Who told him to make the cards!

It's impossible to drop out of school.

As the empire's premier academy, Qinggong Academy offers a wealth of learning opportunities.

The card maker has all the necessary equipment; he wouldn't risk his future just to spite Old Man Meng.

He had another way of winning over Old Man Meng.

Old Man Meng scoffed at this.

People have already ended up in his Qinggong Academy, how could they possibly fly to the heavens?

Chen Zhi didn't want to argue with Old Man Meng for the time being.

With the stone in his mind, he conjured up an identical imitation and asked Old Man Meng:

Have you ever seen this mineral before?

Old Man Meng took out a magnifying glass and opened and closed his eyes.

After observing for a long time, a conclusion was drawn.

"No."

"But these patterns... are they tidal structures?"

"Correct."

Old Man Meng's eyes widened in shock as he looked through his magnifying glass. "Where did you get this?" he exclaimed.

"Don't worry about that for now."

Chen Zhi continued, "Aren't these kinds of minerals that contain the principles of nature very rare?"

“Extremely rare.” Old Man Meng put away his magnifying glass with lingering interest, and said, “And very difficult to obtain.”

"Difficult to mine?"

"No, it's corporate monopoly."

The five major corporations control nearly 80% of the mineral resources of the Holy Order Empire. Even if they don't know the purpose of ancient mines like the one in Chen Zhi's possession, they would rather dig it out and store it in warehouses than let it enter the market.

This is the lesson they learned from the Qing Shi Jing incident.

Old Man Meng actually disliked the corporate style, but there was nothing he could do. If he didn't cooperate with the corporate, where would Qinggong Academy find hundreds of millions of white cards every year?

He had lunch with representatives from the White Tower Enterprises at a restaurant today, and that was about this matter.

Unexpectedly, before he even had a chance to finalize the deal, Chen Zhi had already obtained the materials.

Although it's only a small piece.

"How much do you think he can sell for?" Chen Zhi asked.

Old Man Meng's eyes widened: "You want to sell?"

"Sell it to me, I'll pay a high price!"

"..."

This reaction was exactly the same as his.

“Not for sale,” Chen Zhi said. “I got this from a friend. It’s the only one I have. Can you give me an estimate so I can pay for it?”

"Oh," Old Man Meng said, slightly disappointed, "that's worthless."

"Like boundary crystals, this kind of thing needs to be large enough and have a complete structure to fetch a high price."

"The piece you're holding..."

"It's probably around 100,000 to 200,000," Old Man Meng said.

"..."

You call this worthless?

Chen Zhi wanted to give Old Man Meng a couple of punches.

Old Man Meng saw his resentment and was both annoyed and amused.

"Hey kid, can't you think a little further ahead?"

Do you know how much a Tier 6 white card costs?

"How many?"

"Minimum 50,000."

Old Man Meng said, "The seventh tier is even more expensive."

Because even with the most advanced and sophisticated equipment, white cards of level six and above cannot be mass-produced like low-level white cards, and they are not available through ordinary channels.

Therefore, Old Man Meng did not intend to show off.

He is, after all, a ninth-tier card maker; even a single white card can be worth hundreds of thousands.

The value of this stone was negligible in his eyes.

Chen Zhi sighed.

He now has a clearer understanding of how "money-burning" the card-making profession is.

It's said that talented card makers can earn a lot of money in the future.

But you must first persevere until the future.

He had only just begun his career and hadn't even had a chance to start making cards properly when he was already heavily in debt.

You can't blame him for leveling up too fast, can you?

Old Man Meng sensed an opportunity and said, "Problems that can be solved with money aren't really problems."

"In that case, you will become my disciple, and I will cover all your expenses."

"how?"

"Then I might as well go find the Holy Maiden."

"?"

Old Man Meng got a little carried away again and said angrily, "You're comparing the Holy Maiden to me?"

"Can she teach you ancient structures?"

"No, but not contradictory."

Chen Zhi said, "I can use her money while learning your structure."

Old Man Meng: "???"

Human speech?

Chen Zhi added, "Besides, Her Highness the Holy Maiden is much more sincere than you are."

As he spoke, he conjured up the pen that Shen Qinglian had given him.

Old Man Meng's old eyes suddenly widened.

"Wanhua?!"

"She even gave you this??"

Old Man Meng felt a rush of blood to his head.

You, Shen Qinglian, are really willing to go all out!

I shamelessly asked you to buy it back then, offering a high price of 400 million, but you wouldn't sell it. Now you're just giving it away to a young man?

Chen Zhi is only a few ranks high, is he worthy of... no, is he even useful to him for the time being?

The truth is, it really does come in handy.

In reality, pens wear out and break.

However, this problem does not exist in the Crown Domain.

Chen Zhi has been using this pen to design structures and practice brushstrokes at Guanyu these past few days.

And it's exceptionally easy to use.

He took out a piece of draft paper, looked up at the Moon Crown divination array, and with two quick swipes, copied down several different tidal structures. His penmanship was even smoother than before.

Old Man Meng stared wide-eyed.

"Wanhua" is just one of them.

More importantly, it's about structure.

After chatting with Chen Zhi for so long, he almost forgot the important business he had come to Guanyu tonight.

The Tidal Principles Research Group is about to be officially established, and Old Man Meng needs more tidal structures.

"Want it?" Chen Zhi asked knowingly.

Old Man Meng coughed and said, "Thank you."

Is it just a thank you?

That's not enough, old man.