For example, selling Spiritual Roots, some Lower Grade Spiritual Roots are unique to this region!
If planted elsewhere, they may suffer from acclimatization issues, requiring dozens of times the resources to create a suitable growth environment to cultivate them successfully.
So if you don't want to use the unique Spiritual Roots of your Three Royal Families, and want to cultivate a special Lower Grade Spiritual Root, you'll have to buy it from others!
As for Middle Grade Spiritual Roots, they are rarely circulated casually.
They are generally unavailable and only occasionally appear in auctions, often without matching Cultivation Techniques, making them less advantageous than Lower Grade Spiritual Roots with fitting Cultivation Techniques.
The locality of this world is very strong, not just for Spiritual Roots, but for some Magical Artifacts as well.
And the Magical Artifact before us has become a local specialty, meaning other places don't have it... signifying the terrifying profits involved!
If mass-produced, the benefits rival that of a Magic Copper mine!
So, the Demon Cultivators at the manor have a second thing that's envy-inducing.
The families in Pingchang City are probably itching to move.
Once this Red Sun settles down, they may make a move, or even join forces, to force the other party to hand over the [Painting Card] crafting secrets that are worth a fortune, comparable to a Magic Copper mine.
This is indeed an endless Treasure Basin.
But this is a play between Great Cultivators, having nothing to do with her.
The old Shopkeeper took out a few Painting Cards, liking them more and more the longer he looked, and couldn't help but sigh, "I bet one-time Communication Talismans will drop in price now."
"Moreover, with the Ash Disaster coming and the war breaking out, this thing comes at just the right time."
"During wartime, Cultivators at the lower levels stick together, needing to communicate in combat; recently, Communication Talismans' prices have surged for this exact reason. Now there's a new communication Magical Artifact; it'll definitely be a smash hit."
According to the Business Alliance's analysis, this Painting Card has one advantage and two drawbacks.
The advantage is: It's cheap!
Its base price is 25 Magic Coins per card, the lowest price among Magical Artifacts.
Don't expect that less Magic Copper automatically means cheaper accessories.
Accessory prices are on par with similar weapons!
Even if less Magic Copper is used, the craftsmanship fee is high due to its intricacy.
In any case, the blacksmiths on the mountain currently lack the skills to craft small accessory Magical Artifacts.
However, this palm-sized accessory Magical Artifact isn't essentially an accessory; it's just a large block of tofu cut into small pieces, without any technique.
Yet in the eyes of the customers,
this size is indeed an accessory Magical Artifact!
It can be advertised this way, making people feel it's cheap—one-tenth of the normal Magical Artifact price!
The neighboring Mother and Child Rings are marketed this way.
But theirs can only be touched, while writing on ours is obviously more complex; it's absolutely fine to brag about higher craftsmanship.
There are two drawbacks as well.
The first drawback is that only matching Painting Cards can resonate with each other; it's a fixed frequency number.
This may not be a drawback, but rather an advantage, allowing more sales.
A couple would want one, a family would want one, a teacher and student would want one, right?
The neighboring Mother and Child Rings function on similar resonance.
It's said that the Cultivators in their city wear many rings, hanging off their necks, wrists, ankles, making 'ding-ding-dang-dang' sounds, giving off a very ethnic vibe.
When writing, it's inconvenient for long passages, especially during life-and-death emergencies in combat when there's no spare hand for writing!
This is quite awkward.
Communications generally occur during combat against enemies and Ghosts, requiring urgent information transmission.
This inability to send messages during combat is frustrating!
The old Shopkeeper can fully understand this drawback; after all, what high performance can you expect at this price?
In this regard, it's inferior to the neighboring Mother and Child Rings.
The Mother and Child Rings don't need hands for transmission.
Worn around the neck, the Five-Body Realm head is quite powerful, allowing skin contact on the neck to send messages during combat.
Zhang Huaping, upon hearing this, glanced at the Sword Fairy beside her, hesitated a little, and said, "They seem to have considered a solution."
The old Shopkeeper was surprised on the spot.
Have they really thought of that?
They've just started in the forging business, and their user analysis is this mature?
"So, what's their solution?" the old Shopkeeper quickly asked, "How could you have the time to write in combat?"
"Well, they said there are two accompanying solutions," Zhang Huaping suddenly said.
The old Shopkeeper became increasingly curious.
Zhang Huaping felt a little embarrassed and hesitated for a while before saying, "One type is a couple's mask style, a master-disciple mask style, and a parent-child pacifier style. When communicating in combat, both parties can simultaneously stick out their tongues to write, ooh-la-la-ooh-la-la…"
The old Shopkeeper: "..."
Writing with tongues, what creativity.
It can only be said that this style truly fits the Demon Cultivators, their nerves aren't quite normal.
Although it seems unreliable.
But it's actually quite reliable and very practical.
The Loose Cultivators don't have very high demands, even though it's a bit more unusual than the neck collar next door.
"What about the second method?" he asked.
"The second solution for the Painting Card is... to write with your toes." Zhang Huaping paused for a moment, "They call it using toes to write a three-bedroom apartment."
She felt a bit embarrassed and murmured softly:
"The target audience is somewhat limited. The average Cultivator's toes aren't flexible enough, requiring cultivation of the foot element in the Five-Body Realm to flexibly write." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ nοvelfire.net
"They also developed corresponding blind box styles, Painting Cards made into insoles, couple sneaker style, high heel style, slipper style, leather shoe style..."
"There's no need to be embarrassed about this! It's a great idea!" The old Shopkeeper thought for a while and deemed both methods to be quite viable!
They largely addressed issues during combat.
But in this case, even though pendant Painting Cards look good, most Cultivators venturing out for hunting would opt for the most practical mask style.
It can also hide one's face when entering the Black Market.
The old Shopkeeper suddenly thought of something, picked up the Painting Card and studied it again, suddenly surprised: "Wait, this is a Magic Artifact Coarse Embryo, we can undergo secondary forging!"
"Secondary forging?" Zhang Huaping asked curiously.
The old Shopkeeper said, "For the masks, we can add an extra layer on the outside, adding a function to block Divine Sense probing."
"Shoes, they're just insoles. We can make a matching shoe Magical Artifact for them to insert the insole, enhancing practicality."
"Yes, yes... this business can work!" The old Shopkeeper grew more excited the more he thought about it, his face turning red, his keen business sense spotting new opportunities.
He said to Zhang Huaping, "When you go this time, tell them that they don't need to make shoes, just make the insole, mention the size and shape, and we'll provide matching shoes. For masks, no need to specify style, we're only adding an additional layer externally."
"Customers opening blind boxes get the basic model, and we can immediately customize a set here."
"Everyone earns together."
Ning Zheng received Zhang Huaping's Communication Talisman to come up the mountain.
Since it was not the first time, both parties were quite familiar with the process.
Though Zhang Huaping was always scared, she got used to it, especially those stiff and cold smiles, and learned to ignore them.
Zhang Huaping along with Jiucai Rong and others entered the manager's room to start discussing business.
She repeated the old Shopkeeper's words, and everyone present listened carefully, nodding occasionally.
The [Painting Card] didn't surprise them.
"I suspected before that your shop alone couldn't handle it, teaming up with the Business Alliance is no problem."
Jiucai Rong nodded, having guessed this early on, "Also, concerning the insole, allowing you to perform secondary Magical Artifact forging is no issue, we all earn together after all."
Cordiality begets wealth.
This saying is quite true.
Especially among merchants, everyone earning together avoids pointless internal strife, particularly when there's no direct conflict.
Earning money is their skill.
This money, the Manor indeed couldn't earn.
They lack the technique, don't know how to block aura technology for masks, don't know how to make shoe Magical Artifacts.
Taking this money only further ties them together, as they will enthusiastically promote it, leading to a win-win situation.
"But there is one flaw I must remind you of."
Jiucai Rong advised, "The [Painting Card] is special, we manufacture batches of ten to thirty or so, which can resonate. We sell them separately since few can buy so many at once."
"For example, split into couple pairs, master-disciple pairs, father-son pairs."
"But this can cause an awkward issue, sometimes when I write with my wife on the street, another person further away also receives the message."
This can easily become a problem.
Promised love like gold, unique and singular, yet the pesky neighbor Old Wang can sneak a peek?
But there's nothing they can do.
Can't destroy all tokens for true love and keep only one pair, can they?
True love is too expensive.
So, they chose the Tauren approach.
Growth requires learning to compromise with reality.
It's not their fault, it's the world's fault, it's the Green Hat Manor worldview's fault.
"So, to avoid customer dissatisfaction, I request selling resonating tokens separately."
"For instance, sell one pair of couple Painting Cards in this area, and another resonant pair in a far-off area, so they can't reach each other."
This selling method existed in early lock factories.
Previously, locks of the same batch communicated, keys could open each other, more of a Tauren situation, manufacturers split locks of the same batch, selling them separately across regions.
The size of Pingchang City is essentially that of a province.
Very large, divided into countless districts, the Communication range of Painting Cards isn't far, living closely isn't a concern for transmitting sound.
"I understand, I will convey this."
Zhang Huaping completely understood, there's no perfect cheap product in this world, flaws and costs are inevitable.