Chapter 73: Deal
"Oh? Please don’t tell me you’ve told me all of this, answered every single one of my questions, and don’t want anything in return. Let’s be honest with each other. You want something, and it seems to be something very important to you. On the other hand, what I want is something I could get from plenty of people besides you." Rios smiled confidently and said mockingly, "So why don’t you save us both all this beating around the bush and just tell me what you want?"
"Hahaha, you’ve seen right through me, young sir." Empress Flora laughed, looking completely unsurprised by Rios’s deduction. She gazed at him with an oddly calm expression, as though he were an ignorant child whose secrets were already in her hands and who would eventually do exactly as she wished.
"Of course I want something, young sir. Who among us doesn’t? You want something, and I want something. Our paths just happened to cross." Then she winked at him playfully. "Doesn’t that seem like fate telling us we’re the perfect people to solve each other’s problems?"
"I’m listening." Rios looked at Empress Flora with a calm expression, leaned back in his chair, and spoke confidently.
He had seen that look in her eyes before.
Many times in his previous life.
And the one thing every one of those people had in common... was that look always came right before they tried to exploit someone.
"You’re someone who doesn’t belong to any organization and was born with an Immortal-grade talent, aren’t you, young sir?" Empress Flora narrowed her eyes with a smile and spoke with absolute confidence, as if what she had just said was an undeniable fact.
Hearing that, Rios narrowed his eyes slightly and looked himself over. After a few moments, he turned back to Empress Flora with a surprised look. Strange expressions appeared on his face as he feigned astonishment, acting as though he couldn’t care less that she had figured him out.
"Am I really that easy to read? Or is ’A lone cultivator with Immortal-grade talent’ written across my forehead?"
"Hahahahaha! Young sir, you certainly know how to make jokes. But figuring you out wasn’t difficult at all. No descendant of an Immortal Empire would be this ignorant about the most basic common knowledge of the universe. And your human-shaped golden assistant completely rules out the possibility that you spent over one hundred million Prime within a single year to obtain it."
Empress Flora laughed as the game between her and Rios finally became completely open.
"That only leaves one possibility—you possess Immortal-grade talent. Someone whom fortune follows wherever he goes, with precious treasures appearing before him at every turn. Someone who can surely find what I want."
"Well, you’re right about that. I’m completely new to the affairs of the universe." Rios shrugged indifferently and waved his hand dismissively. "So why don’t you just tell me what you want and spare us both this headache?"
"I thought you were smart enough to have already figured it out." Empress Flora narrowed her eyes slightly, and the playful look on her face turned into an unsettling calmness.
Facing that gaze, Rios smiled provocatively and leaned back into a completely relaxed posture, as if he were sitting in his own home.
"I thought you were smart enough to know where greed should stop. It’s true that I’m ignorant about the affairs of the universe, but you don’t take me for a fool, do you?"
The amusement in Rios’s eyes gradually faded, replaced by obvious contempt.
"As you yourself said, a Heaven-grade mutated bloodline is worth billions of Prime... assuming you can even find someone willing to sell it in the first place."
Rios leaned forward, bent slightly over the table, and looked at Empress Flora with mockery and disdain.
"I may not have reached your level of status, power, influence, or authority. But as you said, my chances of obtaining treasures like that are far greater than yours. So tell me... what could a mere planetary empress who rules only forty planets possibly offer me in exchange for a Heaven-grade mutated bloodline?"
"And that’s a price you simply can’t afford."
After hearing Rios’s words, Empress Flora clenched her teeth. Her confident smile disappeared, and the calm expression on her face became completely serious.
"You want to build an empire of your own, don’t you? Then how about this?"
She straightened her posture and narrowed her eyes.
"I’ll give you my full support during the most important stage of any empire—its beginning. That support will include cultivation techniques, equipment, weapons, ships, food, and even soldiers if necessary. And my support will continue for a full thousand years."
"All of that... in exchange for a single dose of a Heaven-grade mutated bloodline."
Empress Flora looked directly into Rios’s eyes, hoping to find even the slightest sign of agreement.
Instead, all she found was utter ridicule.
"My dear Enchanting Empress, perhaps you don’t know this, but none of what you’ve just offered is of any use to me." Rios scoffed and shook his head in disappointment.
"First, I already have enough subjects to turn into soldiers in the near future. I also have enough land and forests to cultivate and hunt in. And perhaps you don’t know this either, but spending a few tens of thousands of Prime every week won’t be a problem for me. So no matter how expensive weapons and ships are, I don’t think I’ll have any trouble buying some in the near future."
"As for cultivation techniques..."
At that point, Rios smiled and shook his head, almost pitying Empress Flora.
"Right before I came here, I was at one of the palaces belonging to a Cosmic Empire. And guess what? They gave me one of their main energy cultivation techniques for free. On top of that, They also gave me access to numerous techniques for Major Laws and Cosmic Laws for next to nothing. They even gave me a thirty percent discount on anything I buy from them, as long as I don’t spend more than one million Prime in a year."
"Do you know what I paid for all of that?"
Rios looked calmly at Empress Flora without waiting for her answer.
"They gave me all of that for almost nothing. In return, all they asked was that I help them someday if they ever needed my assistance."
"And I highly doubt they’d ask for something as ridiculous as searching for a Heaven-grade mutated bloodline dose worth billions of Prime."
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