Tattletale

At those words, Brother Knife's expression visibly froze.

His eyes darted rapidly as he forced a smile. "Hehe, I meant exactly what I said! Xu Xiao and some of the other students are staying in the girls' dormitory across the way. We don't get along too well."

"When I said I was going to 'meet with her,' I meant I wanted to discuss tomorrow's plan for going out to search for food."

"Is that so?"

Lu Li clearly didn't believe him. His eyes were full of suspicion as he looked at Brother Knife.

"It's absolutely true, Brother Lu Li! I'd never lie to you! If you don't believe me, you can go ask Xu Xiao yourself!"

Brother Knife patted his chest, looking utterly sincere.

"Fine. Then trouble yourself to take me over there."

Seeing that there was still some time before midnight, Lu Li started walking outside.

Brother Knife hurriedly climbed up from the ground and ordered his lackeys behind him, "What are you all standing around for?! Brother Lu Li is here—go notify everyone who needs notifying!"

One of the lackeys with dyed yellow hair nodded, passed straight by Lu Li, and ran outside with pounding footsteps.

"What's that for?"

Lu Li watched the little thug's retreating back warily.

"Oh, I told him to go call that chick Xu Xiao down first, so Brother Lu Li wouldn't have to wait..."

However, behind Lu Li's back, where he couldn't see, a lackey with white-dyed hair was using his Data Panel to send a message to a certain friend.

Elsewhere.

Zhao Jin, who had been assigning tasks to his subordinates, suddenly paused and casually opened his Data Panel.

There was only a single message on it.

"Lu Li located. Coordinates: Yong City No.1 High School Dormitory."

Zhao Jin's expression quickly turned ferocious as he muttered, "I thought we wouldn't be able to find him. He finally showed himself..."

"What? Did you find the person who killed A Hao?" A cool female voice came from beside Zhao Jin.

"That's right! Hong, handle the rest. I'm going to slaughter that brat and give A Hao justice!"

With that, Zhao Jin prepared to get up and leave.

"Let me go." Luo Hong pressed down on Zhao Jin's arm and shook her head. "Clan Elder specifically told us that tonight is crucial! And the Lin Family could come looking for trouble at any moment. You need to stay here and hold things down."

"But that brat isn't easy to deal with. Even A Hao fell to him..."

Zhao Jin hesitated, clearly disagreeing with his wife's suggestion.

"It's fine. I'll bring more people and flatten that rundown place directly."

Luo Hong spoke indifferently, her cold eyes devoid of even a trace of humanity. "While we're at it, we can clear out the survivors over there. After [Corpse Crystalization], we can obtain quite a few Origin Crystals."

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Jin sat back down in his chair. "That works. Those 'corpses' do need to be harvested. If you go, settle it all at once and save us a second trip."

After watching Luo Hong leave, Zhao Jin turned his gaze back to the people in the meeting room.

"Does anyone still have questions about tonight's mission? Speak up now."

Someone in the meeting room raised a hand. "Brother Jin, if that 'Trade Channel' really goes online, are we sure we'll only be collecting high-tier Origin Crystals? Shouldn't we pay attention to other things as well?"

Zhao Jin nodded. "That's right. For now, only collect high-tier Origin Crystals! Before the market stabilizes, all we need to do is accumulate initial capital! Level is what matters most!"

Someone else pressed on, "But Brother Jin, the other families will probably buy high-tier Origin Crystals too. If we keep driving up prices against each other, we'll likely lose a lot..."

"Lose?" Zhao Jin smiled, looking immensely pleased. "I'd love for the other families to bid against me! Remember, if anyone competes with us, always outbid them!"

"With Luo Hong around, only others can lose—the Zhao Family never will! Don't forget, we obtain Origin Crystals twice as fast as everyone else!"

Everyone nodded at that, though worried voices still rose.

"Brother Jin, everyone knows Sister Hong's ability, but the problem is that our Origin Crystal gains over the last two days haven't met expectations. The other families are probably taking action too."

"Yeah, yeah. Half the coordinate points given in the ancient book have already been cleared out. Nothing's left but corpses..."

"We don't have many Origin Crystals on hand. If we start a price war with the other families, we're afraid we'll hurt ourselves nearly as much as we hurt them..."

Zhao Jin waved a hand, signaling everyone to quiet down:

"Don't worry, everyone! No matter what, the Zhao Family has already seized the initiative. Collect as many high-order mana crystals as you can!"

"When necessary, use the Zhao Family name to pressure the price down a little..."

"Do me a favor?"

Lu Li set the two backpacks on the ground and looked at Xu Xiao with utter sincerity.

The zippers were pulled halfway open, revealing the bright red Second-Order Mana Crystals inside.

"Where did you get so many Second-Order Mana Crystals...?"

Xu Xiao stared in astonishment, unable to stop herself from rubbing her eyes.

"Don't worry about that. As long as you help me, this Third-Order Mana Crystal is yours."

As he spoke, Lu Li pulled an orange mana crystal from the other backpack.

Xu Xiao was currently Lv.3 and had yet to absorb ten mana crystals.

With this Third-Order Mana Crystal, she could reach Lv.4 in one go.

Lu Li's offer was highly tempting to her.

However, Xu Xiao did not agree immediately. Instead, she replied jokingly:

"Don't you still owe me a favor? Why not use that Third-Order Mana Crystal to pay me back?"

"That was a life-saving favor. Are you sure, Class President?"

Lu Li wore the same teasing smile as he pretended to stuff the entire backpack into Xu Xiao's hands.

"Hmph, I can't let you off that easily. Tell me, what do you need help with?"

Xu Xiao rolled her eyes and pushed the backpack away.

"Simple..."

Lu Li deliberately dragged out the word, then looked back at Brother Knife and the Yellow-Haired Henchman.

"If there's nothing else, you two should leave first. We need to discuss something private."

Upon hearing Lu Li's words, Brother Knife and Yellow-Haired Henchman both shuddered, forcibly tearing their gazes away from the two backpacks full of mana crystals.

"Alright, then we won't disturb you, Brother Lu Li. If you need anything, just come find me!"

Only after watching the two disappear from sight did Lu Li explain what he wanted Xu Xiao to do.

"Trade First-Order Mana Crystals for high-order mana crystals? But I don't have that many First-Order Mana Crystals either..."

Xu Xiao looked utterly confused.

Not to mention that, at the moment, the Data Panel had not launched a platform where Players around the world could trade with one another;

even if everything happened exactly as he said and the [Global Trading Market] went online after midnight, who would trade high-order mana crystals for low-order ones?

Everyone now knew that there was a limit to mana crystal absorption: only ten could be absorbed every seven days.

Everyone was racking their brains to trade low-order mana crystals for high-order ones, so they could get as far ahead of others in level as possible.

Lu Li wanted a share of the pie too, but could he really compete with everyone else?

Lu Li was completely confident.

"Don't worry. Unless something unexpected happens, you won't be able to buy even a single high-order mana crystal."

Xu Xiao was dumbfounded. She even wondered if she had misheard him.

"Not even one? Then what am I supposed to be busy for? To be the trading market's hype crew?!"

"Exactly."

Xu Xiao's mouth fell slightly open. After a brief moment of thought, she finally understood what Lu Li meant.

"You want me to drive up the price of high-order mana crystals?!"

Lu Li nodded, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

"But what's the point of doing that? You could clearly use high-order mana crystals to level up. Why go against the grain and trade them for low-order mana crystals instead?"

Xu Xiao was getting anxious.

She felt that Lu Li, still at Lv.0, might not understand the restriction that Players could only absorb ten mana crystals every seven days.

"You don't need to worry about that. In any case, the more First-Order Mana Crystals we can trade for, the better. Also, there's something else I need to ask you..."

Lu Li suddenly turned toward the Boys' Dormitory, his expression grave.

"...Does that gang leader called 'Brother Knife' know that I killed Chen Hao?"