Chapter 182: I Want It All!

Justice: "That's just the senseless rambling of people with a short life expectancy. Do you actually believe that?"

High Priestess: "I don't buy it either. Besides, we all have so much on our plates right now that there simply isn't enough time in the day."

The Fool: "Exactly. I'm not even sure if a hundred years would be enough to thoroughly explore the entire Kalim Continent."

At that moment, Helles, who had been completely silent until now, suddenly chimed in.

High Priestess: "Oh! Look who came back from the dead?"

The Fool: "Hardly. I was asleep, but that endless barrage of world announcements woke me up."

High Priestess: "Haha, then you really missed a spectacular show."

The Fool: "I sure did. @Emperor, whip one up for me too. That Agility boost would be incredibly useful."

He was absolutely right.

That Boiling Blood effect in particular was incredible. Instantly gaining a hundred points of Agility for a full thirty seconds was more than enough time for him to escape from almost any danger.

Naturally, this made him extremely interested in the new Blood Elf race.

Judgment: "@The Tower, how much Dragon King blood and sap do you have left?"

Now that everyone else had said their piece, Chu Yuan finally made his move.

Seeing Chu Yuan's question, a knowing smile tugged at the corners of Lan Qingyou's lips.

'I knew it,' she thought. 'There was no way he could resist asking about this.'

After all, as a high-ranking executive of the Supreme Council, he was the only person in the entire chat group capable of swallowing such a massive batch of goods.

So, Lan Qingyou countered, "How much do you need?"

Seeing her respond like that made Chu Yuan's hand tremble. Suppressing the urge to immediately throw out a wild offer, he typed back excitedly, "How much do you have?"

The Tower: "About six thousand milliliters. Based on the dosage required for Witches and Blood Elves, it should be enough to help roughly one hundred and twenty thousand people advance."

Originally, Lan Qingyou had between seven and eight thousand milliliters on hand.

However, she had never intended to sell off all of such a high-grade material.

Considering a single drop could brew a massive cauldron of Potion, it was only natural to hold some back for herself.

A thousand or two milliliters would be more than enough to fuel her daily research.

After all, it was a premium ingredient; she couldn't exactly waste it on mass-produced concoctions.

Hearing the sheer volume available, Judgment replied without a second of hesitation: "I want it all."

This put Lan Qingyou in a bit of a bind.

The goods were fantastic, but because they were of such unprecedented quality, she honestly had no idea how to price them.

She simply had no baseline for what they were actually worth.

And she couldn't exactly drag Shang Chuan in to negotiate on her behalf. They were all in the same private group chat, and the goods were in her inventory anyway.

'Forget it,' she thought. 'Since I don't know the market rate, I'll just let him make the first offer.'

If she liked the price, she would accept it. If not, she would walk away.

After all, her great mentor Albert had once told her that a true Alchemist never lacked money.

The Tower: "Old Chu, it's hard to put a price tag on something like this..."

Judgment: "I am well aware. That's why I'm buying out your entire stock. In exchange, the Supreme Council will fully cover all upgrade materials for your Shelter moving forward. This includes materials for any internal facilities and all the alchemical tools you could ever need. Additionally, the Council will supply you with a weekly shipment of herbs for your alchemy—guaranteed for the next ten years."

Whoa! Such an astronomical offer?

Lan Qingyou's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

She had expected Chu Yuan to offer a premium, but she never imagined it would be this extravagant.

Fully subsidizing her Shelter upgrades was generous enough, but throwing in alchemical tools, raw materials, and an entire decade's worth of recurring shipments?

As long as the Supreme Council didn't collapse in the next ten years, she would have an endless stream of resources at her fingertips.

While having a merchant like Shang Chuan was certainly convenient, having an entire governing body that spanned across multiple regions functioning as her personal supply chain was infinitely better.

And truthfully, Lan Qingyou's instincts were spot on.

Ever since she successfully brewed her Potion and triggered the global broadcast, the entire Supreme Council had their eyes locked on her.

After all, the effects of her concoction had been pinned directly to the top of the global chat channel by the Will of the World itself.

That was exactly why Chu Yuan made his move now.

Once the Council learned that Chu Yuan had a direct line to Lan Qingyou, and that she was a member of the exclusive research group he had formed, they unanimously voted to have him negotiate the deal.

The reason he waited until now to bring it up was twofold: first, the Council had been busy deliberating on the offer, and second, the group chat had been too chaotic earlier to properly discuss business.

He had to wait for this brief lull in conversation—right after Vivian and Gu Xiaobei finished wrapping up their discussions—to finally make his pitch.

On the surface, it looked like the Supreme Council was overpaying heavily, especially with the extended payment plan. It seemed as though they were taking a massive loss.

But from another perspective, this was a calculated move to invisibly bind Lan Qingyou to the Supreme Council.

Naturally, Lan Qingyou saw right through it.

But did that really matter?

She was going to use those supplies eventually anyway, and she couldn't possibly burn through all the sap herself. If they wanted to tie themselves to her, she might as well wring as many benefits out of them as possible.

The Tower: "And how exactly do I guarantee that I'll actually receive all of this? I'm handing over my goods in a lump sum, but your payment is being dragged out over an extended period."

Judgment: "My Talent allows me to draft binding contracts. Not only will my name be on it, but the signatures of every single member of the Supreme Council will be there as well. As long as even one council member remains alive, the contract will remain in effect."

Drafting contracts? It sounded somewhat similar to Sherlock's abilities, yet distinctly different.

The fact that he could compel others to sign and enforce such a powerful binding effect was impressive.

Based on that alone, Chu Yuan's Talent had to be a higher tier than Sherlock's.

Judgment: "Furthermore, everyone in this chat group will sign as witnesses to our transaction. If anyone from our side fails to fulfill the promise, you—and all the witnesses—will have the right to indiscriminately pillage any organization or individual affiliated with the Supreme Council."

When Lan Qingyou didn't reply immediately, Chu Yuan assumed she was worried about the security of the deal, so he roped in the rest of Tarot Villa for added insurance.

That was perfectly normal, though. In fact, mediating high-stakes deals like this was one of the core purposes of Tarot Villa.

Whether it was Lan Qingyou or the others, they were primarily researchers.

The items they created always needed a buyer. Whether it was the Council or Shang Chuan, they were all essentially distributors—the people responsible for offloading their technology and products to the masses.

That was exactly why massive transactions like this had to be conducted completely out in the open.

The most classic example was the Empress, Jiang Lan. Every now and then, she would funnel her agricultural products through those two to sell.

And make no mistake—Jiang Lan wasn't just some simple farmer selling vegetables.

While she did sell produce, her true profit came from auctioning off the highly valuable, hyper-yield seeds she had developed through her research.

Even Justice, Riesling, who had only recently joined the group, started selling the specialized fruit tree saplings he had cultivated after seeing how lucrative the business model was.

In high-stakes situations like this, having reliable witnesses was absolutely crucial.

In the past, casual deals were just witnessed by whoever happened to be online. But this time, both the sheer volume of the goods and the astronomical price tag were on a completely different scale. It required the full backing and testimony of every single member in the chat group.

Lan Qingyou was quite satisfied with this arrangement. It was clear proof of the Supreme Council's sincerity.

It was just that...