Chapter 10 – Selling a Paper Ship at a 'Sky-High Price'

Compared to ordinary people, Mu Lin was already extremely fortunate. Many talented art masters, not knowing where the path forward lay, often remained trapped at the Master level—and this confinement would last a lifetime.

As for Mu Lin, although his path toward Grandmaster was arduous and intricate, he at least had a road to follow.

“Take it slow. Besides, ‘lifelike’—this trait doesn’t seem entirely useless for the Paper Folding Secret Art…”

With a sense of novelty and even playfulness, Mu Lin spent the following time folding paper snakes, paper swords, paper trees, paper butterflies, paper cranes, and even some large-scale paper structures. Along the way, he also folded paper figures and paper flowers…

Ordinary paper figures and paper flowers indeed did not provide proficiency points.

But people come in hundreds of varieties, and flowers in thousands of forms. Once, through a clever trick, Mu Lin folded a majestic paper soldier, and after seeing “Paper Folding Proficiency +1,” he knew he had found a shortcut.

Thus, he went on to fold paper scholar figures, paper monk figures, paper Daoist figures, paper official figures, paper general figures…

Even carried away by his playful mood, he used a large sheet of paper to fold an exquisite Paper Tower Ship, placing numerous paper figures, paper flowers, and paper lanterns inside.

This series of creations turned the Paper Tower Ship into a true artwork—so much so that even Mu Lin couldn’t bear to discard it.

“I’ll take it home later and keep it as a decoration.”

“Gurgle…”

Only after finishing the paper ship did Mu Lin realize that crafting the Paper Tower Ship had taken up a lot of time. By now, mealtime had passed, and his stomach was growling loudly.

He patted his head in frustration:

“Got carried away again. I hope the cafeteria still has food… Huh?!”

Pulling his attention away from paper folding, Mu Lin originally intended to head to the cafeteria. But as soon as he looked up, he was startled.

All his classmates, who had been quietly cultivating, were now staring wide-eyed at his paper creations.

Some of the girls had even moved closer to his desk to get a better look.

“…”

This scene was unexpected for Mu Lin. However, people naturally appreciate beauty.

Mu Lin’s paper folding had even been recognized by the Proficiency Panel as a Master’s Work. He himself felt quite pleased when looking at it, so it wasn’t surprising that some girls were captivated by it.

Just as Mu Lin was unsure what to say under everyone’s gaze,

a girl, noticing he had snapped out of his focus, covered her mouth and laughed:

“Folded so exquisitely—who would have thought Young Master Mu had such skill?”

“Indeed, those flowers look as if they’re real… no, even real ones aren’t this beautiful.”

“I prefer the little paper figures…”

“The best is still the Paper Tower Ship. It’s truly stunning.”

“Young Master Mu’s craftsmanship would already qualify as Master-level in the mortal world…”

A barrage of praises rained down, but instead of making Mu Lin happy, it made him frown.

He didn’t want to stand out, and he knew all too well that youths, in their spirited and competitive phase, might cause trouble if he attracted too much admiration from the girls.

In fact, some were already displeased upon seeing Mu Lin draw the attention of most of the girls.

Fortunately, the teachers and elders in the Dao Palace still managed affairs, and as a disciple of the Dao Palace, he was akin to a scholar or a successful candidate in the imperial examinations in his previous life—someone of status—so no one thought to harm him in secret.

However, some still grumbled unhappily: “Hmph, what’s there to be so proud of!”

“These frivolous tricks are nothing. For us Qi Refiners, cultivation is what truly matters.”

“Just someone who loves to show off…”

Mu Lin didn’t see the mockery and comments from others, as they were blocked by the young girls.

But sensing trouble, Mu Lin was already thinking of ways to avoid it.

Just as he was pondering, a young girl, somewhat impatient and a little embarrassed, asked: “Young Master Mu… are you still keeping these things you folded? Could you… um… sell me one?”

Originally, the girl had wanted to ask for one as a gift, but the paper folding was so exquisite, like a work of art, that she couldn’t bring herself to say “give.”

As for Mu Lin, he also felt too embarrassed to ask for money.

Though he was short on money, he didn’t think his folded creations could fetch the price of a Spirit Stone. As for ordinary silver, he wasn’t lacking much, so he intended to simply say he’d give it away.

However, Mu Lin had forgotten one thing.

In feudal times, ordinary people were indeed poor, but only ordinary people were poor.

In the ancient times of his previous life, while some starved to death, others ate only the finest parts of vegetables or duck tongues, spending dozens of taels of silver on a single meal, and dared to sell fans or paintings for hundreds of taels.

In this world, the extravagance of cultivation families was no less than in his previous life.

Thus, with his commoner mindset, Mu Lin thought no one would spend Spirit Stones to buy his paper flowers. But soon, he was proven wrong.

“Can I buy it with a Spirit Crystal?”

“?!?”

“Do you think Spirit Crystals are cheap? But your paper flowers are still just ordinary objects…”

The girl’s voice snapped Mu Lin out of his daze. Once he regained his senses, he quickly replied:

“That’s more than enough. One Spirit Crystal each, take any from the table. If there’s something specific you want, you can tell me—I accept custom orders.”

Although Spirit Crystals were merely fragments of Spirit Stones with limited purchasing power, they could still buy a bowl of Spirit Rice Meal. Since she was willing to pay with a Spirit Crystal, Mu Lin was more than happy to agree.

“I want this paper lily, and this Paper Figure, and this paper general is also nice…”

“Could you let me have this paper general? I think he’s great too…”

“Here, this is one Spirit Crystal. I’ll take this Paper Figure scholar.”

“I want this lantern…”

To Mu Lin’s surprise, his paper creations sold quite well.

To be honest, by this point, Mu Lin could still understand it.

In his previous life, there were people who spent thousands or even tens of thousands on figurines and beloved items.

But what happened next was beyond his comprehension.

Among the many things Mu Lin had folded, the most beautiful and luxurious was undoubtedly the Flower Boat that occupied more than half of the low table.

Inside the boat were maids, scholars, young masters, generals, and various lanterns and objects… To craft it, Mu Lin had truly invested a great deal of effort, even skipping lunch.

The grand and luxurious Paper Tower Ship was also the reason he had attracted so many people.

And this was something everyone wanted.

This time, it wasn’t just the girls—even some young men were tempted.

Immediately, someone made an offer.

And with that opening bid, it was three Spirit Stones.

At this point, the offers were still within a normal range.

But after someone arrived, the situation changed.

The person who arrived was the noble daughter from a prominent family who had successfully achieved Sensing yesterday, and the crowd surrounding her was no smaller than that of a first-class prodigy.

As soon as she spoke, she stunned everyone.

“Fifty Spirit Stones. This thing is mine.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Upon hearing this, not only was Mu Lin dumbfounded, but the people around him were also left speechless.

They could afford fifty Spirit Stones, but spending such an amount on a mundane item was excessively extravagant.

Among the stunned crowd, the first to regain his composure was… Mu Lin.

Such behavior was indeed extravagant, but in his previous life, he had seen it before.

Leaving aside the astronomical auction prices of artworks, just consider this: tipping a streamer a million—wasn’t that mindless? Wasn’t it exaggerated? Could many people even comprehend it?

But did such things happen? They absolutely did!

In fact, a million wasn’t even the limit; tips reaching tens of millions had also occurred.

With his past-life experiences, he actually understood the arrogant, princess-like girl who directly offered fifty Spirit Stones to buy the Paper Tower Ship.

He might consider fifty Spirit Stones valuable, but for her, it was likely just pocket money.

What shocked and surprised him was that such immense fortune had actually landed on his head.

Once he regained his senses, Mu Lin quickly said, “This Paper Tower Ship is yours. If there are any improvements you’d like, just let me know—I offer after-sales service!”

Faced with such a wealthy woman… a wealthy young lady, Mu Lin’s attitude was exceptionally good.

As for arrogance—if someone dared to act that way over one or two Spirit Crystals, Mu Lin would indeed consider them arrogant and, with great pride, demand better manners.

But with ten Spirit Stones, it wasn’t arrogance—it was personality.

With fifty, whatever you said was right.

(End of Chapter)