Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 1089: The Astute Bai Li

Chapter 1089: Chapter 1089: The Astute Bai Li

Actually, the price negotiation went rather smoothly. Feng Jun started with a lion’s open mouth, asking for five hundred taels of Gold for each icebox and air conditioner.

Bai Li was even more direct, "Mountain Master Feng, let’s not joke around. I know you discussed a price of two hundred taels each with You Longzi. I don’t care what you agreed upon or what benefits you promised him, but I’m okay with the price of two hundred taels. No problem, right?"

Feng Jun pondered for a moment, then stated that there was a problem with that price—because back then, I didn’t realize how important these items were to the Yinsha Sect.

How shamelessly he could say such a thing. Bai Li couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth twice: I thought I was already quite shrewd, but I didn’t expect someone to be even more so.

So he pointedly said, some things lose their meaning if pointed out—don’t you have an idea of how much an icebox and air conditioner are sold for in the Mortal Realm?

I really don’t know, Feng Jun seriously replied—this was not a lie, as Mount Zhige never standardized the prices for selling iceboxes and color TVs; it was mostly quote as you like, and occasionally they would give a gift to big customers if they were in a good mood.

And people who bought these things usually wouldn’t haggle, because haggling would be too demeaning.

Even if Feng Jun had no clear recollection, he could roughly confirm that the price of two hundred taels of Gold for each was... probably the highest it ever went for.

However, Bai Li didn’t hesitate to give three examples, where the most expensive icebox sold for only one hundred and twenty taels, and Mount Zhige even provided a secret manual as a bonus: the recipe for ice cream.

That’s different, Feng Jun began to bluff again, taking advantage of the other’s ignorance of the principles of industrial society’s commodity production—if you order in bulk, it’s bound to be more expensive, of course.

Bai Li was in charge of procurement, so one would reckon he’d seen a lot, but this time, he really was bamboozled.

In this world, one rarely ever sees assembly line production. Although some rudimentary forms exist, they are all in the Mortal Realm. As for the Cultivation World—please, every Cultivator’s Artifact Refining is all about personal style, and the items used by Cultivators are very personalized as well.

Nevertheless, he was quite certain that there was a great deal of inflation in Feng Jun’s quoted price, which definitely had something to do with You Longzi. So he insisted that no matter what you argue, the fact that you agreed to two hundred taels of Gold means you had sufficient profit margin.

Yet Feng Jun put on the face of a greedy merchant, saying it was his skill to raise the price, and you can always buy from someone else.

In the end, Bai Li brought out the heavy artillery: Such reneging on your word, if I really reported this to the Sect, it’s not a big deal whether the deal goes through, but if someone in the Sect finds you lack integrity, feeling insulted by Yinsha, we cannot just let it go.

This sounded like a threat, but it was also true; this world really values commitment. On this foundational understanding, Feng Jun’s behavior could indeed be interpreted as disrespect towards the Yinsha Sect.

And Bai Li added: I’m not threatening you, Yinsha Sect has experienced this before. As for those businesses that raise prices with the wind... you can ask You Longzi.

Once Feng Jun heard this, he knew it was true, so he "reluctantly" agreed.

However, as soon as he agreed, Bai Li revealed his true intentions: However, let’s agree on a price of three hundred taels of Gold for each, and the extra hundred taels... you need to return to me!

Feng Jun almost spat out blood when he heard this: So you also came for this?

But in the Earth Realm, he had seen this situation often, where Party A pulls out Party B’s lowest quote, then adds their own markup.

In Earth, Feng Jun would usually inform them that taxes and management fees would need to be deducted,

Here, this argument wasn’t quite fitting, so he found another reason, "I have my masters and elders behind me; if you ask me to quote three hundred taels, and someone does care, they’ll think I’ve made a fortune."

Bai Li did not doubt the backing of Feng Jun, but he replied indifferently, "Just tell the truth, Gold is but a trivial worldly possession; which Cultivator would care about such things?"

It was then that Feng Jun understood why this man, knowing the bottom line was so high, dared to add a markup—turns out he was confident in managing the leadership of his unit, and that was exactly what You Longzi was missing.

You Longzi indeed had the notion of getting involved, which was viable, but he had no one backing him in the procurement department. If others saw such a big order, they’d just snatch it.

Feng Jun could even imagine that Bai Li dared to promise some benefits to the leaders in charge, but You Longzi... where would he have such connections? As soon as he made a move, what could have been, probably wouldn’t be anymore.

Feng Jun had already figured it out, but he still had to express difficulty, "Of the extra hundred taels, I can only give you eighty. I can’t go empty-handed when explaining to those above... You should understand this better than I do."

He thought that keeping just a 20% handling fee was quite generous of him.

But Bai Li was adamantly unwilling to agree. He stressed—I raised the price on my own merit, so of course all the extra goes to me.

Feng Jun refused to budge as well, so then don’t raise the price, then there would be no such disputes, right?

After further argument, Bai Li came up with a new suggestion: How about this, since we both have solid foundations, let’s go back to our respective Sects and ask someone in charge to discuss it. Would that work?

Feng Jun readily nodded his head, sure, you tell me, what level of Cultivation should the person have—certainly not Golden Core.

Bai Li was actually just testing the waters. Seeing that Feng Jun agreed, he internally gave up on the idea.

He could get, at best, only an elite mentor of a high rank, but a Golden Core Master is truly impossible.

However, even if he did invite a high-rank elite mentor, he would have to pay a significant cost and personal favor. Indeed, fellow disciples should care for each other, but when it comes to more private matters, even blood brothers settle accounts clearly, let alone fellow disciples?

Such a trade, if he really did invite such a person, he felt... he might even make a loss.

Therefore, after some thought, Bai Li suggested, "One hundred taels of gold, and you get to draw ten taels... Don’t be too greedy."

After discussing, they settled on a median value of fifteen taels—they were both elite mentors, and squabbling over such a small amount of money wasn’t of much interest, nor worth losing their dignity over.

That is to say, for the hundred thousand appliances, Feng Jun sold for thirty million taels of gold, of which he kept twenty-one million five hundred thousand taels, while Bai Li got eight million five hundred thousand taels; Feng Jun’s gain was equivalent to one thousand and seventy-five tons of gold.

Adding to that the Boiler Camel Motorcycles Bai Li would also buy, Feng Jun’s haul was almost about one thousand three hundred tons of gold.

If you count the nearly five hundred tons of gold he had stockpiled beforehand, he now had nearly eighteen hundred tons of just gold.

And the gold that Bai Li had acquired also exceeded the nine million taels mark.

Feng Jun didn’t have time to be smug; at this moment, he was rather curious, "What’s your exchange rate of gold for Spirit Stones?"

Bai Li glanced at him warily and shook his head decisively, "None, I have no intention of exchanging... I have several relatives stranded in the Mortal Realm, and I thought of supporting them."

If there hadn’t been that explanation, Feng Jun might have believed him, but with that explanation, it was like saying there’s no silver here three hundred taels.

With a thoughtful look, Feng Jun watch him, and he looked back with significance.

Feng Jun couldn’t stand the eye contact between two grown men, turned his gaze away first, then seemingly muttered to himself, "Nine million taels of gold, that’s also twenty or thirty thousand Spirit Stones."

Bai Li eyed him obliquely, "Is there such an exchange rate? Not even thirty thousand stones, give me twenty-five thousand Spirit Stones, and the gold is all yours."

Then they looked at each other and smiled: forget it, it’s all tricks, no one should call out the other.

Feng Jun did some calculations, Huang Fu Flawless’s quote was five hundred taels of gold for a Spirit Stone, which was higher than the market rate of around four hundred taels per stone, but the advantage was that it could absorb large quantities without any issues afterwards.

He believed that Bai Li’s exchange rate would be lower than four hundred taels per Spirit Stone, but since the man denied such a possibility, he couldn’t pursue it further—it was one of the man’s survival tactics, and he couldn’t inquire too closely.

In any case, from this trip, Bai Li earned at least ten times more than You Longzi, no wonder he tirelessly pursued and refused to give up...

Behind Feng Jun’s courtyard, several massive storages were built, at least three times larger than those in the Earth Realm, with a capacity more than thirty times that of Earth’s. Here was stored a large amount of goods, with fifty thousand refrigerators and air conditioners stacked inside.

Interestingly, Bai Li came this time with an adequate amount of gold, as well as a Super Large Storage Bag.

In his words, the last time he brought a Storage Bag but some person didn’t show graciousness, so he camped out for almost a month and then took it back home.

With witnesses from Wuyou Platform and Tiantong, Feng Jun and the Yinsha Sect completed the transaction.

But Bai Li still couldn’t leave just yet; the refrigerators were one thing, but the installation of air conditioners was truly a science of its own.

He planned to take one hundred mortals skilled in air conditioning installation back with him and proclaimed that if they performed well enough, they might even gain some opportunities.

Unfortunately, the number of people from Mount Zhige who understood air conditioning installation did not exceed fifty, mostly offspring from the Tian Family, Mi Family, Yu Family, and a few from the Mu Family.

At the prospect of going to the Cultivation World, they were all filled with longing, but when they returned home at night, they were immediately scolded by the elders of their clan—going there was just for a bit more money, did they really think they had the luck for cultivation?

Furthermore, mortals had low status there; even if they were beaten to death, there would be nowhere to seek justice.

That girl from the Mi Family, identified as a Cultivation Seedling from a young age, what ended up happening to her? If it weren’t for encountering the Mountain Master, she would be typically stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So you see, cultivating isn’t as wonderful as you imagine, it’s quite brutal...

Strictly speaking, if you leave Mount Zhige now, you are severing the relationship with Mountain Master Feng, and it might even bring trouble to your clan.

Yes, the Yinsha Sect is indeed good, one of the Four Great Sects, but it’s just too far from us ordinary people.

You’ve got an elite mentor close at hand, and you’ve built a relationship; you don’t know to hold onto that but fantasize about something so distant?