Simple Magical Artifacts

Xiao Yu had gone out that day first to settle on a design for the storefront with the renovation crew and discuss the price and approximate schedule.

The final renovation price came to 300,000 yuan.

It should not have cost that much, but his requirement that they "finish within a week without cutting corners" meant overtime-and extra pay.

With enough money, nothing else was a problem.

His second errand was buying jade.

Across the street was a secondhand market full of street stalls.

Xiao Yu bought three grades of jade.

The first was the lowest-quality jadeite. He paid one stallholder 2,000 yuan and bought his entire stock, roughly seven or eight hundred pieces of junk jade. The seller even promised home delivery.

The second was low-grade jade. He bought over a hundred pieces, with prices ranging from a hundred to a thousand yuan each.

The third was upper-mid-grade jade, costing anywhere from several thousand to over ten thousand yuan apiece.

He picked out only a dozen or so pieces, yet spent 100,000 yuan.

"Ow, it hurts so much..."

As soon as he got home, he saw Su Yunyi sitting on the living room sofa, clutching her thigh and groaning nonstop.

She had lost quite a bit of blood. Bloodied tissues and bright red droplets littered the floor.

Beside her, Yuan Yu, dressed in a maid outfit, frantically pressed a towel against her leg, wiping away the blood and trying to stop the bleeding.

"Yunyi, what happened?"

Su Yunyi furrowed her brows and snapped, "What do you think happened? You jinxed me, you brat! I was making dinner when the knife slipped and sliced my thigh! Is my lovely, smooth thigh going to have a permanent scar now? What a loss! What a terrible loss! If I'd known, I would never have agreed to be your maid!"

"Yunyi, I told you last night to buy an Evil-Repelling Talisman, but you wouldn't listen. See? This is what happens when you don't listen."

Su Yunyi glared fiercely at him. "I'm not buying one! That's 100,000 yuan-enough to cover a whole year of expenses! I'm saving that money for my dowry. I'd rather lose a little blood! Ow, Yu, be gentle! That hurts!"

Yuan Yu hurriedly apologized. "Sorry, Yunyi!"

"Yunyi, you're honestly the stingiest rich, beautiful young lady I've ever met! And have you forgotten what I told you yesterday? True love, my foot. You won't be putting that dowry to use. Fine, I'll give you an Evil-Repelling Talisman so you won't keep getting blood all over my new home! Anyone who didn't know better would think it was a murder scene!"

Su Yunyi beamed. "You offered to give it to me! I didn't force you!"

Xiao Yu rolled his eyes and gave her a perfect-quality Evil-Repelling Talisman. After explaining how to use it, he returned to his room to start making simple magical artifacts.

Talismans could carry almost any spell, but jade was mostly used for defense.

Jade and talismans each had their own strengths.

The main drawback was that jade's limit depended on its quality. Once that limit was exceeded, it shattered.

The worst-quality jade, for example, would generally shatter after stopping one bullet or a few knife strikes.

Of course, for an ordinary person, that was already enough to save a life.

It had its advantages, too. He only needed to infuse it with a little spiritual energy and inscribe a protective formation that activated on impact. He could finish one in a minute.

And the better the jade, the more it could withstand. Those dozen or so pieces of ice-grade jadeite might not shatter even if a train hit them. They could take a shot from a sniper rifle or a rocket launcher, and could be used repeatedly until they reached their limit and broke. That was defensive durability even talismans could not offer.

Most importantly, jade and talismans could be worn together for double protection. Getting hurt or suffering bad luck would become difficult.

He worked until four thirty and only managed to finish a little over two hundred pieces.

By the time he finished eating the meal cooked by his beautiful landlady and maid, Su Yunyi, it was past five.

Xiao Yu turned on his computer and prepared to go live.

Just then, a message suddenly arrived.

A Lifetime Together: "Master Xiao! I just heard something from a business partner. He knows someone whose ancestors were all Taoist priests, and his family sells talisman paper. Their paper is completely different from what's on the market, but its texture looks similar to your Heart-Clearing Talismans."

"But it costs 3,000 yuan a sheet. That price is outrageous, and I don't know whether it's genuine, so I only bought one."

"Give me an address and I'll have him mail it straight to you. If it's genuine, I'll buy you however many he has. All I ask is that you make me a few Heart-Clearing Talismans."

Xiao Yu was delighted. Judging by the photo, it looked genuine, so he quickly sent an address in reply.

Then he went live!

"Hello, dear friends! Welcome to my stream."

"Master Xiao is finally here!"

"Hello, Master Xiao!"

"Hubby, hubby!"

"Master Xiao, did you know you're a huge internet celebrity now? You're trending!"

"Loads of people are posting clips of your fortune-telling on short-video platforms. They aren't getting many likes, but the comments are full of people insulting you, hahaha! You're infamous now, getting trashed everywhere!"

"I spent the whole day arguing with people online."

"Forget all that. Let's get started! There are bound to be haters here today too. Once they watch, they'll realize how awesome Master Xiao is! We were all the same. At first we cursed him out and kept calling him a fraud, then became die-hard fans in no time."

"So true! LOL, I called Master Xiao a fraud too!"

Xiao Yu glanced at the viewer count. A full eighty thousand!

Once he went live, the number shot up, and notifications saying "XXX entered the stream" flooded the screen.

"Ohhh, Master Xiao! My girlfriend and I were only halfway through dinner when I saw you go live, so I rushed over!"

"I came halfway through my meal too, hahaha!"

"It's dinnertime right now! I even stopped halfway through cooking to come watch!"

"Awesome! Don't burn your food!"

The bustling excitement in the stream put Xiao Yu in a great mood.

In no time, he had reached yesterday's peak again: 120,000 viewers online!

It really was all thanks to Miss Xia Mo!

"Has Miss Xia Mo's stream still not been unbanned?"

"Nope. Her stream was banned for seven days. It doesn't matter, though. From now on, all of us Mo fans are Master Xiao fans too!"

"Exactly! We'll open both streams and watch them together, haha! Double the fun!"

"But Mo Mo's going to cry, because most of our gifts will be going to Master Xiao from now on, hehehe!"

Xia Mo: "Is it really okay for you people to say that right in front of me? I just had my heart broken, and now my career has to take a hit too! Are you trying to kill me? I regret it so much! I should never have come to stir up trouble yesterday!"

"Hahaha!"

"LOL!"

"I suggest Mo Mo just start doing joint streams with Master Xiao. Use your good looks to bring him more casual viewers."

"That would work! It's a total win-win! You're popular and beautiful, and Master Xiao is incredibly capable. You could get promotional support from both platforms! And we could have our fortunes told while watching you sing, dance, and play games. It would be like watching streams on two platforms at once! That would be freaking awesome!"

"Mo Mo, we demand joint streams!! Just thinking about it gets me fired up!"

"I second the motion! Then we could send gifts however we wanted! You and Master Xiao would both benefit, and we wouldn't have to agonize over who to give them to!"

"Seconded!"

Xia Mo: "Now that you've put it that way, I'm tempted too. But we aren't with the same streaming company, so I still have to discuss it with my platform! As long as Master Xiao agrees, though, joint streams should be doable! Wait for my good news, everyone!"

Xiao Yu: "I agree too."

Naturally, Xiao Yu would not refuse. The more viewers he had, the better-and the bigger the market for his single-use magical artifacts.

Today's Lucky Winner: "Miss Xia Mo, I'm Wei Zhuo, the owner of our Yanjing streaming company. I'm on board with joint streams too. If your platform refuses, you can come over to us. I'll give you the same treatment, contract terms, and resources!"

Xia Mo: "Thank you for your generous offer, Mr. Wei!"