To give a simple example, among rare metals, there was a substance called soulforging silver with an exceptionally high affinity for soul power. It could be fused into any metal, enhancing its affinity for a soul master's soul power while also increasing its toughness and hardness. It was essential to almost every advanced soul tool.
Now, as battle armor and mecha became increasingly widespread, this rare metal could be considered indispensable. Even if forging or craftsmanship fell short, soulforging silver's properties could compensate for some of those shortcomings.
Soulforging silver was produced only in the Sun Moon Empire, and its output was moderate. Mining it cost roughly five hundred gold soul coins per kilogram, yet its market price reached a thousand gold soul coins per gram. That was a two-thousandfold profit! How could anyone not go mad over it?
Even with all the skimming along the supply chain, the profits were still enormous. And among the many rare metals, soulforging silver was far from the most profitable.
Some even scarcer rare metals, such as heavenly star iron, which could be used in Fusion Forging, commanded truly unbelievable prices.
With such staggering profits beckoning, Mingdu's three major underground powers, whose influence extended across almost the entire nation, naturally wanted a share of the pie.
Black-market trading in rare metals brought them handsome profits every year, even with the state monopolizing the industry and classifying rare metals as strategic resources whose export was prohibited.
The three major underground powers had named this competition the Mingdu Soul Engineer Elite Tournament, setting it alongside the Continental Youth Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament. Huo Yuhao had chosen to compete in the district controlled by the Xishui Alliance, the strongest of the three underground powers overall, though subtly constrained by the other two.
As for why,