Whale Rubber! It Was Actually Whale Rubber!

The night by the sea was slightly different. Stars dotted the sky, and the moon hung like a crescent hook, yet tonight, it seemed tinged with a faint hint of blood.

Bonfires blazed throughout Moon Bay as the villagers danced around them, performing a dance unique to their village.

The fiery, beautiful young women pulled Cheng Xiao into the crowd. At first, he was a little embarrassed, but he was quickly swept up by the joyful atmosphere. Holding hands with the young women, he began to dance awkwardly.

What troubled Cheng Xiao was that these young women kept touching him all over, thoroughly feeling up every inch of him.

But how could Cheng Xiao be a timid man? It would be rude not to reciprocate. Amid the peals of laughter, Cheng Xiao sampled the ladies' rouge.

Still, Cheng Xiao felt rather melancholy. Watching the ladies leave, thoroughly satisfied, he could not figure out who had gotten the worse end of the deal.

Seeing this, Lyu Han leaned close and whispered a few words into Cheng Yu's ear.

"Huh? What did you say?" The banquet was too noisy for Cheng Yu to hear clearly. Holding up his wine cup, he tilted his ear toward Lyu Han and shouted.

"I said, your nephew is pretty popular. Maybe your share will increase this year!"

"Hahaha, life isn't easy, life isn't easy!" Cheng Yu laughed heartily, clinked cups with him, and drained his wine.

Cheng Xiao sighed.

After growing tired of playing, Cheng Xiao slipped away and wandered around aimlessly. When he saw people carving up the demon whale corpses, he stopped to watch.

The butchers' knife work was superb. Every cut looked like art, so exquisite it made one gasp in amazement. Any deeper would have been too much, any shallower too little.

It was actually pretty stress-relieving, not much worse than trimming donkey hooves.

Demon whale meat was continuously sent into the cauldrons over the bonfires, where it was rendered into whale oil. Its captivating fragrance added a touch of wonder to the bonfire celebration.

Cheng Xiao became engrossed in watching. One demon whale corpse after another was processed, yet he did not grow bored in the slightest.

He did not know how much time had passed when he suddenly saw a butcher split open a demon whale's skull. That was nothing surprising; they seemed to do it with every corpse.

However, this time, the butcher's actions made Cheng Xiao's pupils contract. The butcher reached into the demon whale's skull, pulled out a golden crystal, and casually tossed it onto a nearby pile of remains.

Whale Rubber! It was actually Whale Rubber!

"Wait, you're just throwing it away?" Cheng Xiao asked in astonishment.

"That thing?" The butcher glanced at the golden crystal he had tossed aside. "It's a lump that grows inside a demon whale's head. It's useless and can't be cooked."

At those words, Cheng Xiao's breathing nearly stopped. A lump? Useless? That was Whale Rubber!

Whale Rubber that could raise the maximum number of years a Soul Master could absorb from a soul ring by an entire tier!

And they were just throwing it away?

But Cheng Xiao quickly realized that Whale Rubber was an item only mentioned in the original work ten thousand years later.

In this era, almost everyone rigidly believed that there was a maximum limit to soul ring absorption. Only a small number believed that the absorption limit was related to martial soul quality, physical strength, and spiritual power, but that view was not mainstream and was not accepted by the public.

Under such a framework of understanding, no one believed that an item could raise the absorption limit of soul rings!

"Could it be that Whale Rubber's effects were only discovered sometime in the next ten thousand years? Or was it researched by the Sun Moon Continent, only becoming known to the people of the Douluo Continent after the continental collision?"

At that thought, Cheng Xiao could no longer suppress the excitement in his heart.

This was Whale Rubber. Ten thousand years later, there would not be a single Soul Master who did not want it.

After taking two deep breaths and forcing himself to remain calm, Cheng Xiao pointed at the golden Whale Rubber and said, "Can you give it to me? I'm rather curious about this thing. I can buy it."

"Ah, forget the money. If you want it, take it. It's just trash, how could I charge you for it?" The butcher waved his hand indifferently.

Everyone present today was a buyer with good relations with the village. If people learned that he had "sold" them a piece of trash, it would damage his reputation. He would not do that sort of thing. He had a bright future ahead of him and had no need to associate with those people who loafed around Whale Hunting City.

Holding the golden Whale Rubber in his hand, Cheng Xiao gently stroked it with his fingers. Its surface was quite smooth, and when he dug his fingernails into it, he found it was as hard as stone.

When he returned to Lyu Han and his uncle, Cheng Xiao still felt as though it was unreal. He had obtained Whale Rubber, enough to make Soul Masters ten thousand years later drool with envy, without spending a single coin.

"Huh? Why are you holding that thing?" Lyu Han looked at the Whale Rubber in Cheng Xiao's hand with open disgust.

"Hm? What is that?" Cheng Yu's eyes were bleary with drink, and he could barely speak properly.

"This thing grows in the brains of sick demon whales and has a huge impact on the quality of whale oil. It must be removed before the oil goes into the cauldron. Otherwise, it will ruin an entire cauldron of whale oil, and even the cauldron itself will have to be discarded. Otherwise, the entire batch of whale oil will have to be poured out," Lyu Han said with a drunken belch.

Hearing this, Cheng Xiao's heart stirred. "Is there a lot of this stuff?"

"Not much. At most, one or two pieces come from a batch, and sometimes there isn't even one in an entire batch. But better safe than sorry. When rendering whale oil, the worst thing is accidentally mixing this stuff in. The oil will turn foul and give off thick smoke. It won't sell at all."

Cheng Xiao counted the travel time back and forth on his fingers. In other words, there could be no more than three batches a year.

Did that not mean they could produce as many as six pieces of Whale Rubber a year? Holy shit! This was the rhythm of getting rich!

"Gasp!"

It was a little unbelievable.

But on second thought, Moon Bay controlled half of all the whale oil on the Douluo Continent. Producing at most six pieces was not particularly strange. After all, when their luck was bad, they might not get even one piece for several years in a row.

Oh, no. For the villagers, that should count as good luck, since it meant they had not ruined any whale oil.

How strange. Was this the saying, one man's poison was another man's honey?

"What about the ones from before?" Cheng Xiao wanted to collect more.

"They were either tossed back into the sea with the demon whale remains or given to the village children to play with. Who knows?" Lyu Han said carelessly.

The corner of Cheng Xiao's mouth twitched. What a waste.

"Uncle Lyu, I like this stuff. It's golden and pretty." Cheng Xiao played with the Whale Rubber as he smiled. "You don't know this, but I like collecting strange rocks. This thing is as hard as stone, so I want to keep it for fun."

"How about this? Please keep an eye out for it every year. I want to collect them and take them home as keepsakes. Of course, I won't make you do it for nothing. Uncle, right?" Cheng Xiao nudged Cheng Yu with his elbow.

Cheng Yu had managed the family business in impeccable order, so his emotional intelligence was naturally not low. He had sensed that something was off from the beginning. His nephew liked collecting strange rocks? Bullshit. How had he never known that?

The excuse sounded convincing enough that anyone unaware of the truth might really think he was some young master with an unusual hobby.

And now his nephew wanted him to play along. This thing was definitely not ordinary!

Cheng Yu understood instantly and immediately wrapped an arm around Lyu Han's neck. "Old Lyu, this is the future head of our Cheng Family, so you'd better take this seriously. Don't you like drinking? Every year when I come over, I'll bring you a jug of Imperial Jade Liquid. Burp, it smells amazing."

"Tomorrow, let's go to Whale Hunting City, brother. I heard a new batch of fine goods arrived there. Hehe, we've been going crazy from holding it in for over twenty days at sea..."

At Cheng Yu's words, Lyu Han's eyes immediately lit up. He readily agreed. "Don't worry. First thing tomorrow morning, I'll go ask around and see whether this year's batch produced any."