While the Rainy Day Tower was frantically selling off Spiritual Artifacts, the Celestial Phoenix Tower finally made a move.
"Reporting, Purple Pavilion Master! Their price for mid-grade Spiritual Artifacts is ten thousand taels lower than ours!"
The price war had begun. They had thought the Celestial Phoenix Tower would just sit back and watch, but now they were jumping into the fray as well! They wanted to pull their customer base back.
It wasn't as if they were strangers to price wars. They'd had them often enough. It was just that the Rainy Day Tower was usually in a weaker position and couldn't contend with the Celestial Phoenix Tower.
But things were different now. As they continued to draw customers away, some of them began purchasing other items in addition to weapons. In an instant, the Rainy Day Tower's sales skyrocketed.
This finally forced the Celestial Phoenix Tower's hand, prompting them to launch a price war of their own.
"So they couldn't sit still any longer?"
Yi Tianyun said with a faint smile, "But the market for mid-grade Spiritual Artifacts should be about saturated by now, shouldn't it?"
He had already forged dozens of Spiritual Artifacts. While not a huge number, it was enough to meet the short-term demand within Celestial Wind City, so the market was temporarily saturated.
This was clear from the number of customers buying mid-grade Spiritual Artifacts. While there were still some, the initial frenzy had died down.
"That's about right," Zi Yuwei said, nodding. "With the price drop, pretty much everyone who wanted one has bought one." She felt this was as far as they could go, the most pressure they could apply for now.
"Then what if we lower the price of high-grade Spiritual Artifacts?" Yi Tianyun said calmly.
"If the price cut on high-grade Spiritual Artifacts is significant, it would definitely attract a large number of disciples from the various clans," Zi Yuwei analyzed. "But if it's just a small discount, there's no point."
High-grade Spiritual Artifacts were not cheap. The base price was around two hundred thousand taels, and that was for an ordinary one. For a slightly better one, the price would easily climb to three or four hundred thousand taels. That was almost the price of three mid-grade Spiritual Artifacts, which showed just how staggering the cost was.
A discount of just ten or twenty thousand taels would be meaningless. Anyone who could afford a high-grade Spiritual Artifact wouldn't be concerned about such a small amount.
"Then what if we knock fifty thousand taels off the price?" Yi Tianyun said coolly.
Zi Yuwei's beautiful eyes widened. "That… that's not impossible," she said. "The cost of materials is roughly the same, just a little more is needed, so the production cost isn't that much higher. The problem is that the success rate for forging high-grade Spiritual Artifacts is terrifyingly low. If there are too many failures, it won't just be unprofitable—we'll be losing money…"
For weapons at the Spiritual Artifact Level, the difference in materials was minor. But that tiny addition made a world of difference in the difficulty of Forging.
"Not a problem," Yi Tianyun said, his eyes glinting. "We need to completely overwhelm the Celestial Phoenix Tower! We'll pull all their customers over to our side. But whether or not you can keep them after that will be up to you."
"This… this… Young Master Yi, you can forge high-grade Spiritual Artifacts as well?"
Zi Yuwei was stunned. An Ling and Qin Xue, who were standing nearby, were equally dumbfounded when they heard him.
"I can. Is there a problem?"
Yi Tianyun said with a faint smile. 'My success rate isn't a hundred percent, but with the Luck Aura, there's no need to worry. Even without relying on the Luck Aura, I still have a fifty percent success rate!'
"Junior Brother, you can really forge high-grade Spiritual Artifacts?"
An Ling and the others were incredulous. Yi Tianyun was simply too young. Any Blacksmith capable of forging a high-grade Spiritual Artifact was well on in years; even one around thirty was considered young.
He looked to be less than twenty, yet he could forge high-grade Spiritual Artifacts. It was simply unbelievable.
"You'll see in a moment, won't you?"
Yi Tianyun looked at the stunned Zi Yuwei and smiled. "The Purple Pavilion Master will still have to provide the materials. As for the profit split, we'll still only take a thirty percent cut."
Since they were providing the materials, only a thirty percent cut of the sales was necessary. However, the significance was completely different now. With the much higher price, it was undoubtedly the Rainy Day Tower that would be earning more from the arrangement.
"As long as Young Master Yi can maintain a decent success rate, we can offer you a forty-percent cut, or even more than fifty percent!"
Zi Yuwei felt as if her heart was about to leap out of her chest. This was a game-changer. The more high-quality Spiritual Artifacts they had, the more it would showcase their underlying strength and, more importantly, attract a huge number of customers.
To put it bluntly, you could count the number of Blacksmiths in all of Celestial Wind City capable of forging high-grade Spiritual Artifacts on one hand. Moreover, they were all proud and aloof; you couldn't just hire them on a whim. And even then, their success rates were known to be quite low.
"Either way is fine," Yi Tianyun said. "You just need to provide the materials. That's all I need."
Yi Tianyun's proposal seemed like a losing deal, the actions of a fool to an outsider. In reality, only he knew the true benefit: he had just broken through to the third level of the Spirit Refining Stage! At this terrifying speed, he felt no pressure at all in breaking through to the fourth or fifth levels if he could keep this up.
The only prerequisite was a steady supply of materials for him to forge. He was using this low price as a way to get the Rainy Day Tower to provide those materials for him. 'Personal strength is what truly matters,' he thought. 'Wealth is merely a worldly possession.'
"The materials are no problem at all! As long as you can truly provide high-grade Spiritual Artifacts, Young Master Yi, I will increase your share no matter what!"
Zi Yuwei was no fool. She knew a larger share of the profits was necessary to keep Yi Tianyun around.
Yi Tianyun just smiled without another word and began the process of forging a high-grade Spiritual Artifact. His base success rate was only fifty-five percent, but with the enhancement from his Luck Aura, it instantly soared to one hundred percent!
The Luck Aura effectively magnified his personal luck stat by ten times!
Seeing the one hundred points displayed for his luck stat, he couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. The consumption rate was staggering, but as long as he activated it at the critical moment, it would be enough to guarantee success.
'The overall success rate is determined by the single most difficult step in the forging process. He only needed to use the aura during that specific phase.'
'Still, forging a single high-grade Spiritual Artifact would cost him ten Madness Value points.'
"Success!"
HUMMM!
On his very first attempt, he successfully forged a high-grade Spiritual Artifact. Just like that, a high-grade Spirit Sword with a keen, sharp aura came into being.
[Ding! Congratulations on successfully forging a high-grade Spiritual Artifact. You have gained 5,000 EXP and 100 Skill Level points!]
'Not only was the experience high, but the Skill Level gain was substantial too. However, to advance from Intermediate Forging to Advanced Forging, he needed a terrifying ten thousand Skill Level points! Assuming he succeeded every time, he would need to forge one hundred of these!'
'Failure also grants Skill Level points, but the amount is negligible.'
"He… he really succeeded!"
The dazzling high-grade Spirit Sword left them speechless, their faces flushed with excitement. To them, this was an incredibly rare Treasure, and their Junior Brother had actually managed to forge one?
Zi Yuwei, however, was thinking along different lines. 'This is a Master-level figure,' she thought. 'I absolutely must win him over, no matter what!'