63: Chapter 63 Frenzied Shopping Spree, Doomsday Arbitrage

On the afternoon of the same day, just as the Xingyan Grand Market had caught its breath from the night raid, the Changyuan Trading Company made its move.

It moved extremely quickly.

And extremely ruthlessly.

The first to move was the accounting department.

Lu Changyuan leveraged every Spirit Stone, bank note, commercial mortgage, and the military government travel permit provided by Ninth Great Aunt that he could immediately mobilize, splitting Lu Hu, two accountants, and the experienced manager who followed from the Zhao family into three groups.

One group went to the military supply firm.

One group swept through various warehouses of miscellaneous goods.

Another group went specifically to buy up the unpopular anti-demonic supplies that were usually the most backlogged and least valued.

If an outsider were standing by watching, they would only think Lu Changyuan had gone mad.

Because among the things he bought, not many looked valuable at this moment.

Evil-warding Talismans.

Mind-cleansing Pills.

Lightning-struck Wood.

Evil-suppressing Sand.

purification powder that had been sitting in the warehouse for years.

There was even a large batch of old-style lightning-pattern talisman paper that was usually only sold to frontier army talisman masters to be slowly dismantled and refined.

Taken individually, these items were not useless.

But before the Demonic Tide had truly pressed upon them, they were neither as conspicuous as blades and armor, nor as easy to liquidate immediately as Spirit Medicine or mineral materials.

Thus, they were backlogged.

And thus, they were cheap.

What Lu Changyuan wanted was precisely this cheapness.

In the military government's storage warehouse, a manager so fat his eyes were almost buried in his flesh held an account book, smiling like an over-bloomed chrysanthemum.

"Young Master Lu, this batch of purification powder you want is old stock that has been sitting in the warehouse for nearly twenty years."

"Usually, the frontier army complains that it is slow-acting and has a pungent odor. Are you really going to take it all?"

Lu Changyuan nodded: "Take it all."

"What about the Lightning-struck Wood scraps?"

"Take those all as well."

"And those few crates of old lightning-pattern talisman paper..."

"The same."

The fat manager was stunned for a moment, then smiled even more brilliantly.

"Good, good!"

"Young Master Lu is truly straightforward."

"Rest assured, I won't keep a single piece of these things; I will load them all onto your ships at the lowest warehouse price."

Lu Hu stood to the side, watching him look as if he couldn't wait to turn the entire bottom of the warehouse over to them; he could barely keep a straight face.

After leaving the storage warehouse, he lowered his voice and said: "Master, that fat man's smile just now was exactly the same as when Patriarch Zhao saw us wanting to take in bankrupt Loose Cultivators."

Lu Changyuan said calmly: "His smile is correct."

"Looking at it now, I do indeed look like someone here to clear his bad debts."

"But in three months, he won't be able to smile anymore."

On the other side, in the three largest trading firms in the west of the city, the same scene was playing out.

"Manager Lu, you want one thousand bottles of Mind-cleansing Pills?"

"Yes."

"Five thousand Evil-warding Talismans?"

"Not enough, add more."

"Pack up the entire warehouse of Lightning-struck Wood?"

"Pack it."

At first, the several trading firm managers only thought he had been stimulated by the demonic cultivator night raid last night and had a temporary impulse to add a few layers of protective shells for his own caravan.

But when Changyuan Trading Company swept through over a dozen warehouses in a row, not even sparing the moldy Evil-suppressing Sand thrown in the corners, everyone finally caught on.

This was not restocking.

This was bottom-fishing.

But the problem was, what was the point of bottom-fishing for these things?

Most people couldn't understand.

And they couldn't be bothered to understand.

After all, this type of goods was currently too unpopular, and to have someone swallow such a large batch in one go was, for them, simply the God of Wealth arriving at their door.

By the third day, even the small shops in the market specializing in purification and exorcism businesses were alarmed.

One of them, a Chamber of Commerce president surnamed Feng, even specially set up a banquet and smilingly invited Lu Changyuan over.

"Manager Lu, you have courage as a young man; I admire that."

"But this move of yours is a bit too wild."

"Evil-warding, purification, mind-cleansing, lightning talismans—combined, these items might not even sell as much in a year as what you have swept up in these three days."

"What, were you scared by that group of demonic brats last night, and want to put ten layers of shells on your fleet?"

The several trading firm managers at the table immediately laughed along.

It wasn't a harsh laugh.

But it all carried the implication of looking at a sucker.

Lu Changyuan picked up his wine cup but didn't drink, only saying calmly: "Preparing more is always better than being short when the time comes."

"That may be true."

President Feng stroked his beard and said leisurely: "But business is not done this way."

"You are spending ready Spirit Stones right now."

"But what you are hoarding is a pile of cold-storage goods that might not turn over for years."

"If peace actually returns, these things will all rot in your hands."

Another person also laughed and chimed in.

"Manager Lu is young after all; making money too fast makes one not feel the heartache when spending it."

"If you gave this kind of goods to me, I would even complain that it takes up warehouse space."

After hearing this, Lu Changyuan just gently put down his wine cup.

"That is perfect."

"If you all think it takes up warehouse space, why not sell the rest in your hands to me as well?"

The table went silent.

Immediately after, the laughter grew louder.

"Sell!"

"Of course we will sell!"

"If Manager Lu can really swallow it, I will even have that batch of old Mind-cleansing Pills that have been sitting in the south warehouse for eight years brought out for you!"

Lu Changyuan nodded.

"That is acceptable."

"I will take the entire list."

He answered too straightforwardly, which actually choked those few people up for a moment.

President Feng squinted and stared at him for two breaths, then finally laughed heartily.

"Good, good!"

"Manager Lu is a man who does big things; we admire you."

Saying they admired him.

But in their hearts, they were all laughing.

Laughing at this young manager from Blue Moon Island for being young after all, truly taking that night raid from last night as a world-turning catastrophe.

But Lu Changyuan didn't care at all.

When he left the banquet, his pace didn't even quicken by half a step.

Because the harder others laughed, the more it showed that this batch of goods hadn't 'woken up' yet.

And while the goods hadn't woken up, there was room for bottom-fishing.

This round of frenzied shopping continued for a full seven days.

By the evening of the seventh day, the cargo ships lined up by Changyuan Trading Company at the Xingyan Outer Port were no longer just the few they had originally brought.

Behind them was a long string of big-bellied cargo ships rented at high prices on short notice.

What was loaded on the ships was no longer the high-quality sea beast goods that could be sold immediately for money.

Instead, it was ship after ship of anti-demonic supplies that looked dusty, unremarkable, and even slightly shabby.

Lu Hu stood on the Pier, looking at the long line of cargo ships, his teeth aching.

"Master, this time we have really thrown in our entire nest egg."

"Even that batch of lightweight, high-value resources we just exchanged for has been used to mortgage a portion."

"If, in the end..."

He stopped halfway through, silencing himself first.

Because he saw Lu Changyuan holding a list, checking the final loading numbers line by line.

That expression didn't look like a gambler's.

It looked more like settling an account that had already been seven or eight parts won.

Lu Changyuan closed the list and said calmly: "We won't lose in the end."

"Xingyan is just the beginning."

"Once the news truly spreads, the Near Sea, the island chains, the Immortal Cities, and the Zhenhai Army will all swarm here to fight for them."

"By then, these things that people today are tossing out as junk will increase in price faster than the sea."

Lu Hu smacked his lips.

"Those managers who laughed at us..."

"They will naturally regret it by then," Lu Changyuan said.

After speaking, he looked up toward the end of the sea surface.

The sky over the Outer Sea was gloomy.

But the wind direction had already changed.

Even the most obtuse old boatmen by the Pier had begun to quietly nail an extra layer of Evil-warding wooden planks to the bottoms of their own boats over these past few days.

There are some things that smart people may not believe first.

But the old lives on the sea will always sense a hint of it first.

"Set sail."

With the order given, the Changyuan Trading Company fleet set sail and left the port in a grand procession.

This time, the caravan was longer and heavier than when they arrived.

The decks were crowded with the three thousand one hundred and seventy-two people just taken in.

The rear holds were packed with anti-demonic supplies that the entire Xingyan Grand Market had not yet fully realized the value of.

And at the bow of the lead ship, Lu Changyuan stood with his hands behind his back, looking toward the increasingly near Blue Moon Island, with not a shred of smugness in his eyes.

Because he had heard it.

In the wind, there was already the faint sound of slaughter, like rolling thunder, coming from the end of the horizon.

Blue Moon Island had arrived.