Making the Most of Everything

"Vermilion Dense Iron," a specialty of the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect.

Jiang Ran had dug up three pieces of raw Vermilion Dense Iron ore. Rather than turning them in, he had brought them to Pingjiang.

The three ores weighed over ten jin. Handing them over to the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect would at most count for five or six days' worth of missions, with no other benefits.

He might as well bring them to Pingjiang...

At first, he had been somewhat worried that Vermilion Dense Iron, being ore from the Grand Ruins Realm, might attract attention.

The facts proved that he had worried too much.

Before coming to Immortal Industry Department Store, Jiang Ran had already conducted extensive research and found plenty of similar information online.

Although he had not found any listings selling exactly the same Vermilion Dense Iron, that did not mean it was particularly special.

On Flying Sword Network, the country's largest online shopping platform, there were over a hundred publicly sold spirit ores that closely resembled Vermilion Dense Iron.

As the nation's exploration of spirit realms continued to deepen, in this era more than ten thousand years later, the spiritual resources humanity could gather were truly strange and varied.

There were simply too many fire-attributed iron-type spirit ores, with more names than anyone could count.

Thus, under normal circumstances, the name of a spirit item was not important. What mattered was its Spirit-Source Grade.

Spirit-Source Grade could fundamentally represent the quality of a spirit item. While not absolute, it applied to the overwhelming majority of spirit items.

Spirit-Source Grade was divided into one hundred levels. Levels one through ten corresponded to the Qi Cultivation realm, while levels eleven through twenty corresponded to the Foundation Establishment realm!

The ores Jiang Ran had brought out had a Spirit-Source Grade as high as eighteen.

That was practically the limit for Foundation Establishment-grade materials.

After all, among the spirit items ordinary people could come into contact with, the Core Formation realm at level thirty was basically the ceiling.

That was why the clerk at Lin's Iron Language had been so envious.

A youth who clearly looked to be only in his teens had actually brought out an eighteenth-grade spirit item to sell for money. Most likely, he had "taken" it from home behind the adults' backs.

"I'm selling all of them. I have three pieces. How much can I get?" Jiang Ran asked bluntly.

Immortal Industry Department Store was famous for its "no shady pricing in-store." He was not worried that they would try anything over a mere dozen or so jin of ore.

Being a rich second-generation heir sure is nice, the clerk grumbled inwardly, though his face was all smiles.

"Please wait a moment. I'll ask the master in the store to appraise them."

Everything went smoothly. Lin's Iron Language had a highly professional appraisal process.

After some bargaining, Jiang Ran received his first real windfall.

—Twenty-six thousand Tianlu Coins.

A full twenty-six thousand Tianlu Coins was equivalent to nearly two years of welfare payments. Even if he exchanged it all for spirit stones, he could get more than twenty of them.

That was only because the raw ore had a low iron content, leaving little Vermilion Dense Iron after extraction.

If it had been pure Vermilion Dense Iron, that would have been a true fortune.

"This feels amazing..." As Jiang Ran walked out of the shop, his eyes were bright and his spirit refreshed.

Was twenty thousand yuan a lot? Not to the wealthy—it was not even enough for half a dose of high-grade enhancement serum.

But to Jiang Ran, it carried extraordinary significance.

If he spent the twenty thousand or so carefully, it would definitely be enough for him to cultivate the Qi Cultivation technique to completion.

More importantly, earning this money had not been difficult at all.

Just three modest chunks of raw Vermilion Dense Iron ore had brought him such a huge sum.

If he returned to the Grand Ruins Realm and dug up more raw ore from the vein, money would be practically inexhaustible.

This was basically picking up money!

To Jiang Ran, this was undoubtedly an enormous sum.

Yet after getting the money, the first thing he did was not go spend it. He did not visit an artifact shop, a pill shop, or even exchange it for spirit stones.

Instead, he found his target in a corner of the Immortal Industry Department Store building.

—A hardware store.

That was right, a hardware store that sold all kinds of equipment.

Because of the existence of all kinds of earth-and-wood spells, building houses and doing renovations in this world were both extremely easy.

As a result, hardware stores had become a niche business.

Hardware stores did not sell nails or screws, but specially made construction artifacts and various auxiliary spirit talismans.

"This is the place..."

There were only three hardware stores in the entire Immortal Industry Department Store building, so it had taken Jiang Ran quite a while to find one.

This hardware store was empty and looked as though business was not very good.

However, all sorts of small items hung on the surrounding walls. They were dazzlingly varied, making the shop seem quite well-stocked.

"Is anyone here?" Jiang Ran called out tentatively.

A clanging sound came from inside. A lean middle-aged man walked out with a smile, black soot still on his hands. "Yes, yes!"

"Tell me what you need!"

"I want an impact drill. Do you have one?" Jiang Ran asked uncertainly.

Heavenly Lu Kingdom differed from his previous life in many ways. He did not know whether coming to a hardware store for an impact drill was the right move.

"An impact drill?" The middle-aged owner froze for a moment.

This thing really did not sell much.

It was not that impact drills were ineffective, but there were better alternatives, which had lowered demand for such products.

Impact drills were used to bore through walls and break rock, and they needed spirit stones to operate.

Although their consumption was low and one spirit stone could last a long time, a spirit stone was still a spirit stone. Each one cost as much as a thousand yuan, and many people were unwilling to spend that money.

After all...

There were too many low-level cultivators in society. For just two hundred yuan, one could hire a certified earth-and-wood cultivator to come work for a full day.

A thousand yuan would only cover the short-term consumption of an impact drill, but it could hire a professional construction cultivator for five days of hard labor...

"You don't have one?"

"Yes, of course I do!"

Naturally, the owner could not stand such doubt, and immediately patted his chest.

"My hardware store has everything. As long as you can name it, I can produce it!"

"Just wait."

Two minutes later, three square boxes sat on the counter, one red, one yellow, and one green.

"The red one is Dexi brand. It has strong drilling power, but slightly weaker endurance. I'll sell it to you for fifty-five hundred," the owner introduced them one by one.

"The yellow one is Wanshi brand. One spirit stone lasts for a month, though its drilling power is a little weaker. It's fifty-two hundred."

"And this final green one... it's local goods from Pingjiang. Its quality and price are both moderate, at thirty-eight hundred!"

"So, which one do you want?"

Jiang Ran did not answer. He merely picked up the impact drills and inspected them one by one.

He had not come to buy an impact drill so he could personally renovate his home. He wanted to take it to the Grand Ruins Realm to mine!

Mining by hand was pathetically weak. How could it compare to an impact drill?

"Boss, is this drill strong enough? Can it break spirit iron with a strength above level twenty?"

The owner immediately perked up upon hearing that.

Not many people used drills these days, and someone demanding strength above level twenty was definitely an experienced user who knew their stuff!

"An expert! Brother, I could tell at a glance that you're an old drill enthusiast."

"Twenty-level strength? Our Pingjiang-made drill bits definitely can't handle that." As he spoke, he closed the lid of the green impact drill.

After thinking for a moment, he finally pushed the red impact drill forward.

"The Dexi brand is absolutely right for you. As long as you feed it enough spirit stones, at full power, it can even drill through spirit iron with a strength of level thirty!"

"Good..." Jiang Ran agreed readily.

"I'll take it!"