Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Su Ying Yu

Wang Jie glanced around. The interior was vast, but there were no shelves of goods. Instead, countless light screens floated in the air, each cycling through images and footage.

“Disaster materials,” he said.

The girl didn’t react to the term. She only made a welcoming gesture. “What grade would you like to view, honored guest?”

“Ten seals.”

“Of course. This way, please.”

She led him to a screen and swiped her hand through the air. Image after image appeared—habitats, specimens, detailed views.

“These are all Ten Seals disaster materials. This shows their growth environments,” she explained smoothly. “We can also customize based on the guest’s preferences—specific specimens, specific body parts…”

Wang Jie stared. He’d assumed they simply displayed materials and sold them. He hadn’t imagined “customization” was even possible.

Wings. Blood. Bones. Eyes.

It felt like there was nothing he could think of that they couldn’t provide.

“And if it’s a type of disaster material you don’t have?” he asked.

“As long as the price is right, we can purchase a Slaughterstone drop directly,” the girl said with a warm smile. “Whatever creature the guest likes, we can have it mutate.”

No mockery. No impatience. Just confidence.

Wang Jie couldn’t help admiring it. This was service.

He’d truly broadened his horizons. Even Ten Seals materials had vast differences in quality. Blue Star’s Ten Seals materials were ordinary—no matter how abundant the imprint power had felt back home, it was nothing compared to what he was seeing now. After all, Blue Star’s disaster era had lasted too short a time.

Many of the materials here came from Slaughterstone planets that had endured for centuries, millennia, or longer.

“This is from Yangjin Star,” the girl said, highlighting one set of images. “The imprint power stored inside is equivalent to sixteen Ten Seals human cultivators.

“We use a normal Ten Seals imprint power as one unit. In that scale, this material is sixteen.”

“And this is from Anping Star. This one is twenty-three. This one is nineteen…”

Wang Jie’s eyes almost went blurry.

And imprint power wasn’t even the only factor. Depth of color, purity, origin—everything affected the price.

His attention snagged on one listing, and he couldn’t look away.

An arm.

Grotesquely thick, yet vaguely human in shape. Dark green, veins raised like cords, something seeming to flow beneath the skin.

Thirty imprint power.

And the price attached to it was absurd.

The girl noticed his stare and smiled. “This is an arm from a living being of the Eighth Hell mad clan on the Ninth Star Chain. Ordinary mad clan beings don’t have imprint power this high, but the owner of this arm opened a domain—its domain opening happened to be located in this arm. That’s why it’s so expensive.”

“Eighth Hell mad clan?” Wang Jie repeated, frowning.

He was about to ask more when the people who’d been watching him outside finally walked in.

The leader’s eyes were cold. With a flick of his hand, he had his men surround Wang Jie.

“Come with us.”

Wang Jie looked at him, calm. “Who are you?”

“Less talk. Come with us.”

A younger guard reached for him. Wang Jie caught his wrist, twisted, and the man cried out.

Weapons rose around him, pointed at his chest.

The leader barked, “You still dare resist?”

Wang Jie’s gaze didn’t waver. “Do you know who I am?”

The leader sneered. “Your boss is dead and you’re still talking tough?”

“I live in the Lakeside Residence,” Wang Jie said.

“Bullshit. That was before.”

“Now.”

The leader froze. “What?”

Wang Jie flicked something over. Proof—an Imperial Palace guard credential.

The leader’s face drained as he read it. He looked back at Wang Jie as if he’d just stepped on a landmine.

“Still not convinced?” Wang Jie asked flatly.

Wang Jie had already guessed what this was. They were hunting the group that had once been wanted. But that group was dead—Wang Jie had killed them. The warrant had been withdrawn. So what were these fools trying to accomplish?

He opened his personal terminal and, using Lakeside Residence authority, pulled up Imperial Capital’s guard roster.

These men were on it.

When the leader saw the command origin on the terminal—sourced from the very man he’d surrounded—his expression collapsed.

He apologized in a rush.

Wang Jie waved them away. He didn’t bother pursuing it. People scrambling for credit was normal. He had no interest in wasting energy on them.

But their intrusion brought an unexpected benefit.

The exchange offered him a discount.

Not a small one.

Half off.

Wang Jie blinked. “Half off?”

A mature woman stepped forward—poised, elegant, hair falling like silk, a smile that looked accommodating yet sincere. For some reason, she reminded him of Lian Qin.

Then the woman came closer, and the faint fragrance she carried hit Wang Jie like a blow. Heat surged through him, sharp and sudden, uncomfortably hard to ignore.

“Yes,” she said pleasantly. “Honored guest, no matter what you purchase, everything is fifty percent off.”

Wang Jie forced his eyes back to the floating screens.

Half off.

He hadn’t expected anything like this.

He didn’t hesitate. He spent everything—what he’d withdrawn from the Star Fusion Center, plus what Jun Hua had given him. “Use the discounted amount too. Buy me high-quality disaster materials.”

“As you wish.”

When he walked out, he felt oddly refreshed, like he’d stolen the world’s luck.

He returned to the Lakeside Residence with a mountain of disaster materials and immediately threw himself into cultivation.

But the deeper his seals became, the more imprint power it took to push them further.

Those materials vanished faster than he wanted to admit.

Two months passed.

Then the disaster materials ran out.

Wang Jie sat there, frowning. How could it be this fast?

The consumption wasn’t linear. It multiplied.

If he hadn’t struck it rich—and if the exchange hadn’t offered a half-off discount—he would’ve needed at least a full year of hunting on a Slaughterstone planet to gather enough. Maybe more.

No. He couldn’t afford to waste that kind of time.

Over those two months, he’d successfully deepened four seals into light black. Once the silver began fading, it took only days for the shift to settle.

And that was with his exercises layered on top. Without them, even with enough disaster materials, reaching the same results would’ve taken more than half a year.

Cultivation time plus hunting time… that was two years already.

And that was only to the fourth seal. If he did all ten seals, it would take nearly five years.

If he didn’t even have Slaughterstone planets to harvest from, it would take longer still.

Ten seals was only the beginning of cultivation. What normal person would spend that much time on it?

No wonder no one bothered deepening their seals. Even with a method, if your talent wasn’t outrageous, the time cost was brutal. It wasn’t “progress”—it was throwing away your life.

Jun Hua and Yu Dong breaking through with light gray suddenly made perfect sense. Without external support, the tradeoff simply wasn’t worth it.

So what now?

He had the method, but no disaster materials.

He needed more.

He called Cheng Qian and asked how much money the Lakeside Residence still had. The answer wasn’t small, but it wasn’t abundant either—barely enough to keep the residence running.

There were too many staff to pay. Too many ongoing expenses. And they’d spent heavily before, even on custom sword tassels.

Wang Jie briefly considered dismissing people—but even if he cut everything he could, the savings wouldn’t buy much.

Then a thought struck him.

He looked at Cheng Qian. “I have two Slaughterstone planets, right?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Can I sell them?”

Cheng Qian stared, stunned. “Sell… them?”

Wang Jie waited, hopeful.

Cheng Qian looked as if he’d been struck dumb. It wasn’t that he refused—it was that the concept itself didn’t fit his world.

The Lakeside Residence was meant for “lords” to live in—people who were essentially the empire’s second or third most powerful figures. People like that didn’t lack money. They didn’t sell Slaughterstone planets. Some masters, like Jun Tang, had far more than two.

And these two belonged exclusively to the Lakeside Residence.

When had a Lakeside Residence master ever been short on funds?

When had Cheng Qian ever been short on funds?

“My lord…” he finally managed. “Are you… very short on money?”

“Extremely.”

Cheng Qian hesitated. “I don’t know. Perhaps you should ask the Emperor directly?”

Wang Jie waved him off. “No. Go find buyers. I’m selling the Slaughterstone planets.”

Cheng Qian’s expression twisted. He desperately wanted to say the planets didn’t belong to Wang Jie personally—they belonged to the Lakeside Residence. If Wang Jie left and a new master arrived, how was Cheng Qian supposed to explain it?

But Wang Jie had decided. Cheng Qian couldn’t refuse.

Wang Jie didn’t have time to hunt slowly. If he needed fast resources, then he’d hand the hunting rights to someone with time and take payment up front.

As for whether Jun Hua would mind—she was the Emperor. She wouldn’t fuss over two low-grade Slaughterstone planets, especially ones already harvested clean.

Cheng Qian went out to find buyers. He’d thought about reporting this to Jun Hua, but forced himself not to.

He was the steward of the Lakeside Residence. His first duty was obedience to the master. If word got out that he’d reported his master’s actions, he’d be branded a traitor—and he’d never be able to stand in his position again.

Rules were rules.

Soon, Cheng Qian returned with a buyer.

Wang Jie’s mouth twitched when he saw who it was.

It was the exchange.

And the woman who’d given him the half-off discount.

She smiled brightly. “Greetings, my lord.”

“You want to buy the Lakeside Residence’s Slaughterstone planets?” Wang Jie asked.

“Not buy,” she said smoothly. “Rent. Ownership remains with the Lakeside Residence. That cannot change. We can only rent the rights for a period of time.”

One word changed, and the transaction became clean. It wouldn’t offend any future master of the Lakeside Residence, and it wouldn’t offend Wang Jie either.

Wang Jie’s curiosity sharpened. “Why rent? You don’t seem short on disaster materials.”

The woman’s smile deepened. “My lord, why are you selling?”

Wang Jie understood immediately.

She wasn’t just here to transact. She was meeting his need.

“I may not be able to give your exchange anything,” Wang Jie said.

“My lord, you misunderstand. This is a fair trade,” she replied. “But before we finalize it, there’s one matter that may trouble my lord.”

“Speak.”

The woman said gently, “There may still be strong Ten Seals creatures on those Slaughterstone planets. Our exchange’s strongest hunting squads are all away at the moment. If ordinary squads go rashly, they may suffer losses.

“So if my lord is willing, during the processing period you may hunt personally. Anything you harvest will belong entirely to my lord.”

Wang Jie studied her for a long moment. “Your name?”

“I am Su Ying Yu.”

Wang Jie nodded. “I’ll remember that. Thank you.”