Chapter 372: Song and Dance Troupe (3k)
The clear sky was illuminated by the setting sun, but it offered no warmth, creating a feeling akin to bathing under a heat lamp in a winter public restroom.
The dazzling sunlight was cast upon the golden desert, making the moving figures appear like swarms of ants, small and insignificant.
In the seemingly endless desert, the silhouette of a motorcycle gradually appeared. Two figures were on the bike, their dust-covered faces suggesting a long journey.
After changing out of her blood-stained white coat, Su Jiu wore a simple short-sleeved shirt and denim shorts. At her request, Bairnis also changed into similar casual attire.
“I’m exhausted. We’ve been riding for almost half a day. Seventy miles shouldn’t take this long, right?”
She stopped the motorcycle, pouted as she took off her helmet, and shook her waist-length hair. Then, she slowly ascended a towering sand dune to survey the surroundings. She had Bairnis take out the downloaded map from her phone to carefully cross-reference their route.
“There are no issues with this route; we might just be… going in circles. The cacti around here are very repetitive and disorienting.” Bairnis lightly opened the map, her finger tracing a path, and then took out two bottles of water from her storage bag, handing them over.
“Huh? This darned sun is making my eyes sore. Let’s just wait until night to move. It’s a good chance to test out my alchemy skills.”
Taking the water bottle, Su Jiu casually sat down. After taking a drink, she pulled out a small, metallic-looking cube. Her sharp fingernails continuously carved patterns onto it, and a faint golden light glowed on the carvings, making the small cube appear anything but ordinary.
“I feel like the books from the Crow organization are really something. In just one day, I’ve grasped some of the fundamentals—let’s try to craft the lower-tier Dust Thunder from that woman’s storage bag.”
Carving formations is the most crucial process in the discipline of alchemy. Talented alchemy masters can create formations with a wave of their hand, defeating enemies without the glint of a blade. However, alchemy also has exceptionally high requirements.
It demands strong mental power and offensive attributes capable of carving inscriptions onto hard materials; both are indispensable. After that, one must slowly learn alchemy, spending a lot of money and resources. The direct benefit is also very straightforward—earning more money than ordinary people.
The ranks of alchemists are somewhat similar to adventurer ranks, divided into Alchemy Apprentice, Alchemist, and Alchemy Master, among others. These three ranks correspond to Warrior Class, War General Level, and Battle King Level, respectively. However, they are significantly fewer than their corresponding level of strong individuals, with a ratio of roughly one to a thousand, making them quite rare.
While the two were resting, Bairnis kept watch by the motorcycle. Glancing at Su Jiu working on her alchemy materials, which seemed to be taking shape, she couldn’t help but sigh, “Miss’s talent is truly exceptional. She only started today, and now she can already craft Dust Thunder, something only intermediate alchemists can make.”
“I know you’re just flattering me. We’ve been riding all day…”
Rolling her eyes at Bairnis’s compliment, Su Jiu accessed her storage ring and tossed a mid-tier Magic Crystal to her with a smile.
“Hungry? Here, take this!”
With her near-demigod-level mental power, combined with a wealth of basic knowledge, razor-sharp fingernails, and incredibly potent extraordinary attributes, if she couldn’t reach the level of an intermediate alchemist, which was achieved by ordinary battle generals, then she should just go home and take care of children.
“This thing was used by Mokala. It’s said to be quite expensive. If I sell a few…”
Recalling her gaze, Su Jiu played with the Dust Thunder in her hand, feeling a sense of anticipation. She then took out a new iron block, preparing to make another Dust Thunder.
She had quite a bit of alchemy material, but her success rate wasn’t very high currently. For every ten materials, she only succeeded in five or six. However, the advantage was her speed; once she became proficient, her success rate should also increase.
In this desert, aside from some monsters hidden in the sand, Su Jiu and Bairnis had basically not encountered any people. They could do whatever they wanted, which was quite liberating.
As night fell, the moon made a rare appearance. The dust seemed to have settled considerably today, and it wasn’t raining anymore.
She continued alchemy into the night, and Su Jiu had crafted nearly twenty Dust Thunders. Her proficiency gradually increased, and she could now make one every ten minutes, with a success rate of around eighty percent.
This item wasn’t of much use to her personally, but if she sold it to local militia organizations in Aers, even at half price, it would fetch two to three hundred thousand.
“Let’s get moving! It’s still some distance to that strange rainforest. We don’t have navigation, and we must have taken a wrong turn earlier…”
Su Jiu put away the completed Dust Thunders and stuffed the unfinished one into her pocket. After telling Bairnis, who was typing on her phone, she walked back to the motorcycle, put on her helmet, and prepared to leave.
“Miss, my article is almost finished too.”
Nodding slightly, Bairnis saved her record and was about to press Su Jiu’s shoulder to get on the bike when she suddenly paused. Her gaze sharpened, and almost simultaneously with Su Jiu, she looked north, murmuring, “Someone’s coming. There’s a High-Rank Battle General in their group…”
Without replying, Su Jiu squinted and saw a military-green jeep. Its headlights were bright, and the vehicle, as if possessing an awareness, drove directly towards them. Soon, seeming to have spotted the two, the jeep slowed down and stopped about twenty kilometers away from them.
“Click!”
“There’s actually someone in the middle of this godforsaken desert?”
The front door slowly opened, and a bald uncle, who looked like a driver, got out, muttering.
“Easterners?”
He was wearing a fashionable black leather vest and sunglasses. As if discovering a new continent, he adjusted his sunglasses and looked at Su Jiu and Bairnis. After observing them for a while, he advised, “Are you two lost? This is the way to the Kens region. Not only are there groups of monsters in the Kens Forest, but Yela’s army is also stationed there, so it’s not a place for tourism.”
“We are indeed lost…”
Hearing this, Su Jiu nodded honestly. The driver was surprisingly a Primary Stage Battle General. These people seemed somewhat similar to them, all heading into the Kens region. She then spoke with hope, “Can we travel with you?”
“No…”
As soon as Su Jiu finished speaking, the bald driver waved his hand and scanned them again with his mental power. Then, he said seriously, “We are a touring song and dance troupe performing for Yela’s army. We are heading to Yela’s base camp in the Kens region. If you come with us without a permit, you might be detained by the army.”
“We’re also heading to the Kens region, but we won’t be entering the military camp with you…” Su Jiu put on an innocent expression, thinking to herself—as expected, they were also going to the Kens region.
“No—”
The bald uncle continued to cross his arms in a “no” gesture, his sunglasses looking somewhat comical under the car headlights.
“Uncle Ande, what’s happening…”
At this moment, a young man got out of the car. He wore an identity badge and quickly approached the bald uncle. The latter helpless pointed to Su Jiu and shrugged, saying, “This little girl wants us to lead the way.”
“Lead the way?”
Raising an eyebrow, the young man then examined Su Jiu. His gaze swept over the Dust Thunder clipped to her pants, and his eyebrows furrowed. He said sternly to Su Jiu, “Are you an alchemist?”
Su Jiu nodded lightly. She didn’t know why the young man seemed to have developed a dislike for her; it was quite baffling.
“Another opportunist…”
After receiving her reply, the young man’s expression turned completely cold. He snorted and quickly went back into the jeep, seemingly to talk to the person in charge of the vehicle.
“There’s no need to stop her. She has the strength to protect herself.”
Just as the bald uncle was about to say something more, the rear door of the jeep suddenly opened slowly. A slender, shapely leg appeared in the sight of Su Jiu and Bairnis.
Following that, several staff members wearing identity badges got out, cautiously surrounding Su Jiu and Bairnis, as if fearing they might make any sudden moves.
“Is that the High-Rank Battle General?”
Slightly startled, Su Jiu followed sounds and realized that the person looked quite young, around twenty to twenty-five years old, with a fair and delicate face and a sweet voice.
The woman, with a Caucasian face, was wearing a black dance skirt that accentuated her voluptuous figure. Her sky-blue eyes were currently focused on the semi-finished Dust Thunder clipped to Su Jiu’s pants.
For some reason, Su Jiu felt a strange sense of familiarity with the woman, as if she had seen her somewhere before, but her consciousness told her that she had never met the woman in front of her.
“Miss Catherine, we are about to enter the Yela military camp to perform. Bringing these two might not be very appropriate.”
This woman had just emerged, and the bald driver quickly lowered his head with a look of awe, explaining continuously.
“This Miss might be a private arms dealer.”
Closing her eyes and shaking her head, Catherine lowered her head and looked directly at Su Jiu’s pocket. She sighed, then slowly walked over and said softly, “If you want to sell Dust Thunder to Yela, I can offer a reasonable price. How about it? Would you consider it?”
“Okay, 22 pieces in total, I’ll sell them to you for 1.5 million US dollars.”
After making eye contact with Catherine, Su Jiu smiled and, to her surprise, handed over the storage bag containing the Dust Thunder.
“1.5 million? What a strange person… For 22 pieces, you probably didn’t make much profit.”
Taking the Dust Thunder from Su Jiu, Catherine had the staff count them. After confirming everything was in order, she took out a black bank card from her pocket and handed it over. “There are two million in here. I’ll consider it a bargain.”
“Thank you.”
Accepting the black card, Su Jiu expressed her thanks, not showing too much excitement. These were just trial products, arguably her first earnings from alchemy.
However, once she became more proficient, she would definitely try the more dangerous weapons from the Crow organization…
“So… Miss Alchemist, can you tell me your true objective?”
As Su Jiu put away the black card, Catherine’s voice suddenly rose, asking with a bit of scrutiny. Clearly, someone who could be a core member of a convoy would not be foolish.
“I don’t believe that someone who profits from war would sell weapons below market price.”
