Chapter 288: Cooperating with the Netherworld Sect

Bei Yinning was a Cultivator with a rather quiet personality.

In other words, she wasn’t very talkative.

But the woman before her, Zhou Xiao, clearly did.

However, Zhou Xiao quickly realized that Bei Yinning wasn’t much for small talk, so she didn’t try to force an awkward conversation.

She soon revealed her true purpose. "I heard your Netherworld Sect has a large Thunder Stone Ore Vein?"

Bei Yinning looked up, but nodded without much surprise. "Hm? Yes, we do."

Thunder Stone was considered one of the more useless resources.

If it were a valuable resource, there’s no way these small sects would be the ones in control of it.

Just like how the Feique Sect had a Thunder Stone Mine.

That was about all they had.

Pretty much any useful ore veins were firmly in the grasp of the Sea View Sect.

Or they were small ore veins that the Sea View Sect simply looked down on.

The Thunder Stone Ore Vein was relatively large, and the Netherworld Sect’s Thunder Stone Mine was even larger.

For a change, Bei Yinning took the initiative to ask, "Mr. Zhou, why do you ask?"

Zhou Xiao watched her with a smile. "Are you selling?"

"Selling?" Bei Yinning nodded. "Of course. How much do you need? I can go back and bring some back for you. But, I remember the Feique Sect has a Thunder Stone Ore Vein as well, don’t they?"

People would occasionally buy Thunder Stone, but only a few pieces, maybe a dozen at most.

Its unstable energy meant that not many Cultivators were fond of the stuff.

This was also why the Netherworld Sect hadn’t gotten rich after guarding the Thunder Stone Ore Vein for so many years.

She assumed Zhou Xiao was also just looking to buy a few pieces casually.

Zhou Xiao quickly understood what she meant and continued with a smile, "I mean a partnership. A large-scale, long-term cooperation between our two Sects for Thunder Stone. Are you in a position to make that decision?"

Bei Yinning froze.

"What do you need so much Thunder Stone for?"

Currently, only the Longevity Sect knew the true use of Thunder Stone; it was impossible that even the Feique Sect knew.

And while the Feique Sect’s ore vein was now under the Longevity Sect’s management, it wasn’t a very good one.

Recently, Fan Guzhou had gotten a few players to mine it, but the highest-quality ore they had found was only Third Rank Thunder Stone, and the yield rate was exceptionally low.

At present, they couldn’t supply Liang Xueyao with enough for his large-scale experiments.

But the Netherworld Sect’s ore vein could produce Fourth Rank ore, which changed everything completely.

If the ore vein was good, the probability of finding Second and Third Rank ore would be higher—at least higher than at the Feique Sect’s mine.

That was why Shuang Xiahuai had been keeping a close eye on this ore vein, just waiting for Han Tian’s people to go and negotiate with the Netherworld Sect.

But once on someone else’s territory, they’d have to find a way to sweet-talk them. If Zhou Xiao had a way to negotiate directly through someone from the Netherworld Sect, it would be much more convenient!

Zhou Xiao explained, "We need it to refine some Magic Treasures. It’s a Secret Technique exclusive to our sect. The problem is that Thunder Stone is too prone to exploding, so the amount we go through is huge."

Zhou Xiao’s words were half-truth, half-lie. After all, Thunder Stone could certainly be used to refine Magic Treasures.

The part about explosions, however, was just to fool Bei Yinning.

To make them think the consumption rate for the material was high.

In reality, they had already figured out how to stabilize Thunder Stone so it wouldn’t explode at all.

Bei Yinning also knew the properties of Thunder Stone. She frowned slightly and said, "I can go back and speak to my master. He’ll probably agree to the partnership. What’s the minimum amount you need?"

’If it means selling it for Spirit Stones, there’s no way they’d refuse to cooperate.’

Zhou Xiao did a quick calculation. "How much can you stably produce in a month?"

"Thunder Stone isn’t easy to mine. It’s very unstable and can easily injure our people." Bei Yinning thought for a moment. "Maybe a few hundred pieces a month at most. We can have someone deliver it to you then."

"A few hundred pieces?"

’That’s far too little.’

At Liang Xueyao’s steady refining speed, he alone could probably use up all that Thunder Stone in a month.

And a large portion of that would be First-order Ore.

Plus, waiting for them to deliver it would waste even more time.

Meanwhile, a group of lifestyle players was now steadily transitioning into Artifact Refining.

Plus, the veteran players who had joined were now mostly at the Qi Refining Middle Stage to Late Stage, and their need for Magic Treasures was becoming increasingly urgent.

They had to be prepared on at least two fronts.

Zhou Xiao had a brilliant idea.

"That speed might be a bit slow. Are you short on manpower?"

Zhou Xiao asked tentatively.

Bei Yinning didn’t answer directly, only saying, "Thunder Stone is more difficult to excavate than other spiritual ores."

"I understand. I have a proposal, see what you think. We can send a group of our disciples to be stationed at the Netherworld Sect, specifically to handle the mining of Thunder Stone. Your people can supervise."

Bei Yinning seemed to sense something was up. She asked hesitantly, "Does the Magic Treasure you’ve developed really require that much Thunder Stone?"

Zhou Xiao raised an eyebrow slightly. "Yes. We need to conduct thorough experiments over the next few years."

That was all she said. Anything else was a secret.

No matter how smart Bei Yinning was, she could never have guessed that the players had developed a way to refine Thunder Stone into Magic Treasures without any waste.

She just thought that perhaps the Feique Sect had indeed developed some new kind of Magic Treasure that could use Thunder Stone.

It was a chance to earn Spirit Stones, and from a Thunder Stone Mine that was otherwise useless to the Netherworld Sect. Bei Yinning could find no reason to refuse.

So she said, "In that case, I’ll go back and ask my master."

From this, it was clear that Bei Yinning’s master must hold a position of considerable authority in the Netherworld Sect.

When Bei Yinning left, she was still a bit dazed.

She had come out to search for spirit materials, but ended up negotiating a business deal.

She left Zhou Xiao a method of contact, saying only that she would send a message when she had news.

Zhou Xiao immediately sent a message to the group chat with Fan Guzhou and Shuang Xiahuai.

[Zhou Nvzi: I’ve got a handle on the Netherworld Sect’s Thunder Stone Mine. I just found a disciple from their sect, and she said she can go back and propose a partnership for the Thunder Stone.]

[Shuang Xiahuai: That’s great!! We have two lifestyle players who are on the verge of successfully refining Thunder Stone Treasures now too.]

[Fan Guzhou: If we ask for too large a quantity, won’t it make them suspicious?]

[Shuang Xiahuai: It doesn’t matter. As long as we don’t let them discover the real Thunder Stone Treasures, it’ll be fine. I’ll prepare some fake Thunder Stone Treasures to muddy the waters.]

[Zhen Weida: Isn’t the Netherworld Sect really far away?]

[Zhou Nvzi: It is. And their mining speed is very slow. I gave them a suggestion—we’ll send a group of our own disciples to be stationed there to mine. The players definitely won’t want to be stationed there long-term, so we can set up a rotation. Let’s have the great Xue Yao lead the team. With a Foundation Establishment expert like him stationed there, it’ll be safer. We can refine the ore on-site and even stage some explosions to create confusion. Didn’t you guys find the ore to make gunpowder? We can just mix it in.]

[Zhen Weida: That’s not here, those resources are over at the Liuyun Sect. But it’s not a big problem. We already have people staying at the Liuyun Sect. They can dig some up, process it, and then teleport it over to you.]

[Gu Yunxi: Damn, doesn’t that mean the Netherworld Sect will be in the palm of our hand too?]

[Zhou Nvzi: Not even close. We can only go there to mine, we can’t do anything else. At least the Taohua Sect is willing to let us change some things. But we can take this opportunity to bring a group of players over to be active in that area. When the next batch of new players joins, they should be able to choose the Netherworld Sect directly, right?]