The entrance of the base was bustling with activity.

    The sound of horses neighing and people shouting filled the air.

    A group of guild personnel unloaded boxes from the wagons, sweating profusely.

    The supervisor standing nearby yelled, “Be careful! Be gentle! These are all valuable goods! If you break them, you won’t be able to make up for it even if you lose a month’s salary!”

    Among the crowd, over a dozen people with particularly strong and muscular physiques, thick body hair, and distinct animal features, easily carried heavy boxes in their arms.

    Muzhuo, standing a distance away, nodded silently.

    It seemed like taking in these beastmen was a wise decision. They could act as guards and do manual labor. They were hardworking, diligent, and loyal, and one salary could hire the equivalent of two or three people. It was quite a good deal.

    After the Beast Transformation Disaster, beastmen were completely unwelcome in the Starfall Dukedom, they were hated and expelled wherever they went.

    As a result, beastmen migrated to neighboring countries in droves.

    The Thornflower Dukedom, in particular, had witnessed an influx of beastmen.

    Due to Ota’s plea, Muzhuo had made the decision to take in a group of beastmen. At the time, it had sparked controversy within the guild, but now it seemed he hadn’t made a mistake.

    As he was pondering this, a rumbling sound suddenly reached his ears.

    The base gate slowly opened, and towering clay golems emerged from within.

    Each golem carried multiple stacked boxes, seemingly incredibly heavy.

    Arriving before the merchant caravan, the clay golems gently placed the boxes on the ground, but they still made a muffled thud that caused the guild personnel to gasp in astonishment.

    “These big guys are so strong!”

    “Those boxes must weigh a ton!”

    “I heard they’re called golems.”

    “That’s amazing!”

    The guild personnel whispered amongst themselves, pointing at the clay golems.

    The newcomers, in particular, were wide-eyed with curiosity, having never seen a clay golem before.

    “Sir Xeman.”

    Muzhuo noticed a figure emerging from the base and immediately greeted him, his eyes brightening.

    Compared to his youthful appearance from several years ago when they first met, Xeman now exuded a calm and composed aura, making him appear unapproachable. ?A??O???E?s

    “Long time no see, Guild Master Muzhuo.”

    After exchanging pleasantries, Xeman pointed at the boxes stacked on the ground nearby and said with a smile, “These are the metals for this trade. They’ve all been smelted into ingots. Have your people check them. If there are no problems, the price will be as we agreed upon.”

    After successfully developing the mines around Lake of Shadow City, the trade between the Fire Fox Guild and Sunan, in addition to potions, now also included metals.@@@@

    After all, with five mines (including the silver mine in the cave), coupled with the extremely high efficiency of clay golems, the monthly output of iron, copper, gold, and silver was astonishingly high. Shining Light Territory alone could not consume it all, and most of it had to be sold externally.

    Muzhuo responded, turning to instruct the supervisor to have people count the goods. Then, he turned to Xeman and said thoughtfully, “Sir Xeman, I received a letter from Lord Sunan a while ago. He mentioned wanting to increase the number of potion transactions. This matter...”

    “My teacher has already told me.”

    Xeman smiled slightly.

    “Starting today, the base will be selling twice as many potions as before. I wonder if the Fire Fox Guild can handle that?”

    “Of course, no problem!” Muzhuo said decisively.

    He was joking. Even if they couldn’t handle it, they would have to force themselves to.

    Since opening up the potion trade route, the Fire Fox Guild’s profits had skyrocketed.

    The potions sold by the base were extremely popular in the Thornflower Dukedom and were in high demand.

    The Fire Fox Guild, having monopolized this trade, naturally earned a fortune.

    Under these circumstances, Muzhuo would never allow others to come in and take a piece of the pie.

    Not only could the Fire Fox Guild’s scale easily handle double the potions, even if they couldn’t, they could develop distributors and sell part of the potions to them. The guild could then take a cut of the profits, still making a huge fortune.

    Anyone with a brain would know what to do.

    “That’s great. After all, it would be a bit troublesome to find another trustworthy business partner.” Xeman said with a smile.

    “Sir Xeman, rest assured, no matter how much you give us, the Fire Fox Guild can handle it!”

    Muzhuo patted his chest in promise, then said cautiously, “I replied to Lord Sunan’s letter a few days ago, mentioning the matter of distributing wizard potions. What did Lord Sunan say?”

    The wizard potions Muzhuo was referring to were not the diluted ones they had been selling before, but real wizard potions.

    Those diluted potions were a precious treasure for ordinary knights, but for great knights, the effect was rather weak.

    Only undiluted, real wizard potions could pique the interest of great knights. Bringing them into the customer base would expand their profits.

    Most importantly, a small soul crystal was needed as the soul core.

    In the end, the total cost was estimated to be at least eighty thousand gold coins!

    “Diamonds and high-grade rune gems are easy to solve. As long as I’m willing to put in the time, I can gather them. As for the small soul crystal, I can synthesize them using miniature soul crystals. Twenty or thirty should be enough.”

    “It’s just the mithril that’s a problem.”

    Sunan currently had two silver mines, both of which contained a small amount of mithril.

    However, both silver mines were small, and even if he mined them completely, he would only be able to obtain eleven or twelve kilograms of mithril.

    The rest he would have to collect.

    Sunan had already announced his intention to buy mithril at the Mysterious Wooden Hut gathering, but he didn’t expect it to be very effective.

    After all, mithril was a precious material, and few wizard apprentices would be willing to trade it.

    “If I could find another silver mine or two, even if they’re small, I could gather enough mithril.”

    Sunan sighed softly, picking up the list next to him.

    This was a list of goods in and out of the warehouse compiled by Grily, showing the flow of materials for the month.

    The largest outflow was undoubtedly all the diluted potions.

    Despite the massive profits from the mines, Sunan still hadn’t abandoned the potion sales transaction, but had instead expanded the scale.

    After all, no one would ever complain about having too many sources of income.

    “Opening five magic plant gardens around Shining Light City is the limit. Any more, and they would affect each other, reducing the harvest.”

    “Lake of Shadow City’s environment is special, not suitable for growing magic plants. One magic plant garden is enough.”

    “If I want to open new magic plant gardens, I have to find places in other towns.”

    The Golden Rock Province was vast, with plenty of places suitable for opening magic plant gardens.

    The key was that if the new magic plant gardens were too far from the base, he would have to dispatch troops to guard them, requiring a large number of golems.

    At this stage, most of the golems Sunan and the base had produced were deployed to the Underworld. Even so, there were still some gaps.

    And the war with the Starfall royal family was likely to break out sooner rather than later, and he needed to produce more golems to expand the golem army. He currently didn’t have any extra golems to invest in building new magic plant gardens far from Shining Light City.

    This plan would have to be postponed for now.

    Fortunately, the current magic plants were enough to supply the base for use and potion transactions.

    “Meow!”

    A familiar call suddenly rang out in his ear. Sunan felt his shoulders sink, turned his head, and saw that Amy was already perched on his shoulder, a gray, nondescript stone in her mouth.

    Although the stone seemed ordinary, Sunan could sense extremely intense energy particles from it.

    “This is... a gray land stone!”

    Sunan took the stone and examined it for a while before recognizing its origin.

    Strictly speaking, a gray land stone was a kind of elemental crystal, formed by the accumulation of earth elements over a long period. It was mostly buried deep underground and difficult to find.

    “Where did you find this?” Sunan asked Amy in surprise.

    “I dug it up underground meow.” Amy raised her head proudly, “I was taking a walk nearby when I sensed intense energy particles underground, so I asked Carolina to help me dig, and then I found this.”

    Sunan suddenly understood, remembering Amy’s ability to sense energy particle fluctuations.

    “How is it? Is this useful to you?” Amy looked at Sunan expectantly.

    “Useful.” Sunan nodded with a smile, stroking Amy’s head.

    Gray land stones had many uses. They could be used to make potions, manufacture magical items, refine golems, and set up magic formations. They were similar to magic stones.

    “Meow, that’s good.”

    Amy rubbed against Sunan’s hand in enjoyment.

    “The Underworld is so much more fun than above. If I find something else good, I’ll bring it to you.”

    The little guy seemed quite excited, as if he had found his place.

    Sunan laughed.

    He recalled when he persuaded Amy to return to Shining Light City with him.

    He had also been thinking of using Amy’s ability to sense energy particle fluctuations to find wizard inheritances or rare materials. However, he was too busy with other matters afterward and hadn’t had the time to go exploring. He hadn’t expected this to happen by chance.

    If Amy could find some rare materials in the Underworld, that would be a good thing.

    (End of Chapter)