Destiny in Cinders

An Jing’s operation was quite simple. As far as the merchants who set up shop at the eastern part outside the city were concerned, they were frequented often by a young fool. Perhaps calling him a fool was a bit much, but they basically saw him as someone who spent money freely without even haggling.

He looked like a youth in his young teens, dressed well enough to be a young scion of some significant Dustdawner tribe. They didn’t know why he was so interested in the wares they peddled to the point that he bought entire stores out from time to time. Sometimes, he scoured the entire market to buy out a certain kind of good.

He was generous and only haggled with some merchants who thought him foolish enough to ask for ridiculous prices. Most other times, he accepted the first offer and made a purchase with solid silver, not random scraps of metal he cobbled together.

The youth who called himself Jing Xuan claimed that he did this because he admired the culture of Grand Chen and couldn’t resist buying out the fine porcelain, trinkets, elegant sachets, intricate tomes as well as other specialties that were hard to come by in Dustdawn. He would bring it back home for his tribespeople to enjoy.

That reasoning was fine as any other. Grand Chen was the hegemon of the Northblack Sacrifice Continent, after all, so it was no surprise that smaller factions strove to emulate it. Some even worshiped its culture. Even tribes that had tense relations with Grand Chen had tents filled to the brim with paintings, scrolls, porcelains, sachets, decorations and all sorts of cultural exports from the empire.

Needless to say, Grand Chen’s most popular exports were their martial artifacts. Alas, the authorities strictly regulated their distribution, so most people wouldn’t be able to get their hands on much unless they had friends in high places and access to armories.

Either way, the young scion with a shopping streak was hardly the exception. The only thing about him that stood out was his age. He didn’t just buy senseless trinkets either. There were things that he bought that seemed incredibly practical, as well as things that made people scratch their heads in wonder.

For instance, he bought the bones and skins of beasts and medicinal ingredients. The latter required less explanation. Medicinal herbs that were cultivated in Grand Chen were hard to come by in Dustdawn. However, bones and skins were supplied to the merchants by the Dustdawners to begin with. What was the point in buying them back?

”He’s just a fool with too much money for his own good,” said the owner of one of the shops.

However, the shop owner next door snapped and said, ”What are you saying? Young Master Xuan is a kind and generous customer! He bought from you and me! I even gave him a thirty-percent discount. I’m not ripping him off at all!”

”Shut up! I don’t know how you bear with the shame of bringing out old stock that’s been gathering dust for a few years. Even if you sold it at half price, you already made bank!”

”Hah! At least I’m better than someone who pushes him to buy second-hand calligraphy!”

An Jing spent hundreds of liang of silver within merely two days and tens of liang worth of gemstones (manmade in Skysource, of course), totalling up to nearly two hundred liang of silver in worth. This was no small sum in Keensight. One liang of silver could buy more than six pecks of rice. Two hundred could buy up around 120 pecks, which was enough for a village of one hundred people to survive for half a year. This was a sum that could save lives during times of disaster, yet An Jing had spent them on miscellaneous trinkets! It was both enviable and vexing.

In actuality, An Jing didn’t lose anything from those transactions at all. He did buy quite a bit of calligraphy, porcelain wares and artisanal goods to mask his actual intent. Those were completely useless and wouldn’t sell in Skysource either. However, they also didn’t cost him much. At the end of the day, this was just the cost of doing business.

The amount of money he spent was equivalent to twenty-five merits. Though the gemstones were worth more, they often had to be used in tandem with silver; few merchants accepted only gemstones for payment. He couldn’t use too many of them either so that the stones didn’t rapidly depreciate in value. Twenty-five merits wouldn’t even get him two thunder beads in Skysource, something he already had three of on hand.

If he converted a hundred merits to silver, he could buy three thousand pecks of food, a terrifying conversion rate indeed! Yet in Skysource, one merit was only worth two jin of compressed canned meat. One hundred merits could only get around three hundred jin of canned meat, around three hundred kilograms after they absorbed moisture. Granted, the canned meat was good for up to three decades, so there were advantages.

Even so, in terms of price by weight, food in Skysource easily costs thirty times more. Not to mention, An Jing only spent that amount of silver on masking his actual purchases. What he really wanted were the beast parts and medicinal ingredients.

The skins here are of decent quality. They’re not quite sourced from feral beasts, but ones that do have traces of their blood. The skins are a great material for talismans according to Huo Qing and ten complete sheets are worth twenty merits. I broke even with just that.

The bones are key for making tonics, talisman ink and pills. Frostwolf bones are worth five merits per jin, and I’m able to get two jin’s worth with only two liang of silver! I’m able to make back all the merit I spent with only two hundred liang of silver. I stand to profit tens of times the cost!

He looked at the cold frostwolf bone in his room at the inn with awe. The advantages of trading between worlds are terrifying. And then there’s the medicinal ingredients!

Huo Qing was a denizen of Pilljungle Town of Mortality Plains, a key area for the herb trade. So, he should be quite well versed when it came to the market price. An Jing had procured a spirit flower that was common in Keensight, wanderwhite flowers. They were most often used in the production of clearspirit talismans and sold for thirty-eight merits per kilogram.

In Void Embrace, one liang of spirit flowers cost three liang of silver. They were expensive in either world, but there were still massive profits to be made as silver in Skysource was cheap.

Though the margins didn’t seem as excessive as those of beast skin or bones, An Jing prioritized them even more. He got the beast parts at a discount, for one. They were worth quite a bit more if they were fresh. Not to mention, there were only so many beast parts he could transport with him. Huo Qing wouldn’t be able to help him resell that much at once either.

Spirit herbs, on the other hand, were different. Their demand at Pilljungle was almost never entirely met and it was easy to offload lots of stock there. If An Jing could monopolize the trade, he would be able to do business for quite the long term.