Chapter 339

Although Apep said it nicely.

But Luo De still didn't believe it.

And under his repeated, tireless questioning.

Apep finally spoke the truth.

The original purpose of her gathering faith power was indeed as simple as she said: she found Luo De pleasing and wanted to help him.

Actually.

She gathered faith power.

Because she wanted to see just how strong humanity's willpower could be.

This question originated when the Red King gave her a beating back then.

At that time, Apep, relying on her status as the Primordial Dragon King, not only refused to accept her defeat to the Heavenly Principle, but also harbored resentment toward the Three Gods who governed Sumeru, often stirring up earthquakes and sandstorms that left the whole desert restless.

As the lord of the desert.

The king of the Great Red Sand Sea acknowledged by the Sumeru peoples.

The Red King personally intervened, dragging Apep from her traveling palace deep in the desert; the god and dragon fought until the sky darkened, and the land they destroyed still bears the scars of that bloody battle to this day.

Finally.

Although the Red King possessed the willpower of myriad desert peoples and forbidden knowledge, he still gained the upper hand, soundly beating Apep and then enrolling her as one of his Seven Sages.

As for the later trick where he coaxed Apep into swallowing his corpse, turning her flesh into a trash can for forbidden knowledge, there's no need to mention it.

In short.

Simply put, Apep still refuses to accept defeat.

She always felt that the Red King's victory over her relied on many external forces.

Thus, after her attempt to manipulate forbidden knowledge failed, she turned her attention to the Red King's willpower.

Well then.

She existed outside the willpower system established during the Archon War, that is, outside the Vision system.

But once, when she passed through A Ru Cun,

she made a surprising discovery.

She found that a human was trying to imitate the gods' methods, plundering faith power from A Ru Cun for his own use.

After observing for a while and roughly grasping the procedure,

Apep then set to work, crafting a statue for Luo De that could store faith power, and indeed she intercepted a considerable amount of faith power.

Such success.

made her thoughts become more lively.

To Apep, the status of being one of the Red King's Seven Sages was originally an insult.

After all, it signified her past defeat by the Red King.

Moreover, the desert peoples' written records of her as a traitor dragon practically used every harsh word imaginable.

Thus, after repeated consideration,

she devised a missionary plan based on the Red King's statue as the foundation and the Seven Sages Dragon as an assistant.

Put simply, the procedure is as follows:

Namely, she would openly reveal her identity as the Seven Sages Dragon, attract the desert peoples' attention with various miracles, then expand publicity under the banner of the Seven Sages Dragon to harvest faith power and fulfill her vow.

This is what the slice of Mondstadt did in A Ru Cun back then.

And the results were remarkable.

As for the faith power that ended up at the Red King's statue when she harvested it, she would just consider it a fee for Luo De, so he wouldn't oppose her later.

However, once Apep actually got to work,

she discovered.

All the faith power she painstakingly gathered ended up at the Red King's statue.

Even if the executor of the miracle was the Seven Sages Dragon, and even if the Seven Sages Dragon displayed at least god‑level power,

the desert peoples still felt no affinity for her, refusing to give her even a scrap of faith power, which could be said to have made her gums itch with anger.

"This will all end up benefiting you, kid."

After sending everyone away, Apep showed Luo De her first look of dejection: "It's really strange—how can that human harvest faith power so easily, yet here I am, struggling even to gather a bit?"

Listening to Apep's complaint,

Luo De suppressed the urge to explain and continued to encourage her: "Just keep trying; you might manage it yet."

Actually, this is quite easy to understand.

It's just that Apep got stuck in a rut and never figured it out.

The reason for her failure.

Ultimately,

it's just a very simple reason.

Because she is the Primordial Dragon!

And the Heavenly Principle constructed the Vision system to suppress the order created by the Seven Dragon Kings.

Apep's idea of integrating into the Vision system is good.

The problem is that it's absolutely impossible.

So no matter how hard she tries, any faith power she manages to harvest will ultimately just be a free gift to Luo De.

That's why Luo De hesitated a moment but said nothing.

Opportunities to fleece Apep are few and far between.

Not pulling her clean is really somewhat unjustifiable.

Thus Luo De not only didn't explain anything to Apep, but instead gave her advice on how to harvest faith power, and also issued a privileged document allowing Apep to set up squares anytime, anywhere in Hope City to do promotion.

After doing these.

Looking at the thoughtful Apep, Luo De's face flashed with a sly color, then he left her self-built minor cave heaven and went to find Dixiya and Youla.

"Spare no expense to help her."

"No matter what others say, we can give her a green light."

Luo De entrusted the two people currently responsible for city defense and city patrol.

"Is that thing really useful?"

Although she had already confirmed it once with Luo De, Dixiya still asked again.

"Hmm."

"It has many uses."

With Luo De's words.

Dixiya then stopped asking further, and straightforwardly prepared to issue orders.

On the other hand, Youla curiously asked: "What benefit could her setting up a spooky trick have for you?"

It's not surprising she's curious.

After all, when it comes to pretending to be gods and ghosts, the Lawrence family's tricks are far more skilled than Apep's.

But they have played for so many years.

Instead, they played their own family to death; now they can't even return to Mondstadt City, only able to go to Sumeru to make a living.

So as someone who has been through this.

Youla still kindly reminded: "Don't just listen to that woman boasting about what benefits she promises, then fully believe her; dealing with pretending to be gods and ghosts, it's still best to be careful."

"Hmm."

"I know."

Regarding Youla's goodwill, Luo De fully accepted it, and additionally urged her: "Don't forget to cooperate with Dixiya, help her more; this Apep matter is really important to me."

"Alright, alright, I know."

Seeing Luo De seemingly not taking her words to heart, Youla impatiently flicked her hand, snorted, and got up to leave.

After settling Apep's matter.

Feeling great, Luo De then again went to Duoli to purchase another batch of materials according to the list given by Leidian Zhen.

However, this time upon seeing the materials list.

Duoli, who always directly patted her chest guaranteeing she could get any goods, showed hesitation for the first time.

"Pure mushrooms."

"You, are you sure you want these things?"

Duoli raised the goods list in her hand, and asked with a strange expression.

"Hmm."

Seeing Duoli's rare troubled expression, Luo De also changed his casual attitude, solemnly asking: "What's wrong? Is there a problem with these things?"

"It's not really a big problem."

Duoli narrowed her eyes: "It's just a matter of whether you can afford the money."

"Huh?"

Luo De blinked his eyes, then wondered: "What thing is so expensive that even I can't afford it?"

This is not Luo De bragging.

Now he can be considered wealthy across all of Teyvat. Although he cannot match the likes of Duoli, Diluc, and Ningguang—those merchants rich enough to rival a nation—he is absolutely capable of spending all his wealth to the extent that it could make a country tremble.

With such wealth, Duoli actually said he couldn't pay?

Furthermore.

This list given by Leidian Zhen.

About half of them are materials Luo De knows.

They are a bit expensive.

But compared to the cost of reshaping Leidian Zhen's body, this amount of money is still nothing.

If we talk about the most precious material among these.

That should be the branches of the Oasis Source.

Could it be that among the other unknown materials there are extremely rare, high-priced goods?

However, contrary to Luo De's expectations.

The material Duoli pointed out as possibly unaffordable for him actually belongs to the batch he knows.

"Here."

"Dragon Bone Flower."

"It's an extinct species; all current stock is in the hands of the Foolish People."

Duoli's words had just fallen.

Luo De then reached out to interrupt her: "Stop, when did the Dragon Bone Flower go extinct?"

Luo De is well-versed in the School of Life Theory.

In the field of species studies, his proficiency is not inferior to his teacher, the Sage and Great Sage of the School of Life Theory, Nafis.

The Dragon Bone Flower is a plant written in the textbook.

It is native to the Abyssal Palace of Inazuma.

It was then transplanted to Narukami Island in Inazuma, becoming a specialty product of Inazuma.

It left the environment of the Abyssal Palace.

The yield of this thing is indeed considerably lower.

But it's really not to the point of extinction.

Moreover, when Luo De was in Inazuma, he also saw, "I go!"

I've remembered!

Upon thinking this, Luo De's mouth corner suddenly twitched.

He remembered.

At that time, due to Inazuma's isolation order, all Dragonbone Flowers could not be sold, and in the end they were all collected by the Foolish; moreover, to maintain their market monopoly, they even transplanted all the Dragonflower plants on Narukami Island away.

So.

They announced externally that the Dragonbone Flower had gone extinct?

Luo De asked again.

Yes.

Everyone knows what trick the Foolish are playing, but there's no way; the supply is in their hands, we can't get the goods, so we can only assume this thing is extinct.

Here, there's also this, this, and this.

Duoli listed in one breath over a dozen specialty products native to Inazuma.

None were exceptions.

All of these things were raised to an ultra-high price that does not belong to them under the pretense of extinct species and market monopoly.

This Dragonbone Flower.

The original price was fifty Mora per flower.

Do you know what the current price is?

Duoli put down the goods list and asked Luo De.

I don't know.

Dragonbone Flower is not a commonly used material, and Luo De normally hasn't done any experiments requiring it, so he truly doesn't know the price of this thing.

Moreover, let alone the current price.

He doesn't even know the original price of fifty per flower.

Then Duoli softly said: "The current price is five million Mora per flower, and then on your list you need one hundred flowers, you silly mushroom, such high-grade materials, you still have thirteen types on your list, are you sure you can afford nearly a hundred billion Mora?"

?

Luo De's mouth corner twitched.

He admitted.

He underestimated the Foolish's greed.

What the hell is all this?

Even fifty Mora per Dragonbone Flower is already outrageous; in terms of price alone, it is already one of the most expensive high-grade materials in all of Teyvat.

Now they directly raised the price to five million per flower.

Who can afford this? Moreover, let alone a hundred billion.

Even if the cost of a single material were five hundred million Mora, that is not a figure that ordinary forces or individuals could escape.

Are the Foolish crazy?

The somewhat flustered Luo De started cursing.

I don't know if they're crazy or not.

I only know that you probably can't afford these materials.

Also.

Duoli pondered a bit, then still leaked a business secret to Luo De: "I feel the Foolish are targeting you, because the prices of these things have all suddenly risen only in the past one or two months."

The past one or two months?

Luo De's eyes narrowed slightly.

Yes.

The goods list you gave me exactly matches the types of goods that suddenly rose in price.

Hmm, there are roughly over twenty kinds of goods that suddenly surged in price, thirteen of which are on your list.

Duoli stroked her chin, wearing an expression of not really understanding the Foolish's actions.

Except that he doesn't understand.

It's not why the Foolish are targeting Luo De.

Their feud isn't just a day or two.

It's not at all surprising that the Foolish would target Luo De like this.

What truly makes Duoli not understand is.

How the Foolish precisely manipulated Luo De's demand! Because Luo De gave this list.

Inside, over half are extremely rare; under normal circumstances, these big merchant guilds wouldn't stock too much of these goods.

Especially those goods that suddenly rose in price.

Moreover, nobody would go for them; at most they'd just have a little stock on hand.

That can be said.

Besides Luo De this special case, it's basically impossible for anyone to purchase so many rare goods at once.

Yet the Foolish acted as if they had obtained intelligence beforehand.

Not only did they monopolize these goods, they also completely destroyed the market for these goods, intending to cut off Luo De's idea of obtaining these materials from the source.

Hah—

Duotuo Lei!

Luo De could actually think of someone.

He licked his lips, narrowed his eyes, and said: "This bastard, he even knows how to make a fake Vision like the real lightning."

That's probably the case.

Duotuo Lei must have already researched a method similar to real lightning for producing harmless fake Visions, so the Foolish People under his command would cut off the possibility of harmless fake Visions appearing at the source.

After pacing back and forth for a while,

Luo De asked: "Do you have a way to buy some lower-priced stock from other merchants?"

Yes, but the quantity might not be enough.

Duo Li spread her hands, indicating she also had no way.

Then let's first have them help me buy some.

The money is still the same.

You front the money, I'll pay you back later.

Luo De hesitated not at all; upon hearing Duo Li had a connection, he immediately approved the plan.

As for the problem of possibly insufficient goods,

We'll talk about that later.

(End of chapter)