Liu Yun returned to Jiangnan City and headed home alone from the airport. He sold off all the monster materials he had on hand and ended up earning nearly eight billion!
The pile of monster materials sold for two billion, while the ten intermediate flying beast generals fetched six billion, leaving Liu Yun with a fortune. Of course, Liu Yun also sold the beast generals Yang Xiaolong and the others had seized to the HR Alliance, telling them to buy their own if they wanted any.
"Captain, can't we talk this over?"
Ruby, a Psychic, tried to persuade Liu Yun to stay. He grinned, showing a mouthful of white teeth.
"I already told Glinda: don't bother me unless you're a War God. Find another way forward!"
Liu Yun's figure gradually disappeared amid the bustle of the airport, leaving his companions staring at one another. Ruby, Yang Xiaolong, Blacka, and Xueni felt conflicted. They were stunned by Liu Yun's strength, yet worried about what the future held. Glinda was so furious that she stamped her foot. She knew what Liu Yun's decision meant: their small team might fall apart for good.
"Glinda, don't be angry. Liu Yun has always had his own plans." Ruby tried to soothe the agitated Glinda. Her eyes showed helplessness, but also resolve. "We need to figure things out ourselves. We can't keep relying on others."
Her words did no good. Glinda, whose gentle temper had earned her a reputation as the grandmaster of playing the innocent, lost her composure in public for the first time and began blaming the others.
"What are you talking about? Do you know how much effort and how many rare materials I put into this team? Are you idiots? Do you think the HR Alliance is worse at evaluating people than you are?"
All Glinda could do was yell, but she soon regained her composure. After glaring at the others, she returned to the HR Alliance. She had other plans, and needed to investigate Liu Yun's background all over again.
Liu Yun, meanwhile, had no time to worry about any of that. This time, he acted even faster. Now that he had reached the Invincible War God level, it was much easier for him to avoid detection!
He found all the materials he needed in the basement, then quickly brought them to the base. Soon, the base would reveal its true power!
As mentioned before, the greatest power of a Machine Race Base—whose technology far surpassed Earth's—was not its combat capability, but its impact on human society.
"Earth was modified. Those born here have far greater talent than other species, yet they ultimately end up lost in the dust!"
As Liu Yun watched the Mechanical Base mercilessly devour endless supplies of materials, he thought that what Earth needed most was technology. Once its technology caught up, Earthlings' natural talents would give nearly everyone Star Level combat strength—and that was an underestimate.
Earth was an extraordinarily important treasure land, a mystical place altered by Mountain Sitting Guest. Any life born on Earth underwent a special evolution in some aspect of the soul. Earthlings also possessed exceptional mental fortitude and comprehension, far surpassing other species. Neither of those qualities could be lacking in anyone hoping to become a powerhouse. That was why Hong and Thunder God had been able to develop domains while still at the Planetary Level.
It could be said that once this Machine Race Base was fully operational, it could use industrial-scale production to make enormous quantities of Cell Evolution Fluid. Humanity would then make a tremendous leap forward.
Reaching the Planetary Stage was relatively easy. Such things were even sold among the human race, but Earthlings could never afford them! If Earth Humans could mass-produce their own Cell Evolution Fluid, they would no longer have to waste money. They could make every human a Planetary Stage expert.
He even suspected that it might be possible for every Earthling to reach Domain Lord level. With the Mechanical Base's capabilities, Earth's lifeforms could surely attain an unprecedented level of transcendence! Then they would no longer need to fear the Golden Horned Beast.
Meanwhile, within the HR Alliance, those who knew Liu Yun best quickly realized the immense potential he had been hiding.
As Ruby, Yang Xiaolong, Blacka, and Xueni watched, Glinda took a deep breath and struggled to calm herself. She decided to use the HR Alliance's resources to look further into Liu Yun's true worth and abilities. She turned and walked toward a high-tech communications room, equipped with holographic projection technology that could connect to the HR Alliance's leadership.
A faint hum filled the room, and it was soon bathed in soft light. A three-dimensional image slowly took shape in the air: Atkin, the Fifth Speaker of the HR Alliance.
"Glinda, what urgent matter requires you to contact me directly?" Atkin's voice came through the hologram, clear and firm.
Glinda nodded and spoke gravely. "Speaker, I must report the latest developments regarding Liu Yun. Not only does he possess extraordinary strength, he's also demonstrated an ability we've never seen before—he can easily tame beast general monsters, and even emerge unscathed after facing a high-level monster like the Iron Armored Dragon."
Atkin frowned within the hologram. As a major antagonist later in the story, he was clearly intrigued by this news.
"Tell me in detail. Do we have any other information on him?"
Glinda gave him a thorough account of Liu Yun's injury and loss of hope, his sudden and inexplicable recovery, and his later entry into the HR Alliance. She covered everything up to his rise to War God, analyzing the intelligence in depth.
"More importantly, I believe Liu Yun may have some kind of technology or secret we don't know about. It could be crucial to the entire HR Alliance!"
Glinda felt a great sense of satisfaction saying this. She had been watching Liu Yun for a long time and had always suspected as much. What she hadn't realized was just how vast the secret behind him was.
"Hmm... What if we send a few people to follow him and investigate?"
Atkin also found it strange. Liu Yun seemed like the protagonist of a wish-fulfillment novel, with one legendary quality after another.
Glinda couldn't help glaring at the girls beside her. They were only now beginning to realize that Liu Yun had played them. His strength had been suppressed so perfectly at the time that anyone could have been fooled.
"Impossible. He's too clever. He shook off our people immediately!"
She didn't blame the others again. Even the grandmaster of playing innocent had some self-control, but her words only made the four women feel worse.
At that, Atkin had nothing to say. He simply began paying close attention to all the information on Liu Yun! Most of it consisted of photos of him appearing in public. There was no obvious difference between the earlier and later pictures, except that he now wore a sparkling Crystal Ball pendant on his chest.
"There's too little information. Don't rush into anything. Investigate thoroughly first! Start with that Crystal Ball."
Atkin had said it offhand, but he had unexpectedly hit the heart of the matter. Everything had changed because of the Crystal Ball.
Just then, Ruby spoke up from beside him as she looked at Liu Yun's file.
"I think it's the Crystal Ball! It's so magical! It's like Cinderella getting everything she wanted with the help of a magic Crystal."
Only girls like them would say something like that, thinking entirely from their own perspective. Atkin scoffed and hung up without another word.
Glinda coldly reprimanded them, but each of the women had standing of her own, especially Xueni, so none of them was punished in any way. They were simply left behind in Jiangnan City, forgotten and ignored.
The investigation into Liu Yun officially began, with the Crystal Ball as its target. The schemes of those with ulterior motives rarely came to nothing—but the outcome, when it came, was often beyond everyone's expectations.
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