade plates that were slightly larger than the palm.
"Middle-grade spirit stones!" Yuan Ming was overjoyed, but his face was as calm as water, without showing any abnormality.
Like spiritual materials, spiritual stones are also divided into grades. The spiritual stones circulating in the market are usually low-grade, while these six are medium-grade.
The spiritual power contained in medium-grade spiritual stones is ten times that of low-grade spiritual stones, and they are also more refined and have a wider range of uses. In terms of restoring mana alone, medium-grade spiritual stones are much faster than low-grade ones. If used for cultivation, mana can also be improved faster.
The spiritual power contained in medium-grade spiritual stones is both pure and thick, which has exceeded the scope of the Qi Refining Stage. If a cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage absorbs the spiritual power from them when breaking through the bottleneck, it can even increase the chance of breaking through the realm.
With all these advantages, the value of medium-grade spiritual stones far exceeds that of low-grade ones. One hundred low-grade spiritual stones can be exchanged for one medium-grade spiritual stone, and they are often out of stock.
Yuan Ming had long wanted to get one or two middle-grade wood-attribute spirit stones to save his life at a critical moment, but unfortunately he was short of money. Unexpectedly, he got six today.
Above the middle-grade spirit stones, there are also high-grade spirit stones, and the exchange rate is also one hundred to one.
Above the high-grade spirit stones, there is said to be a top-grade level, but almost no one has seen it with their own eyes. Many people think that the top-grade spirit stones are just a legend.