One hundred star coins, this price was acceptable.
Meng Huai asked about the price of another item. The middle-aged uncle introduced, "This is processed star beast hide. This star beast was a B-class star beast. This large piece only costs five hundred star coins."
The large piece the boss mentioned was no more than about a meter in size, but it was enough to draw quite a few talismans. Meng Huai thought, if spirit beast hides could be used to make talismans, then star beast hides should be usable too.
Meng Huai continued to ask, "Uncle, do you know where I can buy paper? The kind used for ancient writing."
"This stuff, it's rarely used nowadays. You should go to the shop called Wenxin Hall up ahead. The owner there is an enthusiast of ancient culture. He has many uncommon ancient items."
Meng Huai nodded and remembered what the middle-aged uncle said.
Meng Huai paid for the items she wanted to buy and then, following the middle-aged uncle's directions, found the Wenxin Hall shop. It truly had the look of her era, and many things felt familiar.
The Four Treasures of the Study were indeed for sale, but wasn't the price too high?
"Boss, this one sheet of paper costs a thousand star coins?"
It was less than a tenth of the size of the star beast hide she bought, yet it was twice as expensive?
The owner of Wenxin Hall was fanning himself with a folding fan and said leisurely, "Young lady, you don't know how difficult plants are to grow nowadays, do you? You don't know that this paper is made from trees. The production cost is high, so my selling price is high too!"
Meng Huai nodded in agreement with the boss's words, but she had no intention of buying this paper!
"Alright, then I won't buy it."
Meng Huai looked at the other items on the shelves and asked, "Boss, do you buy goods?"
The boss, thinking the young lady was about to leave because it was too expensive, unexpectedly asked this question. He smiled and said, "Young lady, look at my shop. Do you have anything here that is worth my buying?"
In other words, all the items here were very precious. They were either items from ancient Earth or made according to its culture.
Meng Huai thought for a moment, then pretended to take a bamboo flute from her bag from her spatial ring. She casually twirled it a couple of times and asked, "This, do you buy it?"
Meng Huai had seen zithers and guqins on the shelves, and thought of this item she used to entertain Meng Wen and Meng Wu when they were young. Because children were very rough when playing, she had many such flutes in her spatial storage.
The bamboo flute was made of superior material. The boss carefully took it, holding it in his hand to examine it closely.
Meng Huai looked at the prices of the musical instruments on the shelves, thinking about what price would be appropriate for this flute. The boss beside her was an ancient culture enthusiast, and he naturally knew about the flute as a musical instrument. He played with the instrument in his hand, finding it quite delightful.
Seeing the boss's expression, Meng Huai knew this deal would go through.
"Young lady, what's your price for this flute?"
Meng Huai had already planned. The price of the zither was one hundred thousand star coins. Her flute was much easier to make, but the boss's shop didn't have it. As the saying goes, rarity makes things valuable.
"Eighty thousand star coins."
Meng Huai expected the boss to bargain, but unexpectedly, he readily agreed.
"Good."
Not only that, but he also gave Meng Huai a few sheets of paper.
Looking at the balance in her communicator, Meng Huai finally felt at ease to browse. She saw a shop selling mechas and went in to take a look. When she came out, her excited mood was gone.
The money she had now was only enough to buy one leg.
Deeply discouraged, Meng Huai didn't want to browse any further. She took a hover bus back to the military academy, and upon returning to her dormitory, she took out the items she had bought.
She picked up the Gold-Benefiting Ore and placed it in her palm. As she circulated her spiritual energy, the ore turned into powder. She placed the powdered ore in a small dish and added a few drops of water from the spatial spirit spring.
The water dissolved in the ore powder, and it fused without needing to be stirred.
Meng Huai then took out the paper the Wenxin Hall boss had given her and the star beast hide. Her spiritual energy turned into sword qi, and she cut the paper and hide into suitable sizes.
She took out the talisman brush, dipped it into some of the prepared ink, and drew a Five Thunders Talisman on the paper. Once the talisman was formed, it flashed with spiritual light. Meng Huai then drew the same one on the star beast hide, and a similar talisman with spiritual light was successfully drawn.
Meng Huai held up these two talismans and examined them: "Indeed, the quality of talismans made from star beast hide is better. This paper is really not good, it seems I need to find a solution."
The main problem was that the quality of the paper was too poor, and the paper itself was too expensive.
Meng Huai looked at the plants in her spatial storage, wondering if she should cut down that large tree to make paper herself. The paper made from this thousand-year-old spirit wood should be of sufficient quality for drawing talismans.
"Although talismans made from star beast hide are also very good, compared to them, talismans made from paper are more convenient."
As soon as she thought of it, Meng Huai, who hadn't been idle since returning from the commercial street, got to work. First, she sawed off a section of the old tree in her spatial storage, taking a log, and then took a bucket of spirit spring water.
Making paper was not difficult, but it was somewhat time-consuming and labor-intensive. Without tools, turning this log into powder would take a long time. But Meng Huai had spiritual energy all over her, so why would she need any tools?
With a wave of her hand, the log that had turned into powder was added to the spirit spring water. Then, she scooped out the powder dissolved in water, pressed it into paper, and finally used a fire incantation to dry the paper.
What others found to be a tedious process was, for Meng Huai, merely a matter of moving her fingers.
Meng Huai then tried drawing talismans on the paper she made. "I didn't expect that the quality of talismans drawn on homemade paper would be even higher than those made from star beast hide. They were directly top-grade Five Thunders Talismans. Not bad, not bad, it was worth the effort."
More importantly, this homemade paper had no cost and saved money. After all, if she had to buy paper at a thousand star coins per sheet, she would be reluctant to use the talismans made from it. She would feel heartache even using one. And the quality wasn't good either, so it was a losing proposition not to be done.
Meng Huai drew all these papers into commonly used talismans. "With these talismans on me, I feel much more at ease."
After finishing her work, Meng Huai took out the "Compendium of Mecha Materials" that the middle-aged uncle had given her and began to read. After all, she didn't recognize these materials. Relying solely on her own imagination and practice to discover the truth? How long would that take? At this time, she needed to learn from the experiences of her predecessors.
After all, if predecessors had already figured it out, it would be unreasonable not to learn.
Meng Huai's soul power was high, so she read books quickly and could remember them. Putting down the "Compendium of Mecha Materials," she now had an understanding of these materials.
"It seems that attending classes is imperative."