“Eek… wuh-mm…”
After a fierce internal struggle and finally agreeing to Weeping of the Shadow’s suggestion, Xia Li, lying on the large bed, let out a fearful whimper when the man with a sinister smile on his face approached her.
In order to restrain herself, she had no choice but to tightly bite her lips while closing her eyes.
“What are you afraid of?! It’s not like you’ll lose a piece of flesh!” The black sword she had placed to the side continued shouting in her mind.
Because she was afraid the ghostly runes on the scabbard would cause unnecessary associations in other people, this thing was now wrapped in a piece of tattered cloth.
“Although the current you is essentially just a dead ghost temporarily grabbed by the city-state security system from the ‘Light’s Abyss,’ at least you still possess a portion of ‘Xia Li’s’ personality and memories, right? Aren’t you the empire’s Imperator, the brave princess?! Why would you be afraid even of something like this being inserted into your body?!”
“Because… this is my first time… having something that long inserted into my body…” Xia Li conversed with Weeping of the Shadow in pure form of will inside her mind.
“Everything has a first time! Grit your teeth for me, look at the sky and count the number of stars, it’ll be over soon!”
“But this is indoors, there’s no way to see stars…”
“Then count the number of flowers on the wallpaper for me! Besides, I know your concerns—relax, because of your special constitution, even if the thing inserted has a disease, you almost can’t possibly have any problems! So don’t overthink!”
“Eek—mm-mm-aww—”
Upon feeling something being inserted into her body and causing her to start bleeding, Xia Li suddenly trembled once… fortunately, it really didn’t hurt much, and the explanation Weeping of the Shadow had just given also made her slightly more at ease.
“Are you sure you want to sell this much? Five hundred milliliters?” After inserting the needle properly, the man in a somewhat dirty white coat asked.
“Yes.” Xia Li nodded while watching the blood flow away along the transparent soft tube—this was the first step of the suggestion Weeping of the Shadow had given her: find this blood product sales station that looked irregular no matter how one looked at it, then sell her own blood.
In the past, when she was still “Xia Li,” although she had never had the experience of donating blood, because she was closely related to medical faculties, she had heard quite a few stories about the buying and selling of blood products.
And as far as she knew, people who had fallen to the point of earning money by such means were usually unfortunate ones with nowhere to turn… this was rather similar to her current situation.
It was just that the profit she obtained by doing this was far greater than that of any unfortunate person on Earth forced to sell blood: after discovering the faint golden luster emanating from the flowing blood, that man instantly widened his eyes in astonishment, just short of shooting his eyeballs out to shatter his glasses.
“Eek?! This is na-na-na-na-na-na… Nano-Element System?! It’s actually blood containing the Nano-Element System?!”
“You know?” Xia Li asked.
“Don’t underestimate me, a senior practitioner who has done this kind of business for eighteen years,” the white-coated man said, “A small matter like this, one glance is enough to know… but speaking of which, this kind of thing is indeed very rare; ordinarily one or two years may not even encounter one.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. Market price… for five hundred milliliters, I’ll offer ten thousand yuan.” The white-coated man rubbed his hands continuously like a fly that had landed on a pile of food, completely not concealing the greedy impulse in his heart, “How about it?”
“That’s roughly ten times the price of ordinary blood products…” Xia Li muttered.
Although she was very clear that when these things were sold outward, they would at least bring this man in front of her several times that amount in profit.
However, for her who had previously been conducting sword-selling fraud activities on the street at the price of three yuan fifty cents per tael, this already wasn’t bad.
“Hmph, plasma made from this, the final price of one portion is at least two hundred fifty thousand. In theory, the purchase price of five hundred milliliters of your blood should at least be fifty thousand yuan at minimum. It’s just that that person knows you are a heavy criminal who has been banished, so he deliberately pressed the price down to this level.”
“Is my blood this expensive?”
“Oh, that’s right, otherwise why would I tell you to come here to sell?” Weeping of the Shadow retorted, “Down here, this thing is an absolute treasure, because it can serve as a high-grade emergency medicine.”
“Eh?”
“Forget it, this great precious sword will properly give you a common-sense lesson: the Nano-Element System that continuously cycles and ‘reproduces’ in your bone marrow tissue and blood has two uses,” Weeping of the Shadow began patiently lecturing, “The first use is actually as a super immune enhancement system, replacing a portion of your immune system… mainly the macrophages and antibodies.”
“Oh?”
“They can almost identify all common pathogens—from viruses, bacteria to parasites—then ‘hunt’ them in groups, dismantle them and render them harmless. Even the blood toxins injected by venomous animals, their protein molecules will be swallowed by the Nano-Element System after entering the blood vessels, reducing the damage to the minimum degree.”
“In other words, I also come with a universal vaccine and antidote, huh?” Xia Li nodded, “No wonder you said that even if the inserted needle isn’t clean it doesn’t matter.”
“That’s exactly how it is, so your plasma after processing will be extremely valuable.” Weeping of the Shadow said, “Of course, the second use is the one I mentioned before, allowing the owner to stably use ‘Extra-Rational Power’ and drive various technical equipment that can only be used by those possessing the Nano-Element System. However, this point is actually not important to the people of the earth.”
“Why?”
“Because the people of the earth have already grown accustomed to their own methods. The two… mm, each has its good and bad points.” The black sword explained.
“Oh?”
“If one is to make an analogy, the ‘people of the heavens’ who possess the Nano-Element System and stabilize ‘Extra-Rational Power’ are similar to driving a vehicle produced by a regular manufacturer, with various instruments providing information and artificial intelligence assistance; as long as one has a driver’s license one can drive steadily. On the contrary, the ‘people of the earth’ are more like driving a modified car pieced together in a black workshop. Even the fuel is produced by underground workshops with crude methods. In addition, unlike the ‘people of the heavens’ where everyone can play a hand at magic, among the ‘people of the earth,’ only a minority with talent can utilize ‘Extra-Rational Power.’”
“In other words, there are no guarantees, everything relies on feel, the kind where one careless moment can lead to an accident?”
“Correct—of course, the ‘people of the earth’ also know this. So the majority among them who possess the ability to utilize ‘Extra-Rational Power’ choose to play it safe. Just like people driving broken modified cars will choose to reduce speed to lower the probability of accidents occurring, most ‘people of the earth’ spellcasters will also lower the output level of their spells to avoid incidents… this makes their average level significantly lower than ‘people of the heavens’ of equal talent. But conversely…”
“I understand. Just like modified cars can also possess performance that mass-produced vehicles do not have, as long as one ignores one’s own and others’ safety, the upper limit of ‘people of the earth’ spellcasters will also be very high.” Xia Li summarized.
“Exactly so.” Weeping of the Shadow replied, “Those death-defying madmen are quite troublesome. Unless there is no other choice, one must stay far away from them; this is already general social common sense among the ‘people of the earth.’ However, because they have already formed their own habits, plus the technical equipment that ‘people of the heavens’ need the Nano-Element System to drive cannot be used by the vast majority on the ground. Therefore, their demand for your blood is limited only to its use as high-grade emergency medicine.”
“This is already enough.” Xia Li nodded.
As the agreed five hundred milliliters of blood was completely drawn, the white-coated man walked back, pulled out the long blood-drawing needle, and tossed Xia Li a piece of alcohol cotton ball for pressing the wound, as well as the agreed ten thousand yuan, plus… a slip of paper.
“This is?”
“Blood with the Nano-Element System… yet growing the lowest of dog ears and dog tails. You should be a ‘person of the heavens’ who committed a heavy crime, was stripped of everything, and demoted to the ground, right?” The white-coated man asked, “If I haven’t guessed wrong, you are probably without a fixed residence, and also find it very difficult to rent a house, right?” As he spoke, he pointed at the gauze stuck on Xia Li’s face.
Hidden under that piece of gauze was precisely the blood-red eight-pointed star brand representing a great sinner.
“Yes. So…”
“All regular housing agencies and inns require those registering to provide at least basic identity information. With an identity like yours, without someone guaranteeing for you, even if you have money no one will accept you.”
“Mm…” Xia Li once again instinctively clamped her fluffy dog tail between her legs.
As long as she felt uneasy, she would instinctively do this.
“However, I have a friend who runs an ‘irregular’ inn that doesn’t require identity information!” The white-coated man beamed with a full face of smiles, “Moreover, although it’s not very regular, this friend’s inn itself is not bad! The service and environment are both at the level of a star-rated hotel! Just follow the address on this and you can find it!”
“Mm… alright, thanks.” Xia Li put away the payment and the slip of paper, and quickly left this blood collection station.
After winding through the twisting and dirty alleyways seven or eight times, she finally arrived at that small inn hidden in a corner of the slums.
“That… are you sure you want to stay here?” Weeping of the Shadow hanging at her waist asked, “This place doesn’t look very safe.”
“Mm…” Xia Li also fell into hesitation.
Just as the black sword had said, this dilapidated inn, no matter how one looked at it, was full of a suspicious atmosphere, and differed far from a “star-rated hotel.”
Not only was the facade dilapidated and the location hidden, but after seeing this inn, the blood-red eight-pointed star mark on her face began to hurt, however…
“If this one were you, I would absolutely not approach a place like this.” A cheerful male voice suddenly spoke.