Chapter 156: Truth Stone
We’re rich!
Cheng Qisheng, who had always been the one buying information from others and was now selling information herself for the first time, immediately began calculating how many crystals she could charge for this life-saving piece of news.
There were now more than four hundred safe cities on Moon Silk Star, and none of the cities that had managed to survive on this planet for so long could exactly be called poor.
—Except Coriander.
The ability [Fortune Favors the Bold] had scared Coriander half to death. Aside from the one time the two cities had crossed paths when Cheng Qisheng had first descended into this world, he had stayed holed up ever since in a place even more remote than Broken River and even more desolate than the wilderness, undergoing training from Blue Sea’s instructors.
He had spent most of his crystal savings paying Blue Sea for her “remedial lessons.” And because he was terrified of triggering [Fortune Favors the Bold], he hadn’t dared take even half a step away from that remote area. Naturally, that meant he had no opportunities to make a large haul of crystals either.
But that wasn’t a problem. Cheng Qisheng wasn’t so shameless as to charge her own subordinate an information fee.
As she continued repairing Gong Cheng’s memories, she pondered how to make this whole business of “collecting money and getting rich” as profitable—and as presentable—as possible.
According to the Duxi City Lord’s description, the Great Annihilation appeared without warning. Many of the Tier 6 city lords who had escaped from previous Great Annihilations had originally been carrying out missions as usual, with their residents still scattered outside their safe cities. But once the Great Annihilation arrived, they had no choice but to abandon those residents and flee into the Greater Universe.
In theory, its trajectory should be impossible to predict. Unlike the apocalyptic crises in various worlds, where the difficulty gradually piled up step by step, the Great Annihilation could potentially appear at any point in time.
And yet, Gong Cheng, a Tier 6 city lord, had actually been able to predict its arrival.
No wonder prophets were treasures that every Safe City wanted to get its hands on.
Although this particular treasure was currently shattered into pieces, that was fine. She was confident she could put him back together.
A shattered treasure was still a treasure.
Once news of the Great Annihilation got out, any city lord who wasn’t an absolute idiot would be able to figure out that she had a prophet in her hands.
Blue Sea’s combat strength was already quite formidable, but…
What if?
Cheng Qisheng still remembered perfectly well how that Safe City with the Immortality Tree had been destroyed.
Sitting in the cockpit, Cheng Qisheng leaned back.
These days, whenever she had nothing else to do, she would come here and sit for a while, treating the Tier 6 driver’s seat purely as a massage chair.
“We need to come up with a way to make money from selling this information without having to get directly involved ourselves.”
Aether heard this and flew over, slowly floating down.
“Why not have another city lord sell it on our behalf? For example, the Greenroot City Lord.”
It was really becoming more and more humanlike. It had even started helping her come up with plans.
Cheng Qisheng scooped up Aether’s jellyfish-like body and held it in her palm, idly squeezing and playing with it.
“That could work, but we have to consider that even if the Greenroot City Lord signs a confidentiality agreement, they might still get the idea of destroying our city and taking the prophet for themselves.”
She and Greenroot had only made two deals. They weren’t exactly friends. If it were Gu Gaga instead, Cheng Qisheng might actually consider it.
After all, judging from Gu Gaga’s personality, it was definitely the type that believed the less trouble, the better.
Then again, Gu Gaga might not agree to sell the information on their behalf in the first place. It valued its life far too much.
Other city lords might very well attack the Safe City that released the information in order to find the prophet, forcing them to reveal who had hired them to sell the information.
The possibility was extremely low, but it wasn’t zero, was it?
Whenever her blood got hot and she started getting carried away, all she had to do was think about what had happened to the Safe City that had obtained the Immortality Tree first, and she would immediately calm down.
As Aether’s jellyfish body was squeezed and swayed from side to side, streams of data visibly flashed across its body, clearly indicating that it was processing a massive amount of information.
Cheng Qisheng patted its little head. Once she had finished giving it its massage, she continued repairing Gong Cheng’s brain while pondering what relatively safe method she could use to release this information and still earn some nuclear crystals from it.
At the same time, she picked up a hoe and headed to the agricultural area to work the fields.
What a busy Creator God.
For the next three days, streams of data continuously flashed across Aether’s body.
Whenever Cheng Qisheng asked what it was doing, it simply said that it was searching through information and the system store.
On the fourth day, Cheng Qisheng was eating noodles when Aether suddenly froze, as though it had gotten stuck in a particular stream of data. Then it blurted out:
“We can use the Truth Stone.”
Cheng Qisheng lifted Aether up. “What?”
Aether was a little excited that it could finally be of help to the City Lord. Its tentacles glowed faintly red as it floated in midair, mimicking human gestures and waving its tentacles around as it answered with utmost seriousness:
“City Lord, you can use the Truth Stone. Use it as a medium to sell this piece of information.”
It displayed the Truth Stone’s detailed description.
Cheng Qisheng looked at it.
Truth Stone: A mystical fantasy artifact. The questioner inserts nuclear crystals and may ask it any question in the world. It will only answer truthfully. (One questioner, one payment. The person who receives the answer may act on it freely, but cannot tell anyone else the answer.)
“Wow.”
Cheng Qisheng stared at the description for a moment, speechless.
“At this point, nothing that pops up in the Safe City Mall could surprise me anymore.”
Aether explained, “The Truth Stone is actually just a medium. Once the questioner asks a question, it uses that medium to transmit the question to someone who might know the answer. Whoever answers the question will receive the nuclear crystals.”
“Once City Lord binds the Truth Stone, you can answer questions first as its owner. Of course, you can only give truthful answers.”
“Once the Truth Stone is bound, no one except the person who bound it can move it.”
Cheng Qisheng’s eyes lit up.
“Now that’s a good thing!”
So this Truth Stone wouldn’t merely allow her to sell the information she currently had. In the future, she could use it to sell all sorts of information.
And whenever there was something she wanted to know, she could also use nuclear crystals to purchase information from it.
“Perfect! This is exactly what we need. Let’s buy it now.”
With a smile on her face, Cheng Qisheng scrolled down the virtual interface, intending to click [Purchase].
But once she rapidly scrolled down to the purchase section, the smile on her face shattered piece by piece, just like Gong Cheng’s memories.
There were so, so, so many zeroes.
Cheng Qisheng counted them one by one.
“Ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million, hundred million, billion… ten billion… one hundred billion?!”
The great Blue Sea Creator God pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Aether, you remember, right? You only sent me a report on Blue Sea’s nuclear-crystal reserves last week. And look at what it says here. At my current level, I don’t even have purchasing privileges.”
Aether floated in front of Cheng Qisheng, its tentacles still glowing a faint pink.
“Aether knows. We don’t have that many nuclear crystals. But, City Lord, according to the database I searched, there is no ocean on any planet in the Greater Universe that can naturally become completely red. Even if an ocean is contaminated by subspace, its color will not change.”
“Only the Truth Stone can turn an entire ocean into a Red Sea.”
The hand pressed against Cheng Qisheng’s forehead slowly lowered.
“You mean the Rakshasa Red Sea?”
Her expression also shifted from relaxed amusement to seriousness. Her eyes gradually took on the shape of nuclear crystals.
“Could there be a Truth Stone worth one hundred billion nuclear crystals down there?”
