Chapter 21: The Geometry of Value

  Lin Feng returned to Dan Hall when the sky was already slightly dark, just in time to meet Yang Ze who was about to start his evening lesson. Seeing him, he casually asked: "You're back, did you gain anything today?" He knew Lin Feng had gone into the mountains to pick herbs again.

  Lin Feng casually took out a handful of Lingzhi and said: "I've picked two stalks of second-grade spiritual medicine, I was just thinking of exchanging them with Master Shu for some Refining Qi Dan spiritual medicine."

  Yang Ze's face lit up with joy as he took the Ganoderma lucidum and said, "Let me take a look. The quality is pretty good. It has been aged for nearly ten years, which makes it top-grade among second-tier medicines."

  "Master Uncle, how many Qi Dan can be exchanged for this prescription?" Lin Feng asked with a tense expression, looking like he was worried sick. In fact, he didn't care much in his heart. With the treasure jade, it was like having a treasure bowl, and from now on, there would be no shortage of spiritual medicine and spiritual stones. This was just going through the motions.

  "Alright, I can see you're eager. This Chi Zi herb is of good quality and you're currently in the preparation period, so Master will give you the materials for three Furnace Qi Dan, how about that?" Yang Ze added a spiritual medicine worth around 60 ling stones to nearly 70 ling stones, which was quite generous.

  Lin Feng didn't dare to decline, knowing that his master's uncle had found an excuse to help him. He felt grateful in his heart and hastily thanked his master's uncle. Then, he took out the piece of xuan iron ore and said: "Master's uncle, this stone was accidentally found by me, it seems to be the xuan iron ore mentioned in books. I'm ignorant and don't know its authenticity, please help me identify it."

  Although he didn't refine equipment, due to selling elixirs, Yang Ze often entered the market and had seen some refining materials. This Xuan Iron Ore was a first-grade spiritual ore, commonly found in the market. So when Lin Feng took out the Xuan Iron Ore, he recognized it as genuine goods. He still took it over and examined it carefully before saying: "You little guy's luck isn't bad! This piece of ore is indeed Xuan Iron Ore. With a piece this big, adding some materials would barely be enough to forge a low-grade artifact."

  "How many spirit stones can that Master Uncle sell?" Lin Feng's face showed a joyful expression, he knew that a low-grade artifact was worth at least over a hundred spirit stones.

  "It's unclear." Yang Ze's one sentence instantly brought Lin Feng's enthusiasm down to freezing point.

  "Master Uncle, didn't you say it's enough to forge a low-grade spiritual artifact? How...!"

  "Is it like a mountain range, do you know? Although I often go to the market, and I know a bit more about refining equipment than you do, it doesn't mean I understand the market trends of refining materials." Yang Ze didn't feel embarrassed at all for not being able to answer Lin Feng's question, instead he looked like it was only natural.

  In fact, due to the numerous types of heavenly materials and earthly treasures in the Cultivation Realm, the phenomenon of "different trades being like different mountains" is even more severe. Many people can't even understand things within their own industry, let alone those from other industries. Of course, this refers to ordinary cultivators; if you encounter those old monsters who have been cultivating for hundreds or thousands of years, it's a different story altogether - after so many years of experience and struggles, they must have gained some insight.

  Like Yang Ze, who has been cultivating for thirty or forty years and is still a very ordinary cultivator who focuses on alchemy, it's natural that he can't be compared to those old monsters, and not understanding the market price is also normal.

  "Are you planning to refine a magical artifact or sell it?" Yang Ze asked, thinking that Lin Feng was considering such options since he didn't respond.

  Lin Feng was still using the fine steel sword he had obtained when he entered the Yang family. It could only be said that it was slightly better than the ordinary swords used by ordinary people, and it couldn't even be considered a low-grade artifact. If he could forge this piece of mysterious iron ore into a low-grade artifact, even if he couldn't bring out its true power, it would still be much better than his fine steel sword.

  After some thought, Lin Feng shook his head and said, "I'd better sell it. I don't have any spiritual stones to forge a magic weapon, even if it's just an inferior one." In fact, this was only one of the reasons. The true power of a magic weapon required spiritual energy to activate it. A cultivator in the Refining Qi stage had limited and impure spiritual energy within their body, so even if they obtained a magic weapon, they could only use it as an ordinary weapon, wasting its true advantages. Who knows, it might even attract the attention of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, which would be a suicidal move.

  Yang Ze saw Lin Feng and was not confused by the huge temptation of the law enforcement, and he also couldn't help but praise him in his heart. Then he felt a little disappointed, if Lin Feng's talent was just a bit better, with such a personality, his future would be truly boundless. It's just that talent and innate gifts are born, and no one can change them, it's really a pity.

  Yang Ze, after all, was a cultivator in the foundation-building period. His mental cultivation far surpassed that of ordinary people. After a slight sigh, he collected his thoughts and said: "Alright, since you want to sell, I'll temporarily give you two sets of materials for the Qi-boosting pills. Wait a few days until I sell them on the market, then we can settle the price. You should practice alchemy during these few days and try to improve your skills as much as possible, so that when the time comes, you'll have more confidence."

  Lin Feng nodded, then seemed to think of something and said awkwardly: "Master Uncle, didn't you say that this can be refined into a low-grade artifact? I remember you saying that even the lowest grade artifact is worth at least a hundred spirit stones, so why is this piece of mystic iron ore only...only..."

  Lin Feng spoke hesitantly, and before he could finish his sentence, Yang Ze already understood what he meant. The two cauldrons of elixir were only worth more than 40 pieces of spirit stone, which was less than half the value of a low-grade artifact. He thought that Lin Feng was implying that he had offered too low a price, so he laughed and scolded: "You sly ghost, are you saying that your master uncle is cheating you, taking advantage of you?"

  "Junior brother doesn't dare, junior brother just thinks how...how can there be such a big difference?" Lin Feng was already familiar with Yang Ze's temper and knew that although he had a bit of a bad temper, he wouldn't get angry over this.

  Yang Ze was increasingly fond of Lin Feng. Such a young child, daring to speak and act, yet also hardworking and understanding the bigger picture. If it weren't for the Yang family being truly unable to afford the burden of cultivating an alchemist, he would have genuinely considered taking Lin Feng in as a closed-door disciple. Don't look at Lin Feng's current mediocre alchemy skills - that wasn't because his alchemy abilities were lacking, but rather due to the lack of materials to practice with. If he could truly be supplied with spiritual medicines, it wouldn't take long for his alchemy skills to reach the next level. For now, though, it was just a pipe dream.

  Yang Ze let out a sigh in his heart and asked Lin Feng an unrelated question: "How many spirit stones can a furnace of Qi-gathering pills, all refined into low-grade true dan, be sold for?"

  Lin Feng didn't expect Yang Ze to ask such a question, but he still casually replied: "One Qi-boosting pill is worth seven spirit stones, and one furnace produces eight pills, that's 56 spirit stones."

  "How many spirit stones does it take to refine a furnace of Tiqi Dan?"

  "About twenty-three pieces!" Lin Feng blurted out without thinking, these years he had been mainly refining and condensing Qi Dans, as for how to make up the value of twenty-three pieces of Ling Stone in one furnace of spiritual medicine, it was something he had often racked his brains over, and was naturally extremely familiar with.

  "Why did you refine so many furnace pills but didn't earn a single piece of spiritual stone, and instead were left with empty pockets? You even had to go gather herbs yourself just to barely manage to open the furnace twice a month?" Yang Ze's words struck Lin Feng without mercy, leaving him speechless.

  "This isn't because Master Uncle's skills are bad, it's just that he often fails to refine the dan. Ah! I get it now, could it be... could refining equipment also have a success rate issue?"

  "How naive you are! Do you think refining equipment is like ordinary people forging iron, where you just throw the ore into the furnace, burn it a bit, and then take it out to polish it? Yang Ze's face was filled with disdain as he continued: "Let me tell you, whether in terms of materials or the refinement process, the precision required for refining equipment is far beyond what ordinary people can achieve when forging iron. Even a slight mistake can result in the destruction of all materials, and in severe cases, even the furnace and the person operating it can be destroyed. Furthermore, the difficulty of engraving arrays makes refining equipment even more challenging than refining elixirs. Unlike refining elixirs, where mistakes might still yield one or two true elixirs, mistakes when refining equipment usually result in useless waste, with almost no materials recoverable. Therefore, cultivating a refining equipment master is even more difficult than cultivating an elixir master, which is why there are far fewer equipment masters."

  Looking at Lin Feng nodding thoughtfully, Yang Ze continued: "So don't say that your materials are not enough. Even if the materials are sufficient, to refine a low-grade artifact, the labor cost paid to the refiner is likely to be more expensive than the materials themselves. In this way, for an artifact worth 100 spirit stones, how much do you think this piece of mystic iron ore is worth?"

  "Haha." Lin Feng dryly laughed twice, and sarcastically said: "So the materials for refining equipment are so worthless? When I picked up this piece of mystic iron ore back then, I thought I had hit the jackpot!"

  "Who says that refining materials are worthless? It depends on what kind of material it is. This Profound Iron Ore is only a first-grade spirit ore, so it's not very valuable. If it were a fourth or fifth-grade material, even a small piece would be worth tens of thousands of spirit stones."

  "Wow, it's so valuable!" Lin Feng's eyes suddenly sparkled with golden stars.

  "Slap!" Yang Ze slapped Lin Feng's head and said, "Wake up! Those are truly rare heavenly treasures, not something you can pick up by casually turning around like the Xuan Tie mine. Hurry up and do your evening lessons, get up early tomorrow to refine the elixir."

  Lin Feng responded with a sound, but he didn't think so in his heart. Now that he had the treasure, it would be thousands of times easier for him to find these heavenly treasures and earthly gems than ordinary people, but he naturally wouldn't tell Yang Ze about this.

  "Oh, right, I have something to attend to tomorrow and won't be back for a few days. You stay in the temple and refine your pills yourself. Take five portions of materials first, don't use them all up at once. Think carefully after each refinement, and only start the next one when you've gained some insight. You seem a bit impatient with your pill refinement lately." Yang Ze saw Lin Feng turn back to enter the house, and called out to him again to instruct him on two matters. Lin Feng repeatedly acknowledged them, then went into the house to meditate and begin his evening practice.

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