"Twenty-five with D-level strength, five with C-level strength. There was one B-level, but I recruited them. The C-level ones: three at the early stage, two at the mid-stage."
The Great Emperor replied to Yi Tian.
"So what's your price?" Yi Tian eyed this group of Human Race members with interest.
That batch of non-human natives—Yi Tian had already decided to sell them off. He needed a fixed group of members.
The three thousand mu of land had already been plowed and planted, but he'd still need a lot more manpower going forward.
"Two million Celestial Dao Coins. Non-negotiable!" The Great Emperor replied.
"Great Emperor, these guys wouldn't fetch two million at the auction house," Yi Tian frowned and said.
"It's different! They're not worth the price to others, but to you, absolutely. Besides, if I put them up at auction for 1.9 million, I'd still win the bid," The Great Emperor said with full confidence.
"Alright! Deal."
Yi Tian, coming from Earth, had a very clear understanding of equivalent exchange. He never minded getting the better end of a bargain. But when it was his turn to lose out—yeah, he hated it.
Yi Tian could sense that the Great Emperor was different from Purple Phoenix Moon Dance.
If Yi Tian rejected him, the Great Emperor would likely call the deal off instantly.
"Hold off on the transaction for a sec. You're doing pretty well in your region, right? Got any Element Cores?" Yi Tian turned the tables and asked the Great Emperor.
"Element Core? What, Wealthiest in the World, you planning to make Elemental Warriors? I've got two Elemental Warrior Design Maps—if you want, I might just consider selling them to you." The Great Emperor replied.
Yi Tian finally understood Purple Phoenix Moon Dance's feelings. He got outmaneuvered by this guy again.
Yi Tian just mentioned Element Core once, and the Great Emperor instantly guessed he was about to make Elemental Warriors.
For those ahead of the curve, when ordinary Trial Takers just pulled off their pants, these guys already knew what fart was coming.
Between Yi Tian and the Great Emperor, it was all about profit—whoever took the profit, called the shots.
The loser either took getting fleeced in stride, or quit the game.
"Name your price. Those warriors? They're just scraping into B-level." Yi Tian kept his cool. The implication was clear: B-level slaves at the auction house wouldn't fetch a million. And this is just a design map.
This design can barely put together a just-qualified B-level Elemental Warrior—and it still costs 1.6 million.
Kind of nuts!
So, selling an Elemental Warrior Design Map isn't easy.
With 1.6 million, you could buy a powerful Gold Level native—with strength that absolutely crushes any Elemental Warrior.
Element Core is where the real value's at. Yi Tian remembered using one Earth Element Core when building his villa.
"Heh, same thing—depends who needs it. To the right person, a stone is as precious as gold; to the wrong person, gold's just a useless rock. That's how Celestial Dao set the rules, right? There's always a reason for it." The Great Emperor was playing coy, always trying to get a read on Yi Tian.
"Oh? I'll give you that. I've got a thing here: in the hands of an ordinary person with less than fifty attributes, it's worth thirty thousand. In the hands of someone over fifty but under a hundred, it's worth three hundred thousand. After that, under SS-level, the higher the rank, the more valuable it gets. So, esteemed sir—what do you think my thing's worth?" Yi Tian was already up and downstairs, heading out to collect the slaves. To make a scene, he even got Third Child and Fourth Child up. The two kiddos were barely awake, still dozing in his arms.
At that moment, Yi Tian was already standing by the Cyan Spirit Fruit. He didn't reply to the Great Emperor—instead, he started playing hard to get right back at him.
"Heavenly and Earthly Treasure? The fruit and the tree of a Spirit Fruit are two different things. Too bad—so far, I've only found Spirit Fruit trees, never the actual fruit." Clearly, the Great Emperor thought Yi Tian was talking about Spirit Fruit trees, not the fruit itself.
The Great Emperor could reach out to multiple High-level Race regions, and from his point of view, Spirit Fruits hadn't turned up yet.
"[S-level Spirit Fruit Cyan Spirit Fruit*1]."
Yi Tian didn't even send a message—he just scanned the Cyan Spirit Fruit with a Celestial Dao Stone, then sent the info to the Great Emperor.
"How'd you get that?" The Great Emperor asked, curious.
Physique, strength, agility +10 across the board—a decent boost. In the Celestial Dao World, if there's no reward from the Dao, the Great Emperor would need months to scrape up those attribute points.
"Territory upgrade. Originally, I planned to keep it for myself, but an S-level Spirit Fruit is a huge deal—it can boost S-level strength." Yi Tian threw in some subtext with his reply.
The two kept chatting like this, both leaving things hanging for a while.
"I'll trade you two Elemental Warrior Design Maps for your S-level Spirit Fruit." Finally, the Great Emperor couldn't help himself—offered to trade with Yi Tian.
From the Great Emperor's perspective, at B-level, boosting thirty points with a Spirit Fruit was no small thing.
Those Elemental Warriors might look cool, but compared to a Spirit Fruit, they're way less valuable.
"I also want two Element Cores—or I'll just power myself up with the Cyan Spirit Fruit." Yi Tian spoke with conviction. At this point, Yi Tian only knew Spirit Fruits were valuable, but not exactly how valuable. He guessed an S-level Spirit Fruit was at least worth a million.
"Deal!" The Great Emperor hesitated for a moment, then agreed. The potential from Element Core was limited.
Elemental Warriors weren't of much use to people like the Great Emperor.
There were a few rivals in the region—the Great Emperor wanted strength to meet future challenges.
Still, getting outplayed by Yi Tian didn't sit well with him!
"You've got a lot of Element Cores, huh?"
Yi Tian sent that message, then scanned a Dragon Blood Holy Fruit: "SS-level Heavenly and Earthly Treasure, Dragon Blood Holy Fruit*1. Celestial Dao Reward—only one available. I want Element Cores, and I want to see you're serious."
Yi Tian could feel the Great Emperor's desire for Spirit Fruits. If the Great Emperor brought forth Element Cores that satisfied Yi Tian, he wouldn't mind trading. But if it was just three or five cores—forget it.
On the other side, the Great Emperor was completely stunned. Why?
Why did my territory upgrade give me a Spirit Fruit Tree, and his gave him a Spirit Fruit?
SS-level—how's that even possible?
If he got both fruits, his Three-dimensional attributes would go up by 90 points. That'd take him years of cultivation on his own.
Admittedly, the Great Emperor could see that Yi Tian needed Element Cores, so he could probe a bit.
But at their level, they understood the rarity-premium concept even more.
Element Cores were hard to get hold of.
But it's not like they didn't exist. In fact, every region's top few leaders, and even the highest-ranked in each subregion, have Element Cores.
Wealthiest in the World's title came with resources. As long as he wanted them, Yi Tian could definitely get the other Element Cores.
"Wealthiest in the World: Two each of Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Thunder; one each of Light and Dark. Fire Element Warrior Design Map, Water Element Warrior Design Map—in exchange for your two Spirit Fruits!" After a while, the Great Emperor named his bottom line.
"Not enough! Add 25 D-level strength Human Race natives, and five with C-level strength," Yi Tian insisted.
Yi Tian didn't threaten, but the Great Emperor could hear Yi Tian's determination loud and clear.
"That's two million Celestial Dao Coins—is that really worth it to you?" The Great Emperor didn't spell it out.
Everything has a price, and all prices have a ceiling.
"To ordinary folks, nope; to the strong, yes!" Yi Tian sounded absolutely sure, parroting the Great Emperor's earlier line right back.
Yi Tian guessed, from the Great Emperor capturing B-level experts, that he was A-level. Turned out, Yi Tian's guess was wrong.
The gap between B-level and A-level is much bigger. Break a thousand in Three-dimensional and you count as A-level.
"You're one tough customer."
After saying that, the Great Emperor sent a long transaction: "[Fire Element Warrior Design Map*1][Water Element Warrior Design Map*1][Gold Element Core*1]...…[Yun Hai][Yun Long][Yun Fei][Yun Che][Yun Tao]...… Trading for [SS-level Spirit Fruit Dragon Blood Holy Fruit*1][S-level Spirit Fruit Cyan Spirit Fruit*1]."
Yi Tian headed outside the villa and closed the deal.
"If you have a way to get Elemental Warrior Design Maps or Element Cores, I can swap more Spirit Fruits with you. Seriously—another boost of dozens of attribute points, no problem; even a hundred-plus Spiritual Power. But next time, it's not gonna be this cheap."
After the transaction ended, Yi Tian sent the Great Emperor another message.
The Great Emperor perked up, but then reading the latter half, nearly spat blood. "Cheap?! I'm B-level, and anything below B-level Heavenly and Earthly Treasures are useless to me."
"What? You're B-level? If I'd known, I wouldn't have given you an SS-level Heavenly and Earthly Treasure. Your name threw me off!" Yi Tian almost spat blood himself. So after all this, the Great Emperor was just B-level.
Then Yi Tian instantly said, "If you're B-level, I could at least get you 140 attribute points and 110 Spiritual Power Value—if you can supply the stuff I need."
The Great Emperor's heart skipped a beat. If he got 140 attribute points, he'd practically be A-class. Add 110 Spiritual Power Value, and his combat power would skyrocket.
"So, how much do you need for that deal?" The Great Emperor asked—not one for flying blind.
"Twenty Elemental Warrior Design Maps, twenty Element Cores," Yi Tian replied.
"I'll do my best!" The Great Emperor knew that, with someone like Wealthiest in the World, once he had the upper hand, he wouldn't budge for anything.
"By the way, pretty much every night at 11 pm, I'll open the auction house. Contact me then." Yi Tian added one last thing: "Do you have any Spirit Fruit Trees above B-level?"
"I do have a few."
After reading that, Yi Tian knew the Great Emperor was about to play hard to get again.
"Don't hold out on me—just name the Spirit Fruit Trees." Yi Tian shot back bluntly.
Yi Tian knew the Great Emperor was still eyeing his other Spirit Fruits, too scared to piss him off.
"S-level Spirit Fruit Tree: Silver Profound Fruit*1; A-level Spirit Fruit Tree: Thunder Fruit*1; A-level Spirit Fruit Tree: Three-Petaled Three-Colored Fruit*1."
The Great Emperor hesitated, then decided to tell Yi Tian about his Spirit Fruit Trees.
The wait for these is too long—decades. If Yi Tian wanted them, he'd sell at a fair price, count it as a favor.
As for whether Yi Tian could get these Spirit Fruit Trees to bloom and bear fruit, he wondered, but thought it was impossible.
How much Wood Spirit Liquid would that take? Not worth it.
"Alright, I'll trade you fifteen D-level natives for those three Spirit Fruit Trees."
Fifteen D-level captives, according to the current hot market for slaves, would go for 600,000 Celestial Dao Coins.
"Deal!"
"Wait a sec!"
First, Yi Tian sent Little White to go find Fire Dragon and bring the captives back.
As for the newly arrived group of prisoners in front of him, they were outside the Soldier Pavilion, shaking with fear.
Honestly, they were totally intimidated by the array outside the Soldier Pavilion.
The previous Lord and this Lord—night and day difference. The first was basically a country bumpkin.
This batch of thirty slaves all had shackles on wrists and ankles—their strength reduced by more than half.
The two little kiddos crossed their arms, standing at Yi Tian's right and left, boosting his presence.
After all, there were five C-levels among them, and two had over three hundred in all three dimensions.