Chapter 22: The Function of Cloud Mist Stone

Eastern Cloud City, the Liu Family.

"Eh, are you going out?" Liu Wei noticed Liu Yang packing his clothes and couldn't help but ask; she was just considering discussing with her brother how to kill Chu Hao.

Liu Yang gave a faint smile and said, "Our dear cousin has not been to the academy for four days now!"

"Perhaps that fool fell sick again!" said Liu Wei carelessly. What she cared about was when Chu Hao would die! As long as this cousin died, then the Fortune Full Building would have to change its surname to Liu!

How much income did the Fortune Full Building have in a day now?

She didn't know for sure, but every time she brought it up with her father, she could see Liu Heng clutching his chest in pain! She knew it definitely wasn't a small number.

Liu Yang paused, he had completely given up hope on his good-for-nothing sister, and said, "I inquired about it, and Uncle Yu asked for a month's leave for our cousin!"

"Did that idiot catch a serious illness and is about to die?" Liu Wei suddenly became excited.

Liu Yang sighed inwardly; born of the same parents, how could there be such a huge gap in intelligence between two siblings? He didn't keep her guessing and said, "I just went to the Chu Family, and our cousin wasn't at home! I pressed Uncle Yu for information, threatening him that if he did not disclose our cousin's whereabouts, I would go to the City Lord's Mansion to accuse him of plotting against his master, only then did he reveal the truth!"

"Our cousin, has left the city!"

Liu Wei was first taken aback, then said, "What's that idiot doing leaving the city?" But then she immediately leaped up, screaming, "That idiot left the city? Haha, brother, this is an excellent opportunity to get rid of him!"

Now that Chu Hao had become friends with Tang Xin, and the Lord of the City was extremely friendly towards him, who inside the city would dare make a move against Chu Hao and risk angering both the Tang Family and the City Lord's Mansion?

But outside the city... that's the lawless land, isn't it where even Chu Tianyun fell?

"I get it now, so you're going to chase after him out of the city right now!" Liu Wei finally caught on.

Liu Yang shouldered his pack, his face revealing a sinister smile, "Our cousin will probably never be able to come back. The Fortune Full Building will belong to our Liu Family!"

"Yes! Yes!" Liu Wei's eyes shimmered with impatience.

...

Chu Hao had been turning around in the mine for three days. After finishing his supply of water and food, he left the mine to replenish and to bask in the sunlight for a while—staring at torches in the dark environment was very harmful to the eyes.

He was very curious about the Cloud Mist Stone, but Yang Suyun was extremely tight-fisted with that piece of stone being used for reference. She was only willing to let everyone look, but no one was allowed to touch it. Chu Hao's curiosity was too intense; he wanted to take the Cloud Mist Stone and observe it carefully to see what exactly made it so valuable.

It definitely couldn't be used to craft weapons, and as a decoration...it should be worth at least ten taels of silver per gram, which might be too luxurious!

In this world where strength is the supreme ruler, what is the most precious thing?

Without a doubt, anything that can enhance strength!

Enhancements in strength can come in various forms—Treasure Artifacts or Spiritual Medicine. Could the Cloud Mist Stone be related to strength enhancement? Otherwise, why would it be so valuable, making it even more sought after than Strong Muscle Powder and Strong Body Pills!

It was precisely because of such thoughts that Chu Hao kept searching—he craved strength more than anything else right now.

After Chu Hao replenished his food and water, he entered the mine again, deciding to delve even deeper this time.

Others dare not do this, as the mine was too dark, and with its complex branching paths, it was easy to get lost. If one were trapped for too long and ran out of food and water, they might end up dying of starvation or thirst!

But Chu Hao was different—his ability to deduce and analyze was incredibly powerful. He wouldn't forget any path once he had been down it and had no fear of not being able to find his way out.

—Back on Earth, he could become a top global adventurer for a reason!

This time he did not search along the way but went straight forward. After a day and a night, he had reached deep into the mine, arriving at areas others dared not enter.

After searching carefully for half a day, he finally found a piece of Cloud Mist Stone!

This mine definitely contained Cloud Mist Stone; otherwise, Yang Suyun wouldn't spend money to hire people to search. That would be foolish! Whether one could find it depended on luck, after all, it was an abandoned mine and so dark, making it difficult to find one or two pieces of Cloud Mist Stone that had been left behind.

"Not bad luck!" Chu Hao carefully picked up the piece of Cloud Mist Stone. It was very small, only as thick and long as a pinky finger. That made sense—if it were any bigger, it probably wouldn't have been missed in the first place.

Heavy!

That was Chu Hao's first impression. Despite its small size, the stone had a great density, comparable to copper or iron—a piece this small weighed seven or eight grams.

What was its use, after all?

Chu Hao held the little stone up to the light of the torch and looked closely.

Eh?

He discovered the Cloud Mist Stone would actually be better named the Nebula Stone, as the cloud-like pattern inside looked more like a cloud of stars, as if one's soul could sink into it, wandering through the endless galaxy.

Buzz!

Just then, a strange force ventured from the Cloud Mist Stone, traveling from his hand to his arm and into his body, swiftly circulating throughout.

Chu Hao astonishingly discovered that every cell in his body had become incredibly active, strengthening at a rate he had never encountered before!

The Strong Muscle Powder was already quite powerful, but paled in comparison to this! Moreover, this strength was very gentle, unlike the fierce and overbearing Strong Muscle Powder which, although it could increase strength, did so at the cost of damaging the body.

For a moment, Chu Hao had no other thoughts but to clutch the Cloud Mist Stone tightly.

He tried to execute the Wildfire Fist, and experimented with sitting still like an old monk in meditation, trying over and over again. Eventually, he found that sitting still was the posture that maximized the speed at which his cells could absorb strength.

An hour later, he stopped.

The cells had absorbed strength to their limit; continuing would cause them to burst one after another, which would be a loss decidedly not worth the gain.

Chu Hao swung his fists, immediately feeling a robust power surging through him.

His strength... had improved by nearly 100 pounds!

The effect was immediate!

Unlike Strong Muscle Powder, where the process of absorbing the medicine's power was agonizingly painful to begin with, and which also required intense training to truly absorb the medicine, necessitating a full night's sleep before the effects could fully manifest.

There was no comparison, absolutely none!

The Cloud Mist Stone was expensive, but unquestionably worth the price!

Furthermore, the power of Strong Muscle Powder was too fierce, and even if most people could afford it, how much could they really absorb? You should know that ordinary people can only soak in the medicinal liquid for five minutes, cashing in on only one-sixth of its effectiveness.

But the Cloud Mist Stone was completely different. The process of its use was very gentle, allowing anyone to reach their limit!

Chu Hao looked around, realizing that originally, this entire mine must have been filled with Cloud Mist Stones!

How many experts could this create?

During that era, the number of strong individuals in the Vajra Realm must have been as common as carps crossing the river!

A day later, Chu Hao found that the cells which had reached a saturated state could absorb the power of the Cloud Mist Stone once again. He immediately sat down to meditate, using the Cloud Mist Stone to enhance his strength.

Although the absorption capacity of the cells had a limit, if it wasn't the most efficient absorption, then a significant portion of the strength would inevitably be wasted! Money had never been of concern to Chu Hao, but the question was, could it even be bought with money?

At least, he had never seen a Cloud Mist Stone in Eastern Cloud City.

After the cells once again reached saturation, Chu Hao found that his strength had increased by around another hundred pounds. Moreover, although the change was extremely subtle, he could affirm that after the cells were strengthened, the limit had slightly increased.

If it had been right after he had crossed over, perhaps when the cells reached their limit, he could only gain an increase of 50 to 60 pounds in strength.

That is to say, the higher his realm, the more Cloud Mist Stone power he could absorb! His strength increase would be accelerating rather than remaining constant at 100 pounds.

On the other hand, the Cloud Mist Stone also became lighter. Fine cracks that resembled spider webs appeared on the surface, and a bit of force would cause stone particles to fall off. Clearly, the benefits inside had been absorbed, and it had become hollow.

By his rough estimation, this Cloud Mist Stone could be absorbed by him for about seven to eight days.

That is to say, he could now absorb a gram per day.

He felt his pocket, and there was a silver note worth Thirty Thousand Taels—he planned to purchase Cloud Mist Stones from Yang Suyun.

Wait a minute!

He suddenly paused, Yang Suyun's strength was also just at the Third Tier Lesser Mahayana realm. Given her age, that wasn't bad, but it wasn't strong either, certainly not comparable to Tang Xin or Fu Xue. But the problem was, she should have quite a few Cloud Mist Stones!

Could it be that she was unable to absorb the power of the Cloud Mist Stone?

That must be it! Moreover, there wouldn't be many people who could absorb the power of the Cloud Mist Stone; otherwise, though precious, it would always have been discovered, and there wouldn't be so few people aware of such a treasure now, right?

The Yang Family must merely be a middleman, purchasing Cloud Mist Stones for others, completely unaware of what they were actually for!

How many Cloud Mist Stones could Thirty Thousand Taels of silver buy?

If Yang Suyun was willing to spend Ten taels of silver per gram to purchase it, then when the Yang Family resold it, they would have to mark it up to at least Twenty, even Thirty, Fifty taels of silver—Chu Hao never underestimated the greed of merchants.

To get the other party to give up their established business partners and sell the Cloud Mist Stone to him, he would have to offer a price that was significantly higher than their resale price.

Chu Hao nodded to himself in satisfaction, even if the Cloud Mist Stone sold for One Thousand Taels of silver per gram, it would still be utterly worth it!

Let's do a rough calculation. Strong Muscle Powder plus the Strong Body Pill costs 150 taels, but they can only increase strength by about 60 pounds. At first glance, this seems just 40 pounds less than what the Cloud Mist Stone can do, but the problem is the Cloud Mist Stone can be used every day!

And, that is with Chu Hao as the benchmark. For an ordinary person, they could only use Strong Muscle Powder to gain 10 pounds of strength every three days!

Problems that can be solved with money are never real problems. What truly is precious is what cannot be bought even with money!

Chu Hao decided to negotiate well with Yang Suyun, persuading her to sell him all of the Cloud Mist Stones this time. And when he returned to Eastern Cloud City, he would also hire some people to search this mine for Cloud Mist Stones.