Chapter 177: Crystal Ball

As they walked through the labyrinth of glassware and continued to advance, they saw a massive research workbench in front of them.

The workbench was covered in all kinds of research equipment. Based on the quality of the research equipment, this was definitely an Arcana Master’s workstation.

“Thousand Degree Meter, Eight Minute Ruler, Origin Energy Mirror, Desiccation Needle…… Ha, they really have the good stuff.” Su Chen was excited by what he saw.

Many of these instruments were things that Su Chen had always wanted but had never been able to obtain. In fact, some of them had completely disappeared after the destruction of the Arcana Kingdom.

Upon seeing Su Chen’s excited appearance, Ji Ruoyu sighed and shook his head, “I have no way of understanding this guy’s eye for appraisal. He didn’t want any of those thousand-year-old herbs, ancient treasures, or precious raw ingredients, but these worthless tools are enough to get him all excited.”

Yue Longsha replied, “Because those thousand-year herbs, precious raw ingredients, and ancient treasures will only benefit one person. But what he wants to do is benefit millions of others.”

Yue Longsha was still moved by Su Chen’s feelings.

Unexpectedly, Su Chen said, “I’m not as selfless as you think I am, Longsha. I just feel like those thousand-year herbs, precious raw ingredients, and ancient treasures can all be found in our world and bought with money on some level. As long as it’s something I can buy with money, then its value is limited. What I am pursuing are things that have no substitute in this world. In any case, these medicinal treasures and raw ingredients will be consumed upon use, but I want to create things. It’s the ability to create more treasures that is truly valuable. Finally, an extremely important reason is that the higher-ups won’t value these things. No matter how good those precious herbs are, they’ll all be turned in. Things that they consider ‘dregs’ I can keep for myself.”

Su Chen said everything with a faint smile.

The explosive sales of Kaihuang’s Heaven had skyrocketed Su Chen to levels of insane wealth, and his view had broadened quite a bit.

From that moment on, he realized that if he considered things based on their monetary value, searching ruins was actually less profitable than disseminating information.

The Immortal Temple had spent a lot of time and energy to obtain those Corpse Spirit Flowers, but in the end, it had only been a matter of around 100 million Origin Stones.

In other words, you could force the Immortal Temple to bow to your demands with “just” a hundred million Origin Stones.

How large of a sum was enough to motivate Long Sang Country and the Gravel Lizard Tribe to send out eighty of their elites to fight over these ruins?

Based on Su Chen’s estimate, the value of all the combined resources would be roughly equivalent to two or three hundred million Origin Stones.

In comparison, knowledge was “worthless.” But as long as it was used correctly, it was “invaluable” and could generate a similar amount of wealth, if not more.

This was why Su Chen was so excited.

As for what Yue Longsha had been saying about him wanting to benefit the millions of other people, that wasn’t wrong.

He really did want to accomplish that. Actually, most people who weren’t terrible human beings had similar desires.

But this wasn’t the main reason for Su Chen’s activity. It didn’t mean that Su Chen considered the masses with every move that he took. In any case, it was usually more practical to advance the human race by taking care of himself.

Most importantly, he didn’t like to be viewed too highly by others.

If people treated him as a saint, then he would be required to act like one in every move that he took. How could Su Chen continue to operate?

Even carelessly tossing a piece of trash on the ground would result in a loss of face and incur criticism.

Thus, Su Chen not only refuted Yue Longsha’s words, but also needed to express that he was primarily motivated by self-interest.

Upon hearing Su Chen say this, Yue Longsha was also stunned. “So that’s how you thought about it?”

“Do you feel a little disappointed?” Su Chen laughed.

Unexpectedly, Yue Longsha smiled. “No, I’m very happy to hear it.”

“Happy?” This time, it was Su Chen’s turn to be amazed.

“Yes, happy. I originally thought that you were someone who carried the weight of the whole world with you, and I felt somewhat inferior standing next to you. But now I realize that you’re just an ordinary person with your own passions and desires. You care for your own personal profit, which makes me feel much more at ease. This is the Su Chen that I prefer to see,” Yue Longsha said slowly.

Holy crap!

Even though her words were simple and her tone mild and tactful, why did it seem like there was a specific meaning behind her words?

Su Chen’s heart trembled slightly.

Duan Jiangshan and Old Pi were both unrefined, and they didn’t pick up on the meaning of Yue Longsha’s words. They laughed together, “That’s right! That’s right! That way, Su Chen seems like an actual human. Otherwise, how could any of us relate to him?”

Yu Mengnan seemed to actually sense something, but she didn’t say anything.

Unexpectedly, a careless sentence of Ji Ruoyu’s was able to pierce to the truth of the situation. “That’s right! Originally, all Senior Brother Su did was bury his head with experiments. I thought that he was someone completely devoid of personality, but the truth is that he has his own pursuits as well, huh? That’s right. We’re all youths, and we should reserve some time to enjoy ourselves. If we don’t find a few girlfriends and enjoy ourselves in the flower districts1, how can we take advantage of our youth and enjoy the years we have left?”

Su Chen’s heart trembled slightly, and he began to understand somewhat.

Pi Yuanhong smacked the back of Ji Ruoyu’s head playfully. “All you know is how to spout nonsense. What are you thinking?”

After some time, his wounds had gradually healed, and his strength had already recovered somewhat. However, this smack still made Ji Ruoyu cry out in pain.

But under these circumstances, Su Chen couldn’t say much else. All he said was, “Leave these things to me. You guys go and see if there aren’t any more treasures remaining.”

As he spoke, he approached the workstation and began to stow away the experimental logs and research equipment on the table.

Upon seeing Su Chen turn his back to her, Yue Longsha sighed quietly and went to look for any other valuable that might be within the research lab.

Perhaps because this was the lab of a great Arcana Master, there were a lot of valuables within the research lab. A drawer was right next to the research bench; inside, there were all kinds of precious ingredients. All of the spirit herbs had wilted and were basically useless, but items without any vitality or lifeforce, such as unique metals, were just fine.

“Starmetal, Chillstones, Stardust…… Ha, there are too many good things here!” Duan Jiangshan and Pi Yuanhong yelled out with excitement.

Yue Longsha opened a chest and found a skin inside.

The skin was blood-red and covered in meticulous inscriptions. When Yue Longsha picked it up, she could even sense a profound ancient aura coming from it.

This skin still had some vitality!

After thirty-six thousand years, it had still preserved its vitality.

Yue Longsha knew that this item was extremely rare. She hurriedly stowed it away, then continued to look for other treasures.

Ji Ruoyu saw an item in the corner of the room.

He saw a crystal ball not too far away from where he was.

Ancient Arcana Masters often used Crystal Balls to perform magic. Apparently, these special Crystal Balls not only had good Origin Energy conduction properties, but they could also recall Origin Power, resulting in unique effects when activating Ancient Arcana Techniques.

Perhaps this was an Arcana Technique Crystal Ball.

Ji Ruoyu reached out to grab the Crystal Ball.

At that moment, a foreign voice suddenly sounded out, “If I was you, I wouldn’t touch that.”

1. Red light district.