Jiang Kai was now chatting idly with Su Lanlan.
"Has Zhuzhi confirmed the relationship with Su Nuannuan?" Jiang Kai said in disbelief.
"Mm."
Jiang Kai shook his head. He had been quite fond of Su Nuannuan before, but unfortunately they were fated yet not meant to be, and there was no chance for deeper interaction.
But it was strange: in the past when a girl he secretly liked found a boyfriend, he would always be sad for a while. This time, however, Jiang Kai felt he hadn't fluctuated much.
Could it be because of Chang Siyiao.
He didn't know where Chang Siyiao had run off to. After his last confession, she still hadn't formally answered him.
The first time confessing face-to-face in his life, and he didn't even get a reply...
"Have they finished their special mission? I haven't seen them in ages."
"Should be soon. After they finish the mission they'll have vacation time, and they'll definitely come find you then."
Jiang Kai nodded, hoping to see his friends soon.
At that moment, Lu Jun led a group into the registration hall; they came over to the green channel.
"That's Jiang Kai!" Lu Jun quickened his pace a few steps, pulled Jiang Kai over, and introduced him to the leaders, "Jiang Kai, this is Director Tang from the Exchange, and this is Minister Lü in charge of military procurement."
"So this is the real person." Tang Hui said with a smile, "Jiang Kai, we've heard quite a lot about your deeds — truly a hero among the young."
"Hello, leaders." Jiang Kai greeted, "Director Tang, you flatter me."
"Let's register then, time's a bit tight." Minister Lü was very interested in the ores and couldn't wait to see them.
"All right."
...
The inspection location was the Main God Guild's back garden.
He Shishi and the others were shocked to see Tang Hui and Minister Lü personally come to the Main God Guild.
"Shi Shi sister, is that the legendary big boss of the Exchange?"
"I've never even seen him; how did he come with Jiang Kai?"
Because the quantity of ores to be inspected this time was somewhat large, Jiang Kai had others not enter the backyard.
After appraisal, the batch of ores in Jiang Kai's hands were for the most part newly discovered ores, each with different functions, and the vast majority had withdrawable attributes.
"This is incredible, so many withdrawable ores!" Minister Lü's excitement overflowed in his words, "And judging by quality, I'm certain these are ores that haven't appeared before!"
Jiang Kai and the others had nothing to add and could only listen as the professionals continued.
"These kinds of withdrawable ores — the abilities after withdrawal need experiments by the institute to determine."
"Jiang Kai, can you hand these ores to me first? After we confirm the effects, I'll send you a price for all the ores."
At mention of this, Lu Jun and Tang Hui both looked somewhat nervous.
In the Transcendent stage, items that can be withdrawn are extremely rare, including ores. Would Jiang Kai feel comfortable handing these stones to Minister Lü?
"Yes." Jiang Kai said frankly.
Minister Lü grabbed Jiang Kai's hand excitedly, "Thank you so much! I'll organize experts to study this batch immediately. Sorry, we have to leave first."
Afterward, Minister Lü and Director Tang logged off quickly with 370 pieces of ore, seeming eager to figure out the ores' functions.
Lu Jun did not hurry to leave; he and Jiang Kai rested for a while in the back garden.
Lu Jun took a sip of tea and said softly, "The Huang Tong case has pulled out something big."
Jiang Kai frowned, "What is it?"
"Right now the evidence is insufficient..."
"Brother Lu, don't tell me all this — I trust you can find it out. Just give me a tip; I won't blab." Jiang Kai said.
Lu Jun looked up, scanned around to make sure no one was nearby, leaned forward, and whispered, "They seem to have close offline contacts with people from the Strange Alliance!"
"Strange Alliance?" Jiang Kai asked in puzzlement, "I've never heard of that organization before."
Lu Jun smiled faintly, "There are plenty of organizations you haven't heard of...Theoretically, even if someone chooses a strange profession, it doesn't mean they've violated military regulations, because even choosing to be a strange practitioner, no one wants to completely lose themselves, so they will consciously keep their soul trade value within a certain range."
"And one more point: in the setting of Ghost Star, soul trade value is absolutely impossible to exceed 30%."
Jiang Kai frowned and listened carefully — this information was impossible to find online.
Lu Jun continued, "But strangely, we accidentally discovered before that a few individual strange practitioners' soul trade values have broken past 30%!"
Jiang Kai asked in confusion, "Isn't it said in Ghost Star's setting that Ghost Star trade value must not exceed 30%?"
Lu Jun's brows knitted and he spoke heavily, "Exactly. We don't understand how they managed it either."
"If it can exceed 30%, then it might exceed 40%, 50%...By then, a person who's lost their soul — would you still call them a person?"
Jiang Kai's eyes widened at once!
"Those few strange practitioners all come from the Strange Alliance! All members of this organization live in the Beast God territory, have their own independent login gates, and offline it's hard for us to find them; online, aside from the few people we painstakingly found, the identities of the others can't be confirmed at all."
Jiang Kai asked, "Can't you just find all the strange practitioners and check them one by one?"
Lu Jun smiled lightly, "Find them all? Dream on. Do you think the number of strange practitioners isn't large?"
"They can't possibly outnumber the War Gods, right?" Jiang Kai answered naturally — but as soon as he finished speaking he was surprised to find Lu Jun's expression quite meaningful.
"Could it be...not like that?"
Lu Jun looked up at Jiang Kai, "Kai, Brother Lu gives you a piece of advice — remember, what you can easily see is always the tip of the iceberg. Many times, what you can't see is where the truth is hidden!"
After Lu Jun left, Jiang Kai sank into long thought.
Brother Lu's advice kept echoing in his ears.
Even though Jiang Kai had now successfully rebirthed into Super Five, he felt that whether Ghost Star or the Beast God battlefield, the fog before him kept exceeding his imagination.
And he was stepping deeper into that fog...
...
Liu Yuanxiang was so angry he smashed the teacup on the table to the floor.
"So you mean you only grabbed one set of Super-Five Beggar materials?"
"What good are you people I support?!"
"Chairman." The procurement head looked aggrieved at Liu Yuanxiang, "That loving-family bidder's price was terrifying. I calculated it — he spent a total of 742 Blood Essence Stones and 12 Heavenly Crystal Stones at this auction!"
The procurement assistant added, "Those sellers were all waiting for that guy's bid. Blood Essence Stones and Heavenly Crystal Stones are just too useful."
"No matter how good the gear attributes we offer, they might not perfectly match the seller's own talents and skills. But with Blood Essence Stones, they can completely raise the synergy of their gear. And if they're lucky, maybe a few Blood Essence Stones will be left over..."
The head continued, "I've already ordered someone to investigate; they'll soon find the identity of that loving-family bidder."
While he was speaking, someone came in and reported the query results.
"Jiang Kai...is it Jiang Kai?"
When Liu Yuanxiang heard that name he trembled with rage!
"Again Jiang Kai, again Jiang Kai! Jiang Kai — it used to be Huang Jianguo who wanted to kill you; now it's me who wants to kill you!" Liu Yuanxiang roared.