Inside Yaoguang’s workshop, Zi Qiangwei continuously reviewed the various performance parameters of the export-version Purple Firmament Type 12 flying sword through the workstation interface.

Only after some time did she look up at Yaoguang in surprise. "You actually finished modifying it this quickly?"

"I only made adjustments within reasonable limits... Actually, I didn’t weaken these flying swords at all; I simply embedded a special command. When these flying swords clash with the authentic Purple Firmament Type 12 models, they will be fully suppressed," Yaoguang said, pausing slightly. "Moreover, this suppression can be controlled by a primordial psyche great cultivator."

Primordial psyche great cultivators were the absolute core of any faction, and the chance of information leaking from them was extremely low.

"With this capability, we can ensure that selling this batch of flying swords won’t affect the Nine Cauldrons Sect." Zi Qiangwei smiled and nodded.

"Then I’ll trouble you to file this with the Artifact Refinement Hall on my behalf," Yaoguang said, glancing out the window. "The orders for the standard Purple Firmament Type 12 have already been completed, and the improved model only has about a month of work left. If no new orders come in, the entire Purple Firmament Institute might have to halt production. With more than sixty thousand people here, a shutdown would make life difficult."

Zi Qiangwei felt a little speechless. The Purple Firmament Institute’s benefits were so generous that even the Energy Department couldn’t compare. Based on the wages paid over the past year alone, even if production stopped for seven or eight years, the staff wouldn’t face any financial difficulties.

Naturally, she didn’t say this out loud. She simply organized the materials and said, "I’ll submit these for you. There shouldn’t be any issues..."

After a brief pause, she continued, "As for the external sales orders, what are your plans? Will you look for buyers yourself, or let the sect handle it?"

"Let the sect handle it," Yaoguang replied. With the Nine Cauldrons Sect backing the deals, they could secure much larger orders.

"The sect can negotiate the pricing. For the profit from each flying sword, I’m willing to split it fifty-fifty with the sect," Yaoguang said.

"Fifty-fifty?" Zi Qiangwei was pleasantly surprised by Yaoguang's generosity and immediately said, "I’ll report this to the hall master right away."

Yaoguang nodded. He had his own reasons for giving up half the profit. After selling a batch of spirit artifacts, he would likely move into the treasured artifact field. Treasured artifacts were no small expense. Even first-generation treasured artifacts started at over ten thousand spirit stones each. Second- and third-generation treasured artifacts were even more expensive.

And the Nine Cauldrons Sect was simply too poor to afford large purchases. With that in mind, it was better to let them earn some money first, so that when treasured artifacts were finally refined, they wouldn’t end up scraping together funds to buy only a few dozen. After all, what was taken from the Nine Cauldrons Sect would ultimately be used for the Nine Cauldrons Sect.

The day after Yaoguang handed the materials to Zi Qiangwei, Zi Qiangwei returned to his office. "Yaoguang, orders have come in."

She placed several order forms directly in front of him and singled one out. "Take a look. Do you know whose order this is?"

"The Golden Temple!? The hegemon of the Black Flame Continent?" Yaoguang was surprised.

The Golden Temple was the faction that controlled the greatest number of spiritual power nodes in the world. Its geographical position was exceptionally advantageous, with as many as 311 spiritual power nodes within its territory. It was said that its national spirit stone output reached an astonishing 200 million annually.

Calling it obscenely wealthy would not be an exaggeration. In the modern world, resources naturally meant powerful cultivators. But...

"Isn’t the Golden Temple one of the Six Great Immortal Sects? They’re actually coming to the Nine Cauldrons Sect to buy spirit artifacts?"

"They want the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 flying sword," Zi Qiangwei explained. "When this flying sword is used under conditions where a primordial psyche great cultivator holds the advantage, its performance is no weaker than that of fourth-generation spirit artifacts. And currently, fourth-generation spirit artifacts can only be produced by the Infinite Star Palace, the Immortal Alliance, and the Thousand-Beast Sect."

She paused before continuing, "Although the Golden Temple is one of the Six Great Immortal Sects, it’s firmly at the bottom of the rankings. Especially over the past few decades, it has suffered repeated defeats in several localized wars at the hands of the Taiyi Cult, the Sacred Flame Cult, and the Sacred Blue Sea Land. Even mid-sized forces like the Black Feather Sect dare to provoke them now. If not for the Golden Temple having Golden Core experts, the factions coveting its wealth would have already swarmed in and carved it up." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Yaoguang didn't find that surprising. Among the Six Great Immortal Sects, the Infinite Star Palace stood on one level, the Thousand-Beast Sect and the Immortal Alliance on another, and the Lunar Sect and the Dharma Heaven Pavilion on a third. The Great Sun Sword Sect, the Brahma Divine Kingdom, the Ice-Snow Divine Mountain, or even the Yatai Dynasty all possessed stronger conventional power than the Golden Temple without its Golden Core experts.

This was not because the Golden Temple was weak or poorly equipped, but rather because of its unique internal structure. The Golden Temple’s hall master had once led elite forces into the war against the Lunar Fiend Empire and never returned.

At present, governance rested with a council of twelve elders. Those twelve elders answered to no one but themselves, fracturing the sect into more than a dozen factions and leaving it in a state of complete disarray.

Not long ago, there were even rumors that an armed force secretly backed by Elder Tule had attempted to assassinate Elder Panqi, nearly killing the elder who had not personally fought in many years. With those premises, it wouldn't be too strange if one day the Golden Temple descended into full-scale civil war, fractured, and split into several or even a dozen large and mid-sized powers.

"The buyer is Elder Panqi’s youngest son, acting on the elder’s behalf." When Zi Qiangwei said this, she clicked her tongue. "Originally, we didn’t want to take this order. After all, within the Golden Temple right now, the strongest figure is Elder Tule, and he’s been pushing to end the Golden Temple’s twelve-power division. But... Elder Panqi offered far too much."

"What’s the unit price?" Yaoguang asked with curiosity.

"We never intended to sell the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 in the first place, so we directly doubled the original procurement price and quoted 3600 spirit stones per flying sword..."

Yaoguang gasped. Good grief.

He had thought that although exporting flying swords was highly profitable, competition would cap margins at thirty, forty, or fifty percent at most. Instead, the price had skyrocketed to this extent!

"Did they bargain? And what’s the order volume?" Yaoguang couldn’t help asking.

"Bargain? Bargaining would be disrespectful to a Golden Temple elder! They accepted immediately," Zi Qiangwei said briskly. "That elder controls twenty-eight spiritual power nodes, and every single one of them is outfitted with third-generation level 4 spirit-gathering arrays personally set up by the Infinite Star Palace's array masters. Their spirit stone output is extremely high. This time, to wash away past humiliation, he ordered three thousand flying swords in one go!"

"Three thousand!?" Numbers flashed through Yaoguang’s mind. That meant the total order value was 10.8 million spirit stones!

After factoring in materials and labor, the factory cost of the export version of the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 was about 1600 spirit stones per sword. That meant each flying sword carried 2000 spirit stones in pure profit! That added up to six million in total profit!

Even after splitting evenly with the Nine Cauldrons Sect, that was three million spirit stones! The Sword Cultivator Division’s annual procurement budget didn’t even reach that figure.

"After all, the Golden Temple still has Golden Core figures overseeing things from above. No matter how fierce the internal struggles are, great cultivators wouldn’t dare personally step onto the battlefield. At most, they’d do what we do and deploy primordial psyche cultivators. Otherwise, how would that be any different from tearing all pretenses away and starting a civil war? Elder Panqi has a powerful primordial psyche cultivator under his command, and that person is an excellent match for the improved Purple Firmament Type 12..."

Zi Qiangwei continued, looking at Yaoguang. "Now you understand why we ultimately agreed to sell the improved Purple Firmament Type 12, even though we originally didn’t plan to."

Yaoguang nodded.

"So the higher-ups mean for the Purple Firmament Institute to focus its efforts on this order next," Zi Qiangwei said, then paused. "Of course, how you proceed is still up to you. And don’t let this order delay your cultivation."

"I understand." Yaoguang nodded.

This huge order alone made it perfectly reasonable for him to postpone his breakthrough to the Primordial Psyche Realm by another year. He would be too busy to cultivate. And with three million spirit stones coming in...

Let alone pushing his Refiner profession into an entirely new field, he could even choose to elevate either Martial Dao or the Psyche Dao to the Star God Realm or Dharma Form Realm. He would head straight to the finish line.

"Besides this major order, there are some smaller ones as well..." Zi Qiangwei said as she laid out the remaining order forms one by one. "These are already the most cost-effective ones we selected. Take a look. If you have the time, accept them. If not, forget it."

Yaoguang glanced through them. The profits naturally couldn’t compare to Elder Panqi’s order, and the time investment was significantly higher. Still, if completed, they would bring in over a million spirit stones. But...

"Expand," Yaoguang said simply. "Why would I not earn these spirit stones that are there? I’ll continue expanding the Purple Firmament Institute."

"But there’s no room left to expand around the Institute." Zi Qiangwei looked at him, thought for a moment, and said, "The higher-ups are considering authorization instead. Let the subordinate artifact refinement institutes produce them and pay you a licensing fee. After all... cultivation comes first. They don’t want you devoting all your time to refining spirit artifacts."

Yaoguang knew this was goodwill from the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s higher-ups. They were worried that refining artifacts would delay his cultivation. But he shook his head.

The Purple Firmament Type 12 series achieved its current might largely because of his "talent." Even if others possessed his complete technical schematics, they might still be unable to replicate the results.

"At most, we can outsource part of the production process," Yaoguang said. "Other departments can refine the components. The Purple Firmament Institute will handle the final assembly."

He glanced around the Institute, which was already spacious yet housed more than forty thousand people. "If there’s no room to expand outward, then we relocate."

Zi Qiangwei’s eyes lit up. "How about the Crimson City?"

"That won’t be necessary. I think the Longxiang City works just fine."

It was close to the Star Gate connecting to the Yaoguang World, and Yaoguang had no desire to move further away. "I’ll speak with City Lord Luo and have him allocate land for a new Purple Firmament Institute."

Zi Qiangwei heard this and didn’t press further. Orders had already come down from above to grant Yaoguang sufficient autonomy. She couldn’t go against that.

Over the following period, Yaoguang grew busy once more. He coordinated with dozens of artifact refinement institutes and signed supply agreements for flying sword components. Although this meant giving up a portion of the profits... With six million spirit stones in profit on the table, would it even matter if he spent a fraction of the profits?