"By a direct comparison, even if we calculate a Soul Ancestor's monthly upkeep at 1,000 Gold Soul Coins, that comes to 12,000 Gold Soul Coins a year."
"But if you're supporting or training a Soul Ancestor, the cost will be far more than 12,000 Gold Soul Coins."
"As for the price of the Godly Zhuge Crossbow, I can offer them to you for 25,000 Gold Soul Coins apiece. The more you buy, the bigger the discount. A single purchase of a hundred or more will get you 20 percent off."
"Think it over, Sect Master Ning."
After Li Luo finished speaking, he said nothing more and waited for Ning Fengzhi's reply.
Ning Fengzhi pondered for a while, somewhat hesitant. He could tell that the Godly Zhuge Crossbow's production cost was nowhere near 10,000 Gold Soul Coins; it might not even reach 1,000. Of course, it wasn't that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect couldn't afford the sum. But as a shrewd businessman, Ning Fengzhi always wanted to push the price a little lower.
But it was obvious that Li Luo held the upper hand, and the only people capable of making the Godly Zhuge Crossbow were the Tang Sect, as Li Luo had said.
Ning Fengzhi felt conflicted. It wasn't because of the money, but because he feared that accepting so readily would leave him without the initiative in future dealings.
Li Luo might then decide he was an easy mark and raise the price on the spot.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect wasn't an inexhaustible treasure vault. Even if its wealth rivaled that of a nation, if things went on like this, one day it would be drained dry.
"Could you lower the price any further? Or perhaps I could offer other goods or conditions in exchange for a reduction."
"You two don't look very old, and I imagine your need for money isn't that great. As for this Tang Sect you mentioned, I, Ning, have never heard of it. I presume it isn't a very large organization."
"I think that, more than money, what you need are things money can't buy."
Ning Fengzhi was indeed a crafty old fox. With a single sentence, he had struck right at Li Luo and Tang San's hearts.
In the end, the Douluo Continent was ruled by Soul Power and authority. No matter how many Gold Soul Coins one had, some things simply couldn't be bought.
Take the Whale Rubber Li Luo needed, for example. A hundred- or thousand-year-old variety was easy to buy, but a ten-thousand-year-old one was truly hard to come by.
Whale Rubber mainly came from the waters outside Vast Sea City. Soul Masters obtained it by hunting whale-type Soul Beasts and harvesting it from their bodies.
This was an extremely dangerous undertaking. The ocean itself meant terror. But since Whale Rubber was used as an aphrodisiac and sold exceptionally well, quite a few Soul Masters in Vast Sea City made their living hunting whale-type Soul Beasts.
Whale-type Soul Beasts that were ten, a hundred, or a thousand years old were manageable; they weren't that difficult to hunt.
But to obtain ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber, one had to hunt a ten-thousand-year whale-type Soul Beast.
The ocean was perilous beyond measure. Although Vast Sea City had many Sea Soul Masters, humans were no match for Sea Soul Beasts. Fighting whale-type Soul Beasts in the ocean severely restricted them.
Only Sea Soul Masters at the Soul Saint level could unleash their full strength in the ocean.
But a Soul Saint was already a prominent figure in the Soul Master World. There was no need to risk so much to hunt a ten-thousand-year whale-type Soul Beast.
What was more, the medicinal power of ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber was so potent that ordinary people couldn't digest it. As a result, the market demand for it wasn't very high.
Without enough profit to be had, naturally no one would risk their lives diving into the sea to hunt whale-type Soul Beasts.
But Li Luo was different. He knew Whale Rubber could greatly raise a Soul Master's physical limits, and he knew how to properly absorb its medicinal power.
For Li Luo, the biggest problem was getting his hands on ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber.
So if he could cooperate with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and rely on its power to gather high-year Whale Rubber, it would be an excellent arrangement.
Tang San, on the other hand, had different things on his mind. On one hand, he wanted to bring the powerful Hidden Weapons of the Tang Sect from his previous life back to the Douluo Continent, so that the Tang Sect's glory would spread across the land.
But crafting the Tang Sect's top-tier Hidden Weapons, let alone the several legendary ones, required extremely precious metals.
And Tang San had never seen those metals anywhere on the Douluo Continent.
With help from the sect behind Ning Fengzhi, perhaps he could find the metals needed to craft top-tier Hidden Weapons.
Besides, the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record also listed many rare treasures of heaven and earth. Tang San wanted to know whether any of them existed on the Douluo Continent.
But with only Li Luo and Xiao Wu by his side, Tang San was short-handed. Finding those rare treasures out of nowhere was nothing more than a pipe dream.
So Tang San had set his sights on relying on the sect behind Ning Fengzhi.
Actually, Tang San didn't need to worry about finding rare treasures of heaven and earth.
Once Li Luo, Tang San, and Xiao Wu had grown to roughly the same strength, Li Luo would naturally take Tang San to a treasure ground called the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
As for Xiao Wu, although she was a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit, her mind was still that of a child of about ten. She didn't understand the twists and turns of the human world, nor did she care about Li Luo, Tang San, and Ning Fengzhi's conversation.
All she knew was that her Brother Li Luo would never hurt her.
When Li Luo had first captured Xiao Wu, he condensed a Soul Ring. Xiao Wu believed he had condensed it himself, so she assumed that he, too, was a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
Thus, Xiao Wu let down her guard around Li Luo. And because of the nature of Li Luo's Martial Soul, the Prism Ball, Xiao Wu's loyalty to him after being captured was one hundred percent.
So Xiao Wu had confessed without hesitation that she was a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast undergoing rebirth.
Later, Xiao Wu had pestered Li Luo, asking what kind of Soul Beast he had transformed from. But Li Luo hadn't told her, because he hadn't transformed from a Soul Beast at all.
From then on, Xiao Wu never had to worry about anything else.
All she had to do was eat, drink, and have fun. She only practiced reluctantly when Li Luo urged her to.
However, transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts had to be near human auras to increase their Soul Power, and the more talented the humans nearby were, the faster their Soul Power grew.
With two cultivation machines like Li Luo and Tang San beside her, Xiao Wu hadn't fallen very far behind in Soul Power Level. At only eight years old, she had already reached level nineteen and was on the verge of level twenty.
Xiao Wu was now a carefree, innocent little girl, growing up happily under Li Luo's protection.
Ning Rongrong, who was the same age and held by the arm by Sword Douluo Chen Xin, spotted Xiao Wu and came over in high spirits to play with her.
Li Luo and Ning Fengzhi's negotiations continued.
Hearing Ning Fengzhi propose cooperating with Li Luo and Tang San, offering them resources in exchange for lowering the price of the Godly Zhuge Crossbow, Li Luo and Tang San exchanged a glance and nodded.
Li Luo turned to Ning Fengzhi with a bright, sunny smile, looking like a sweet and innocent little boy.
Ning Fengzhi was almost fooled by Li Luo's appearance, and felt ashamed that he had been trying to outmaneuver two children.
But the moment Li Luo opened his mouth, the scheming in his words sent the shame that had just risen in Ning Fengzhi's heart flying beyond the nine layers of clouds.