Miao Yi understood the reasoning. Otherwise he wouldn’t come to Celestial Nation Chamber of Commerce to trade on purpose. However, with the sudden plunge in market value, his heartache was only natural.
"Isn’t twenty a little too low? Can’t you go a bit higher?" Miao Yi asked, frowning.
Luo Ping shook his head. "Cave Master Miao, from the way you speak, you may not be aware that normal people are only offered eighteen low-grade Orbs of Will for this kind of low-grade storage ring. But as part of governing body, the Celestial Nation Chamber of Commerce takes upholding the privileges of government officials like yourself into consideration, and offered you twenty orbs as a deal. You may take a look at these different price levels."
He handed over a jade archive to Miao Yi that consisted of common trading prices. Surprisingly among them were the exchange rate of storage rings against the Orbs of Will.
Upon looking over it, only then did Miao Yi come to realize realize that there were actually three price categories for exchanging storage rings with Orbs of Will. Non-government officials would be offered fifteen orbs without exception. An ordinary cultivator holding a government official t.i.tle would be offered eighteen orbs. People like Miao Yi who held the position of a local authority starting from the t.i.tle of Cave Master would be offered twenty orbs.
Miao Yi secretly felt deeply ashamed. If he were to reveal his ident.i.ty as the Steed Deputy, then one storage ring could only be exchanged with eighteen Orbs of Will. He finally felt the advantages of being a Cave Master.
He only just began to realize the importance of an authority’s status after the truth came to light. It allowed one to enjoy special privileges everywhere in the Celestial Nation, including a discount in accomodation. He didn’t expect to also be given a deal when exchanging items with the Celestial Nation Chamber of Commerce.
Naturally, Miao Yi also understood the reason behind these deals. The Chamber of Commerce handled the trade throughout the entire Celestial Nation. If they didn’t give a good deal to dwellings of different branches, then who was going to take care of them?
Taking East Arrival Cave as an example: if the Chamber of Commerce had any sea cargo arriving at East Arrival Cave, it wasn’t likely for their goods to be s.n.a.t.c.hed due to their powerful influence. However, East Arrival Cave could still deliberately make things difficult for the Chamber of Commerce. Within their strictly defined power and responsibility, the Chamber of Commerce had no rights to take action against them. Instead, they would have to look for a more powerful authority to pressure East Arrival Cave.
In reality, if the Celestial Nation Chamber of Commerce had any issue in trading, they would also instantly seek help from the local authority. In this way, everyone maintained a mutually beneficial and reciprocal relationship.
Miao Yi pushed the jade archive back and muttered with a little hesitation. "I believe there’s room for negotiation with regards to the stated price, right? It’s impossible for it to always remain the same rate."
"There are fluctuations, but the prices are set according to the overall state of trading for each item. Inflation always exists, but common trading goods like these are always used and don’t really change in the cultivation world. Thus, we’ve observed that they don’t fluctuate very much. In comparison, special items like the Glorious Star immortal herb don’t have a fixed price, and definitely have room to bargain. However, for common items like these, Cave Master Miao should know that we will give the fairest price. Not only that, the price is also made public so you may compare it with everywhere else. There’s no room for bargaining in this."
Since this was the case, Miao Yi couldn’t really do anything about it. In the end, he had no choice but to nod. "Alright, twenty it is."
Luo Ping glanced at the six rings he wore on his hands and inquired, "So how many would you like to exchange, Cave Master Miao?"
Miao Yi reached into his clothes and fumbled about for a moment—‘Clank!’—in a flash, he pulled out several strings of storage rings and tossed them on the table. "Two hundred."
It had been very exhausting to lug these heavy things around for such a long time since he couldn’t store them in other storage rings. He was finally going to get rid of them today.
He didn’t take out all of the storage rings he won from battling in the Sea of Constellations. He disposed of two hundred of them, and kept twenty as reserves.
He initially thought that he would shock the other person by suddenly tossing out so many storage rings, but Luo Ping only faintly smiled then proceeded to calmly and carefully check the goods.
The Celestial Nation Chamber of Commerce served the capital cities of the twelve branches. These few storage rings hardly amounted to anything because they had seen a great number of other amazing sights. Compared to them, the few items that Miao Yi pulled out were hardly worth mentioning.
Miao Yi came to realize that he was overthinking matters. It seemed he hadn’t made a wrong decision in coming here. Those items he had taken out weren’t that conspicuous.
Luo Ping had Miao Yi wait for a moment. After he was done checking the goods, he turned around and tapped open the other copper door of the secure room. He stepped inside, and vanished behind the closed copper door.
The Chamber of Commerce here was a round building. The secure rooms were built around in a circle together with the lounge, and connected to the central administration room in the center via a pa.s.sage.
A short while later, the copper door swung opened again. Luo Ping came out from the central administration room with another old man. After both of them inspected the goods together, Luo Ping asked, "Cave Master Miao. Would you like to withdraw the Orbs of Will immediately, or store it here with us for now?"
Miao Yi was aware that hard currency like Orbs of Will could be stored in the Chamber of Commerce like money, and be withdrawn from any Manor within the Celestial Nation whenever needed, and at any time—for example, the Chamber of Commerce had a branch in South Edict Manor. However, prior notice needed to be given before withdrawal; and payment would only be received after the branch managed get in touch with the capital for verification. Although the waiting time was a little inconvenient, the goods would be delivered instantly after everything was settled, and without any additional charge. The service was definitely reputable. Otherwise, this kind of business wouldn’t be possible.
Of course, if the distance was too far or the location was too tricky to travel to, they wouldn’t be within the area of delivery.
Even so, the Chamber of Commerce would still encourage their clients to store their items here, so they would have more resources to circulate around. Most importantly, deadly battles were normal occurrences in the cultivation world and the death rate every day, month or year was immeasurable. Naturally, the items that had lost their owner would belong to the Chamber of Commerce. Every year, the Chamber of Commerce greatly benefited from just this alone.
"Withdraw immediately." Miao Yi replied.
The old man standing beside Luo Ping nodded. After re-counting Miao Yi’s storage rings, he flashed out the storage bracelet he wore on his wrist and produced four small boxes made of silver. He then handed them over to Luo Ping.
After Luo Ping performed a thorough check on them, he pushed the four small boxes towards Miao Yi. "You have exchanged two hundred low-grade storage rings. The exchange rate for each ring is twenty low-grade Orbs of Will, making that a total of four thousand low-grade Orbs of Will. Each of these four boxes contains one thousand low-grade Orbs of Will. Please verify the transaction, Cave Master Miao."
Miao Yi was obviously going to verify the transaction without being told to do so. These were all the items he had obtained by risking his life. After opening every boxe and verifying their contents, he nodded and said, "The number is correct. There is no problem."
Luo Ping then promptly retrieved a jade archive to scribble down the transaction details and sealed it with his insignia. He then let Miao Yi sealed it with his insignia, after verifying it once more, pa.s.sed it to the old man to do the same.
Upon verification by the three parties, the old man put away the official doc.u.ment along with the two hundred storage rings on the table. He opened the copper door that led to the central administration, entered and vanished behind the closed door.
Luo Ping gestured for Miao Yi to put away the four boxes of Orbs of Will before he asking another question. "Do you have any other request, Cave Master Miao? Perhaps even purchase some goods?"
Miao Yi casually grabbed at a first grade transcendent artifact and, without batting an eye placed a shiny, silver toothed club on the table. Pointing at it, he asked, "How many Orbs of Will can this be exchanged for?"
Luo Ping was speechless. He silently thought to himself that Miao Yi should have taken everything out in one go if he still had something to sell. ‘Was he doing this on purpose?’
Despite the grievances in his heart, they was no sign of them on his face. He picked up the item and appraised it with a professional smile.
It seemed like this item had room for bargain because unlike the storage rings, it had no fixed standard price.
Luo Ping even took out a scale and weighed the toothed club, checking to see how much essence powder had been used.
According to the general construction cost, including the materials and manufacturing labor fee, his final evaluation was 3.5 billion White Crystals. Equivalent to 350 thousand Gold Crystals. One thousand Gold Crystals could be exchanged for one low-grade Orb of Will. Therefore, it was worth 350 low-grade Orbs of Will.
However, just like the storage rings he had traded earlier, besides the market price, the Chamber of Commerce still had to make money. Therefore, one third of the value was deducted, and they were only willing to pay 230 low-grade Orbs of Will.
The price of the first grade Yao Core inside was calculated separately.
The real worth of a Yao Core was high. Its price was equivalent to the Orbs of Will and it was the standard market value. A First Grade Yao Core could be exchanged for a hundred low-grade Orbs of Will.
It was unfortunate that it had been refined into a finished product. If you took out an untouched Yao Core, you would be immediately offered a hundred Orbs of Will, but if it had been refined into a finished product, it would have issues meeting the needs of customers during resale. Not every transcendent artifact fit the customer’s needs, just like how Miao Yi was used to using a spear, he definitely would never be willing to use this toothed club.
A deduction of 20% was immediately done. They were only willing to offer eighty low-grade Orbs of Will for the First Grade Yao Core inside the toothed club.
In the end, this first grade transcendent artifact was priced at 310 low-grade Orbs of Will.
After the lesson he received earlier, Luo Ping smiled and said, "Cave Master Miao. If you still have other items, you may take all of them out at once to exchange. The Chamber of Commerce will most definitely ensure your safety and privacy."
That was Miao Yi’s first transaction so he was indeed a little apprehensive about it. Now that he was acquainted with the procedure, he wasted no time in immediately tossing out another forty-nine first grade transcendent artifacts on the table with a loud clatter.
Looking at the pile of first grade transcendent artifacts before him, Luo Ping was quite flabbergasted and gave Miao Yi a look of amazement.
He had secretly been a little baffled earlier—’How did a Cave Master manage to find so many storage rings?’—even so, he hadn’t dwelled on it. Now, he was stunned. ‘This is a whole pile of transcendent artifacts! Not just one or two, but a ma.s.sive pile! Where did all these come from?’
The corner of Luo Ping’s mouth twitched. ‘Could a Cave Master possibly have obtained all this by himself?’
However, this wasn’t important. Other than receiving a fixed wage from working here, he could get a 0.0001% commission from each transaction. Hence, instead of worrying about receiving too many items from clients, he only feared the clients would bring too few items.
In the Chamber of Commerce, every employee usually had their own regular and major clients. Clients would also usually look for the employees they knew well to make a transaction.
Luo Ping wasn’t that experienced, so major clients wouldn’t look for him. He hadn’t expected to run into one today. He was instantly in high spirits, and began bargaining with Miao Yi.
Miao Yi’s earlier experience with the toothed club gave him a vague idea of the worth of the remaining transcendent artifacts.
As expected, examining fifty transcendent artifacts one by one took up quite a bit of time. The main reason being, that the price of the Yao Cores required some effort to determine. Also, the amount of essence powder used in every transcendent artifact was different, so it was impossible to tag them all with the same price.
When all the prices were settled for the fifty transcendent artifacts, the grand total came to 14,085 Orbs of Will.
Luo Ping asked Miao Yi whether or not he had anything more to exchange. If he did, he might as well settle them all together. Naturally, Luo Ping was eager to receive more.
Of course, Miao Yi still had more in his hands but he didn’t sell all of his first grade transcendent artifacts and saved some to keep in reserve. As for hard currencies like Yao Cores, he didn’t have any fear of not being able to sell them—besides, his own transcendent artifacts would need the Yao Cores to replenish their energy when he fought. Hence, he wasn’t going to sell them for now.