After handing the ore to Master Zhang, he quickly immersed himself in forging, while Shenhe borrowed an empty space at a nearby blacksmith's shop and began drawing Adeptus Sigils.
Before long, both the perilous conch and the Adeptus Sigils were completed, signaling that the crucial materials needed for rebuilding the Jade Chamber had been collected. Now, all that was left was to wait.
In the game, Yuto remembered that the Jade Chamber, with its immense scale and exquisite craftsmanship, seemed to have been rebuilt within two days. But in reality, Yuto felt that this Project, no matter how rushed, would at least take several months.
After everyone handed the perilous conch and Adeptus Sigils to Ningguang's secretary, Baiwen, sure enough, Baiwen immediately announced that the top three winners of the competition had emerged. It was then that Yuto and his group learned that the people in the audience were precisely the buyers who had purchased Yuto's mingxia floating stone.
The reason 'buyers' is plural is because there were a total of ten buyers for this mingxia floating stone. They adopted a cooperative approach, pooling their funds to purchase it and then jointly asking Ningguang one question.
That's right, the Feiyun Commerce Guild also completed the auction of the mingxia floating stone today. The final auction price reached 1.28 billion Mora. After deducting over 100 million Mora in commission fees and storage costs, the amount Yuto would receive was 1.15 billion Mora.
With such a massive cash flow, if small merchants didn't cooperate, they would be directly squeezed out by large merchants with ample capital.
Therefore, Liyue's small merchants banded together for warmth, and at the auction, relying on the advantage of strength in numbers, they successfully defeated the flourishing large merchants, but at the same time, they also pushed the transaction price to an extremely terrifying level.
The mingxia floating stone, with an actual value of only 200 million Mora, sold at a nearly seven-fold premium, making one marvel at Ningguang's standing in the hearts of merchants. The value of asking Ningguang a single question was as high as 1.08 billion Mora, and it was unknown what question those merchants wanted to ask Ningguang.
However, a secret only has value if it's exclusive. Telling the same secret to ten different merchants makes it extremely easy for the information to leak if not handled carefully. It's also unknown if those ten people can be of one mind; if it truly leaks, then this secret, valued at 1.08 billion Mora, would become worthless.
Since the competition had ended, it was time for Ningguang to fulfill her promise. Baiwen specifically notified Ningguang about this.
Regarding Yun Jin's need to find a suitable stage for her new opera, Ningguang generously stated that the newly built Jade Chamber could serve as the venue for her premiere.
The Jade Chamber is situated at an extremely high elevation, from which one can survey all mountains as if they were small. From such heights, one can feel the strength of the wind and observe the myriad aspects of human life. Furthermore, the Jade Chamber is the most luxurious and noble place in all of Liyue. Performing there would be immensely beneficial for the promotion of the new opera, so Yun Jin naturally had no reason to refuse.
As for the Traveler, before Lumine could even speak, Ningguang declared, "I am also unaware of your brother's whereabouts, so don't waste this question."
This directly stumped Lumine, who for a moment didn't know what to ask. So, she handed the right to ask to Paimon, but before Paimon could speak, Ningguang spoke first again.
"Doing business is not as easy as you imagine. Capital, connections, a sense of market trends, a nose for opportunities, and so on—all these are indispensable. If you wish to ask how to make money, I will answer as agreed, but for you two currently, it may not be effective."
"Uh... Miss Ningguang is still so prescient. I haven't even started asking yet?"
"Heh heh, your thoughts are written all over your faces; it's easy to tell. How about this, I can promise that if one day you urgently need assistance, you can come to me for a job. As for the salary and benefits, I will, of course, provide them at the highest standards."
"Yay! Next time we run out of Mora, we'll just come to Miss Ningguang."
Yuto glanced at the easily appeased Paimon and Lumine with disdain. After all that effort, they were just brushed off by a promise from Ningguang. Such cheap and useful labor, no wonder Ningguang would exploit them to the fullest.
Ningguang finally looked at the ten merchants who had jointly purchased the mingxia floating stone and asked, "And what about you? What do you wish to ask? Let me state beforehand, although there are ten of you, you may only ask one question."
Apparently, the ten merchants had already discussed this matter beforehand. A leader stepped forward and replied, "That is as it should be, Lady Ningguang. We request to explain in a more secluded place."
Ningguang glanced at the people around her and nodded. At this moment, Yuto also tactfully said, "Alright, I'm happy today. Let's go to the Liuli Pavilion for a good meal. Eat and order whatever you like, it's on me."
Hearing Yuto's words, the slow-witted Paimon finally remembered and excitedly said, "Wow, I almost forgot! Yuto, you've struck it rich today! I'm going to eat my fill!"
At this point, Yun Jin and Beidou finally realized that the former owner of that mingxia floating stone was actually Yuto. This made Beidou, who had spoken ill of him in front of him earlier, a bit embarrassed, but her free-spirited nature didn't care about such things. She even patted Yuto's shoulder hard and said that today she was going to 'beat the rich'.
Although Beidou and Yun Jin had only just become friends today, after this competition, they had become very good friends. Therefore, both of them readily agreed.
Everyone thought Yuto was treating them today because he had made a fortune from auctioning the mingxia floating stone, but what they didn't know was that for Yuto, a billion Mora was nothing compared to the beauty beside him.
Yuto glanced at Shenhe, his eyes full of tenderness, which made Shenhe a little shy. It seemed that ever since Shenhe no longer needed the red rope to bind her seven emotions and six desires, her expressions and inner world had indeed become much richer.
At the celebration banquet at the Liuli Pavilion, Paimon fell into decision paralysis looking at a pile of lifelike menu pictures. She wanted to eat this, and she wanted to eat that. If Lumine hadn't been pulling her back, she probably would have unceremoniously said something like "fry a book." (Fry a book: order one of every item on the menu.)
It must be said that having people like Paimon and Beidou, who knew how to liven up the mood, made the banquet very comfortable. The atmosphere of the banquet was also very lively, and even Yun Jin, under this atmosphere, voluntarily stood up and performed, taking the banquet's atmosphere up another notch.
After eating and drinking their fill, Beidou, at the dinner table, casually asked the Traveler a question: "Paimon mentioned something to me earlier, that you and Paimon want to go to Inazuma?"
-----------------------------
If you enjoy my stories and want to help me create even more, please consider supporting me on Patreon 💖
patreon.com/TripleCrown07
Thank you so much for your support — it truly means a lot! 🌿