Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Frost Sulfur, White Saltpeter, Darkcloud, Glaze Powder… As expected, the Basking Moon Sect is bursting with wealth.” Tang Jie carefully organized the materials he had collected.
These materials were all superb materials for laying down formations, probably worth around eight hundred spirit coins all together.
Since Tang Jie had neither the support of a wealthy clan, some golden finger that could produce money, nor an invention that could make him rich, he had to make good use of this rare opportunity.
Since coming to Basking Moon Academy, Tang Jie had gotten rich twice. One had been granted to him by Xie Fengtang, the other he had obtained by killing Zhuang Shen, and now, he had a third.
With these resources, he could once more purify and refine his bones and muscles, and his strength would climb once more. Perhaps once that was done, he would have the right to go out on missions and create his own fortune.
But this time, Tang Jie didn’t plan to sell these things to outsiders.
If these materials were used on Wei Tianchong’s puppet, they would bring it to a whole new level. Most importantly, these were materials used for the refining formations of Celestial Defense Hall, so they were perfect for this particular application. Even if it couldn’t reach the level of Celestial Defense Hall’s puppets, it would at least be much stronger than the wolf puppet.
The next morning, Tang Jie went to find Wei Tianchong. When Wei Tianchong heard that he could get rare materials at a discounted price, he was delighted. But then his face turned bitter. “I’ve basically used up all the money I have, and I have to keep a little for cultivation. When we made the wolf puppet, you said that we could make money with it, but we ended up not making anything, so it was a complete loss. Building another one will be even more expensive. Even though the Wei Clan sends me money every month, it’s still not enough.”
Tang Jie could only say, “The wolf puppet was a lossmaker, destroyed before we could use it to make money, but that’s because we lacked experience. We had to at least try. This time, I have a good idea, and I can guarantee Young Master that it can be immediately used to make money once it’s done.”
“What’s the method?”
“Tiger Roar Valley.”
“Tiger Roar Valley? You plan to take a mission there?” Wei Tianchong jumped to his feet.
Tiger Roar Valley was a valley within the Clear Sky Mountains.
A large formation had been set around the valley, and many fierce beasts, including fiends, sprites, ghosts, and monsters, were raised within. It was the number one most dangerous place in the school, and it was also the school’s internal mission ground. But the teachers didn’t call them “missions”, only “combat drills”.
According to the esteemed teachers, the fiend beasts of Tiger Roar Valley were intended for the students to test their abilities on, to hone their ability to survive in the wild.
Everything in Tiger Roar Valley was raised by humans, the plants being deliberately planted and the fiend beasts captured from outside. Thus, the students needed to pay an entry fee to enter this mission, but they would also benefit from it. It all depended on the student whether they made a profit or a loss.
According to the school rules, the entry fee was two hundred spirit coins per person, and it was only for Spirit Lake Tier and below.
This was why, though Tiger Roar Valley was much safer than the outside, students did not dare to recklessly venture in. Putting aside all the suffering and hard work they would have to go through, if they didn’t make enough money from the trip, they would suffer a loss.
“Yes, to Tiger Roar Valley. You’re still a far cry from fighting for the top five. I got ahead of myself a few days ago, so now that I think about it, going to Tiger Roar Valley would be better,” Tang Jie replied.
“It’s not better!” Wei Tianchong pounded his chest. “You think two hundred spirit coins is that easy to get? While those things we buy on the market go for several hundred to a thousand coins, those are all items brought back by students at Spirit Lake from dangerous areas on the outside, not stuff from Tiger Roar Valley! In that valley, an herb that goes for ten spirit coins is considered valuable, and it might be guarded by some fiend beast… Tell me, it’s just an herb that costs ten spirit coins, but it will be guarded by a fiend beast in Tiger Roar Valley. What sort of absurdity is that!?”
“From Third Young Master’s tone, it seems you’ve researched this.”
“Hah, you think I would be as ignorant as before?” Wei Tianchong casually said.
Wei Tianchong was much more informed than before.
Once training began, quite a few students had come up with the idea of entering the valley to defeat monsters and make money, but many of them naturally ended up with bloodied heads.
The biggest mistake they made was to compare the prices of the materials they saw on the market to those in Tiger Roar Valley, forgetting that while Basking Moon Academy was generous, it wouldn’t stuff this place full of precious materials for you to find.
Just like Wei Tianchong had said, even a spirit plant worth ten spirit coins might be guarded by a fiend beast!
Two hundred spirit coins? You would be incredible if you could just make back your investment!
As for those fiend beasts worth hundreds of coins, haha, you would have to be careful not to end up as their food!
Why else had not even Qi Shaoming or An Rumeng gone there? It was a scam!
“Then what if I brought a puppet?” Tang Jie casually asked.
“Mm?” Wei Tianchong froze.
Tang Jie continued, “All restrictions are only useful on people who lack the strength. When it comes to the rules of Basking Moon Academy, it has always been the capable getting more. Puppets can’t be traded around for sparring training, but there is no rule in Tiger Roar Valley about only the master being allowed to use them. Third Young Master, do you think that I will make a loss if you let me take the puppet?”
“Absolutely not!” Wei Tianchong blurted out.
Tang Jie was an inheritor of the Sword Classic, a top twenty ranker, one of the illustrious “strong” of their class. If he had one of the puppets that Wei Tianchong had put his all into, he couldn’t possibly make a loss.
Upon understanding this, Wei Tianchong blurted out, “Tang Jie, you clever scoundrel, so you were counting your chickens before they hatched. With my puppet, you could truly make a lot of money in there… but why do you think I’ll let you use my puppet? That’s something I made with my effort and my money!”
“I’ll rent it, Third Young Master.” Tang Jie chuckled. “Didn’t I have you make a puppet precisely so you could make money? But how do you make money? Try and get into the top five with it? But you’re not strong enough. So why not just rent it? At several dozen spirit coins a day, you just need one hundred days to make back your investment.”
Wei Tianchong’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
After some thought, he realized a problem and waved his hand. “No good. What if you break it?”
Tang Jie felt helpless. “It’s not like this puppet is made of Electro Wood. The material is much tougher. Moreover, I guarantee this time that I will have a defensive formation added on, and it won’t break so easily this time. In addition, you won’t rest easy renting it to anyone else, but you also won’t rest easy renting it to me?”
Wei Tianchong looked suspiciously at Tang Jie. “The one I can’t rest easy about is you… Why do I feel like those formation lines were the reason the wolf puppet was so easy to break?”
Tang Jie’s heart thumped. “I have a relationship with the student selling materials, so I can negotiate with him for you. As for the price… I should be able to bring it down to fourteen hundred.”
“One thousand.”
“Third Young Master, these goods are already cheaper by several hundred coins!”
“Twelve hundred at most. Any more and I don’t want it.”
“If I can take your puppet to Tiger Roar Valley and come back fully loaded, I will spread the word that this was all because of your puppet, at which point it will become much easier to run your renting business.”
“One-time free rent, and I’ll also help you buy a spell to control puppets. In addition, I can also help you by paying the entry fee for Tiger Roar Valley, but you have to pay it back.”
“Deal!” Tang Jie gritted his teeth and agreed.
This kid normally wasn’t anything to write home about, so why was he so vicious when it came to business?
With the money Wei Tianchong gave him, Tang Jie immediately went to Spirit Wonder Market and bought one thousand spirit coins of herbs for his medicinal bath. With the remaining two hundred, he bought some other materials.
Perhaps because it was only a one-thousand-spirit-coin bath, the effect was far inferior to his second bath. In truth, Tang Jie barely felt anything at all. This made Tang Jie realize that as his body improved, achieving the same degree of effect would probably require greater expense.
Tang Jie felt some regret. If he had realized this, he probably would have saved the money.
But considering that there were some things that could only be understood after suffering a loss, he didn’t mind too much.
This trip to Tiger Roar Valley was extremely important to Tang Jie. It would determine whether or not Tang Jie could develop this area into a harvestable land, a source of revenue.
If he wanted to improve quickly, he needed a way to make money.
The resources provided by the Divine Battleground were limited, and for the sake of long-term growth, students needed a more stable source of income.
The students were all racking their brains for ways to make money, which included working in the school or selling pills, talismans, formations, or tools.
But there were few jobs, and the four auxiliaries required too much investment and took too much time. His only advantage, formations, couldn’t be exposed, so he had to find another route. In the end, he set his sights on Tiger Roar Valley.
But Tiger Roar Valley wasn’t an easy place to make money. Cai Junyang had gone to Tiger Roar Valley twice. The first time, he had only brought back herbs worth eighty spirit coins. The second time, with experience, he had brought out products worth one hundred and twenty coins. After two visits, he had only made back half his investment. As he had entered the academy by dint of his eight-cycle Jade Gate and hadn’t come from a wealthy clan, he said that he had lost so much from those two visits that he didn’t even have pants anymore.
That someone of Cai Junyang’s strength had ended up in this state was a sign of just how difficult it was to make money. Thus, Tang Jie estimated that even if he used the Formless Golden Body, he would only be able to break even at best. Of course, this was because they had gone in too early. If they had waited until the later end of Spirit Spring, they would have been able to make more money, but for the students, this was too late.
In order to make this place a long-term source of resources for oneself, one needed to be stronger.
There was one other important reason he needed to go to Tiger Roar Valley… He was now ready. All that he needed was Wei Tianchong’s puppet.
Today, Wei Tianchong’s puppet was finally complete. Unlike last time, this was an actual human-shaped puppet.
The best advantage of a human-shaped puppet was that it could wear armor and use weapons. With the right refining formation, it could even be used against Spirit Masters of the same level.
Wei Tianchong had invested everything he had into it. Besides the remaining materials from the wolf puppet, he had spent five thousand spirit coins, emptying out his reserves and even borrowing money from his older brother. If Tang Jie couldn’t help him turn this puppet into wealth and strength, he would have to find Tang Jie and have it out with him.
With the puppet, Tang Jie once more went to that Qin Liang to help him carve the refining formation, using the same method as last time.
Several days later, when he picked up the puppet, he would finish the work.
But this time, he no longer used the formation from Xu Muyang’s formation treatise. Instead, he used the refining formations from the puppets of Celestial Defense Hall.
Through his research over the last few days, he had a good grasp of the formation diagrams on the puppets.
The puppets of Celestial Defense Hall were able to go one-versus-one against Tang Jie and Qi Shaoming and beat them so badly that they vomited blood. Even without all those precious materials they had, their strength still could not be underestimated.
After five whole days, Tang Jie finished carving the formation. Tang Jie then rented a puppet token from the academy. There was a space inside the token that could store a puppet, but unlike a Mustard Seed Bag, it couldn’t store anything else.
Finally, Tang Jie tested his newly learned Sovereign Spirit spell. Regrettably, while the Sovereign Spirit spell could help him sense the gold needle if he lost it, it was still limited by distance.
But it was better than nothing.
Everything was ready, so he set off to Tiger Roar Valley to start his plan.