Making a Profit

"Is it too late for me to put something up for auction?" I ask.

"At this point probably, but Aunt Jiang might be able to get some things in for you, Teacher."

It takes a moment for Dai Jiang to respond given her current state, be after a few seconds she says, "Huh, oh, yeah, depending on what it is I might be able to get it in. What do have?"

"It's a weapon from the outside, Aurelia, can you--"

"Already on it," Aurelia says while she puts up a barrier to soundproof the room.

As she is doing that, I begin to construct a handgun. Using one of the blueprints I had received after putting down the rebellion, I create one of the newer models of what I would identify as a magnum pistol. Seeing what can only be described as metal forming in mid-air and being moulded without any physical contact, Dai Jiang practically sobers up and the Grave Robber looks on in surprise.

Showing off my creation, I say, "this type of weapon is called a gun, this particular one is called a magnum. It's a high powered ranged weapon that can blow right through most armours, I'll demonstrate."

I start creating a wood dummy in the corner of the room and cover it up with thick metal plating, much to the surprise and fascination of Dai Jiang and the Grave Robber. Taking aim I say, "brace yourself for a loud sound," as I infuse ice mana into the chamber and pull the trigger, a loud bang echos throughout the small room.

As the initial shock wears off, Dai Jiang looks over towards the dummy to find that the plate armour has a large gaping hole in the centre as well as the wooden dummy and on top of that the impact sight has been covered in ice. Thankfully Aurelia's barrier stopped the bullet from penetrating the wall.

Just before Dai Jiang can say anything, the Grave Robber says, "I will buy it from you right now at a premium price. How much do you want?"

"No don't listen to him, I'll make sure this gets in the auction and I'll even give apply for special privileges for you so that the cut the Treasury receives will be lower than normal."

"No need to fight over it, I can provide it to you both," I say as I create another one in my other hand. "Here's the thing though, you need these metal balls as ammunition. A bow uses arrows as a gun uses bullets."

"Actually I think it is possible to use this gun to shoot a blast of concentrated energy if done right. Let me take a look, rest assured I won't take it away without paying."

Since Aurelia has the room locked down, I don't worry and just hand one of the magnums over to the Grave Robber. The first thing he does is empty the magnum of its remaining bullets before taking aim at the wooden dummy. After a few seconds, he pulls the trigger, but he hadn't expected the recoil as the Grave Robber is momentarily taken back causing the shot to miss. That's not important though, I'm not sure how he did it, but the Grave Robber managed to shoot off a blast of pure energy and even put a dent into Aurelia's barrier.

"Just as I thought, this has the potential to shoot a concentrated blast of energy, but it would take some more fine tuning to perfect it," the Grave Robber says.

"How did you do that! No, wait, more like why did you do that, now how am I supposed to sell bullets!" I yell out.

"I don't actually think you need to worry about that, most people shouldn't be able to replicate what I just did, so your profits should be fine for the most part. As a show of good faith, I will explain the process, so I hope you can give me a discount. Using the same method you did to enhance your shot, I put in some of my own energy, I gathered up some of the Divine Energy in the air and used my qi to stabilise in within the chamber, but the unique properties of my qi can't contain Divine Energy as it causes the Divine Energy to run wild and is forced out upon pulling the trigger. Thus most people shouldn't be able to replicate this."

"That's strange Divine Energy is usually very stable, the only things that can give it such an effect is Demonic Energy and Death Energy," Dai Jiang says.

"I don't think there is any point in hiding it anymore, especially since Miss Aurelia has already uncovered my identity, correct?"

"Indeed, I had already seen through your mask the moment we met, shall I say it or do you want to?"

"Since it concerns me, I should be the one to announce it. I'm a Jiangshi, for the two outsides who aren't aware, I'm a living corpse. My qi naturally contains Death Energy which causes the blast of energy you witnessed."

Before most of us can properly react to his admission, Wanjing yells, "this is perfect, I truly am lucky! Jiangshi feed off of qi, right? I need to know how this is done."

"And why would you need to know this, you are human, are you not?"

"Well yes, but actually no. Go a bit further back and apparently you'll find a Taotie in my ancestry, don't ask about it, the only one who knows the details is Aunt Jiang and she has no intention of saying anything."

"Damnit! Why'd you have to go and remind me about that!"

"I don't mind telling you about my methods, but I don't know if they will be suitable for you. However, I want the gun."

"This..." Wanjing drags on as she turns towards me.

"Cover the cost for my meal, that's the best I'll give you," I say.

"Deal."

While the two of them are talking about eating qi, Dai Jiang approaches me about the gun as well.

"So this and the bullets, I'm thinking we should bundle them together, right? How much should the starting price be?" I ask.

"Hmm... given the rarity we can probably inflate the price a little so I'm thinking somewhere around 230 strings of large coins. Depending on how much bullets you intend to sell, we can probably bring the price up to around 300 strings of large coins."

"Yeah... sound good. I'll make sure that there are enough bullets to last around half a year, so just set price to match that," I say.

I think I'll just leave everything up to her, I don't really understand the currency here but I don't think she will do anything that can lower the price since it would lower her profit as well.

After having finished all our business here, Dai Jiang and the Grave Robber pay the bill and separate from us to make their own preparation for tomorrows auction. The rest of us return to our room at Shang Yueting for the night as I begin to make my own preparations for the auction.