The Path to Wealth (3800+ words)

"The Great Qian cultivation world really is cutthroat..."

Walking out of a small shop that sold talismans, Aaron shook his head with a sigh.

For the past few days, he had been asking around the market about the going rates for purchasing talismans, and the results had not been encouraging.

Perhaps because Qianyang City had too many second-rank talisman masters, talisman prices had already been driven down to a miserable state.

The shops' buying prices were too low, there were too many sellers, and spirit talismans had been pushed down to nearly their production cost.

'With my success rate, I could still survive in Qianyang City at this price... but accumulating two or three hundred thousand spirit stones within a few decades would be a pipe dream.'

Aaron had set himself a small goal: earn ten thousand lower-grade spirit stones a year!

'Looks like the identity of Shen Fei, second-rank talisman master, can't make that much money... Is it time for one of my other identities to make its debut? My artifact-refining methods based on Black Sun Demonic Fire are one of a kind here. Carving out a share of the market shouldn't be a problem... Besides that, if I reveal my third-rank alchemy skills, I should draw quite a few offers...'

Alchemists had always stood near the top of the chain of contempt, and third-rank alchemists were far rarer than those of the first or second rank.

'No, no, no. Too dangerous. I'd better sell talismans for a few years first and get a firm foothold...'

With that thought in mind, when Aaron went to another talisman shop to discuss business, he took the initiative to outdo everyone else. "Fellow Daoist... I'll sell all these talismans at cost. So long as you provide the spirit sand and talisman paper,