"I think I'm still a fairly upright person. I've always taken promises very seriously," Chen Ming said calmly. "The main reason I came looking for you was because your hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone was simply too tempting. But you yourself are also extremely valuable to me. If possible, I truly don't want to destroy a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast."
Ah Yin absentmindedly drew tangled lines across the paper, expressing the confusion and conflict in her heart. But no matter how she looked at it, she no longer had any room to resist.
Right now, she could only cooperate.
She was in this person's hands, and so was the information regarding her husband and child. On top of that, he was someone from Spirit Hall…
Well, even though Ah Yin couldn't understand why a child could possess two completely different Pope Decrees, she had seen one before in Tang Hao's possession. Because of that, she could confirm that both of the Pope Decrees Chen Ming held were genuine.
If her identity were exposed, Spirit Hall would inevitably hunt her down. And if Tang Hao and her child's information were leaked as well, the two of them would almost certainly suffer the same fate.
Blue Silver Grass could only passively receive information. As for transmitting information over long distances, that was something Ah Yin simply couldn't do. Even back when she had still been a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast, she had never possessed such an ability.
Even if she wanted to warn them, she had no way of doing so.
And beyond that, Ah Yin was afraid that if Tang Hao learned about her situation, panic would drive him into making even greater mistakes. So even if she had the ability to contact him, she still wouldn't dare.
She was completely trapped.
Ah Yin asked Chen Ming many questions. He answered some of them, but for most, he simply refused with the excuse that the information was confidential for the time being.
"As long as you're willing to cooperate, then once everything I need you to do is finished, I can even replant you back in your homeland. I know where it is — the place filled with vast amounts of Blue Silver Grass, the forest known as the Blue Silver Forest."
"Madam, surely you don't want your husband and child to come to harm, nor do you want your clansmen to suffer, right? As long as you obediently cooperate with me, none of those things will happen. If you satisfy my requests, then after I finish what I need to do, I can give you another chance to make your own choice."
"For example, Xiao Wu is also a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast. But she's my friend. She's also one of my research subjects, so not only would I never harm her, I would even protect her from other human Spirit Masters."
"You may not understand me right now, but in the future, you'll come to know what kind of person I am. I take promises very seriously. If you cooperate with me, then I'll keep my word."
As he spoke, Chen Ming slowly raised his hand and gently stroked Ah Yin's leaves.
Although Ah Yin currently possessed the ability to retract her leaves, facing Chen Ming's touch, she didn't dare show the slightest resistance. She could only allow him to rub and knead her leaves flat in his hands.
Chen Ming had not lied. If Ah Yin truly cooperated with him in everything, he would indeed transplant her back into the Blue Silver Forest after everything was concluded.
It was just that "after everything was concluded" was a somewhat distant promise—one that would only be fulfilled after he had already attained godhood.
But for spirit beasts, whose lifespans stretched across ages, a few decades—at most a century—was nothing more than the blink of an eye.
So in Chen Ming's eyes, as long as he fulfilled his promise in the end, and as long as Ah Yin was willing to cooperate, he truly didn't mind letting her return.
Perhaps it was because Chen Ming had absorbed her hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone, causing her to feel a faint sense of closeness toward him. Perhaps it was because he had rescued her from that cave. Or perhaps it was simply because he was handsome and appeared gentle, not nearly as terrifying as she had imagined.
Or maybe she just had no other choice.
In the end, Ah Yin slowly picked up the pen and wrote two words on the paper: "Deal."
Chen Ming nodded at Ah Yin before finally stating his requirements.
"Didn't I mention before that I needed a special type of pasture grass? Then starting now, you can begin trying to improve these Blue Silver Grasses into a brand-new strain of grass seed. I'll briefly explain a few of the characteristics I need…"
"First, it must have an extremely high yield. Second, it must barely consume soil nutrients. Third, it must be highly nutritious…"
"Sixteenth, it would be best if the plant fibers could also serve as raw material for the textile industry…"
"Thirty-first… thirty-third… thirty-sixth…"
Chen Ming casually listed a few requirements.
By the end of it, Ah Yin was completely dumbfounded.
If she had been capable of speaking right now, she truly would have wanted to ask Chen Ming something.
If Blue Silver Grass could really become this all-powerful, then how could their race possibly still be nothing more than roadside weeds?
After hesitating for a long while, Ah Yin finally picked up the pen and wrote down several conditions she could actually fulfill.
She could only guarantee high yield, rapid growth cycles, low nutrient consumption, high nutritional value, easy digestion, along with a few other miscellaneous traits.
As for things like plant fibers suitable for textiles, or medicinal properties that could be used as alchemical ingredients, Ah Yin stated very clearly that she simply couldn't accomplish those.
Chen Ming frowned thoughtfully for a moment before reluctantly nodding in apparent disappointment.
But inwardly, he was already overjoyed.
What did it mean to have high yield, fast growth, low soil consumption, high nutrition, and easy digestibility all at once?
Just stacking those traits together was already absurd enough.
Only in a fantasy world could something this unreasonable exist. In any normal world, where could one possibly find such a miraculous crop?
Chen Ming deeply understood the principle of asking outrageously high prices so there would still be room to bargain down later. He had only casually thrown out all kinds of excessive demands at Ah Yin.
Yet unexpectedly, Ah Yin had actually agreed to several of them.
And from Chen Ming's perspective, Ah Yin agreeing so readily meant one thing — if he continued squeezing a little more out of her in the future, she would probably still be capable of meeting even more of his conditions.
Of course, acting too much like some vampiric capitalist would seriously damage his image, so there was no need to rush things for now. Once their relationship improved in the future, there would be plenty of time to bring it up again.
Ah Yin requested an additional small bottle of nutrient solution from Chen Ming and dripped it into the flowerpot. Afterwards, she forcibly endured her exhaustion and activated the Blue Silver Domain, enveloping the surrounding Blue Silver Grass as she began selectively cultivating them.
Batch after batch of Blue Silver Grass rapidly grew, aged, withered, and scattered seeds onto the ground before growing once more.
The cycle repeated several times.
Gradually, among the newly sprouted Blue Silver Grass, certain unique mutations began to appear.
Out of the countless Blue Silver Grasses, one or two eventually developed distinct variations. Ah Yin carefully extracted the seeds from those mutated plants and crossbred them together.
She worked continuously through the entire night before finally producing a small pouch of Blue Silver Grass seeds.
Just to satisfy this tiny request from Chen Ming, Ah Yin had practically drained herself dry. She was so exhausted she nearly fell straight into dormancy.
And before Ah Yin finally drifted into sleep, Chen Ming asked her one last question. "Since you, as the empress of your race, can deliberately guide your clansmen to evolve in specific directions, why haven't you used that ability to strengthen the Blue Silver Grass clan?"
"The foundation of Blue Silver Grass is limited from the start. Forcibly altering Blue Silver Grass would ultimately harm the race more than benefit it."
"The true talent of Blue Silver Grass lies in its adaptability. While my forced modifications can indeed guide the race toward certain forms of growth, it would also damage their natural ability to adapt and mutate according to their environment. I can't say whether that would truly be good or bad for the race as a whole."
"And because those modified Blue Silver Grasses would have their origins affected, their chances of becoming Spirit Beasts would actually become even lower than ordinary Blue Silver Grass. Even if they did become Spirit Beasts, their combat abilities would hardly differ at all. That's why I've never done such a thing."
Ah Yin only explained part of the reason. In truth, the greater reason was simply that she had never once considered deliberately selecting and mutating her clansmen in a directed manner.
Otherwise, with her hundred-thousand-year lifespan and the incredibly short growth cycle of Blue Silver Grass, she could have long since cultivated the Blue Silver Grass race into countless entirely different forms.
...
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