Trading

Fog Island.

In the pitch-black cave, Luo Feng sat cross-legged.

He took out the millennium willow heart Dongguan had given him earlier. It was a green crystal the size of an egg, with green liquid rippling inside. Just looking at it, he could sense the vitality it contained.

"First, open the crystal core, then swallow the liquid inside."

Following Dongguan's earlier instructions, Luo Feng used his spiritual force to control a throwing knife and pierce the shell.

The liquid flowed out, but under the control of his spiritual force, it gathered into a small ball in the air.

With a strong inhale, he sucked the green liquid into his mouth.

The cool liquid traveled down his throat into his stomach, and a soothing sensation spread throughout his body.

"That feels so good." Luo Feng let out a groan, then calmed himself and sensed the transformation taking place in his body.

After using dragon blood, his physical strength had reached the advanced general level, not far from Low-Level War God, while his spiritual force had reached the intermediate War God level.

After swallowing the spirit of plants and trees, his body was continuously nourished and strengthened. It soon surpassed the threshold of Low-Level War God and continued improving.

The dark-gold sphere in his mind was also steadily breaking apart.

My period of rapid improvement is about to end. Luo Feng felt a little apprehensive. He did not know what level his spiritual force would ultimately reach.

After all, improving spiritual force was much harder than improving a warrior's physical strength.

Once his physical strength broke through to intermediate War God, the dark-gold sphere in his mind finally disappeared.

Sensing the powerful spiritual force in his sea of consciousness, Luo Feng smiled.

By then, several hours had passed since he parted ways with Dongguan.

Boom!

A tremendous noise came from outside. With the excavated cave at risk of collapsing, Luo Feng immediately rushed out.

The moment he emerged, he saw it.

An enormous black-purple vine, a full five or six hundred meters long, whipped through the air. A figure glowing white was fleeing from it.

It was Dongguan, with a bulging pack strapped to his back.

Luo Feng stared at the vine in shock, then used his spiritual force to control his clothing and rapidly retreat.

Dongguan spotted him as well and flew straight toward him.

Dongguan was faster than Luo Feng and soon caught up.

Luo Feng felt someone seize his arm, then he was flying away from the island at a speed he could not yet achieve himself.

The two hovered above the lake, watching the enormous vine slowly withdraw.

"Dongguan, what was that thing? It was terrifying!" Luo Feng was stunned.

Could plant monsters really be that terrifying?

"It certainly was." Dongguan nodded, then smiled. "But that vine is the most valuable thing on this island."

The most valuable things around Fog Island were naturally the Yunmo Star Ship and the accompanying inheritance of Hu Yanbo, but those were not on the island itself.

A single wood bud crystal was nowhere near as valuable as a cloud-touching vine.

"The most valuable?" Luo Feng was confused. How could a monster be considered valuable?

But on second thought, it made sense. A ten-thousand-year willow heart was worth more than a millennium willow heart, and the Tree King was stronger than the other trees. That vine was so powerful that even a Councilor was no match for it, which naturally meant it was worth more.

Yet however valuable it was, they could not obtain it if they could not defeat it.

"What do we do next?" Luo Feng looked at Dongguan.

He was already a Psychic at the peak of the War God level and felt confident in himself. But if even Dongguan, a Planetary Grade Psychic, had suffered defeat, he certainly would not think he could handle the vine.

Perhaps Hong could, Luo Feng thought.

But this time, he had only found the Ape Mountain Range. Dongguan had discovered Fog Island, so he could not simply report it to the Limitless Martial Arts Hall himself.

He would leave the matter to whatever Dongguan had in mind.

"I can't handle this thing, but Hong certainly can. Still, we should make sure this information fetches what it's worth," Dongguan said.

In the original story, Hong had obtained the cloud-touching vine and given Luo Feng only thirty-odd "star points." Without the inflated valuation of the Sky-Escaping Shuttle, it had actually been a very unfair deal for Luo Feng.

But there had been no choice. Luo Feng was not the only person who had discovered Fog Island then, so he could only report it. Giving it to the Limitless Martial Arts Hall was better than giving it to his enemies.

This time, however, Dongguan could consider how to squeeze the most out of Hong.

Once the cloud-touching vine settled down, Dongguan and Luo Feng landed on Fog Island again.

"Come on." Dongguan opened his backpack. "Let's divide these up."

The dazzling assortment of spirits of plants and trees left Luo Feng overwhelmed.

He looked at Dongguan in bewilderment.

"I did the work of finding these this time, so I contributed more. That's fair, right?" Dongguan began.

Luo Feng's heart sank. Faced with such enormous profits, was Dongguan about to show an ugly side?

"These few..." Dongguan picked out several items, including the ten-thousand-year willow heart. "They're useful to me, so I'll take them."

He selected the ones with richer energy auras, which could still benefit him to some extent.

"We'll split the rest equally."

Luo Feng was taken aback.

Although Dongguan had taken the most valuable ones, judging by the ten-thousand-year willow heart, obtaining things like those required Dongguan's strength in the first place.

Splitting the remainder equally was already far beyond what he had expected.

"That's too much. I can't accept it," Luo Feng refused.

He was not an ungrateful person. Although he was already a Psychic at the peak of the high-level War God rank, Dongguan was Planetary Grade, and a Psychic as well.

A moment earlier, he had thought Dongguan intended to take everything and silence him, and had prepared to risk his life escaping.

But thinking about it now, if Dongguan truly had such intentions, he would not have given him the millennium willow heart at the beginning and allowed him to break through.

Instead, Luo Feng had judged a decent man by his own suspicious thoughts.

"How about a thirty-seventy split, then?"

Truthfully, Luo Feng wanted them too. The effects of that millennium willow heart had taught him the value of spirits of plants and trees.

But he had not contributed much this time. He had only found the Ape Mountain Range, while Dongguan had found Mist Island and collected the spirits of plants and trees.

"Fifty-fifty." Seeing that Luo Feng still wanted to say something, Dongguan interrupted him. "Actually, these spirits of plants and trees aren't as useful as you imagine. The most valuable ones are those I just took, which are useful at the planetary level. The rest stop being effective once you reach the peak of the War God level."

"Planetary Grade is what people usually call the Councilor level, above War God."

"Even if you won't think of yourself, you should think of your family. For example, this millennium black crow root is relatively mild, so ordinary people can take it. Your parents are ordinary people, right?"

"Actually, if it weren't for recent..." Dongguan fell silent for a moment. "I wouldn't mind giving you all of these."

If he did not have Zhang Gui, Zhang Yu, and the others to consider, ordinary spirits of plants and trees would only be useful to him for trading with Hong or other factions.

As for training subordinates, he had no need. If things developed normally, he would gain access to the universe in a few years. If something went wrong, such as failing to resolve the Golden-Horned Behemoth or Nolan Mountain crisis, it would all be over.

This time, when he discovered that Luo Feng's strength was one rank lower than in the original story, he had come to a realization.

The butterfly effect did not necessarily change things for the better.

As the saying went, fortune hid within misfortune, and misfortune lurked within fortune. Because of the butterfly effect, Li Wei had not died directly at Luo Feng's hands. This had made Luo Feng's life over the past six months more comfortable, but it had also reduced his pressure and slowed his growth.

If that caused Luo Feng to fail to possess the Golden Horned Beast, or delayed his breakthrough to the star level, the consequences would be catastrophic.

The best way to deal with such possibilities was to grow stronger himself. If Luo Feng can't stop a disaster, I'll stop it.

But while the early stages were manageable, Dongguan was lost when it came to the later cultivation realms. Knowing their general characteristics did not mean he could actually reach them.

He was not sure whether he could truly surpass Luo Feng.

He did not have a system that made him stronger just by checking in.

Thus, he decided to make up this small gap first.

The current gap could be closed with greater gains from Fog Island, but the future was uncertain.

All he could do was strive to grow stronger-strong enough to resolve crises himself even without Luo Feng, strong enough to truly control his own destiny.

Yet he was afraid he might fail. That was why he had given Luo Feng a hand where he could.

"Thank you."

Family was Luo Feng's weak spot.

After Dongguan went that far, he naturally would not refuse again. He simply kept his gratitude in his heart.

The more spirits of plants and trees one had, the better. Even if he did not use them, they were a form of wealth he could store away. How could they be useless?

"Still, if you don't want them, I can buy them from you," Dongguan added. "For this millennium willow heart alone, I can offer a hundred billion. If that's not enough, two hundred billion? Three hundred billion?"

After his breakthrough, killing lord-level monsters had become far too easy, so money truly meant nothing to him now.

"I want them. I'm not selling," Luo Feng replied.

He was no fool. Spirits of plants and trees could easily be exchanged for money, but money could not buy spirits of plants and trees.

The share he had been offered was a favor, but selling it would be a transaction.

Still, he marveled inwardly. Councilor-level experts really did not care about money anymore.

"Next, let's take a look underground. With so many spirits of plants and trees here, and even a cloud-touching vine, there might be some treasure. Let's search."

"All right." Luo Feng was a little excited. Finally, he could be useful.

Finding things was not simply a matter of strength. Luck was more important.

The two circled around the cloud-touching vine and went deep underground.

Earth burrowing was another extremely important skill for Psychics on Earth.

A long time later.

The two returned to the surface.

"Did you find anything?" they asked simultaneously.

"No," they answered in unison.

Underground, Babata watched their actions and snorted. "You want my resources? Not a chance."

On the surface.

"Since neither of us found anything, let's notify Hong."

"Will you do it, or should I?"

"I'll do it."

Inside a blood-red triangular fighter, Hong suddenly received a call.

He looked at the number.

"Dongguan?" He was puzzled.

"What is it?" His voice was deep and commanding.

"Hong, do you know about cloud-touching vines?"

"Cloud-touching vines?" Hong naturally knew. They were treasures from the universe.

"I do. They're treasures from the universe. There aren't any on Earth."

"What if I told you there was one on Earth?"

"What?"

For once, Hong lost his composure.

He paused, then regained his commanding demeanor.

"You say there's one? Where?"

"What will you pay?"

"Take your pick." A cloud-touching vine was worth more than his entire Limitless Martial Arts Hall.

"Good. I want things you've obtained from the Ancient Civilization Ruins."

"How much?" Hong calmed down a little.

Although he had said Dongguan could take his pick, if Dongguan dared to say "everything," he would show him exactly what it meant to be the First Speaker and the strongest man on Earth.

"I don't even know what you have. How can I tell you?"

"All right. I'll send you a list."

Hong suppressed his excitement and his desire for the cloud-touching vine.

He had initially wanted to trim the list, but ultimately decided against it. He would see what Dongguan chose.

A little while later.

"All right, I want these: the Sky-Escaping Shuttle, the Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber, one Virtual Reality Server, and two Intelligent Fighters-Primordial Level ones. Three Black God Sets... and I also want copies of all sorts of information."

In the end, Hong found that Dongguan wanted a great deal, but had not crossed his bottom line.

He could not use the Sky-Escaping Shuttle himself. The Ancient Civilization Gravity Chamber was good, but he could give it up for a cloud-touching vine. He had plenty of Virtual Reality Servers, so losing one did not matter. As for the fighters, even Primordial Level ones could be manufactured. The materials were expensive, but acceptable. He had enough Black God Sets in stock... and copying the information would cost him nothing.

"Agreed. You can read the information yourself in the War God Palace. As for the other things... we don't have any Primordial Level fighters in stock. They'll need to be manufactured, which will take some time."

"You don't have Primordial Level fighters, but you have Heaven and Earth Level ones, right?"

"Yes."

"Then make it two Heaven and Earth Level ones, but I want them from existing stock."

"Agreed."

"It's on the Australian Continent, at coordinates XXXX, on Fog Island." With the price settled, Dongguan revealed Fog Island's location.

"Understood. But Dongguan, you're really greedy."

"Thanks for the compliment."

The call ended.

"Fighter, start up," Hong ordered the Intelligent Fighter.

The blood-red fighter took off and headed for Fog Island.