Ways to Make Money

Ding!

A gleaming gold coin flicked high into the air from Zuo Yi's fingers, tracing a shining arc through the night.

Before Blue Star's gravity could pull it back down, it had already fallen into the Gargoyle's mouth.

It was a reward for faithfully carrying out its duty.

Screech!

After swallowing the Law Coin, the Gargoyle let out a delighted cry, folded its wings, and descended into the treetops.

It continued its sentry duty.

Zuo Yi smiled faintly. He silently leaped up and returned to the study through the open window.

Casually setting the two blades on the desk, Zuo Yi left the study and walked to Bao'er's bedroom.

He gently pushed open the unlocked door, and dim yellow light immediately spilled across the hallway.

The air conditioner hummed softly as it ran. On the small single bed, the little girl was sleeping soundly.

But she slept rather restlessly, having kicked most of the blanket off herself.

Meanwhile, Taike, lying in its dog bed beside the bed, warily raised its head.

Seeing that it was Zuo Yi, it hurriedly went back to pretending to sleep.

Its dog bed had originally been placed downstairs in the living room by Zuo Yi, but the little rascal had carried it upstairs and put it here itself.

Since Bao'er was quite happy about it, Zuo Yi had not objected.

Zuo Yi tiptoed to the bedside. He bent down to tuck the blanket back around the little girl, then lowered his head and kissed her cheek.

Bao'er seemed to sense something in her sleep. Her little mouth smacked twice, and she murmured, "Daddy," but she did not wake up.

Gazing at the little girl before him, who looked like an angel, Zuo Yi's heart was filled with tenderness and affection.

The murderous aura produced by taking two lives earlier vanished without a trace.

And his resolve became firmer than ever before.

As long as he could protect the beauty before him, Zuo Yi would not hesitate to kill, nor would he hesitate to become a grim reaper who destroyed all evil!

(In Sadea World, grim reaper was a neutral term and did not represent good or evil.)

He sat quietly by the bed for a long while. Only after seeing that the little girl had not kicked off her blanket again did Zuo Yi quietly leave her room.

He returned to the study once more.

Sitting back down at the desk, Zuo Yi drew one of the blades.

These two blades had clearly been made only recently. The python-skin wrapping on both the hilts and scabbards was brand-new, without any signs of frequent use.

Zuo Yi noticed the two seal-script characters "Water-Cleaver" engraved near the base of the blade.

He drew the other blade and examined it. It bore the same mark, so these two swords should be called the Twin Water-Cleavers.

Running his fingertip lightly across the edge, Zuo Yi gained a fairly thorough understanding of the material and craftsmanship of this trophy.

Over the past few decades, martial arts had grown increasingly popular throughout the world, including Daxia. All kinds of martial arts halls had sprung up everywhere, more and more people were learning combat and swordsmanship, and countless professional martial artists had emerged.

The Daxia Martial Arts Alliance held martial arts competitions every year, with extremely generous prize money. Winners also qualified to participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament, where they could compete for even more money and honor.

The current World Martial Arts Tournament was equivalent to the Olympics and World Cup of decades ago, drawing the attention of hundreds of millions.

Martial arts had also become a massive industry.

Naturally, the industries surrounding it had developed rapidly. Sword forging, for example, had once been mostly about crafting decorative pieces, but now it produced practical weapons, with its output value increased by more than a hundredfold.

For ordinary amateur swordsmen, a set of standard swords of acceptable quality was enough to meet their basic needs. Professional competitors with rankings, however, often pursued fine and famous blades.

The most sought-after swords among professional swordsmen were undoubtedly hand-forged weapons custom-made by master swordsmiths.

The two Water-Cleaver blades in Zuo Yi's hands were not factory-line products. Although he could not find any other identifying marks, their outstanding quality and exquisite craftsmanship clearly showed that they had come from the hands of a first-rate swordsmith.

When Zuo Yi had trained at Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall, he had received guidance and instruction from its master, Shang He. He had developed a certain ability to appraise swords, and his current discerning eye surpassed his former one by a thousandfold.

His judgment was naturally extremely accurate.

In other words, these two trophies were very valuable!

Zuo Yi, who had already started overdrawing his bank card, stroked his chin and felt that his luck was quite good.

He was short of money, and someone had immediately come rushing over to deliver it!

But how to sell these two swords was a problem. Zuo Yi had neither the connections nor the experience in this area. He could not exactly set up a street stall and hawk them by the roadside, could he?

Or sell them online?

After considering it, he turned on his computer, logged in, and searched around online.

The results disappointed Zuo Yi somewhat. Although several secondhand trading platforms had many swords for sale, their rules prohibited trading sharpened weapons and controlled weapons.

The two blades Zuo Yi had seized were sharp weapons, so they naturally fell outside the permitted range.

In fact, according to Daxia Martial Arts Alliance regulations, professional swordsmen could buy sharpened swords as long as they applied for a Sword-Wielding Permit.

But the main purchasing channels were licensed weapon shops.

That left Zuo Yi with only one way to sell these trophies and cover the shortfall in his account.

He would have to sell them to a weapon shop that offered buyback services.

However, Zuo Yi remembered Shang He once telling him that weapon shops offered very low buyback prices. If a newly purchased sword was immediately converted into cash, one could at most recover seventy percent of the original price, and that was only if it had been sold by the same shop with proof of purchase.

The Twin Water-Cleavers had an unclear origin. Whether anyone would even accept them was a question, and even if they did, they would probably slash the price mercilessly.

Just thinking about it made Zuo Yi's teeth ache.

Seeing that it was not too late yet, he sent Shang Yulin a WeChat message.

He asked whether she knew any reputable merchants.

If Shang He were still alive, he would certainly have been able to introduce Zuo Yi to a good channel. Shang Yulin, however, was not necessarily the same.

She had almost no ability to run a martial arts hall. Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall was doomed in her hands.

Shang Yulin replied very quickly.

After learning that Zuo Yi wanted to sell swords, she also told him that selling them online was both unreliable and illegal.

As for weapon shops, the swords used by Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall were purchased directly from manufacturers—saving quite a bit on costs.

So she did not have any suitable connections in that regard. Besides, weapon shops offered extremely exploitative buyback prices, so she did not recommend them either.

However, Shang Yulin still pointed Zuo Yi toward another option.

He could sell them at the West Creek Underground Market.

The West Creek Underground Market was located beneath the West Creek Martial Arena.

West Creek Martial Arena was the largest martial arts competition venue in Jiangnan Province. It had five underground levels, including two parking levels and three market levels, making it enormous in scale.

The first level of the West Creek Underground Market had both permanent stalls and a large number of short-term rental stalls. It sold all kinds of goods—antiques, paintings and calligraphy, jewelry, jade, swords and weapons, electronic products, materials, herbs, and more.

Many martial artists from Hang City often went to the West Creek Underground Market to hunt for bargains. So if Zuo Yi wanted to sell his swords for a good price, he could rent a temporary stall on the first level.

The rent was quite cheap.

And it was normal that Zuo Yi did not know about the West Creek Underground Market, since it had only opened three or four years ago.

"Thanks."

Having received such useful information, Zuo Yi felt as though the clouds had parted and the sun had appeared.

Because the problem troubling him would soon no longer be a problem.

"You're welcome."

Shang Yulin replied, "Get some rest early. Good night."

"Good night."

After ending his conversation with Shang Yulin, Zuo Yi put down his phone and picked up a Water-Cleaver sword again.

He planned to make a few minor modifications to the two blades.

This was a very simple matter for Zuo Yi. First, he took out a piece of Red Crow Gold from his Spatial Ring.

Red Crow Gold was a very special metal. Its weight and ductility at the same volume far exceeded those of gold.

Red Crow Gold possessed extremely strong corrosion resistance and had a very high affinity for Battle Aura and mana, making it an important auxiliary material for crafting Extraordinary Weapons.

However, Red Crow Gold was fairly abundant in Sadea World, so it was not particularly expensive. This high-purity piece of Red Crow Gold, about the size of a longan, was worth roughly two Law Coins.

Holding the sword in his left hand, Zuo Yi gripped the Red Crow Gold in his right and ignited Battle Aura flames.

When the Red Crow Gold melted into liquid in his palm, he waved his hand and swiftly brushed it across the blade.

In the blink of an eye, the originally silver-white blade was evenly "plated" with a dark-gold coating of Red Crow Gold, immediately taking on an entirely different texture!