Chapter 2289: A Big Profit

Much as Xia Duo had anticipated, Prince Aben did not refuse his proposed trade of one thousand Arcane Crystals for the preparation methods of two types of inexpensive Energy-Conducting Materials.

Since the details of the trade had been settled, the subsequent transaction itself was very simple: just exchange the payment and the goods.

Considering that he had already stayed in Yinnupulasi for over ten days—meeting the time frame for gathering Arcane Crystals he had previously mentioned to the other party—Xia Duo did not bother with any installment payments, providing all one hundred thousand Arcane Crystals at once.

In return, the other party provided the preparation methods for the two inexpensive Energy-Conducting Materials labeled 1402 and 598, as well as approximately one-tenth of a cubic meter of 208-type Spirit Material (100,000 Arcane Crystals is roughly equivalent to 0.1 cubic meters).

To be honest, Xia Duo was extremely satisfied with this trade; if those people in Netheril knew that Yimaska had such cheap Spirit Material, they would likely go crazy with joy.

Xia Duo still remembered the price of purchasing a Twisted Phantom Core back then: 100,000 Gold Coins for a single piece, which was not much larger in volume than an Arcane Crystal; its only advantage was that it could be divided into smaller units.

The 208-type Spirit Material, however, could not be divided, or rather, this material was only similar to Spirit Quality in its properties and still differed from true Spirit Quality.

But it could also be used to create a Wisdom-based brain; Xia Duo had already verified this. As for a Mage Tower's tower spirit, Xia Duo had not yet tested it, so he could not say for certain, but he felt there was no essential difference between a Wisdom-based brain and a tower spirit, so it should also be possible.

Taking a step back, even if it could not be used for tower spirit creation, it was enough just for making Wisdom-based brains. Xia Duo now wanted to know what would happen if a Wisdom-based brain were expanded infinitely.

True infinite deduction?

Perhaps not, but it would definitely be much more useful than the current Wisdom-based brain!

……

After the trade was completed, Xia Duo had originally wanted to depart immediately to catch up with Poche's Magic Ship. Of course, this was not his true purpose; his relationship with Keman was not actually as good as outsiders perceived. His real goal was to experience the Teleportation Hub of the Purple Star Tower.

However, Prince Aben warmly urged him to stay, and news had arrived from Guleben saying that the origin of the meows had been found, and his subordinates were bringing back a large number of meows along with the relevant Mulan people.

Thus, Xia Duo stayed in Yinnupulasi for a few more days. Of course, for him now, it did not matter where he was, as the Floating City was right by his side.

In fact, he had spent far more time in the Floating City these past few days than he had outside.

……

Time Acceleration Zone.

While crafting a Wisdom-based brain, Xia Duo pondered the preparation methods for the two inexpensive Energy-Conducting Materials he had traded for. It was almost exactly as he had expected: the Yimaska side did not provide methods for mass production via secret devices, but rather methods for purely manual production by craftsmen without the aid of secret devices that could Control Creation Power.

What was even more infuriating was that both materials were composite materials with a high proportion of substrate, one of which even contained Mithril!

He roughly estimated that if made purely by hand, even with a one hundred percent success rate, the cost would be several times higher than that of Mithril of the same quality; only by using secret devices for mass production could the price be driven down.

But the problem was that the Yimaska side kept the secret device production methods under very high security. Xia Duo had asked Prince Aben directly several times, only to be politely declined on the grounds that it was unsuitable for a beginner to be exposed to them or that they were state secrets.

If he had not already found a new direction for the Creation Mythallar, he might have even wanted to pull a job before leaving; if formal trading did not work, underhanded methods might just do the trick.

Additionally, analyzing the substrate materials mentioned in the creation formulas of the two known Energy-Conducting Materials, Xia Duo speculated that Yimaska definitely possessed higher-level Creation Principles.

Otherwise, with such precise material ratios as in label 1402, how could it have been researched in just a few days!

There must be some guiding principle, such as which substrate to choose when a specific energy-conducting property is needed, similar to the "monarch, minister, assistant, and envoy" combinations in the ancient pharmacopoeias of Xia Duo's homeland.

Without such high-level guidance, with the thousands of materials in the world and nearly infinite creation techniques, it would not be strange at all to have no results even after several years, let alone a few days.

The moment he returned to the Floating City, Xia Duo attempted to prepare these two materials using Creation Power. Although the substrates contained Mithril, it was not scarce, and the Tower of Time's warehouse had some.

But without the aid of relevant secret devices, it was extremely difficult to control the precise application of Creation Power. Xia Duo tried more than ten times and failed every time, ultimately having to admit that even with the creation formula right in front of him, he could not even verify its authenticity!

So he could only look forward to the performance of the Creation Mythallar once it was completed.

He was working overtime to craft the Wisdom-based brain partly with this in mind. The Wisdom-based brain mimicked Xia Duo's own thinking patterns; in terms of Wisdom, its upper limit was fixed, but in terms of calculation speed, it could be improved almost infinitely.

This was the significance of expansion.

If a purely computational problem that did not require experimentation could yield a result just by thinking about it, it would undoubtedly save the user a great deal of time.

Xia Duo was not a god; he could not just glance at data and get a result. He even felt that gods might not be able to do so either, because some complex problems could not be solved by simple calculation alone; they also required the coordination of relevant algorithms.

But regardless, the expansion of the Wisdom-based brain was already on the right track.

……

One day later in the outside world, Xia Duo received word that Guleben requested an audience. He immediately put down his work, walked out of the Floating City, and arrived in Yinnupulasi.

It was still outside the temporary residence, but this time Guleben had brought a group of people. Xia Duo saw dozens of bald-headed individuals with sorrowful expressions; with such obvious features, they were clearly Mulan.

Furthermore, in the distance, there was a metal cage larger than the previous one. Perhaps because it was too large, it had not been covered with a black cloth. Inside, the sound of cats meowing was incessant—miserable, mournful, terrified, and sorrowful.

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Xia Duo frowned, bypassed Guleben who was bowing to him, and walked over to the metal cage first, sending the cage and the cats inside to the Floating City.

He did not count them carefully, but estimated there were around a hundred. Perhaps less than one-tenth were pure black; more had black and white spotted patterns on their bodies. Other colors were rare, and among them, the orange cats Xia Duo most wanted to see appeared to be only one or two at a glance.

Seeing Xia Duo make the cage disappear, Guleben came before him again to explain what was before them: "My men tracked them to a Mulan settlement near the southern mountains. It is certain that the pure black meows near Yinnupulasi all come from there."

"Then those people you brought back are—"

"They are the ones responsible for breeding meows at that settlement. I thought Mage Asuosi might find them useful, so I ordered my men to bring them back," Guleben answered matter-of-factly.

It was much as Xia Duo had guessed, but he actually did not care about the breeders; he felt that there might be one or two Elders hidden among those people who could bring him the true secrets of the Mulan.