Chapter 4: The Deal Is Done

Next to the stone cave at the headquarters of Fangqi Pavilion, Qu Yi dug out a new stone cave. After setting up the “Illusion God Array,” he settled in peacefully.
At this moment, Qu Yi sat cross-legged on his stone bed, his consciousness already in communication with the Artifact God.
“Artifact God, I’ve arrived at Fangqi Pavilion now. It’s time for you to teach me the ‘Two-Dimensional Dao’ array, right?” Qu Yi said with a smile, full of anticipation.
Qu Yi’s cultivation level had now reached the Divine Weapon stage, allowing him to wield two sets of laws simultaneously and thus construct arrays containing two complete sets of laws. This enabled him to begin crafting divine artifacts at the Divine Weapon level.
“Yes, I’ll teach you the ‘Two-Dimensional Dao’ now,” the Artifact God replied promptly.
Immediately afterward, Qu Yi noticed new content in his soul. Scanning it, he found it was the content of the “Two-Dimensional Dao” array.
The Two-Dimensional Dao consisted of arrays formed by combining any two of the five complete sets of laws. Only those who mastered both sets of laws simultaneously could construct such arrays.
Naturally, Qu Yi had no difficulty mastering this array, as he had already understood all five sets of laws.
“It’s not too hard. I think it will take only about a hundred years to master the ‘Two-Dimensional Dao’ array,” Qu Yi said happily after a preliminary scan, looking proud.
Previously, it had taken him a long time to master those basic arrays. But now, in the divine realm, mastering arrays had become easier. This was thanks to the guidance of the Artifact God, a master of arrays. After fully mastering the basic arrays, it became even easier to learn these seemingly complex ones.
Of course, this was also related to the chaotic energy within Qu Yi. Other divine realm artifact masters had to spend a long time simulating each array, while Qu Yi could use chaotic energy for direct simulation, avoiding energy conflicts and thus able to quickly comprehend each array.
For example, when other artifact masters practiced arrays involving the metal and wood elements, they had to control both metal and wood divine elements simultaneously. Ensuring these elements didn’t conflict or collapse in complex array formations was extremely difficult, requiring endless practice over a long period. Some artifact masters might spend trillions of years mastering just one array, and it would take even longer to use it skillfully.

Qu Yi doesn’t need to worry about divine element conflicts at all, as he can use chaotic energy to directly replace the metal and wood divine elements. Thus, when he scans a formation, the chaotic energy immediately forms the arrangement of the formation, allowing him to master it in no time. This advantage is utterly terrifying. The Artifact God secretly envies Qu Yi for this advantage, though most of the time he is simply overjoyed—having Qu Yi inherit his knowledge of formations and artifact crafting is enough to bring him satisfaction. “Alright, Qu Yi, hurry up and practice the ‘Two-Dimensional Dao’ now. In the days to come, you’ll need to craft a large number of divine artifacts at the divine weapon level,” the Artifact God said casually. Qu Yi nodded, then closed his eyes to focus and immediately began practicing the ‘Two-Dimensional Dao’ formation. ※※※ Fire Treasure Town, Fangqi Pavilion store. These days, Fang Mo has been in high spirits, always smiling, having shed his usual listless, depressed, and lost demeanor. He greets every customer who enters the store with great enthusiasm. Undoubtedly, Fang Mo’s attitude has caught the attention of other stores selling divine artifacts. However, after investigating, they found nothing unusual about Fangqi Pavilion, so they assumed it was just Fang Mo releasing pent-up emotions after a long time and paid no further attention. This day was the day Qu Yi had agreed to meet with the three merchants at Fangqi Pavilion. But Qu Yi didn’t show up, while the three merchants arrived together. All three entered Fangqi Pavilion with eager eyes, staring at Fang Mo clearly intending to complete the deal no matter what. Fang Mo greeted them warmly and laughed, “Gentlemen, as expected, you’ve come as promised. Fangqi Pavilion welcomes you warmly. Oh, by the way, that Qu Yi who met with you all also came a few days ago. He said a friend was in trouble and he had to rush to a certain place. He also mentioned that the number of divine artifacts he wants to buy must not be less than what you three want.” Upon hearing this, the three realized Fangqi Pavilion was afraid of their threats and didn’t want to reveal its artifact crafting capabilities. At least they had secured this source of supply. “So, does the manager of your pavilion have agreed to cooperate with our merchant group?” asked the tallest of the three with a smile. Fang Mo immediately nodded and said, “Gentlemen, may I know your names?” After getting a positive reply, they relaxed and became more casual. “Bao Tianling, from the True Treasure Merchant Group.” “Wan Shuocheng, from the Ten Thousand Artifacts Merchant Group.” “Qi Piaoyuan, from the Rare Treasures Merchant Group.” The three replied right away.

Fang Mo wasn’t stupid. Hearing the names of the three, he guessed that they were likely from the original families that founded these three merchant groups. This wasn’t surprising—most merchant groups in the divine realm were established by powerful cultivators, first to gather resources for their own cultivation and second to build a force for their families, so as to establish a foothold in the divine realm. Thus, those in the merchant groups who had the authority to contact suppliers were usually from the founders’ families, ensuring the stability of the group.

“Daoist Baotianling, Daoist Wanshuocheng, Daoist Qipiaoyuan, if you want to do business with our Fangqi Pavilion, you can state your terms now,” Fang Mo said with a smile.

Seeing that the three always came and went together, Fang Mo knew they must be closely related, so he didn’t want to negotiate with them individually and instead talked to all three at once.

Baotianling, Wanshuocheng, and Qipiaoyuan were surprised upon hearing Fang Mo’s words—someone wanted to negotiate with all three merchant groups at once. Yet they were willing to do so, as their relationship was already good. If they negotiated separately with Fang Mo, he might try to divide them.

“Very well, since you insist, then the three of us will negotiate with you at the same time. My Zhenbao Merchant Group comes once every ten thousand years and requests a thousand divine weapon-grade artifacts from your Fangqi Pavilion,” Baotianling blurted out without hesitation.

Upon hearing this, Fang Mo didn’t wait for Wanshuocheng and Qipiaoyuan to speak and immediately interrupted, shouting, “Daoist Baotianling, such a condition is absolutely impossible. As you know, it takes tens of thousands of years to craft a divine weapon-grade artifact. Asking us to produce a thousand artifacts in just ten thousand years is utterly unfeasible.”

Although crafting a divine weapon-grade artifact only involved one type of law, gathering materials, forging the core, and setting up arrays all required a long time. Even ordinary artifact forgers needed at least ten thousand years.

Hearing Fang Mo’s words, Baotianling, Wanshuocheng, and Qipiaoyuan burst into laughter.

In fact, Baotianling knew very well how much time was needed to craft artifacts. He had deliberately said that to hear Fang Mo’s response and estimate the number and strength of Fangqi Pavilion’s artifact forgers. Thus, Fang Mo’s immediate reaction allowed Baotianling, Wanshuocheng, and Qipiaoyuan to deduce that Fangqi Pavilion had fewer than a hundred artifact forgers, and none of them were capable of crafting divine weapon-grade artifacts.

Bao Tianling smiled and said, “Fang Mo, fellow Daoist, then tell us, in ten thousand years, how many divine artifacts can your Fang Qi Ge provide to our True Treasure Merchant Group?”
Wan Shuocheng and Qi Piaoyuan also smiled as they looked at Fang Mo; they were still testing him at the moment.
Fang Mo bit his lip, hesitated for a long time, before finally saying, “Fellow Daoists, to be honest with you, our Fang Qi Ge has been struggling to survive these years, and our strength ranks among the weakest in the entire Huo Bao Town. Well, since you all seem determined to do business with us, and without favoring either side, how about we provide your merchant group with one hundred divine artifacts once every ten thousand years?”
Upon hearing this, Bao Tianling, Wan Shuocheng, and Qi Piaoyuan’s eyes lit up. They had already estimated Fang Qi Ge’s current strength and knew that the condition Fang Mo offered was already as good as it could get from them.
“Good, that’s settled then. But how much do you want for each divine artifact at the Divine Being level, Fang Mo?” Bao Tianling asked with a smile.
Earlier, Fang Mo had remained calm and composed while dealing with the three of them because he had one hundred thousand divine artifacts, enough to last them three million years. But over the years, he had been neglected in his own Fang Qi Ge store, let alone selling divine artifacts to obtain Divine Crystals.
Now, at the mention of the price of divine artifacts, his heart trembled with excitement—he was about to earn a huge sum of money.
Fang Mo, who had never earned any income before, was extremely excited, almost unable to control himself.
Struggling to stay calm, he smiled and said, “Fellow Daoists Bao Tianling, Wan Shuocheng, and Qi Piaoyuan, as you saw ten days ago, the divine artifacts in our Fang Qi Ge are top-quality, so their prices are naturally quite high. Since this is the first time our Fang Qi Ge is cooperating with your three merchant groups, we can offer a slight discount—two fifty million Divine Crystals per artifact.”
Upon hearing this, Bao Tianling, Wan Shuocheng, and Qi Piaoyuan’s expressions turned serious. They had originally thought that Fang Qi Ge would offer a significant discount out of fear that they might expose its crafting capabilities. But it seemed their prices were no different from those of other stores.
Generally, divine artifacts at the Divine Being level cost ten million Divine Crystals for lower-quality ones, twenty million for medium-quality ones, and thirty million for top-quality ones. The price Fang Mo quoted indeed offered little discount.

“Fang Mo, fellow cultivator, the prices of the divine weapons from your Fang Qi Pavilion don’t seem to offer any discounts. Our trading group gets significant discounts when dealing with other shops. Please lower the price a bit more,” Bao Tianling said with a smile.
Wan Shuocheng and Qi Piaoyuan also nodded smilingly.
Fang Mo simply shook his head in refusal.
“You…” Bao Tianling grew slightly angry.
“Fang Mo, you need to understand that our three-person trading group has extensive connections. It would be easy for us to spread word about the true strength of your Fang Qi Pavilion,” Qi Piaoyuan said bluntly, starting to threaten him.
Wan Shuocheng watched Fang Mo with a cold smile.
Fang Mo laughed, sat down on the chair behind the counter, and said, “Since you three fellow cultivators don’t want to cooperate, there’s nothing we can do. If the true strength of our Fang Qi Pavilion gets exposed, so be it. At least we can do business openly from then on.”
“You…” The three were angry but reluctantly calmed down.
Indeed, exposing the strength of Fang Qi Pavilion brought no benefit to them. For their trading group, it meant only losing a little profit, but at least they still had access to Fang Qi Pavilion’s supply. If they lost Fang Qi Pavilion, their group would gain nothing and might even help rival groups obtain that supply.
A stable supply source is a crucial resource for any trading group. After all, business must be sustained over the long term, and a steady supply is necessary to keep the group running.
Moreover, what if one of Fang Qi Pavilion’s weapon craftsmen could create divine weapons at the divine weapon level in the future?
Bao Tianling, Wan Shuocheng, and Qi Piaoyuan immediately broke into a cold sweat, realizing they couldn’t be too stubborn with Fang Mo. For the sake of their trading group and their own status within their families, they needed to establish a partnership with Fang Qi Pavilion.
“Fang Mo, fellow cultivator, how about this? Our three-person trading group handles a large volume of transactions for divine weapons. We’re willing to increase the price of each divine weapon by one million divine crystals, meaning 26 million divine crystals per weapon. But could you give those 100 divine weapons you sold to Qu Yi to us three?” Bao Tianling said with a friendly expression.
Wan Shuocheng and Qi Piaoyuan immediately understood Bao Tianling’s plan. It served to ease the tense atmosphere and gave them a way out. Although the price per weapon increased, they would receive over 30 more weapons, resulting in greater profits.

Upon hearing this, Fang Mo’s face immediately turned gloomy. After a long while, he stood up resolutely and said with a smile, “Alright, it’s settled then.” In reality, Fang Mo was laughing inside. Since Qu Yi had already become a blacksmith in our Fang Qi Pavilion, who would need divine artifacts? Bao Tianling, Wan Shuocheng, and Qi Piaoyuan all burst into laughter immediately. Then, in front of the three of them, Fang Mo took out four hundred divine artifacts and said with a smile, “My fellow cultivators, you can give me the divine crystals now; just take the divine artifacts for yourselves.”