"Give me a break. Get out of here, and don’t break my precious piano!"

Wang Yi shooed Tian Can and Earth Defect away. ’What a waste of this piece of black technology,’ he thought. ’I probably won’t find anyone talented enough to master this piano loom anytime soon.’

"Move this piano to the rear carriage for now, and store it carefully!"

As Wang Yi gave the order, Yang Qingniu came to report, "Boss, some officials are here to see you!"

"Officials?" Wang Yi knew it had to be Xue Shentian’s group. "Take them to carriage number one, brew a pot of tea for them, and have them wait. I’ll be right over!"

"Yes!"

Yang Qingniu bowed and departed.

A moment later, Wang Yi arrived at carriage number one. Xue Shentian and Li Mingli were already inside. Upon seeing Wang Yi, they quickly rose to their feet, smiling and clasping their hands in greeting.

Wang Yi noticed two iron chests in the carriage. "Did you bring these?" he asked. "What’s inside?"

Xue Shentian said, "Thank you for your generous assistance, Great Saint. Inside are the seven thousand Gold Coins we agreed upon yesterday, along with a few humble Chaos Crystal Stones and Chaos Eggs. Please, accept them."

"How thoughtful. I’ll take them. And I’ll gladly take these ’humble’ Chaos Crystal Stones and Chaos Eggs, too. I was just wondering, do you happen to have any ’humble’ Chaos Blind Boxes as well?"

Wang Yi was perceptive. He knew Xue Shentian was sucking up to him not just because of his strength, but because he wanted something. ’That’s good, though,’ he thought. ’It’s not people with requests you have to worry about, it’s the ones who want nothing at all.’

Xue Shentian replied, "My apologies, Great Saint. We don’t have any Chaos Blind Boxes at the moment, but if we find any in the future, we will certainly bring them to you!"

"Fair enough. We Players should help each other out. It’s all about mutually beneficial cooperation, right?"

"I heard you’re in the Fasting Pill business, Great Saint..."

"Right to the point, aren’t we, Prince! Yes, I have a large quantity of Fasting Pills that I’m looking to offload. Are you in need? I can give you a good deal."

"In need? Of course we’re in need!" Xue Shentian said with a laugh. "Great Saint, you’ve seen them yourself. I have a lot of useless mouths to feed. It was a pain to bring them all this way, so I can’t just let them starve, but our provisions are critically low."

"I collected the supplies after last night’s battle. By rights, a portion of that was yours, so let’s call it an even trade for one thousand Fasting Pills. That’s a month’s worth of rations for a thousand men! If you want more, the price isn’t fixed—I’m open to bartering. But if you want to buy with cash right now, the rate is ten pills for one Gold Coin. How does that sound?"

"Excellent! Thank you, Great Saint!"

Xue Shentian said, clasping his hands, while secretly running the numbers in his head.

’This Wang Shanhe gave me a thousand Fasting Pills for free, which is great. As for the price, ten pills for one Gold Coin... In the Golden Sparrow Country, one Gold Coin has the purchasing power of about ten thousand in real-world money. So, ten thousand for ten Fasting Pills... that works out to a monthly food cost of one thousand per person. Not expensive, but not cheap either. This Wang Shanhe certainly isn’t losing money on this deal...’

After a moment of thought, Xue Shentian clasped his hands and bowed even lower. "To be perfectly honest, we left for this expedition in a hurry and didn’t bring much money with us. Can we start by purchasing ten thousand Gold Coins’ worth?"

Ten thousand Gold Coins would buy one hundred thousand Fasting Pills. With that many pills, Xue Shentian figured he wouldn’t have to worry about provisions for at least a month.

"Ten thousand Gold Coins for one hundred thousand Fasting Pills! My production capacity is limited, so it’ll take time to make them all. How about I deliver twenty thousand pills a day? I’ll have the full order to you in five days. Is that acceptable?"

"Delivered over five days?" Xue Shentian’s brow furrowed for a moment, but his expression quickly smoothed into a smile. "Of course, that’s no problem. Are you planning to make camp here, Great Saint? There are some city ruins a few miles to the south. Aren’t you going to go explore?"

"Of course we’ll explore, but there’s no rush. My men just went through a major battle; they need to rest."

"Great Saint, what do you think about our two factions forming an alliance? My troops are all Mortals, so they can’t handle high-level combat, but they’re more than capable of scouting the map and dealing with minor situations."

"You’re too modest, Prince. With such a powerful army at your command, you can conquer cities and seize territory. Your forces are hardly comparable to my meager band of a few hundred soldiers."

"So, does that mean you agree to an alliance, Great Saint?"

"A short-term arrangement for sharing intelligence and mutual support... I suppose that’s feasible."

"Understood. If I come across any important intelligence, I will certainly share it with you, Great Saint!" Xue Shentian clasped his hands, then added, "On another matter, I know you possess a Spiritual Artifact cooking pot. If you don’t mind my asking, for how much Gold would you be willing to part with it?"

"The Spiritual Artifact cooking pot is not for sale."

Wang Yi shook his head. ’The Fasting Pills and Piyao Pills must remain exclusive products of my territory,’ he thought.

"Very well, then."

Xue Shentian had clearly expected this answer, so he didn’t press the matter and soon rose to take his leave.

Wang Yi saw them out. When he handed over a delivery of ten thousand Fasting Pills, he also threw in some Crispy Fried Small Fish and spicy crab sticks as a small gift for both Xue Shentian and Li Mingli.

A moment later, Xue Shentian and Li Mingli were back in their camp. Li Mingli, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "You didn’t tell him that an Earth Deity is arriving with its mobile domain in three days." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"He’s powerful. So what if he runs into an Earth Deity?" Xue Shentian said with a small smile. "But let’s put that aside. Our provision problem is more or less solved for now. The next step is to send out troops to explore. The more they explore and the more they encounter, the more intel I’ll gather, and faster. I need to get my hands on a massive amount of information, stay one step ahead, and build up a God’s-eye view of the situation. That’s the only way I can regain the upper hand!"

"Right. I’ll go arrange for the men to be sent out... to their deaths, I mean, to explore!"

Li Mingli sighed. "Man, it really sucks to be a soldier under your command."

Just then, a shout came from outside the tent. "General Lu Aqi requests an audience with the Prince!"

Xue Shentian heard the call. "Lu Aqi? Let him in."

Soon, Lu Aqi entered the tent, a counterfeit Spiritual Artifact cooking pot stuck on his head. He straightened the pot before dropping to one knee, saluting Xue Shentian and Li Mingli with a solemn expression.

Lu Aqi had seen Xue Shentian and Li Mingli returning from the "little train" and noticed they seemed to be in a good mood. Figuring it was the opportune moment, he had come to beg King Dongsheng for a pardon.

He was desperate to get this cooking pot off his head. The darn thing didn’t fit properly. It wobbled when he walked, and every time it wobbled, it slid down over his eyes. Not only was it a huge inconvenience in his daily life, but everyone was laughing at him.

He felt like he had become the laughingstock of the entire Dongsheng Prince Mansion.

However, he had miscalculated.

King Dongsheng did not pardon him. Instead, he ordered him to keep the pot on his head and issued a new command: lead the Red Tiger Camp south and do not return until you encounter an Earth Deity.

Lu Aqi was utterly dejected. After leaving the commander’s tent, he muttered and cursed under his breath, but he didn’t dare disobey Xue Shentian’s command. A few moments later, he led the two or three hundred remaining men of the Red Tiger Camp and rode south to begin their exploration.

Meanwhile, Wang Yi was happily inspecting the supplies Xue Shentian had delivered.

In addition to the seven thousand Gold Coins, Xue Shentian had also sent along some "humble" Chaos Eggs and Chaos Crystal Stones.

To be specific, there were four green Chaos Eggs, three Low-Level Chaos Crystal Stones, and three mid-level Chaos Crystal Stones.

A Low-Level Chaos Crystal Stone provided 2,000 Chaos Energy, and a mid-level one provided 5,000. In total, Xue Shentian had given him the equivalent of 21,000 Chaos Energy.

To be honest, this amount of Chaos Energy was beneath Wang Yi’s notice now, and he couldn’t even be bothered to use the Crystal Stones.

As for the four green Chaos Eggs, they were clearly Xue Shentian’s rejects. Their stats were terrible. They would respectively hatch into an "Outwardly-Strong-but-Inwardly-Weak Swordsman Father," a "Kind-Faced-but-Cruel-Hearted Eunuch Foster Father," a "Lustful Knight Godfather," and a "Short-Tempered, Opera-Loving Father."

’Well, I’ll be. He kept the good Chaos Eggs for himself and pawned off these trash-tier dads on me?’

Wang Yi shook his head but put the Chaos Eggs away nonetheless. While he would never hatch them himself, they might be useful to have on hand for a future trade.

After all, he knew that Shen Xingnan had the [Hatching Reset] Talent; trash pet eggs became treasures in her hands. There had to be other Players out there with similar Talents.

Besides, maybe someone out there just had a peculiar taste and would actually want Chaos Eggs like these. Who knew?