"How many?" Li Fan's clone's eyes flashed.
"Hehe, did you dig up the entire Medicine King Sect ruins?"
Jiao Xiuyuan replied with a smile, "Not exactly, but I was lucky enough to stumble upon the remnants of a workshop. Although most of them are unusable defective items, I still managed to find a total of twenty-eight intact minor cauldrons."
"Twenty-eight?" Li Fan was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected there to be so many of these Minor Medicine King Cauldrons. This quantity was well beyond his expectations.
Recalling the scene in his twelfth life was hunted down because of the two Minor Medicine King Cauldrons in his storage ring, Li Fan fell into contemplation.
The Nascent Soul cultivator had directly locked onto his position, meaning he was able to sense the existence of the Minor Medicine King Cauldron through some method.
It might be a secret technique or perhaps because the cultivator also possessed a Minor Medicine King Cauldron.
The reason he was fighting over the Minor Medicine King Cauldrons was likely related to the return of the true Medicine King Cauldron.
"The opportunities within the Medicine King Cauldron are undoubtedly connected to these minor cauldrons which also belong to the Medicine King Sect."
"My death was probably just a tragic episode in the fierce competition."
"However, in this life, the more of these Minor Medicine King Cauldrons, the better for me!"
With a swift change of thought, Li Fan quickly made a decision.
Following up on Jiao Xiuyuan's words, he replied, "Hehe, you indeed have good luck, fellow Daoist Jiao."
"But I don't need so many minor cauldrons. Having two for regular cultivation is sufficient. Buying another two as backups would be more than enough!"
Jiao Xiuyuan hurriedly said, "Fellow Daoist, your words are not accurate. I have appraised these Minor Medicine King Cauldrons. They truly deserve to be ancient sect artifacts with remarkable effects. The results of cultivating spiritual plants in these are far superior to the mass-produced artifacts available today. Not to mention their long history and..."
Li Fan interrupted Jiao Xiuyuan with a smile, "Hehe, fellow Daoist Jiao and I have shared hardships. Let's be frank. Fellow Daoist Jiao is worried about the current low prices of herbs and the resulting difficulty in selling these Minor Medicine King Cauldrons, so you want me to buy more, right?"
Jiao Xiuyuan didn't expect Li Fan to be so direct. He chuckled, trying to conceal his embarrassment.
Just as he was about to explain, Li Fan continued, "Fellow Daoist Jiao, rest assured. Since these Minor Medicine King Cauldrons were what I asked you to find, naturally, I won't let you suffer a loss."
"In my opinion, if you want to sell these minor cauldrons at a hundredfold, or even a thousandfold higher price, it's not difficult!"
The tone was arrogant but confident.
Intrigued, Jiao Xiuyuan asked, "Please share your insights, Daoist."
Li Fan smiled faintly, "Fellow Daoist should know that the price of a commodity is not directly related to its inherent value. The final price a commodity can fetch is only determined by how much the buyer is willing to pay."
"Take these Minor Medicine King Cauldrons, for example. If they are merely used as cultivation tools for nurturing spiritual plants, then no matter how much fellow Daoist brags about their benefits, a price of a thousand contribution points is already the limit."
"What do you think, fellow Daoist?"
Jiao Xiuyuan nodded slowly, "You're right. A thousand contribution points is an overestimation by fellow Daoist. Following the collapse of the herb market, selling one for five to six hundred contribution points would be considered lucky."
"So, if you want to sell the Minor Medicine King Cauldron at a high price, you need to tap into their other appeals..." Li Fan's tone became profound as he spoke slowly.
"Other appeals?" Jiao Xiuyuan was momentarily stunned. "These little cauldrons don't have any other uses, do they?"
"Hehe, if they have no value, then let's create value for them," Li Fan said emphatically.
"Do you know about when the Medicine King Sect's Liu Ruchen used a cauldron as a boat and led the entire Medicine King Sect into the void?" Li Fan asked.
Jiao Xiuyuan nodded, "I naturally know about that..."
Then he realized something and sounded surprised, "Fellow Daoist, are you suggesting..."
Li Fan chuckled, "Let's say the Medicine King Cauldron has been wandering in the outside world for thousands of years and is about to return to the Xuanhuang Realm, and only those carrying the Minor Medicine King Cauldrons can enter."
"What do you think, fellow Daoist, about the price of these Minor Medicine King Cauldrons?" Li Fan asked.
Jiao Xiuyuan thought for a moment, and his tone became somewhat excited, "If that's true, by involving the secrets of ancient sects before the Great Calamity, the price of the Minor Medicine King Cauldrons will be difficult to estimate. Even setting the price at one hundred thousand contribution points per cauldron will likely attract many cultivators willing to buy."
Li Fan immediately said, "Exactly!"
Jiao Xiuyuan thought for a moment, feeling that something was off, "Isn't this misleading people? It doesn't fit my business principles! Moreover, these cultivators are savvy; they won't believe whatever I say, right?"
Li Fan chuckled lightly and said, "It depends on how fellow Daoist operates. As the saying goes, a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth. At that time, use significant amounts of money to bribe several influential diviners and release the information. There's no way others won't believe it."
"As for deceiving people, hehe..." Li Fan sneered. "In business, it's a matter of you buying and me selling, and it requires mutual consent. Furthermore, the return of the Medicine King Cauldron might not be false news!"
"The Medicine King Cauldron that flew away in the past does have a slight probability of returning to the Xuanhuang Realm. Even if this probability is infinitesimally close to zero, as long as it's not zero, this event will definitely occur over an infinite time scale."
"As for how long such an event will take, and whether the Xuanhuang Realm still exists by then..."
"That's another matter."
Li Fan's words shook Jiao Xiuyuan's mind.
The thoughts and values expressed in his words were completely different from the principles Jiao Xiuyuan had adhered to, the "Way of Business" he had always believed in.
For the record, Thousand Mile Hall had always upheld honesty. Although Jiao Xiuyuan occasionally took advantage of minor opportunities, he had never engaged in such grand and openly deceptive propaganda.
However, Jiao Xiuyuan felt a vague sense that Li Fan's words were extremely reasonable.
In recent years, Thousand Mile Hall's business scale has already been limited and reached a bottleneck. His "Ten Thousand Puppets Dao" had also been unable to break through.
"By analogy, this method can be applied not only to Minor Medicine King Cauldrons but to all commodities in the world. By then..." Jiao Xiuyuan, after some contemplation, became excited as if his soul was about to tremble.
He heard Li Fan continue his eloquent speech, "To maintain the popularity of Minor Medicine King Cauldrons, fellow Daoist can hold an auction every once in a while. Use the auction method to sell a few of these cauldrons."
"Not only can this maximize profits, but it can also promote Thousand Mile Hall's business, killing two birds with one stone."