Chapter 377: Chapter 289: The First Industry_1

In the world of immortals, for a true cultivator at the foundation establishment stage, earning money is not a difficult task.

After all, every true cultivator at the foundation establishment stage can obtain a rank-2 professional certificate of Hundred Arts of Cultivation Immortal as long as they are willing to spend time.

It’s a bit embarrassing to say, Chen Mobai, who is the number one talisman prodigy of the 5012 cohort, despite having successfully established his foundation, is still only a rank-1 talisman maker.

His peers, Siguanyu and Zhuang Jialan, had studied hard and utilized their extracurricular time to pass the rank-2 talisman maker exam back in the fourth grade.

If it weren’t for Chen Mobai’s fast advancement in realm, he would probably have lost the title of “Number One in Talismans” by now.

An arduous cultivator at the foundation establishment stage can basically earn over a million Good Deed Points per year.

Chen Mobai calculated the amount of Good Deed Points he would need to purchase life-extending elixirs from the Life-Extension Cultivation Institute to replenish 180 years of his lifespan.

The life-replenishing elixir, priced at 8800 per pill, would cost 264000 points of Good Deed Points for 30 pills.

The longevity pill, priced at 128000 per pill, would cost 115200 points of Good Deed Points for 9 pills.

Since the turtle longevity pill is unavailable, he might need to endure drug resistance, continuing to consume longevity pills even after the 9th pill.

Yu Rulin mentioned an experiment conducted by the Life-Extension Cultivation Institute: For the same person, the 10th longevity pill would only replenish 9 years of lifespan.

After that, each pill would decrease by one year. By the time of taking the 20th pill, the effect of the longevity pill would be the same as the life-replenishing elixir.

However, there would be an effect if one continues to consume it. Each longevity pill would continue to add 1 year of lifespan until the 30th pill, after which it would finish.

If both the life-replenishing elixir and longevity pill are consumed 30 times each, it will replenish 177 years of lifespan, almost perfectly offsetting the side effects of the tree fruit.

After doing the mental arithmetic, a precise number came up soon.

4,104,000 points of Good Deed Points.

Four million…

A slight twitch appeared at the corner of Chen Mobai’s mouth.

It’s a bit pricey. The fastest way is to sell the foundation establishment treasures bought with academic credits, which is in high demand throughout the whole immortal world. As long as there is stock, there will be no lack of buyers who are willing to pay extra.

However, this method could only be used in emergencies. After all, Chen Mobai would graduate someday and could not always exploit the Daoist Academy.

He still needed to think of a way to generate a stable income. After all, though resources were scarce in the immortal world, there were still a lot of good items. Having some Good Deed Points stocked up would undoubtedly be useful at some point.

After some thought, and upon reading through the legal terms of the immortal world, Chen Mobai discovered that all possible means of earning money in the immortal world have been monopolized by others.

The most lucrative industry was, of course, elixirs.

But the six major pharmaceutical factories in the immortal world dominate most of the market, and the remaining areas are almost monopolized by certain sectors like the Life-Extension Cultivation Institute.

The elixir areas overlooked by the six pharmaceutical factories and the major universities of the immortal world have unfathomably intense competition. After a brief consultation with Wang Xingyu, Chen Mobai immediately dismissed the idea of making money from elixirs.

He originally thought about smuggling herbs from the Divine Wood Sect in the Tianhe Realm to sell here, but Wang Xingyu mentioned that every piece of spiritual medicine that enters the market in the immortal world needs to be stamped by the Immortal World Drug Supervision Bureau.

If one procures some for personal use, these regulations can be disregarded. However, if one wishes to engage in large-scale selling, it is impossible to get around the bureau.

The origin of every herb needs to be accounted for, from cultivation to harvesting and storage. If any step is missing, the bureau will not issue the stamp.

Medical stores will not purchase any herbs that are not endorsed by the Immortal World.

After elixirs, the next lucrative businesses are talismans and magic artifacts.

Talismans have deeply penetrated all aspects of life in the immortal world and are considered consumables. The competition here is pretty stable. As long as one can produce these, and there is a certified professional talisman maker to stamp the professional seal, buyers will exist.

However, this field relies heavily on reputation. Even if Chen Mobai gains his rank-2 talisman maker certification immediately, it probably wouldn’t be a match for the factories run by rank-3 or even rank-4 talisman makers.

When it comes to the magic artifact industry, the most profitable items are various life utensils, but Chen Mobai doesn’t have any connections in this field.

He shouldn’t even consider array law infrastructure, as he knows nothing about it.

After turning it over in his mind, he finally ended up going back to studying elixirs and talismans.

He is familiar with talismans, whereas for elixirs, he has connections in the Tianhe Realm.

However, at this stage, Chen Mobai is only considering his options and has not made a final decision.

He decided to consult an expert in the field.

After turning on his phone, he sent a private message to the shopkeeper of the Wood Spiritual Talisman Shop in Red Sandstone City, which he had frequented in the past.

As expected, the shopkeeper remembered him, the large customer, and spoke warmly to him.

However, when Chen Mobai asked for advice on how to run a good talisman shop, the shopkeeper immediately replied with a speechless expression.

Who would ask their competitors?

But this shopkeeper didn’t have any grand ambitions, and his shop was merely a personal workshop. He shared his experiences and insights from running his shop over the years.

After hearing this, Chen Mobai realized it’s not as easy as it seems.

As there’s no professional equipment or machinery, the shopkeeper has to mix his own talisman ink painstakingly. Fortunately, there are some small tools that can help crush cinnabar, infuse spiritual objects, and control the fire with a timer and thermometer.

If he were in the Tianhe Realm, where everything relies on experience and manpower, Chen Mobai would probably give up immediately.

The advantage of a small workshop is the lack of maintenance costs for large equipment and costs for hiring cultivators. Talisman paper can be purchased, and a well-made talisman brush can be used for several years.