Early morning, Blackstone Duke Mansion.
His Blackstone was idly flipping through the report Florin had delivered last night, and couldn’t help but yawn.
Since he had made a huge fortune from the war last time, after a period of deployment, the operations of various industries under his command had started to get on track. Now there was nothing that required his attention.
And this report from Florin was something he had casually picked up when he was frantically bottom-fishing for various shops in the town earlier. He hadn’t planned to make much money from it.
The content of the report was roughly what His Blackstone had estimated. After the ownership of these few mineral veins changed hands, the output was mediocre. In fact, one or two of the mine shafts had already been confirmed by experienced old miners to have depleted resources, and they were preparing to seal the mines.
Just as he was about to throw the report back onto his desk, the familiar text appeared before his eyes again.
[Today’s Flash Report! Has an anomaly appeared in the mine shafts recently acquired by the Blackstone Family?! To learn the details, please pay 10,000 gold coins to unlock.]
His Blackstone stared at the content of the daily report and fell into deep thought.
Ever since he awakened the System, by purchasing intelligence, he had quickly summed up a pattern.
The more vague the title of the daily report, the more important the information it could actually convey.
10,000 gold coins—with his current wealth, he could afford it.
After a moment of hesitation, His Blackstone silently chose to pay the gold coins in his heart.
[Deep within the Blackstone Family’s mineral veins, there exists a low-grade ore called “Gray Crystal” by the miners. For a long time, because of its dull color and insufficient hardness, this ore has been discarded as waste rock. But in reality, after undergoing a specific refining process, this ore will display completely different properties. Weapons made from refined Gray Crystal can inflict high damage on the Demon Race. Currently, no one on the continent has mastered this refining technique.]
Looking at the System’s intelligence, His Blackstone’s eyes widened.
Can inflict high damage on the Demon Race?
Th-this…
‘Isn’t this… a weapon of strategic level?’
You have to understand, the Human and Demon Realms were seething with undercurrents, and border conflicts had never truly ceased.
If he could mass-produce a weapon that was especially effective against the Demon Race, wouldn’t that be…
“Li Nuo Er.”
His Blackstone called out into the empty room.
After a moment, the silver-haired emotionless girl silently appeared before him.
It seemed she had taken his advice and no longer appeared behind him.
“Young Master, what are your orders?”
“Florin should be busy in the town today. Go and call her back for me. Tell her I have an urgent matter to discuss with her.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Li Nuo Er’s figure flickered, and she disappeared from the Study again.
About half an hour later, the Study door was knocked.
“Come in.”
“Young Master His Blackstone, you were looking for me?”
After receiving His Blackstone’s permission, Florin pushed the door open and entered.
“Florin, I have a question I need to confirm with you.”
“Young Master, please speak.”
“In those few mine shafts we recently acquired, is there an ore called ‘Gray Crystal’?”
“Gray Crystal? It seems… there is such a thing.”
Florin recalled, and her tone was somewhat uncertain.
“I remember now. The people at the mine mentioned it once. They said that deep in the shafts, they often dig up some grayish stones. They can’t fetch a good price, so they’re basically treated as waste rock and disposed of. What? Is the Young Master interested in this?”
Looking at His Blackstone’s serious expression, Florin probed with a question.
“Yes, that makes things easier.”
After confirming the existence of Gray Crystal, His Blackstone began to instruct Florin:
“You need to go to the mine site right now. Seal off all the shafts that can produce Gray Crystal. Publicly claim that the resources are depleted and mining is suspended.”
Florin blinked.
She didn’t understand her Young Master’s intention.
But considering the Young Master’s recent series of business operations, Florin decided to trust him unconditionally.
After all, he had actually added quite a bit of positive property to the Blackstone Family.
“I understand, Young Master. Is there anything else you need me to do?”
“Let me think… From today onwards, all Gray Crystals are to be uniformly recovered, including the ones that were previously discarded. Retrieve as many as you can and store them together properly.”
“Okay.”
Florin stood up, preparing to leave the Study, but because she moved a bit hastily, her elbow knocked against a stack of documents that were teetering on the corner of the desk.
“Careful!”
His Blackstone subconsciously reached out to catch the documents, but ended up hooking onto Florin’s equally extended forearm.
In that instant, Florin felt as if her heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
The documents scattered all over the floor.
“Uh… I’ll clean this up. You go ahead and get busy.”
His Blackstone also realized something.
He put on a nonchalant expression, withdrew his hand, and bent down to pick up the documents from the floor one by one.
Florin stood there, watching the young man crouched on the floor cleaning up, while her other hand unconsciously grasped the forearm he had just touched.
“Alright then, Young Master.”
After taking a few simple breaths to calm down, Florin said.
“I’ll arrange the Gray Crystal matter as soon as possible.”
“Mm, good work.”
His Blackstone didn’t look up, continuing to organize the documents.
Just as Florin was about to leave the Study, His Blackstone’s voice came from behind.
“Oh, Florin.”
“Hm?”
“Don’t tell anyone else about the Gray Crystal for now.”
“I understand.”
Florin didn’t turn back and walked out quickly.
In the corridor, Florin raised her hand and gently pressed it against her chest.
‘My heart is still beating a little fast.’
Florin took several deep breaths on the spot before she barely managed to calm her heartbeat down.
‘What’s wrong with me lately?’
‘It must be because I’ve been working too hard.’
‘It definitely has nothing to do with Young Master His Blackstone!’
***
In the Study, His Blackstone picked up the last page and placed it back on the desk, then slumped into his chair.
In front of him, a new piece of intelligence was flickering.
[This System can provide the Refinement Technique of Gray Crystal. To learn the details, please pay 20,000 gold coins to unlock.]
20,000 gold coins?!
His Blackstone clicked his tongue.
The pricing of the System’s intelligence lately was getting more and more outrageous.
But then he thought again, he had to spend this money.
The Refinement Technique was the core of the entire industrial chain. Without this technique, Gray Crystal would just remain a pile of waste rock.
Just as His Blackstone was about to purchase the intelligence, he suddenly thought of something and didn’t pay immediately.
‘Wait a minute.’
Based on his understanding of the System, it always pushed the most useful intelligence according to his current situation.
But clearly, he wasn’t short of money at the moment, yet the System had suddenly pushed him the intelligence about Gray Crystal.
Could it be that besides him, there were others who had also noticed Gray Crystal, so the System was in a hurry to push this intelligence to him?
‘I have a feeling that this matter is much more urgent than I think.’