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Chapter 128: Thought Crystal

"Special announcement! Due to the overwhelming number of registrations, an additional 300,000 Contribution Points have been added to the prize pool for this competition! The top one thousand participants will each receive 300 Contribution Points! The top twenty will additionally receive a Xuanhuang Fruit as a reward! Only two weeks remain until the registration deadline, so sign up quickly!" One explosive piece of news after another kept the excitement for this competition at a fever pitch.

"Which big shot is playing like this? Even if they're rich, this isn't how you burn money, is it? More than a million Contribution Points—what can't you buy with that?"

"Didn't you see they added Xuanhuang Fruit to the prizes? The big financier behind this must be the Spirit Energy Research Institute. They've already taken a five-million Contribution Point deposit; do you think they care about an extra million-plus expenditure now?"

"Even the top thousand get a reward! It's worth fighting for!"

"This competition has no nationality restrictions. Are you sure you won't get brutally crushed by those foreign mercenaries who fight every day? People could die in minutes."

...

Because this competition had no nationality restrictions, after such a pouring of oil on the flames, discussions about it erupted everywhere, both domestically and internationally, online and offline. The spectacle far surpassed the Ability User Conference a few months prior, which had started strong but ended weakly.

Of course, most people's interest was focused on the Spirit Energy Research Institute, which was sponsoring the entire competition and, in a sense, represented the Huaxia Federation government. After all, gossip had always been most people's favorite pastime.

Moreover, under the Huaxia Federation government's "gold-dollar diplomacy" policy, many neighboring smaller nations had already joined the Contribution Point system. Compared to their rather unstable local currency systems, Contribution Points guaranteed by Huaxia were clearly much more stable.

Newly added foreign accounts naturally didn't get the benefit of ten points per person per month, but after various exchanges of interests and negotiations, a policy of five points per person per month was finally established. Bai Mo, of course, couldn't be bothered with any of this; in his view, the more people who used a system, the faster it snowballed, so these minor details were better left to the nation to handle for mutual benefit.

"Data readability is always a big issue. How can I ensure that paid data isn't pirated?" As one of the largest suppliers of cultivation resources currently, Bai Mo also had a bit of a headache with this piracy problem. Although he didn't truly care about the minor losses, it still annoyed him a little to see so many people reading pirated copies of his writings.

"Thought Crystal, A-grade application, function: stores information corresponding to mental waves for single or multiple readings. Inventor: Luo Yi?" He discovered this piece of information while reviewing materials sent from various places. "Daring to pay the appraisal fee for an A-grade material application, it seems he's quite confident about this item."

Bai Mo slowly read through the entire document in front of his computer, and couldn't help but be impressed by the ingenious ideas within.

"I truly didn't expect Spirit Stones could be used as an additive like this. I was far too wasteful before."

"Chen Xi, help me get the sample that corresponds to this application."

"Coming! It's this box." She searched for a while in the transport warehouse before finding the corresponding sample that had been sent, then slowly walked into the dark, cavernous doorway of the second basement level.

No matter how many times she came to this second basement level, she always found the atmosphere eerily grim and bizarre. Specimens were everywhere, along with rows of bioreactors containing people. She truly couldn't fathom how this monster in front of her could stay down here all the time; she, for one, wouldn't want to spend another minute.

"Don't be in such a hurry to leave. Try placing this on your forehead, then mobilize the mental energy within your body to probe inside the stone." Bai Mo casually tossed the Thought Crystal into Chen Xi's hand.

"The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name..." Chen Xi followed the instructions, and then the opening lines of the Daodejing appeared in her mind.

"What a miraculous phenomenon! How does it work? It's like someone is speaking inside my head." For a moment, she forgot about the eerie surroundings. "The memory retention is much better than simply hearing it once."

But when she tried to place the stone on her forehead a second time, she found that no matter how she mobilized her mental energy, there was still no sound.

"Stop trying, I only recorded it once." Bai Mo snatched the Thought Crystal from her hand. "According to the inventor, this thing is called a Thought Crystal, and it can store mental waves. He's very capable, and quite generous too, planning to directly sell the complete manufacturing process for this item to the nation."

"Such immense profit, and you're not tempted? You could easily pocket it yourself and just give him a low price." Chen Xi asked, puzzled.

"I'm not like those short-sighted officials who destroy the system's credibility for a bit of short-term gain. Most people still hide away their most valuable research, and the fundamental reason is their distrust of this system, fearing their work will be embezzled or deliberately mispriced. If I were to get greedy this time, as long as the other party secretly spread the news, the entire credit system would suffer a massive blow, and no one would ever sell valuable knowledge again. That would force me to perform the 'thousand gold purchase of horse bones'!"

"What about just making him disappear beforehand?"

"Someone capable of such profound research into mental energy usage must be at least at the fifth level of the Spirit Animation Stage or above, a person with a Life Field. Killing him might not be difficult, but doing it silently would be nearly impossible. Moreover, if he dared to send something containing such immense profit, anyone not an imbecile would consider the risk of 'coveting a treasure brings trouble.' He definitely has a backup plan, and acting rashly could easily lead to mistakes."

"Alright then, take this sample along with the explanatory materials to the old man's side, and explain my stance to them: mass production isn't something I want to research; it should be handled by their professional staff. Given their personalities, they will definitely dig up all of Luo Yi's information. When they do, go help me make a copy. I'm a little curious about this person."

"Understood, boss." Chen Xi took the sample and materials, then quickly left the second basement level.

"It's a good thing I still remember the general process for making Thought Crystals. Handing it over this time should net a large sum of Contribution Points, which I can then exchange for the alchemy materials I need. In my memory, the Contribution Point system has never maliciously embezzled users' benefits for decades; it's practically the most just platform. This exchange should be quite safe."

Having finally returned from Italy and used his abilities to obtain Huaxia Federation citizenship, Luo Yi secretly thought after mailing the Thought Crystal sample: "Someday, I will climb to the apex of this world, drag you out, and ruthlessly trample you underfoot!"

"Given the wide applicability of the Thought Crystal, an A-grade contribution rating is certainly unavoidable. For A-grade, giving him 100,000 Contribution Points, plus a Xuanhuang Fruit, should be about right." After Chen Xi left, Bai Mo completed the Contribution Point transfer on his computer, then sent Luo Yi a private message as an administrator, informing him that an additional Xuanhuang Fruit would be gifted to him in two months, to commend his trust in the system..