Chapter 202: Cunning Rabbit

The Artifact Forging Workshop started out smoothly, but problems gradually emerged. This was because Mo Xi heard Elder Yu scolding someone again.

Mo Xi went to the Artifact Forging Workshop to check the arrays and saw Elder Yu and Yu Chengyi chatting. As they chatted, Elder Yu started scolding Qian Hong again, using terms like "blood-sucking roundworm," "stubborn old turtle with a tough shell," and "sinister beast," among others. He kept changing the way he cursed.

As Elder Yu was scolding, he suddenly noticed Mo Xi secretly listening nearby, even making notes as he listened, looking quite pleased. Mo Xi was muttering quietly to himself, things like, "You can scold like that too," and "How come I didn't think of that?"

Elder Yu cleared his throat and stopped, then said to Mo Xi, "You didn't hear anything."

"Okay." Mo Xi nodded. "I didn't hear anything!"

Elder Yu's anger gradually subsided. He found a chair and sat down firmly.

Mo Xi poured a cup of tea and brought it over to Elder Yu, asking, "Did the Qian family cause trouble again?"

Elder Yu was already used to chatting with Mo Xi and didn't hide anything from him, except the cursing. Elder Yu drank the tea Mo Xi poured, breathed out, and nodded, saying, "Our spirit tools aren't selling."

"No one wants them?"

"Of course, cultivators want them. After all, spirit tools like vine armor and simple knives are always useful. But I found a few merchants, as well as some monster hunting masters from other immortal cities, and they all feel the price is too high."

Mo Xi was a bit confused. "Our price is quite cheap, isn't it?"

Because the Artifact Forging Workshop was very large and had high output, the spirit tools were one or two spirit stones cheaper than the market price.

"It's the Qian family. Their price is too low."

"Is the Qian family suppressing the price?"

"Yes." Elder Yu mentioned it and got angry again. "The Qian family's Artifact Forging Workshop treats cultivators like livestock, working overtime, and stockpiled a batch of spirit tools beforehand. They specifically waited for us to start production, then threw them out at low prices to try and suppress us."

"That turtle son bastard, Qian Hong..."

Elder Yu stopped mid-curse, looked at Mo Xi, and silently swallowed the rest of the curse.

Mo Xi furrowed his brow, but after thinking about it, he didn't have any good ideas either. He looked up and saw that although Elder Yu was angry, he didn't seem too worried. So he asked, "Elder, do you have a solution?"

Elder Yu raised an eyebrow. "You saw it?"

Mo Xi said, "If you didn't have a solution, you'd be anxious, and your curses would be much uglier than they are now."

Compared to before, Elder Yu's current cursing was relatively "mild."

Elder Yu looked a bit awkward and thought to himself that he should curse less in the future, or at least hide from Mo Xi when he curses. Mo Xi was so young, he shouldn't learn from him and fill his belly with curses...

Elder Yu cleared his throat to cover up the awkwardness and said, "I do have a solution."

Mo Xi poured another cup of tea for Elder Yu. "Tell me about it."

Mo Xi looked curious.

Elder Yu thought for a moment and felt that this kind of matter could be taught, so he patiently explained, "I told those merchants that whatever price the Qian family gives them, we will be cheaper... by half a spirit stone."

"Half a point..."

As expected of Elder Yu, suppressing the price by half a point, very precise...

Mo Xi thought to himself.

"Half a point is not bad," Elder Yu snorted. "With so many spirit tools, a little adds up. Half a point of spirit stone is not a small amount either."

"Then what?" Mo Xi asked.

"As long as we can sell them and get the spirit stones back, the Qian family won't be able to compete with us later," Elder Yu said confidently.

"Why can't the Qian family compete with us?" Mo Xi didn't quite understand.

Elder Yu looked at Mo Xi, sighed, and said helplessly, "Because of the arrays you drew."

"The Qian family is very secretive about their refining furnaces. I couldn't find out anything, but I can see the spirit tools they refine..."

"The Qian family's spirit tools are of good quality, but they are still a bit inferior to ours. Besides Master Chen and the others' exquisite craftsmanship, there's another reason. The Qian family's refining furnaces are definitely not as good as ours..."

"Their refining furnaces are one grade, and ours are also one grade. If you ask where the difference is, it's in the arrays inside."

Elder Yu drank a cup of tea and continued, "I guess they also have a first-grade melting fire array inside their refining furnaces. These refining furnaces are not much different from our small refining furnaces, but compared to our large refining furnace, they are far inferior."

Mo Xi suddenly realized. The large refining furnace had a first-grade melting fire control spirit complex array drawn inside, and this array was more effective than a general first-grade array.

"Will the Qian family know about the large refining furnace?" Mo Xi asked.

"Refining furnaces are all secrets. I couldn't find out about the Qian family's, so it's naturally impossible for us to let the Qian family know," Elder Yu said.

"Then the Qian family will know sooner or later."

"As long as they don't know now, it's fine. When they know, it will be too late."

"What's the principle here?"

Elder Yu patiently explained, "Price suppression is originally a losing business and cannot last long. The Qian family is suppressing prices because their refining furnaces are good and their forging workshop has high output. They want to achieve their goal in one fell swoop, losing a little money at first to directly strangle us. But they don't know that our refining furnaces are even better and have higher output."

"After a while, we will turn things around, refining more and more spirit tools. If they suppress prices again, it will be like cutting off their own flesh and doing a losing business."

Elder Yu looked a bit smug.

"Then as long as we can get through the beginning, we won't be afraid of the Qian family anymore?" Mo Xi asked.

"Not bad!" Elder Yu raised his eyebrows and exhaled, saying, "By then, our forging workshop will be bigger than theirs, our refining furnaces will be better than theirs, our refining masters will be more numerous than theirs, we will refine more spirit tools than they do, and the quality will also be better than theirs. The Qian family will not be enough to fear."

Mo Xi nodded, vaguely understanding, but felt there were still some loopholes. Even if things developed that way, both sides would still compete with each other, and their side would just have some advantages. This wasn't enough to make Elder Yu raise his eyebrows and exhale like this.

Mo Xi looked suspiciously at Elder Yu. "Elder, do you still have another plan?"

Elder Yu paused, looked at Mo Xi, and said helplessly, "Why are you like a little fox?"

Mo Xi's eyes lit up, waiting for Elder Yu to continue.

"There's still one more move, which is 'removing the fuel from under the cauldron'."

"'Removing the fuel from under the cauldron'?"

Elder Yu said, "The Qian family's forging workshop is rushing production, and their refining masters must be working day and night. Their own family refining masters are fine, but the hired refining masters surely hold grudges. They are just working to make a living, who would be willing to truly work like a cow or a horse..."

"I'll secretly have people go and win them over, give them more spirit stones, and they won't need to refine day and night. After some time, these refining masters will come over and refine for us."

"I also notified all the monster hunting masters that they are not allowed to sell the materials they obtain from monster hunting to the Qian family. We will buy them ourselves."

"I also notified all the loose cultivator markets. They are temporarily not doing business with the Qian family. If the Qian family causes them trouble, they can just come to me, and I will handle it."

A trace of mockery appeared in Elder Yu's eyes. "After that, when the Qian family wants to refine, they will lack both materials and refining masters. This is called removing the fuel from under the cauldron."

On the surface, they were competing with the Qian family by suppressing prices, but behind the scenes, they were poaching the Qian family's refining masters and cutting off their material sources.

Mo Xi sighed and said, "Elder Yu, you are so sinister!"

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