GRMFBS CH115

Zhan Yan and Bao Qingshan were kicked out together.

Bao Qingshan: “I feel like that thing definitely wasn’t made by the Artisan.”

Zhan Yan: “I agree.”

The item description already showed:

[This is a fake, shoddy abacus compass sold under the “Artisan” name; it is not very useful.]

The two strolled around and reached the trading area.

Zhan Yan was curious. “Shall we go in and take a look?”

Bao Qingshan was stopped the moment he stepped inside.

“Those from Withered Pine Ravine are not allowed inside.”

Zhan Yan felt indignant on his behalf. “Based on what? Are you discriminating?”

Bao Qingshan pulled him back and whispered, “No, it’s just that if I go, I’ll easily smash their rice bowls. You can browse around yourself, but remember not to buy anything.”

How would Withered Pine Ravine ruin their business? Zhan Yan opened the Gossip System to search.

Oh, back in the early years when Bao Qingshan was still very straightforward, he had wandered around here, felt that this was fake and that was fake, and he had even said it all out loud.

Ever since then, he was put on the blacklist.

Zhan Yan went in to browse by himself. After doing a lap, he discovered that there were actually quite a lot of things being sold under the names of various bigshots.

“Let me tell you, this is a lightning-struck jujube wood split by the Tianshi’s lightning technique! Remember New Year’s Eve, did you see how thick that bolt of lightning was? I got this from the periphery of that very thunder strike. It is truly fierce and unparalleled!”

How was that possible? Didn’t his mother strike the Infinite Research Institute? Where would jujube wood come from?

[This is a piece of lightning-struck jujube wood, mass-produced by drawing lightning down with a lightning rod in the suburbs when the weather forecast predicted thunderstorms.]

“Look, look! This is a Chongming Demon King feather I obtained after staking out Mount Qixia for a long time. It can ward off evil and avert disasters. It’s also an excellent material for refining magical artifacts!”

Wasn’t his dad a closet germaphobe? He especially disliked letting his feathers scatter outside. He would either collect and store them or burn them. They weren’t even allowed to circulate within the Wan Yao Alliance. What was exchanged on the forum were only bronze statues of the Chongming bird that he had personally painted the eyes of.

[This is a red sparrow demon feather, refined by secretly establishing a formation at the foot of Mount Qixia to attract and gather the Chongming Demon King’s protection onto it.]

“You have a good eye! This metal ring was used by Ghost King Wan Yan. Look at the death aura on it!”

[This is a metal ring containing the power of the Candle Dragon, but it is simultaneously soaked in the decaying death aura of extinction.]

Zhan Yan stopped in his tracks.

Hey, this was actually a genuine item! Although it had nothing to do with the Ghost King, it had the Candle Dragon power that he wanted!

Zhan Yan squatted in front of the stall. “How are you sure this was used by Ghost King Wan Yan?”

The stall owner looked left and right, waving at Zhan Yan like a thief. When Zhan Yan leaned in, he whispered in his ear, “Don’t you feel that this metal ring doesn’t just have a death aura, but is also exceptionally ominous? Aside from the one who plays with curses all day, whose Ghost King’s item could be like this?”

Zhan Yan didn’t speak, but his expression showed his disbelief.

The stall owner grew anxious. “Why don’t you believe me? Even if you don’t believe it, don’t talk nonsense!” He looked terrified that Ghost King Wan Yan would curse him if he heard about it.

Zhan Yan: “…Because it’s a keychain.”

The metal ring was shaped like a flat strip of metal spiraled around twice, about three centimeters in diameter. How was the Wan Yan kitty supposed to wear this? Slip it over his paw?

The stall owner argued, “Ghost King Wan Yan is so active right now, what’s wrong with using some modern things? Isn’t that perfectly reasonable?”

Ignoring the stall owner’s nonsense, Zhan Yan decided to take this keychain and asked the price.

Stall owner: “This is something the Ghost King has used, so the price will definitely…”

In the end, Zhan Yan successfully haggled the price down on the grounds that it was “ominous.”

Today’s harvest was quite good. With the Candle Dragon power on the keychain, he should be able to unlock another “fragment drifting in the river of time” from the Gossip System. He just didn’t know what it would unlock. It would be great if he could find the point of conflict between the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance, or news that could reconcile both sides.

Aside from searching for information, Zhan Yan also planned to put in some effort elsewhere.

Several rogue demon cultivators were complaining together: “…They came up with some development plan and enclosed my cave dwelling. I really want to drive them all away!”

“This matter isn’t easy to resolve. If we’re not careful and the conflict escalates, we might attract the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. How about we just move?”

“I’ve lived there for hundreds of years! Why should I hide from humans and move?”

“If nothing else works, let’s go to the Wan Yao Alliance.”

Zhan Yan leaned in, acting very familiar with them: “For this matter, you should go to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau!”

A tall, sturdy bear demon looked down at Zhan Yan.

Due to the issue with his cave, his impression of humans was extremely poor lately, and his gaze toward Zhan Yan was very unfriendly.

Zhan Yan wasn’t afraid in the slightest. If this bear demon dared to attack, he would be struck by lightning.

“Sigh, none of you understand. What’s the use of looking for the Wan Yao Alliance for this? They don’t understand the rules of human society. You have to go to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. They have policies in place. Once they confirm that place is your cave dwelling, they will designate it as a nature reserve. They won’t build on it anymore, and they’ll protect it so people can’t enter casually.”

“What the heck?” The bear demon was dizzy from his barrage of human society jargon. What policies? What nature reserve?

However, he understood the last sentence. What this human cub meant was that as long as he went to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and said his home was there, humans wouldn’t casually run near his house anymore? Such a good thing existed?

Zhan Yan patiently explained it to him once more. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau really did have this policy. Back then, when they wanted to ease relations with the Wan Yao Alliance, the Bureau Chief and Ning Xi established it together. It was just a pity that it was barely implemented later, mainly because few demons would go to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau to resolve these matters.

The demon cultivators were half-convinced by his persuasion and decided to give the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau a try.

Zhan Yan continued his stroll and encountered a group of human cultivators worrying over research data.

These cultivators were all the scholarly type, specializing in studying the natural environment. Everything from geological to climate changes fell within their research scope. Their goal was to solve environmental degradation and realize the revival of spiritual energy.

However, they had now run into a problem: these scholar-type cultivators had very skewed skill trees, and their defense was universally terrible. Right now, they needed to collect some data in extreme environments, but with their defensive capabilities, entering an extreme environment basically meant returning to nature’s cycle.

But high-tier defensive magical artifacts were too expensive, and their cultivation base couldn’t sustain an artifact’s operation for long. If they were to hire cultivators with sufficient cultivation bases, the price would likewise be too high.

Now they were discussing whether to pool their money to hire a high-level cultivator to help them collect data.

Everyone revealed pained expressions. How great would it be if this money could be spent on experimental research!

“Tell me… does our work count as research for the general public? Can we hire someone from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, explain the situation to them, and get a discount?”

Zhan Yan leaned in again: “Why go to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau for this? You should go to the Wan Yao Alliance!”

“Ah?” The group of scholars looked at each other in dismay.

Zhan Yan explained to them: “No matter how cheap a high-tier cultivator’s hiring fee is, how cheap can it get? But demons are different! Demons are born with innate talents! If you want to research extreme cold environments, hire a polar bear demon. If you want to research deep-sea environments, hire a deep-sea fish demon. You guys should all know about water bears, right? Even before becoming demons, they can withstand temperatures of 150°C and minus 200°C, and a pressure of 600 megapascals. If there was a water bear demon…”

The scholars’ eyes lit up!

Demon cultivators didn’t need very high cultivation bases to collect the data they needed! Ah! The Wan Yao Alliance truly was a great organization!

“Little friend, thank you so much!”

They rushed off in a swarm to contact the Wan Yao Alliance.

Zhan Yan continued strolling through the venue, continuing his scheme of introducing demon cultivators to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, and human cultivators to the Wan Yao Alliance, leaning fully into his rebelliousness.

As for the relationship between these two organizations, aside from inherent conflicts like resource competition, the main issue was the atmosphere between the upper and lower levels.

Sometimes, the bigshots on both sides couldn’t stand the sight of each other, so the grassroots people followed suit and looked at the other side with distaste. The conflicts grew more numerous, and eventually, they fell out.

Sometimes, the bigshots had no conflicts, but the animosity among the grassroots masses ran deep. Everyone fought back and forth. Even if the higher-ups wanted to mediate, after so many incidents, it was inevitable that they would be dragged into it.

Zhan Yan currently had no solution for the inherent conflicts, but he could try to solve things starting from the grassroots level of both sides. By letting demon cultivators form a good impression of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, and letting human cultivators develop a favorable view of the Wan Yao Alliance—after many occurrences, the prejudices they held against each other would gradually break down, and wouldn’t they become friends?

When the time came, even if the two organizations clashed, when the grassroots personnel went over to execute opposing missions and took a look—oh, they’re all acquaintances! How could they bear to attack? They’d just muddle through it!

Wouldn’t things be much easier then?

Although this vision was rather naive and idyllic, Zhan Yan was still willing to hold onto this hope and put in the effort.

With a little more effort, the chances of his parents fighting would be a bit lower, and the crisis of his family falling apart would be a bit smaller.

Keep it up! Continue introducing members and reserve members of both sides to their opposing factions!

Zhan Yan worked all day diligently, successfully harvesting the friendship of demons and the gratitude of human cultivators, expanding his network once again.

Sigh, at this rate, his social circle might even catch up to Grandpa Weng Yan.

Zhan Yan spoke a bit too much today; it felt like he had exhausted half a year’s worth of social energy.

After returning at night, he logged into the forum again to check. Artisan hadn’t replied to his custom request yet. Sigh, he didn’t know when the great Artisan would finish being busy.

Not replying was also fine. He truly had no social capacity left tonight.

As he lay there, a game invitation suddenly popped up on his phone. The inviter was “Sledgehammer Eighty.” This was the super formidable, aloof gaming bigshot Qi Ye had introduced him to last time!

Great! Being carried in games by a bigshot was also very relaxing!

The bigshot was so nice, not even disdaining him for being a noob!

Zhan Yan happily accepted the invitation.

…

On the other side.

Ever since swallowing the clay last time, the puppet butler had unlocked a new overachiever attribute, asking Zhan Suiru every day: “Have you manufactured today?”

It also gave her daily reminders of her final deadlines and helped her plan her schedule progress. It was incredibly considerate.

Zhan Suiru couldn’t stand this kind of considerateness and told it to shut up.

The puppet butler shut up, and then started constantly dangling in front of her, being a noisy eyesore.

Zhan Suiru: …

She got up to rush her work. She really couldn’t take on any new orders.

She worked at the workbench for a while.

She violently hammered the workbench.

Is there any artifact refinement that doesn’t drive one crazy?!

Puppet butler: “Would you like to go play games with your brother for a bit?”

Zhan Suiru: “Good idea!”

Putting on the persona of the aloof gaming bigshot, she clicked on her brother’s profile to invite him to play a game.

Yan Yan was out playing these past few days; he should be back at the hotel by now. He accepted her invitation very quickly.

Her brother’s gaming skills were as noobish as ever. But that didn’t matter, she could carry her brother and fly!

After carrying her noob brother for two matches, Zhan Suiru suddenly noticed something wasn’t right.

Why was her brother exceptionally silent tonight?

Where were his rainbow farts?!