Chapter 112 - 98: "How Strong Is the Pingtian Commerce Association?
Chapter 112: Chapter 98: "How Strong Is the Pingtian Commerce Association?
All that talk about remaining calm while Mount Tai crumbles before you, or unflinching as the Yellow River bursts its banks overhead—it’s all a lie.
Anyone who can truly do that is just someone who hasn’t been personally affected yet.
Not even a saint could manage it.
But if you hypothesize enough emergencies, when the day finally comes, you can remain completely unfazed. It’s not because you’re exceptionally calm, but because you’ve already replayed the scene in your mind countless times.
He wasn’t a particularly smart person.
This was the only way he knew to make up for his shortcomings with diligence.
...
The first half of the night passed just like that.
When the latter half of the night arrived.
Lame Monkey and the others had already fallen asleep. After a busy day, they couldn’t hold out any longer. Even a man of iron wouldn’t be able to.
After the Yunling Pavilion was built, practically no one had gone inside. In the past few days, he was the only one who had entered it to practice his Cultivation.
There was simply no time.
Even Zhou Mo had only gone in at the very beginning to comprehend the Broken Water Sword Technique; he hadn’t had time to go back in since. Ironically, he had become the most relaxed person in the camp.
Chen Fan arrived at Warehouse No. 1.
Standing outside the Jiezimai Room, he looked at the mountain-like Ghost Stone, shrouded in emerald-green mist and floating in the air, and broke into a smile.
’Ghost Stone?’
’He didn’t see one.’
’All he saw was a valley littered with corpses after Meat Grinder Stage Two was activated.’
"Station Head."
Wang Kui, holding a stack of scrolls, reported with equal excitement, "We now have a total of 92,022 Ghost Stones in the camp. This Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide brought us a profit of tens of thousands of Ghost Stones. That’s equivalent to more than a dozen of those Hey Hey cesspools."
"This batch of Ghost Stones is enough to build several Pingtian Commerce Associations."
"I heard the head of the Pingtian Commerce Association is from Jiangnan. Back in the day, he used 5,000 Ghost Stones to build the Pingtian Commerce Association that now monopolizes several industries in Jiangbei City."
"But that’s not even considered a large commerce association."
"If we could become like the Jiangbei Commerce Association, that’s when we’d truly be earning a fortune every day."
"The Jiangbei Commerce Association?"
Chen Fan was lost in thought. He had some fragmented memories about the Jiangbei Commerce Association, but not many. "Tell me more."
His knowledge of commerce associations wasn’t actually that extensive.
"Uhh..."
"Station Head, you should probably ask Wang Mazi about this. He was a traveling merchant before joining the Jiangbei Chen Family. He knows more about it than I do."
"Have him come here."
...
Soon, Wang Mazi arrived at the warehouse, following behind Wang Kui. He said hurriedly, "Station Head, you were looking for me?"
"Yes."
"After the rainy season ends, opportunities to earn Ghost Stones by killing Ghost Objects like tonight will become rarer. We’ll definitely have to form our own commerce association. You have experience as a traveling merchant, and I’m thinking of having you establish one for us."
"But I’m not clear on the specific operations of a commerce association or their profit potential. Tell me everything you know."
"You got it."
Wang Mazi’s eyes lit up as if he had seen a bright and promising future. He had loved to wander around since he was a child. For someone who was once just a village peddler, becoming the head of a commerce association was a meteoric rise. He took a deep breath, coughed a few times, and chose his words carefully before continuing.
"Let’s start with treasures."
"After the Eternal Night descended, three types of treasures appeared."
"Exotic Treasures, Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, and Spirit Treasures."
"Exotic Treasures are dropped after killing Ghost Objects and cannot be man-made. Heavenly and Earthly Treasures are born from the world itself. Spirit Treasures are crafted by Artifact Refiners."
"Commerce associations are also divided into four scales: large, medium, small, and unranked."
"Unranked commerce associations mainly deal in ordinary items for mortals, like rice, flour, linen clothes, and hoes. You can’t make much money, and there are no escorts. The people in this line of work are basically all mortals."
"And they usually don’t travel far, just back and forth between a city and the nearby villages."
"A single commerce association has at least a dozen people. Staying one night at a station costs a dozen or so Ghost Stones. That’s more than the profit from the entire trip."
"So, the only commerce associations that can actually make money are the large, medium, and small ones."
"First off—"
"A White Level Exotic Treasure sells for around 500 Ghost Stones in the Jiangbei Marketplace."
"It’s not that the Exotic Treasure is only worth 500 Ghost Stones, but that only a certain group of people can afford it. If the price were any higher, it wouldn’t sell."
"But if you were to transport this Exotic Treasure to Jiangnan, or even a more prosperous region..."
"...its price could soar to 1,000, or even 2,000 Ghost Stones."
"Its value would multiply several times over."
"But how to transport it is the tricky part. The journey is long, the accommodation fees at stations for a round trip are substantial, you might run into bandits, you need powerful escorts, and you need to have enough ’face’. Otherwise, you’ll just get robbed the moment you pass through another faction’s territory. No matter how strong your escort is, they can’t fight a turret..."
"One shot and everyone’s dead."
"Small commerce associations don’t have the qualifications to transport goods, nor can they afford it. If a single transport run fails, not only will you lose all the Ghost Stones, but everyone will be dead, too."
Wang Mazi paused for a moment, cleared his throat, and continued.
"So here in Jiangbei, small commerce associations are usually responsible for scouring places like the Marketplace for overlooked Exotic Treasures, Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, and so on. They then sell them to medium-sized associations like the Pingtian Commerce Association for a small markup."
"Medium-sized associations usually occupy an entire city."
"For example, the small associations in Jiangbei City can only sell what they find to the Pingtian Commerce Association. Then, the Pingtian Commerce Association sells these Exotic Treasures to the Jiangbei Commerce Association—the largest in all of Jiangbei—for another markup."
"Finally, the Jiangbei Commerce Association transports the Exotic Treasures to Jiangnan and earns a massive profit."
"If we were to form a commerce association, we could go to Jiangbei City after the rainy season and set up a small one. Qi Cong and Ah Le used to work for the Pingtian Commerce Association, so they should be able to find a contact if we ask them to pull some strings."
"..."
Chen Fan’s brow furrowed. After a moment of deep thought, he asked, "If I acquire a White Level Exotic Treasure for 500 Ghost Stones, how many Ghost Stones can I get by selling it to the Pingtian Commerce Association?"
"600."
"Just 600?"
"Yeah. A profit of 100?"
"What if my White Level Exotic Treasure is very powerful? Still 600?"
"That depends on the situation."
Wang Mazi took a breath and continued, "When you get an Exotic Treasure, it’s in an unidentified state. No one knows its specific effects. At this stage, the Exotic Treasure is called ’unveiled,’ and they all have a standard price of 500 Ghost Stones."
"You can tell when an Exotic Treasure has been identified and ’unveiled’."
"If you buy one, you have to pay to have it appraised yourself. Whether you profit or lose, it’s on you."
"You could also spend 30 Ghost Stones to have it appraised before selling. If it’s a powerful White Level Exotic Treasure, the Pingtian Commerce Association would be willing to pay a little more for it. But if the effect is poor, the price will be even lower."
"Generally speaking, people sell ’unveiled’ Exotic Treasures. After all, with White Level Exotic Treasures, the chances of it having a poor effect after appraisal are just too high."
"..."
Chen Fan nodded lightly. "I understand. So what you’re saying is, I go to all the trouble of forming a commerce association, only to make a 100 Ghost Stone profit on a single Exotic Treasure, and I might even lose money if I get it appraised? Is that right?"
"Uhh... yes, that’s right."
Wang Mazi hesitated for a moment before saying quietly, "Actually, a profit of 100 Ghost Stones isn’t small. When Wang Kui was a station head for the Wang Family, his monthly wage was only 10 Ghost Stones. It would have taken him a year to earn 100."
"Just make your point. Why bring me into it?" Wang Kui, who was standing to the side, said irritably.
"How strong is the Pingtian Commerce Association?"
"Not as strong as us."
Wang Mazi said decisively, "Although I don’t know the specific defenses of the Pingtian Commerce Association’s territory, they’re definitely not as good as ours. Even the defenses of Jiangbei City and the major families are certainly no match for ours."
"Let’s take out the Pingtian Commerce Association and start directly as a medium-sized association."
"It’s... not that easy to take them out..."
Wang Mazi shrank back and said in a low voice, "Um, Station Head, it takes a long time to plan the annihilation of a faction. After all, you’d be fighting on their home turf. A Cultivator launching a frontal assault on another’s territory..."
"...is basically a suicide mission."
"But we can play the long game. For example, we could first find the Jiangbei Commerce Association and establish a direct channel with them. Then, we can buy out the small commerce associations in Jiangbei City and have them supply their goods to us first."
"Slowly cut off the Pingtian Commerce Association’s source of goods."
"Only then can we slowly chip away at the Pingtian Commerce Association."