All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 496 - 111 Development of the Ruins (2/3)

Chapter 496: Chapter 111 Development of the Ruins (2/3)

"The prices have really gone up quite a bit." An Jing looked at the prices and found that not only weapons, but even elixirs and talismans had increased significantly.

Some of the items with high usage remained unchanged, but anything with slightly less production saw a total price hike.

"Isn’t that the truth."

Huo Qing, holding a purchasing list, complained bitterly: "Especially ’Life-Healing Talismans’, these lifesaving items, have practically doubled in price, as if some major power is manipulating the market."

"People always talk about the invisible hand that regulates the natural market, but when a crucial moment comes, every hand is skillful and tight; truly, they have no sense of benevolence and righteousness!"

"But there is some good news, too!"

However, speaking of this, Huo Qing’s eyebrows lifted slightly, and he seemed somewhat excited, albeit a bit embarrassed: "Although the exploration of the Ancient Immortal Ruins is still at the outer layers, we have some clues about the situation inside!"

"These Ancient Immortal Ruins are vast, housing a complete Cave Heaven small world within, filled with danger, including many ancient Monsters and Demons, as well as automatic Puppetry from the Dao Courtyard era of the Ancient Era. Cultivators who rashly venture deep suffer heavy losses soon after, and only a small portion of well-prepared teams make it back alive."

"As far as I know, the Day Tiger Gang lost a high-ranking Qi Refinement cultivator and twelve mid-ranking members on their first exploration!"

"The Flame Claw Gang, even more gravely, lost a deputy gang leader at the Foundation Establishment Realm along with five Qi Refinement cultivators!"

"Just a few days ago, an exploring team supported by a subsidiary of the Luofu Group got trapped inside, resulting in the deaths of three Foundation Establishment and over fifty Qi Refinement cultivators!"

——Wow, more Foundation Establishment cultivators died here than in a battle we faced; the cultivators of the Tianyuan Realm indeed possess profound depth.

An Jing frowned, this likely was the reason for Huo Qing’s excitement—the previous employer he didn’t get along with, former enemies, and the universally despised Luofu Group had suffered many casualties.

With their deaths, many positions became vacant, and although the safe zones would become chaotic, they also represented more opportunities.

And the recycling shop that Huo Qing now runs has surely made a substantial profit recently: with the price of Magic Artifacts going up, the price of second-hand ones must have naturally risen as well.

The embarrassment came from a misunderstanding.

"Indeed, traces of the Human Clan’s existence have been discovered inside the Cave Heaven."

Huo Qing looked at An Jing and scratched his head: "Some even encountered the Human Clan inside the ruins, but they fled on their airships, unwilling to make contact with us."

"Those Human Clan members all have white hair and red eyes, and according to the news, they are likely an offshoot of our clan that adapted to the environment of the Cave Heaven’s Spirit Qi... It seems, An Jing, you really aren’t one of the Ancient Immortal Remnants; we’ve all misunderstood you!"

——Ha, so the Ancient Immortal Remnants have such clear physical differences?

An Jing felt a sense of relief inside; fortunately, he had never considered impersonating an Ancient Immortal Remnant, otherwise, that would have been quite embarrassing.

Although it was already mentioned last time, Huo Qing’s words implied the mindset of Iron Hand and Rusty Feather, both members of the Guiyi Army—they most likely wouldn’t continue to investigate An Jing’s true identity.

"Hmm... This is very valuable information. But I suppose, it’s not just about exploring the ruins, right?"

The intelligence summarized by Huo Qing was indeed very detailed, but An Jing still felt something was missing.

He picked up the Water Mirror and read the recent news, keenly noticing the many details within this series of messages: "There’s a lot of news. Chonggang Town has resumed operations, our warehouses are also back in use, and the exploration of the Ancient Immortal Ruins has begun... Price hikes are normal."

"But look here, there’s also ’a bounty for attacking the Golden Crow at Chonggang Town’, ’encouraging the construction of Wilderness Fortresses to provide early warning for the safe zones’, along with numerous policies promoting the development of the Wilderness—how much heavy firepower can be used for exploring ruins? I reckon these firepower, they’re all meant for use in the Wilderness, for the construction of those Wilderness Fortresses!"

At this point in the conversation, An Jing nodded with conviction, "I think Xuanye City is planning to march into the Wilderness."

Huo Qing pondered carefully and suddenly realized, "Indeed! When I think about it, it’s been a long time since there was a new ’pioneering war’! The last time Xuanye City established a new safe zone was in the northern ’Bisha Sea,’ which at the very least was from my grandparents’ time."

"In recent years, there hasn’t been much attention to the Wilderness. With the Golden Crow appearing, it really is time to clear out the surrounding Wilderness and then establish a new safe zone!"

"That’s right," An Jing said with a smile.

The Ancient Immortal Ruins, at least a decade ago, which is to say during the time of the ’Initial Cave’ exploration team, groups had already attempted to explore.

As it looks now, it appears that Xuanye City’s Luofu Group has kept the information very concealed, secretly exploring for over a decade. This time, being forced to make it public with the cooperative pressure from other groups.

Leaving aside what exactly the Ruins People in the Ancient Immortal Ruins are all about, the simple and easy to obtain items within had already been taken by groups, leaving only some tough bones to be chewed on, to be left to Loose Cultivators to risk their lives for.

Even the fact that the Ruins People would flee upon seeing people, An Jing felt that this was certainly not because they were shy, but because they had been frightened by the Luofu Group, seeing these outsiders as enemies!

"I’m not worried about weapon price increases."

An Jing did some calculations, the costs had only increased by thirty to forty percent, which was still within an acceptable range—however, the price increase of the Life-Healing series was an unexpected windfall.

He took out the Life-prolonging Buds that were no longer needed after the retreat of the Beast Tide, which were preserved in a Frost Wood Box, and handed them directly to Huo Qing, "Sell them all, there’s definitely a profit to be made."

"Five buds!"

Huo Qing was truly startled, these types of plants with vital essence that could detoxify, heal injuries, and extend life, the fact that An Jing had been able to produce one before was already incredible, and now he was actually able to produce five at once?

"Definitely, definitely..." he took a deep breath and said, "Not just making a profit, but a huge profit. But with such treasures, how can they be sold for Good Deeds? They should be bartered for valuable items!"

"An Jing, you may not know, although the Ruins are dangerous, they also offer extremely rich rewards—The concentration and purity of the Spirit Qi in this Cave Heaven World are closer to that before the Demon Calamity, and the Demon Spirits and Ferocious Beasts there are special ’Cave Heaven species’, with the value of materials on them far exceeding those of the outside world."

"An Jing, if you have any requirements, just tell me directly. With Life-prolonging Buds in hand, we can exchange them for anything we want!"

At this point, Huo Qing seemed to have thought of something and reminded, "Right, there are quite a few Spirit Stone veins inside the Cave Heaven that have almost not been contaminated by Demonic Qi."

"If you have a way to sell your Spirit Stones, sell them as quickly as possible, because the price of Spirit Stones will definitely drop after some time!"

—That’s right, it looks like I can naturally sell some of the Spirit Stones I cannot use.

An Jing raised his eyebrows, his experiences giving him a further foresight than Huo Qing.

First of all, the existence of a large amount of uncontaminated Spirit Stone veins in the Cave Heaven was undoubtedly known to all the major groups, and if the exploring cultivators brought out these Spirit Stones, it would undoubtedly promote a large number of mid-stage Qi Refinement Cultivators in the Xuanye City vicinity to advance to the high stage, and some of the higher-stage Cultivators might even be able to achieve Foundation Establishment.

The strength of all cultivators around Xuanye City would see a great enhancement—It was at this time that Xuanye City conveniently introduced policies encouraging exploration and wilderness development.

It was a whole set of strategies.

The Ancient Immortal Ruins would exhaust a number of cultivators, and opening up the Wilderness would consume another batch.

By exploring and expanding, unstable pressures could be released. At the same time, new safe zones could be established. The only cost was to select a few newly advanced Foundation Establishment cultivators as the wilderness town managers, even inside the groups, their Purple Mansions would have their own jurisdiction.

The era of expansion is coming.