“Big business? What big business? Did you con more people?” asked Guo Ran excitedly.

“Fuck, do you think I’m such a bad person?” raged Long Chen. But his words were said somewhat guiltily, because it seemed any big businesses he had conducted truly did involve conning people.

Long Chen immediately changed the subject. “Let me ask you, once you smelt this material, what kind of things can you create?”

“With this much material, I can create a whole new suit of golden armor for myself. I’ll become a golden battle god.” Guo Ran confidently looked at the spatial ring. His eyes were shining as if he could already see himself in his golden armor valiantly standing on the battlefield.

“Hey, don’t daydream. Wipe away your drool. If you can create armor, can you create weapons?” asked Long Chen.

Guo Ran turned a bit listless and shook his head. “To tell the truth, having me forge this kind of material is a complete waste. Xiantian class material is already my limit. If I were to forge Enchanted class material, I would end up wasting half its power. As for this kind of Treasure class material… I think I might end up wasting… ninety percent of its power.”

Guo Ran was ashamed. If a grandmaster forger were to learn that a rookie like Guo Ran was about to ruin such precious natural treasures, they would definitely beat him to death and then beat his corpse some more.

“That’s fine. As long as you can forge it, it’s fine. You’re already very strong. As long as it can increase your strength, it’s not wasteful. So how strong will you be if you create armor from this?” asked Long Chen.

“Attacks below the Sea Expansion realm can be ignored. As for Sea Expansion experts, I can’t say for sure, because I’ve only seen them attack in photographic jades. However, I should be able to reduce the impact of their attacks by quite a bit,” said Guo Ran.

Long Chen nodded. “That’s already very powerful. But why can’t you make it into weapons?”

“Because martial weapons focus on offense, but the forging runes recorded in the supermonastery focus on defense. As for the attacking runes available, they’re too low class. Furthermore, the Ethereal Crafting Secret Record’s runes are too profound, and I can’t comprehend them. So if I were to place the supermonastery’s runes on a martial weapon, I wouldn’t be able to add much offensive might to them at all. That really would be turning divine material into trash,” sighed Guo Ran.

According to Guo Ran, the supermonastery had quite a few Forging Masters. But those Forging Masters were extremely arrogant, and they liked to look down their noses at people. Guo Ran had tried sucking up to a few of them, but as a result, he had had to leave without any achievements at all. They simply ignored him.

Obviously, those Forging Masters were very protective of their secret forging arts. They refused to transmit them.

“Ah, so that’s what it was.” Long Chen sank into thought for a moment before saying, “If you refine this material into hidden arrows, needles, and other concealed weapons used for sneak attacks, how strong would they be?”

“Of course, that would be badass. Such material is already extremely hard. Even without carving runes into those, their killing power would definitely be terrifying. But to turn this material into concealed weapons is a bit wasteful. Maybe we should just store it for now? Once my forging arts improve, I can forge it into better things,” suggested Guo Ran. Using such precious material to create a set of armor for himself had already felt wasteful to him.

This kind of Treasure class material was too rare. It had to be known that above Xiantian weapons were Enchanted weapons, and the formation runes carved onto them made them specialized for Sea Expansion experts.

As for Treasure weapons, those were the weapons of experts above the Sea Expansion realm. Only those kinds of experts could activate the power of a Treasure weapon.

Guo Ran could at most forge Xiantian weapons. He himself felt it was far too wasteful for him to refine Treasure class material.

“Time waits for no one. Just directly forge this into concealed weapons. Furthermore, make each Dragonblood warrior a supremely powerful crossbow specialized toward shooting high-speed arrows. Let me ask you, if every warrior of the Dragonblood Legion shot their crossbows at one person at the same time, what would happen?” asked Long Chen.

“With my current forging skills, the best crossbow I can make is definitely shockingly powerful. If over three hundred people shot one at the same time, then… then even Sea Expansion experts would end up heavily injured at the least.” Guo Ran suddenly realized what Long Chen wanted.

“Then that’s perfect. Our enemies will only grow stronger in the future. These crossbows and concealed weapons will be one of our life-saving measures. So do your best to forge them as fast as possible. Now isn’t the time to care about wasting some material. We don’t have that much time to waste. We might be alright waiting, but our enemies won’t wait for us, understand?” warned Long Chen.

“I understand. I’ll immediately go into seclusion, and I won’t come out until I’m finished. But boss, in terms of money…”

“I have two thousand middle grade spirit stones here. Take these first and focus on creating your armor. I’ll think of a way to gather more spirit stones,” said Long Chen. He now felt a bit regretful that he had refused to accept the Yin family’s spatial ring from Mo Yi.

The main reason was that he hadn’t felt alright with doing so. In order to use the Mo Mountain Seal to save him, Mo Gate had definitely used up a great deal of resources. Long Chen naturally wouldn’t make them work for nothing.

However, the Yin family was an ancient family. They had definitely been rich. If he had known this would happen, he would have asked for some spirit stones. Then he wouldn’t be in such a strained state.

After sending off Guo Ran, someone came to tell Long Chen that Zheng Wenlong had come. That made him delighted.

“Long Chen, brother Long, grandmaster Long, the fact that you are safe and sound is truly too wonderful.” Within Long Chen’s room, Zheng Wenlong was fiercely hugging Long Chen. “Ah, why can’t you just be more peaceful? You almost scared me to death. Considering the huge debt I owe, if you were to die, I would have to follow you.”

“Haha, don’t worry, I won’t die so easily. Brother Zheng, you really have come at the perfect time. Junior brother just happens to have some things to ask of you. Lately, junior brother’s pocket has been a bit empty. Can brother Zheng offer some emergency funds?” Long Chen laughed.

“Fuck, you want me to increase my debt again? Tch, I really do have bad luck. How much do you want? I’ll see if I can think of something,” said Zheng Wenlong.

“Brother Zheng, you really are a good brother! Loyal and admirable.” Seeing that Zheng Wenlong didn’t have any intention to decline or offer excuses, Long Chen gave him a thumbs-up.

“Tch, drop the act. Right now, you are my biggest creditor. I can’t afford to offend you. It seems that nowadays, those who owe money are the real men.” Zheng Wenlong bitterly laughed.

“Hehe, you can’t put it like that! That’s too hurtful. What about that pill formula I gave you last time? Is there a marketplace for it?” asked Long Chen.

“Ah, just don’t even mention that. Just thinking about it makes me angry. That Meridian Opening Pill of yours is definitely heaven-defying. There’s no way to complain about its effect. But the main ingredient is the Meridian Opening Spirit Cliff Fruit, and before the destruction of the Yin family, all their trees already died. Just how am I supposed to sell this pill formula? Without the ingredients for the pill, no one would buy it. That pill formula just sits with me now,” said Zheng Wenlong.

“Hehe, don’t panic. I just asked if there was a marketplace. What are you prattling on about? Let me ask you, if I were to give you several hundred saplings of Meridian Opening Spirit Cliff Trees, and then you auction the saplings with the pill formula, what would happen?”

Crack.

Zheng Wenlong’s cup shattered. Scalding tea poured down his hand, but he didn’t notice at all.

“What? You have… you have several hundred Meridian Opening Spirit Cliff Trees?” Even Zheng Wenlong’s voice quivered from emotion.

“Brother Zheng, although you are a businessman, our relationship is something formed through slaughter on the battlefield. I’ve always viewed you as a brother. So please help me keep my secrets between us,” said Long Chen.

“Brother Long, don’t worry. Even if I have to lose this life of mine, I won’t sell you out.” Zheng Wenlong placed both his hands over his chest and wrapped his fingers together, forming the image of a gold coin.

Long Chen knew this was the Huayun Sect’s disciples’ oath to their Wealth God. It was their highest oath.

With Long Chen and Zheng Wenlong’s relationship, asking Zheng Wenlong to keep his secrets had been superfluous on Long Chen’s part. But this matter was just too important, and he had no choice but to be careful. The primal chaos bead’s power was too heaven-defying. Each extra person who knew was an increase in danger.

Although Long Chen didn’t tell Zheng Wenlong about the primal chaos bead, he still needed Zheng Wenlong to keep this matter secret.

“I have 837 saplings for you here. They are all over a hundred years of age and are beginning to bear fruit. You can ask people to appraise it. Furthermore, this spatial ring contains over three hundred thousand Meridian Opening Spirit Cliff Fruits. Once you finish selling the saplings along with the pill formula, the supply still won’t meet the demand, so you can sell the fruit in batches. That will definitely provide the greatest profit.”

Long Chen gave Zheng Wenlong two rings. One was a life ring with the saplings, while the other was a spatial ring with a mountain of fruit. Furthermore, Long Chen’s primal chaos space still had over a hundred of this kind of tree. Those trees were filled with fruit that he could pluck at any time; that was enough for him. If he had the channels, he could sell some of them himself to make some pocket money.

Zheng Wenlong’s eyes shone as he received the two rings. He was extremely moved, as Long Chen was revealing his secret that he had some sort of heaven-defying ability related to vegetation. That was absolute trust.

“Long Chen, don’t worry. I swear on the Wealth God that even if I have to die, I will protect your secret.” Zheng Wenlong once more repeated his solemn oath.

“I trust you, brother Zheng,” smiled Long Chen.

“Previously, you said you were lacking middle grade spirit stones. How many did you need? With these treasures, I can offer you more resources.” Zheng Wenlong patted himself on the chest confidently.

“Then how about one million for now?”

“Fuck, you really are a conner! You want to con me to death!” Zheng Wenlong regretted his last words, but it was already too late.