Fictitious Transaction

"Customer, if there are no errors in the information, I will affix my professional seal."

Inside the shop, after Wu Wan handed the stiff paper certificate filled in with the Magic Artifact owner's information to Chen Mobai for confirmation, he solemnly opened a Safe, took out a crimson seal, and pressed it directly onto the certificate without needing any seal paste. A bright-red oval seal for Grade 1 Appraiser appeared on it.

At the innermost part of the seal were Wu Wan's regular-script characters. The upper semicircle read Grade 1 Appraiser, while the lower semicircle was a string of numerical talismans arranged in sequence.

"This string of numerical talismans is an anti-counterfeit code randomly generated each time the seal is affixed. After I photograph and register this certificate on the Immortal Sect Network, anyone who enters this string of numerical talismans will be able to see this certificate."

After Chen Mobai took the Needle Box and the certificate, he first checked it with his own phone, only to find that the page that popped up was completely blank. He could not help looking puzzled.

"I haven't uploaded it yet, have I?"

Wu Wan did not know whether to laugh or cry, but he immediately logged into the appraiser's electronic archive on the Immortal Sect Network with his own Account and uploaded the Needle Box's certificate.

Chen Mobai tried again, and the relevant page finally appeared.

"Master Wu, thank you for your trouble."

After paying 200 Merit Points in satisfaction, Chen Mobai took the Needle Box.

"Little Chen, if you want to sell this Magic Artifact, you can list it in my shop. It would also help me save up some Points. If you agree, not only can I refund your Merit Points, I can even help you complete the sacrificial refinement and usage incantation for this Magic Artifact for free."

When he had filled in the Magic Artifact owner's information just now, Wu Wan had already learned Chen Mobai's name. Knowing that he was still a student, only eighteen years old, and not deeply experienced in society, a thought suddenly surged up in his heart.

Within the Immortal Sect, because resources were tight, basically everyone who set foot on the path of cultivation would be troubled over spiritual energy and materials. Many among them relied on the Immortal Sect Network to open personal online stores in order to make money.

Although Wu Wan had passed the examination for a Grade 1 Appraiser certificate and could be considered a person with face and status among Qi Cultivation Cultivators, he was still running himself ragged for the resources needed for Foundation Establishment.

Aside from this ancestral shop, he also refined artifacts himself in daily life.

After all, the appraiser trade could not make one filthy rich, and besides, every cultivator who studied appraisal knowledge had definitely started out thinking of becoming an Artifact Refiner.

As for personal shops on the Immortal Sect Network, they all relied on Merit Points flowing in and out through buying and selling to accumulate Points. The more Points one had, the more one could exchange for official profound arts, Secret Methods, Spiritual Pills, and Magic Artifacts.

The Immortal Sect governed Earth Origin Star and had also inherited the Order of the previous civilization. Although Spirit Transmutation Ancestors suppressed heaven and earth, economic crises had still broken out several times.

The main problem was that there were not enough Spirit Stones. During the World Opening War, as soon as cultivators had Merit Points in their Accounts, they would immediately go to the bank to exchange them for Spirit Stones. Even if they could not use them all themselves, they would still store them away and leave them for their descendants.

With things like this, no matter how many Spirit Stone reserves the National Bank had, it could not withstand hundreds of millions of cultivators rushing to redeem them.

And so an economic crisis arrived.

Although the Immortal Sect successively promulgated laws, forbidding Spirit Stone exchanges, raising exchange prices, and even devising a Secret Method to re-infuse exhausted Spirit Stones with spiritual energy and restore them, the operating laws of a market economy could not be eliminated even if a Spirit Transmutation Ancestor possessed heaven-reaching might.

However, the Three Halls and Four Ministries under the Immortal Sect had gathered countless geniuses from Earth Origin Star over thousands of years, and those with wisdom that pierced the heavens were beyond counting.

A thousand years ago, someone proposed opening the eighty-four thousand Dao Scriptures treasured in the Immortal Sect National Library, allowing all cultivators to exchange for them freely with Points. And these Points had to be obtained by spending Merit Points in the Immortal Sect's market.

For example, Chen Mobai had purchased three Green Arrow Talismans online and spent 105 Merit Points, so 105 Points had been added to his personal household registration.

As soon as this policy came out, the Immortal Sect's market economy, originally a pool of stagnant water that did not circulate, instantly became blazing hot. In just ten years, ninety percent of the Spirit Stones stored among the people flowed back into the National Bank, and what replaced them were Merit Points in everyone's Accounts.

Offline transactions could also obtain Points, but both buyer and seller had to pay tax to the Immortal Sect Tax Bureau.

For example, the 200 Merit Points appraisal fee Chen Mobai gave Wu Wan—if he wanted to convert it into Points, he would need to pay the Immortal Sect a twenty percent consumption tax. In truth, this twenty percent tax was ten percent each for buyer and seller, but the person receiving the money definitely would not be willing to do such a thing. Unless Chen Mobai paid Wu Wan another 20 Merit Points, the latter would agree to go to the tax bureau with him.

After all, only consumption gave Points. Receiving money gave no Points.

So in the Immortal Sect's market, before any transaction, they would confirm whether the consumer needed Points. If they did, this tax fee would also be added into the total price in advance.

Precisely because of this, when it came to paying taxes, the Immortal Sect did not force the matter and left it entirely voluntary.

But Chen Mobai clearly was not that sort of person.

He had not yet reached the point where he needed Points.

"Master Wu, what do you mean by that? I don't quite understand."

Chen Mobai found it a little strange. Only consumers had Points. Even if this Magic Artifact of his was sold in Wu Wan's shop, it had nothing to do with him, right?

"I am an appraiser. It is perfectly normal for me to make money with my own ability. If you sell this Magic Artifact to me, and then I use my professional knowledge to complete the Needle Box's sacrificial refinement and usage incantation, then the selling price will naturally double. Am I right?"

After Wu Wan finished speaking with a smile, Chen Mobai shuddered, and a chill surged up his back.

"Master Wu, this is a fictitious transaction. It's illegal."

For the sake of Points, fictitious transactions were common. Although one had to pay taxes to the Immortal Sect, it could make a single Magic Artifact generate Points from two transactions.

In the Immortal Sect Network Official Flagship Store, every so often, Spiritual Pills that increased the success rate of Foundation Establishment would be released for flash purchase and auction, and they also required Points to exchange for.

Wu Wan had already been making plans for this and had been saving up for quite some time.

But this sort of behavior was of the same nature as tax evasion in the mechanical civilization that had existed on Earth Origin Star before. Once caught, the Immortal Sect would fine a cultivator until his household was ruined and his fortune scattered.

"Many people do this. For the sake of economic circulation, the Immortal Sect turns a blind eye to this matter, closing one eye and leaving the other open. If tax revenue is low at the end of the year and those above are dissatisfied, they will only raise the knife against those wealthy people at the top. You can be completely at ease."

"If you agree, I guarantee this Needle Box of yours can sell for over eighty thousand Merit Points."

Seeing that Chen Mobai was somewhat hesitant, Wu Wan added more weight to the scale. Although he looked young, he was already forty-five. If he did not attempt Foundation Establishment soon, his chances of success later would grow smaller and smaller.

Next month, the Immortal Sect flagship store would release a batch of Pulse Protecting Pills, Spirit Ascension Powder, and Qi Condensing Fluid, all spiritual medicines that raised the chances of Foundation Establishment.

Wu Wan was still short by three hundred thousand Points before he could bid for one of them.

If it had been in ordinary times, he naturally would not have dared to create fictitious transactions and defraud Points, but now the Great Dao was right before his eyes, and his hands were a little tight. Any opportunity to get Points, he wanted to give it a try.

What if he had good luck and succeeded in Foundation Establishment?"This Magic Artifact is an ancestral item. If I were to sell it, I would also need to ask the elders in my family."

Chen Mobai was a good student and refused tactfully.

Wu Wan did not say anything more either, only looking regretful. In any case, he had merely seen that Chen Mobai was young and tried to see if he could trick him.