The weather turned colder by the day, with the chill of winter gradually sweeping across the entire north.
In Linping City on Blue Star, at Jingjiang No.1 Villa.
Underground in the first level, Su Jie's steps were swift as he practiced a set of boxing techniques. When his fists swung, faint sounds of tigers and leopards echoed through his bones.
Bang!
Suddenly, Su Jie threw a punch that landed on a sturdy wooden dummy.
The powerful blow immediately flung the dummy several meters away, its chest area cracked open as if struck by a heavy hammer, while the spiritual power and qi-blood in Su Jie's body continued to sublime through the exercise.
After squeezing his palm, Su Jie took a deep breath and exhaled a long stream of white air that shot out several meters before dispersing.
"My strength must be comparable to that of a buffalo by now," he guessed in his heart. Without precise instruments to measure his strength, he reasoned that a normal person wouldn't likely survive his full punch.
After a good workout session, Su Jie mused to himself, "It took seven days, but this Tiger Roar Fist that I bought from the Black Market is quite good. Now I've got some close combat abilities, which was not easy to come by!"
The martial arts that Su Jie practiced were from the Tianyuan World, usually practiced by experts in the martial arts community, which had limited potential. He had purchased them with ten Blood Marrow Stones.
Since Gu Masters are generally not adept at close combat, and the Hundred Poison Refining Gu Scripture that Su Jie cultivated did not strengthen his body much, compared to the bizarre abilities of the poisonous insects, close combat was his weakest attacking method. Su Jie thought about improving this deficiency.
Squirm!
The thousand-hand centipede, now plumper, noticed Su Jie had finished his exercise and immediately crawled over to rub affectionately against Su Jie's pant leg, curious and looking around.
"Look at you, your master is working so hard, you should also put in more effort to enter the Second Spiritual Refining stage quicker."
Su Jie tapped the head of the thousand-hand centipede, which was now well fed and had grown to a size of 1.8 meters on Blue Star.
And Su Jie could feel that the thousand-hand centipede was close to molting again; it could be in ten days, or perhaps twenty. After that, it could undergo another transformation and evolve into a Low Grade creature that had accomplished Second Spiritual Refining.
The centipede's two antennae kept pressing against Su Jie's neck, and its ferocious mouth gaped wide open, as if it were about to imprint an emoticon of 'I'm hungry, feed me' on its forehead.
"You've finished already? Today I had Old Chen send over 80,000 scorpions."
Su Jie was startled and turned to look, only to see that the scorpions in several breeding boxes had indeed been eaten clean. Considering that each scorpion was roughly one yuan, the creature had munched through 80,000 yuan and still wasn't full.
"Hold on, I'll have some food sent over."
Su Jie pushed the centipede's head aside and picked up his phone to call Chen Yaoguang.
"Old Chen, prepare a few workers and send another 20,000 scorpions over to the warehouse."
"Alright, I'll get it ready now. But Mr. Su, there isn't much stock left in the breeding facility. With the current rate of consumption, we won't be able to keep up with the demand through your channels," Chen Yaoguang's voice came through, concerned by the issue even though the breeding facility had recently stabilized.
"How much stock is left now?"
Su Jie wasn't surprised; he was well aware of the thousand-hand centipede's growing appetite.
"About 240,000 scorpions left, which would only last about two days with your consumption, Mr. Su."
"I see. Old Chen, didn't you say you've been in the insect breeding industry for decades? Then you must know quite a few breeding farms. Can you call them for me and buy scorpions, spiders, centipedes, poisonous snakes, and other Poison Insects? You handle the price negotiations."
"Mr. Su, I do know quite a few people, but how much do we intend to buy?"
"Buy without limit up to ten million in funds. If it goes over ten million, report back to me."
"Sheesh, that much, got it boss."
Chen Yaoguang was shocked by Su Jie's boldness, not knowing just how big a business Mr. Su was running to casually spend ten million on purchasing poisonous insects.
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After hanging up the phone, Su Jie no longer had the nonchalant demeanor he had during the call.
He looked at the bank balance displayed on his phone, and after setting aside ten million to purchase the Poison Insects for Chen Yaoguang, Su Jie realized he only had one million in available funds left.
One million might seem like a lot, but facing the ever-increasing appetite of the thousand-hand centipede, it was definitely not enough.
"I've saved up a batch of good-quality timber, time to sell it off and recoup some funds."
Luckily, Su Jie had a stable revenue stream; otherwise, he really couldn't afford the increasingly demanding thousand-hand centipede.
Sliding his finger over the phonebook, Su Jie sent a message to Chen Yaoguang and then walked out of the first level of the basement.
"Mr. Su, your meal has been prepared."
A servant came over to remind him.
"Alright, I know."
Su Jie nodded. At Jingjiang No.1, he had hired quite a few servants, chefs, and gardeners to manage the big house, ensuring his own comfortable lifestyle.
However, the first level of the basement was Su Jie's private area, where the thousand-hand centipede was kept, and no one else was allowed entry.
After finishing his meal, Su Jie drove his BMW alone to the South Bridge Logistics Center.
...
It was the same location and crew. Liang Lianjun came again with Leng Baihe's staff.
After receiving a call from Su Jie, Liang, upon hearing that there were even greater goods this time, didn't dare to delay and hurried over with his people.
How could he not? Su Jie had left a deep impression on him last time; the batch of top-quality timber sold to Leng Baihe for over sixty million had made exquisite luxury furniture that garnered widespread praise. This made Liang Lianjun attach even greater importance to his dealings with Su Jie this time.
"Mr. Su, haha, long time no see, thank you for taking care of our business again."
In front of the warehouse, seeing Su Jie, Liang Lianjun quickly stepped forward with great enthusiasm, shaking Su Jie's hand.
"What 'taking care'—our last cooperation was so pleasant. Of course, I thought of you and Leng Baihe first when I got my hands on good materials!"
Su Jie responded with a smile. He was very patient with those who were essentially bringing him money.
"I know Manager Liang is eager to see the goods, so let's skip the small talk. Come in and take a look at the good stuff I've prepared for you."
Pushing open the warehouse door, Su Jie led Leng Baihe's staff inside, pointing to the dozens of precious trees stacked in the middle of the warehouse, "Look, this is the big deal I was talking about."
"Damn... damn..."
Following Su Jie's gaze, Liang Lianjun was almost speechless with shock.
"Purple sandalwood... unbelievable, so much top-notch purple sandalwood, I never imagined seeing this much all at once."
Liang Lianjun rushed over, murmuring to himself while caressing each of the centuries-old, extremely high-quality trees.
This was his first time seeing so many precious timber materials together in his career in the wood industry. It was truly heart-stopping.
"Manager Liang, hold off on the excitement for a moment and start appraising the goods. Once you guys buy all this timber, you can go back and admire it at your company every day."
Su Jie chuckled from the side. The high-quality timber so cherished in the eyes of Liang Lianjun was just common wood in Tianyuan World.
It only showed that the differences between the two worlds allowed Su Jie, the profiteer, to easily execute low-buy high-sell operations.
"Yes, yes, Master, bring the tools over quickly."
Liang Lianjun realized that he had been somewhat uncomposed and quickly regained control of his expression.
The sound of chainsaws reverberated in the warehouse. Because Su Jie had prepared dozens of trees this time, examining the quality, weighing, and valuing them took up more time. It took almost two hours to measure all the timber.
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