Sea Cultivation: Giant Ships and Heavy Artillery Knock on the Door to All Races

Chapter 75: Supervisory Duties, Shadow Stone
"Shadow Stone? Sounds like a familiar name."

"Oh! Yes, yes, yes! I'll get it for you right away."

Lin Qianfan took a general look and found that the shop was well managed and there was no problem overall, except that the prices were slightly higher than other grocery stores.

Low-level cultivators would like to break a spirit stone into two pieces, so the price threshold naturally filters out some customers.

However, high prices have their advantages. With customer flow provided by quality assurance, the profit of each order is guaranteed to be high.

Not long after, a middle-aged man dressed much more noble than the waiter walked out from the back hall.

"Dear guest, I am Zhou Zhengtong, the owner of Lingyuan Grocery Store."

"I have admired you for a long time!"

"Please do me the honor of following me upstairs to the private room for a chat."

"Then it's better to be respectful than to obey."

Shadow Stone is not a common commodity. On the contrary, it is a relatively rare and expensive first-level material. Lin Qianfan did not tell the waiter the specific demand, so a detailed discussion is needed.

Doesn't a grocery store sound a bit cheap? But what if we call it a department store?
So the private rooms that should be there are still there.

On the second floor, private room facing the street.

Because of the isolation of the formation, people in the private room can see the bustling street scene and the distant scenery through the window.

But no noisy sound could be heard, and people outside could not notice any movement in the private room.

"May I ask your surname, sir?"

"No need to worry about your surname being Zou."

"Mr. Zou is handsome and has an extraordinary appearance..."

"Shopkeeper Zhou, let's talk about this Shadow Stone. If you don't have it here, I'll go to the next store."

Lin Qianfan refused the other party's attempt to chat and make friends. The status of both parties was not equal, and there was no point in talking too much.

"I was abrupt."

Then, Shopkeeper Zhou pulled out three boxes of different sizes from the storage bag in his sleeve, which contained three shadow stones.

"Shadow Stone is a byproduct of the seabed spirit vein. It has excellent refining properties, but it's quite difficult to collect. And after use, it's difficult to refine it again. So, the price..."

"What's the difference?"

"270, 400, 580."

"It's too expensive! I want a sincere price."

It is true that Shadow Stone is precious, but it is just the raw material. The refining process from raw materials to finished products is also very valuable.

"Which piece does Mr. Zou want?"

"It depends on your sincerity."

The average price of a brand new first-grade, high-quality magic weapon is around 500 spirit stones, and is also affected by the specific model, quality, and attributes.

Don’t think this price is expensive.
For Qi-refining cultivators, a powerful magic weapon is an important part of their personal strength. Even many independent cultivators rely on their magic weapons to support most of their combat power.

If magical instruments are well maintained, they are difficult to damage and can be passed down from generation to generation, from father to son, and from son to grandson. They also have good liquidity in the second-hand market.

Even some materials can be used to extract some raw materials after the magical instruments are broken, so high-quality and top-grade magical instruments are very valuable.

Among the first-level magic tools, the market popularity of high-quality magic tools is absolutely overwhelming that of the mid- and low-quality magic tools with serious production redundancy, and the price range in between is very large.

Therefore, a brand new, top-grade magical weapon is very valuable.

"As the shopkeeper of this store, the maximum authority I can give you, Mr. Zou, is a 10% discount. What do you think?"

"It's not a big deal, it's still too expensive. I really want it." Although Lin Qianfan has saved some money in the past few years, his expenses are also high. Especially if he wants to maintain rapid growth now, he cannot run out of high-quality auxiliary pills and high-quality spiritual objects.

In addition, you have to save money to exchange for foundation-building pills in the future, and you also need to replace various equipment after building the foundation, which are huge financial holes, so you also need to bargain when making large expenses.

"Mr. Zou, if you can take all three Shadow Stones, I can override my authority and give you a discount of at least 15%."

"15% off! I only want the second piece."

The Phantom Sword is relatively small in size, and the materials required to refine it are not expensive. The amount of this second piece of Shadow Stone is barely enough for Lin Qianfan to refine the Phantom Sword twice, leaving a certain margin for error.

As for permissions and other things, they are all sales tactics. Don't believe them completely. When it's time to bargain, you should bargain hard.

"Mr. Zou, please take this small piece with you. If you can't use it all, my Lingyuan Grocery Store will buy it back at the market price."

"Thank you for your kindness, Shopkeeper Zhou, but I am confident that I will succeed, so I won't need this small piece."

"I didn't expect that Mr. Zou is also a top-grade weapon refiner. I admire you!"

"How about this, I really want to make friends with Mr. Zou. You can pick out some other spiritual objects, such as elixirs, talismans, and spiritual materials to make up the four hundred spirit stones."

"When I record it in my account, I'll treat this Shadow Stone as a sale to you at full price and give you some spiritual objects as a gift. That will make things easier for me. How do you think?"

"Other items must also be sold at a 15% discount."

“I met a master this time…”

"Haha~ Same here..."

This is a deal that satisfies both parties.

Although the purchase price is still not cheaper than the market average, it is convenient and safe to buy things in this kind of shop. If you go to other small shops, you will probably not be able to find the Shadow Stone, not to mention that the size and specifications of this piece are just right.

Although the shopkeeper gave a discount, it was still profitable and he was able to meet his sales target.

"This store has no major problems from the display to the waiters, from the spirit objects to the shopkeepers. It all depends on the income in the later stage."

An 400% discount on 340 is 60. Lin Qianfan also selected a variety of spiritual objects worth spirit stones for sampling inspection, which was considered worthy of his monthly salary as a supervisory deacon.

When Lin Qianfan compares the amount of money he paid and the amount of things he took with the bills on hand from the chief steward/tax steward, it will be clear whether there are any problems in the operation process.

"The next step is refining."

The Phantom Sword is a type of standard sword that is designed to facilitate the use of corresponding Phantom Sword moves. It does have special requirements for materials of different levels, but it is not a fixed requirement.

The refining method that uses shadow stone as the main material is the easiest one that Lin Qianfan found to obtain locally.

"We still need a small amount of auxiliary materials, which can be withdrawn from the shipyard."

Although the main materials used in shipbuilding in a shipyard are mostly various spiritual woods, various other commonly used refining materials are also involved.

The auxiliary materials for refining the Phantom Sword can all be found in the ship workshop, and can even be purchased at the ship workshop's cost price. This is the advantage of having channels.

"This piece of Shadow Stone is enough for me to refine the Phantom Sword twice. I hope I can succeed in the first try."

There is naturally a success rate in refining equipment.
Some magical instruments are completely destroyed if they fail, while some magical instruments can still have some materials recycled if they fail. The Shadow Stone belongs to the former. Once the refining fails, the spiritual energy will be lost to the point of being almost scrapped, so the cost of trial and error is very high.

"No, you can't use something this expensive just for training."

Although Lin Qianfan has a lot of experience in refining equipment, 99% of it is about refining spirit ship components. He only has a very small number of weapons that he is interested in, but none of them have reached the first-class level.

"We have to start with the easier part first."

It stands to reason that this doesn't have to be so troublesome, and one can just find a skilled weapon refiner for help, but Lin Qianfan doesn't want others to know about the Phantom Sword and the three unique skills.

Lin Qianfan wanted to use this as his trump card for attack, so the task of refining the Phantom Sword could not be entrusted to others.

(End of this chapter)