Chapter 57: The Expensive Price
“Besides that, strange fruits occasionally appear in the city. They’re extremely rare, but when eaten, they can greatly increase a person’s affinity with the extraordinary, enhance their powers, or even awaken ordinary people into extraordinary beings. Mutated animals who eat the fruit evolve immediately.”
Xu Zhi revealed the existence of the black fruit to provoke the greed of those outside.
Sure enough, the moment she spoke, she could sense Lin Zizhen’s breathing change. The room fell into a long silence — clearly, the news had stunned the outsiders.
This also confirmed that the black fruit didn’t exist outside the city.
From the moment she mentioned “midnight,” Xu Zhi had been probing. The outsider’s reaction confirmed that “midnight” didn’t exist outside, and since the fruit was a byproduct of it, the outside world couldn’t possibly have it.
Even Xu Zhi herself deeply desired the black fruit — let alone anyone else.
Eventually, after a long silence, Lin Zizhen’s voice broke the tension, slightly hoarse: “Miss Xu, would it be possible for you to trade us one of those fruits?”
Xu Zhi flatly refused. “No.”
“They’re rare, and getting one means risking your life and competing with other creatures who covet it. Even finding a single one is hard. I can’t trade it for cores.”
“The value of the fruit far exceeds that of a core.”
She sounded firm — at least it appeared that she was only willing to exchange the information for cores, not the actual item.
After all, outsiders couldn’t get into the city, so she had nothing to fear.
“…What if we offer high-grade cores?” The outsiders finally broke first.
Xu Zhi didn’t seem surprised, only slightly conflicted: “Even then, the value still doesn’t match.”
Sensing her wavering, Lin Zizhen felt a bit relieved. “Miss Xu, it seems like you’ve seen high-grade cores before?”
Xu Zhi nodded. “Of course.”
“Then perhaps you’re aware that even among high-grade cores, there are differences?”
“Oh? I’d like to hear more.” Xu Zhi looked at Lin Zizhen with curiosity.
Clearly, he wasn’t offering this information out of fairness — it was a favor, hoping to sweeten the deal for that black fruit.
“Have you noticed,” he began, “that high-grade cores contain fine thread-like lines that resemble cracks, corresponding to their elemental attributes? The purer the core, the more threads. Our division calls ordinary ones ‘base cores,’ while the higher ones are ‘attribute cores.’”
“These contain more concentrated elemental energy and are easier for extraordinary individuals to absorb. A single attribute core is worth far more than ten base ones.”
“We believe those threads are high-density elemental crystals.”
“They’re categorized by the number of threads — level-one attribute cores contain 1 to 10 threads. Unfortunately, we’ve only found level-ones so far, but we believe stronger ones will appear eventually.”
“We’re willing to trade attribute cores for the fruit. But since these are rare, if Miss Xu requires specific attributes, the number we can offer may be limited.”
Outsiders, with more manpower and resources, had discovered that cores could be consumed by the extraordinary. However, consuming base cores carried immense risk — mental corruption akin to being trapped in a fog, not to mention how chaotic their elemental energy was, making them difficult to digest.
So even though consuming cores was a shortcut, few dared to overuse them, fearing they’d go insane.
Research was underway to find ways to make base cores safer — potentially with drug assistance — but there had been little progress.
That made the purer attribute cores especially precious.
“How many would you offer for one fruit?” Xu Zhi asked.
Lin Zizhen quickly responded: “If it’s still the four attributes you mentioned, we’re willing to offer sixty.”
That was a sincere answer. In the Federation, a base core ranged from 20,000 to 100,000 credits depending on its type. But a single level-one attribute core — regardless of attribute — could sell for over a million, and even that was underpriced due to rarity.
Sixty was not a stingy offer — especially since Xu Zhi had specified attributes.
After a moment’s thought, Lin Zizhen added, “If you’re willing to be flexible on the attribute, we can offer one hundred.”
Xu Zhi shook her head. “Stick to my requested attributes. Seventy.”
She immediately raised the price by ten.
Inwardly, she marveled: it had to be the vast resources of the Federation. She only had one high-grade core, and they could already offer a hundred.
Cloud City might be big, but it still couldn’t compare to the entire Federation.
In truth, the [Cup] attribute was useful to Xu Zhi too — but she had no intention of revealing that.
Whether inside or outside the city, [Cup] was clearly taboo.
Lin Zizhen fell silent, probably waiting for instructions.
Eventually, he looked at Xu Zhi and said, “Deal. As a sign of good faith, we’ll pay part of the amount upfront. We hope you can deliver the fruit as soon as possible.”
“Then it’s settled.” Xu Zhi nodded. “The fruit’s not easy to find, and I don’t know when I’ll come across another one. I can only promise to try.”
She glanced at the time. “That should be it for today. Now, hand over the base cores I’m owed.”
At her words, someone in a combat suit walked over with a case. Lin Zizhen opened it, pulled out several familiar bags, and handed them to her.
“This is what we’re willing to pay now. Once we receive the evidence, we’ll add two hundred more base cores. Is that acceptable, Miss Xu?”
Counting everything together, she had now earned 2,800 base cores, with another 200 pending. Xu Zhi was more than satisfied.
She didn’t hide it either — she spoke cheerfully, “Not bad. Looking forward to the next trade.”
Though the next deal would likely have to wait — at least until she had converted this massive haul into actual power.
Soon, her time in her soul form ended, and Xu Zhi returned to her physical body.
Looking at the warehouse filled with cores, she began making plans.
First: she would advance her level.
Second: she’d help her familiars absorb as many cores as possible.
Third: she needed to study swordsmanship with Shen Jinwen. Right now, she had power but didn’t know how to wield it effectively — a troublesome situation.
Fourth: she couldn’t pause her exploration of the deep mountains.
And lastly, she wasn’t sure how her familiars would continue to evolve — that could bring complications too.
Now that she’d further whetted the outsiders’ appetite for Cloud City, she suspected quite a few of them wouldn’t be getting much sleep tonight.
As for herself — how long would it be before she could finally choose not to sleep at night, and instead step outside to see what midnight truly was?
