Usually a basic item would not cost much gold, but depending on the level of the blacksmith and formations master, the price of an item could exceed the earnings of a large clan. In He Chao’s case, the two weapons and three pieces of armor that he used his level three formations master technique while inscribing diagrams, would be able to fetch him a very good price.
A normal basic weapon would at most cost the buyer about fifteen to twenty gold coins. However, for each level up to the level four formations master would raise the price by around two to five times. This means that if a level four formations master purchased a basic sword and inscribed the proper diagrams onto the sword, the twenty gold coins investment could earn that formations master a total of well over two thousand gold coins.
Of course this was completely dependent on the quality of the initial item used as well as if the diagram unleashed a grand dao or a minor dao. If one were to sell a sword that had a Grand Dao inscription pattern on it, it could sell for over twenty times that of only a Minor Dao, but either way one could easily see the potential of raising formation masters just like He Chao’s old clan.
The only negative of being a formations expert and walking down the path of one, was that in most cases it would be difficult to buy a bulk of basic items while the other was that it was more cost effective to use cultivation resources to increase the overall strength of an organization instead of spending so much gold on just a single weapon that could only be used by one cultivator at a time.
Still, with every Commandery having a large budget for their local military and cultivators constantly finding new unexplored areas to hunt in, proper equipment would always be needed so although it would be harder to find a consistent flow of business for a top level formations expert, just selling one item would be enough to buy an entire city in some cases and there would be many powers bidding on such items.
As he had expected, He Chao was able to make a total of three thousand gold pieces by using Wei Yan to sell all five items. Technically if he wanted to, he could have made slightly more by auctioning each item off using the local auction house, but it would require him to remain within the city for a longer period of time which he could not afford to do at this moment.
The three thousand gold pieces profit was able to pay for not only his transportation, but there would be enough left over to allow him to eat rather nicely if he were to be accepted into the school he would be applying to for at least six months or would be enough for him to obtain many more materials to try to flip to make an even larger profit.
This would not be uncommon for those who were formation experts or any other type of path that would allow an individual to make income by creating something more valuable with not very costly ingredients such as alchemists and other crafting type career paths. However, due to there being quite a large amount of alchemists that existed in the world, one would have to reach a much higher level to be considered important to a clan or organization compared to a formations expert which was still a rather rare find.
“Wei Yan please take at least three hundred gold pieces, you have helped me so much up to this point and although that new weapon of yours could be sold at a much higher price, you will still need enough to make your way to the headquarters in one piece.” After counting the gold pieces, He Chao tried to offer Wei Yan a final goodbye gift, but Wei Yan clearly was not willing to accept anything more.
The sword that He Chao had given him to keep was not a sword made with very basic materials, and because the quality of it was much higher including the inscription patterns on it that fit Wei Yan’s Dao of Storms which he had mastered during his training with the army, it could be fetched for around five thousand gold pieces by itself! With such a weapon he could use as its own gift, how could Wei Yan possibly take more?
“It looks like that small merchant is recruiting some travelers that have some skill, you should go and speak to him and in the meantime I will be heading out to find my own transportation. You do not have to worry about me, even if I do not find anyone headed that way, in about three more days I should be fully recovered and can still reach the headquarters in an appropriate time frame.” Wei Yan told He Chao as he used a wooden cane to limp over towards a known transportation area in the middle of the city.
“That is correct everyone, we will be heading into the Ancient Mountain Commandery and are accepting all travelers that are willing to help protect our caravan from potential bandit attacks. You will all be responsible for your own food, but with so many of you experts heading over with us, it will surely be much safer since I have hired a local Wind Guard to assist!”
Hearing the caravan owner’s announcement caused a large number of travelers to sign up to join him on his travels. Not only would it be a free way to travel, but with a Wind Guard hired it would be nearly impossible for a bandit group to pose too high of a threat. Unlike other organizations, Wind Guards were known to span across a total of eleven local Commanderies and in order to become one to accept missions with a high pay rate, the Wind Guards would only recruit experts of the Master stage of cultivation.
There existed many such organizations that took up odd jobs, it was just that the Wind Guards were the local organization to do this. Plus, if one were to be accepted into the Wind Guards, they would also be given badges for other similar but further away organizations as long as they reached the requirement goals. This was also why they were able to charge a hefty fee for missions because the customer was paying for a warrior who was recognized by many organizations for their strength and abilities.
It was also very rare that a random traveling expert would be able to match someone associated with the Wind Guards, which was also why they were highly coveted for important missions. It was still strange that an unknown caravan had hired someone from that organization, but He Chao still felt like there was no reason not to join himself. Even if the Wind Guard was a fake, just using them as a talking point would possibly be enough to warn off bandit groups.
