The man, his pride wounded, slammed his hand on the table in a fit of rage and stood up abruptly. Though his frame was slight, his presence was undeniable.
"Overestimating yourself."
Lu Mingming put on an act of arrogance, condensing a powerful mental force that shot forward, pressing down like a heavy mountain.
In an instant, the man was forced back into his seat by the immense pressure, unable to move. The face hidden beneath his mask contorted into an ugly grimace.
"Don't provoke someone you cannot afford to offend."
Lu Mingming spoke coldly, then glanced back at the elder and instructed him.
"Follow me."
The elder visibly trembled, feeling as though he was walking into a tiger's den with his life on the line. He shakily followed behind Lu Mingming.
Finding a clean transaction room with no one else present, Lu Mingming led the elder to the innermost spot to discuss matters.
*Will I be killed? What about my child...?*
The elder nervously licked his dry lips, finally unable to restrain himself and about to kneel to beg for mercy. Unexpectedly, Lu Mingming grabbed his elbow, shook her head, and signaled for him not to do so.
"What are you doing? I'm here to trade. What kind of medication does your child need? I can try to find some."
Lu Mingming had some valuable items in her bag, and if all else failed, she could spare a small branch of the Ghost Ginseng used to treat genetic diseases for the child's condition.
Upon hearing this, the elder realized he had misunderstood. He breathed a sigh of relief, his old face flushing. "I don't have anything too valuable. If possible, I'd like to get some medication for mental illness."
The elder was sensible and didn't boldly ask for evolutionary energy.
Even if he had, Lu Mingming wouldn't have given it to him on the spot.
Hearing this, Lu Mingming readily handed over some unused extra herbs from her ring, one of which had a more significant effect on mental power.
To conceal her identity, Lu Mingming chose a herb that was not of the best quality but still effective and handed it to the elder.
"See if this will work?"
Lu Mingming asked.
The elder's hands trembled as he received it, his eyes welling up with tears. He carefully took it.
The herb was a refreshing, clear, tender green, emitting a faint, fresh aroma from within. It felt like a pair of gentle hands stroking his sea of consciousness, bringing much relief.
"This is it!"
The elder confirmed, hastily opening his palm to reveal the tightly clenched diamond and quickly pressing it into Lu Mingming's hand, as if afraid she would change her mind.
Having obtained what she wanted, Lu Mingming concealed her inner excitement and pocketed it with an indifferent expression.
The elder cautiously turned to leave, but Lu Mingming called out, "Wait, which planet are you from?"
The elder didn't understand why she was suddenly asking this. Guardedly clutching the bag containing the herbs, he replied defensively, "I live far from here, and there's official presence around."
*That's good.*
Lu Mingming felt relieved and subtly revealed, "If you're worried about your child's genetic disease, perhaps wait until after this period. Someone will come to help you."
"What do you mean?"
The elder stood frozen, not understanding Lu Mingming's words.
It wasn't until the evolutionary energy began to be distributed for free that he understood how fortunate he was to have received advance notice from someone who was practically a bodhisattva.
After the trade fair concluded, Lu Mingming immediately boarded a spacecraft and returned to Blue Star.
Along the way, she encountered several groups engaged in combat, but it had little to do with her.
Many ships saw her heading in an unfamiliar direction, assuming Lu Mingming was a pauper or a wanderer, and few harbored thoughts of robbing her.
As for the hostile forces from official organizations, they suffered greatly. The more pompous they were, the more they paid the price.
Lu Yan, along with the bald man, specifically joined the fray, fanning the flames everywhere as if it weren't chaotic enough.
Lu Mingming only received news of all this the day after she returned to Blue Star.
Upon arriving at Blue Star, Lu Mingming's first priority was to find the young boss who had accompanied her.
The young boss rarely appeared, and Lu Mingming had almost never seen him. His whereabouts were always peculiar, much like his life in Sin City, where he tenaciously guarded his small dwelling.
Fortunately, the tribes on Blue Star had not expanded much, and Lu Mingming quickly found where the young boss resided.
"Knock knock— Is anyone home?"
Lu Mingming patiently waited for a response from the owner of the room.
"Yes."
It was the young boss's sharp, piercing crow-like voice, accompanied by a series of soft, cat-like footsteps.
"Why is it you?"
The moment the young boss opened the door and saw Lu Mingming, his tone was filled with disbelief.
"What's wrong? Are you displeased that I'm here?"
Lu Mingming, without any hesitation, stepped across the threshold and sat down in the hall.
The young boss didn't mind and sat down on the other side.
"Is there something you need my help with? Although Uhwa coins are no longer in use, I still accept star coins. One message starts at one million star coins, if you're interested."
The young boss smiled slyly, clearly driven by profit.
Lu Mingming, prepared, took out the secretly kept diamond.
"The scale I need to give you, I found information about my cub on the diamond."
"Is that all? Ah, what a shame, no profit to be made."
The young boss feigned a sigh of regret and sluggishly took out the scale.
After being sealed for a long time, the scale was not cracked or damaged in any way. Instead, it emitted a dazzling radiance.
Sure enough, Lu Mingming's mental power swept back and forth between the scale and the diamond, connecting two streams of crimson energy that intertwined and converged in the air, emitting a profound and extraordinary mystical power.
"This is..."
The young boss murmured in disbelief.
The next second, a large stack of ancient books appeared out of nowhere on the table in front of him.
"I think I've seen this somewhere before, let me look."
As the crimson energy merged, it gradually underwent a tremendous transformation – images of two nearly identical gem tokens floated in mid-air.
The gem token was generally round and plate-shaped, with intricate and mysterious patterns carved on its surface using an unknown technique. The golden ancient characters in the center shimmered, faintly carrying the sound of waves crashing against rocks.
The young boss frowned, stroking his chin in thought. "Feather? Jade? Fish? None seem right."
Before the young boss could come to a definitive conclusion, the illusion of the gem token vanished instantly, returning to the unrelated scale and diamond, lying quietly on the table.
"It's confirmed to be related to the scale, which means it's indeed information about my cub."
Lu Mingming emphasized, her tone heavy.
"You still haven't told me about Hong Yu."
The young boss simply jumped onto the bed to avoid the topic, muttering, "I didn't think it would be useful to call you over. Knowing he's fine is enough, right?"
He tried to brush it off, showing no intention of bringing up the matter, his eyes fixed on the white wall, not daring to meet Lu Mingming's gaze.
"You..."
The young boss quickly interrupted Lu Mingming and changed the subject. "If I'm not mistaken, the diamond and the scale are keys. As for what kind of keys, that remains unknown."
A gleam of excited yet peculiar light flashed in his eyes. He put on a smiling face again and turned to Lu Mingming.
"You've been quite busy with Blue Star matters recently, haven't you? If you're done, why don't we plan to leave together with the fleet in a few days? You can leave a few people to guard if you're worried. Let's not waste time together."
"What do you mean?"
Lu Mingming was wary, slowly piecing together the timeline in her mind. She calculated that she had been on Blue Star for nearly two months, which was indeed a considerable time.
But Blue Star was just starting out; how could she bear to leave?
"You're really so dense!"
The young boss, exasperated, twisted his little face.
"You have no obligation to them... Oh, even if you were their ancient ancestor, helping them get off to a good start is a favor, not a reason for you to pour all your effort into everything. You need to train the abilities of the Blue Star people."
The young boss's words struck Lu Mingming like a thunderbolt, hitting her hard.
Fearing he would upset Lu Mingming, he added, "It's good that you're willing to help others, but you need to give yourself some breathing room. Think about your cub."
"I'll consider it."
Lu Mingming dared not listen to the young boss's unfinished words, returning to her room with a complex mix of emotions.
As her foot crossed the threshold, she bumped into the approaching chief.
The chief was exceptionally overjoyed. "We sold so much money today! Why don't we recruit some people and develop the surrounding mountains? I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Blue Star isn't in decline in my hands!"
The chief wiped away tears from the corners of his eyes, his gaze filled with eagerness.
Lu Mingming hesitated for a long time before finally making up her mind. "I may have to leave for a while..."