Chapter 309: Magical crops
"Are these magical crops also for sale?" Ron asked, easily lifting the heavy lid off one of the stacked wooden crates and revealing the carefully sealed magical rice inside.
He broke the seal with a sharp snap and plunged his hand deep into the grains, feeling them slip through his fingers like tiny, cold pearls.
The quality was simply exceptional. Each grain was perfectly polished, translucent, and exuded a faint magical aura that made his skin tingle.
The quantity was so absurd it made him dizzy.
Throughout the Kingdom of Burning Ice, only five large farms produced magical crops, and as a rule, they supplied this resource exclusively to the twelve most powerful noble families in the empire.
"Yes, almost all of it. There must be around thirty thousand metric tons available for sale here."
"And your annual production?" Ron asked again, swallowing hard to keep the saliva from dripping down the corner of his mouth.
"Currently? About five hundred thousand metric tons per year."
"Damn..." Ron whispered, his eyes shining with an almost feverish intensity. "That’s enough to feed two million people a year!" he declared, needing only a moment for the calculations to fall into place in his mind.
And that was still a very conservative estimate, considering that these people would feed themselves solely on magical crops—about two hundred eighty kilograms of grain per year for each individual.
"Your people..."
"They eat only these grains, from children to the elderly. Haven’t you seen them on the streets? Even the unawakened, at ninety years old, have enough vitality to run as if they were in their forties. And that was the result of less than a month on a diet based solely on magical crops."
Ron let out a slow breath, his fingers still buried in the rice as his mind raced through feverish calculations.
Thirty thousand metric tons.
At the standard price of one gold coin per two kilograms, that amounted to fifteen million gold coins in this warehouse alone.
Of course, if he dumped such a large quantity onto the market all at once, the price would plummet rapidly. But if he presented the product to major investors and guaranteed a steady annual supply...
After all, while the price might fall, it could just as easily skyrocket, depending on how the sale was handled.
The price of one gold coin per two kilograms was set by the royal family itself, and each noble house had only a limited quota to acquire these resources.
The problem had never been the price, but the scarcity.
Many noble families would gladly pay far more for a single kilogram, and in the central empire, the price could reach two or three gold coins per kilogram.
If the quality were exceptional, ten or even twenty gold coins per kilogram was perfectly plausible.
Ron let out a long sigh, forcing his racing heart to calm down. Fortunately, they weren’t in the central empires, and he could pay Goldenveil only the local price.
Even in the great central empires, with their countless chambers of commerce whose capital ran into the billions, this much magical crop concentrated in a single place was rare.
"I imagine the secret to producing such rice is kept under lock and key, isn’t it?"
Ethan nodded with a slight smile.
Well, there was no way they could copy it even if they wanted to, but even so, he had erected a high concrete wall around the thousand hectares of farmland in Goldenveil, keeping the site under close security day and night.
Ordinary people might not notice anything out of place, but a master of arrays? If one was competent enough and had enough time to observe the arrays beneath the black soil, he would certainly be able to memorize them.
Ron must have hired at least one to maintain the arrays at his chamber of commerce. And well... a merchant’s loyalty always lay with gold.
Ethan knew that all too well.
He needed to keep a tight leash on Ron to secure the man’s loyalty.
"I want to buy the thirty thousand metric tons, and I’ll pay thirty silver coins per kilogram," Ron declared, offering a price slightly below the resale value, but still relatively fair when the risks were taken into account.
Ethan didn’t object to that figure.
Given Goldenveil’s annual production, that amounted to about one hundred and fifty million gold coins per year.
A colossal sum, even taking into account that the increased supply might drive prices down.
It wasn’t much compared to a city like the capital of the Kingdom of Burning Ice, which alone generated a few billion gold coins a year, but it still left him quite satisfied.
The income Goldenveil generated might have been lower, but its costs were also infinitely lower.
A single fifth-stage warrior cost millions of gold coins in resources per year, and the royal family maintained more than twelve of them in its ranks.
Not to mention the hundreds of fourth-stage Awakened, who commanded exorbitant salaries, and the countless third-stage Awakened.
Fortunately, Goldenveil had already centralized all the resources provided to specialists willing to serve under the government, and the salary they received was intended solely for personal expenses.
All their cultivation resources came directly from Goldenveil, which, with its abundant production of magical herbs, magical cores, and magical crops, simply did not suffer any shortages.
In the end, after some negotiation, Ron settled on a total of ten million gold coins, nine million of which were earmarked solely for the purchase of the spiritual crops.
"Furthermore," Ron began, hesitating for a brief moment before continuing, "I want the entire annual surplus production of these magical grains."
"You can have fifty percent," Ethan replied coldly. "And I’m not open to bargaining. Fifty percent is the maximum. The remainder will be divided among the army, public warehouses, and sales open to anyone who wants to buy."
As for the chance that Goldenveil’s location might be discovered because of this, he wasn’t overly worried.
He had already spoken at length with the system about how this protection against external forces worked.
Essentially, any attempt to conquer or attack Goldenveil would result in direct protection and punishment from Gaia, the supreme system that reigned above the gods themselves.
The protection would last long enough for the Golden Lords to develop, and in the meantime, it was truly impossible to attack them.
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