The Coffer
Fanqia was easily able to shape the Fire-Feather Minerals and Golu Amethyst into an appropriately-sized ring. Edrick had naturally not forgotten to get the details of Liren’s lover. He had gotten her ring size and even the colours she usually liked to wear.
All to be able to craft the best possible ring for her. Normally, it would take a while to alter the colouration of materials, but with Fanqia’s Velvet Pixie Bloodline, it was done in just a few mere minutes.
The Golu Amethyst went from its natural purple colour to a fiery red, but that wasn’t the end of it. Fanqia then refined the ring into a true cultivator’s accessory, with the ability to enhance a cultivator’s fire spells and even improve energy circulation.
Edrick’s first wife was able to take inspiration and better perform the refinement thanks to Hui’s wealth of knowledge, who brought out several bouts containing a bunch of known ways to refine tools for cultivators with a penchant for flames, allowing Fanqia to not only have ideas of what to do, but also know what kind of materials were best for such refinements.
With Luxuli’s assistance, it was also possible to know every detail of the ring in real-time, allowing Fanqia to make minute adjustments immediately.
The demoness also applied enchantments to the ring and soaked it in a vial of liquid mana she had produced whilst learning about mana manipulation. It not only allowed the ring to become more resistant to energy, but it also added some of Luxuli's innate affinity for ‘affection’ to the ring.
The item went through these processes several times over the course of a couple of days, until it was perfectly refined into something no other tool refiners could possibly offer. The combination of the skills of three of Edrick’s wives allowed for the creation of something truly impressive, despite the rather common materials used.
Fanqia alone could have made something incredible, but with Luxuli being able to know all the details and changes by the second, and Hui’s pile of knowledge… It truly resulted in a ring that wasn’t simply pretty, but that would have a real utility for its wearer.
‘Well, hopefully Liren’s woman won’t think that it was expensive to make…’
It had basically been made for free, but judging by the quality alone, it wouldn’t be odd if she assumed that Liren spent a fair amount of money to have it made.
Regardless, the ring was placed in a secure package and sent to the Xing scion. Edrick felt confident that it would make for a very good gift.
Apart from this, about two weeks after the market ended and the news of his shop spread nicely, following the return of many people to their homes, he publicly announced the opening of ‘Eltysia’s Coffer’ not too far from the outskirts of the territory of the Elt clan, right alongside a stone road, and near a small town and village.
The sizable architecture was designed and constructed by Haoyu, which made the building into a magnificent piece of art on its own. It had a very homey design, being made out of durable wood, was rather blocky, and came with climbing, flowery vines.
Edrick had picked employees carefully in the nearby town and village, although they were paid, he nonetheless marked them with Servant Crests for safety precautions, and a few of his Vallis without great cultivation talent agreed to take management positions there.
The treasury and inventory would be monitored by his maids every so often, though. Shu would report any abnormality.
Anoteros made sure that the news would quickly spread throughout the entire country, and the reactions were swift. Apart from Liren, none of his customers back at the market had known who the real owner was, so it came as a surprise, but with all the good words that had spread about the shop already, people couldn’t resist the temptations of checking Eltysia’s Coffer out and see for themselves if the prices were really as good as they had heard…
The shop quickly drove a lot of customers over, and even though the lesser cultivators were scared silly about getting close to the Elt clan, they were unable to stop themselves from thinking about returning–The prices and quality were still the exact same as during the market, and no cultivator worth something would let a little bit of fright get in the way of good deals.
Especially when the good deals involved common materials that all cultivators could make use of.
Tool refiners in particular were quick to show up due to the large quantities of Tarkin White Iron Edrick had in stock. It was the only material refiners were willing to allow beginners to play around with, as its price was low due to being a very basic material that no one wanted in their high-quality refined tools, but for the brunt of cultivators, it was the material their ‘special’ weapons would be made out of.
The advantage of something used in this manner was that Edrick could sell the low-quality Tarkin White Iron as well. Those who bought to give to their disciples didn’t care about the quality–It was even better for it to be of lesser quality, as it meant the material would resist being refined and shaped, giving more to disciples to work on.
Anoteros was quick to gain the appreciation of tool refiners, since, despite knowing this, he still sold the low-quality stuff at a rock-bottom price–And with how much Tarkin White Iron there was to be found throughout the lands of Eltysia, he had a lot of stock.
Of course, Edrick didn’t just create goodwill with the opening of his shop. All others who made a business by selling the same materials were left in utter shambles. The scion dealt a critical uppercut to several markets at once, with the only lifeline he left to competitors being that Eltysia’s Coffer wasn’t open on all days of the week.
The public explanation was that due to the massive rushes that occurred, the stocks needed to be replenished to offer proper services, but of course, it was a play of deception. The shop wasn’t open every single day precisely so that the competition wouldn’t be utterly crushed and to give them time to actually get back on their feet and find solutions.
It wasn’t an act of magnanimousness on Edrick’s part. It was just that installing himself as a near-monopoly by absolutely crushing all small to medium-sized rivals in the sector wouldn’t exactly be the best course of action for the economy as a whole.
They were installed all throughout the country. Those especially far away were less affected, but cultivators could be willing to travel a while for better prices and higher quality–In any case, being spread out meant that they contributed to local economies as well, which would be hurt if these businesses went down under.
Anoteros couldn’t fill in the space, so he was giving them some breathing room to actually adapt properly.
Now, if they couldn’t do it. Then it would just be what it is. It was the law of the jungle in business. Those who couldn’t compete would die.
‘I am sure most of them will manage by diversifying their products’
For now, Anoteros was going to pay a visit to his secret wife. The last time he had paid a small visit to her, she had told him that she was getting near to giving birth, and being a superb husband, Edrick would be present for her…