Chapter 209: The Expert Team

Yujing Academy.

Meng Chunqiu was practicing calligraphy in the Dormitory when he heard the door open; he turned his head to look, and seeing Chen Shu walk back in, he couldn't help but feel a bit surprised, asking: "Brother Chen, what happened to the scratches on your face?"

Hearing the voice, Jiang Lai, who was doing homework on the balcony, ran over as well.

Yet Chen Shu only waved his hand:

"A cat scratched me."

"This..." Meng Chunqiu leaned in to take a closer look, "It does indeed look quite like a cat scratch, but with your cultivation, Brother Chen, what kind of cat could scratch you?"

"A Spirit Cat."

"Where did a Spirit Cat come from?"

"Raised by a girlfriend who isn't dating."

"No wonder..."

Meng Chunqiu shook his head, feeling somewhat disappointed.

Jiang Lai also went back to continue doing her homework.

These two gossipers...

Just as Chen Shu sat down on the sofa, his Mobile Phone suddenly rang.

It was a string of unfamiliar numbers.

Chen Shu rubbed the scratches on his face and answered it casually.

"Hello?"

From the other end of the phone came a gentle, mature female voice, exuding an intellectual air:

"Mr. Chen?"

"Who are you..."

"Mr. Chen, it's been a long time since we last spoke. Do you still remember me? My surname is Jiang."

"..." Chen Shu pondered for a moment, musing for a few seconds, "I've been quite busy lately; I'm not taking on Rune designs, nor am I taking on commissions."

"It seems Mr. Chen has already forgotten me; it is my negligence this past year in not communicating with you, Mr. Chen," Ms. Jiang said. "A year ago, we held discussions regarding the Yuanzhou Fangti, and perhaps due to a little knot in your heart, we regrettably failed to reach a cooperation."

"Oh, it's you."

Chen Shu remembered immediately and felt somewhat helpless: "I had almost forgotten about this, and now you've come looking again."

"Yes."

Ms. Jiang let out a laugh: "You must have heard about the Duqin Fangti, right?"

"Sigh..."

"Why is Mr. Chen sighing?"

"Go ahead and speak."

"Do you remember what we said back then? If a Fangti were to appear outside of Yiguo in the future, and Yiguo needed to send a team of experts, you wouldn't have any psychological pressure when facing those artifacts that might not necessarily belong to Yiguo, right?" Ms. Jiang paused. "We still believe that you have the opportunity to accompany the Yiguo expert team to Duqin, and we still hope you can cooperate with us."

"I didn't agree to you last time, did I?"

"You said, we'll talk about it when the time comes."

"You're quite honest..."

"We can talk."

"We can't talk."

"We can talk about it some more."

"Heh..." Chen Shu yawned, "I have no trust in you people."

"Why?"

"Have you forgotten that you arranged for a group of thugs to attack me?"

"..."

The other end of the phone was silent for a few seconds.

Just as Chen Shu thought she would deny it, she admitted it quite freely: "Yes, what we told them was to cause you a little trouble, and then we would come to resolve it for you. Essentially, we wanted to stage a scene similar to a hero saving a beauty—a childish little trick to make you help us. In fact, if it had succeeded, you wouldn't have suffered any substantial harm, and our compensation would certainly have satisfied you."

"Nonsense..."

"Five million."

"What?"

"We will give you five million, just as an apology," Ms. Jiang said. "Regardless of whether you are willing to cooperate with us this time, if you provide an account now, we will transfer ten million to you within one minute. Once you receive the money, we can talk."

"..."

Even though she was the one who did the bad deed, why did he have the feeling that she was very straightforward?

Chen Shu was silent for a moment, then refused decisively:

"No need."

"Ten million."

"I'm not short on money now."

"What are you short of?"

"I'm not short of anything."

"You can think about it again. Everyone lacks something—even a Ninth Stage, even the Yiguo Emperor, even the gods, are no exception."

"I am easily satisfied."

"Have you advanced to the Fifth Stage? We have top-tier potions for Fifth Stage advancement, Secret Sect formulas—they are the best potions in the world. If you have already advanced, we also have Secret Sect Sixth Stage potion formulas, and if we find what we are looking for, we can even provide you with those extinct raw materials."

"Where do you get your raw materials from?"

"The Duqin Fangti is about to open; such things are the least scarce items in these various Fangti."

"Bullshit..."

"Please consider it."

"This still doesn't hold any appeal for me, and if I were to do such a thing, I'm afraid I would have to ask for my sect's opinion."

"You joined a sect?"

"Yes."

"The Spirit Sect?"

"Smart."

"No wonder..."

The other end of the phone was silent for a few more seconds.

Ms. Jiang still said very politely: "We still hope you can consider it. In fact, in addition to your work inside the foreign Square Body, revealing some insignificant things to us will not cause you any substantial loss of interest, nor will it carry a moral burden. And even if you have joined the Spirit Sect, it does not necessarily mean you lack nothing and will never have any need for us again."

"Forget it."

"I hope you will reconsider. In any case, I will say the same thing: whether we cooperate or not, we can still be friends... This time it is for real; there will be no more childish antics like causing you trouble."

"I hope for a permanent farewell."

"I will contact you again later."

"..."

Chen Shu hung up the phone; these people were truly troublesome.

Even the Spirit Sect couldn't suppress them...

"Ding."

The Mobile Phone received a transfer of ten million.

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu twitched the corner of his mouth, then immediately blocked the number.

Meng Chunqiu, sitting to the side, saw this and a flash of light appeared in his eyes, but he still steadied his expression and asked as if casually: "Brother Chen, are you troubled by something?"

"No."

"Brother Chen, please don't be a stranger with me." Meng Chunqiu shook his fan. "If someone is harassing you, or if you have encountered any difficulties, Brother Chen, don't be embarrassed to tell me just because I look like I lack the strength to truss a chicken. You must know, under the whole heaven, there is no land that is not the king's."

"..."

"There are some things you might not be able to solve, but if you change your perspective, perhaps it would be very simple." Meng Chunqiu was quite smug.

"Brother Meng, continue with your writing."

After Chen Shu finished speaking, he got up and returned to the Dormitory.

Seeing this, Meng Chunqiu couldn't help but let out a long sigh—

Of the two people in this Dormitory, neither was pleasant, and they didn't give him a single chance to show off.

Two days later.

Chen Shu received another call from an unfamiliar number.

Chen Shu hated making phone calls the most.

To him, there were only two types of people who could call him without annoying him: one was delivery personnel like couriers or food delivery, and the second was Qingqing; even when Chen Banxia called him occasionally, he would question her about whether the village had no internet access.

After looking at the Mobile Phone for a long time, he still clicked to answer.

He had thought it was Ms. Jiang again, but it was not.

"Hello, this is the Secretary's Office of the National Historical Relics Bureau." It was a very young male voice. "May I ask if you are Mr. Chen Shu, the Mr. Chen who participated in the artifact sorting and subsequent research work during the excavation of the Yuanzhou Fangti?"

"It is me."

"Hello."

"Please speak."

"May I ask if you have been paying attention to the Duqin Fangti recently?"

"I have been continuously paying attention."

"Then we won't explain too much on our end." The male voice paused. "It is like this: our country is currently preparing a History Expert Group, planning to go to Duqin to help the Duqin government open the Square Body and sort out the artifacts inside. We would like to invite you to go along; I don't know what your thoughts are. If you want to consider it, I will introduce the relevant situation to you in detail; if you are too busy or completely uninterested, then I won't disturb you."

"Please speak."

"Duqin is a small country currently in the midst of war, and public security abroad has always been inferior to that at home, so there will certainly be a certain degree of danger. Besides the possibility of being attacked by the Watcher armed forces, there may also be other attacks when the Square Body is opened. Of course, the country will do its best to protect the safety of the expert team. At that time, in addition to the History Expert Group, there will be combat personnel sufficient to handle any trouble accompanying you."

"When are you departing?"

"Because the specific opening time of the Square Body has not been set yet and is still being negotiated with Lan Country, if things go smoothly, it will roughly open around October. In order to prepare in advance, we must depart no later than mid-September, first arriving at the Duqin capital, Tasha."

"I would like to consider it."

"Of course, you can give me a reply within three days."

"Okay."

"Sorry to disturb you."

This call was hung up.

Almost at the same time, Professor Shi's call came through.

After Chen Shu answered and chatted with him for a few sentences, he learned that it was Professor Shi who had recommended Chen Shu to the Archaeological Research Center of the National Historical Relics Bureau. At the same time, Professor Shi and Professor Liu from next door would both be going on this trip to Duqin. For them, there was nothing more tempting than the Saint Ancestor Cube.

Chen Shu opened Feixin again and asked Chen Jiaoshou.

Chen Jiaoshou: Not going.

Chen Jiaoshou: Too lazy to run around.

Chen Jiaoshou: If you want to go, then go.

Chen Shu twitched the corner of his mouth.

This person, he had no ambition at all; no wonder his domestic popularity couldn't keep up with Professor Shi and Professor Liu.

Pfft, what a salted fish.

Chen Jiaoshou: Just mind your safety.

Chen Shu: Wuwuwu.

Chen Shu: It hasn't been easy.

Chen Shu: Chen Jiaoshou finally knows how to care about me /tears.

Chen Jiaoshou:...

Chen Shu: How is the stock market lately?

Chen Shu: There was a big rebound today; Chen Jiaoshou didn't sell at a loss a few days ago and fail to get back in, did you?

Chen Jiaoshou: /smile

Chen Shu: I'm just showing some concern for you too.

Chen Jiaoshou: Logging off.

Chen Jiaoshou: Going to eat the food your mother made.

Chen Jiaoshou: /sigh

Chen Shu casually took a screenshot and sent it to Wei Lvshi, only then putting down his Mobile Phone, pondering the call he received from the Cultural Relics Bureau Secretariat office, carefully savoring the words the young civil servant said when communicating with him, and bringing his professional expertise into play.

Combat personnel sufficient to handle all trouble?

Could it be that there is a Nine-Tier Cultivator?

"Emmm..."

Thinking about it carefully, it is actually quite possible.

A Mijing is the largest Space Stone in history; perhaps there were ones larger than them in the past, but they were all shattered later.

It can hold a group of High-Tier big men, can hold a Sky Aircraft Carrier, and can even hold a sea fortress... It has an unignorable and irreplaceable value for national strategic deterrence, long-range attacks, and national defense.

This kind of value is absolutely impossible to measure with money.

Just like a Zhan Lue Wu Qi.

Perhaps a pile of Zhan Lue Wu Qi cannot be exchanged for much money, but without Zhan Lue Wu Qi, how much value can the money have left?

Such Space Stones currently total only eleven in the entire world.

Now this one is the twelfth.

The only issue involved is the problem of a Ninth Stage going to Xizhou, which might cause Lan Country to be sensitive, but now that Yiguo and the Duqin Government are on good terms, if it is a Ninth Stage Cultivator with a unique status who goes to visit—for example, a Sect Master of a large sect, a religious leader of the Daoist or Buddhist Sect, or a member of the Imperial Family—going to conduct friendly exchanges, academic cooperation, religious discussions, etc., with the Duqin Government and its people, it is also completely justifiable.

And also—

Negotiating with Lan Country, if things go smoothly, it will roughly open around October... at the latest, one must depart by mid-September no matter what.

That's a bit of a rogue move, isn't it?