After fumbling with the needle box for a while, Chen Mobai finally reached the end of the two-hour duration.
He didn't wait for the Soul Stabilising Charm to ring, he directly opened the door and went out.
Outside the door, only the last batch of unlucky ones were left.
Chen Mobai didn't see any familiar classmates, saving him from the need to greet, he simply picked up his backpack and left the school.
He didn't rush home. Instead, he used his student card to take public transportation to a large, comprehensive raw material trading market in the eastern side of the city.
Chen Mobai's mother works in a talisman paper factory. When he was little, he was brought there and played for a few years, so he's quite familiar with the workflow of this small factory.
The boss is a Rank-2 Talisman Master, runs a talisman shop in the city, and in order to save costs, he started his own talisman paper accessories factory. The large talisman papers that Chen Mobai cuts were bought by his mother at an internal discount price.
The talisman paper factory, though not large, is complete with everything. It can produce brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. However, they have to purchase gold powder, a material rarely used in drawing talismans, from outside.
If Chen Mobai remembered correctly, the shop providing gold powder for the talisman paper accessories factory was located here.
Cultivators almost always have good memories. Chen Mobai asked three people and accurately located Wu's Gold Shop in the corner of the trading market.
"Hello, customer, what do you need?"
Upon entering, a young cultivator holding a book behind the counter immediately stood up and greeted with a smile.
"Does your shop buy gold?"
Chen Mobai went straight to the point. He had already checked the latest gold prices published on the Xiandoor's website before coming here. Even if he took a slight loss in selling it here, he was willing to accept it.
However, the young cultivator did not haggle over prices. After he took the gold, he put it on a professional magic artifact to measure the parameters, and then offered a purchase price of 843 Good Deed Points based on the market price.
"The quality of your gold is pretty good, and it looks like it's been refined with spiritual power by a cultivator. Let's just round it up to 850."
Upon hearing this, Chen Mobai thought that the boss was reasonable and immediately nodded.
After transaction, seeing an additional 850 Good Deed Points in his account, Chen Mobai suppressed his inner joy, was about to leave, when he suddenly noticed the books on the counter of the young cultivator.
"Rank-2 Treasure Appraiser Examination Leaked Test Questions"
"Boss, are you also a treasure appraiser?"
Chen Mobai asked out of curiosity. As is well known, the qualification examinations of the Xiandoor are conducted in a Rank-1…Rank-2… sequence. Seeing that he was studying the contents of the Rank-2 treasure appraiser's examination suggested that he must've passed the Rank-1's.
"The exam questions were relatively simple two years ago, and I barely passed."
The young cultivator said with a modest attitude, then handed over a business card.
"Wu Wan"
"Owner of Wu's Gold Shop"
"Xiandoor Certified Rank-1 Treasure Appraiser"
After reading this, Chen Mobai became respectful.
The certificates for the art professions issued by Xiandoor are mostly granted after rigorous selection and examination by officials.
A Rank-1 Treasure Appraiser means that one has mastered most of the knowledge of appraising legal treasures and tools below Grade-2 and is allowed to register and get certified.
This young looking boss in front of him can issue certificates for all Rank-1 magic artifacts, and the results will be recognized by all trading markets.
"Master Wu, I happened to find a magic artifact from my ancestors during the time of pioneer wars when I was cleaning the old house during the winter vacation. Due to the long passage of time, nobody in the family showed any particular remembrance. Could you help appraise it?"
Chen Mobai took out the needle box from his backpack. Upon seeing this, Wu Wan, who had been smiling gently, immediately became serious. He first took a pair of disposable light gloves from his own showcase and put them on, then solemnly took over the box.
"Customer, do you want this magic artifact to be appraised preliminarily or thoroughly?"
Wu Wan's words left Chen Mobai in a daze. Isn't treasure appraisal supposed to be done in one go?
Knowing that he was a complete outsider, Wu Wan then explained it to him.
As it turns out, the appraisal of a magic artifact is divided into three levels.
The first level is to look. It determines the grade of the magic artifact, the materials, and the fabrication method.
The second level requires the use of professional equipment to measure the remaining service life of the artifact, and whether there are hidden defects.
As for the final, third level, it tests the appraiser's ability the most. It needs to reverse engineer the sacrificial refining method of the artifacts. The idea is to create or infer a mantra that can perfectly exhibit the power of the artifact for the artifact that has been sent over for appraisal.
The charges for these three stages increase progressively.
"However, a typical artifact appraisal, especially that of a Rank-1 artifact, only requires the first level appraisal."
After Wu Wan's explanation, Chen Mobai finally understood the intricacies.
The price of Rank-1 magic artifacts is limited, but the market is the largest and the profit is meagre. Except for the true top-quality items, it basically only requires first-level appraisal. Moreover, many shops only require a certificate from a treasure appraiser, purely for sale, and they will not spend a lot of money on a more in-depth appraisal.
Chen Mobai asked for the price. Wu Wan was a new treasure appraiser with few achievements and not enough points, so his charges were on the lower side.
"This artifact of yours is a Rank-1 intermediate-grade, so I'll just charge you 200 Good Deed Points."
After handling it a bit, Wu Wan had a rough idea about the grade of the needle box and gave a price that left Chen Mobai rather heartbroken.
That was enough to buy six Green Arrow Talismans.
But thinking of his awkward control of the flying needles and the dangers in the Water Mansion located in the Eastern Wilderness, Chen Mobai gritted his teeth and agreed.
Having negotiated the price, Wu Wan placed the needle box on a workstation at the corner of the shop and began the appraisal using his professional knowledge.
He first checked the spiritual power intensity, confirming the grade.
"The refining method is a bit unconventional, but judging from the overall spiritual power fluctuations and the materials, this is definitely a Rank-1 intermediate-grade magic artifact."
Wu Wan then took out a piece of A4-sized heavy paper, a standard Xiandoor certification paper, and filled in the results of his assessment in the respective fields of grade and materials.
"The needle box is carved out from a solid piece of magnet. If you want to know the exact type of magnet and its place of origin, a second-level appraisal is needed."
Upon hearing this, Chen Mobai promptly shook his head. That wasn't necessary.
"The flying needles seem to be a mix of several metals that greatly react to magnetism. Even if you want a second-level appraisal for this, I wouldn't be able to help as it requires specialised equipment."
"This magic artifact is quite ingenious, and does not demand much spiritual power."
"The key to controlling and managing lies in this needle box. As long as you can adeptly control the magnetism, you can easily control the flying needles."
Wu Wan, as a professional treasure appraiser, didn't infuse any spiritual power and only depended on his accumulated knowledge. He laid out the needle box's refining method and its usage tricks, fairly comprehensively.
When Chen Mobai thought about his time in the cultivation room at school, how he completely ignored this needle box, solely used it for storage, and kept forcefully pouring spiritual power into the flying needles, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
No wonder he was only able to control them for three minutes, running out of spiritual power, and that he'd attributed it to his low cultivation level.
He was using the wrong method all along. No wonder the effort did not equate the results.