Chapter 16: The Madness of Bubbles
Chapter 16: The Madness of Bubbles
With Zhao Xuhe’s guarantee, Lv Yang successfully secured a 2,000 Contribution Points loan from the Three Rivers Association behind him, then invested his entire fortune into buying Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet.
Meanwhile, Zhao Xuhe paced excitedly inside his cultivation cave.
“It’s actually true!”
After receiving news from his master, he felt electrified: “The Holy Sect’s Ten-Thousand Corpses Pit in Jiangnan was actually captured by the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion!”
“The one who struck was the Third Elder of the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion—the legendary ‘Sage of Demonic Subjugation,’ a peerless sword cultivator.”
“There’s no way to reclaim it immediately.”
“The loss of the pit ensures the Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet’s price will skyrocket. This is our golden opportunity to speculate and hoard for profit!”
“I’m going to get rich!”
As a disciple steward of the Merit Accumulation Hall within the Holy Sect, Zhao Xuhe naturally had connections, insight, and greed in equal measure. The moment he confirmed Lv Yang’s intelligence was accurate, he immediately gathered funds and poured every last Contribution Point into buying Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet.
Events unfolded exactly as he predicted.
As news of the Jiangnan pit’s fall spread, more and more “opportunists” began snapping up Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet at premium prices.
Just like any speculative bubble, the earliest investors reaped huge profits.
However, as the frenzy continued, people noticed the Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet’s price showed no sign of dropping—buying high and selling higher became routine.
Making money suddenly felt effortless.
Buy low, sell high, and earn Contribution Points equivalent to completing dozens of sect missions in mere days.
Soon, even more people joined the craze, pouring their life savings into the market—and they too profited handsomely, further fueling the frenzy.
Even cautious cultivators couldn’t resist when they saw juniors they once looked down upon buying a few items, holding them for days, then earning more Contribution Points than they could make in months. Resentment turned to action—everyone joined the wave.
Under this tidal surge, the Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet’s price soared.
From an initial 200 Contribution Points, it climbed to 300—a 50% surge that drove speculators into a frenzy.
After all, the price kept rising.
It went up today, it would rise tomorrow, and why wouldn’t it climb further the day after? Hesitating to buy now meant missing out on guaranteed profits!
The rush intensified.
300… 400… 500.
Finally, when the price hit 500 Contribution Points, a sliver of rationality returned.
“It’s time to sell!”
Zhao Xuhe seized this delicate moment, secretly offloading his hoarded Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet in batches, preparing to cash out and exit.
Simultaneously, the entire market began to correct itself.
After all, Zhao Xuhe wasn’t the only sharp mind around—others sensed the downturn and started selling their stock.
At this rate, prices would collapse within days and return to normal.
But just as the tide seemed to ebb, a shocking message erupted from the Primordial Sacred Sect’s upper echelons, spreading across the sect overnight.
“The Holy Sect is preparing a counterattack!”
“A Grand Elder, enraged by the loss of the Jiangnan pit, has decided to intervene personally, mobilizing disciples for a retaliatory strike against the Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion!”
“A great battle is coming!”
In wartime, all strategic resources surge in value.
The Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet—a life-saving tool in critical moments—became priceless amid the impending brutal clash between righteous and demonic sects.
A second life!
Unquestionably, the moment this news broke, the Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet’s price—already cooling down—exploded upward once more!
Not only did it instantly rebound to its previous peak of 500 Contribution Points, it kept climbing!
By morning, 500 had become 1,000 Contribution Points—five times its original price!
“Hahahahaha!”
In his Scripting Hall, Wang Borong stood on his beloved rocking chair, arms flailing with excitement, his aged face flushed crimson with ecstasy.
“Keep rising! Keep rising!”
“No, I need to buy more! Selling now won’t earn much—hoard more, and soon I’ll have enough for an entire cultivation cave’s worth of Contribution Points!”
At this moment, ordinary disciples across the Holy Sect erupted into celebration.
Most lacked foresight, connections, or insider knowledge. While the savvy investors quietly sold, they kept buying.
And now, they struck gold.
Countless ordinary disciples suddenly became millionaires overnight, their earnings surpassing even senior disciples with powerful patrons.
Tales of miraculous rags-to-riches spread like wildfire.
A penniless youth, publicly jilted by his fiancée, turned his fortune around and divorced her with the sneer: “Never underestimate a young man’s potential!”
A girl, orphaned and abused by her stepmother, living in squalor and stripped of her father’s inheritance, suddenly bought a high-grade cultivation cave outright.
Do you have dreams? Want to fulfill them?
Buy Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet!
This collective madness reached its zenith when a disciple at the Refining Qi Perfection stage publicly announced his Foundation Building breakthrough.
He openly declared that his success came solely from buying and selling Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet—earning enough Contribution Points to purchase a Foundation Building Pill outright. “I owe my life-changing breakthrough to the Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet!”
The market went berserk.
1,000… 2,000… 3,000.
The Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet’s price soared beyond all reason.
Watching the skyrocketing prices, some rejoiced, others despaired.
Lv Yang, for one, rejoiced.
He sold decisively when the price hit 2,000.
After buying ten units at 200 Contribution Points each, selling them at 2,000 netted him a 20,000 Contribution Point profit—tenfold returns!
Zhao Xuhe, however, was heartbroken.
When the price rebounded, he twisted with regret, especially after seeing Wang Borong—the man he once scorned and schemed against.
As far as he knew, Wang Borong, a mediocre cultivator teetering on the edge of death for decades, had hoarded over twenty Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet at premium prices. Zhao had secretly mocked him as ripe for the shearing.
But now, that man was about to earn 100,000 Contribution Points!
If Zhao had simply missed out, it would’ve been bearable.
But seeing Wang Borong’s smug face every day made the loss feel a thousand times worse.
Watching the Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet’s relentless price surge, Zhao Xuhe agonized all night.
Finally, he re-entered the market.
He poured all the Contribution Points he’d earned from his earlier exit back into buying Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet.
At first, he remained cautious, investing only part of his funds. But as the price climbed, every tick upward felt like a personal loss.
“Opportunity knocks once—having missed once, how can I let this second chance slip away?”
“It’ll keep rising. Buying now is better than waiting for higher prices later.”
Zhao Xuhe wasn’t alone in this thinking.
As the earliest sellers returned to the market, their actions reignited the Soul-Stealing Yin Puppet’s upward spiral, further cementing everyone’s confidence.
(End of Chapter)
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