Chapter 230 - Purchasing Black Crystals
Han Wu and Qin Shuang freed their fleet from the clinging oil and hurried back to their shelter. The generals had watched them seal the rift through the narrow dungeon openings, but they never lost sight of their true mission—they had to drive every outsider from their civilization. When Han Wu returned to speak with them, he realized their stubbornness ran too deep, so he abandoned any hope of sending them back to the Wei Kingdom.
When Sun Qingnian discovered that the black crystals held value for Han Wu, he immediately flooded the group chat with messages to buy them. Many of the remaining students were already engaged in conversation when his messages appeared.
[Are you talking about those little black crystals from the monsters’ bodies? Why are you buying that junk? You really have that many resources to throw away?]
[How do you even use those crystals?]
[Yeah, what are they for? I’ve got a bunch of them. I’ll pay a good price for the info.]
[I tested them on my soldiers, but none of them could absorb the energy. It’s weird stuff. I doubt most life forms could even make use of it.]
[Maybe someone already figured out how to use them?]
...
The group chat buzzed with excitement. Many sent private messages to Sun Qingnian asking how to harness the crystals. He ignored them all. If others discovered their use, prices would skyrocket beyond reason. He wasn’t about to sabotage himself for their sake.
After Sun Qingnian declined to share, the students turned on him.
[We are all trapped here together. How could you be so selfish? You won’t even tell us that much?]
[You selfish bastard. I’m adding you to my blacklist. I hope you get torn apart by those mutated beasts.]
[I’ve got a ton of black crystals, but I’m not selling a single one to you. I’m going to make this as annoying as possible.]
Sun Qingnian rolled his eyes and blacklisted every one of them in private. Since they refused to sell their black crystals, he stopped renting out skeletons and shut down the corpse-cleaning service. Now he just wanted to see who would crack under the pressure first.
Just as he predicted, the students who had cursed him now panicked. Without Sun Qingnian’s cleanup service, they were left to deal with rotting corpses on their own. They had enough power to slay the mutated beasts, but disposing of their corpses was another matter! Burning them cost a lot of expensive Wood.
The group chat exploded with another flurry of messages.
[Sun Qingnian, you heartless bastard! If the corpses of those mutated beasts start rotting, they’ll pollute my shelter and spread disease to my troops. By halting the collection service, you’re basically killing me!]
[Sun Qingnian, I know exactly where you are. If you don’t restart the service, I’ll send my army to wipe you out.]
[My skeletons are gone! I can’t harvest resources efficiently without them. Why are you breaching our contract?]
[Brother Sun—no, God Sun—please, send the skeletons back and restart the corpse collection. I swear I’ll never badmouth you again.]
Sun Qingnian dismissed their pleas and insults alike. He decided to teach them a lesson by ignoring the messages for a day or two. They needed to understand they couldn’t survive without Han Wu’s help.
He closed the group chat and noticed numerous private messages offering to trade black crystals. He accepted them all and soon stockpiled a massive cache for Han Wu.
Meanwhile, Han Wu received a notification that a large quantity of black crystals had been deposited in his storage. He suspected Sun Qingnian was behind it and nodded in approval. The man had saved him valuable time.
Unfortunately, the black crystals’ quality was subpar. He decided to merge them before putting them to use. He kept merging them until they formed one massive black crystal, as large as a house, then summoned the Skull Guillotine to absorb it.
The enormous skeletal visage appeared above the black crystal and bit down. In a flash, the crystal shattered into countless shards. Moments later, the Skull Guillotine sent him a notification. It had absorbed a large amount of unknown energy and needed time to digest it.
Strangely, it had also gained a trace of awareness. It conveyed to Han Wu that the black crystal contained many impurities. The digestion process would take a long time, and it advised him to purify future crystals before offering them again.
Han Wu let out a dry laugh as he studied the broken fragments. He hadn’t expected the Skull Guillotine to be so particular about what it consumed. From now on, he would run every black crystal through the Refinery before feeding them to the Skull Guillotine.
Once the rift had been sealed, the air around the shelter gradually cleared, and fewer mutated beasts roamed the area.
Still, the trio realized staying there offered no long-term benefit. After a brief meeting, they agreed to set sail toward the Warring Kingdom Continent, though not with their entire force. Sun Qingnian, as the Grand Chancellor, needed to oversee daily city affairs. Thus, Han Wu and Qin Shuang would lead the expedition.
Once their arrangements were complete, they brought their elite forces aboard the ships they had seized from the Wei Kingdom and set sail toward the Warring Kingdom Continent.
Their fleet stood out starkly against the dark waters. Over the next five days, they faced wave after wave of mutated beasts. But thanks to their overwhelming power and the strength of their elite forces, they suffered no casualties.
One day, while conducting reconnaissance in her Thunder Sparrow form, Qin Shuang made a surprising discovery.
“Han Wu, I found a small island with several broken shelters. I think we should inspect it and see if we can salvage anything valuable,” she reported.
Han Wu nodded. The long voyage had grown dull, so a diversion sounded welcome. The island could also hold resources to give them a break from their monotonous breadfruit diet.
On the sixth day, they docked at the island’s shore. Han Wu left half of his elite forces aboard the ships and led the rest onto land.
The two transformed—one into a Dark Cursed Bug, the other into a Thunder Sparrow—and took to the skies. As they circled overhead, they were stunned to see a swarm of black, mutated life forms prowling the jungle, relentlessly hunting and slaughtering the normal life forms. The island had clearly been polluted.
There were several broken shelters across the island. The duo could not tell whether the shelters had fallen to the mutated beasts or other individuals. Han Wu ordered his army to dismantle every remaining base and secured a wealth of resources in the process. Their activity, however, drew the attention of the mutated beasts, which soon launched a deadly pursuit.
Their army fought back valiantly and wiped out every mutated beast within three days. With the island secured, Han Wu officially claimed it. Its terrain appeared on his magic map, now detailed with the island’s geography as well as the locations of wild altars and ruins.