Chapter 28: A Bumper Harvest in the Gray Mist!
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“I’ve been here all along.” Martial Dao Shen Yu’s face was alight with joy. “I just compared the timing with Interstellar Shen Yu. From the moment the first Eye Worm was killed on the Mother Star, Gray Mist has been appearing continuously!”
“I sensed it too, actually. I just didn’t expect there to be so much.” Shen Yu was pleasantly surprised as well.
Before this, whether he had funded impoverished students or helped impoverished regions, the Gray Mist he received had been extremely faint.
Only when medical treatment was involved, when he began saving people’s lives, did the amount increase somewhat.
Thus, although he had long realized that eliminating the Eye Worms would inevitably earn him Gray Mist, he had not known how much this indirect saving of lives would yield, or how it would be calculated.
But judging from what was happening before them, the harvest was probably far greater than he had anticipated!
“Gray Mist is an extremely important resource. We can’t go on using it without any clear measure.” Interstellar Shen Yu spoke at that moment. “Can we quantify it?”
“We can. We can use Gray Mist to resolve that question.” Shen Yu had actually thought of this long ago.
After pondering for a moment, he raised a hand and gently curled one finger.
A wisp of Gray Mist flowed between his fingers, then rapidly transformed into a string of numbers.
547,584.
“I’ll define the amount of Gray Mist obtained from saving the life of an ordinary adult as one unit.” Shen Yu’s eyes gleamed, and he even drew a slight breath. “On average, eliminating one Eye Worm is equivalent to saving ten people?”
No wonder there was so much Gray Mist!
Previously, the rare disease Shen Yu had overcome with the help of Gray Mist had saved the lives of nearly ten thousand people.
This one effort had yielded dozens of times as much!
This was truly an enormous harvest.
His earlier speculation had been correct. Saving a civilization, saving a world—those were indeed the fastest ways to obtain Gray Mist.
“There must be many more complicated rules involved in the calculation.” The chip in Interstellar Shen Yu’s mind was operating at tremendous speed. “For instance, can saving the same person repeatedly yield rewards repeatedly? And if we first place someone in danger and then prevent that danger, would we receive a reward as well? These possibilities still require constant verification.”
“Repeatedly saving someone depends on whether the threats belong to the same category and whether they share the same root cause.” Shen Yu shook his head slightly. “As for putting someone in danger first and then stopping it, that won’t work.”
Shen Yu had possessed the Gray Mist Space for eight years.
During that time, he had naturally carried out all kinds of experiments.
In his understanding, the closest analogy he could think of was the concept of “merit.”
Helping others, saving lives, and even aiding the development of civilizations could all potentially yield Gray Mist.
Still, Shen Yu agreed with Interstellar Shen Yu’s point.
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In the future, they truly would need to conduct more experiments.
“Now that merit has been quantified, we should see how much it costs to spend.” Martial Dao Shen Yu spoke with some curiosity. “Let’s see how much it would take to raise my martial cultivation all the way to the fourth realm of the Golden Cicada Art.”
Neither Shen Yu nor Interstellar Shen Yu objected.
Improving Martial Dao Shen Yu’s cultivation was equivalent to improving their own.
With their abilities and realms shared, investing in themselves offered astonishing returns.
Shen Yu stirred his thoughts once more.
Asking how much something would cost also required the use of Gray Mist, but only a negligible amount.
The answer soon appeared.
A little over 320,000 units.
“Saving 320,000 people…” Martial Dao Shen Yu drew in a slight breath.
In his world, martial arts did not possess a unified system of realms.
Different martial arts techniques and different methods of cultivation all had their own realms.
The Golden Cicada Art had only six realms, while some techniques possessed more than a dozen. Certain arts focused exclusively on strengthening the physical body and had no specific division of realms at all; they merely tempered and strengthened the body continuously through a single method.
The relative strength of martial artists could only be known after they fought.
Sometimes, someone might be unable to win in a direct confrontation, yet could emerge victorious by relying on certain methods or trump cards.
Even so, if the Golden Cicada Art broke through to the fourth realm, its practitioner could already be considered a major expert. Once the technique was activated, the body would become like gold—impervious to water and fire, difficult to injure with blades or axes, and possessed of limitless strength. Ordinary boulders more than ten meters high could be shattered with a casual strike!
This completely exceeded the normal limits of carbon-based life.
“Should we use it?” Shen Yu looked at Martial Dao Shen Yu. “The extraordinary martial arts of your world still possess tremendous utility and potential. Setting everything else aside, from the perspective of our own safety alone, spending this Gray Mist would be worthwhile.”
Shen Yu had never been in the habit of being stingy. To him, Gray Mist was like capital: when it needed to be used, it should be spent decisively.
Only then could they acquire even more Gray Mist.
Although Martial Dao Shen Yu was deeply tempted, after some thought, he still shook his head.
“Even if we’re going to use it, now isn’t the time.” His eyes brightened slightly, as though he had already formed a plan. “Your worlds have both undergone changes, and my world should be doing something soon as well. Not to mention the Gray Mist brought by the path of martial arts and the salvation of civilization—even the experts and the various resources related to martial arts possess extraordinary value.”
Indeed, both Shen Yu and Interstellar Shen Yu had tacitly chosen Martial Dao Shen Yu’s world as a “hook.”
They used it to sustain the expectations of their respective civilizations.
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This was naturally because both extraordinary martial arts and that world itself possessed sufficient value.
There was no need to say much more.
If they had enough Gray Mist, could they relocate powerful experts from the martial arts world as reinforcements?
Even the rare treasures containing abundant vital energy and miraculous effects would possess immense research value.
At the very least, Interstellar Shen Yu’s world would absolutely be willing to pay a tremendous price for them.
“What do you need us to do?” Shen Yu asked directly.
“First, food.” Martial Dao Shen Yu looked at Shen Yu as he spoke, then turned his head toward Interstellar Shen Yu. “Second, can you provide weapons with enough shock value and destructive power? Preferably a starship!”
The moment the words “starship” left his mouth, Shen Yu could not help looking at Interstellar Shen Yu.
He had actually harbored a rather daring idea for some time.
Using a starship from an interstellar civilization to investigate the meteorite that was steadily flying toward the Mother Star!
There was indeed some risk. There was far too much positional information on that meteorite. But what if they used Gray Mist to predict the outcome before taking action?
What if they directly used Gray Mist to obtain the information concealed behind that meteorite?
At that thought, Shen Yu could not help but use some Gray Mist once more.
His expression abruptly changed.
Merely asking what would happen if they traveled by spacecraft to make contact with the meteorite required a full 700,000 units of Gray Mist!
Seven hundred thousand!
All for asking such a simple question?
There was no need to entertain the idea any further.
That cost alone was enough to reveal a great deal!
Interstellar Shen Yu and Martial Dao Shen Yu also noticed the change in Shen Yu’s expression.
After learning the reason, both of them were deeply astonished.
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