"Sold?" At that moment, on a top-tier Administrative Star in the distant Eastern Star System, one wrapped in Dream Crystal, an exquisitely beautiful elf sat elegantly upon an Ice Crystal Throne. She leisurely held a glass of fine wine sparkling with blue starlight and asked the subordinate reporting to her through the enormous Virtual Screen in the sky.
If Xi Ye had been there, he would have discovered that the subordinate on the screen was actually the shy little Flower Spirit from earlier.
The Flower Spirit had changed her outfit. Although she still had the same face as before, her bearing was completely different. Even through the screen, one could sense the aura of a Grand Craftsman from her. Her pair of Star Light Eyes seemed capable of seeing through billions upon billions of stars to peer directly into this place. Clearly, this was the might possessed only by a rare Immortal Life!
"Reporting to the lord, it was sold just now," the Female Flower Spirit said with a slight smile.
"There's no problem with the other party's background, right?" The elf called the lord narrowed her Star Eyes as she asked.
"No problem!" the Female Flower Spirit said solemnly. "He's a Little Lord of the Eldia Family. He happened to find a Level 8 Planet with Energy Ore. Powers like that disappear countless times every day in the universe. No one will notice."
"Are you sure it's really him?"
"Absolutely!" The Flower Spirit nodded. "In front of me, even a star-grade shapeshifter couldn't perfectly disguise itself as a Level 5 lord!"
"Good!" The elf lord nodded in satisfaction. "Once this batch of goods is sold, erase all traces. Don't let that bitch Cang Yue find an excuse. Our organization has never conducted experiments on the Abyss!!"
At the mention of Cang Yue, a trace of fear flashed across the Flower Spirit's face, and she nodded repeatedly. "Yes. We have absolutely nothing to do with the Abyss..."
"Grandpa, did you buy so many strings of eggs? Can you even use them all?" The Panda Man Dabao followed behind Xi Ye and asked curiously.
"It is a bit much..." Xi Ye scratched his helmet. More than one hundred thousand of them—how many players would he need to recruit to get one hundred thousand Flower Spirits?
Sure enough, he had been too impulsive with his spending. But... buying one hundred thousand got him a fifty percent discount... After calculating it, each one had only cost fifty yuan. Thinking about it that way, it was still quite a good deal...
"Ahem... After you go back, don't keep calling them chuanchuan this and chuanchuan that!"
Dabao said, "But Rural Dogs are called chuanchuan where we come from!"
"That's where you're from!" Xi Ye glared at the clueless, blockheaded panda before continuing, "These are Rural Dogs from Lord Aisana's Governing Star. On a Special Grade Planet like that, even the feces of ordinary creatures are high-grade energy materials. The locals call them chuanchuan and Rural Dogs, but you're an alien. Can you just call them that too?"
"What should we call them, then?" Dabao asked as he honestly rubbed his chubby head.
"Ahem... This lord has already thought of a name. We'll call them Star Devouring Dogs! No arguing. That's what we'll call them from now on. Understand?"
Dabao said, "Yes, Grandpa!"
"Mm..." Xi Ye nodded in satisfaction. Although this fellow was a bit dim-witted, he seemed quite obedient.
"Grandpa, where are we going now?"
"To buy a mech..." Xi Ye replied casually, but suddenly sensed that something was off. He turned around and carefully looked Dabao over, then asked blankly, "We've only taken a few steps. Why are you sweating all over?"
Dabao said, "I'm tired. All Panda Men are like this. We usually travel by rolling, but we can't roll here. What if I accidentally smash something displayed outside a shop? Even if you sold me, Grandpa, you couldn't afford the compensation, right?"
"Mm... That makes sense. Wait, no!" Xi Ye shook his head. "That's not the point. You're a blacksmith. You're already panting after walking just a few steps. Do you even have enough stamina to forge normally?"
"No..." Dabao answered honestly. "That's why I can only forge one Exquisite Sword every five days!"
"One every five days?" Xi Ye nearly bit his tongue when he heard that. Suddenly feeling uneasy, he hurriedly asked, "But... that goblin said you had mastered the pure Bronze Race craftsmanship..."
"That's right!" Dabao said foolishly. "Didn't Grandpa see? I can activate Pill Fire. It's the pure Bronze Race runic forging technique!"
"But... if you can only forge one Exquisite Sword every five days, how long will it take you to forge a Ranked Weapon?"
Dabao paused. "Oh, then it might have to be calculated in years."
"Pfft!!"
Xi Ye nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. After barely suppressing it, he lowered his voice and rasped, "You dare charge five million for a knockoff like this?"
Dabao curiously scratched his head. "Dabao is a Panda Man. I'm a knockoff by nature. Grandpa, you didn't think five million could buy you a genuine, problem-free Bronze Race blacksmith, did you?"
As he spoke, his foolish expression widened, his pupils expanding as though he were thinking, Could this Grandpa be an idiot?
Xi Ye: "..."
Was he the first person in the history of the Celestial Race to be looked at with that expression by a Panda Man?
Damn it! He should have known. How could anyone possibly get such a good deal from a goblin?
What was he supposed to do now? How could he explain this after returning without being despised by the intelligence?
Should he say that he had spent ten million buying a pile of Rural Dog eggs and one foolish panda who could only forge a weapon every five days?
The intelligence would definitely trample him into the dirt, right?
"Respected lord, the Mecha Warrior Instructor you reserved has arrived. Please join the meeting through the network as soon as possible. Friendly reminder: A good habit of punctuality will make job seekers trust your character more."
"Is it this afternoon?" Xi Ye frowned slightly, feeling somewhat confused. Should he buy another intelligence? The base was developing rapidly now, and naturally could not do without intelligence to maintain it.
He was in the Federation's center, and to avoid exposing his location, he naturally did not dare connect to his base's network. This was common knowledge. Not to mention lords—even ordinary workers employed on a planet were generally forbidden from connecting to their home planet's network when they took leave and returned home, precisely to prevent the planet's location from being exposed.
The Dark Forest Law had always been a fundamental law followed by the universe's various major powers. Even Great Lords, aside from Governing Stars and trade stars whose locations could no longer be concealed, kept most Life Star Systems and Mineral Stars strictly confidential. After all, a large faction might span tens of billions of light-years. Once a planet was exposed and discovered by an enemy faction, they could destroy it before your reinforcements even had time to arrive.
But good intelligence was expensive. His first intelligence had been an additional gift from the Federation to encourage members of the Celestial Race to travel abroad. A truly good intelligence cost at least a billion. His base was currently at the stage where it needed to spend money everywhere. Buying an intelligence just to carry a personal schedule manager would be far too extravagant...
After sighing, Xi Ye looked at the meeting time displayed by the Talent Network. Knowing that it was already too late to return to the hotel, he could only take Dabao into a random snack shop, sit down, and connect to the network to transfer over.
But a few hours later, he would discover just how foolish it had been to leave a Panda Man in a snack shop on such an expensive free-trade star!!
Before you continue