Nightmare Immortal Era

Chapter 27: The Eight Major Mining Merchants

"Do you want to come with me?" Xun Hu saw Yang Ning at the door early in the morning.

He thought Yang Ning woke up early, but little did he know that Yang Ning hadn't slept at all and had come over right after cultivating the Purple Qi.

There are 24 hours in a day, and it's such a waste to spend 8 hours sleeping.

The Black Tortoise Aura Concealing Technique can run continuously for 24 hours, so Yang Ning uses the extra time to read, research, and learn.

He hasn't forgotten that he has a Supreme Dao Technique that needs to be translated.

"Yes, there's been a change of plans!" Yang Ning said, "I need to go to the market and see what the materials look like."

"Perfect, I don't know much about those materials either, having you around will prevent us from being deceived!" Xun Hu nodded, "Let's have breakfast first, then I'll see if I can take a day off!"

Indeed, Xun Hu received an elite education and still needs to ask for time off!

As for someone like him, the Immortal Ascension Academy doesn't care at all. They don't prohibit going out, doing business, taking on missions, or even attending classes obediently.

It's possible that the life and death of someone like Xun Hu is of no concern to the Immortal Ascension Academy.

Xun Hu's classroom looks no different from the one Yang Ning attends from the outside, but this is the Immortal Cultivation World, where the Mustard Seed Interdimensional Array can be set up.

Once the door is opened, the other side is a completely different world that can't be seen from the entrance.

"I'm sorry!" Xun Hu came out of the classroom shortly after, with a frustrated expression on his face, "The teacher won't let me take time off. How about this, I'll transfer 400,000 liang to you, just buy whatever you need!"

"Huh?" Yang Ning was taken aback, "That's 400,000 liang, are you sure you want to give it to me?"

"What's the big deal!" Xun Hu casually patted Yang Ning's shoulder, "My father is willing to give you tens of millions of money, so I trust you!"

Yang Ning was immediately moved and nodded earnestly, "I will make good use of this money!"

"Okay, I've transferred it to you. I'll go back to class now!"

"Alright!"

Watching Xun Hu's figure disappear into the classroom, Yang Ning thought to himself, "It seems like they also teach techniques to control subordinates. But Xun Hu's acting skills aren't that great, it's all thanks to his genuine feelings!"

His mood was calm, and apart from being curious about Xun Hu's classes, he had no other thoughts.

After all, he had already seen through the essence of Extreme Eternal, so there was no need to fuss over these trivial matters.

Looking at the jade plaque, the original balance of 50,000 assets instantly skyrocketed to 450,000.

I wonder how much purchasing power these silver coins have in Ocean Cloud City?

Yang Ning had just left school when he saw a commercial street right outside the school gate. The street was filled with stalls pulled by carts, and next to each stall were large signs indicating the goods they were selling.

Sea fish was the most abundant because Ocean Cloud City was located by the sea.

In addition, there were sea monsters, fierce beasts, Demonic Beast meat, pills used for Body Refining, and herbs.

There were also some mechanisms, Law Weapons, toys, clothing, books, and antique-looking relics.

Yang Ning's footsteps stopped in front of a stall. Surprisingly, there was a huge cage on the cart of this stall, and inside the cage were more than ten children who looked to be only seven or eight years old. They had dark yellow skin, were emaciated, dirty all over, and had lifeless eyes.

"Hey, young master!" The shopkeeper saw Yang Ning stop and his eyes immediately lit up. He quickly greeted, "Do you want to buy some servants? They are top-quality slaves with soul contracts, 500 taels each!"

"Are these people from Jiangyun?" Yang Ning asked.

"You have a keen eye, young master!" The shopkeeper raised his thumb. "That's right, they are from Jiangyun. As everyone knows, people from Jiangyun are skilled and loyal, making them the best choice for slaves. I managed to snatch these ten or so."

Yang Ning frowned as if contemplating.

"Alright, if you buy ten children, I'll throw in a girl for you. How about that?" The shopkeeper noticed Yang Ning's interest and quickly said, "If you don't like the ones here, I have more on the other side. I can take you to have a look!"

Jiangyun used to be a large country in the southwest of the Extreme Eternal Sect's territory, with a population of billions and considerable national strength.

However, Jiangyun attempted to control the sects within its borders and even demanded that the sects hand over their inherited techniques. Although the sects within Jiangyun's territory were unable to resist, Jiangyun forgot that there were many powerful immortal sects outside, as well as countless other sects!

Under the support of unknown forces, the vast Jiangyun fell overnight and plunged into endless warfare.

Nowadays, Jiangyun has formed a situation where the two major sects, North Wan Shen and South Great Principle, confront each other. These two sects attack and plunder each other's populations and sell them to the whole world.

The slave trade in the Extreme Eternal World has never stopped, but other places are not as chaotic as Jiangyun. As a result of the large number of slaves, people from Jiangyun have become the mainstream commodity in the slave market.

"Are these people reliable? Do they still remember their homeland?" Yang Ning asked, "I don't want to buy them only to have them betray me later!"

"What can they remember at this age?" The shopkeeper chuckled, "If you're worried, we also offer brainwashing services. It only costs five taels of silver per month, lasting for a year. We guarantee that they will be trained to be loyal slaves who only serve their masters!"

Yang Ning shook his head. "Forget it, I can feed myself and my family. I won't buy them."

"Ah, please don't go, young master, brother, big brother?" The slave merchant tried to persuade him, but Yang Ning firmly walked away.

He just wanted to learn more about this world and never really considered buying a slave.

He couldn't control such matters, so he could only do his part and refuse to make a purchase.

No trade, no harm.

Yang Ning stopped in front of a stall selling materials. There were dozens of minerals displayed on the stall, each with a label indicating its name.

"Young master, are you interested in minerals? These are all top-quality minerals, and the prices are the cheapest in all of Ocean Cloud City!" The owner, a middle-aged man with a warm smile, pointed to a sign next to him and said, "This is the property of the Nangong family. We guarantee our reputation and never deceive anyone!"

"The Nangong family?" Yang Ning blinked. "What is the Nangong family?"

"The Nangong family is the leading family among the eight major mineral merchants in Ocean Cloud City!" The middle-aged man proudly said, "Judging by your age, you must have just started school. Let me tell you, have you ever heard of the poem 'Leaving Ocean Cloud'?"

Yang Ning shook his head, indicating that he hadn't heard of it.

"Nangong falls in the night, Huangfu Shan is always bright. In the cold autumn moonlight, the lonely shadows of the parasol trees. Returning geese fly south, a solitary lamp illuminates the journey. Inexpressible longing, tears wetting the hometown's emotions."

The middle-aged man recited the poem with a somewhat sentimental tone, then said, "The author of this poem, Nangong Yue, is the young master of my Nangong family. The first ten characters of the poem are a combination of the surnames of the eight major mineral merchants!"

"We, the eight major mineral merchants, have been operating the mineral resources of Ocean Cloud City for hundreds of years. No matter what kind of mineral you want, we can find it for you!"

Yang Ning knew that one way of advertising was to ride on the reputation of others. For example, if your emerging brand is not recognized by anyone, you can advertise with industry giants and include your own brand. Customers will then think that you are on the same level as those big brands.

He didn't know if these eight major mineral merchants were truly powerful or if they were just riding on someone else's reputation.

But it didn't matter, as long as they had minerals.

"Here is the iron ore, this one is black iron, one liang of silver for one dan." The owner pointed to the minerals in front of him and said, "Yellow iron ore, one liang of silver for three shi. White iron ore, one liang of silver for two shi. And this one, cherry red iron, ten liang of silver for one shi!"

"How much is one shi?" Yang Ning asked.

"Just this!" The owner pointed to a large package next to the scale.

Yang Ning stepped on it and felt that it weighed about fifty catties.

"One liang is five hundred grams. If converted to RMB, it's about 2733 yuan. Imported iron ore from Australia is generally 700 yuan per ton. One liang of silver should be able to buy four tons, but here it can only buy fifty catties?"

Catties, not kilograms!

"This is a bit expensive!" Yang Ning said, comparing it with the information about iron ore. He confirmed that black iron was magnetite with 70% iron content. Yellow iron ore should be siderite with 25% iron content, and white iron ore should be rhombohedral iron ore with 30-40% iron content.

If you don't consider the price and only look at the proportions, the pricing is quite reasonable.

However, cherry red iron should be hematite with 40-60% iron content. Why is it so expensive?

"Ah, it's not expensive at all. You have to know that mineral resources are not easy to find. It's difficult to dig them out once found, and it's also troublesome to transport them here. We haven't made much money!" The owner patiently explained.

Yang Ning: Haha, I don't believe you.

I'm not someone who eats for free. When I was the Minister of Works, I also understood the cost of mining in the Yue Kingdom.

Because it requires manual labor, it seems that the cost of mining is higher than on Earth.

But people on Earth need to be paid, machines need oil, and equipment needs electricity.

This is a feudal dynasty, and there are even slaves. They can't even guarantee three meals a day, so why would they pay any wages?

So the cost of labor is almost zero.

As for transportation costs, let's not even mention it. You can carry thousands of tons with a storage bag, and a flying bird-beast can make a round trip in three to five days, faster than trains and ships on Earth. It only consumes five pounds of feed per thousand kilometers. Where is the high cost?

Yang Ning didn't want to argue with him and pointed to the crimson iron, asking, "Why is this iron so expensive, ten times more expensive than black iron?"

"Oh, this is the Fiery Steel that can be refined from iron!" the boss said.

"Fiery Steel?" Yang Ning asked, "Is this steel very powerful?"

"It's not that powerful!" the boss said casually, "The main thing is that this stuff is not produced by our Eight Great Families, but by a small family surnamed Bei. That family treats this Fiery Steel as a treasure and even tries to control our Eight Great Families with it. So our Eight Great Families are giving them some benefits to show them who is the boss in this industry!"

"Oh, I see!" Yang Ning nodded and asked again, "But if I want to buy it, will it always be this expensive?"

"You can use something else first and come back to buy it in two months. The price of crimson iron will go down by then!" the boss said.

"Why?" Yang Ning asked, "What big event will happen in these two months?"

"It's not a big event!" the boss said proudly, "It's just a lesson for that small family. We placed a large order for Fiery Steel with them, and it will be delivered in two months. But when we placed the order, the price of crimson iron hadn't gone up yet. Now the price of crimson iron ore is even more expensive than Fiery Steel. If they make it, they will lose money; if they don't, they will lose money. They are destined to not survive. After two months, not only will the price of crimson iron go down, but we will also have Fiery Steel to sell!"

"Wow! Impressive!" Yang Ning gave a thumbs up. He understood what the boss meant. He wasn't lacking in confidentiality awareness; he was deliberately showing off to demonstrate the strength of the Eight Great Families.

As for that small family surnamed Bei, they were just insignificant pawns being manipulated by the Eight Great Families.

But the boss didn't know that after hearing these words, Yang Ning wouldn't admire them. Instead, he would empathize with that small family.

Because he had also thought about selling materials to make money.

But now, the Bei family had given him a vivid lesson. Without strength and control over the metal material formula, he would only be left with scraps eaten by these big capitalists!

"That's the Bei family's stall over there!" the boss pointed to a not-so-small car in the corner and said, "You can also go to their place to buy. In order to raise money to buy mines, they are selling their other ores at a discounted price, which is a good opportunity to take advantage of."

"Is it reasonable to drive customers away when doing business?" Yang Ning asked.

"It's simple. If you buy my black iron, it's one liang per stone. But if you buy from them and then spend the money here, it's equivalent to ten liang per stone!"

(End of this chapter)