True Immortal Level hiring price: two Star Stones per year for each.
Mahayana Realm hiring price: one Star Stone per year for two.
Cultivator: Great Elder Yuan Tianlai of Ape King Peak.
Chen Jiuge noted down the contact number from the page and, looking meaningfully at Yuan Shu, said, "These prices aren’t quite the same."
Yuan Shu, seeing there was nothing he could do, said somewhat sulkily, "I just wanted to earn more Star Stones to buy drinks."
"Hiring you at the prices listed shouldn’t be a problem, right?"
"How do I hire?" Chen Jiuge still wasn’t quite sure about the process. Fınd the newest release on nοvelfire.net
"There’s a contact number on it, right? You just call directly. I don’t know how a newcomer like you obtained this complete hiring guide; it’s quite precious," Yuan Shu said, conceding.
After the call connected, the person on the line wasn’t Great Elder Yuan Tianlai from Ape King Peak but a woman, who seemed to be in charge of hiring.
After Chen Jiuge explained his intentions, the person on the other end readily agreed, stating that a Contract could be formed with Yuan Shu and the other Six Qi Monkeys.
Once the Contract was established, Chen Jiuge had officially hired them. From then on, all he had to do was deliver the Six Qi Monkeys’ compensation on time. Anything related to their share of the payment was not his concern.
After the hiring was completed, Chen Jiuge counted the Six Qi Monkeys. Apart from Yuan Shu, who was at the True Immortal level, the other one hundred monkeys were all in the Mahayana Realm.
"This Huang Kui is truly frugal," Chen Jiuge muttered. He was rather speechless at the small number of monkeys. There are so many Meteor Butterfly Swords; can this group of monkeys even handle it all?
"By the way, how many Star Stones can the Meteor Butterfly Sword produce each year?"
Seemingly still immersed in sorrow from his failed attempt to overcharge, Yuan Shu replied gloomily, "About a hundred flowers mature each year, yielding probably over two hundred Star Stones."
This is much more profitable than raising pigs! Chen Jiuge realized after a quick calculation. He found that after delivering ten thousand Meteor Butterfly Swords and deducting the monkeys’ hiring cost, Huang Kui could effortlessly gain over ten thousand Star Stones every hundred years without doing anything else. That was a bit more than one Contribution Point.
"Work as you did before. If you work well, I can provide you with a batch of Spiritual Wine each year. Of course," Chen Jiuge said, glancing at the wine gourd in Yuan Shu’s hand, "the quality might not compare to what you’re drinking." The gourd exuded a fragrance rich with the essence of stars—clearly not cheap.
Yuan Shu hadn’t expected this pleasant surprise and immediately scratched his ears and cheeks, saying, "Boss, rest assured, I’ll make sure everything is taken care of perfectly."
After dealing with the Six Qi Monkeys, Chen Jiuge realized that the Greenwood Horned Cattle seemed a bit superfluous. However, these Spiritual Beasts came from the Heavenly Realm and were actually better suited to tending the Spiritual Medicine in the Green Bamboo Realm. While having thirty True Immortal Spiritual Plant Masters care for a small Medicine Garden was indeed a waste, they certainly couldn’t be sent into battle.
Such a trade-off wasn’t worth it. Over the years, Chen Jiuge had come to understand that the most abundant resources here were Star-related Spirit Plants, while the rarest were Spiritual Medicines from the Heavenly Realm. These Greenwood Horned Cattle, as Spiritual Plant Masters, were extremely precious.
A day later, Chen Jiuge’s Spiritual Beasts had brought all of Butterfly Star under his complete control.
Looking at the more than two thousand Tianyuan Pigs found in Huang Kui’s Grotto Heaven, Chen Jiuge wore an ’I knew it’ expression and said, "This wretched fellow, it was definitely his doing. It’s a good thing you died quickly; otherwise, you’d have really seen what was coming.
"But it’s truly ruthless to keep them in the Grotto Heaven; they’ve even begun to degenerate. Such a waste."
Fortunately, with the help of the Golden Finger, these Tianyuan Pigs had regained their Primordial Qi and were even stronger than they originally were.
First, I’ll see if these Star Remnants can salvage that Grotto Heaven. If so, it can be directly transformed into a Spiritual Beast barracks. Otherwise, keeping them all in the Green Bamboo Realm would take up too much space, and I still need to plant a lot of Spiritual Medicine there.
Upon arriving at Huang Kui’s Grotto Heaven, Chen Jiuge was almost stunned by the scene before him.
The Grotto Heaven, which had merely been somewhat desertified, was now almost entirely a barren desert, transformed from what was once gravelly terrain.
"This self-destruction is happening really fast. Let me see where the core is," Chen Jiuge remarked.
A moment later, after searching with his Divine Sense, he finally found it.
At the center of the Grotto Heaven, a withered little willow tree was the core of this place.
Chen Jiuge first claimed ownership of it. Only then did he realize that the Grotto Heaven was decaying far faster than he had imagined.
What on earth did Huang Kui do for it to decay this fast? Chen Jiuge wondered, extremely surprised by the information coming from the core.
It was known that when a Grotto Heaven’s master died unexpectedly after it had been claimed, it would decay, but usually not so quickly. Otherwise, the ancient Grotto Heavens in the Heavenly Realm wouldn’t have survived long enough to be discovered by later generations and pass on their legacies.
Under normal circumstances, a Grotto Heaven that was claimed anew would stop decaying. Although it couldn’t return to its original state, it shouldn’t continue to degrade further.
He piled the Star Remnants beside the small willow tree.
The once-withered little willow tree swiftly wrapped its few surviving branches around the remnants, absorbing them hungrily into its body, appearing extremely parched.
Only after devouring nearly a thousand Star Remnants did the willow regain its Vitality. Small oases of green began to appear in the once-barren desert.
Chen Jiuge surveyed the overall state of the Grotto Heaven. He discovered it was only half the size of the Green Bamboo Realm and mostly desert. This was not at all suitable for the army barracks he envisioned.