As the volume of the Blood-Colored Mysterious Core kept shrinking, Dong Tianyu found the color of his Companion Spiritual Treasure ship’s hull growing increasingly transparent.

If the original material of the ship’s hull was comparable to ordinary cotton, then now it was more akin to the high-ice variety of jade.

In the jade industry, there’s a common saying that the higher the transparency of jade, resembling clear glass, the higher its price.

At this moment, the small boat in Dong Tianyu’s Sea of Consciousness began to gradually become transparent, with a degree of transparency that allowed for a faint outline to be seen when floating on water, but completely disappearing once submerged, just like exceptionally translucent glass.

After the Blood-Colored Mysterious Core on the Companion Spiritual Treasure was completely absorbed, Dong Tianyu found that the Companion Spiritual Treasure had also gained a new ability.

Every Companion Spiritual Treasure possessed the common abilities of dispersion and levitation.

After transforming the hull material into jade, it gained the ability of Energy Gathering.

This time, with the upgrade in the material of the ship’s hull, the new ability it acquired was Transparency.

Transparency is actually a kind of unusual invisibility—it’s like highly transparent glass: although upon closer inspection one can still discern some traces, from a distance or without careful attention, it’s very difficult to detect.

While the material of the Companion Spiritual Treasure’s hull had been upgraded again, its practicality remained the same. After all, for the time being, not to mention large vessels like those on the water-based Platform, even compared to normal speedboats, the Companion Spiritual Treasure’s speed wasn’t improved to a level where practicality would be comparable.

Nevertheless, the Companion Spiritual Treasure could infinitely enhance itself by devouring Mysterious Cores, and when not in use, it could be stored inside the Sea of Consciousness.

Thus, the Companion Spiritual Treasure was like a sharp blade—one might not use it, but one couldn’t be without it.

The next morning, Chester brought over breakfast and knocked on the door.

"Chester, why so formal?"

"Treating you to breakfast isn’t being formal."

Although there’s an old saying, "Eat in silence, sleep without words," people of China still like to talk business over the dining table. Many important matters seemed to have been decided in the Conference Room after discussion by everyone.

But in truth, most of them were actually settled the previous evening, during a dinner with the main persons in charge, where the general direction was determined at the dining table, and the formal meeting focused mainly on the details.

"Zachary, I won’t beat around the bush. The Blood-Colored Mysterious Core you obtained yesterday—are you selling it or not? As long as you’re willing to sell, you don’t have to worry about the price. Whether you want materials or some other things, or even to exchange at a ratio for normal Mysterious Cores, just name it, and we will try our best to satisfy you," Chester said.

Hearing this, Dong Tianyu inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He had actually been worried that Chester would start with an offer he couldn’t refuse, and using the Mysterious Core the night before was partly for that reason.

But when he heard Chester say they would try their best to meet his conditions, Dong Tianyu finally let go of the tension he’d been holding.

After all, once the phrase "try our best" is uttered, it implies the other party is painting a big pie in the sky—because with that as a premise, no matter what conditions Dong Tianyu proposed, the other party would surely negotiate again.

If Chester or the person in charge of Magic City’s Base Three truly considered the Blood-Colored Mysterious Core a must-have, then today they definitely wouldn’t have sent Chester to play the sentiment card, nor would he have offered such a vague price.

After Chester finished speaking, Dong Tianyu just smiled and remained silent.

Seeing Dong Tianyu’s smile, Chester understood that the other party had seen through the ruse, and he sighed somewhat helplessly.

In fact, after reporting the previous night and receiving instructions from his superiors, Chester realized that it was highly unlikely that they could get the Blood-Colored Mysterious Core from Dong Tianyu’s hands.

Dong Tianyu had at least gone through the Bloody Mysterious Realm twice, so theoretically, he greatly surpassed ordinary people in terms of both intelligence and emotional quotient. Thus, the clichés of the bureaucratic world simply couldn’t fool him.

Perhaps his superiors were also aware of this, but the value difference between a Blood-Colored Mysterious Core and a normal Mysterious Core was enormous, not to mention the uncertainty of encountering people willing to sell Mysterious Cores in the future.

Even if they managed to obtain the Blood-Colored Mysterious Core from Dong Tianyu at a great cost, the question of who should use it would arise.

Leaving it to gather dust in a warehouse was certainly out of the question, especially since, even before negotiations had begun, everyone already understood that the cost of acquiring this Blood-Colored Mysterious Core would not be low.

If they didn’t use it promptly after the exchange and chose to store it as a reserve in the warehouse, aside from whether it was worthwhile, if the core was ’accidentally’ lost, the issue would be who should bear the responsibility and whether anyone could actually bear it.

Because of the current special circumstances, Magic City’s Base Three management was also divided into several factions. Perhaps it was for this reason that they simply urged Chester to make contact and try his luck with Dong Tianyu, without necessarily needing Chester to purchase the Blood-Colored Mysterious Core from him.

Chester, seeing the true nature of his mission, took the opportunity to bring it up while the two were dining, to test Dong Tianyu’s thoughts. If it worked out, great; if not, it wouldn’t make much difference to him.

Seeing Dong Tianyu’s smile and silence, Chester realized Dong Tianyu’s thoughts and promptly changed the subject, asking, "Young bro, if you don’t mind me asking, are you on your own now, or are you single?"