"Luckily, I didn't bump into a plane!"
Gu Yu descended somewhere above Shanxi Province and landed on a small hill. Shooing a few mutated big rats away, he sat down to adjust his breath.
He used to joke with Xiaozhai about knocking down a plane, but the worry had become true in a mere couple of years. In that sense, the ancient times were much safer—the sky was clear and there were no big flying machines he would need to look out for.
His destination this time was the city of Dakang below Tianshan Mountain. The flight from Shengtian to Urumqi would take him over ten hours, stopover time included.
Turning into a flashing sword and flying there himself would certainly take much longer than that, for he had to land and take a rest whenever the consumption of his spiritual essence had reached the threshold which the speed of recovery could not catch up.
It was much more troublesome this way, but he still chose to fly.
Why?
Because he was lovin' it!
"Ha…"
After a while, Gu Yu finished the readjustment. Gulping down a few mouthfuls of spiritual liquor, he reactivated the Sword Seed. Golden flame then surged out of his body, immediately wrapping him inside. The streak of golden light shot up again, sliding away across the sky.
"There… he did it again!"
Inside the meteorological center, the staff that had seen the change of data several times today were watching it once more with motionless faces, their thoughts full of sarcastic remarks.
***
Gu Yu flew all the way to Dakang in this manner.
News had already got around here, and people were sent out waiting in various spots; they looked rather miserable in this freezing cold weather. They didn't really have a choice, for no one knew where our fellow would drop out of the sky.
After a month of development, everything was on the right track in Tianshan now. Bai Yunsheng had gone back to the monastery, and the government was busy putting up installations all over Dakang, planning to build a new base.
After the crude spiritual stones were transported out of the mountain, they would be processed here before being sent to the capital city and other places.
The man in charge of meeting Gu Yu here was Fu Wei, a shrewd and foxy middle-aged man. Because this visitation was so out of the blue, the government even had its guard up in case Gu Yu was here to rob the vault of spiritual stones.
Fu Wei blurted out the question as soon as Gu Yu showed up. "May I ask why you are here?"
"I heard you have discovered high-level spiritual stones in Tianshan, and thought I should come by to take a look. I'd like to trade some if the price is good."
"I see. This way, please."
With that, Fu Wei led Gu Yu into a secret chamber inside the base. Before long, someone came out with a tray, on which were four processed stones.
"This one is named Grade One spiritual stone now; it's identical to what we have in Tianzhu. This is Grade Two and this is Grade Three. I don't think I'll need to introduce these two; you'll be able to see for yourself. And there's also this…" Picking up a small piece of semi-transparent ice crystal stone that looked like a flower, Fu Wei said, "This is Darkice, a mineral we newly discovered. There is only one ton in total, and it comes with an ice attribute."
"Is it used for anything?" Gu Yu gave it a few more looks, apparently quite interested.
"Priest Bai Yunsheng of the monastery hoped he could use it to forge a sword; the request has been approved, but the sword won't need much. Darkice is a very powerful mineral, and a tiny bit is effective enough. The main material of the sword will be the green jade stone; only a small amount of darkice will be mixed in." The fellow knew his business and offered Gu Yu all the useful information.
Gu Yu nodded, but did not respond to that. "Do you have a standard of the conversion ratio among the three grades of spiritual stones?"
"Of course! Although their reactivity is 1, 2, and 3, respectively, we couldn't possibly use the same ratio for the conversion. A Grade Three is far more valuable than a Grade One. Therefore, we have set the ratio at one Grade Three equivalent to ten Grade Two, or a hundred Grade One."
"So that's a ratio of 1: 10 between two grades. Not bad."
Looking around, Gu Yu thought what he found here could meet his requirements.
Phoenix Mountain had quite a storage now. The government gave them 20 000 spiritual stones for the development of Tianzhu Mountain in the beginning. Gu Yu then received 50 000 for his security service for the old man during the international conference. They made another 100 000 from selling houses of the market town.
The four of them had used no more than 5 000 so far—there were simply so few of them!
"I'm here because I have an urgent need for some Grade Three spiritual stones. I hope I'll be able to convert some."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not at the liberty to make that decision. Let me make the request for you." Fu Wei left the room and went back shortly afterwards holding a phone. "Maybe you want to talk to him yourself?"
Gu Yu took the phone and recognized the old man's voice on the other side. He chuckled. "Had I known this beforehand, I would have called you myself."
"Haha, I've heard the news. There's just one question I want to ask. What do you need the high-level spiritual stones for?" The old man smiled.
"I have come up with a formation recently, and in order to try it, I need some energy to activate it."
"I see. The spiritual stones are part of the national strategic stockpile and Grade Three is the gem of that stockpile. We can let you convert some, but not too many. You can take a thousand." The old man gave a number.
"That'll be more than enough. Tha—"
"Don't rush into thanking me yet. I need something from you in return."
"I'm listening." Holding the phone, Gu Yu frowned slightly as he listened to the old man's explanation. "The Great Court of Skill of Lüshan… you're certain that it's underwater in Min River… you've found the Black Water Sword… all right. I'll be there when you begin the work."
He hung up after that and handed the phone back. "What's your storage like now?"
"Your timing is perfect. We have just a little over a thousand. Let me show you the way."
Fu Wei then led him through various safeguards into a big room, where a lot of wooden chests were. The chests were all made from wood of Emei, which could best maintain the reactivity of the spiritual stones.
Fu Wei opened one, showing the fifty Grade Three spiritual stones neatly arranged inside. "Shall we load it onto the truck for you or deliver it to Phoenix Mountain directly?"
"That won't be necessary. I'll take them myself."
'Take them himself? There are a thousand stone here—twenty chests!' Fu Wei could not see how that was possible.
Gu Yu untied a small pouch the size of an adult palm from his waist. It was silver-white in color, and was fastened by a pale yellow string.
The pouch was woven from the silk of the Sand-walking Spider, and the string was the tendon of a mutated Unicow. Together, they were a homespun storage bag.
Opening the pouch, he waved his right hand; the pouch bulged abruptly like an inflated balloon, then was back to normal right away.
"It's done. Thank you for all your help." Gu Yu tied the string back and hung the pouch, which looked as pretty as an ornament, on his waist.
Done? What the hell did he mean by "done"?
Fu Wei opened his eyes widely, feeling his head going blank for a second. He hurried near and opened one of the chests.
Clunk!
It was completely empty.
He then opened a second, a third… being a stubborn man, Fu Wei opened all twenty or so chests and counted the stones. The man had taken exactly a thousand!
"I left in a hurry and did not take that many spiritual stones with me. You can come to Phoenix Mountain to collect them at any time. See you."
Gu Yu put a Dan pill in Fu Wei's hand has a tip, then turned into a flash of light again. In the blink of an eye, he was at the other side of the horizon.
***
Vroom!
Beep! Beep!
Meanwhile, there was a major traffic jam on the road from Shengtian to Bai Town. The vehicles were closely packed together, filling the mountain road that was not actually narrow. Most of the license plates were of other provinces, and some had travelled from as far as
Despite the heavy traffic and the fact that they were barely moving forward, none of the passengers seemed agitated. Instead, they looked rather hopeful.
Among the streams of vehicles, a medium-sized seafood truck stood out; it had a license plate of Hunan Province, and the driver was a fair-skinned young man. It was Dai Han, our chubby young friend from Dongting Lake.
After spending some time selling off their properties and going through the handing-over procedure, the Dai Family was finally moving to Bai Town.