Sword Among Us c1-1268

by Black Swordsman Online

  Once One Circle and his group returned, Phoenix Dances made a bold decision to go ahead and build four branches, forming a net that connected more than ten cities in the area. Many of the important resource points were all gathered at the center of the net, and it allowed her to further strengthen Beautiful Robes Faction.

  Mu Clan's sudden arrival in the world also changed Chivalry Sect's predicament.

  Ever since the incident with Yao Hua in Fox Cave, Class One Hall did not do much to suppress Chivalry Sect. Their act of allowing Chivalry Sect to develop let the other gain a good momentum, especially when the alliance between the five sects was formed in Baokang.

  With great resources serving as their support, Chivalry Sect quickly learned from Mu Clan and set up their own sect storage and contribution system. Lin Xiao and Red Dust's reputation increased day by day, and the situation of their sect eventually splitting up because their leaders had disagreements never came to be.

  Happy was naturally happy to see such good things, but there were also situations that left him troubled.

  One Emperor's frenzied cultivation made him suddenly worry that this man would fling caution to the wind and reach Moksha Realm with Zhou Yu right after him. Moksha Realm was something that was supposed to only appear after a year of the game's launch. If it really came much earlier, then the joke about Happy returning to the past would have gone overboard.

  Also, the trend for refining weapons and armor had showed up way earlier than it did in his previous life.

  The value of herbalists had also been discovered earlier.

  The game was in a state it was only supposed to reach a year after its launch.

  "How can this be?"

  Happy felt that the World of Martial Arts was like a train that had left its tracks. Sparks flew everywhere, but no one could not pull the brakes. Of course, Happy was thinking about the speed of the players' development and their passion compared to what he had seen in his previous life. It was not that there was a problem with the operation of the game itself.

  He picked up to see the name 'Xu Yao.'

  He frowned and paused for a moment as he stared at the number on the phone's screen.

  Ever since his identity was exposed, many people found out his phone number, and practically every single person among the higher-ups in Beautiful Robes Faction had it. Naturally, Xu Yao was one of them. Over the past few days, she had been sending short messages repeatedly in an attempt to melt the ice between them, but Happy had not replied to her once.

  Even though he did not save Xu Yao's number, her phone number was etched so deeply in his mind that he could not forget it.

  "Hello?" Happy picked up the phone, but his voice was apathetic.

  He heard Xu Yao catch her breath on the other end of the phone, then she spoke. "It's me. Xu Yao."

  "Oh. Is something the matter?"

  "Yes. I met Silver Wolf yesterday." Xu Yao sounded uneasy and nervous before him.

  "Hmm?" A thought appeared in Happy's head, and he could not help but sit up straight.

  "Rumors have it that a group of reinforcements from Class One Hall was ambushed by Silver Wolf when Beautiful Robes Faction was attacked, which is why the people from Class One Hall's branch perished. Yesterday, when I was out doing a quest, I ran into Silver Wolf being attacked by a group of people by sheer coincidence, and I decided to help him."

  "Is he alright?" Happy's gaze turned solemn, and he spoke in a mocking tone. "Who would have the guts to surround and attack Silver Wolf? Do they want to die?"

  "They didn't seem to be from Class One Hall," Xu Yao answered. "I asked him at that time, and Silver Wolf mentioned that you made arrangements for him to come over and protect Beautiful Robes Faction. So I decided to call you and ask whether you will allow Silver Wolf to join Beautiful Robes Faction. He seems to be very lonely by himself."

  "You're sticking your nose into this too much."

  Happy ended the call with an expression as cold as the North Pole. It looked as if there was a thundercloud above his head.

  Chapter 367 - Mu Clan Takes Action

  Within Baokang County was a stylish blacksmith's shop.

  There were thirty or so young ironsmiths from Beautiful Robes Faction and Mu Clan inside, and they were all energetic and full of spirit. They stood at their refining counters with heads held high and their c.h.e.s.ts puffed out while they looked at the tall and built man with a stern expression.

  It was Mu Clan's master, Thunderous Battle!

  The clan had been built for less than a month, and it had been built on nothing. Yet not only had it managed to stand up tall and develop steadily, but also buy ten shops in Baokang.

  Some of them were pharmacies, some blacksmith's shops, some armor shops, and some sundry shops.

  At the same time, they bought all sorts of high-grade resources from countless players focusing on their occupations in Baokang. A large number of herbalists, ironsmiths, tailors, and merchants entered the shops.

  Even though Thunderous Battle was not a powerful player on Dragon Rank, he was high up in the Famous People Rank, and while their number of members made him only the leader of a standard middle-sized sect, he was the person with the greatest authority in Shennongjia. Regardless of whether it were the three local leaders of Baokang or Chivalry Sect, all of them gave vague hints that Mu Clan was their leader.

  Thunderous Battle had also done some major things over the past few days.

  Once he got a lot of ingredients from the commission shop as well, he bought even more ingredients from the market with an offer that was slightly higher than the market price.

  Just when everyone thought that Thunderous Battle had become an idiot from too much money and searched for people to gather up ingredients to sell to him, the sects that had been cultivating their herbalists in secret quickly sent out urgent notices. They claimed that they could not gather any ingredients, and they increased their offer for certain ingredients.

  The price for medicinal herbs and other ingredients increased by leaps and bounds in just two days.

  When a large group of merchants came to a realization that they had missed the chance to acc.u.mulate medicinal herbs, Mu Clan had already bought such a huge amount of medicinal herbs that the numbers could make anyone's jaw go slack with shock. They then put them on sale at the commission shop at an even higher price to balance their financial account.

  It was said that the mastermind behind the increase in the price for medicinal herbs was a female merchant who was a friend of the thirteen staff-using monks. She contacted Thunderous Battle and Happy and used a short amount of time to earn hundreds of millions of taels of silver by relying on the resources. With just one move, she pushed the price for medicinal herbs to more than twice its original price while earning hundreds of millions for herself.

  However, based on the words of someone who was among the higher-ups in Mu Clan, the number of herbs in Mu Clan's storage was not reduced. They just used all the medicinal herbs they had bought in exchange for money, which they used to fill up the clan storage.

  Their herbalists, however, gained an unprecedented chance to develop their skills.

  Dozens of herbalists continued refining pills, and in one shot, grade six and seven herbalists managed to become grade four herbalists, some of whom even reached grade three. They provided a large amount of Beauty Melting Liquid, Golden Jade Liquid, and even Jade Coagulating Powder for ironsmiths and tailors.

  In less than three days, Mu Clan took action again. They spent one billion to buy tens of thousands of low-priced low-grade and middle-grade masterpieces that had been taking up space in the commission shop.

  So the low-grade masterpieces were instantly forgotten and abandoned by countless players. Everyone began to go after high-grade masterpieces or one-echelon masterpieces. Hence, the price for middle-grade and low-grade masterpieces dropped exponentially. In fact, some people had even begun to sell them to NPCs.

  Middle-grade masterpieces s
old for only tens of thousands of taels of silver could be found everywhere!

  But just when everyone spat on middle-grade and low-grade masterpieces so much that their price was so cheap that they were almost sold at the same price as the items bought by NPCs, Mu Clan took action.

  Their move left the whole playerbase in shock!

  One night, the merchants in various cities noticed to their great delight that the equipment that they could not sell had been almost completely sold out. Some of them even had nothing left.

  They swiftly withdrew the money!

  When they entered the commission shop to investigate the matter, they found only some medicine, martial art manuals, resources, and some tools for the people focusing on their occupations on the commission shop page. The advertis.e.m.e.nts selling masterpieces that filled it before seemed to have been purged.

  When the merchants started to realize that something bad was about to happen, notices regarding people making offers to buy items suddenly appeared nonstop on the information list in the commission shop.

  [Buying low-grade masterpieces at a cheap price]

  [Buying a batch of low-grade armor at fifty thousand taels of silver]

  Most of those people were ironsmiths from various sects. To increase their level in refining weapons, they had to increase the echelons of masterpieces, but the cost for high-grade masterpieces was too high, so they could only buy low-grade masterpieces.

  Once numerous notices appeared, it became obvious that wanting to buy masterpieces using a low price would not work anymore. They had to increase their offers.

  The initial tens of thousands were soon jacked up to one hundred thousand taels of silver per weapon.

  However, that was still rather inadequate. There were simply too few masterpieces produced in the game, so when one of them appeared, it was instantly snatched away. In fact, there were some people who began to sell the low-grade and middle-grade masterpieces that they had just farmed up at the high price of one hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver to two hundred thousand taels of silver.

  Many merchants regarded those prices in disdain and mocked those people for wanting to earn money so much that they had gone mad!

  However, before they could even finished mocking them, announcements that those masterpieces had been sold appeared. Those notices swiftly vanished from the supply and demand page, affecting countless merchants so much that they felt as if they had just been smacked in the face.

  At that moment, a person with the in-game name of Masterpiece Merchant began to appear on the commission shop page. He sold ten low-grade masterpieces in one go, and if anyone bought them in bulk, he sold them for two million and four hundred thousand taels of silver.

  There was too little meat for too many wolves!

  And when one appeared, the second soon followed.

  On the first day that happened, two thousand low-grade masterpieces were placed in the commission shop, which allowed Mu Clan to regain more than a quarter of the money they had spent!

  And the commission shop still placed countless orders for low-grade masterpieces. In fact, someone even sent a messenger pigeon directly to them to say that they needed a large batch of low-grade masterpieces, and they were willing to pay a slightly higher price.

  Kind Tycoon was the one who offered the highest price among the merchants. He offered two million and eight hundred thousand taels of silver for ten low-grade masterpieces, and three million and four hundred thousand taels of silver for ten middle-grade masterpieces.

  Many merchants made some calculations for Mu Clan's profit in secret.

  The buying and selling of masterpieces allowed Mu Clan to earn at least 700% in profit, which meant that they had earned seven billion taels of silver…

  Kind Tycoon even posted a thread for that.

  He said that Mu Clan had eyed the explosive popularity of the weapon refinement and saw that everyone overlooked low-grade masterpieces. Then, they boldly dragged low-grade masterpieces back to their normal price. The handling of this matter, the courage to cut off all other means of getting low-grade masterpieces in bulk, and their method of selling the masterpieces they had bought maximized their profit, which was something that all merchants could learn.

  It was because of those two amazing moves that the cash flow in Mu Clan increased by billions.

  They soon reached Skilled Level, so what they needed to do was to obtain a large number of first-echelon low-grade and middle-grade masterpieces from Thunderous Battle to push them to reach the second echelon.

  Chapter 368 - Legendary Ironsmith, Heartless Iron

  The level of a forgemaster determined their success rate when they wanted to increase a weapon's echelon.

  For example, beginner-level or middle-level forgers could not be known as forgemasters. At most, they could only be considered as ironsmiths, and they could only create normal equipment. They did not have the right to refine masterpieces. Only people who were high-level forgemasters could increase the echelon of a masterpiece!

  However, normal weapons would also have a certain effect on the echelon.

  If the materials used to create the weapons were not good, the failure rate to increase the echelon would grow higher than 80%. Hence, only masterpieces created by master-level ironsmiths could be used for refinement.

  Only high-grade ironsmiths could refine weapons and make them reach the first echelon.

  To increase the levels of their forgemasters but also not waste ingredients as well as lose a huge sum of money, sects could only use low-grade masterpieces to acc.u.mulate experience.

  It was a publicly known process among forgemasters.

  Mu Clan had attacked the market with a force as great as a thunderbolt! They did something that all merchants in the game found unbelievable, and they earned a large sum of money from that.

  The remaining masterpieces and the ingredients in the clan storage were enough to push dozens of forgemasters into Skilled Level.

  Once they managed to make a weapon reach the second echelon, they were considered to be real forgemasters!

  Everyone knew that as long as an ironsmith managed to become a forgemaster, no matter what they refined, an additional 5% success rate would be added, thereby increasing their capital to refine weapons and armor. Whoever was lucky enough to reach that stage would be showered with love and attention by Mu Clan, and they would receive the right to refine high-grade masterpieces to the third echelon.

  They could also use the resources that were reserved for the third echelon in the clan storage, such as the unakites that cost millions, obsidians, and Vajra Stones, which were all items required to make three-echelon weapons.

  *****

  Reaching the second echelon might not be something major, but having many ironsmiths challenge refinement in one go and spending nearly one hundred million taels of silver still made Thunderous Battle slightly nervous. Once he gave an order that his most outstanding men could obtain more resources and priority to them, he personally supervised the hot workshop.

  Clang… clang!

  Clang… clang!

  The sounds of metal clashing against metal could be heard nonstop. Thirty or so forgemasters held different weapons and armor while holding red metal hammers to do their work with all their heart and soul.

  Thunderous Battle's eyes sparkled. While he walked, he paid attention to everyone's level of progress.

  In the beginning, everyone's progress was the same, and no one was ahead of anyone else. However, as time passed, different results gradually showed.

  Some people were fast, and some people were cautious.

  Refinement was meticulous work, and the forgemasters were working on getting rid of impurities from a masterpiece while leaving it in perfect condition. At the same time, they fused higher-grade metal ores into them to increase the quality of those masterpieces.

  The five people who completed their refinement first saw their first-echelon weapons or armor shattering.
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  However, refinement was in itself a very dangerous gamble. The forgemasters needed patience and tolerance. With their newfound experience, those who failed recomposed themselves and brought out their second set of ingredients.

  Thunderous Battle nodded in his heart.

  Since they were capable of standing out from the large group of ironsmiths, it meant that they had potential and a great level of comprehension. On their second try, all of them became steadier and much calmer.

  Even though the sounds of weapons and armor shattering often appeared in the workshop, the atmosphere inside was pretty good.

  After half a day, with the success rate of 40%, the forgemasters destroyed more than one hundred and twenty first-echelon low-grade masterpieces in exchange for more than eighty second-echelon low-grade masterpieces.

  Thunderous Battle could still accept this result.

  However, what caught his attention was that not everyone's results were the same among his people.

  Some of them were better than the others.

  That person had stayed silent since the start, and his actions followed the standard for refining equipment. He seemed to pour all of his heart and soul into it, and the sounds of his hammer striking metal were very continuous and rhythmic.

  He had refined six pieces of equipment and only failed twice. His success rate was actually at 60%...

  Heartless Iron was that forgemaster's name.

  Thunderous Battle calmly put it to memory.

  *****

  "Heartless Iron?"

  When Happy returned to the game in a foul mood, he received a letter from Thunderous Battle. It had a name that surprised him a lot.

  He remembered that it had reverberated like thunder through the game in his previous life.

  Its owner had been very famous!

  It was said that he had an abnormally good refinement talent. He was very skilled in refining equipment, and his success rate was at least a level higher than that of other forgemasters. There were many powerful players in Happy's previous life who had competed with each other for Heartless Iron to create a fourth-echelon weapon for them.