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Chapter 438 “The Amazing Exchange Office”
Chapter 438 “The Amazing Exchange Office”
Chapter 438 “The Amazing Exchange Office”
Thankfully there’s a personal guide for Ling Yue here in the exchange office of Underground City #9; otherwise, she be wasting quite a lot of hours trying to figure out the ins and outs of this place that she’s so interested in.
According to Jin Wu Monster’s explanation, a lot of times the winner from the three main public areas would wound up with prizes that they most likely wouldn’t need. Now that’s where the exchange office would come into the equation.
Different from her imagination of a plaza filled with swarms of rowdy people or bellowing smokes from working cauldrons, the place was rather dead in its level of business. Though it did have several large roulette tables placed at the center that’s meant to act as an automatic exchange system.
Now for the sake of simplicity, the most common currency used for these mechanical contraptions of exchange would be Dan pills rated from one to nine, each corresponding to their level of worth from common to rare. And below each numbering sections would be some buttons: blue, yellow and red, each indicating the quality for the user to choose from.
Then while she was fascinated by the numbers and the names laid out before her eyes, Ling Yue suddenly took notice to the square shaped mouth in the middle of the roundish table: “So it’s possible to even exchange for a ninth grade Dan pill?”
Following the hints around herself, the girl’s eyes quickly saw the exchange rates clearly written on the sign boards nearby. According to the numbers, one would need a staggering number of one billion first grade Dan pills to redeem a single ninth grade one!
“In theory yes, but the number of people capable of redeeming such a high level pill is slim to none. So far the highest I ever saw was someone using one million fourth grade Dan pills to redeem one eighth grade pill. In fact, it was the very same exchange roulette table that we are looking at right now where it occurred. According to rumors, the Underground Palace is the largest manufacturer of weapons and assassins on the continent so this level of wealth isn’t all that surprising actually. Furthermore, it’s been said that they also have a group of extremely powerful alchemists working in the shadows to fuel their supply line.” When mentioning the last part about the alchemists, Jin Wu Monster simply couldn’t hide that lingering level of fear from his eyes.
It was probably around three to four years ago. At the time there were many stories about famed alchemists disappearing from the land, and even several senior alchemists had also disappeared back then too. Many suspected it was the work of the Underground Palace, but due to the lack of evidence or witnesses, none could ever directly point any fingers.
As doubtful as she was over that story, Ling Yue nevertheless didn’t care and pulled out several of her own bottles containing the blue patterned Xuan Yin Dan pills and stuffed it into the insert hole. Using thirty of her own, she carefully chose a pill called the Wind Speed Dan pill from the disk.
According to her memories, this type of wind based pill should only be worth around twenty-five of her own blue patterned Xuan Yin Dan pills, meaning the Underground City was overcharging her by five pieces! Just that difference alone would net the place another hundred or two hundred gold!
This place is real dark!
But just as she was thinking about how much of a scam this was, Ling Yue’s ear suddenly picked up the strange sound of a loud popping sound from the machine. Then before she knew it, five of her original pills that she stuffed in had rolled back out from the exit slot followed quickly by a palish green Wind Speed pill.
“Hey boss, this isn’t fair. Why is the exchange disk only charging you twenty five instead of the usual thirty?” Gasping at the good fortune, Jin Wu Monster presses the girl for some answers like a true gambler.
“I’m guessing it’s because of my pills being of superior quality?” Only she would know. Unlike what’s out there in the public, even a simple blue patterned pill of hers would be equivalent to a yellow patterned one that’s usually found elsewhere.
This level of precision certainly drew some admirations from the girl. If her speculations are correct, these exchange roulette disks had been specifically enchanted with the ability to perceive the quality of the objects regardless of their outer appearance. Then using the automated system in place, it will offer up the desired product for exchange as well as any extra that might’ve been inserted by mistake.
But that’s not what she’s most interested in about here, it’s how she can abuse the mechanics in place!
Due to the purification function of her miraculous cauldron, she can readily increase the quality of any object that’s not of her creation by stuffing it in for a second refinement. So what does that mean? She would be able to enjoy a much better pricing than anyone else while inside the city.
Sure, the price difference may seem miniscule at first, but what if she raised the bar even higher? Once she gets her hand on a higher quality pill through the contests here, she can then purify the unwanted substance with her cauldron and reap the benefits forward! By then she wouldn’t even need to compete for the prizes, just continue flipping the pills from these machines over and over again. The possibilities would be endless!
Readily rewarding the old monster with that pill due to her good mood, Ling Yue then went ahead to look around some more. To the girl’s surprise, there are also other forms of exchange here with these roulette disks.
Unlike the first one though that uses Dan pills as its main form of currency of exchange, some of the other tables required something more due to their specialties. Take for example the one in front of her right now, it uses martial tablets as its main form of currency! Then there’s the spirit beast cores to the left and the artifact table to the right, all are very specific and wouldn’t randomly take any other item.
“A martial art’s tablet table eh?” This definitely caught her by surprise because this meant many martialists now had a method of obtaining stronger techniques that’s usually next to impossible to get out in the public.
“Isn’t it great? This is one of the main attractions for many who doesn’t have a strong background like myself. If not for these underground cities that’s spread across the land, many wouldn’t even have the opportunity to come across so many rare valuables. In fact, some disciples from those big sects would also make a visit on occasion. Of course, they would all be under disguise less they want to draw unwanted attention.” The old monster readily adds in, almost revering the place for its convenience factor.
If before Ling Yue was only surprised by the Underground Palace’s level of wealth then she’s now truly astounded by another realization. The Underground Palace wasn’t just acting as another force of darkness in this world, its actually acting as the main source of circulation of resources for the entire Qing Continent! No kingdom or nation out there could ever create such a vast expanse of network, not to her knowledge anyways.
Wu Chong really is a frightening person……
But enough of all these unimportant details, she must get back to her goals for tonight.
Aside from coming for the Illumination pills in this Underground City #9, Ling Yue also had another mission in mind and that was to become even stronger by obtaining a new martial technique. Therefore, the fact that there’s a roulette table specifically meant for the exchange of martial tablets greatly intrigued her.
She’s already a Dan realm master now. Despite that fact, her strongest attack right now was a lowly sixth grade technique called the Limitless Finger which she obtained from the strange monk from back then. It’s a powerful move, no doubt about that, but its sorely lacking in comparison to her own cultivation at this point. If possible, she would much prefer a better technique that’s suitable for her own build and stature.
According to the rules of this exchange office, the going rate was five to one, meaning one must offer up five lower tiered martial tablets in order to obtain a single martial tablet that’s one grade higher. For example, a single second tiered martial tablet would be worth five first tiered martial tablets.
Of course, it would be impossible for her to redeem anything of noteworthy in her current state. She’s still broke!