Chapter 2828: Fishing
Under the impact of Xu Huo's spiritual world, Dou Shengnan's spiritual world began to collapse. First, the accumulated faces crumbled down, then cracks appeared in the black world, which could no longer cover the sky and block out the sun. Finally, under the tearing of her childhood personality, she couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood.
Even so, she did not give up. That thread flew toward Xu Huo again.
Xu Huo was entangled and frequently dodged, consuming quite a few devices in the process. He was struggling somewhat, so when the childhood personality suddenly disappeared, the Library Tower also showed signs of being covered and swallowed by the black spiritual power.
Just as the battle between the two sides reached a white-hot stalemate, a mung-bean-sized stone, coming from who knows where, fell from the sky, shattered Dou Shengnan's defense barrier, and pierced through her head!
The black spiritual world quickly disappeared, and she fell onto the lakeshore.
Xu Huo did not approach rashly. Standing on the lake surface in the distance, he asked, "Who helped you?"
The wound on Dou Shengnan's head slanted from the top of her skull through her temple, blood continuously flowing. Her lips moved, as if she couldn't speak, or perhaps her voice was just too weak.
Xu Huo looked at her coldly and did not approach. The next second, a surge of black spiritual power rushed up from beneath the lake and flew into his spiritual world at an extremely fast speed!
This was a mixed spiritual power, seemingly somewhat different from Dou Shengnan's, but it was sharp and aggressive. Almost the moment it made contact, Xu Huo felt a tremendous impact. Although his Materialized Object intercepted it in time, he still experienced hallucinations for an instant. Among the rapidly flashing scenes, a doctor's face appeared multiple times...
A sharp pain pulled him back to reality. Xu Huo looked down and found a slender golden cone piercing his chest. The passive defense item he carried had already activated but failed to completely stop the momentum of this item.
Coming to his senses, he pulled out the golden cone and sneered at Dou Shengnan, who was breathing slowly. "Wasting two of my life-saving items, you're really something!"
Dou Shengnan was on the verge of death. She curled her lips into a smile, and the pendant she had been covering with her hand directly disappeared.
Seeing that she seemed to think she could die in peace, Xu Huo walked over and sighed slightly. "It's a pity the other members of the Eerie Sound Knights didn't come."
When their eyes met, Dou Shengnan's pupils contracted, but it was too late. Before she could transmit the information she had just obtained back to her companions, she twitched once and died completely.
Xu Huo received Dou Shengnan's belongings. After confirming she was dead, he stood there for a while, then somewhat disappointedly disposed of the body.
Dou Shengnan had been stalling for time to collect information on his combat power with her life. He had restrained his use of Time Power and Space Power, avoiding "Darkened Heart" and Hyperdimensional Space Power to fish for more targets. Unfortunately, he didn't know what the Eerie Sound Knights were up to—none of the members came to reinforce her.
Of course, this spiritual duel still placed a considerable burden on him, but looking at the results, it wasn't a wasted trip.
Dou Shengnan and another Eerie Sound Knights member, Li Li, were dead. Setting aside Li Li for now, although Dou Shengnan had intentionally stalled for time, she should have managed to send the message out in the end. The results were already out, so the other members of the Eerie Sound Knights should know by now. If they hurried, they might even arrive at Liujin City before he left.
He would wait a bit.
After negotiating with the arriving Liujin City players, Xu Huo quickly left the villa area. His next task was to find the doctor who had been treating Dou Shengnan.
From some traces in Dou Shengnan's spiritual world, her mental state had been unstable for a long time. The reason she had stayed in this district for so long was that she had found a suitable doctor—and that doctor was a pharmaceutical expert from Stellar Pharmaceuticals.
Although it was unclear why a pharmaceutical expert would be proficient in Mental Evolution, the person's clothing clearly bore the mark of Stellar Pharmaceuticals.
He entrusted Pu Yu and Tang Xu to investigate the staff of Stellar Pharmaceuticals, but these people mostly lived inside the Stellar Pharmaceuticals building and rarely went out, especially the key technical personnel.
However, they could still get a rough schedule of when work started and when rest periods were.
"Most of the people in Stellar Pharmaceuticals are robots. These robots all have self-destruct programs. I'm afraid that before you even get in, the important things will have been destroyed," Pu Yu said.
Xu Huo chuckled. "Do you think I'm going to rob Stellar Pharmaceuticals for a fortune?"
"I just happened to run into someone and thought they might be an old acquaintance. I want to meet them."
Pu Yu felt a bit relieved upon hearing this. "As long as you're not blowing up Stellar Pharmaceuticals. If Stellar Pharmaceuticals is destroyed, the subsequent investigation by the Game Government Base will make business in Liujin City difficult."
Just then, her accompanying secretary came in with a new contract for her to sign, and Xu Huo brought up the AS-01CL ore.
Pu Yu was quite surprised. She had to flip through her own files to find the ore he mentioned.
"An ore of low grade. Are you interested in this?"
"Besides being used to make some instrument chips, does this ore have any other uses?" AS-01CL ore itself had substitute materials. The "Bookworm" proposing this condition couldn't just be to increase costs, could it?
"One of the basic materials for instrument chips," Pu Yu said. "There are many B-level wormhole points, and it's known for being cheap and good. Some districts use it as a throw-in when selling related high-priced goods. I've heard that a new material has recently come out, and AS-01CL ore might soon be phased out of the chip industry."
"After I take over the family business, I'll have to deal with a batch of inventory. Once the inventory is sold out, mining will stop."
"Since that's the case, I'd like to ask you for a small favor." Xu Huo mentioned the sales ban.
"That's doable, and it won't cause me too much loss." Pu Yu was quite curious about the reason.
Xu Huo was just testing the waters. That "Bookworm" might not be real, and conditions could naturally be reneged on. He didn't really expect this transaction to go smoothly. Instead, he wanted Pu Yu to help keep an eye out for anyone who would go to great lengths to obtain AS-01CL ore after the ban.
Pu Yu immediately instructed her secretary to make arrangements. "First, seal the inventory. No one is allowed to resell it. If I find any shortage after the fact, I will hold someone accountable. Draft a sales ban and submit it to the district governments we cooperate with. Send it out after they sign it."
The secretary nodded and left.
"The mines under my control are easy to handle, but the B-level wormhole points are huge. There must be others selling this ore," Pu Yu said.
"That's enough," Xu Huo said. "I might leave District 003 in a couple of days. Have all your people arrived?"
Pu Yu nodded. "The venue is ready."
They didn't need to go to a specialized hospital, as Pu Yu had already had the equipment moved to her residence, using a sealed basement for this matter.