"Young Master Feng, if all else fails, we could just sell off the Light Stones we've stockpiled at a discount. That way we could at least recover some gold coins."
"Sell them at a discount?"
Feng Xuanyang fell into thought. It wasn't that the idea hadn't crossed his mind.
But...
Who would buy them?
Everyone right now was dead-set on the Intermediate Magic Armor Clips — scraping together money and borrowing from each other just to get their hands on a few. The demand was so fierce that even the gold coin exchange rate had been pushed up. How could anyone possibly still be interested in Light Stones?
Even if someone did buy them, how many could he actually sell off from his stockpile?
He was sitting on a mountain of ten thousand stacks of Light Stones!
"Forget it. If we take a loss, so be it. The task assigned from above has to be completed. We'll sell them at a twenty percent discount — whatever we can sell, we can sell. Even if they don't all move, at least it'll be a thorn in Candlelight Trading Company's side." Feng Xuanyang let out a sigh.
The Underworld's management was extremely strict. Failing to carry out an assigned task would have severe consequences. He had clawed his way to his current position with great difficulty, and there was no way he was going to fall short at the last hurdle. Even if he had to absorb the full hundred million loss, he would have to make up for it — otherwise, there would be no way to face the higher-ups.
These ten thousand stacks of Light Stones had cost him a full nineteen hundred gold coins, more than half of which had come from the Underworld and Qingcheng Trading Company. Even with a twenty percent discount eating into his margins, the losses would be painful, but at the very least he could recover the portion funded by the Underworld and Qingcheng Trading Company — exactly the fifteen hundred gold coins he needed to purchase the Intermediate Magic Armor Clips.
Not long after, Qingcheng Trading Company also began selling Light Stones. Thanks to the Underworld's channels, they had no trouble reaching the major guilds across the Star Moon Kingdom. Since many cities throughout the kingdom didn't carry Light Stones at all, the purchasing demand among players was nowhere near saturated. With the twenty percent discount, the stones sold easily enough — but every single stack that went out the door made Feng Xuanyang's heart bleed.
While the fire sale raged in White River City, the Star Moon Kingdom's capital had gone into a frenzy of its own. Representatives from every major guild were crowding the counters of the Candlelight Trading Company, their eyes bloodshot with desperation.
"I'm the vice guild leader of the Gale God Guild! Get your owner out here — I have big business to discuss!"
"I'm an elder of the Rainbow Guild! Are you going to call your management out or not?"
The major guilds' envoys in the capital were all scrambling to find a way to get in touch with Candlelight Trading Company's leadership. But no matter what they tried, the NPCs hired by Candlelight Trading Company simply ignored them.
The situation left the big guilds completely at their wit's end.
At first, the guilds of the capital had merely been surprised that someone had managed to purchase a prime commercial district in the royal city and set up a shop there. But now they were practically itching to buy out the entirety of Candlelight Trading Company — and by "buy," they meant acquisition using Credit Points. If it required gold coins, even pooling the resources of all these major guilds together wouldn't come close to the asking price.
But Credit Points were a different story entirely. Every one of these major guilds had a powerful conglomerate or corporation backing them. And having seen just how profitable Candlelight Trading Company was — especially with those Intermediate Magic Armor Clips, which were practically strategic-grade items — they knew that whoever controlled that technology, combined with a strong guild, had the makings of a regional powerhouse.
The profits the Divine Realm was already generating had been enough to make countless corporations and financial groups drool. The future potential was even more staggering, and anyone with half a brain understood that the earlier you moved in, the better. So every major guild had come rushing in, hoping to acquire Candlelight Trading Company.
"Guild Leader, I've found out — Candlelight Trading Company's headquarters is in White River City. They may have opened a store in the capital, but it looks like all their management is based back in White River City," a graceful female Elementalist reported softly to a tall, broad-shouldered man with a sharp nose and a commanding presence.