Chapter 43: The Mirror Image Bracelet.
“Looks like I made quite a profit this time!”
Fully loaded with his purchases, Chen Fan left in high spirits, leaving behind the street vendors who were still yearning for more.
“It’s about time I prepared a gift for the little girl.”
“Since I’m already going, I can’t let the gift be too shabby.”
Chen Fan headed toward the Taobao shop.
The Taobao shop was still distinct from the Taobao stalls.
Generally speaking, items in Taobao shops were, for the most part, genuine treasures.
However, most of these treasures were either damaged or incomplete.
Of course, some were intact, but their value wasn’t particularly high.
“Welcome!”
Just as he stepped through the door, a greeter enthusiastically welcomed him.
“Sir, is there anything I can assist you with?”
A shop assistant also came forward right away.
“I’ll just look around.”
Chen Fan shook his head.
He glanced at the products displayed on the shelves.
Each item had a price tag and a description attached to it.
These descriptions came with tags from certification institutions and appraisers.
The information typically included the item’s usage, functions, approximate origin world, and any defects or damage.
Almost all the top-tier items were weapons, magical tools, treasure artifacts, or combat techniques and such.
Although they were all either discarded or damaged items, most were still usable.
They just weren’t perfect, or had significant limitations.
Compared to street stalls, this place could be considered a provider of authentic goods, with a guarantee that every item had some use and the appraisal information was accurate.
Correspondingly, everything was marked with fixed prices—no bargaining allowed.
Prices were also much higher.
Because of that, Chen Fan normally wouldn’t come to places like this for procurement and recycling.
Since the information was transparent, there was less opportunity for him to earn a decent profit margin.
The reason he came this time was to pick something he could repair and give to Feng Luo as a gift.
In any case, he wouldn’t be losing money on this.
Two genuine Yuanqi Pills already carried significant value.
Besides, once he showed up tomorrow, there would be various spiritual fruits to enjoy.
“Mirror Image Bracelet…”
After browsing around, Chen Fan was drawn to a string of crystal-clear, gold-flashing bracelets.
The craftsmanship was extremely delicate and refined.
Something women would adore.
“Mirror Image Bracelet: Originating from a powerful cultivation world, this is a type of potent magical artifact.”
“A complete Mirror Image Bracelet, when infused with sufficient energy, can summon a mirror-image clone of the wearer with just a shake of the wrist. The clone can last for fifteen minutes in combat.”
“This particular bracelet has a significant array of formation damage. It requires more energy to activate the mirror clone and can only sustain it for one minute.”
“Price: 2000 gold.”
The information was very comprehensive.
“This tiny thing costs two or three thousand gold…”
Chen Fan frowned slightly.
To be honest, even a fully functional Mirror Image Bracelet wasn’t particularly powerful.
It required pre-charging with energy and could only summon a mirror clone of the user that lasted a maximum of fifteen minutes.
At best, it could be considered a last-resort life-saving tool.
It might allow for a reversal against a matched or slightly stronger opponent.
This kind of artifact was likely too expensive for the weak and too weak for the strong.
It might be better to just cultivate a combat clone technique instead.
“System, how many points would it take to repair this bracelet?”
Chen Fan asked.
“10,000 points,” the system replied crisply.
“Ten thousand points?”
Chen Fan frowned again.
“Sir, are you interested in this bracelet?”
The shop assistant asked.
“If it were a complete Mirror Image Bracelet, how much would it be worth?”
Chen Fan asked.
“I’m not sure either…”
“After all, there’s never been a complete one.”
“Even this damaged one is the only known piece.”
“If I had to guess, it’d be worth at least ten thousand gold…”
The shop assistant explained.
“Ten thousand gold…”
Chen Fan silently did the math.
Buy for 2000 gold, spend 10,000 points to fix it, and then sell for 10,000 gold—he’d only make an 8000 gold profit.
Not much room for profit in terms of margin.
Of course, if he auctioned it off, he might earn a bit more.
Still, the value wasn’t considered high, likely due to the mirror clone’s limited strength.
“System, why does repairing a low-value artifact cost so much?”
Chen Fan asked with some confusion.
“Ding. While the mirror clone itself isn’t strong,”
“The engraved formation is incredibly precise and complex…”
“More importantly, this Mirror Image Bracelet is just half of a full artifact.”
“If you could find the other half, that would be another matter. It involves space arrays, spatial anchoring, and teleportation functions…”
“It belongs to the type of artifact that is strong when whole and weak when divided.”
The system explained.
“So that’s why…”
“No wonder it requires so many points to fix.”
“The so-called appraisers in this world were wrong, or at least unable to identify the complete information.”
Chen Fan finally understood.
“Pack it up for me!”
After some thought, Chen Fan decided to buy it.
As for the other half of the Mirror Image Bracelet, he didn’t even bother thinking about it.
Who knew which world it came from, and it wasn’t likely to have ended up in this world as junk.
“Certainly!”
Seeing another sale made, the shop assistant was overjoyed and carefully wrapped up the bracelet for Chen Fan.