Chapter 428: Chapter 147: Spirit Awakening Realm, Fifth Heaven; Great Success in the Twelve True Forms Fist; The Arrival of the Blood Curse Hunt

"One... one hundred thousand taels?!"

Fatty and Jiang Yuanfan were so stunned they could barely speak.

They had recently made a pretty penny and considered themselves "rich," which was why Jiang Yuanfan had dared to be so generous and offer to treat them.

They never expected that the cost for Chu Fan to forge a single blade would be one hundred thousand taels!

The silver in their pockets wasn’t even enough to cover a fraction of that!

Seeing their shocked expressions, the manager’s heart sank. ’A miscalculation,’ he cursed inwardly.

He had been so intimidated by his identity as a Demon Suppression Guard that he’d forgotten to consider his age.

’He’s just a teenager of seventeen or eighteen. Even if he is a Demon Suppression Guard, how could he possibly produce a huge sum like one hundred thousand taels on the spot?’

Seeing this, the Artifact Refiner who had previously lost both money and face couldn’t help but interject sarcastically, "If you’re a little short on funds, you don’t necessarily have to use Blood Pattern Steel. Forging with just Demon Marrow Gold mixed with Refined Gold and Magic Iron would only cost a little over forty thousand taels of silver."

Chu Fan scoffed, glanced at the Artifact Refiner, and declared loudly, "A mere one hundred thousand taels. Do you think that’s money to me?"

Everyone was taken aback. ’Demon Suppression Guards really are loaded,’ they thought.

But then they heard Chu Fan sigh, his tone filled with heart-wrenching anguish. "Ridiculous... That’s my life savings!"

The Artifact Refiners nearly choked and rolled their eyes in unison.

Just when they all thought the deal was off—

Chu Fan seemed to make up his mind. With a flick of his wrist, a thick stack of silver notes, each worth one thousand taels, appeared and was slapped onto the nearby counter with a loud THWACK.

"Count it. One hundred thousand taels."

His voice held a subtle, almost imperceptible wince of pain.

Fatty’s and Jiang Yuanfan’s eyes went wide as dinner plates, their mouths hanging open wide enough to fit an egg!

They knew Chu Fan was wealthy, but they never imagined he could casually produce one hundred thousand taels in cash!

Inside, Chu Fan’s heart was bleeding.

Although this one hundred thousand taels wasn’t his entire fortune, ever since coming into money, he had barely touched it, aside from buying a couple of ordinary robes and ordering a few roasted chickens daily from the Seven Stars Gang’s dining hall.

He never thought he’d have to fork over so much just to forge a single blade.

’Silver in this world really doesn’t go far!’

Fortunately, he had taken care of that old and young pair from Medicine King Valley back in the Gangfeng Forbidden Land.

The Storage Rings of those two had been filled with plenty of good stuff.

Especially the young woman’s...

According to the woman who hunted him later, that young lady was the eldest daughter of Medicine King Valley’s master.

The treasures in her Sumeru Ring were far more numerous than Zhang Yunpeng’s!

But he had been busy with his arduous training recently, and fearing an investigation from Medicine King Valley, he hadn’t dared to take the items out to deal with them.

Thinking of the young woman’s identity, Chu Fan could only sigh to himself. ’Medicine King Valley... they’re so damn rich!’

’When I get back later, I need to take a good inventory of my ’spoils of war,’’ Chu Fan calculated. ’Then, I’ll use some of the money to help Tianxing forge a blade, or maybe buy him a stronger bow.’

After handing over the silver taels and materials and signing the Forging Contract, Chu Fan suddenly remembered something. He took the broken blade from his storage pouch and placed it on the counter.

"Oh, right. Do you guys buy back broken blades like this? Give me a price for it."

The Artifact Refiners’ mouths twitched violently, their eyes filled with utter disbelief as they stared at Chu Fan.

’I’ve never met such a shameless... ahem, such a meticulous person!’

They had just compensated him for it; by all rights, the broken blade should belong to the Celestial Workshop. He had put it away at the time, and now he was actually taking it out to sell back to them!

If not for his status as a Demon Suppression Guard, they really would have grabbed their hammers and thrown him out!

In the end, after a few speechless glances at each other, the Celestial Workshop "bought back" the broken blade—which already belonged to them—for the price of two thousand taels of silver.

A Thunder Blade that might have been worth only four thousand eight hundred taels was essentially ’sold’ by him for eight thousand!

The Celestial Workshop’s manager and that Artifact Refiner felt the urge to cough up blood.

Walking out of the Celestial Workshop, the cool evening breeze brushed against Chu Fan’s face, but he felt as if his heart was still bleeding, and there was no hint of a smile on his face.

Fatty sidled up to him and asked, puzzled, "Fan, you’re about to get a powerful Demon Weapon. Why aren’t you happy?"

Chu Fan shot him an irritated glare. "Obviously! If you had to cough up one hundred thousand taels of snowflake silver in one go, would you be happy?"

Fatty put himself in Chu Fan’s shoes for a moment, then shrank back, a pained look on his face. "If it were me, I’d probably want to die! Forget a Demon Weapon, I’d hide my silver notes away and have to pull them out to count three times before bed every night just to feel at ease!"

"..." Chu Fan kicked Fatty. "You’re pathetic!"

Zhao Tianxing and Jiang Yuanfan burst out laughing.

Be that as it may, as Chu Fan felt the Forging Contract in his robe and thought of the Demon Blade that would be born in half a month—a blade perfectly suited to his Cultivation Technique—the pain from the enormous expense seemed to be somewhat diluted by a powerful sense of anticipation.

Just as the group was about to leave, a thought suddenly struck Chu Fan. He called out to the Celestial Workshop manager who was seeing them out.

"Manager, I have one more question for you. Does your workshop have any ores containing ’Wind Spirit,’ or any other Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures?"

His progress in cultivating the "Nine Heavens Wind Mastery Scripture" was slow, and the crux of the problem was the thinness of the Wind Spirit Qi in Qing Province City.

If he could find a medium rich in Wind Spirit, he could definitely speed up his cultivation rate significantly.

Upon hearing this, the manager’s expression turned regretful. He said, "What you’re asking for, my lord, is quite a rarity. To be honest with you, last month, by a stroke of luck, our workshop actually acquired two pieces of ’Wind-Splitting Stone,’ which are supreme treasures for cultivating Wind Element Techniques."

Chu Fan’s eyes lit up. "Oh? Then..."

The manager sighed, dashing his hopes. "Unfortunately, as soon as word got out, people from the Zhang Family and Zhao Family rushed over that very afternoon and practically fought over them before buying them.

"Treasures like that are a rare find that you can’t just seek out. Once they appear, they’re impossible to hold onto—there are quite a few people and factions in Qing Province City who cultivate Wind Element Techniques or need Wind Spirit for Artifact Refining and Pill Refining."

"Next time, you should probably finish your sentence in one go," Chu Fan said, speechless.

’It seems the idea of relying on external objects to quickly cultivate the "Nine Heavens Wind Mastery Scripture" is a dead end for now.’