The transaction was completed almost immediately.
Fang Yuan's Will departed Yellow Treasure Heaven as the six Immortal Essence Stones were transferred to him. He smiled lightly.
He had exchanged one bead of Grape Green Immortal Essence to earn six Immortal Essence Stones.
It was essentially free money, so long as he had Immortal Ambition Gu!
Of course, there is no such thing as truly free money.
As he fed Ambition Gu another bead of Grape Green Immortal Essence, Fang Yuan knew he would need to feed it even more. The more he used it, the more food it required. Much like a person working in the fields or doing hard manual labor required more food than someone lounging around all day. Thankfully, his aperture was basically at a quasi-Grotto-Heaven level and did not lack human qi to feed it, at least, now for now.
There was also the aspect of market saturation. Any prospective buyer who wanted more had to buy from Fang Yuan, but there was a limit to how much he could sell.
This factor was mitigated by the fact that mortals have limited lifespans; new people would be born, and super forces would require more purchases to maintain their dominance.
The major forces and the Ten Great Ancient Sects would soon fear not having Ambition Gu for themselves not necessarily for its effect, but what not having it might mean. No one wanted to be left behind in that aspect.
A single Immortal was worth more than a thousand mortals, but many Immortals used mortals as pawns.
If they did not purchase this and other forces did, their mortal forces would fall behind. It was an arms race, and Fang Yuan was the only seller.
He placed another batch on the market.
Once again, Ambition-Seeking Immortal who bought the previous batch offered six Immortal Essence Stones.
Other buyers dithered but did not match the offer.
Some of them might have even thought that Ambition-Seeking Immortal was either another Will made by Fang Yuan or one of his friends simply to drive the price up, as it had not identified itself.
Fang Yuan sold the second batch.
Subtracting the essence needed to produce them, he had made ten stones worth of profit for the day. In his previous life, his store of Immortal Essence Stones had never reached beyond sixty no matter how hard he had tried.
Now though, he could quite easily reach that amount.
Without a doubt, Ambition Gu was a first-class Immortal gu worm! Worthy of being from The Legends of Ren Zu.
He placed a third batch. The same buyer, Ambition-Seeking Immortal approached, but this time a Will from the Wu Clan intervened. "Friend, I am a member of the Wu Clan. This gu worm could be quite useful for us. Sell this to me for five Immortal Essence Stones, and you will have a continuous buyer from the Wu Clan."
The Wu Clan was one of the three super clans of the Southern Border along with the Tie and the Shang Clans. Fang Yuan was well aware of how deep their pockets were given he had once participated in the Wu Clan fighting arena in his previous life.
"What guarantee can you give me that you are truly from the Wu Clan?"
The Will announced its name to all of Yellow Treasure Heaven, confirming its identity as someone else from the Wu Clan confirmed it.
"Five and a half Immortal Essence Stones," Fang Yuan said. It was not that he didn't want more stones, but if he only sold to one person, word of his business would never spread as far as it would otherwise.
The Wu Clan would be a reliable bulk buyer in the future - this could be seen as a marketing fee. On top of which, the Tie and the Shang Clan would now feel the pressure to buy Ambition Gu as well. Slowly, the Ten Ancient Sects would also be roped in.
After the Wu Clan transaction, the first buyer, Ambition-Seeking Immortal, approached again, appearing agitated. "Is the recipe for these gu worms available?"
Fang Yuan did not respond, busy with other buyers.
"Friend," the man continued, "I will offer you 100 Immortal Essence Stones for the recipe."
Fang Yuan paused. 100 Immortal Essence Stones for a mortal recipe?! It was unheard of.
Fang Yuan could not trade it though - because he didn't have a recipe.
"I have to decline that offer," Fang Yuan said.
"Friend, you are selling only Rank 3 and Rank 4 Ambition Gu, but tell me - is Rank 5 Ambition Gu also up for sale?"
"As of now, no," Fang Yuan lied. He didn't entirely understand the worth of the Rank 5 gu worm yet, and didn't want to undersell it.
"Even if you do not have the recipe for Rank 5, I will offer you 80 Immortal Essence Stones for the Rank 1 to Rank 4 recipes. I can also offer 10,000 human slaves. And not just men - several of them are woman and children as well."
The sale of human slaves was greatly frowned upon, but that didn't mean that it didn't happen. Who was this Ambition-Seeking Immortal? It almost seemed as if he was a demonic cultivator, but that made his interest in Ambition Gu slightly odd. How many descendants could he possibly have? Or did he want Ambition Gu for some other purpose?
10,000 humans was valuable for ordinary Immortals. These humans, especially as he was offering woman and children as well, could grow into a small force within one's aperture. One could then eventually harvest Lifespan Gu and Relic Gu for sale in the future, as well as employing them for various tasks.
The only thing was that Fang Yuan was one of the few who didn't need them.
Fang Yuan had more than enough humans in his aperture already.
The man then sent out an incomplete Immortal Gu recipe as a trade offer. It was relatively complete, showing ten meters of treasure light.
"An Immortal Gu recipe for mortal gu?"
"I never thought I'd see the day!"
"Unless it was a Lifespan Gu refinement recipe, I would never trade Immortal gu recipes for mortal gu..."
What shocked everyone though was that Fang Yuan continued to decline.
"You may also have this then," Ambition-Seeking Immortal said, adding an incomplete Immortal gu recipe that showed five treasure lights.
Fang Yuan still declined.
"Friend, don't you think you're being a bit too greedy? I've already given you quite some business - why keep the recipe to yourself?"
"I produce these Ambition Gu indirectly," Fang Yuan finally said. "I do not have the recipe for them and cannot trade with you."
"Oh, I see," the Will replied. "In that case, can you share the method for producing them?"
"I'm afraid I cannot part with that."
It wasn't that Fang Yuan was afraid of his monopoly being threatened - only he had Rank 6 Ambition Gu after all. It was that he could not reveal that he had Rank 6 Ambition Gu - that information alone was not worth letting leak out to the public.
Fang Yuan settled for selling more batches for between five and a half and six stones each.
Ambition-Seeking Immortal continued to buy them as well, further stupefying Fang Yuan and making him wonder who this person actually was. If he was a Wisdom Path Immortal, it might have been possible to deduce it based off of some clues, but Fang Yuan had no such methods available.
Fang Yuan eventually closed the business, saying that he needed more time before another batch would be ready.
He had sold ten batches in total, netting a profit of 46 Immortal Essence Stones and some odd assortment of refinement materials.
The market would take some time to digest the gu he had sent out. But Fang Yuan was sure that demand would be even higher the next time he sold a batch once its usefulness became apparent.
He may even consider selling Rank 5 Ambition Gu next time, but he would have to be sure of its worth before he did so.