101 Jade Crafting Artisan
Nezha: WOW! TOO! DAMN! TASTY! I have never drank anything as delicious as this! Chen, you're so awesome! (three smooch emojis)
Lord Yama: This taste is just too exquisite! Now if only I had some spicy sticks to go with this right now, then that would be just perfect! Thank you, Chen for introducing me to a new and wonderful gastronomical experience!
Lubu: shit! I tried so hard, but only managed to snatch one box, and before I could drink it myself, my beloved Diao Chan had already taken it away! But she is extremely pleased with it though! Thank you!
Dufu: Thank you O' Great Genius! This drink is absolutely delightful! Most splendid indeed!
Spider Demoness: Thank you! Thank you!
...
In just a short time after sending out the wave of Wahaha milk red packets, all manner of gods, ghosts, and demons who had been eagerly waiting became lively once more. They were all praising just how delicious the milk was, and thanking Chen profusely for his generosity.
Li Bai: Sigh... Delicious as it is, I only got two packs. (disappointed emoji)
God ErLang: shit! This stuff is so delicious, but I only managed to get three! Who's the luckiest bastard? Come out now and give us back some red packets!
Chang'e: The luckiest one today is Monkey King! Monkey King, your red packets, please!
Guardian of Ground: Monkey King! Where are you? Come out!
Heavenly Soldier A: Come out!
Heavenly Soldier B: Come out!
DING!
[Monkey King just sent a red packet in the group!]
DING!
[Monkey King just sent a red packet in the group!]
DING!
[Monkey King just sent a red packet in the group!]
"Dafuq! This monkey is too generous! Three red packets in a row!" Chen's eyes lit up and quickly tapped on the red packets to grab them.
DING!
[Congratulations! You have acquired Monkey King's red packet! Received three Wishful Monkey Fur, it has already been stored in your treasure chest!]
DING!
[Congratulations! You have acquired Monkey King's red packet! Received three honey peaches from Mount Huaguo, already sent to your treasure chest!]
"Hahaha! Double kill!" Having gotten two out of the three red packets, Chen was overjoyed!
Monkey King: Sending one red packet after another is no fun. Come on! Let's all throw in something and flood the chat with red packets!
Moonlord: Yes, why not? It's been ages since we did that. My hands are itching already! Come on everyone, let's do one now!
Nezha: Flood the chat! Flood the chat! Ready... GO!
DING!
DING!
DING!
As soon as Nezha said GO, everybody in the group kept throwing in red packets like nobody's business. Chen's phone kept ringing with notifications as if it was broken! He kept on tapping away at his screen attempting to grab some of the many red packets that were coming down all over the chat like rain. However, everybody was much more prepared this time, and in many cases, the red packets were already taken just right before Chen could tap on it. Despite his severely lower chances, Chen did his best and finally managed to grab one.
DING!
[Congratulations! Acquired Xingjun the Heavenly Smith's red packet. Received one discarded Heavenly Smithing Furnace. Already stored in your treasure chest.]
"Heavenly Smithy Furnace? What's that? And it's discarded? This Xingjun guy must be really stingy!" Chen complained as he opened the treasure chest to take a look at it.
[Unwanted Heavenly Smithy Furnace: A Smithing furnace used by the holy smiths of Heaven for crafting. Poorly maintained. Can only be used to smelt low-level materials and forge low-level items. Would you like to retrieve this?]
"Wait, it's a forge?" Chen's eyes lit up upon reading that, and he instantly thought of the bags of jade bits and scraps, and a bold idea came to him! "Low-level materials in Heaven are entirely on a higher level compared to these jade scraps of Earth. If I can use this forge together with the Flame of Transmogrification, I wonder if I can produce jewelry en masse?"
"Let's give it a try!" Chen decided to try it out on the spot. He took two big sacks of the jade scraps with him and headed into the storage room deeper inside the store.
*BONG!*
He retrieved the furnace from the phone and placed it right in the middle of the room before emptying the bags of jade scraps into it. After putting the materials in place, he placed his palm face down on top of the jade pieces. "This is where I put the flame..." And with that said, a flame erupted from his hand onto the top of the pile of jade scraps and engulfed all the jade pieces in the forge in an instant. The forge, sensing Chen's intentions, suddenly buzzed with a resonating hum.
"This really is a holy artifact! Even though it's a discarded one, it still holds some divine power inside!" Chen found his thoughts synchronizing with the resonance coming from the forge and realized that he has full control of the forge! He could now control and manipulate the flame, as well as the materials in the furnace at will! With just a simple thought, he divided the jade scraps into a hundred even portions and melted them down.
"These will become bracelets... These, Goddess of Mercy pendants... These here will become hairpins..." Chen was concentrating. The forge responded to his thoughts and, and did exactly what he commanded and shaping the jade just how he had designed them in his head, producing jewelries at a pace faster than he could if he had done it alone. In just five minutes, dozens of completely new jade accessories were taken off the forge and laid out on the floor before them.
"Wakaka... This is just like getting a pillow just when I'm sleepy (Chinese idiom meaning getting exactly what you need just when you need it)! I needed some way to make jewelry faster, and the next thing I know, I found it! This is awesome!" Chen was elated. "Quick! Go, get the other bags in here now! I'm going to stay up all night and turn all these scraps into money!"
"YES!" Jing Fei was still in disbelief, but merely gulped and hurriedly moved the bags into the store room.
Over the next five hours, Chen continued forging jade accessories and jewelry. Other than taking small breaks from time to time and replenishing his energy with the Hundred Herb Potion, he never stopped his production line until almost all of the bags of jade have been used up. And as he continued, jade jewelry of all shapes and sizes, in a variety of colors and design were being fabricated, amounting to more than 30,000 pieces!
"My god! With these many materials in stock, we won't even have to buy new material for the next few years! And if we do sell them all, I'd say can easily make more than three hundred million! And all that at zero cost!" Jing Fei's feelings were in a mix of excitement and disbelief. Every beautiful and intricately crafted jade accessories that he is looking at before him right now, were not more than jade scrap pieces that had cost nothing just mere moments ago!
"Well, that sounds great. But... I'm still not done!" Chen's smirked as he took out all the jewelry they had previously stolen from Dafeng and placed them in the furnace. After melting them down and reshaping them into new pieces, he placed them next to the other items.
"These are worth about one hundred million! We now have items worth four hundred million in total!" At this point, all Jing Fei was starting to become numb from all that excitement and started to calm down as he watched his master.
"Hmm... That's not too bad. But wait, there's more!" Chen said with a sparkle in his eyes as he brought out the four high-grade jade rocks that he had acquired from the jade market this afternoon.
"My god!!! These are extremely rare jade! These here are worth eighty million at least!" Jing Fei was an expert when it comes to grading and estimating the price of valuables like these and instantly determined their value. "If we can get the finest jade craftsman in the country to work on it, the value will definitely sky-rocket!"
"Meh. Why trouble ourselves looking for one when I am a jade-crafting artisan myself?" Chen turned to his phone and searched for images of various well-known jade masterpieces around the world for ideas. After studying the design and detail of the images from the web, he made a mentally designed the final product of each of the jade ores before putting them into the furnace together. He did not plan to recreate these masterpieces but took a page or two from their design as inspiration. And in no time, the four jade stones each became four different and intricately carved sculptures of a plum blossom, an orchid plant, a bamboo grove, and bunch of chrysanthemum. Because of the spiritual properties of the forge itself, these four sculptures were so well made that they were extremely life-like. Jade sculptures of such quality could only be carved by jade artisans of the highest skill and caliber!
"Now how much can we sell these for?" Chen asked as he smiled.
"These are... At least three hundred million..." Jing Fei gulped. The whole night had been one surprise after another for him. And just as he thought he has seen it all, Chen pulled out another one like a hat-trick!
"Heh heh heh... BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!" Chen laughed!