Flying foxes did not have very strong qi and blood, and their meat did not taste good either, carrying an odd, rank gaminess.
The critical issue was that these creatures carried various viruses; eating them could easily send a person straight to meet their great-grandmother.
"It's good enough that it's edible," Wu Youren said, looking at Sister Hua with astonishment. "The important thing is that they don't easily become corrupted... It's safe."
"Fair enough." Sister Hua nodded slightly. "I've brought you supplies again. You must have harvested quite a few resentment crystals recently, haven't you?
"Don't be in such a hurry to deny it. If you have no value... you know what happens."
Wu Youren answered without hesitation, "I have no value!"
Sister Hua was completely choked up. Only after a long while did she chuckle in exasperation. "It seems you insist on doing things the hard way."
Wu Youren remained calm as he spoke. "Who stipulated that there had to be a second transaction?"
Pausing, he added in a low voice before she could speak, "I don't want to become a permanent wage slave!"
"Wage slave?" Sister Hua repeated in surprise, then nodded thoughtfully.
"Quite a novel term... I see. So that's where your concern lies."
"Heh." Wu Youren let out a listless, dry laugh. "I don't believe you didn't think of that!"
She had simply chosen to ignore this aspect intentionally. As time wore on, ending the transactions would no longer be so easy.
The power of habit was terrifying, especially when that habit generated immense profit.
Sure enough, Sister Hua gave no direct response. Instead, she pondered for a moment before answering.
"Then ten... twenty resentment crystals. Once you hit that quantity, you may end the deal at any time."
"Five," Wu Youren bargained flatly. "Do you think resentment crystals drop easily?"
"Ten at the very least," Sister Hua stated crisply. "As you can probably guess, these aren't all for me.
"If you cannot provide value, someone really will kill you to vent their rage!"
This had little to do with the earlier pledge of loyalty; she hoped the youth understood that.
Wu Youren was speechless: *So if I don't produce resentment crystals, I'm cutting off someone's financial avenue? Damn it... could they be any more unreasonable?*
However, the more she insisted, the rarer resentment crystals clearly were.
He could never agree so readily, or there would be endless trouble down the road. "Seven. That's the hard ceiling."
The two bargained back and forth for quite some time, ultimately settling on eight as the bottom line.
"After eight, I'll buy them at ninety percent of market value," Sister Hua offered as an added incentive. "You can take the chance to stockpile some war materiel."
"Stockpile war materiel..." Wu Youren shook his head with a bitter laugh. "You think too highly of me."
"I understand you," Sister Hua remarked impassively. "If you hunt ghosts alone, your consumption of supplies is relatively low."
"Not true at all," Wu Youren firmly denied. "When besieged by Guizu aura, not only does it burn through supplies, but there isn't even time to pick up the spoils."
That was an indisputable fact. In the previous battle, they had used a large number of ghost-destroying mines and had no time whatsoever to collect resentment crystals.
Encountering such a scene truly squandered a massive amount of supplies for nothing.
"I'm not here to reason with you," Sister Hua stated calmly.
"Even if you run at a loss, you can gain a lot of experience, which is good for pushing toward knight rank... Besides, would you really operate at a loss?"
Distrust was written all over her face. Men might risk their necks for profit, but no one ever ran a business to lose money.
Wu Youren sighed helplessly. "Whether I make a profit or a loss, do I have a choice?"
Inwardly, he secretly rejoiced: *As long as you don't pursue the suspicion of stockpiling war materiel, everything else is easy!* He did not expect her to drop the suspicion entirely—how could people from the Intelligence Bureau be so easily fooled? As long as she did not press the matter, that was enough.
"Good that you understand," Sister Hua said casually. "How many did you manage to get this time?"
"Just managed to get one." Wu Youren let out a long sigh, his face a mask of exhaustion. "If I hadn't gotten even one, I wouldn't have dared come out."
"Then let's settle up." Hearing there was a harvest, Sister Hua dropped further threats.
This time, she brought more food and water, while ghost-destroying mines were reduced, and ghost-vanquishing bullets and ghost-dispelling powder were slightly increased.
It was plain to see that Sister Hua... and the people behind her still guarded against the Jin hostage.
Giving more food was inconsequential, but better to keep weapons to a minimum.
After settling the accounts, Sister Hua was still short by about five hundred silver dollars worth of supplies.
She stated she would owe him for now. Wu Youren's stance was that it was already at an eighty percent valuation, and if she could not settle the balance next time, the deal would be off!
His position remained passive, yet by this point, he could at least fight for a small portion of his own rights.
This was an improvement. He had to strive for it with everything he had; even if it carried some risk, he could not afford not to try.
Sister Hua did not address the issue. She explained that the delay in her arrival was due to the deaths of two colleagues, which had subjected her to an investigation.
Now that the matter was behind her, she could accompany the Jin youth into the mountains to hunt ghosts.
"If you want to go, go on your own," Wu Youren refused flatly. "Last time you people chased me in, and now I'm on the hook for seven crystals!"
Sister Hua was not so easily dissuaded. "All the spoils will go to you. I'll just lend a hand and broaden my horizons."
"And if you perish in a ghost disaster too?" Wu Youren's tone was decidedly harsh. "I'm afraid it won't just be a matter of resentment crystals then!"
"I trust you." A coquettish gleam flitted through Sister Hua's eyes. "You wouldn't let me die, would you? I still have other uses..."
"I knew you were lusting after my body! Not a chance!" Wu Youren replied solemnly. "I still intend to marry a princess. What insolence!"
Regardless of whether he actually wanted to marry into royalty, dangling the possibility out there would at least inspire a measure of apprehension in her.
"Marry... a princess?" Hearing this, Sister Hua's expression turned exceedingly strange. "You certainly dare to dream!"
Wu Youren answered impassively, "If you knew how I came to Red Pine, you wouldn't think so."
"How did you get here, then?" Sister Hua arched an eyebrow. Her chain of intelligence genuinely lacked this link. "Care to elaborate?"
"Find out for yourself!" the Jin youth refused bluntly.
In the past, how would he have dared speak to someone from the Intelligence Bureau like this? But now, it was necessary to test her limits step by step.
If one did not take risks to attempt certain things, how could one ever break free of the cage?
Heaven helps those who help themselves!
"Then I'll wait for you right here," Sister Hua said leisurely.
"Suit yourself." Wu Youren shouldered his bundles and stepped into the white fog.
Sister Hua waited until nightfall before muttering softly to herself, "Strange... how did the Diemi Incense not take effect?"
The food and water she supplied had indeed been spiked with an addictive substance.
Though it caused mild hallucinations, in the short term it boosted a warrior's combat strength; in the long term, however, it produced severe side effects.
A primary reason Sister Hua had tangled with the youth for so long this time was her realization that, judging by his various reactions, he did not seem addicted at all.
If so, she could not effectively control him, and many planned arrangements would have to be adjusted.
That included her keeping watch on the mountain now. Did anyone truly believe the Intelligence Bureau was idle enough for her to wait around out of sheer interest?
She only wanted to figure out how he resolved his food and water supply, or rather, how he overcame the addiction.
Now that she had to wait, she expanded the cave Wu Youren had used as a hideout and moved in herself.
However, by the second day of her stay, the military grew somewhat uneasy, and that knight came looking for her once more.
In the end, Sister Hua had to promise that she would not enter the mountains unauthorized, nor would she linger on the ridge at all times, checking in only three times a day—morning, noon, and evening.
This time, Wu Youren remained in the white fog for a full twelve days.
When he emerged, his face was still worn with exhaustion.
Yet Sister Hua keenly detected a subtle shift about him. "Did you advance?"
The Jin youth shook his head weakly. "How could that be? The hallmarks of a knight are obvious enough, aren't they? And I'm no genius."
Sister Hua sensed him carefully again, then shook her head. "Whether you're a genius, I don't know, but this... you're close to awakening, aren't you?"
A figure flashed, and the military knight arrived as well, observing their exchange.
"I don't even know what awakening entails," Wu Youren said with a wry shake of his head. "I originally intended to find a resentment crystal to study."
Inwardly, however, he was genuinely shocked—*No way, she can tell even that?*
During his two ventures into the mountains, between hunting ghosts, he had also taken out the apprentice ability master's notebook to study it closely.
The notebook contained only personal insights without specific details on awakening, written in extremely concise prose, with certain matters glossed over in just two or three words.
It gave the impression of personal hypotheses, realizations, and notes on corresponding changes, never intended for outside eyes.
Wu Youren had found it arduous to decipher—how many outsiders could understand notes written for oneself? Fortunately, the deceased had never anticipated losing the notebook.
Though the phrasing was brief, it generally captured key concepts and did not use actual ciphers.
Through this notebook, Wu Youren had gleaned the overarching framework of the ability master system.
He was still far from a precise understanding and had not even fully unraveled its threads.
If he tried to use it to force an ability master awakening, it would almost certainly prove futile; pushing too hard might well lead to qi deviation.
However, he was not pursuing the ability master system at all, and had instead drawn considerable inspiration from it.
Stones from other hills could serve to polish jade. By adapting these concepts into the Dao cultivation system, he even developed practical localized adjustments.
Naturally, these were merely lines of thought that still required various tests.
Wu Youren had simply cultivated inside the white fog.
Cultivating on the ridge outside the fog was certainly safer, but for him, staying within the mountain was actually more suitable.
He did not spend all his time in this area cultivating either—hunting ghosts was his essential task.
Even so, being able to reap a batch of experience points and promptly digest them was already excellent.
He occasionally acquired spoils; anything useful to himself was cached on the spot, while items like resentment crystals were brought out to trade.
Thus, over these ten-odd days, he had absorbed and digested nearly all the experience points he had gathered.
Sister Hua's assumption that he would only recuperate outside the white fog was entirely mistaken.
Hearing his words, the military knight's eyes lit up. "A resentment crystal?"
Chapter 103