Star Gate

Chapter 719: VIP Customer (IV)

“If energy awakens in the world again to a degree sufficient for a powerhouse like the senior to emerge, does that mean you will be able to walk around at will?”

“I can if there is sufficient energy. Even if the core origin path is no more, my strength is my own. If heaven and earth can support my existence and I will not easily break the void... then I will be able to survive!”

That sounds right! Li Hao understood why everyone was waiting for the second awakening of the supernatural. They wanted to bring a few of the awakened powerhouses with them on their campaigns. That was impossible at the moment.

“Senior, I have a small request that I wonder if you’ll be able to fulfill?”

“Speak of it.”

“I would like the senior to grow a batch of rations for me, the kind that staves off hunger for three days with one grain. The plentiful kind that fills the body with vigor...” Li Hao ran some quick calculations. “It has to be enough for one hundred million people for one year. If they eat one grain a day, that’s three hundred sixty-five grains per person. Thirty billion grains will be enough, that’s not much...”

“I can’t do that!” refused the little tree. “That requires a large amount of energy and life force. I cannot sustain this kind of expenditure in my current state.”

“What if I give you one hundred thousand mysterious power stones?”

“Not enough!”

“Two hundred thousand?”

“Far from enough!”

“Five hundred thousand?”

“Um... ah... that will barely be enough,” the little tree said reluctantly. Five hundred thousand stones... would do!

“So that means it’s five million stones for a year’s worth of grain for one billion people?” Li Hao smiled.

Just listen to yourself! Is that little? That’s a lot! How many do you have? The one million you sent over before apparently came from you killing a lot of people outside. Do you think that’s a small number??

“No wonder no one went hungry in New Martial!” Li Hao sighed with gratification. One plant spirit could easily consume just five hundred thousand stones to grow food for one hundred million people. It would feed them for one year! And it was very possible that the little tree had given a low estimate!

To many, trading five hundred thousand mysterious power stones in return for a year’s worth of rations for one hundred million people was not a good deal. It would be an incredible loss instead. They would rather have this hundred million starve to death since the dynasty did not lack for people.

“Senior, I’ll give you five million mysterious power stones. Grow a batch of those rations for me, enough for one hundred million to eat for one year. Turn the rest into Water of Life for me.”

“That much??” The little tree bent with shock. This was incredulous! Who had the human robbed now?

“And here are fifty origin weapons, some earth rank. They’re all very good. Please convert them all into Water of Life for me too.”

The little tree had no words, finally managing to scrape together after a while, “Whose... palace did you loot?”

“None, I got this through killing people.”

“......” What could the tree say about that? “You want a lot of Water of Life... it will take me some time to produce it all. It’s no trouble to me, but do you need so much?” This bounty could fetch at least five hundred drops.

The little tree twitched with agitation. So much! Even if it kept seventy percent for itself... ahem, charged a fee, it would recover almost sixty percent of its strength! This transaction had to be done!

Not only that, but it had to ensure that this very important customer would remain so indefinitely!

“I don’t recommend you to trade for so much Water of Life,” it quickly sent out ripples. “It may not be that useful for you...”

“No, that’s precisely what I want!” Li Hao said solemnly. “I only want Water of Life!”

He was going to sell some in secret! He could charge fifty thousand stones compared to someone else’s one hundred thousand. He could then trade the stones to the little tree, sell more, trade more...

Maybe eventually I’ll collect the one hundred million that General Pagoda needs...

Of course, the caveat was that these factions were able to scrounge up so many stones. This transaction had to be done! It was what Li Hao was here for, what did the little tree know! He was going to charge ten thousand while others charged ten times his price!

“That works too!” The excited little tree didn’t mind and dropped the subject since Li Hao insisted. “But I need some time to absorb and convert the energy. Three days... will three days do?”

“Of course!” Li Hao smiled and threw out various storage rings to an overcome little tree.

“When you come back in three days, I’ll give you another... no, two more core origins talismans...”

“That’s alright, my enemies are very strong now. Core origin talismans aren’t that useful.” Li Hao briefly revealed his presence, but the little tree already knew of his increase in strength.

“I know, but you also need to know that my strength will be different in three days!”

Do you understand?

Oh, that’s true! The thought occurred to Li Hao. He grinned. “Then my thanks to the senior!”

“That’s alright, no need for thanks!” The little tree quickly responded with an excited shake. What a very important customer!

Please don’t thank me, I should be giving you some presents. Remember to come find me next time too! I’ll be fully recovered with another two visits and will no longer be constantly starving like I am now.

Li Hao was in a good mood as well. Five hundred drops of Water of Life, food for one hundred million people...

“It depends on the quality of the seeds that you give me. I only need one month if they’re of high quality, but will need to modify them if they’re of low quality. That will take at least three months...”

Oh, seeds? Li Hao had almost forgotten about this detail and thought that the little tree could produce its own seeds. It looked like he’d assumed too much.

“Then I’ll come back in three days and bring seeds to the senior.”

“Alright!”

Li Hao was ready to leave in a good mood, but doubled back to ask, “Senior, General Pagoda will need one hundred million stones to barely manage to awaken. Is the general much stronger than the senior?”

The little tree knew that Li Hao had visited Battle Heaven, so it didn’t hide anything. “Naturally!” came its affirmative ripples. “The guardian plant spirits of the eight great cities were premier existences! Compared to them, I am an incredibly weak weed that cannot measure up to them.”

Li Hao’s heart shook from the implications. Was the difference that great? The more he compared his new Arcanus strength to others, the less he thought of himself! He had to work harder!

There was no time to waste. He left everything behind and quickly exited the cave. The moment he did so, the little tree shook with anticipation and furiously absorbed the mysterious power stones. It was so excited that it had no words to describe its emotions.

“This is so incredible that a random human I met would collect so many mysterious power stones in such a short period of time. He’s terrifying!” As excited as it was, it also felt a very strong sense of danger!

Battle Heaven seemed to want to steal its very important customer! What should it do? Give the human some more benefits? But... the little tree only had itself, it had no other treasures to offer! The sapling was momentarily lost in thought, fretting over how to ensure that its relationship with the young man remained top priority.

Do I... have to sell my body?

......

Li Hao grinned happily upon leaving the imperial palace. The little tree seemed a bit naive. Though it’d inherited the old tree’s memories, it was a pure, blank slate compared to the blackened hearts of antiques from the past. He could tell from its tone that it’d kept a lot of the stones for itself, but that didn’t matter.

The royal family might inflating prices somewhat to price one drop of Water of life at one hundred thousand stones, but if others were able to directly transact with plant spirits for the resource, the price was bound to be at least thirty thousand stones.

Maybe the plant spirit that the royal family dealt with was more powerful and wanted to fully awaken. If Li Hao wanted to trade with General Pagoda, perhaps that plant spirit might feel that it was operating at a loss even if each drop was priced at one million stones. It’d yet to reawaken, so each drop it released was from its stores.

That was how all powerful plant spirits were, but the little tree wasn’t an ancient plant spirit in the true definition of the category. Thus, it needed less energy to revive and therefore posed a lower price to Li Hao.

The little tree felt that it earned a lot at seventy percent, whereas other plant spirits would find that too little as it wasn’t enough to support its full restoration.

Li Hao quickly calculated his gains from the trip. Was it worthwhile to trade mysterious power stones for Water of Life?

It was!

He didn’t have much use for stones and kept one million for Stellaris to convert to sword energy. That was sufficient for the sword to consume for a long time. It would require higher level treasure for it to unseal next—more high level mysterious power stones with denser energy, more powerful weapons, and others. Turning the motley array of items in his possession into treasure he could use was the wisest decision.

......

Li Hao landed outside White Moon City after roughly an hour. It seemed only yesterday when he first came to the city. It was his first time away from home then and he’d been slightly timid. But now, he found it so close to home and it was now also his home. Silver City was his only home in name, but in the central region, all of Silver Moon was home.

The gold armor turned into a trench coat when he landed. The bitter winter gale howled through the land. Liu Long had also worn a trench coat when Li Hao first met him, but that had been in the peak of summer.

Half a year had passed in the blink of an eye—or less than half a year, rather. The places and items were the same, but the people were completely different. One trip to the east and central region had brought too many reflections to Li Hao.