Qianwu City. The Treasure Pavilion.
Her consciousness returned to reality, and Manager Ruyan hurried toward the top floor of the Treasure Pavilion.
"Sally, might His Lordship have a moment? I have important news to report."
Even facing an intelligent life, Ruyan's manner remained deferential.
After all, this was the intelligent life who served the true master of the Treasure Pavilion.
"Manager Ruyan, His Lordship is free just now. Go on in."
A crisp female voice sounded from Sally's lips; the tightly shut door swung open, and Manager Ruyan walked in.
The moment she entered, she saw a towering figure seated cross-legged on the floor, deep in cultivation.
This was a World Master-level expert, his strength thousands upon thousands of times greater than that of a lowly steward like Ruyan. What was more, he was a confidant of that Undying Deity—a single word from him could leave a small manager like Ruyan with no place in the world to hide.
"My lord."
Ruyan was scrupulously respectful.
"Speak, then. What is it? It had better not be some petty trifling matter..."
The voice was neither male nor female, soft and yet venomous, and a chill ran through Ruyan's heart. Every time she saw this lord, she felt an indescribable, instinctive revulsion.
But she dared not show even the slightest trace of it...
"My lord." Ruyan bowed, then spoke. "Just now, a five-star member of our shop contacted me in the Virtual Universe. He has two thousand cubic meters of Luoke God Water he wishes to sell... Its value exceeds five Hunyuan units. I lack the authority for such a transaction, so I came to ask for your instructions... And you once said, my lord, that any treasure connected with an Undying Deity must be reported to you. I have kept that firmly in mind!"
"Luoke God Water, of all things!"
Surprise appeared on the soft-voiced man's deathly pale face. "Strong ones who can produce such a treasure are few and far between. Do you know this member's true identity?"
"My lord, that member is a Two-Leaf Qianwu Practitioner. His previous trades were all around one Hunyuan unit, and the Pavilion never investigated his identity."
"A Two-Leaf Qianwu Practitioner—that is troublesome... But how could a mere Domain Master come to possess a treasure even Undying crave?"
The soft-voiced World Master pondered a moment, then said, "Contact him and carry on with the trade. Pry out whatever you can about his identity. Beyond that, you need not concern yourself..."
"Yes, my lord!"
Ruyan nodded and withdrew from the hall.
She returned to her quarters on the second floor and let out a long breath. In that hall, every second had been torment.
But that order from His Lordship...
Ruyan fell into a quandary.
She certainly dared not offend His Lordship—yet that Two-Leaf Qianwu Practitioner was plainly not someone she could afford to offend either.
A Two-Leaf Qianwu Practitioner stood among the very best of Domain Masters, and not only that, he could produce treasures of such value that even a World Master's entire fortune might not match his.
And she herself was nothing but a lowly Cosmic Level Expert...
After a moment, Ruyan made her decision: "Handle the trade as normal, without deliberately fishing for information. If something unexpected really does happen later, it will have nothing to do with me..."
As for His Lordship, she would find some chance to fob him off—tell him the client kept his lips tightly sealed.
In truth, deep down Ruyan had no wish to see that Two-Leaf Qianwu Practitioner come to any harm. Those last few trades had won her real, tangible benefits.
From the bottom of her heart she did not want to lose this customer. But a decision from above was not something she had any power to interfere with...
Having thought it through, Ruyan contacted Lu Qingshan at once.
The two met once more, on the Qianwu Continent of the Virtual Universe.
"My lord, I have already sought instructions from my superiors. The Luoke God Water in your hands is a treasure our company urgently needs—seventeen Hunyuan units. The moment you hand the Luoke God Water over to us, the money will be transferred straight into your account!"
"Very well. Come to the Qianwu Dojo tomorrow for the trade. Bring your money, and the World Ring that stores the Luoke God Water."
"Rest assured, my lord—tomorrow I will arrive on time."
Ruyan answered hurriedly, but when she looked up again, the figure before her had already vanished from the Virtual Universe.
Lu Qingshan had no wish to go to the Treasure Pavilion; naturally he had misgivings. Behind the Pavilion stood the backing of an Undying Deity.
The Qianwu Dojo was another matter. His status as a Two-Leaf Qianwu Practitioner itself marked him as a member of the Dojo, and the Dojo would hardly go out of its way to leak his identity.
Still, if the Treasure Pavilion truly wanted to investigate, Lu Qingshan knew there was no way he could keep it hidden!
Even so, he had no intention of leaving Qianwu City any time soon. Give them ten thousand times the courage, and they still would not dare make a move inside Qianwu City!
"I hope this Treasure Pavilion knows what's good for it... Otherwise, even with an Undying Deity behind you..."
Lu Qingshan's gaze lowered.
There was a vast gap between one Undying and another. Even an Undying strong one like Hu Yanbo, who had only barely scraped together a marquis title, had perished in the boundless sea of stars...
Behind the Treasure Pavilion was, at most, nothing more than an Undying Army Leader. If he settled into the World Master stage for hundreds of thousands, even a million years, he might well be able to take down an Undying Army Leader.
And perhaps the Star-Eating Grass could help him accomplish that feat.
Lu Qingshan's mind sank into the World Ring. Of the Luoke God Water that remained, he kept a portion for his own cultivation and gave the rest to the Star-Eating Grass to absorb slowly. This Luoke God Water... might well hold the chance for the Star-Eating Grass to break through to the World Master stage!
The Star-Eating Grass's talent counted among the very top of plant life, and the eight Life Fruits it had eaten one after another had mended its foundation besides. If it did not choose the most lavish path of evolution—simply evolving its seventy-two vines into a World Master—the resources required would not be extravagant.
Of course, the cultivation and advancement beyond World Master, together with its further evolutions—that was where the truly terrifying consumption would begin!
...
The next day, Lu Qingshan went to the entrance of the Dojo headquarters and completed the trade with Ruyan, who had already been waiting there a long while.
The funds—seventeen Hunyuan units—landed in his account, and Lu Qingshan's personal mailbox soon received more than a dozen messages.
Even in an interstellar age with the Virtual Universe spanning the whole cosmos, personal information was still this easy to leak.
Lu Qingshan opened every single email.
He went through the unfamiliar accounts first... leaving Universe Star River Bank and the Giant Axe Battle Arena to read last.
"Mr. Lu Qingshan... We are from the Genesis Development Company. Our apologies for disturbing you. Please spare one minute of your precious time to look over our company's advertisement..."
Genesis Development Company... Lu Qingshan ran a quick search. The company was very famous in the Virtual Universe, its headquarters in the distant Noah Universe Country.
Its business was a mixed bag—terraforming planets, installing interstellar orbital cannons, and so on.
The service it pitched to Lu Qingshan was the company's main line of work: world creation!
In the real universe, it helped powerful ones in need create worlds of their own. There were ready-made templates, and private custom orders were available as well.
The plan began with purchasing a star system, a planet, or a secret-realm continent under absolute sovereignty... and building a world of creation to call one's own.
A cultivation world, an eerie world, a god-and-demon world, an Eastern fantasy world, a technological world, a wizard world, a sword-and-magic world, a summoner world... If you could imagine it, they could build it. They offered not only the shaping of the world itself, but a cultivation system suited to its setting as well...
Within such a world, the purchaser was the Creator God—an omnipotent deity who governed all things.
Lu Qingshan also came across an interesting case: a Domain Master had bought an entire star system and built it into a sword-and-magic world, single-handedly creating two opposed races, gods and demons, and staging a war between them every few thousand years... He also liked to carry off ordinary people from other native planets and let them believe they were transmigrated protagonists... then give them some resources, watch them grow and save the world...
In truth, the so-called gods and demons were nothing more than Star Level beings, and the God King and Demon Lord sealed away for ten thousand years were simply Cosmic Level slaves the founder had purchased.
Lu Qingshan had no real interest in these flashy games for now. Perhaps someday, after he broke through to Undying and gained eternal life, he might have a world custom-made and give it a try.
He saved this email and turned to the others...
Chapter 38