SFS Chapter 59 Start-up Funding
Chapter 59 Start-up Funding
He calmly assessed the current situation.
Puppet Technique: Currently, it can only create first-tier low-grade Xuan Iron Woodcutter puppets, comparable to the peak of the third level of Qi Refining.
This craft was his main source of income before, but the profit was meager.
After deducting material costs, the net profit from making a puppet is only thirteen spirit stones. Even if you work hard to make six puppets a year, the maximum income would be only seventy-eight spirit stones.
Fixed expenses: renting this small courtyard at No. 9527 Tingchao Lane, which costs 72 spirit stones a year. Currently, it's a deposit of one month's rent plus three months' rent in advance, paid with Liu Xiaoying's money.
But three years later, these seventy-two spirit stones would become a fixed expense every year.
With the profits from puppetry alone, it's impossible to make ends meet, and running out of money is an inevitable outcome.
"I must find a more efficient and discreet way to make money, and I must also make full use of the Golden Tree Mark's power..."
Yang Changsheng's eyes appeared exceptionally sharp in the shadows of the workshop.
His mind raced, and combining his own abilities with his current situation, he quickly deduced several possible paths.
Purifying waste elixir and turning waste into treasure is currently the most direct and effective way to leverage the vitality of ancient trees.
Every month, various pill shops and individual pill masters in the market generate a large number of waste pills.
If we can acquire these nearly worthless discarded pills in large quantities and steadily, and use the vitality of the ancient trees to purify them, even if we can only restore 30-40% or even 10-20% of the original pill's medicinal power, its value will far exceed the purchase price of the discarded pills.
Selling them to shops like Tongchentang, which specialize in business with low- to mid-level cultivators and don't question the origin of the goods, yields huge profit margins!
The challenge lies in the fact that only large quantities can generate economies of scale.
Unlike its application to one's own cultivation, actively using it requires extremely precise control of one's consciousness to guide the life force to remove impurities, which is extremely mentally taxing.
At the same time, one must strictly conceal one's identity to avoid attracting unwanted attention.
The method of using medicinal herbs to accelerate growth involves purchasing young medicinal herb seeds or seedlings and then irrigating them with the vitality of ancient trees, thus accelerating their growth cycle.
Based on past experience, this is highly feasible.
A common medicinal herb worth a few spirit stones, which is only a few decades old, can be transformed into a medicinal herb worth tens or even hundreds of spirit stones after it continues to grow, making the profits astonishing.
However, there are also many difficulties. Normally, the cultivation of spiritual herbs requires a stable spiritual field or herb garden environment.
Moreover, the life force generated by the ancient tree imprints daily and can be released externally is not inexhaustible and needs to be allocated reasonably.
In addition, selling large quantities of aged medicinal herbs can easily arouse suspicion, so sales channels must be handled with care.
As for continuing to refine puppetry skills, that's his old profession and also a cover for his work.
If you can quickly upgrade your puppetry skills to mid-tier level 1, you can create more powerful and complex puppets, and your profits can double or even more.
However, this requires time to study and invest spirit stones to purchase higher-grade materials, which will not solve the immediate problem in the short term.
Weighing the pros and cons, Yang Changsheng quickly made a decision: "Purifying waste pills is the fastest way to see results, while using spiritual herbs to accelerate growth serves as a supplement and a long-term investment. Puppetry is indispensable... it is an important cover for identity and a secondary source of income."
As his thoughts became clearer, he remembered something else.
With a wave of his hand, two dusty, ordinary-looking storage bags appeared in front of him.
It was from that chaotic night a few days ago, when he killed two assassins from the Wang family.
The situation was urgent, so I just quickly put it away without having time to check it.
"Hopefully there will be some surprises." Yang Changsheng probed in with his divine sense.
The first storage bag was rather meager, with a dozen or so low-grade spirit stones scattered around, a few changes of clothes, two ordinary healing and qi-restoring pills, a few pieces of dry food, and nothing else. Clearly, it belonged to a poor man.
The second one was slightly better, containing about a dozen low-grade spirit stones, as well as some miscellaneous items.
But what is truly valuable are the two magical artifacts lying quietly in the corner: a slender flying sword about a foot long, its entire body gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light.
A set of three extremely thin, almost transparent, jet-black flying needles, with a hint of dark red at the tip, clearly coated with a potent poison.
"A mid-grade magic artifact!" Yang Changsheng's spirits lifted.
The flying sword is of decent quality and contains spiritual energy, while the flying needle is insidious and vicious, making it difficult to defend against when used for sneak attacks.
According to market prices, the buyback price of a mid-grade Buddhist ritual implement is generally 50% to 70% of its original price.
This set of flying needles is rather unique, while the flying swords are more ordinary. If we were to package them together...
"The flying needles are worth forty coins, the flying swords are worth thirty coins, and with a 30% discount, we can get about forty-nine spirit stones. The two storage bags themselves have one cubic meter of space, which is worth eighty coins. Adding the dozens of spirit stones inside... we can recover about two hundred and forty coins in total!"
He quickly calculated in his mind that, combined with the sixty-two coins he had left, his starting capital would reach nearly three hundred low-grade spirit stones after being converted into cash.
This was undoubtedly a timely help. Although it was far from enough to repay all of Liu Xiaoying's gifts, it at least solved his immediate problem and gave him the confidence to continue his operations.
Thinking of Liu Xiaoying, the girl's bright and pretty face, filled with sincere concern, clearly appeared in his mind, making Yang Changsheng's emotions even more complicated.
If she hadn't lent him those three hundred spirit stones without hesitation, he would probably be overwhelmed by the huge expenses of renting a place and breaking the contract, ending up on the streets, let alone having any plans.
"This favor must be repaid as soon as possible."
Yang Changsheng felt even more grateful, and his determination to repay the debt grew stronger.
Accumulating wealth slowly through puppetry is far too inefficient; only the business of selling discarded pills offers any hope.
Having clarified all his thoughts, defined his goals and the initial funding, Yang Changsheng no longer hesitated.
Time is a precious stone, especially in times when storms are brewing.
He suddenly stood up, straightened his long blue robe, and made up his mind.
Using "Yang Changsheng" as his public identity, a former fisherman who has just left the Lu family and wants to establish himself in the market, and may want to research feed or folk remedies, is the least likely to arouse suspicion when making the first purchase.
……
Baicaoge is located in the bustling eastern part of the market, on Shaanxi Street. The storefront is not very large, but it has an antique feel and is filled with a faint fragrance of herbs.
Most of the cultivators coming and going are at the lower or middle levels of Qi Refining, either to heal injuries or to purchase low-grade pills and spiritual herbs to aid their cultivation.
Behind the counter, an elderly man in a blue robe with white hair and beard and a thin face was fiddling with an abacus; it was Manager Sun.
Seeing Yang Changsheng enter, he raised his eyelids slightly, his attitude neither warm nor cold: "What does my young friend need?"
"Manager Sun, excuse me, I'd like to purchase some seeds and seedlings of medicinal herbs, the younger the better, and a variety of kinds."
Yang Changsheng cupped his hands in greeting, his tone calm and composed.
Shopkeeper Sun was somewhat surprised. He looked him over and said, "Low-year seeds and seedlings? Young friend, are you trying to establish a medicinal herb garden? It's not easy to grow spiritual plants in this small courtyard in the market. The spiritual energy concentration is not high enough. They need to be carefully tended and spirit stones are used to set up a spirit-gathering array."
After several large-scale transactions with the other party, he still had some impression of this handsome young fisherman.
"Thank you for your reminder, Manager Xie. I have just left the Lu family and settled in the market. I have some experience in formulating feed when I was raising shrimp. I want to see if I can use it to cultivate some low-level spiritual herbs and see if I can improve the feed formula and save some costs. I will buy some cheap ones to try it out first."
Yang Changsheng sighed helplessly and gave a perfectly reasonable explanation.