Chapter 82: Chapter 75: Open the Door, the Community Delivers Warmth—No, It Delivers Tier Three Sunstones
The Sunflower King has been a bit troubled lately, so worried that its petals can barely spread.
Although the exotic beast cleanup is juicy work, many of its seedlings have reached the Peak of Tier Two.
Without Sunstones, those Tier Two sunflowers cannot evolve; they can only continuously split off new seedlings.
But Sunstones won’t just appear out of thin air; where should they be found?
My head hurts, feels like it’s growing a brain.
After thinking for a while, the Sunflower King decided not to think about it anymore.
Flowers are so lovely, why do anything that strains the brain? The sunshine is so nice right now, wouldn’t it be better to bask in it?
These kinds of brainy tasks aren’t its profession.
The less the sunflower worries, the longer and more beautifully it lives, otherwise, its petals and leaves would fall off from overthinking, how ugly and bare would that be?
If worse comes to worst, just do what Ye Bai suggested, sell high-quality Sunflower Honey in exchange for High Tier Sunstones.
Due to cleaning up so many exotic beasts, aside from splitting off seedlings, the excess energy is stored by the sunflower in its petals, brewed into Sunflower Honey.
Now, wherever the sunflower passes, the fragrance of honey is enough to make passing children cry with desire.
After continuously absorbing the flesh and blood of High Tier exotic beasts, the Sunflower King has already condensed five or six drops of Life Crystal Dew.
The Sunflower Cleaning Company is secretly monitoring the sunflower’s movements through drones.
They arrived first in Shihui City, did some setup, ensuring everything’s foolproof.
The president of Shihui City’s Pet Beast Union is surnamed Gale, the one as skinny as a stick with a worried look on his face.
But today, after the Sunflower Army’s grand arrival, he shed his usual worried look, smiling brightly and brilliantly.
Shihui City is near the Stone Cave Secret Realm, where Ore Beasts occasionally rush out to wreak havoc.
Hence, Shihui City faces the most frequent beast tides in Yandong Province.
The Ore Beasts are heavy, and clearing them after death is challenging; they cause inconvenience for pedestrians, requiring two large cranes just to drag them away.
Their shells are hard as iron, extremely difficult to cut.
What’s more crucial is that after death, the decayed food in their intestines generates massive amounts of putrid gas.
They become like stranded whales, prone to "whale explosion" phenomenon.
Once an Ore Beast explodes, its power is not to be underestimated; the rocks covering its body become like missiles, greatly impacting Shihui City’s citizens.
At best, bleeding head injuries occur; at worst, they’re sipping millet porridge in the ICU.
The Cleaning Company takes advantage of this very point, always quoting high prices after a beast tide in Shihui City.
Now the Ore Beasts have been dead for nearly five days, and an explosion could happen anytime, so President Gale seeing the Sunflower Army is like seeing a living Bodhisattva.
The secretary escorting the Sunflower Army to Shihui City spoke to President Gale: "President Gale, I am Xiao Liang, the secretary of the Jiaying City Pet Beast Union, according to the contract, you must ensure the Sunflower King’s safety."
"After signing the contract, if the amount on the contract isn’t fulfilled, you can consider exchanging it for Crystal Cores or Secret Treasures of equivalent value, all assessed by market value."
At this moment, Secretary Liang resembled a capable and shrewd executive assistant; she registered the Sunflower Cleaning Company herself, placing it under Jiaying City Pet Beast Union’s name; this was Zhang Lingxue’s protection for Ye Bai.
This contract hit President Gale’s sweet spot, as Shihui City, often confronting beast tides, spends most of its budget on Cleaning Company fees.
But since the Stone Cave Secret Realm produces various Evolution Stones frequently, Shihui City is not lacking in Evolution Stones and High Tier Earth Attribute Crystal Cores.
So President Gale planned from the beginning to barter.
He’s considered bartering with the Cleaning Company before, but they are too greedy; the Crystal Cores and Evolution Stones are priced extremely low.
They could rake in a huge profit upon resale.
President Gale has long tired of these greedy wolves, but has yet to find another Cleaning Company to cooperate with.
The Sunflower Army surged into Shihui City, sprawling across streets and alleys, beginning to handle the Ore Beasts.
The Crystal Cores of the Ore Beasts had already been taken by Shihui City’s Pet Beast Union members.
However, the sunflowers don’t mind, as the Ore Beasts’ bodies are rich in Earth Energy, which they prefer absorbing over Crystal Cores and flesh.
Earth nourishment for wood, the corpses of Ore Beasts enable the sunflowers to enhance their Wood Origin, making their Crystal Cores more pure and natural.
The sunflower’s roots pierce into the remnants of the Ore Beasts like a stranded fish re-entering the ocean.
President Gale watched as the colossal Ore Beasts were absorbed clean by sunflowers within mere minutes, gaining immense confidence in the Sunflower Cleaning Company.
The sunflowers dispersed across streets, cleaning the Ore Beast carcasses meticulously, especially prioritizing those seemingly about to explode.
The Ore Beasts’ hard rock shells are like paper under the sunflowers’ iron-like roots.
All you hear is the hiss as gas escapes, the previously bloated Ore Beast carcass instantly deflates.
The rotting stench is masked by floral fragrance, the cleanup process is quiet, noiseless except for the hissing.
Within just an hour, a street’s Ore Beasts are completely cleaned; even the damaged street sections are repaired by the sunflowers.
A faint floral scent fills the air; looking at the now pristine street, President Gale is moved to tears, feeling that the expense was worth it.
He declares the Sunflower Cleaning Company as "eternal", vowing to be its loyal fan henceforth.
At this moment, a group of sunflowers suddenly gathered, and a Sunstone emitting golden light appeared before them.
It had fallen from an Ore Beast’s body while they were absorbing.
The sunstone emitted immense energy, appearing as a coveted prize in the eyes of the Tier Two sunflowers.
It’s unclear which sunflower made the first move, but soon enough, the sunflowers started to fight among themselves.
A drone was hovering in the sky, secretly observing everything.
Owners of the cleaning company were watching the sunflower fights via drone footage, smiles of satisfaction spreading across their faces.
The plan worked!
"Haha, you’re clever as always, Old Yang. Just one Tier Three sunstone and the sunflowers are in disarray."
"Brilliant, truly brilliant."
"From now on, Old Wang, I will follow your lead."
The chubby boss gave a thumbs-up.
The group of bosses buzzed with praise for Old Yang, making him feel ecstatic.
"You see the results now, don’t you? You should feel reassured."
"Release the remaining sunstones."
"We need to make the sunflower group more chaotic so we can fish in troubled waters and reclaim our business."
What they didn’t realize was that these quarreling sunflowers were offspring split off from the Sunflower King.
Their fighting was all about selecting the strongest among them, those with bodies robust enough for evolution.
This fighting, though accidental, misled the cleaning company owners into thinking their strategy worked.
As a result, Tier Three sunstones began appearing all over Shihui City like common cabbages.
Swimming pools, lawns, statues—sunflowers ’unexpectedly’ found them everywhere.
Increasing numbers of sunflowers, upon discovering the sunstones, engaged in fights, causing cleaning operations to come to a halt.
"Hahaha, our plan succeeded."
"Now it’s a setback for the Sunflower Cleaning Company and President Feng."
"President Feng dared to refuse us before. This time we’ll charge a sky-high price to compensate for our losses."
"He can’t afford to wait; the ore beast has been dead for five days and is in extreme danger."
"We must make him beg us for help."
"Exactly, exactly, after collaborating for so long, he suddenly turned to someone else."
"If he’d picked one of us, fair competition would be acceptable, but out came a foreign rival."
"I want them to understand the saying that even a strong dragon can’t overpower a local snake."
A trace of ruthlessness passed over everyone’s faces.
The previously orderly sunflowers suddenly became chaotic, fighting everywhere.
The Sunflower King, after receiving feedback from its offspring, was quite amused.
Having followed Ye Bai for a while, it too had become rather cunning.
There must be a scheme within this.
How could Tier Three sunstones suddenly appear like bamboo shoots after rain; the stones might as well have "I’m a scheme" written all over them.
So annoying, feels like my brain’s being forced to think.
The Sunflower King scratched its head with a leaf.
Never mind, since it’s being handed over, might as well use it.
Officially, we’ll just claim we found them.
One sunflower touched a sunstone and found a spot bathed in sunlight.
It began to glow with the light of evolution, but apparently, it couldn’t handle the overwhelming fortune, and its body exploded into pieces.
The sunstone fell to the ground, rolled a few times, stained with green liquid, while the crystal core of that sunflower was picked up by others.
Another sunflower excitedly ventured forth, picking up the sunstone.
And so the cycle repeated multiple times until finally, a sunflower evolved into a Tier Three sunflower.
Once the sunflowers completed evolution, the twenty Tier Three sunstones resulted in seventeen more Tier Three sunflowers, mostly evolved from the Sunflower King’s body split-offs.
The remaining three sunstones brought forth three Flower Fairies.
This was a branch off the sunflower evolution path.
Flower Fairies sported two pairs of transparent wings and were around human size, with clothing woven from leaves. They were the darlings of the wind, able to summon gale forces.
They were also skilled at healing, using the Sunflower King’s honey to deploy various healing skills.
The Tier Three sunflower count of the Sunflower Cleaning Company expanded further, while the scene of inter-fighting imagined by Old Yang never materialized.
Instead, the Sunflower Kings worked together harmoniously and rapidly cleaned up Shihui City’s ore beasts, earning the abundant praise of the President of Pet Beast Union, Feng.
For the cleaning company’s bosses, it was a complete failure; they not only achieved nothing but sacrificed many Tier Three sunstones, leaving Old Yang surrounded by furious cleaning company bosses.