Chapter 424: Did This Guy's Brain Sprout?

Returning to North Wind City, he found a Bonfire, and everyone used Seeing Ange's Supreme Authority Mark to enter the House of the Afterlife.

Arriving at that virtual book tower, Lord Nai Ge Li Si was still a bit puzzled as he asked: "The House of the Afterlife actually has a recording function?"

Seeing Ange replied: "Of course it does. Without a recording function, if something went wrong, where would I go to find out? I can't stay in the consciousness space every day. But last time I came in, I found the recording function wasn't turned on. I figured Your Majesty didn't need this function — anyway, even if it recorded, he wouldn't fix it. Silver Coin, did you find a way to turn it on?"

"Yes, I turned it on and recorded some things," Silver Coin replied.

During this period, Silver Coin had been burrowing into the House of the Afterlife every day, also using the Supreme Authority Mark. All functions were open to him, and his operations were even more skilled than Seeing Ange, the designer.

After some fiddling, the entire space dimmed, and the whole image began fast-rewinding.

Silver Coin kept adjusting, speeding up or slowing down the rewind of the image, finally stopping at a node. Silver Coin tapped once more, and the image began playing normally.

If they hadn't watched the image being adjusted with their own eyes, everyone might not have realized this was a video recording, because this place was originally a consciousness space.

Entering with Seeing Ange's Supreme Authority Mark, they could see others, but others couldn't see them — every time it was like playing a video recording.

The image began. A black shadow whooshed onto the central platform, draped entirely in a cloak, with only two red dots showing where the eyes should be.

Not long after, another black shadow whooshed into a different position. This black shadow was a human, but the face was blurred and unclear — they couldn't make out his appearance.

Seeing Ange explained: "This kind of manifestation in the consciousness space can adjust its own appearance — having a mark of Intermediate level or above is enough."

Silver Coin scurried over, swiped a few times on that blurred face with his hand, and now it was clear — revealing a square-jawed middle-aged male face, with a scar on his cheek. Every time the face moved, the scar wriggled like a worm, hideous and repulsive.

No wonder he wanted to blur his own face — otherwise it would easily scare the children. But unfortunately, in the House of the Afterlife, all adjustments could be viewed with the Supreme Authority Mark. He probably never imagined his appearance would be exposed.

Silver Coin said at the right moment: "I asked someone about his identity — he's the vice president of the Dead Guild, Riordo."

Seeing Ange asked: "Is he famous? The Dead Guild? If he's the vice president, then who's the president?"

Lord Nai Ge Li Si, however, was curious about something else: "Who did you ask? You even know a vice president of a guild?"

"Uh, the Dead Guild doesn't have a president. They serve the Undying Monarch as their lord, and only have three vice presidents. This Riordo is one of them. I asked Lutixiya."

"Oh." Lord Nai Ge Li Si suddenly understood. He had been wondering why Silver Coin had contacted Lutixiya so quickly — Silver Coin had originally said to let her 'go hungry' for a while before quoting a high price. How long had it been? Already contacted the other party? Turns out it was for this.

As they chatted here, the two in the image also began their conversation. Riordo respectfully saluted the cloaked figure, then said in a reporting tone: "my lord, I investigated everyone in the guild — no one used their authority to do anything covert."

The cloaked figure's voice rang out: "You dare be certain?"

"my lord, I am certain and I guarantee it, because those who possess authority are all under my surveillance — they don't have time to do anything." Riordo said very firmly.

The cloaked figure nodded and said: "Recently, a lot of high-level information has been leaked, and quite a few high-value bounties have been completed ahead of time, yet no records can be found here. If it's not a problem on your end, then it's possible there's a rotworm inside, and the level isn't low."

Hearing this, Lord Nai Ge Li Si and Seeing Ange finally understood what they were talking about. They started in shock and turned to Silver Coin to ask: "Did you get exposed?"

Silver Coin awkwardly scratched his head: "Seems like it. I really have snatched quite a few high-value bounties recently and traded a lot of high-level information. Didn't expect them to find out so quickly."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked in confusion: "Don't you have the Supreme Authority Mark? How could they still discover it?"

Silver Coin said: "It's easy. They don't necessarily only trade in the consciousness space. Some of the trading parties know each other in reality too. A private chat, and it's easy to discover that a bounty posted here was completely unseen by the other party. Once it happens enough times, it's easy to notice something's off."

"Some bounties are even used as bait to lure those internal personnel into taking the hook and revealing the problem. This cloaked figure summoned Riordo for questioning right away — clearly they've run into this kind of thing often before."

Lord Nai Ge Li Li suddenly understood — there were even bait operations? That was really a good method. First post some high-value bounties, lure internal personnel to act, then follow the vine to the melon and catch everyone on the whole line.

From the cloaked figure's practiced manner, this clearly wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

The cloaked figure pondered for a moment, then said: "Release a piece of high-value information and try to dig this rotworm out."

Riordo listened with a bowed waist, and upon hearing this replied: "What kind of information should we release? If your guess is correct, my lord, and the rotworm's level isn't low, then ordinary information probably won't pique his interest."

"Use the news about the Heaven-Piercing Divine Tree. Recently the Empire has been in chaos — the seed of the Heaven-Piercing Divine Tree was stolen out, and no one knows where it ended up. We'll release a few pieces of news, but manufacture some differences in the details, set them at different levels, and see which detail leaks out." The cloaked figure said.

Riordo could no longer pay attention to what came after. He asked in shock: "The Heaven-Piercing Divine Tree? The seed of the Heaven-Piercing Divine Tree that can grow all the way up to the Starburst Array?"

"Yes. Some people already know, and the rotworm should know too. Use this news to see if we can dig him out." The cloaked figure said.

"But... but a treasure like the Heaven-Piercing Divine Tree — shouldn't we go look for it? If false information spreads out, will it affect the recovery of the Divine Tree seed?" Riordo asked hesitantly.

The cloaked figure said without a care: "Although everyone knows the Heaven-Piercing Divine Tree seed contains boundless vitality, since records began, no one has ever managed to sprout it. Its history is even longer than the Starburst Array's. The so-called ability to grow up to the Starburst Array is nothing more than a baseless stretch of the truth."

When they heard 'Heaven-Piercing Divine Tree seed,' Lord Nai Ge Li Si and the other two fellows' hearts skipped a beat in unison. They exchanged glances and could read each other's meaning.

Silver Coin hurriedly said: "I'll keep an eye out for news about the seed and do my best to gather it back for my lord, but before that, let's not tell him."

"Right, right, right — this is more efficient. For efficiency's sake, let's not tell him for now, and give him a surprise later." Lord Nai Ge Li Si hurriedly added.

Having agreed on a perfectly reasonable 'excuse,' everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Seeing Ange hadn't come in this time — otherwise, with his inexplicable fanaticism about the seed, he would have set off to search for it immediately.

……

Seeing Ange didn't follow them in, but instead returned to the planting orb beside the dam. He had no interest in watching any images — he had long planned out what to plant. One of them was fast-growing radishes: harvest their leaves in large quantities, let the tubers ripen fully, then take them to feed the silkworm babies.

From the first generation of silkworm babies to now, the silkworms had mutated into countless varieties. Besides the carefully selected silkworms that exclusively gnaw Gnaw the World tree leaves, there were many silkworms that eat ordinary plants, and they can still secrete tough silk.

This kind of silk might lack the various magical properties of silk from Gnaw the World tree leaves, but it grows fast, in large quantities and at scale, and can actually be industrialized more quickly.

Now Meishencheng no longer only produced magical silk — all kinds of real silk products were also being produced. These low-end textiles could actually better drive employment, accommodate more jobs, and absorb the entire Shadow City.

Shadow City had now become Meishencheng's affiliated industrial district, with a complete chain of breeding, planting, and textile production. Over a hundred thousand Shadow City residents could find work there, and everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment.

Ordinary silkworm babies would eat anything, but if they ate the wrong thing, the amount of silk they spun would decrease. Only by gnawing on crops with high sugar content and lots of fiber would their silk output and quality reach the optimum.

These data weren't worked out by Seeing Ange through comparison — they were summarized by the silkworm keepers and textile workers.

Fully ripened beet roots happened to have high sugar and lots of fiber. During the ripening process, the tuber continuously consumed sugar to grow leaves, eventually exhausting all the sugar. But as long as harvested at the right stage, the ratio of sugar to fiber would be just right.

Seeing Ange was professional in all these matters and quickly adjusted the planting strategy. A steady stream of fast-growing beets was harvested, and beet roots were harvested.

Labu and those maids found their new jobs — raising silkworms, spinning yarn, and weaving cloth.

They held back hot tears, grateful they had escaped death, didn't have to be silenced, and could even eat fresh vegetables — eating until their faces turned green……

Next they should plant rubber trees, but the desert climate was clearly unsuitable for growing rubber trees. With Seeing Ange's current conditions, he couldn't change the climate here either, so he had to set it aside for now.

However, breeding was possible — the temperature and humidity in the planting orb were very suitable for rubber tree germination, but they would grow very tall, and once mature, there wouldn't be enough space in the planting orb.

Of course, if he had enough time and space, after a few generations of dwarfing selection, he could also cultivate dwarfed rubber tree varieties — but there were no conditions for that now.

Everyone was busy with their own tasks. A month later, Seeing Ange discovered his divine realm was full — stuffed full of beet leaves.

"No way, how many beets did you plant? You actually stuffed the divine realm full?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si didn't believe it and told Seeing Ange to open the divine realm so he could see.

The moment the divine realm opened, several bundles of beet leaves came crashing down on his head, slapping Lord Nai Ge Li Si right in the face.

……

Silver Coin had never imagined that the vegetables of a single species could not be absorbed by an entire city like North Wind City. First, fresh vegetables in North Wind City were expensive, which had bred a habit of not eating them or eating very little; second, Seeing Ange's yield was simply too high.

The fast-growing Sweet Dish variety, combined with the Instant-Death Halo Stone, insect-ash liquid, saplings, and so on—any one of them alone would be a divine artifact, and Seeing Ange had piled them all on. It would be strange if the yield weren't high.

"Then can't we just lower the price and sell them? The leaves are only a by-product anyway; the main thing is the beetroot," Nai Ge Li Si asked.

Silver Coin shook his head like a slaughtering evil spirit: "No, no, unless you want to kill off North Wind City's vegetable industry, or unless my lord can guarantee a supply of fresh vegetables from now on."

"The vegetable trade in the city mainly deals in storage-tolerant varieties like dried radish. If there's cheap fresh produce available, who would still eat theirs? It won't take long before they go bankrupt. Bankruptcy would be one thing—several hundred people, I could find a way to resettle them—but what if my lord stops growing vegetables someday?"

"The city's vegetable industry has already gone bankrupt; rebuilding it would be hard. So, unless my lord can guarantee supply in the future, we can't dump goods on our own turf," Silver Coin explained.

Nai Ge Li Si's eyes swivelled, catching a key phrase: "Can't dump on our own turf? Meaning we can dump on someone else's turf?"

"Right, we can go to a city with a huge vegetable consumption. They can absorb produce at this scale without it becoming dumping, and it won't disturb the stability of the business environment. Rapid Fortress is on the other side of the mountain range, and their vegetable consumption is quite large. My lord, let's go sell vegetables at Rapid Fortress," Silver Coin said with great enthusiasm.

North Wind City's commercial environment was too poor; there was simply no room for Silver Coin to perform. In less than a month, he had swallowed up several key industries, and he didn't dare touch the rest.

When an entire city's commerce is in the hands of one person, it's like losing its flowing water—it will only slowly wither. Although monopoly is profitable, it doesn't generate value.

Only commerce that flows can quickly gather toward the places that generate the most profit, thereby producing an expansion effect and more efficient value-added growth.

This added value is what commerce is really worth.

As the god of profiteers, Silver Coin had long since lost interest in the petty money of monopoly.

What could Seeing Ange do? He could only nod helplessly. If they didn't go sell vegetables, his divine realm wouldn't be able to hold them, and he wouldn't be able to grow anything else.

What? Throw the vegetables away? Who would dare make such a suggestion—he'd probably beat them on the spot. How is that any different from burning his fields?

"To Rapid Fortress? My lord, take me along!" Du Luo Ken quickly signed up.

He was going to Rapid Fortress to purchase some materials—the iron needed for bridge-building couldn't even be gathered together in North Wind City. Conveniently, the divine realm after selling the vegetables would have room for iron.

"Me too, me too!" Ji Li Luo Ke Si threw her hand up to sign up one after another. The North Wind lands were simply unbearably boring; if there was a chance to travel far, of course she couldn't miss it.

They crossed the river valley, followed it forward, and travelled over a hundred kilometres before crossing the mountain range and arriving at Rapid Fortress on the other side.

But before they could even enter Rapid Fortress, they saw many disaster victims with dishevelled hair and dirty faces, sprawled haphazardly or lying on the verge of death along the mountain road.

"What happened? A disaster?" Nai Ge Li Si exclaimed in surprise.

Seeing Seeing Ange's group, one of the women struggled to get up and pleaded in a small voice: "Please, please, sell me a little food. I have money, I have money."

As she spoke, she tremblingly pulled out a necklace inlaid with a green gemstone, a wisp of emerald light flowing across it.

The sapling poked its head out from Seeing Ange's hat, waving its true leaves and sending out an enthusiastic message: Ya—ya—ya—

Unfortunately, the woman couldn't sense this kind of spiritual-level message and only felt it was strange—how could this person's head be sprouting?

PS: Begging for a few monthly tickets for some encouragement, I've been a bit worn out lately.