Chapter 1491 Dragon Egg
Meng Chao did not let down his guard. He held the backpack in his arms tighter and said in a hoarse voice, “How did you know that I was looking for Giant-toothed Crocodile’s people?”
“Who else could it be?”
The veteran Reaper’s gaze circled the bulging backpack in Meng Chao’s arms again as he spoke with a smile. “Did you want to deal with the Supernatural Tower’s monster materials trading center?”
Meng Chao snorted coldly. “Isn’t that possible?”
“Of course it’s possible, as long as you’re willing to pay more than 50% of the transaction tax, luxury tax, and strategic resource turnover tax. By the way, you have to tell me everything about those monster materials and your true identity.
“Stop joking, my friend. Everyone knows that only a fool would do an honest transaction with the Supernatural Tower,” the veteran Reaper said with a smile.
“The price for a transaction with us is at least 30% higher than with the Supernatural Tower. If you have confidence in your goods, it can even be 50% higher. Furthermore, we’ll never ask who you are or care how much of the monster ingredients are contaminated… by something that resembles blood when they fall into your hands.”
The word “blood” made Meng Chao’s pupils contract.
His gaze was like a bullet that landed on the veteran Reaper’s face.
His fierce expression made it seem as though he wanted to blow two bowl-sized holes in the guy’s face.
However, the sirens from the firetrucks, the ambulance, and the law enforcement agencies’ heavy-duty vehicles were getting closer by the second.
The veteran Reaper had his hands behind his back. He looked calm and composed as if he was a willing victim.
The muscles on Meng Chao’s face twitched a few times before he finally looked away.
“I’ve never dealt with Giant-toothed Crocodile before.
“How do I know that you won’t lie to me?” Meng Chao asked in a deep voice.
“What if you lied to me? What do I do? Could I go to the police?”
“I understand your worries. If I were dealing with a buyer I didn’t know, I would have a lot of worries too.”
The veteran Reaper changed his expression to that of a sincere one. “However, you can go ahead and ask around. Our boss’ name has spread throughout the south of the city for a year and a half. The number of people who trade with us is greater than the number of people who trade in the Supernatural Tower’s direct store or flagship store. Who has been deceived or even harmed by us? None, definitely none!”
“Is that so?”
Meng Chao scoffed. “I heard that you’re evil. You often slaughter your customers like pigs!”
“That’s another matter.”
The veteran Reaper said, “Buying low and selling high. Doubling the price is something that can’t be helped. After all, in this day and age, all kinds of non-renewable cultivation resources have become scarce resources that even rich people can’t buy. To obtain these cultivation resources, our boss has to bear a great deal of responsibility. Just the cost of getting the goods is four to five times the official retail price!
“However, aside from the price, when have you ever heard of us pretending to be inferior? When have you ever heard of us taking things by force?
“When it comes to the price, it’s the same as anywhere else. Let’s look at the goods first. As long as your goods are priceless, we can sit down and discuss it slowly!”
“Where do we talk about it?”
While Meng Chao really wanted to talk about it directly in Giant-toothed Crocodile’s office, he knew that following the commotion on the second floor, the black market merchants like Giant-toothed Crocodile had probably turned into frightened birds.
It would be impossible for them to easily bring an unknown trading partner back to their lair.
Therefore, he simply wore a vigilant and resistant look and played hard to get. “I won’t go with you!”
“Of course.”
The veteran Reaper understood the difficulty of building trust in this anonymous black market transaction. He pointed at a magnificent subway complex next to him, “We can go there and find a crowded lively place to sit down and talk. Don’t worry. I think as long as both of us don’t lose our minds at the same time, we won’t do anything unpleasant in the crowded downtown area, right?”
The veteran Reaper brought Meng Chao to the fifth floor of the complex and found a private restaurant that sold the meat of ferocious Hell Beasts.
It was still working hours, and the price of ferocious Hell Beast meat was not something that ordinary consumers could afford.
Not a single customer was in the private restaurant. The two employees, who should have been well-trained, yawned in boredom.
Sitting in the private room, one could see the entire shopping complex through the glass windows and the atrium.
If necessary, both parties, being superhumans, could break through the glass and jump down from the atrium. They could escape any floor of the seven- or eight-story shopping complex and take a complicated route.
One could say that this was the best place to trade in terms of privacy and safety.
It seemed that Giant-toothed Crocodile’s people had brought many customers there to trade in the past.
Meng Chao even suspected that this private restaurant had an unclear relationship with Giant-toothed Crocodile and his dealings.
“Shall we take a look at the goods first?” the veteran Reaper said impatiently once he sat down.
With his status, he should not have been so impatient to avoid being controlled by Meng Chao.
On the other hand, with the big mess today, both parties were in a sensitive position and could cancel the deal at any time.
Showing the appropriate enthusiasm would also help to cultivate mutual trust and establish a stable long-term trading relationship
Meng Chao placed his backpack carefully on the table.
However, he immediately opened his calloused hands that had been curled into eagle claws and held the backpack tightly.
He stretched over half of the dining table and stared at the veteran reaper. “I’d like to clarify that I don’t want money. I only want goods, in stock!”
That was also the norm in the black market.
Due to the scarcity of cultivation resources, prices in the black market changed three times a day, rising more and falling less. The money in one’s hand would depreciate every minute.
To put it bluntly, the economic system that had been built based on the physical qualities of ordinary people was originally unstable for an outrageous existence like the superhumans.
In many places, the superhumans had already returned to the era of bartering for the trading of scarce resources.
Money was just a piece of waste paper or even a string of useless numbers displayed on the screen.
Crystals were too big, their radiation was too strong, and it was not suitable to carry them around.
Only mid-level to high-level gene reagents and wild monster materials were hard currency.
“Of course,” the veteran Reaper agreed immediately.
“It doesn’t matter which gene reagent you want to purchase, we have everything here. Everything’s in stock!”
Meng Chao stared at him for a while more before releasing his grip slightly. He squeezed out a “century egg” from his backpack.
It was the one that had been knocked to the ground earlier and accidentally stepped on.
In reality, the only thing that had been stepped on was the outer mud shell layer.
The crystal clear material inside was still intact.
Once it was taken out, the entire room turned into a crystal palace, submerged in a beautiful halo.
“This is… a dragon egg!”
The experienced Reaper had seen a lot, but even his eyes unwittingly changed color and lit up.
The so-called “dragon egg” might not be an egg laid by a flood dragon monster.
It was a general term for a very rare monster material.
The conditions for producing such material were very strict.
First of all, they had to be eggs from a Hell Beast or even an Apocalyptic Beast. The parents would have to carefully incubate the eggs until small embryos took form.
Secondly, the embryos could not hatch. Otherwise, they would not be complete “eggs,” leaving only empty shells. Thirdly, some drastic changes had to interrupt the hatching process.
For example, if the parents encountered a natural enemy, they would be forced to abandon the eggs and escape on their own.
Plus, the natural enemy could not find and eat them all.
Fourthly, during the hatching process, they had to encounter a natural disaster. Volcanic eruptions, floods, or super strong earthquakes would cause the eggs to sink into mud, swamps, or even underground.
Fifthly, and most importantly, the eggs had to be trapped in a place where spirit meridians intersected and the spirit energy was rich.
After years of nourishing from the spirit energy and absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon, the eggs would gradually become crystal clear and as warm as jade.
It would look like amber was wrapped around little insects.
That was the dragon egg.
Although the embryo in a dragon egg had stopped developing a long time ago, it was definitely the offspring of a Hell Beast or even an Apocalyptic Beast.
After absorbing the essence of the sun and moon for tens of millions of years, it still contained vigorous vitality and extremely powerful spirit energy.
It was a treasure trove of genes with immeasurable value.
By extracting the active substances in the dragon egg, one could study the genes of ancient Hell Beasts or even Apocalyptic Beasts. In theory, it was possible to clone a brand-new Apocalyptic Beast.
The eggs could also be refined into a super gene reagent, providing a powerful source of cultivation motivation for Heaven and Deity Realm powerhouses.
Dragon eggs were extremely rare.
Many superhumans, including monster hunters who roamed the wilderness, had never even heard of it, let alone seen it.
However, Meng Chao believed that the veteran Reaper in front of him would definitely take the bait.
His dragon eggs were qualified to be worshipped in the Holy Mountain Temple according to their integrity, the concentration of spirit energy in the place where the spirit meridians intersected, the time when the dragon eggs were buried, and most importantly, the bloodline of the dragon eggs.
The appearance of a dragon egg was also divided into more than ten grades.
Even the lowest grade dragon egg could help a Heaven Realm warrior to advance rapidly and reach a higher level.
The dragon eggs that Meng Chao had brought out would even tempt a Deity Realm warrior if they had been placed in front of him.
As expected, the veteran Reaper’s gaze quickly turned from greed to solemnity.
Obviously, the value of the monster materials that Meng Chao had taken out far exceeded his imagination.
If it was a fair trade, the price would definitely exceed his authority.
However, he still did not inform Giant-toothed Crocodile to make the trade in person.
With a slight roll of his eyes, the veteran Reaper took out a dark red crocodile leather bag and carefully opened it. There was a dazzling array of appraisal tools inside, which resembled surgical instruments.
He placed a sophisticated electronic lens on his left eye and moved it to examine the crack on the dragon egg, studying it carefully from top to bottom.
He clicked his tongue from time to time.
Sometimes he praised it, sometimes he frowned, sometimes he sighed, and sometimes he seemed regretful.
After studying it for three minutes, he took off the electronic lens and threw it on the crocodile bag. He lowered his head and contemplated for a moment. Then he looked up at Meng Chao as if he wanted to say something but was hesitant.
It was as though Meng Chao’s dragon egg, which had originally been priceless, possessed some kind of flaw.