Chapter 65: Pleasant Surprise
Trading with an exploration team individually, regardless of whether the other party would keep their promise, there was one question that couldn't be avoided: Could the other party become his long-term stable dumping target? You see, the beast patterns he obtained would not be few.
As for the Red Rock Chamber of Commerce from the Xiao family, they had a strong foundation and must have accumulated a considerable number of beast patterns. This would cause some of the beast patterns in his possession to sell for lower prices.
However, the Qilin Chamber of Commerce didn't have this worry. Numerous small exploration teams meant there were a lot of high-level elite warriors, and the market demand was there, so he didn't have to worry about not being able to sell them.
The only issue was that he might not be able to sell them at a high price.
But it didn't matter. Su Hao had always won through quantity. The market price for beast patterns was generally above twenty gold yuan, while he could sell his for only fifteen gold yuan.
Fifteen gold yuan was not a small sum of money.
He only needed to sell one, and he would be rich.
However, Su Hao didn't plan to keep the beast patterns. Apart from 'Perception' and the four patterns he obtained from Jin Damo, he intended to sell the remaining five.
What use did he have for them if they were kept? The value of knowledge is realized through circulation.
As for whether he would attract attention, Su Hao's preliminary judgment was that he wouldn't because the market in Lingyun Town was vast. Countless transactions took place every day, and there naturally existed a set of operating rules, both in the open and in secret.
Although five beast patterns were valuable, when placed in the entire market, they were just a ripple on the surface of a lake, blending in with the various ripples of different sizes, not standing out.
Furthermore, even if someone targeted him, would he be afraid?
For him, it was basically a one-hit kill for every opponent.
Having made up his mind, Su Hao no longer hesitated.
He used his last bit of money to buy five rough blank scrolls, then prepared the drawing liquid and began drawing.
Ordinary formal beast pattern scrolls needed to be drawn with drawing liquid, which was said to facilitate verifying their completeness. Su Hao didn't know the specifics of how to verify them.
This process didn't require the use of Qi, making it very easy to draw. He quickly finished the drawing.
The next morning, after giving himself a mature appearance and adding an insole to increase his height, he looked almost 1.6 meters tall, which wasn't short anymore.
He soon arrived at the headquarters store of the Qilin Chamber of Commerce for sales and purchases.
An attendant immediately greeted him, "Hey, young man, please come in! How can we assist you?"
Su Hao asked, "Do you purchase items?"
The attendant nodded immediately, saying, "Of course, as long as they hold value, we buy them."
Su Hao leaned forward and whispered, "Do you buy beast patterns?"
The attendant was puzzled and asked, "Beast patterns?"
Su Hao was instantly speechless. This attendant was an ordinary person who probably had never heard of such things.
Just as Su Hao was hesitating whether to ask someone else, he heard the attendant gasp and speak in a hushed voice, "Are you talking about those expensive beast patterns? The ones that are said to be fought over by martial artists?"
Su Hao nodded.
The attendant gasped again and whispered, "I can't make the decision on this. Wait for a moment, let me call our manager."
The attendant quickly ran inside, and after a while, an old man came out, gesturing for Su Hao to come forward.
The old man immediately said, "Young friend, please come this way."
What followed was a surprisingly concise transaction, which didn't involve the troubles Su Hao had imagined.
There wasn't much communication between the two sides. The old man briefly explained the rules of the trade. The chamber of commerce would buy any beast patterns not recorded in their records for a unified price of 18 gold yuan each. If a pattern was already recorded, they wouldn't buy it.
Then, the old man asked Su Hao how many patterns he wanted to sell.
Su Hao directly said, "Five!"
He could clearly feel the old man's eyelid twitch, but the old man calmly stroked his gray beard and said expressionlessly, "We need to verify the completeness of the beast patterns first."
Su Hao curiously asked, "How do you verify them?"
The old man smiled and said, "Please follow me."
The old man then opened a heavy black metal box that looked like lead. Inside the box was a dark green shiny stone.
He unfolded the beast pattern Su Hao had drawn and placed it on the dark green stone. Soon, faint green light emanated from the pattern.
The old man took the pattern off and said, "Correct, this is a complete beast pattern. Since the chamber of commerce doesn't have it in the records, it's 18 gold yuan."
Su Hao nodded and curiously asked, "What is this stone?"
The old man shook his head and didn't answer.
Su Hao immediately said, "Give me 17 gold yuan for this pattern."
The old man immediately smiled and said, "This stone is called Skyward Stone. It's specifically used to verify the completeness of beast patterns. As long as you place a complete pattern on the Skyward Stone, the pattern will emit a glow. However, this stone can't be in contact for long. It needs to be stored in this soft stone box; otherwise, it will get sick and die quickly."
Su Hao's scalp tingled, and he quickly took a few steps back. He screamed in his mind, "Damn, isn't this a radioactive element? Carrying it around every day like a treasure, aren't they afraid of dying?"
The old man thought Su Hao was scared and chuckled, "No need to worry, short-term contact is not a problem. Besides, the Skyward Stone is extremely precious. There are no more than ten of them in the entire Lingyun Town."
Su Hao remained composed and said, "I suddenly remembered something. Let's continue the transaction quickly."
The old man nodded in agreement.
Soon, Su Hao walked out of the store with a bag full of gold yuan and immediately made his escape.
This place was too dangerous to stay for long.
He had a rough understanding of how to verify the completeness of beast patterns in this world.
The trace amounts of special energy generated by radioactive elements were intercepted by the drawing liquid. If the pattern had a complete circuit, it would produce some effects. If the pattern was incomplete, there would be no reaction.
"Talent! Tsk tsk!" Su Hao couldn't help but admire. Radioactive elements could be used in this way. Truly talented.
Weighing the bag of money in his hand, Su Hao felt extremely pleased.
Although two patterns were duplicates, he still sold three at high prices, earning a total of fifty-three gold yuan after deducting the one gold yuan that the old man withheld!
With money in hand, the next step was to make purchases.
With a heavy purse, everything looked so adorable.
A set of well-fitting high-intensity armor cost 5 gold yuan? Buy it!
A set of high-quality cutting tools cost 3 gold
yuan? Buy it! Two sets!
An exquisite personal dagger cost 1 gold yuan? Buy it! Two sets!
A terrifying beast trait leather backpack cost 1 gold yuan? Buy it!
...
When Su Hao walked out of Lingyun Town again, he had changed into a branded outfit and was armed to the teeth! Under the blessing of money, his temperament had greatly improved, dazzling the eyes of those around him.
The charm of having money was evident at this moment.
Driving his radar, Su Hao quickly entered the depths of the wilderness, avoiding all the exploration teams. It only took him four days to return to the same cave.
Unexpectedly, in just half a month, the cave had been occupied by a mantis-like creature called the Scyther Beast.
Without saying a word, Su Hao decapitated it, split it open, recorded the beast pattern, and discarded the corpse.
For Su Hao, the corpse of this insect-like giant fierce beast had no value. After recording the beast pattern, he directly discarded the body. He didn't like experimenting on the corpses of these fierce beasts. It made him smell foul, and the sticky blue-green fluid that seeped out made him nauseous. If even a little touched his hand, it wouldn't wash off for several days.
Two months later...
Su Hao dragged the body of a Needle Burst Lizard into the cave and began the skilled dissection.
After successfully obtaining the fragmented beast pattern, he removed all the thorns on the Needle Burst Lizard's body and started various runic experiments on the bare carcass.
The runes he used for experiments weren't complete beast patterns but rather small sections of structures found through comparisons of multiple patterns. Su Hao believed that starting with similar structures was the simplest way to analyze a beast pattern.
This period of continuous experimentation allowed him to make a new discovery.
This discovery was thanks to his core beast pattern, 'Perception.'
He found that as long as he focused his attention and fully activated the 'Perception' beast pattern, he could sense the subtle changes in Qi.
So, while conducting structure experiments, he kept 'Perception' activated, observing the different reactions of the fragmentary structures under different conditions.
After another month of research, Su Hao had an unexpected discovery.
It seemed like he had found the direction for studying runes.
"Sudden surprise!" Su Hao's eyes were filled with excitement.
(translated by begs)