Chapter 4384 — A Straying Step onto the Third Floor
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Wei Zhaotong trailed behind him with a helpless look on his face. A fine expert of the mid Gold Core stage, and here on Yunjie Island he was actually strolling through a secular-world department store with someone—the very thought of it was enough to make one dizzy with speechless wonder.
What was even more baffling was that these ordinary goods, available everywhere in the secular world, still commanded astronomical prices, and so many people were scrambling to buy them that the business was booming to a degree that simply defied reason.
Wei Zhao made a rough estimate: in the short time he had spent trailing Qi Wenmo around, the turnover had already reached the scale of tens of thousands of spirit jade—almost catching up with a full day's income at his own Tiandan Pavilion!
And to think that at the Tiandan Pavilion he sold only top-grade pills, yet even that fell short of the Zhongshu Merchant Guild's secular wares. Such an outcome was enough to make one laugh and cry at the same time.
If one truly reckoned by actual value, any single top-grade pill from the Tiandan Pavilion would be enough to buy up an entire street of secular department stores. All one could say was that things are precious for being rare—that old saying really was not the least bit false.
Wei Zhao and Qi Wenmo chatted as they wandered. Though the latter showed enormous interest in these secular wares, it was mostly out of curiosity; the things that actually caught his eye were few and far between.
As the young heir of the Qingtian Escort Agency, Qi Wenmo had received elite training since childhood, and he was a model product of it. People like him lacked neither the boldness to spend a thousand gold at a throw, nor—at the same time—self-restraint far beyond the ordinary.
If he were to go soft at the sight of any little novelty and squander his wealth like dirt, then no matter how deep the family fortune, there would come a day when it was all frittered away. And then Qi Wenmo would be no elite at all, but a plain wastrel—and Qi Mingyuan would never have dared entrust the great Qingtian Escort Agency to his hands.
Novelty was novelty, but for these things that were plainly meant only for amusement and had little practical value, Qi Wenmo merely looked for the fun of it. If he actually did reach for his purse and buy them, that could mean only one thing: his head had gone bad.
Toys sap the will. Anyone with even a shred of ambition could not possibly spend great handfuls of spirit jade on mere playthings. Rather than squander it on things with no practical worth at all, one might as well buy more treasures for cultivation—pills or weapons, any of them were far more practical than these secular wares.
The two made a circuit of the first floor, clicking their tongues in admiration, then turned and went up to the second. But compared with the seething first floor, the second was noticeably quieter. Wei Zhao swept his eyes around and found that what was sold here was not the Zhongshu Merchant Guild's signature secular goods, but all manner of heaven-and-earth treasures and rare spirit herbs.
"Ha. The stuff meant to catch the eye sells like wildfire, while the truly good things sit unwanted." Wei Zhao could not help but laugh.
"Indeed. It seems this Zhongshu Merchant Guild has no small ambitions." Qi Wenmo was a man who understood, and he nodded in agreement.
The Zhongshu Merchant Guild's strategy was clear: use these novel, curious secular goods to whip up a huge gimmick and a storm of public talk, drawing everyone in. But it was not content to stop there.
Heaven-and-earth treasures were the stock-in-trade of every great merchant guild, and the things with the most market and vitality on Yunjie Island. Novel gadgets could make one blaze brightly for a time, but they could not burn so fiercely forever.