With Zhao Xuhe's guarantee, Lu Yang successfully borrowed 2000 contribution points from the "Three Rivers Society" behind him, and then used it all to buy Death-Substituting Yin Puppets. On the other side, Zhao Xuhe was also excitedly pacing in his cave residence.
"The news is actually true!"
After receiving the news from his master, he was instantly overcome with excitement.
"The Saint Sect's mass grave south of the river was actually taken by the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion."
"The one who acted was the Third Elder of the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion, that peerless sword cultivator known as the 'Demon-Slaying Daoist Master'."
"In the short term, retaking it will be impossible."
"With the mass grave fallen, a short-term price increase for Death-Substituting Yin Puppets is already a certainty. This is a great opportunity for us to speculate and hoard for huge profits!"
"I'm going to get rich!"
To have managed to secure the position of a deacon disciple in the Merit Hall of the Saint Sect, Zhao Xuhe certainly did not lack background and connections, let alone foresight and greed.
Therefore, as soon as he confirmed that Lu Yang's news was true, he immediately began to gather funds, and then used all the contribution points he had on hand to heavily purchase Death-Substituting Yin Puppets. And the development of events was just as he had expected.
As news of the Mass Graves South of the River incident spread, more and more people who "sensed a business opportunity" began to sweep the market, buying up Death-Substituting Yin Puppets at high prices. Just like with all speculative bubbles, the first people to enter the market all earned a lot of money.
However, as the event fermented, everyone discovered that the price of Death-Substituting Yin Puppets showed absolutely no trend of decreasing. It was high when they bought, and even higher when they sold. Making money suddenly became easy.
Just by buying and then selling, one could easily earn an amount of contribution points that would have previously required completing several, or even dozens, of sect missions. And so, more and more people were swept up in the frenzy. More and more people began to take out their savings and enter the market, hoping to make money.
And they did indeed make money, which further stimulated the market. Even the more cautious people, upon discovering that fellow disciples they usually looked down upon had earned more money than them just by buying something, waiting a few days, and then selling it, naturally felt unbalanced. Thus, they too, as was to be expected, joined the wave.
Amidst such a wave, the price of Death-Substituting Yin Puppets could be said to be climbing steadily higher. From the initial 200 contribution points, the price climbed all the way to 300. This fifty percent increase drove countless speculators into an even greater frenzy. After all, its price had not stagnated; it was still rising.
It's rising today, so it will certainly rise tomorrow. If it rises tomorrow, what reason is there for it not to continue rising the day after? Not buying at this time is a loss!
Thus, more and more people heard the news and rushed to act. 300, 400, 500... Finally, when the price soared to 500 contribution points, people's reason returned somewhat, and they felt that this was probably about the peak.
"It's time to sell!"
Zhao Xuhe was the first to grasp this subtle turning point. He began to secretly sell off the Death-Substituting Yin Puppets he had previously hoarded in batches, preparing to cash out and exit the market. At the same time, the price in the entire Death-Substituting Yin Puppet market began to fall back.
After all, Zhao Xuhe was not the only clever person in the world. Others also keenly spotted the downward trend and began to gradually sell off the stock they were holding. If things had continued to develop like this, the price would have completely crashed within a few days, and then returned to normal.
However, just as this wave was about to subside, a piece of news suddenly spread overnight from the upper echelons of the Primordial Saint Sect, reaching every corner of the sect.
"The Saint Sect is preparing to counterattack!"
"The fall of the Mass Graves South of the River has infuriated a Daoist Master in the sect. He has decided to personally take action, dispatching disciples from the sect to launch a counterattack and fight a battle with the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion!"
"A great war is coming!"
In times of war, the prices of all materials beneficial to the war effort are bound to rise. And the Death-Substituting Yin Puppet, an item that could save one's life at a critical moment—how important would it be in the bloody and cruel great war between the righteous and demonic paths that was soon to come?
It was no different from a second life! Without a doubt, on the very night this news spread, the price of Death-Substituting Yin Puppets, which had already begun to fall, experienced a second massive surge! Not only did it instantly return to its peak of 500 contribution points, but it was still climbing!
By the next morning, 500 contribution points had become 1000. Compared to the original price of 200 contribution points, it had increased a full five times!
"Hahahahaha!"
In the Scripture Pavilion, Wang Borong was seen standing on his treasured rocking chair, dancing with joy, his old face flushed with excitement and fervor.
"Rise! Keep rising for me!"
"No, I have to buy more. Selling what I have now won't earn that much. If I hoard a bit more, I'll have enough contribution points for a cave residence!"
At this moment, a carnival for the ordinary disciples swept through the entire Saint Sect. These ordinary disciples had little foresight and no connections or channels for information, so while others were secretly selling, they were still buying. And now, they had struck it rich.
An unknown number of ordinary disciples saw their net worth double overnight, the amount they earned even surpassing the total assets of some veteran disciples with powerful backgrounds and backing. For a time, countless fantastical stories spread throughout the Saint Sect.
For example, a destitute poor boy, whose fiancée had publicly broken off their engagement, angrily broke it off with her after his net worth doubled, leaving behind the phrase, "Do not bully a young man for being poor..." Or another example, a little girl who had to live under someone else's roof after her father died and her mother remarried.
Before buying the Death-Substituting Yin Puppets, she lived a life of being casually beaten and scolded by her stepmother every day, unable to even protect her father's inheritance. Now that her net worth had doubled, she immediately bought a high-grade cave residence in full... Do you have a dream?
Do you want to realize your dream? Come buy Death-Substituting Yin Puppets! This frenzy, in which everyone was participating, reached its absolute peak one day when a disciple at Qi Refining Perfection suddenly broke through and successfully achieved Foundation Establishment.
Because that successfully-promoted disciple publicly stated that the reason he was able to break through was entirely because he had earned enough contribution points buying and selling Death-Substituting Yin Puppets to purchase a Foundation Establishment Pill in full.
Thus, he had the Death-Substituting Yin Puppet to thank; if not for it, he would never have been able to defy heaven and change his fate... Everyone went completely mad. 1000, 2000, 3000... the price of Death-Substituting Yin Puppets left everything else in the dust.
And watching the soaring price, some were happy, while naturally, others were sad. Among the happy ones was Lu Yang, for example. He was not greedy, and decisively chose to sell when the price soared to 2000.
After all, he had bought ten of them at the original price of 200 contribution points each. Selling them at 2000 contribution points each meant a tenfold profit from one transaction, netting him twenty thousand contribution points! Among the sad ones was Zhao Xuhe, for example.
When he saw the price rebound, his guts turned green with regret, especially after seeing Wang Borong, a man he had previously looked down on and even planned to swindle.
As far as he knew, Wang Borong, that mediocre fellow who had wasted away for decades and was practically one foot in the grave, had hoarded more than twenty Death-Substituting Yin Puppets. All of them had been bought at high prices during this period.
When Zhao Xuhe had been secretly selling his own stock earlier, he had privately sneered that Wang Borong was a leek waiting to be harvested. But now, that bastard was on the verge of earning 100,000 contribution points! If it were just a matter of him not making the profit, that would be one thing.
But when Zhao Xuhe saw Wang Borong earn so many contribution points and grin from ear to ear every day, that feeling was honestly more painful than losing money himself! And after seeing the price of the Death-Substituting Yin Puppets rising without any sign of stopping, Zhao Xuhe weighed the pros and cons, hesitating for an entire night.
In the end, he re-entered the market. The contribution points he had earned from cashing out earlier were thrown back into the market for Death-Substituting Yin Puppets. At first, he remained cautious and didn't invest all his contribution points.
But as he watched the price keep rising, he felt like he was losing out with every little increase.
"Opportunity knocks but once. I've already missed one chance, how can I miss a second?"
"It will keep rising. It's better to buy now than later..."
There were many others who thought the same as Zhao Xuhe. And when this group of people, who had been the first to cash out, re-entered the market, it once again stimulated the price of the Death-Substituting Yin Puppets to rise, further strengthening everyone's confidence.