Chapter: 442
Lettycia swore that if this golden liquid could be thoroughly researched, it would absolutely be an unusually practical potion ingredient.
Even if the side effects of the golden liquid were reduced using other materials and its effectiveness decreased, it would certainly be much better than a disposable item.
One must know that a potion made with Lettycia’s blood as the raw material could fully replenish the mana of a great mage who had emptied their blue bar and even provide buffs to speed up mana recovery and enhance spell power. If the raw material were this golden liquid, the effect would likely not be much worse.
At most, Lettycia’s potions would lean towards mana recovery, while the golden liquid’s potions would lean towards enhancing physical strength. For the beastmen, the latter would definitely be more practical.
After all, the beastmen could not use mana, so Lettycia’s potions would be useless to them.
“Of course, I won’t pay to buy it. If you can research a potion in the future, you’ll have to pay me to buy it,” Lettycia said with a greedy smile, rubbing her hands together and stating a condition that was almost harsh.
In other words, Linglong entrusted the alchemy master Lettycia to research a new type of potion. It would be unreasonable to expect Lettycia to pay for the raw materials herself.
Moreover, hiring an alchemy master like Lettycia would incur enormous expenses even among the demon race. The figure Lettycia just quoted was already a heavily discounted price.
Although, no one dared to hire a demon lord among the demon race…
Compared to the method proposed by the dog-headed merchant earlier, Linglong almost immediately made her choice: it had to be Lettycia’s method.
If Lettycia had proposed this plan earlier, she wouldn’t have been so conflicted for so long.
“So, Letty, why didn’t you say this earlier!” Linglong, pouting, trotted up to Lettycia and, without any regard for formality, reached out and grabbed Lettycia’s face.
Although they hadn’t spent much time together, Linglong had a general understanding of this girl’s personality. She didn’t mind intimate contact with girls she was close to. Even though there was a vast difference in their strength, such casual roughhousing wouldn’t make her feel disgusted.
On the contrary, this girl would probably enjoy it.
“Cough!” Lettycia was enjoying it, but the other girl certainly didn’t think so. She cleared her throat lightly, looking at Linglong, who was pulling Lettycia’s face with a cold gaze.
Ah, this girl was someone she couldn’t afford to offend. Linglong immediately conceded defeat and released Lettycia’s face.
“Developing a new potion is super troublesome, and the ingredients are also strange materials I’ve never seen before. Just the incompatibility alone is enough to annoy me. You might have unified the beastmen by the time I’ve even figured out the potion,” Lettycia shrugged, indicating that she hadn’t considered this idea before, but the golden liquid’s properties were too peculiar, and it couldn’t be handled by ordinary means.
Even with such strange materials, if they were taken to the Demon Lord’s castle in the demon race and studied by a group of alchemy masters, it would probably take ten to twenty years or even decades to get a rough understanding.
And now Lettycia was alone. What she had just said might not have been a joke. She might not even be able to fully understand this thing even with several hundred years.
Fortunately, the quantity of this raw material seemed to be quite large, enough for her to experiment with.
“This golden liquid is called Divine Blood, and the price of each vial of Divine Blood is…” After verifying the authenticity of the potion, the dog-headed merchant returned and learned of Linglong’s intention to purchase it. In his excitement, he began to explain the detailed information of the golden liquid to everyone present.
Unexpectedly, yet within reason, the price of the golden liquid was very high. However, the merchant stated that money could be replaced with grain or slaves to purchase this product called Divine Blood. While not common, it was a traditional transaction method among the beastmen.
In places like the border of the great plains, bartering was still very prevalent.
“Divine Blood? That name is quite… a bit bold,” Lettycia’s expression became more subtle after hearing the name Divine Blood. Others might not find any issue with the name of this golden liquid, but she was different.
The mountain-like golden bird lying on the ground, the golden blood flowing from its wounds – this scene was deeply etched in her memory. In just a few short hours, Lettycia could even count the number of feathers on that bird’s head.
These guys, naming things so directly?
They really just sold the blood of the gods as Divine Blood without changing the name to conceal it?
They were too daring, weren’t they? Weren’t they afraid of attracting anyone’s attention?
Oh, right, these guys were beastmen, they probably didn’t think about such things.
Upon realizing this was the beastmen, Lettycia felt enlightened. They weren’t very bright, so she shouldn’t speculate about them with such complex thoughts. It was a lack of trust in their muscle-filled brains.
When interacting with beastmen, she had to lower her own intelligence a bit to understand certain operations that seemed magical to her.
“Hahaha, Divine Blood is a gift from the Great God to us, so what’s wrong with speaking directly? Let me tell you something, don’t tell anyone else.” The dog-headed merchant put on a mysterious air and lowered his voice to speak to everyone present, “In the great plains, Divine Blood is already the most popular commodity among many large tribes!”
“And I was lucky enough to get some Divine Blood from an elder. However, the tribes in the great plains all have fixed suppliers, and I can’t compete with those big merchants, which is why I came here with my companions to try our luck.”
“My companion was luckier than me, and his business was done so quickly. Unlike me, who’s only meeting the Divine Maiden now.”
The dog-headed merchant’s words were really uninformative. Lettycia held her chin with a look of helplessness and began to reminisce, only a few words in the dog-headed merchant’s speech were informative.
She didn’t doubt that Divine Blood was selling well in the great plains. Although the side effects were terrible, the short-term gains were indeed very high. For the beastmen, it was a very good consumable.
Anyway, the beastmen could reproduce, and their population was enough to be used up. Even with more of this potion, it wouldn’t be enough to give one to each beastman, not even to the beastman warriors.
Just like in the battle yesterday, the Steel Spear Tribe had less than a hundred beastman warriors who could drink the potion. These were all warriors who were one in a hundred or even one in a thousand.
“But this price is indeed a bit expensive,” Lettycia said with some emotion, then smiled and asked the dog-headed merchant below, “Can you give me a discount?”
She was even asking about discounts, so the transaction was already settled. Hearing Lettycia’s question, the dog-headed merchant’s smile was as bright as the sun at noon.
After pretending to be conflicted for a while, he held up a few fingers, “If the Divine Maiden purchases this quantity at once, I can get you an 80% discount. This is the biggest concession I can make.”
“80%? I understand.” Linglong once again looked at Lettycia for help.
Lettycia winked at Linglong three times, hoping that the little dragon girl could understand her meaning, but they still lacked tacit understanding, and Linglong couldn’t understand what Lettycia was trying to express at all.
So, she had to ask the cat-girl to take the dog-headed merchant out to be served with good food and drinks, and then continue the private conversation with Lettycia.
“My meaning is to accept it. After all, for you guys now, buying such a batch of Divine Blood isn’t a significant financial blow.”
“It’s not a significant financial blow, but it’s still a large expense. I would still feel distressed if it all went to waste,” Linglong looked troubled. She was genuinely conflicted at this moment.
Although when she made decisions alone in the past, she was decisive and swift, now that Lettycia was by her side, she had become hesitant. Every time she encountered a major event, she would think about whether to ask Lettycia for her opinion.
This thought wasn’t wrong. Before, Linglong was like a reincarnated Zhuge Liang among a group of beastmen. Now that a girl with higher intelligence like Lettycia appeared, Linglong would naturally want to discuss with Lettycia.
If her oversight were to cause the Bone Wing Tribe to suffer a great loss, she would not be able to bear it. This great territory was all built by her. Even a small loss would make her heartache.
“You’re buying Divine Blood not just for the Divine Blood, but also to win over these merchants. They can produce Divine Blood now, so will they sell it to the Steel Spear, Divine Bone, and Divine Brain tribes in the future? You at least need to make these merchants feel that you are also a potential partner, so they will think of promoting new products to you in the future,” Lettycia whispered, analyzing the pros and cons for Linglong, occasionally drawing various strange patterns on the table to assist her explanation.
“This way, you won’t be ambushed by any sudden new items from the Steel Spear Tribe. Trading this batch for the merchants’ friendly attitude is at least not a loss in my eyes. Besides, maybe I’ll find a way to use this liquid safely, and then you’ll make a fortune, Linglong.”
This thing could not only be used personally but also sold for a good profit.
Under Lettycia’s earnest persuasion, Linglong finally made up her mind and decided to buy a batch of Divine Blood from the merchants.
…
“Success! The Bone Wing Tribe has decided to purchase Divine Blood from us too!”
Dark clouds obscured the moonlight, and in the dark jungle, two beastmen in black clothes were discussing what had just happened.
The beastman speaking was kneeling on the ground, his oversized black hood obscuring the upper half of his face, revealing only pale lips. His tone was filled with a hint of excitement, as if he was genuinely happy about this news.
“However, the Bone Wing Tribe intends to pay with grain. They are unwilling to trade those prisoners of war with us.”
“Heh heh, this shows that the Divine Maiden of the Bone Wing is quite rational. She’s probably not using the Divine Blood herself,” The emaciated old man standing in front of the kneeling beastman leaned on a jet-black crutch. This time, he didn’t cover his face. His face, like a withered tree, was filled with cracks that could scare a child to tears.
“Not using it? Then why did they buy Divine Blood?” The old man’s words made the kneeling beastman somewhat confused. Did the beastmen of the Bone Wing Tribe think they had too much money and intended to play with it?
In his opinion, if you bought something, you had to use it. If you didn’t need it, you didn’t need to buy it.
“She’s not buying Divine Blood, but our attitude. That Divine Maiden is using this to show her stance, that she and we are not enemies.” The old man chuckled in a dry voice. It was no wonder the Bone Wing Tribe could defeat the Steel Spear Tribe; the difference in leadership alone was enough for the Bone Wing Tribe to win against a stronger opponent.
That Divine Maiden is a smart person.
To be honest, the old man didn’t like doing business with smart people, as he would gain less profit. However, he could only grit his teeth and do business with that smart person now.
The oil and water that could be squeezed from the Steel Spear Tribe were limited. If they could extract more from the Bone Wing Tribe, that would be the most profitable choice.
Anyway, the revival of that Lord was reaching a critical stage. As long as they passed this hurdle, the future would be smooth sailing.
What he needed to do now was to convert the goods in his hands into sacrifices needed by that Lord as quickly as possible. The Bone Wing Tribe exchanging grain for goods was quite good.
Transporting this grain to other places could get them quite a few slaves. There weren’t a few slaves among the beastmen, and now it was the middle of winter. Various tribes would be happy to exchange some slaves for a portion of the grain.
“In the future, when selling things to the Steel Spear Tribe, also promote them to the Bone Wing Tribe. If you can persuade the Bone Wing Tribe to purchase them with money, that would be even better,” the old man stroked his white beard and made a decision.
He didn’t care who won or lost between the Steel Spear and Bone Wing tribes. He only cared about how much benefit he could gain from this conflict. After all, when that Lord revived, this entire grassland would submit under His wings, and they, as meritorious officials, would naturally share in it.
Soon, soon, that Lord was about to revive.
“Yes!” The kneeling beastman responded with vigor.
“Alright, you will be in charge of things here from now on. I need to return to the branch. I heard there was some disturbance at the branch recently, so I have to go back and check the situation,” the old man nodded slightly. Although his subordinate wasn’t very bright, he was steady in his work, so leaving things to him should be fine.
