This time, Gao Shang was in no hurry to have the system recycle the whale rubber.
He still needed to set aside a few suitable pieces for Sun Meng and Han Xing to improve their physiques, so they could withstand greater ages for their first soul rings.
As for Wang Tianyuan and Hong Hua, thousand-year whale rubber was no longer of much use to them.
Following the detailed information provided by the system, Gao Shang quickly picked out two two-thousand-year pieces and two three-thousand-year pieces, four pieces of whale rubber in total.
All were premium whale rubber rated as high quality by the system.
These would be enough to improve the two girls' physiques to the point where they could withstand thousand-year soul rings.
Correspondingly, the recycling price offered by the system dropped from 1.2 million to 1,072,000.
A full 128,000 less.
Gao Shang glanced at it, but did not feel particularly pained.
The system recycled things at eighty percent of their value. In terms of their actual worth, these four pieces of whale rubber were worth far more than that price, so keeping them for his own people was no loss.
Besides, once he sold off the rest, he would still be raking in money until his pots and bowls overflowed.
Putting away the four selected pieces of whale rubber, Gao Shang looked at the system panel.
"System, recycle the remaining whale rubber."
A light flashed across the tabletop, and all the remaining whale rubber vanished.
[Dear, the total recycling proceeds this time are 1,072,000 Gold Soul Coins. They have been deposited into your system account and are available for withdrawal at any time.]
"Whew... so this is what being rich feels like? It's wonderful."
Watching his balance leap from five digits to seven, Gao Shang felt comfortable all over. Even the air he breathed seemed sweet.
Unfortunately, that seven-digit balance was destined to last only a little while.
Gao Shang typed "hundred-year External Soul Bone" into the search bar and clicked search.
The panel refreshed, and he opened the first product listed.
What he was buying this time was the most expensive External Soul Bone of its rank, and very likely the strongest as well.
[Eye of Destiny (Hundred-Year), price: 1,000,000 Gold Soul Coins.] [Description: An External Soul Bone produced by an ancient Three-Eyed Golden Lion, capable of bearing the power of destiny.] [Notice: Upon absorption, you will become linked to the destiny of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion clan. Fortune and misfortune go hand in hand.]
After reading the description again, Gao Shang's gaze lingered on the final notice.
Then he took a deep breath and clicked purchase.
Looking at his balance, now less than a hundred thousand, Gao Shang almost heard the clatter of Gold Soul Coins flowing away.
One million Gold Soul Coins, gone just like that.
What he received in return was a golden bead in his palm, the size of a longan and seemingly carved from pure gold.
"So this is the Eye of Destiny?"
Gao Shang raised the golden bead before his eyes, but even after turning it over and examining it several times, he could not make heads or tails of it.
"Forget it. I'll just absorb it. It costs as much as an ordinary Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, so you'd better not disappoint me."
Unlike its descriptions of other Soul Bones, the system had not explained exactly what skills he would gain after absorbing the Eye of Destiny.
Had he not been a transmigrator who knew how precious the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was, he might not have been willing to throw down a million at this point.
The absorption process went remarkably smoothly-so smoothly that Gao Shang barely felt anything.
He merely held the golden bead before the space between his brows, closed his eyes, and opened them again. The bead was gone.
"Wait, where's my Soul Bone? Where's that biiig External Soul Bone of mine?"
Utterly bewildered, Gao Shang looked at his palm, then raised his head to look at the sky.
The sun had already risen overhead.
But he remembered that before he closed his eyes, it had clearly only been around nine in the morning.
"So, I've... finished absorbing it?"
Several hours had passed, yet he had felt nothing at all. Not only had his Soul Power failed to increase, but even his spiritual power had barely changed.
Gao Shang scratched his head and quickly put that little doubt aside.
He should first see just what that million had bought him.
He closed both eyes again and focused his perception between his brows.
The next moment, his surroundings appeared before him once more, yet his eyes remained closed.
From the outside, the skin between Gao Shang's brows slowly parted, revealing a golden vertical pupil.
A faint golden glow shone between his brows, lending him a touch of mystery and majesty.
However, that majesty did not last long before his curious glances left and right shattered it.
After repeatedly experimenting with opening his eyes, Gao Shang soon discovered that his field of vision had expanded.
It was not that his viewing angle had widened, but that this extra eye allowed him to watch two directions at once.
For instance, right now, he was looking down at the table while watching the courtyard gate with his third eye.
"Ah, why didn't I have this ability back when I was in class?"
After that sigh of regret, Gao Shang finally remembered the matter at hand. He immediately poured his spiritual power into the Eye of Destiny and began examining this Soul Bone's specific abilities.
But mere moments later, he abruptly sprang to his feet.
"Holy crap, isn't this ability way too ridiculous?"
His movement was so forceful that he nearly overturned the stone table, but he could not spare that any attention now. His face was filled with shock.
The Eye of Destiny granted three abilities in total.
The first two were passive: Destiny Detection and Destiny Backlash.
Destiny Detection allowed him to see other people's fortune after activating the Eye of Destiny.
People with strong fortune generally found everything going smoothly, and their future achievements would also be greater.
Conversely, those with weak fortune could be so unlucky that they might trip and fall to their deaths just walking down the street.
However, fortune was not unchanging.
Meeting a benefactor could cause one's fortune to soar; courting death by running into dangerous territory could also cause it to plummet.
Thus, this ability could serve as a reference, but a person's future could not be determined solely by their fortune at any given moment.
What truly made Gao Shang unable to sit still were the latter two abilities.
The second passive, Destiny Backlash!
As its name suggested, anyone who attacked Gao Shang, whether or not they inflicted damage, would suffer a backlash from the power of destiny and become extremely unlucky for a period afterward.
Exactly how unlucky they became depended on how much damage they inflicted on him.
The more severe his injuries, the harsher the backlash.
If someone actually killed Gao Shang, they would absolutely suffer enough bad luck to die as well.
Even the family and faction they belonged to would crumble into dust through all manner of accidents.
Reading this ability made Gao Shang's eyelids twitch.
Still, he did not dare court death just because he had it.
After all, however vicious the retaliation, it required him to be dead first. He had not lived enough yet. It would be best if he never had to use this ability to drag his enemy down with him.
The first two passives had already made Gao Shang feel the purchase was well worth it, but only when he saw the final active skill did he understand what it meant that there was no strongest, only stronger.
Because this skill was called-Destiny Domination!
Its effect allowed him to strip the power of fortune from anyone and claim it for himself; he could also divide off his own power of fortune and bestow it upon others.
In other words, given enough time, he could even artificially create a child of fortune, forcibly defying heaven and changing destiny for himself or others.
Of course, this skill also had major restrictions.
First was the cooldown. Whether stripping fortune away or bestowing it, he could only activate it once every three months.
Second, each use could strip away no more than fifty percent of the target's current fortune.
Even if he stripped it away repeatedly, the next use would only take half of the remaining fortune. He could never completely empty a person's fortune.
After digesting all three abilities, Gao Shang stood rooted to the spot for a long time.
In terms of strength, he was still far from invincible. Any Soul Emperor or Soul Saint could scatter his ashes.
But with Destiny Backlash, he could practically be called a walking imperial jade seal.
If anyone wiped him out, he could send them a nine-clan match-clearing game straight from beyond the grave.
The more Gao Shang thought about it, the harder it became to keep himself in check. He could only keep reminding himself.
"Hold back. Don't get reckless. Whatever you do, don't get reckless!"