Apocalypse: Master of Soul Beasts

The intention behind Lin Haifeng sending Fran to negotiate with Wen Yu was now clear — at least, Wen Yu hadn’t flipped the table.

Old Man Fran might have felt a little embarrassed too. He gave Wen Yu a couple of sheepish smiles as he dryly explained, without much confidence, ”It’s at least a Limit Breakthrough Level ability…”

”This is something no one wants, and you’re trying to pawn it off on me, right?”

Wen Yu bluntly exposed the truth — Limit Breakthrough Level abilities are in short supply for any power. That the military could produce such an ability was entirely beyond Wen Yu’s expectations.

Yet, after seeing the skill description, Wen Yu immediately understood — it turns out this worthless piece was also something no one within the military wanted, which is why it was being offered as a bargaining chip.

Old Man Fran fell silent.

After a long moment, Wen Yu let out a heavy sigh and then tucked the Heavenly Yuan Breathing Technique into his space ring. ”This worthless thing is worth an SSS-Class skill, comparable to the Pitch-dark Dominator. Take it or leave it!”

”Deal, can’t refuse!”

Old Man Fran promptly agreed; this Heavenly Yuan Breathing Technique was something nobody wanted. At this moment, if they could offload it for the price of an SSS-Class skill, the military might even be gaining from the deal.

Wen Yu asked again, ”Is that it? Just this?”

”Do you want magic crystals?”

Wen Yu decisively shook his head. Magic crystals were something he had in abundance.

Old Man Fran spread his hands apart.

”Then that’s it.”

Wen Yu wasn’t ready to give up: ”What about skill upgrade scrolls or resurrection tools? Or anything that might be of some use to me?”

Fran responded with a bitter smile and shook his head, ”We really don’t have any. Skill upgrade scrolls are hard to come by themselves, and resurrection tools aren’t abundant either. As for things useful to you, those are all kept as trump cards by the military. Even if we had them, how could we possibly pull them out easily for trade?”

”Sigh…”

Wen Yu pinched his brow heavily and gave a wave of his hand, decisively retrieving the Star Mobilization Skill, which he had initially placed among the trade items, back into his space ring — the military’s offer wasn’t enough! Even with Wen Yu’s principle of contributing to humanity, the military’s price was still not enough!

A small loss was acceptable, but giving it away for free? Sorry, but Wen Yu couldn’t get past that hurdle in his heart…

Fran understood the situation and started to speak to Wen Yu in a negotiating tone: ”How about this, with these three skills, let’s discount them down to two SSS-Class skills and one Esoteric Level skill. I’ll exchange something with you for it, and for the remaining stuff, give us some time.”

”For the items you’ve brought out, I’ll give you a confirmed value. You can at least get 5 Limit Breakthrough Level skills or items with those abilities from the military. We can’t take it all at once, so we’ll continue the discussion next time.”

Fran’s proposal was quite sincere, so Wen Yu nodded in agreement.

Seeing Wen Yu’s response, Fran finally let out a breath of relief and gestured to the few people behind him. It wasn’t long before the military personnel and scientists behind Fran had already picked out a large batch of profession-change scrolls and technical documents.

The profession-change scrolls were for the Array Master profession. In addition, there were all the accompanying profession-exclusive skills — this accounted for roughly one-fifteenth of all the scrolls Wen Yu had on hand.

The technical documents taken were those that could seamlessly integrate with the current technology of Cathay’s military — this was also the primary role of the ”professionals” behind Old Man Fran.

The items taken made up less than one-tenth of the total number of trade items, and looking at the price, it was fair enough. Thus, Wen Yu retrieved the rest of the sorted materials and tools left on the ground, categorized them, and placed them into his space ring, then gestured to Fran that the deal was complete.

Seeing this, Fran waved his hand, allowing the military personnel and researchers behind him to take the technical documents, leaving only two people in the cabin.

Next up was the time for confidential talks.

...

Inside the luxurious cabin, the atmosphere was somewhat stagnant.

It wasn’t until Old Man Fran poured a glass of red wine for Wen Yu that the stagnant atmosphere was finally broken. Wen Yu swirled the wine glass before finally speaking.

”Tang Haofei… how is he doing now?”

Fran elegantly sipped his wine and slowly shook his head, ”Tang Haofei’s personality has indeed undergone some changes. It’s similar to dual personalities or schizophrenia. Initially, Lin Haifeng thought it was a minor issue and sent a bunch of psychologists to try and guide him. But things aren’t looking good…”

”It’s not just a simple psychological issue. It should be something like a soul split. In this regard, we have no understanding. Truthfully, in this world, you would be considered the most knowledgeable about souls. Since even you can’t figure out what’s going on with Tang Haofei, it’s unlikely we would have a good solution either!”

For some reason, Wen Yu thought of Rahal.

”You guys bringing Rahal back this time, isn’t it to solve Tang Haofei’s problems with Rahal?”

If that’s the case, things could get troublesome — Wen Yu had used up all of Rahal’s skill cooldown time for the next year!

Fran shook his head, ”While Rahal’s abilities are outstanding, the military isn’t lacking in talents with similar capabilities. This isn’t a problem that can be solved with skills.”

”How should I say it… The second personality generated by Tang Haofei is very dangerous, extremely dangerous. The most terrifying part is that we can’t discern when Tang Haofei’s two personalities alternate. His main personality doesn’t even know about this second personality. For now, we’re just stalling. We dread what might happen if Tang Haofei becomes aware of his condition, fearing it would worsen the situation. So…”

By this point, Fran heaved a heavy sigh, ”We’re just keeping it like this. Tang Haofei doesn’t know about his condition, and we don’t dare to say much, fearing that alerting Tang Haofei might awaken his second personality… You understand, in such a situation, we just can’t take the gamble!”

Wen Yu nodded in understanding; not only could Cathay’s military not gamble on this, but the entire world couldn’t take this risk! If Tang Haofei’s power were unbound, it could truly allow him to do whatever he wanted!

”By the way, during Tang Haofei’s leave, he seems to be tinkering with something regarding the Ultimate Force Team. The second personality apparently made quite the spectacle out of it.”

Wen Yu raised an eyebrow, then realized — in the eyes of Tang Haofei’s second personality, things that seemed secretive were not beyond Lin Haifeng’s scrutiny.

Tang Haofei wasn’t exactly a genius; the second personality birthed from him managing such schemes might be nothing more than child’s play in Lin Haifeng’s eyes!

”So what’s your plan?”

Fran shrugged.

”Continue stalling; nothing else can be done.”

Fran’s tone carried a sense of helplessness. With the current power of Tang Haofei, the military could hardly respond — the original triad balance of human powers was completely thrown off after Tang Haofei and Wen Yu’s meteoric rise in power. Now, in the face of Tang Haofei’s absolute strength, the military felt like a helpless girl on the verge of being overpowered, cowering in a corner, trembling!

”I reckon Tang Haofei might even invite you to join that Ultimate Force Team. If you go, discreetly keep an eye on Tang Haofei for us and prevent him from causing any unmanageable turmoil.”

Wen Yu recalled Tang Haofei extending an early invitation for his ”second favor.”

With decisive resolve, Wen Yu downed the glass of wine in one go and nodded affirmatively.

”No problem!”