Kui Luo showed no surprise when he heard Lu Yin’s words, though the First Protector would have been absolutely shocked if he had heard Lu Yin’s request. First Edition City had fought against the Human Domain for eons. There had been people in the past who had wanted to stop the war and cooperate with the Technocracy, but all such attempts had failed. First Edition City had never shown even the slightest bit of goodwill towards the Human Domain, and yet Lu Yin wanted the two of them to cooperate.
Little Bear instantly started laughing and as he looked at Lu Yin with a mocking expression.
On the other hand, Midday showed great interest. “Cooperate? Alliance Leader Lu, are you toying with me?”
“I’m completely serious,” Lu Yin solemnly replied.
The master of First Edition City answered, “The Hall of Honor has asked to cooperate with us before, but all such requests were rejected. My city has been at war with the Human Domain for countless years, and there has never once been any possibility of cooperation. What makes you bold enough to try?”
Lu Yin remained unflustered. “Because the Sixth Mainland is gone.”
City Master Midday calmly gazed at Lu Yin for a long time.
Lu Yin finally continued, saying, “First Edition City cooperated with the Sixth Mainland for the materials that they supplied, and the people from the Sixth Mainland explained to me that your cooperation was based off of you fighting against the Human Domain in order to earn the supplied materials. With the Sixth Mainland destroyed, there is no longer any reason for you to cooperate with them, which makes it our turn.”
“What? Do you think that your Human Domain has enough resources to even interest us? Even if there is, how can you represent the Human Domain? You can’t represent the Hall of Honor! Even though I don’t pay attention to the Human Domain’s news, I still know that over the years, their hatred towards us in no worse than their hatred for the Sixth Mainland. Provide us with resources? What a joke!” Midday casually replied.
Lu Yin moved his fingers. “It would not be the Human Domain cooperating with you, but me.”
Midday and Little Bear both stared at Lu Yin in shock. “You?”
Lu Yin nodded. “Yes, I am representing neither the Human Star Region nor the Great Eastern Alliance, but myself, Lu Yin. I will provide you with the resources that you need.”
“Why you?” Little Bear could not stop himself from speaking up.
They had been cooperating with the massive Sixth Mainland, which had supplied First Edition City with untold resources over the years. Even if the city did decide to cooperate with the Human Domain, they should be negotiating with the Hall of Honor. No matter how rich and powerful Lu Yin might be, it was impossible for him to match the resources of the entire Humain Domain.
Lu Yin just stared at Midday for a long time. “I don’t have common materials that I can provide you with, but I do have some rare materials that ordinary people can’t acquire, not even the Sixth Mainland. This is what I can provide you.”
Midday’s eyes flickered. “How can you possibly acquire materials that the Sixth Mainland can’t?”
Lu Yin smiled. “Let me just say that it’s an innate gift. I can perfectly separate the components of any substance, which allows me to obtain the purest form of the decomposed substance’s original materials.”
“Impossible!” Little Bear shouted while staring at Lu Yin. “Lies! Not even the best technology of my First Edition City can do that!.”
Lu Yin condescendingly responded, “Just because you can’t do something doesn’t mean that I can’t as well. Don’t believe me? Let me prove it.”
Midday silently stared at Lu Yin for a long time. His rationality insisted that Lu Yin’s claims were impossible. Such rare materials had ancient origins, and they had all been used up long, long ago. While First Edition City did have a lot of items from the ancient eras, it was impossible to refine those items back into their raw materials. Thus, the only option was to search for new sources of those rare materials, but that was also impossible, as such things had all been dug up and used long ago. Despite all of that, this human youth was claiming to be able to perfectly refine and separate any material. How could this possibly be real?
Cultivators constantly fought throughout their long lives, and while experts with power levels of a million or Semi-Progenitors might have the strength of a god, there were still some things that were beyond their abilities.
Even Kui Luo looked at Lu Yin in surprise. Was it really possible for someone to perfectly refine any and all materials? This was very simple to do with regular items, and even some powerhouses that focused exclusively on battle were capable of doing so. However, those items never contained any truly rare materials. Such compounds could not be refined even with First Edition City’s technology, so this was clearly not a simple claim to make.
There were even some items that looked to be perfectly ordinary but could not be refined either because of their age, an extremely complicated manufacturing method, or unique characteristics of the combined materials that did not allow for the item to be refined and recycled. No one could perfectly break down any substance, as it was simply impossible.
“City Master Midday, you can test me out. Find something that contains a material that you need but cannot refine. See whether I can refine it for you,” Lu Yin said to the android.
Nothing happened for a long time, and then Midday looked at the bear-shaped android and winked.
Little Bear left.
Nothing was said for a long time.
“By the way, Alliance Lord Lu, was the commotion that broke out in my city some time ago connected to you?” Midday suddenly asked while staring straight at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s expression remained completely unchanged. “It doesn’t matter.”
The two stared at each other for a long time, but the android could not tell whether Lu Yin was hiding something or not. Actually, Midday also found this detail to be irrelevant because the android that had created a commotion had been quickly defeated without ever having any opportunity to go anywhere in First Edition City. He was still convinced that the Sixth Mainland was behind the incident, and he found it highly unlikely that there was any connection to Lu Yin.
Soon after, the bear returned, holding a shattered stone that was thrown to Lu Yin. He caught it, and his brows rose as he studied the stone.
“While this stone is just a stone, it contains a certain substance that’s known as teardust. As long as you can extract that, I’ll believe you,” Midday solemnly declared.
Kui Luo was startled. “Teardust?”
Lu Yin grew curious. “Have you heard of it, Senior?”
Kui Luo nodded while still staring at the stone in amazement. “Teardust is a very ancient substance that hasn’t been seen in countless years. I never expected to find some here.”
He then looked up at Lu Yin. “Are you sure that you can purify this? You should know that teardust is extremely fragile. Not to mention you, but even someone who only just started cultivating could destroy teardust with the slightest bit of carelessness.”
“What is it used for?” Lu Yin was curious.
Kui Luo. “Growing plants.”
Lu Yin blinked. “That’s it?”
Kui Luo nodded. “That’s it. It’s actually a type of soil.”
“Then why is it so valuable? Even Senior has heard of its value.”
“It’s said that plants grown in teardust will have greater spirituality than other plants of the same species. In fact, I once heard that Progenitor Hui’s first Root of Intelligence was grown in teardust.”
Lu Yin’s expression changed, and he was suddenly overjoyed. “Really?”
“Alliance Leader Lu, please extract the teardust from this. How long will you need?” Midday finally interrupted to ask.
Lu Yin looked down at the stone in his hand. “Do you have anything more? Bring me all of it, as I don’t have time to wait here and slowly refine it.”
“As long as you are able to extract the teardust, our cooperation will begin. There will not be any need for Alliance Leader Lu to wait in First Edition City, as I will give you various items, and you can deliver them to us after they have been refined,” Midday responded earnestly.
Lu Yin smiled. “You’re acting like a decision’s been made. However, City Master, I never mentioned my conditions for our cooperation. All I said was that I’m willing to cooperate with you.”
“First extract the teardust.” The master of First Edition City still did not believe Lu Yin’s claims, so the android simply left.
Little Bear quickly caught up to Midday. “City Master, aren’t you worried that he might already have some teardust that he can use to trick us?”
Midday took some time to reply. “If something so coincidental occurs, then it’s simply fate to cooperate with him, so why fight it?”
Little Bear acted like he understood, though he actually did not.
Kui Luo also excused himself, leaving Lu Yin alone.
Lu Yin returned to the room where he had secluded himself before, and his eyes sparkled as a rush of energy swept out from Kui Luo that prevented First Edition City from monitoring Lu Yin.
“Don’t worry about it,” Kui Luo’s voice reached Lu Yin.
He looked up, feeling as though he was able to see the Master Brain’s manifested thoughts. Lu Yin did not know if the Master Brain could still see him at this moment, but even if it could, it was fine. Lu Yin’s goal was to first roll his die’s two pips, after which he could hide any of his die’s other abilities.
While an innate gift for purifying materials into their raw state was rare, it was not enough to put Lu Yin in any danger.
He set his cosmic ring aside, and he also made sure that he did not have any star essence on himself.
He raised a hand and brought out his die. His finger tapped it, and after it slowly spun around, it stopped on five pips.
Lu Yin felt frustrated. While both Kui Luo and the First Protector had innate gifts, Lu Yin did not dare to rush over to either of them within the time limit of ten seconds and touch them. Instead, he rolled the die again.
The second roll resulted in three pips, but Lu Yin just shook his head when he saw the two screens made of light. He rolled again.
His third roll was lucky, as the dark vortex of his Blackhole Disassembly appeared. Lu Yin instantly threw the shattered rock in, and several different substances fell out. Lu Yin could only recognize the most common shards of rock, but there were also some bits of red and gray powder.
He threw everything back into the vortex, but nothing was refined any further. The materials were already at their purest.
That meant that one of the three substances before him was teardust. He felt that the gray dust was the most likely suspect as there was very little of it.
Lu Yin collected a bit of everything that had come out of the stone. While he needed to produce some of the teardust to prove his abilities, he did not need very much, and the androids had no idea how much had originally been in the stone.
Lu Yin’s Blackhole Disassembly could only last for five minutes, but Lu Yin was in no hurry, as accomplishing his task too quickly would merely rouse suspicions.
After the vortex disappeared, Lu Yin closed his eyes and began practicing the Cosmic Art.
…
Two days passed, and during this time, Little Bear had stopped by twice only to see that Lu Yin was still in seclusion. The bear’s eyes remained indifferent as he left, as he did not believe that Lu Yin could accomplish his task.
Right when Little Bear arrived for the third time, Lu Yin emerged.
Little Bear quickly approached Lu Yin, and the bear’s eyes were locked onto Lu Yin. “Did you fail?”
Kui Luo and the First Protector both looked at Lu Yin with curiosity as well.
Lu Yin smiled and lifted his hand. In it were several different types of debris. “Please check if any of this is teardust.”
Little Bear stared at the powders in Lu Yin’s hand, especially the gray powder. The android was completely shocked.
A good bit later, Midday also arrived. This time, he was using a different android as his vessel, and it was far more powerful than the one that he had used to meet with Lu Yin earlier. Upon seeing the gray powder in Lu Yin’s hands, Midday looked up at Lu Yin. “Alliance Leader Lu, I look forward to cooperating with you.”
Lu Yin handed the gray dust over to the Vice City Master as the First Protector watched on in a daze. Lu Yin then smiled at Midday. “Please come in.”
“Thank you.” Midday’s tone of voice when speaking to Lu Yin had already completely changed.
The First Protector was still in a daze, dumbfounded from seeing how Lu Yin was just smiling and chatting with the master of First Edition City. How was this possible? The Hall of Honor had tried to negotiate or cooperate with First Edition City for so many years, but nothing had ever worked. What had Lu Yin done to pull it off?
Times were truly changing.
The Outerverse getting cut off from the Innerverse had allowed Lu Yin to unite the Outerverse, which had previously been seen as impossible. The Sixth Mainland’s destruction had given Lu Yin the opportunity to cooperate with First Edition City.
Comparing the destroyed Sixth Mainland, which could no longer meet the First Edition City’s needs, to Lu Yin, who was able to provide them with exceptionally rare materials, it was clear which one was more worthy of the city’s cooperation. Lu Yin had become a treasure in the eyes of First Edition City’s City Master.
For the Technocracy, raw materials were comparable to battle techniques and cultivation arts in the Human Domain. If Midday’s perspective was converted to a human perspective, then Lu Yin was no different from a trove of secret techniques!
