Shen Le was still agonizing over how much money he would have to make to keep Cloud Kun fed and let it roam the four seas when the mutton fat jade he wanted arrived right in front of him.
And it wasn't just mutton fat jade. There was jadeite, jade, quartz, mica, and all sorts of ores-
Standing in the room, Shen Le pivoted on his heel and turned a full circle, feeling dizzy at the sight. Just how many kinds of minerals were there here?
Huh?
Did I sleepwalk through a portal last night? Had I left the naval port overnight and teleported to Capital City, straight into the mineral museum at the China University of Geosciences?
Shelves covered all four walls of the room except for the doors and windows. Each cubby was thirty centimeters high and thirty centimeters wide, with a different mineral in every one.
Egg-shaped amethyst geodes, clusters of clear quartz, marble patterned like mountains and rivers, multicolored tourmaline, cat's-eye stones with faintly shifting halos beneath their rocky outer layers-
"Heh... could you try all these minerals?"
Behind the middle-aged researcher working with him, a younger researcher leaned forward slightly, rubbing his hands as he looked at Shen Le.
"If there's anything else you want, just say the word. We'll do our best to bring it over! We have mutton fat jade from Khotan, Qinghai, Afghanistan, and Russia here-
"The Khotan material comes in mountain and river varieties. We only have a few samples of river jade, but for mountain jade, we can send word and have them rush to mine a few tons."
Shen Le let out a long breath. In this world, no force could compare with the power of the state.
The little spirits who traded with him could at most collect