A World Worth Protecting

1

Even though Wang Baole was immersed in the process of refining a second-grade Dharmic Artifact, he was the main team leader of the inspector main team and did not have to personally seek out information for what was happening. His savvy subordinates from the Inspector main team would immediately convey the information to Wang Baole.

“Combat Pavilion’s tournament?” After receiving the voice transmission, Wang Baole, who was studying how to refine the scabbard, raised his head, slightly confused. Senior disciples from the Dharmic Armament Pavilion were familiar with the Combat Pavilion’s tournament, but as Wang Baole was still new to Upper Academy Island, he was curious and began inquiring further.

His subordinate from the Inspector main team immediately explained the situation to him. Gradually, Wang Baole gained a better understanding of the Combat Pavilion’s tournament.

In reality, the Combat Pavilion was the an extremely powerful force on Upper Academy Island. Even on ordinary days, their cultivation and missions were intense, and they handled top secret matters from the outside. It would not be an exaggeration to call them the blade of Ethereal Dao College.

At the same time, to the majority of people, in terms of combating power, the abilities of the Combat Pavilion’s disciples far exceeded that of other pavilions. Therefore, most of the time, disciples on Upper Academy Island from the Combat Pavilion were cultivators of combat.

As a result, the Combat Pavilion was usually given several times more resources compared to the other pavilions. That was especially so after they completed their missions, as their one-time gains were enough to make the disciples from other pavilions drool with envy.

Therefore, even though disciples from the Combat Pavilion faced high levels of danger when they are out, they were compensated richly in terms of monetary gains. However, since they were ferocious cultivators of combat, it was naturally expected of them to be cultivating hard all the time. This led to the emergence of the Combat Pavilion’s annual tournament that consisted of five rounds, with each round for each of the five levels of the True Breath realm competing on different terms.

The annual Combat Pavilion tournament was important to the other pavilions and the entire Ethereal Dao College. Everyone paid great attention to it.

It was such a significant event that every year, officials from the Federation as well as military personnel would spectate it in order to discover talents. This was so that they could recruit and confirm individuals to be appointed in advance. It was precisely because the event garnered so much attention from the outside world that disciples from the Combat Pavilion placed even greater importance on it. The outcome of the event, regardless of whether it was good or bad, would be recorded and rewarded accordingly.

As such, regardless of whether it was the Alchemy Pavilion, the Dharmic Armament Pavilion, or the Array Runes Pavilion, it meant that the time to strike it rich had arrived for their disciples who usually played a supportive role. After all, the more importance that the disciples from the Combat Pavilion placed on the tournament, the more they needed to equip themselves. Therefore, their need for Dharmic Artifacts, pills, and array formations would exponentially grow.

The generic items handed out by Upper Academy Island were naturally insufficient to satisfy the Combat Pavilion disciple’s needs for the tournament. They needed to purchase the items from the other pavilions on their own, and that led to the emergence of a popular saying among the disciples of the supporting pavilions.

“The day the Combat Pavilion tournament happens is the day we strike it rich!”

That was not all, for it would make the level of participation of the other pavilions too shallow. Furthermore, this would make the other pavilions segregated from the Combat Pavilion, and that was not in accordance to the plans made by Ethereal Dao College with regards to the disciples’ cultivation.

After all, in the years that Ethereal Dao College spent planning and deciphering the Great Dao, they concluded that it was no mean feat. It required the disciples to advance forward while supporting each other. Even though they did not frown upon individualistic pursuits, they encouraged collaboration.

Therefore, the annual tournament held by the Combat Pavilion appeared to be a simple competition on the surface, but it was far from that in reality. There was a rule in the tournament that the participating disciples had to find a teammate and collaborate together for the tournament.

One could partner up with Alchemy cultivators from the Alchemy pavilion, Dharmic Armament cultivators from the Dharmic Armament Pavilion, Array Runes cultivators from the Array Runes Pavilion, or those from the Beast Taming Pavilion and so on. Even if they could not find anyone from those pavilions, they could still partner up with someone from the Combat Pavilion. In the event that one failed to find a partner, the Dao College would even assign someone compatible to form a team.

This way, the Combat Pavilion’s tournament would include everyone. It was also due to this that the officials from the Federation and the other military personnel would spectate it, making it one of the biggest events of Ethereal Dao College.

After understanding the details and rules of the Combat Pavilion’s tournament, Wang Baole’s eyes lit up as well. It cost him close to nothing to manufacture Spirit Stones, which allowed him to amass significant wealth, making him a rich tycoon on the Lower Academy Island.

However, when he reached Upper Academy Island, the task of refining a hundred perfect first-grade Dharmic Artifacts had already depleted much of his savings. Now that he was refining second-grade Dharmic Artifact, the costs were even more exorbitant. Even someone as wealthy as him found the process slightly unsustainable.

The only way would be to stop the refinement process and switch gears to manufacture Spirit Stones for the entire day instead. After a period of time, it was likely that his wealth would be replenished. However, time would be wasted if this method was adopted, which threw Wang Baole into a dilemma.

In addition, the sect did not seem to have concluded its tallying of Wang Baole’s gains in the Spirit Breath Village for some reason, and his reward had not been given yet. Wang Baole was growing impatient, and now that he heard about the Combat Pavilion’s tournament from his subordinate, he immediately felt that this was an opportunity for him.

<em>Other disciples from the Dharmic Armament usually first sell the Dharmic Artifacts that they have refined before using the Spirit Stones that they have earned in return to support their cultivation and research studies. This forms a positive feed-forward cycle and is something that I should follow!</em>

Wang Baole seemed to gain a profound realization as he took out a portion of his Dharmic Artifacts to record their data before logging on to the Spirit Intranet to list them for sale.

At this time, there was a flurry of activity on Upper Academy Island’s Spirit Intranet. Posts related to the sale of Dharmic Artifacts, pills, and array formations were aplenty, and there were also some disciples from the Combat Pavilion looking for teammates for the tournament.

With regards to the pricing of his Dharmic Artifacts, Wang Baole did some comparisons and decided that he should not be too unreasonable. Therefore, he listed them at ten times the cost price, which in reality could be considered cheap. He saw that there were many disciples from the Dharmic Armament Pavilion listing their Dharmic Artifacts at absurd prices, mostly over ten times the price of the cost price. The most exaggerated listing that he saw was fifty to a hundred times the base price.

<em>That’s too unreasonable! Wang Baole suddenly had the thought that such a kind-hearted soul like himself was a rare find in the Dharmic Armament Pavilion. At the same time, he was glad to have chosen to enter the Dharmic Armament faculty in his early days.</em>

<em>After selling these Dharmic Artifacts, I should be able to sustain myself until the sect dispenses the reward for my gains in the Spirit Breath Village. </em>Wang Baole thought about it and felt that there should be no major issue. He then continued studying the method to refine the scabbard.

Slowly, three days went by. Wang Baole felt that he had already fully understood the first step required in the refinement of the scabbard. He wanted to try refining it when he realized that the Dharmic Artifacts that he had listed for sale on the Spirit Intranet did not garner any interest, and that made him troubled.

It would not have mattered if it was a simple issue of having no buyers. However, Wang Baole looked around the Spirit Intranet and found that many Dharmic Artifacts that were of poorer quality but of significantly higher price than what he had were being sold away, and that made him confused.

<em>Are these people blind? Are foolish people too rich that they only buy expensive stuff?</em>

Frowning, Wang Baole decided to increase the price of his listing. After setting them to be sold at seventeen times the cost price, he then continued manufacturing the Spirit Stones required for the scabbard. Soon, several days passed. It was difficult to refine the Spirit Stones for the scabbard, and Wang Baole had failed a few times but eventually still succeeded.

Looking at the scabbard-shaped Spirit Stones, Wang Baole was filled with satisfaction. His act of increasing the prices of the Dharmic Artifact that he had listed on the Spirit Intranet also seemed to have taken effect, as more people seemed to have viewed the items. Now, as Wang Baole checked the Spirit Intranet, he realized that some people had even sent him voice transmissions. However, just as Wang Baole excitedly opened up his voice transmission ring, his anger rose the instant he heard the message.

“Hey Junior Brother, how’s this deal? Two hundred Spirit Stones for the eleven Dharmic Artifacts that you listed, all in a bundle!”

“Two hundred Spirit Stones? You think this is daylight robbery? There are seven perfect first-grade and four perfect second-grade artifacts and you are only offering two hundred Spirit Stones?” Wang Baole was angry, thinking that the other party must have been crazy to suggest a price that could barely cover the cost price.

“No deal? Then forget it. There are so many Dharmic Armament cultivators in the Dharmic Armament Pavilion, including many who are reliable and well known. Who would believe you if you say that your perfect second-grade Dharmic Artifacts are most formidable? How about this? Give me one for free. Let me try it, and if it really works, I’ll make up the cost difference to you.”

“Get lost, I’m not selling it to you!” Wang Baole stared hard and immediately shut the voice transmission ring off before beginning to carve inscriptions on the Spirit Stones that he had just refined.

The only issue was that the difficulty of this step far exceeded that of the Spirit Stones’ refinement process. It required a thorough understanding of the structure of the inscriptions. Even though Wang Baole had learned about high level inscriptions on Upper Academy Island that, when coupled with his formula, were considered superior, he still faced multiple failures at this step.

Five days passed just like that. Due to the instability of the inscriptions, the scabbard lying in front of Wang Baole broke apart and was rendered useless. Wang Baole was so troubled that he furrowed his brow deeply.

<em>This thing is too hard to refine. The Spirit Kernels required are already difficult to make, but this is compounded by the fact that in the forging stage of the refinement process to follow, a refinement material known as Armament Sand is required… What on Earth is this Armament Sand?</em>

Frustrated, Wang Baole did a brief search that did not show any records about the Armament Sand. His refinement process had not reached the forging stage but had instead come to a halt at the inscription of Spirit Kernels.

<em>I can’t carry on this way… </em>Wang Baole pondered for a moment and did not continue refining the scabbard. Instead, he turned and restarted the process of refining perfect second-grade Dharmic Artifacts, planning to use the practice on making second-grade Dharmic Artifacts to hone his skills in carving inscriptions.

Days passed, and soon, there were only five days left before the tournament. While Wang Baole was refining perfect second-grade Dharmic Artifacts, he also refined all his Dharmic Artifacts once over, such that majority of them reached the level equivalent to that of a perfect second-grade Dharmic Artifact. He also added many inscriptions on them, especially on the bead of the Golden Bell Shield. Not only was it a perfect second-grade Dharmic Artifact, it also carried anti-tremor inscriptions that mimicked the force of the Spirit Qi tide.

It was at this moment that Wang Baole discovered disappointingly that his pockets were empty.

It was the first time that he had been completely broke since entering the Ethereal Dao College. This made Wang Baole slightly flustered, and as he logged onto the Spirit Intranet in frustration, he realized that no one was interested in buying the Dharmic Artifacts that he had listed. In addition, even though there were some messages regarding price negotiations sent through the voice transmission ring, the prices offered did not meet Wang Baole’s expectations at all.

<em>Something’s not right!</em>

Interpreting the situation, Wang Baole inevitably began to analyze the situation. As he browsed the Spirit Intranet, he seemed to be deep in thought. Gradually, he began to see the difference between the objects that others sold and those that he was selling.

Most of the time, there was a branding effect. There were a few sellers whose products were instantly sold out the moment they list them, be it pills or Dharmic Artifacts. There were a few others whom, though not to such an exaggerated extent, were also relatively popular. Regardless of how ridiculous the prices demanded were, people willingly bought them.

Similarly, there were many new sellers without a stable reputation and branding like Wang Baole whose items did not garner much interest and were constantly being low-balled.

<em>This is unbelievable… </em>Wang Baole felt a headache developing. He began to think about the previous buyer who wanted to try his Dharmic Artifacts out. If everything went well, the other party would pay the remainder of the Spirit Stones once trying them out and would also increase the exposure of the Dharmic Artifacts to a greater crowd, who would them flock to buy the items from Wang Baole.

However, the power of initiative in matters like that still lay in the hands of the other party. If it did not go according to plan, it would be a tricky and troublesome matter. Wang Baole was extremely strong-headed, and he would never give others the power to determine the outcome, unless he was left without a choice.

After thinking about it, he scratched his head. He revealed a look of determination as he slapped his thigh hard.

<em>I should not only limit the selling to before the tournament… Don’t I just need a good reputation and branding? I’ll raise the stakes this time so that I can reap the greatest gains!</em>

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