Chapter 174: The Crystal Glass Ball Hypothesis

Lu Chen estimated that if he were to jump directly into the lava lake right now, it would only take a few minutes for him to be cooked into a roasted bay crocodile skewer.

Fortunately, he had prepared for this long ago.

With a slight movement of his consciousness, a thick layer of swampy black mud immediately emerged from his internal space, forming a massive earthen armor that completely enveloped his body, wrapping up his eyes, nostrils, and mouth within it.

All around him was pitch darkness.

However, the black mud armor was an extension of Lu Chen's own body, infused with the laws of conscious energy, allowing him to clearly sense the surrounding environment.

Thud!

His body plunged heavily into the magma like a giant cannonball.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...

After descending only a dozen meters deep, Lu Chen felt his body growing scorching hot.

Under the erosion of the high temperature, the earthen armor directly began to be baked into terracotta.

Then it caught fire, burning fiercely.

If he continued any further, he would likely be boiled and suffocated inside.

Knowing his limits, Lu Chen reluctantly gave up the exploration.

It seemed he had no choice but to adopt the first plan: allowing the lizard tribe to continue existing.

Exterminating the clan was out of the question.

Lu Chen guessed that it was precisely because of these creatures' resistance to high-temperature magma that the alien dog-headed beings had raised them in this space.

After staying in the lizard tribe's territory for half a day, Lu Chen left with satisfaction.

Although there were twists and turns on this trip out, it was definitely a bountiful harvest.

As for those pyramid tombs in the mountains, he could continue archaeological excavations later on. Believing in his previous experience, the Lizard King certainly wouldn't dare to block his way again.

On his return journey, Lu Chen swallowed over a hundred spirit stones at once, treating them entirely like snacks.

On the system panel, the numbers in the energy points column kept leaping upward.

"Grade-one spirit stone, can provide 513 energy points."

"Grade-two spirit stone, can provide 4,978 energy points..."

"Grade-five spirit stone, can provide 5.73 million energy points..."

Un-depleted grade-five spirit stones indeed contained a massive amount of energy points, completely incomparable to those found in the pyramids. The only pity was that there were too many cracks and impurities on them, so they probably couldn't be used to make rune arrays.

However, to Lu Chen, this wasn't really a flaw; he had always swallowed spirit stones raw.

When all hundred-plus spirit stones were fully digested and he checked the system panel data, Lu Chen was quite excited.

In just half a day, the accumulated energy points had reached over six million.

He felt a bit regretful that he had only obtained a single grade-five spirit stone from the Lizard King's treasury; it would have been even better if there were more.

Still, there was plenty of time ahead. Guarding the lava lake, it would surely bring him more surprises in the future.

Having obtained so many spirit stones, he couldn't leave his subordinate subjects empty-handed either.

This time, Lu Chen did not plan to distribute spirit stones in a massive giveaway. Instead, he intended to adopt another method—such as holding a grand crocodile tournament, where the top ten winners would receive spirit stone rewards.

Doing this was naturally aimed at enhancing the combat effectiveness of the bay crocodile tribe.

Having witnessed the current state of the lizard tribe, Lu Chen clearly realized that for a tribe to develop continuously, it was best for its members to foster a sense of competition among one another, maintaining a sense of crisis and oppression.

If they lived in comfort for too long, they would gradually lose their drive to progress.

In the end, they would only degenerate like the lizards, idling away their days waiting to die. When facing foreign invasions, they would be completely incapable of resistance and could only surrender with their hands up.

As for the tournament victors, the first place would receive a reward of 20 grade-one spirit stones, the second place 10, the third place 5, and ranks 4 through 10 would receive two each.

The cost of this was not high, and it could be held once every half month.

Moreover, it was mainly targeted at ordinary crocodile members; the crocodile guards and tribal leaders were not allowed to participate.

This plan was still rough, and any flaws discovered during future operations could be adjusted at any time.

However, Lu Chen did not plan to implement it immediately; there was something more important right now... having Dong Mingjun customize crystal glass spheres.

He would start with a thousand just for fun...

Stopping briefly at the Crocodile King Palace, Lu Chen took his communicator and hurried into the Blue Star world.

Once connected, he didn't beat around the bush and directly stated his demand.

"Your Majesty the Dragon King, are you certain you want crystal glass spheres, and not diamonds?"

Dong Mingjun's first reaction was also utter bewilderment, suspecting he had misheard.

"No, no diamonds. Those things are too small and lack presence. Glass spheres are much better, preferably huge ones, the size of a basketball would be best. They look high-end, luxurious, and classy, giving you plenty of face when giving gifts."

Lu Chen hurriedly emphasized.

If he really switched to diamonds, he wouldn't be able to afford the trade either, unless he resorted to outright robbery in the human world.

Hearing this, Dong Mingjun's facial muscles twitched uncontrollably, utterly at a loss for how to describe his mood.

Although diamonds were called the biggest scam in the human world, they weren't as worthless as the Dragon King made them out to be, falling short even of glass.

At the same time, he was also puzzled as to what wind had blown over the Dragon King to make him suddenly want glass spheres to play with.

However, this didn't stop Dong Mingjun from passing the news back to the Crisis Response Team the moment he hung up the phone.

What? The Dragon King is ordering custom crystal glass spheres from us?

Upon receiving the information sent back by Dong Mingjun, the members of the Crisis Response Team were similarly looking at each other in blank dismay.

None of them understood what kind of operation this was. Could glass spheres also be used for cultivation? They simply couldn't figure it out.

Moreover, the requirements were unique: transparent crystal glass polished and ground into spheres, or cut into extra-large diamond shapes with 108 facets.

Not only them, but even several expert members within the team, after a series of discussions and research, were left entirely scratching their heads.

Regardless of the reason, however, the Dragon King's demands had to be met as far as possible.

This was the policy the Crisis Response Team had always adhered to.

The spirit artifacts humans had brought back from the mist space a few days ago had already been proven to possess immense power.

One of the spirit swords had been assigned to Dong Mingjun, and after a brief period of adaptation, his attacking power instantly doubled.

Now, fighting at full strength, he could single-handedly challenge mid-stage tier-five fierce beasts.

Over the past month or so, high-tier fierce beasts had continuously emerged from various spatial rifts, all of which had been hunted down by Dong Mingjun's team.

Because of this, the entire Xia Nation had not suffered a major fierce beast crisis up to this point.

In stark contrast were other countries on Blue Star... News reports constantly appeared on the internet showing powerful fierce beasts breaking through defenses and relentlessly attacking human society.

Today, many foreign cities on Blue Star were engulfed in the flames of war.

And then there was the spiritual energy cannon!

According to the research of the expert group, if it could be used in conjunction with higher-grade spirit stones, it could even kill tier-six fierce beasts—truly a pillar of the nation.

All of these were connected to the Dragon King.

Furthermore, they had also discovered that the Dragon King was not only far superior in intelligence to other fierce beasts, but also valued honesty and principles, preferring equivalent exchange without taking unfair advantage of humans.

In the future, Xia Nation might still need to ask things of him, so let alone the fact that he was requesting inexpensive crystal glass spheres, even if he genuinely wanted oversized diamonds, Dong Mingjun and the others would do their best to fulfill it.

If this could make the other party owe them a favor, it would naturally be for the best.