After a long silence, the elegant man in white finally came back to himself, coughed once, and said, "Well… my dear son-in-law, please come in."
Lin Bei's mouth twitched at the words.
But he offered no further explanation and simply walked into the hall, sitting down beside the two of them.
The elegant man in white studied Lin Bei for a while, then gave a slight nod, a smile finally appearing on his face.
"Not bad—your strength is indeed extraordinary!"
"Even I find you unfathomable. Your Spirit power… it may be far more than what Second Brother described!"
A look of astonishment flashed in the eyes of the elegant man in white; his gaze toward Lin Bei grew more and more satisfied.
"Big Brother, are you saying… his Spirit power surpasses yours? That… that's impossible! You're an expert who specializes in Spirit energy! Your Combat Power is already closing in on 100 million points—how could he possibly…"
Hei Feng's face was filled with shock.
"Heh-heh, our future son-in-law isn't just stronger than me. Before his Spirit, mine feels like a pond facing the ocean—utterly insignificant."
"Does that make it clear?"
The elegant man in white smiled as he looked at Hei Feng. "That girl Bailing has excellent taste! And as you said, our Elf Clan… truly has hope of revival."
As he spoke, his gaze returned to Lin Bei and he said gently, "By the way, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm the City Lord of Tiansha City, the last surviving prince of the Light-Elf royal line—Bai Jie."
"Huh? Bai Jie?"
Lin Bei's mouth dropped open, his face full of disbelief.
"Yes, Bai Jie—'Bai' as in white clouds, 'Jie' as in outstanding. What's with that surprised look—have you heard of me before?"
The elegant man in white nodded with a smile, regarding Lin Bei curiously.
That fleeting expression just now… intrigued him.
"Uh… ahem, yes, that's right. I heard from Bailing that her eldest uncle is formidable—ranking at the very top among all thirty-six main cities."
"So I got a bit excited; please forgive me!"
Lin Bei collected himself and quickly added.
"Heh-heh, that girl Bailing… she really speaks without thinking. My strength is decent, but among the thirty-six main cities it can't be called top-tier."
The elegant man in white shook his head with a smile. "Of course, if Tian Gang City and Tian Kui City aren't counted, I do stand alone at the summit."
"It's a pity that, in the end, I'm still a step short."
Hei Feng curled his lip. "Not necessarily! Big Brother, you specialize in Spirit—if you had enough blood煞 crystals to boost your vitality as well, your strength could definitely rise another level!"
"Even the powerhouses of Tian Gang and Tian Kui might not be your match!"
The elegant man in white gave a wry smile. "Absorb enough blood煞 crystals? Easier said than done."
"Though I'm the City Lord of Tiansha City, my status bars me from entering Blood煞 Land to hunt those creatures. I can only trade with Survivors for blood煞 crystals."
The efficiency… is far too low."
"To take that next step, I'd need at least another hundred years."
He sighed. "Reborn Ones… sometimes it's just this helpless—who told us we were once losers?"
"Hmph, those Survivors are definitely doing it on purpose! Someone behind them must be ordering them to control all kinds of elemental crystals to restrict our growth!"
"Those Survivors have long since lost their former glory; now… they're nothing but puppets and lackeys!"
"A-hem, that… Beiming, I'm not talking about you—I mean organizations like the Order Dynasty; they're the real lackeys!"
Hei Feng ranted, eyes bulging; mid-tirade he realized a Survivor sat beside him and slammed on the brakes, hurriedly explaining.
Lin Bei didn't take it to heart.
To him these things were trivial.
Lackey or not, different standpoints yield different perspectives.
Take himself: he was now a Lucky Ambassador; in the eyes of enemies of the Lucky Faction, he was also a lackey.
In the end, might makes right in this world.
Everything else is just petty detail.
Thus Lin Bei paid no heed to pointless insults.
If someone was truly noisy, he'd just kill them—and happily loot some attributes and legacy blind-boxes while at it. Why get angry?
Speaking of which, he still had thousands of blind-boxes dropped by slain Order Dynasty members sitting in his storage space, unopened.
"They're all legacy blind-boxes from high-world Survivors; maybe… they'll yield lots of good stuff!"
"Best of all would be some high-world supply treasure chests; paired with my 'Super Luck' state, they might really pop out something terrific!"
Lin Bei mused, glancing at the remaining two hours of his Super Luck and feeling a sudden urgency.
He smiled at Hei Feng, signaling he hadn't taken offense.
Then he looked at the elegant man in white and asked, "Lord Bai… Jie, you just said you need blood煞 crystals?"
"Indeed. I specialize in Spirit; my vitality is comparatively weak. I need the abundant life-force within blood煞 crystals to strengthen it."
Bai Jie nodded, then seemed to sense something and asked curiously, "Could you have blood煞 crystals you don't need?"
"Mm, I… have some."
"Excellent! If possible, would you be willing to sell them to me?"
Bai Jie's eyes lit up, his tone turning eager. "Rest assured, I'll pay market price—however many you have, I'll take them all!"
In recent years the Survivor factions in Tiansha City had only traded him one blood煞 crystal per day—far too little.
Thus, learning that Lin Bei had surplus crystals, Bai Jie grew excited.
After all, he'd just seen that this man's strength absolutely surpassed his own.
So if he spoke up, the number in his hand had to be considerable!
In Bai Jie's eyes, the man must have at least a hundred blood煞 crystals—
maybe even more!
Consequently Bai Jie couldn't help feeling thrilled, staring at Lin Bei with burning eyes.
"May I ask—how many blood煞 crystals do you have on you right now?"
Bai Jie asked, full of anticipation.
Lin Bei hesitated, then said helplessly, "Actually not many—just a little bit."
Bai Jie's face showed disappointment at those words.
Come to think of it, the man had been active around Tianjian City before; even having come to Tiansha City, he hadn't stayed long.
Even if he had blood煞 crystals, it wouldn't be many.
Probably… just a dozen or so.
After all, the drop rate for blood煞 crystals was low—killing over a dozen Blood煞 monster kings might not yield even one.
Still, every little helped; a dozen crystals equaled what he usually obtained in ten-odd days.
Though not much, they remained precious.
"Sigh, this is all I have—see if it's enough."
Just as Bai Jie felt somewhat despondent, Lin Bei's resigned sigh rang in his ears.
The next instant, dazzling crimson light flashed as a hill of blood-red crystals appeared in the hall.
The scarlet glow was blinding.
In the hall Bai Jie stared dumbstruck, forgetting to breathe.
"Holy crap, you call this 'not many'? You call this 'just a little bit'?"
The refined, calm aura on Bai Jie vanished instantly; he blurted out a curse, unable to contain his excitement.
Because the hill before him was entirely built of blood煞 crystals!
A quick glance told him the count… surpassed two thousand!
In the past, obtaining this many would have taken him about seven or eight years!
Lin Bei could only shrug helplessly at those words.
Back in the Dark Forest, he had obtained over ten thousand shadow crystals, after all.
By comparison, a couple thousand blood煞 crystals really wasn't much to him.
The yield of blood煞 crystals was simply too low.
He had wiped out every monster in Blood煞 Land and only gained this much.
The Dark Forest, on the other hand, had been far more generous.
Crystal output there was over five times that of Blood煞 Land!
Much more fun to farm!