At ten the next morning, at the Azure Cloud Martial Arts Base.
In his training room, Xu Yuan had just swallowed his fifth vial of body-tempering fluid, bought at a five-percent discount, when the phone in his pocket rang.
That was right. Five percent off.
Xu Yuan had talked until his lips were worn thin before the Cloud-Soaring Pavilion reluctantly offered that discount, and only because he was a martial arts prodigy.
Fortunately, Xu Yuan had no real intention of reselling body-tempering fluid. Otherwise, what the hell was he supposed to sell?
He pulled out his incessantly buzzing phone. Sure enough, it was Sister Wang.
"The leather armor's here. Have everyone come out and complete the transaction!"
The moment Xu Yuan answered, Sister Wang's voice came through.
"The customer is God. How can we make God collect the goods himself? Auntie Wang, your customer service awareness needs work!"
"I'll collect it and deliver it to my classmates one by one!" Xu Yuan said with a perfectly straight face.
What a joke. If everyone went out to collect it themselves, they would definitely pay Sister Wang directly.
Then, if Sister Wang saw how much he was making, got upset, and demanded a share, what would he do?
With that thought, Xu Yuan hurried outside the base.
He saw a truck parked behind Sister Wang, its rear facing the base's entrance. Two large cardboard boxes were visible inside.
"Auntie Wang, just give me the goods. I'll put in a little extra effort and deliver them to everyone. Go grab a coffee nearby, and I'll come out and settle up with you later."
Xu Yuan wore the look of an honest man.
Sister Wang looked somewhat suspicious. "What trick are you playing now, brat?"
"What trick could I possibly play? Run off with these eighty-odd suits of leather armor?"
"True enough. Go deliver them, then. I'll wait right here."
After that brief exchange, Xu Yuan carried the two cardboard boxes back into the inner area.
As for delivering them one by one, that was naturally out of the question.
He took out his phone, tagged everyone in the group chat, then opened the boxes and waited.
Before long, figures emerged from the various training rooms and flocked toward Xu Yuan.
"Come on, line up! One each, payment and goods exchanged on the spot!"
Xu Yuan called out. He had already set out his Heavenly Messenger payment QR code.
To simplify the transactions, Sister Wang had brought only leather armor originally priced at forty thousand yuan apiece. Xu Yuan offered his classmates fifteen percent off, making each suit thirty-four thousand.
But everyone had already paid a thousand-yuan deposit, so...
[Tianxin Pay: 33,000 yuan received!] [Tianxin Pay: 33,000 yuan received!] [Tianxin Pay: ... received!]
Listening to the constant payment notifications, Xu Yuan could not keep the corners of his mouth down.
The sight made the martial arts students' teeth ache.
By this point, nobody believed Xu Yuan's bullshit about not making any money.
After his stunt auctioning off challenge slots, his image as a profiteer had already been firmly established in everyone's minds, all right?
Still, the same point stood: Xu Yuan's discounts were real. They were not losing out.
It just rubbed them the wrong way to watch that bastard Xu Yuan make money.
Sensing the hostile looks directed his way, Xu Yuan forcibly pressed the corners of his mouth down.
No smiling.
If I laugh out loud, these fuckers might snap and beat me up.
The transactions went quickly. Weird Beast leather armor was extremely stretchy, so there was no need to consider anyone's build. Once he received the money, he could hand over any suit.
Besides, Weird Beast leather armor was not plate armor, but soft armor that covered the entire body like a wetsuit. There was no need to worry about someone buying one too short and wearing it like a crop top.
Ten minutes later, the transactions were over, and Xu Yuan's Heavenly Messenger account held an additional 2.74 million yuan!
With that enormous sum, Xu Yuan went back outside the base and transferred 2.41 million to Sister Wang, as previously agreed.
At twenty-five percent off, he should have transferred 2.49 million, but hadn't Sister Wang promised him eighty thousand last night?
Joy flashed across Sister Wang's face when the money arrived, but the thought that this brat Xu Yuan had surely made even more immediately left her feeling rather uncomfortable.
"Tell me honestly, brat. How much did you actually make?"
"Let's not, Auntie Wang. I'm afraid you can't take it," Xu Yuan said cheerfully.
Now that the transactions were over and the money was in hand, he was not afraid to tell Sister Wang. He was just afraid she could not take it.
Eighty-three suits of leather armor, with four thousand profit on each, plus that final eighty thousand, meant he had made 412,000 yuan in total!
However, only 330,000 remained in his account.
That was what remained of the 2.74 million he had just collected after transferring out 2.41 million.
As for yesterday's remaining deposits and the twenty thousand from auctioning off challenge slots, he had already exchanged them at the Cloud-Soaring Pavilion for forty-two vials of first-tier body-tempering fluid.
"It's fine. Tell me!" Sister Wang took a deep breath.
"Not counting the eighty thousand you shared with me, Auntie Wang, just three hundred and thirty thousand or so."
Sister Wang's vision went black. "Y-you... You brat, you made that much and still asked me for eighty thousand?!"
"See? I told you that you couldn't take it."
Xu Yuan smacked his lips and promptly slipped away.
A stream of curses came from behind him.
Over the next few days, with money in hand, Xu Yuan simply followed his training routine, then coached Zhang Juye in the Savage Bull Heart-Shattering Butt.
Of course, he had not forgotten about buying clothes for his mother.
When Zhang Yaying saw the pile of new clothes Xu Yuan had bought her, this woman who had weathered so many hardships cried again, and Xu Kexin bawled along with her.
That evening, Xu Kexin erased ten little black blobs in one go and decided to give Xu Yuan ten fewer beatings in the future.
In addition, to maintain his martial arts prodigy persona, Xu Yuan showed his classmates his entry-level Savage Bull Mountain-Treading Strike, leaving the whole group speechless.
What they did not know, however, was that Xu Yuan's Savage Bull Mountain-Treading Strike had already reached the Transformation Realm on the very first night.
Just like that, Saturday soon arrived.
Xu Yuan got up and reviewed his gains over the past few days while washing up.
Over three days and three nights, he had consumed more than eighty vials of body-tempering fluid in total.
His Heaven-Shaking Art had reached Skin Tempering Second Tier, completely superseding the Savage Bull Skin-Toughening Method.
And, as expected, his standard punching power had surpassed a thousand jin.
Rumor had it that practicing a ninth-tier cultivation method could yield eight hundred jin of punching power at Skin Tempering Second Tier. Yet the Heaven-Shaking Art was a cut above even a ninth-tier Skin Tempering method, which showed just how badass it was.
And this was only the second tier. The further he progressed, the greater the gap would become.
By Xu Yuan's own estimate, once he reached Skin Tempering Ninth Stage, his standard punching power might exceed five thousand jin, whereas a ninth-tier cultivation method supposedly yielded only thirty-six hundred jin.
Of course, the gains were fierce, but the consumption was truly enormous too.
Including the forty thousand spent on the first day, he had actually spent a little over two hundred thousand in four days.
If he had been practicing the Savage Bull Skin-Toughening Method, that would have been enough to reach the sixth or seventh tier.
The money remaining in his account would probably only be enough to get him to Skin Grinding Third Stage.
"It really is a fucking gold-devouring beast!" Xu Yuan could not help muttering.
Still, he was not too anxious. Didn't he still have that filthy rich bastard Lin Xiao?
As his cultivation realm rose, the Demon Descent Mark's condensation speed had increased considerably. By now, it was around eight percent condensed.
Once he reached Skin Grinding Third Stage, it would speed up another notch. He would definitely be able to condense one within a month, and then he could assume his identity as Master Bao and seek out Lin Xiao.
With these thoughts in mind, Xu Yuan finished washing up, ate breakfast, and headed straight for the martial arts base.
Challenges could begin today.
After he narrowly defeated Jiang Yong, he could auction off next week's challenge slots that evening.
He also planned to show off his minor-accomplishment Savage Bull Mountain-Treading Strike during the fight, give his classmates a little shock, then start taking on martial technique coaching work on a large scale.
It was all for money...