The slower mine still produced more Stellar-Steel than Austin needed. A bucket elevator lifted cooled ingots to the tool shed. The pangolins hauled stone below. Xiaoyao kept the stock counts and water readings on separate boards so one could not hide the other.
The remaining problem was a bucket of sharp lathe curls beside Austin’s bench.
“Gu Qing can sell this scrap,” he said. “It narrows the walkway under twenty-four inches. Textbook tripping hazard.”
Gu Qing saw treasure where Austin saw cleanup. He packed the shavings in small boxes and sold ten lots at the Canglan Border Trade Fair. Buyers bid wildly. One tiny curl split an ancient anvil during a public test.
The sect earned more than four hundred thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones.
Gu Qing wept in the treasury. Then he ordered weekly scrap sales.
The effect reached the valley before the next shipment left.
Master Luo, who ran a small smithy beside the market, arrived with three cold contracts. Two tool shops had closed their forges. Apprentices were being sent home because nobody wanted ordinary steel when a trace of Stellar-Steel made a stronger blade for less work.
“Your metal is not only raising our income,” he told Gu Qing. “It is taking away everyone else’s.”
Austin heard the complaint during his morning inspection.
Gu Qing defended the sales. “We limited each lot. Buyers set the price.”
“You flooded a small market with a material they cannot match,” Austin said. “A cap on box size is not a cap on supply.”
He counted the recent shipments and called Kang into the meeting. Kang understood contracts and regional buyers. Master Luo spoke for the independent smiths.
The new rule was simple: no more than one small scrap crate every thirty days, with sales spread among several markets. No surprise auctions. No dumping stock to force prices down. Ingots for tools and farm equipment would be sold under posted prices instead of going to the highest bidder.
Gu Qing looked pained. “That will reduce our windfall.”
“It will also leave customers alive to buy from us next year.”
Austin added another goal to his plans for the Canglan Expo. He would not just look for blueprints. He would negotiate stable trade terms with guilds, small smiths, and the Pavilion. They needed agreed volumes, fair prices, and time for local workshops to adapt.
Kang nodded. “A predictable contract is worth more than one wild auction.”
Master Luo did not bow. He simply asked whether his apprentices could buy small amounts at the posted rate.
“Yes,” Austin said. “And bring me a list of tools your shops actually need. Fancy swords are low on mine.”
That evening, Gu Qing placed the sales cap on the treasury board. He still touched the spirit-stone vault door with affection, but he stopped the next shipment.
Austin checked the transaction log.
“Passive income is useful,” he told Chonker. “Ruining the whole vendor network is not.”
Far above them, five hundred war horns answered from the eastern pass.