Chapter 162.1: …why hadn’t any Safe City descended?
Although people always tended to assume that before reaching a good outcome, there would inevitably be a few twists and turns along the way.
But perhaps it was because Blue Sea had laid such a solid foundation beforehand. Or perhaps it was because the sky was filled with countless round airships, constantly monitoring the area from every direction. Or perhaps it was simply because Zhu Feifan’s current physique was truly a far cry from what it had once been.
In any case, the enormous sea monster managed, with considerable difficulty yet surprising success, to bring the ten-meter-tall rectangular stone slab up out of the sea.
The Blue Sea residents who had been waiting on shore immediately went forward to receive it. There was no need for ropes or anything like that. Blue Sea now had quite a number of ability users. All they needed was to call over one of them, have them slip their hands underneath, and the stone slab could be smoothly lifted ashore.
Although the whole process looked rather like hunters returning with a black bear or moose and hauling their enormous catch back home.
Strictly speaking, the comparison wasn’t wrong.
This Truth Stone really could be considered a trophy.
And a trophy obtained without having to fight for it was even sweeter!
Cheng Qisheng’s mental power had remained wrapped around the believers the entire time. She watched as they carried the stone slab onto the shore. Even after reaching land, it continued to glow steadily within the field of her mental perception.
If she had to translate what those rays of light were saying, they were practically dancing around while shouting:
‘Come on, come on! Come get me! I’m a treasure! I’m super valuable!’
Cheng Qisheng’s mental power was like a giant python, circling around it once as she observed the energy constantly leaking from its surface.
She was a little tempted.
If only she could swallow this thing in one bite…
Her mental power would probably surge dramatically, and her physical condition would probably revert overnight to the point where she couldn’t even take care of herself.
The thought of her Mortal Body Syndrome instantly made Cheng Qisheng behave herself.
The situation on Blue Star wasn’t exactly good right now. At a time like this, if her physical condition were to deteriorate to the point where she couldn’t care for herself, she wouldn’t be able to find reliable caregivers as easily as she had before.
Better not tempt fate.
In any case, she already had the thing in her hands. Whether she ate it or not was entirely up to her.
Based on what she had learned from the translation module, if she swallowed the Truth Stone, at most she would gain the same effect as the Truth Stone itself. In other words, the channel for asking questions of all things across the myriad worlds would simply be transferred from the Truth Stone to her, Cheng Qisheng.
That wouldn’t be very good.
The Truth Stone was officially listed in the Safe City Mall, so when the city lords saw it, there was already a basic level of trust. But if the channel for making inquiries were transferred to Cheng Qisheng herself, it wouldn’t be nearly as easy for her to make nuclear crystals off the city lords.
Given what the Truth Stone could do, using it to lure crystals out of other city lords was far more profitable than simply consuming it as a source of energy.
Cheng Qisheng’s mental power had almost transformed into a gigantic devouring maw. But after she changed her mind, it could only reluctantly withdraw, hovering above the stone slab.
It looked as though she had changed her mind, but was still eyeing the thing like a hungry predator.
The stone slab lying flat on the ground gave a slight tremor.
It was so faint that even the dust beside it remained undisturbed. Cheng Qisheng had only been observing it rather than attaching her mental power to it, so she didn’t notice.
She was busy studying how to bind it.
“Let’s take another look at the binding process…”
After learning about the Truth Stone from Aether, Cheng Qisheng had thoroughly studied the binding instructions listed on the Mall page. But honestly, even if she memorized every single word on it, she still found it difficult to understand exactly what she was supposed to do.
Cheng Qisheng said, “Aether, read it to me again. I’ll follow the entire procedure step by step and give it a try.”
Aether immediately got into position. “Of course, City Lord.”
“Look at it, and feel it with your heart.”
She had already done that just now.
“Touch it, and sense it.”
This one she could try.
Her predatory mental power leaped down again, spreading over the stone slab from every direction. Her mental power seeped into the stone’s outer layer, sensing the lively pulses of energy surging within it.
Aether solemnly read out the final step of the binding process from the product details page in a serious tone:
“All right, you can bind it now.”
Even though Cheng Qisheng already knew what came next, she couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.
“There’s really no hidden binding requirement? Aether, can you find anything? Like, maybe a tiny line of text tucked away in some corner.”
Aether answered honestly, “Aether has finished scanning the entire product details page for the Truth Stone. There is no additional information regarding the binding process.”
Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help wondering whether this was because the Truth Stone was so expensive—it cost over ten billion nuclear crystals—and only high-level city lords were qualified to purchase it.
Maybe there were some little tricks for binding it that only the high-level city lords knew about in private.
Surely the Safe City Mall wouldn’t charge a high-level city lord a fortune for a Truth Stone, only to have its absurdly vague binding procedure leave them completely unable to use it, right?
After all, no matter how she looked at it, the Safe City Mall presented itself as a legitimate organization dedicated to helping various civilizations survive the apocalypse. Surely it wouldn’t pull the same kinds of tricks as unscrupulous human merchants, hiding traps like this in the fine print?
“Look again, Aether. See if there are any other hidden rules. Don’t just check the product details page. Go through every page related to it. Zoom in on every punctuation mark and inspect them carefully.”
Aether obediently began flipping through the various pages related to the Truth Stone. In the end, it actually found something—a line of text so tiny that it had to be enlarged, then enlarged again, and then enlarged yet again before it could even be seen, tucked right after the title.
“Found it!”
Aether was overjoyed, and at the same time deeply impressed by its city lord.
As an artificial intelligence, even it hadn’t imagined that the Safe City Mall would hide a clause so thoroughly. Yet the City Lord had actually thought of it.
Aether sincerely praised her, “Your wisdom is truly remarkable, City Lord!”
Cheng Qisheng: “…”
She wasn’t wise.
She just knew how shady merchants operated.
Looking at the enlarged text in front of her, Cheng Qisheng somehow felt that she wasn’t particularly surprised at all.
[This Mall does not guarantee that purchasers of the Truth Stone will be able to successfully bind it. If you fail to bind it, that is your own problem. Once the goods have been sold, there are no returns or exchanges.]
[The Mall reserves the right of final interpretation in all matters.]
Cheng Qisheng burst out laughing.
Aether cautiously looked at her. “City Lord, are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
If Cheng Qisheng had actually bought this Truth Stone herself, she probably would have gone completely berserk by now.
But she hadn’t spent a single crystal on it, had she?
So Cheng Qisheng was remarkably calm about the whole thing.
“Let’s try the procedure a few more times first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll treat it as emergency rations. I’ll eat a little bit every day and control the amount.”
Either way, she wasn’t losing out.
She first had the residents come forward one by one and try the binding procedure.
Not a single one of them succeeded in binding the Truth Stone.
Cheng Qisheng then had her own mental power follow the procedure, layer by layer, covering the stone and sensing it.
The Truth Stone still showed no reaction, but the more she sensed it, the more tempted she became.
A Truth Stone brimming with such enormous energy was an overwhelmingly tempting sight to Cheng Qisheng. It was far more alluring than something like ice cream or a little cake.
As long as she swallowed it, Cheng Qisheng was certain her power would skyrocket.
After resisting the enormous temptation for another hour, Cheng Qisheng finally ran out of patience.
Forget it. She’d just treat it as emergency rations.
It was simply too tempting.
She’d take a bite and see what it tasted like first.
The enormous mass of mental power that had been coiled around the Truth Stone suddenly changed its posture. It plunged downward, intending to take a huge bite.
Don’t let Cheng Qisheng’s own movements fool you—her mental power was extremely fast.
It was just about to tear off a huge chunk of energy when the gray, rectangular stone suddenly cracked with a violent tremor.
Its outer gray layer began flaking off in a rustling shower.
Its original appearance, which could charitably be described as antique and less charitably as battered and decrepit, transformed in an instant.
The entire stone became like a dazzling, translucent piece of red jade.
At the very center was a circular opening. From that opening, another piece of red jade—smaller, yet even more translucent and beautiful—suddenly shot upward and slammed straight into Cheng Qisheng’s mental power.
Cheng Qisheng, who had very ceremoniously tied a napkin around her neck back on Blue Star in preparation for a hearty feast:
?
The moment the small piece of red jade came into contact with her mental power, it merged into it.
At the same time, she instantly sensed that the Truth Stone below, now transformed into a beautiful red, was faintly under her control.
The feeling was quite similar to what she experienced with her believers.
Even without deliberately communicating with them, as long as she wished, she could sense her believers’ current emotional states.
And at this moment, she could even vaguely sense emotions coming from the Truth Stone itself.
Fear, panic, sycophancy, and so on.
Wait.
This thing has emotions?
It’s alive?!
Well, that made sense.
If it were an inanimate object, how could something so valuable have ended up on Moon Silk?
It was precisely because it was alive that it could run around on its own, allowing Blue Sea to fish it out from beneath the Red Sea on Moon Silk.
Cheng Qisheng: “…”
After sensing the emotions coming from the Truth Stone, Cheng Qisheng had a completely new understanding when she looked at the binding procedure in the system shop.
[Look at it, and feel it with your heart.]
—Keep your eyes locked on it. Don’t let it run away.
[Touch it, and sense it.]
—Intimidate it. Let it experience just how enormous your mental power is.
So, in order to bind the Truth Stone, it had to be willing to do so of its own accord.
And how did you make it willing?
‘If you don’t bind with me, I’ll eat you.’
That was enough to make it willing.
Of course, the prerequisite was that the purchaser keeping their eyes on it had sufficiently powerful mental strength.
Otherwise, given the practically overflowing energy contained within the Truth Stone itself, once it decided to run, there was no one who could stop it.
And Cheng Qisheng just happened to be the kind of person whose mental power was powerful enough to make the Truth Stone too afraid to escape.
No wonder the fine print in the Mall said that if the binding failed, it was the purchaser’s own problem. If the purchaser didn’t have enough mental power to suppress the Truth Stone, wouldn’t the Truth Stone they had bought simply run away on its own?
Huh?
Wouldn’t a Truth Stone that ran away just return to the Mall’s “warehouse”?
Cheng Qisheng: “…”
She felt that this was actually very possible.
That’s fraud!!!