102 A Black Dragon! And… Sword Qi?
With seven hundred million worth of jade accessories and jewelry, as well as the four masterpieces that Chen made, the store now more than enough items prepared for the opening. But Chen was still not done! He took out the bag of blood jade scraps and placed them all into the furnace.
"This... Isn't this the extremely rare high-grade blood jade! But why is it all smashed up into bits?" Jing Fei's sharp eyes identified the jade bits as soon as he saw them. He felt a pang of pity when he first saw them, but very soon broke into a wide smile. "Well, even if they are all smashed up, the master can easily transform these scraps into a fine work of art worth a few cities in no time!"
"Hmmm... What do you think I should make with these?" Chen was browsing through Baidu, looking for ideas while asking Jing Fei for his opinion.
"Well, how about a flying dragon? I think there are enough smashed blood jade pieces here to make one that's about one foot tall!" Jing Fei then continued, "Just about three years ago, there was a well-made emerald jade dragon sculpture put up for sale at the Sotheby's Auction. It was bid off by a mysterious billionaire from our country at the winning bid of 1.2 billion!"
"Then it's decided! A flying dragon it is!" Chen nodded. And with that said, he lit the furnace up once again and melted the blood jade pieces before combining them into one red-hot molten pool. After working out the shape and minute details of the sculpture in his mind, he commanded the forge to shape the molten jade into the image in his mind: A dragon taking flight! It had sharp pointy horns, and claws that were grabbing onto clouds. If one were to look at it up close, every whisker and every claw was made with the utmost attention to detail in mind. It looked as if it could move and fly away at any moment, and was truly a work of art befitting such a magnificent creature!
Seeing the dragon sculpture finish right before his eyes, Jing Fei was once again awestruck by just how well-detailed the workmanship, as well as how life-like it was. "Wow! Just... Wow! This sculpture is nothing short of perfect! All we have to do now, is throw in a little bit of marketing, generate some hype across the country, and we can definitely let this one goes at a very high price! I think we can easily break one billion with this!" he said as he continued to admire the red dragon.
"Hahaha! Let's hold on to it for a bit, I'm not planning to sell this just yet. Instead, this shall be the store's treasure piece for now. Now, it's impossible for a business to not boom!" Chen was smiling broadly. With all these jade sculptures and jewelry, the net worth of the shop sat at about 17 hundred million. If he took the real estate value of the shop itself, as well as his cars and the villa, Chen would now be a young billionaire, with 2.2 billion to his name!
"Even though I'm rich now, I'm still miles away from Lan Zhengguo. But I swear! One day, I will be on equal grounds as he is!" He thought himself. Although not being very vocal about it, he was actually very mindful about this. He still remembers how his last meeting with Mengchen's father ended, and how he almost died because of that.
If you merely talk about it but don't do it, that's just being boastful and foolish. But, if you hustle until you get to where you said you want to be, then that's putting money where your mouth is! When Chen had proclaimed that he would one day become as rich and powerful as Lan Zhengguo was, everybody laughed at his words, brushing it off as a joke. But deep down inside of him, his will and resolve to make that happen was absolute. Chen vowed to one day turned that "foolishness" of his into a reality and those who were laughing at him to be blinded by his success!
"Now that we've resolved the matter of the store's merchandise, that should put us on schedule for the launch next week." Chen then took out his cellphone, and transferred a sum of money to Jing Fei's account. "Here's some cash. Go hire some staff, and get everything else ready for the launch. You're experienced in this line of business, so I'll entrust this to you. Is that ok?"
"Of course master! I can guarantee you, that I will make this business grow bigger and better. And soon, everybody will know about us. I will not let you down!" Jing Fei used to be the leader of a group of notorious bandits. He was a very cunning man and was very familiar with selling expensive items like these. He was more than ideal for the role.
"But master..." Jing Fei hesitated before speaking up. "Most major jewelers would invest heavily in promotion and marketing, especially when they open a new big store. Should we perhaps consider posting a TV commercial for the launch?"
"Ah! Marketing! I almost forgot about that!" Chen whipped out his phone and logged into his Weibo, and was immediately greeted by a barrage of notifications! His post about the jade stones he made this afternoon had over six thousand shares and over ten thousand likes! And his number of followers had grown from twenty thousand to thirty thousand, with a number of jade lovers among them.
"Hahaha! My fans are too passionate... Six thousand shares in just half a day? This level of publicity is way better than any other forms of advertising!" Chen was very pleased. He quickly took some pictures of the jade jewelry and accessories posted them on his Weibo, along with the comment: "Bro Bei's jewelry store is opening soon! My dear fans, please help spread the word! Also, all Bro Bei's fans are entitled to make purchases at 88% the normal price!"
POST!
As soon as he posted the pictures, there was already a first comment! Followed by a torrent of likes, comments, and replies. The number of fans also increased bit by bit.
"Heh heh... My popularity online does a better job than TV ads at creating hype!" Chen grinned. "There are still seven days to go, I'll just use the time and slowly break the internet! Wakaka..."
Chen then continued taking more pictures of the store's merchandise. He was not planning to post them all at once, but a few at a time, over the next few days until the launch. But in order to build up excitement towards the event, he needed more than just the jewelry and accessories. That was where the four floral and the dragon sculptures came in. He planned to release them on his Weibo towards the last two days before the launch for maximum effect. This way it would generate a growing sense of wonder and anticipation towards the launch!
After taking enough pictures of his planned posts, the preparations for the event have pretty much been dealt with. Chen stored the forge back into his phone and opened his treasure chest to check out the other new items he had acquired. He remembered snagging something new just this evening, but had not had the time to examine it until now, because he was busy mass producing the store's merchandise.
[Mount Huaguo Honey Peaches: Grown from the seeds of the Saturn Peaches that were stolen by Monkey King from the Heavenly Peach Garden. Effects may not be as powerful as the Saturn Peaches, but can extend life expectancy and strengthen the body. Retrieve it now?]
"Extends life... Strengthens body..." After reading that, Chen could not help but think about his parents. "Why don't I take some time off and go home! I have a week before the launch... It's time for me to bring them here to Green Vine City, and take care of them!" Chen decided. He had been wanting to get his parents to move in with him into his new mansion but had been too busy to do so. But now, since he had finished preparing all of the store's merchandise for sale in just one night, he could finally attend to his family matter.
"This trip back home, I must do my best to make father and mother proud!" Chen thought to himself. He then went on and took out a few hundred pieces of the store's items and stored them into his treasure chest.
"Oh wait, that's right! I almost forgot." Chen lifted his right hand and summoned the Chaos Sword. The sword had absorbed the little bit of unknown ancient blood contained in the blood jade stone when Chen was betting jade stone against Wenfeng in the afternoon and now looked different.
The Chaos Sword was still in its infantile stages and was slightly translucent. Now, a black serpentine-like figure could be seen inside the sword's blade. "What's this? Looks like a dragon..." Chen remarked as he examined the sword. Although it was small, the black figure had the distinctive shape of a dragon.
"Wait, what? Don't tell me that the unknown blood was dragon blood!" Chen's eyes widened in disbelief. He quickly activated the Scripture of Heaven and Earth and poured the Dragon Force in his body into the sword.
"ROAR!" A dragon's roar came from the black figure within the blade. It grew larger and like a newborn black dragon, it exuded an aura of untamable wildness and raging pressure! However, it was not a real dragon. Just a mere projection of its existence that came alive because of Chen's Dragon Force.
"Could this be... What they call... Sword Qi?" Chen froze in place. His heart thumping away like mad at the idea.