Chapter 73: Collaboration and Discovery

Spider Sanctuary.

Luo Yong instructed Yan Bao’er and the other two to wait aside, asking Duoduo and Sally to treat them hospitably. He then began discussing with his teammates the details of collaborating with the Elves to jointly develop this secret realm.

“So… those three standing over there, are they all from the Elven race?” Alia asked.

“So… that cloak of yours, did those Elven friends gift it to you?” the barbarian priest inquired.

“You’ve already reached an agreement with them, settled on cooperating?” Wendy questioned.

“What do Elves even look like, anyway? They won’t even pull back their hoods for us to see. Since we’re going to work together, there’s no need for all this mystery; they should at least show some sincerity!” the Storm Sorceress exclaimed.

“I heard Elves have pointed ears, but I wonder if that’s true,” murmured the wild hunter.

Heh...

Elven ears are indeed pointed!

Luo Yong opened his mouth, but didn’t voice his thoughts. Besides, his teammates weren’t giving him a chance to interject.

“Didn’t we say earlier that we wouldn’t let middlemen take a cut?” Mila asked.

“You said we’d all get a share of this mine. Does that still count?” Lillian pressed.

She clearly valued promises highly, taking such agreements seriously—someone who honored her word.

“Didn’t I just say so?” Luo Yong replied helplessly, then loudly repeated himself, “This secret realm, and the green crystal mine here, belong to all of us. Our collaboration with the Elves is something we all take part in. They’ll handle the mining and selling, and we’ll share in the profits.”

“Of course, there are other forms of exchange as well. Say, if you need certain secret arts, materials, or other items, all of that can be negotiated.”

“Our partnership is based on equality and mutual benefit—no one’s getting the short end of the stick, and no one’s taking unfair advantage.”

As he spoke, Luo Yong’s gaze swept over everyone’s faces, meeting each pair of eyes.

“Furthermore, after this collaboration, it’s as if we’ve gained—not just one, but—a whole group of allies. We’ll earn the friendship of the Elven race.”

Silence fell as his teammates pondered the pros and cons.

To be fair, Luo Yong had given the matter a lot of thought. After learning about the Elves’ predicament and faced with the plea of the elegant Yan Bao’er, he hadn’t hesitated to agree. He’d taken full responsibility, vowing to see it through.

As the saying goes, for the sake of love, if there are obstacles, you charge ahead; if not, you make some just to prove yourself!

How could he let such an extraordinary Elven lady be disappointed in him?

“Specifically, what will we get?” Wendy asked.

“Well… it’ll definitely be more than what we have now,” Luo Yong replied, a bit uncertain.

After all, he couldn’t say for sure what valuable things the Elves could offer in exchange.

“I should answer that,” the Elven lady interjected.

She strode over swiftly and, under everyone’s gaze, pulled back her hood.

“Wow!”

Amid gasps of amazement, she smiled serenely. “My name is Yan Bao’er. I’m a friend of Luo Yong’s.”

The group of women, usually confident in their own looks, now found themselves thinking in unison, “How can anyone be this beautiful?”

As for what she said, it had become irrelevant.

It was clear the Elven lady was no stranger to such situations. Surrounded by women drawn to her, she handled them with ease.

Meanwhile, Luo Yong stood aside, almost forgotten.

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

With Yan Bao’er taking the lead, the matter was as good as settled. Otherwise, Luo Yong wasn’t a dictator; he couldn’t go back on his word or singlehandedly parcel out the Spider Sanctuary.

Ahem.

What kind of person would that make him?

As it stood, if the Spider Sanctuary was off-limits, he’d have to give up his other secret realm—a mid-tier Forest Sanctuary, no less, possibly as a concession.

Not that he was unwilling, but even for Bao’er’s sake, he couldn’t just toss out a mid-tier sanctuary right away.

That would be… unseemly.

As if he were desperate to ingratiate himself.

Elves may be wonderful, but he wasn’t without options.

At times like this, it was crucial to maintain boundaries.

Upholding one’s dignity was all about knowing where to draw the line.

“Green crystal mine…” the Elven elder mused as he sampled Duoduo’s cooking.

What a stroke of luck—green crystal was exactly what the Elves lacked!

Ahem.

Then again, given the Elves’ current straits, they lacked just about everything.

In the past, he’d never have considered a low-tier sanctuary, let alone one from the insect-island series—a Spider Sanctuary.

“Spi…der…”

Weir nibbled at her food, eyes darting nervously about, often settling on the enormous, rainbow-hued spider that was the transformed key to the sanctuary.

Clearly, she’d been traumatized by spiders as a child.

“Wow!”

“Is there really such a thing?”

“Can we have one too?”

“You’d better mean what you say!”

A chorus of exclamations erupted from the crowd around the Elven lady. Without quite realizing it, they’d ceded the sanctuary and smoothly completed a round of negotiations.

The details had already been worked out with Luo Yong earlier. Now, with everyone’s consent, the partnership was sealed.

From here, the Elves would take over management, dispatching their own teams to explore and fully develop the sanctuary’s potential.

Of course, Luo Yong’s team members were welcome to join these expeditions at any time.

Moreover, they gained access to the secret arts brought by the Elves, as well as magical equipment suited to their own professions.

As for the green crystal mine, a larger mining workshop was established beside Duoduo’s forging hall, with the caveat that mining operations mustn’t interfere with Duoduo’s work.

Sally, meanwhile, was entrusted to an elderly Elven sage for personal instruction.

As for Luo Yong, who seemed to have gained nothing from this deal, he was already on his way to Spider Canyon.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something, but for the life of me I can’t recall what,” Luo Yong mused, glancing at the Elven lady beside him, now with her hood back up. With a carefree smile, he added, “Never mind, it’s not important—nothing matters more right now than what’s between the two of us.”

“Don’t say such things…” the Elven lady chided, a faint blush on her cheeks.

Earlier in the Spider Sanctuary, some Elves had purposely approached Luo Yong, scrutinizing him curiously, as if he were some rare specimen.

At first, Luo Yong hadn’t thought much of it, assuming they’d never seen such a handsome human before.

Ahem.

But as time passed, he sensed something was off.

Their gazes were complicated—scrutinizing, searching, with enough nuance to fill a romantic novel.

None of them bothered to hide it, staring at him until he was utterly flustered.

Fortunately, the Elven lady arrived in time, whisking Luo Yong away to fulfill her promise to him.

“I’ll stay by your side for a while, until you grow stronger—strong enough to meet my expectations and take on that task,” she told him.

“Oh… The same [task] you can’t tell me about, the one that’s gotten the Elves into trouble now.”

“But just how serious is this trouble? You can’t say. And in order to meet the conditions for using the res— that spell…” Luo Yong tried to piece together the logic.

“Stop overthinking it. In any case, let’s treat this as a chance to practice getting along!” Her voice grew softer, and Luo Yong knew she must be blushing again.

“What do you mean, ‘getting along’?” Luo Yong asked, feigning innocence.

“That’s… Hmph, never mind if you don’t know—forget I said anything!” the Elven lady huffed, her tone both proud and shy.

“That won’t do!” Luo Yong grabbed her hand. “We agreed on this, you can’t just go back on your word! My dear Bao’er—”

“Nonsense! Who’s your wife?” she exclaimed, shaking off his hand and striding ahead.

“Bao’er, wait for me!”

…

The two laughed and bickered, walking side by side for days until they finally reached their destination—

Spider Canyon.

“I guess my fate really is bound to spiders,” Luo Yong muttered, staring at the dense swarms that made his skin crawl, even without a phobia.

“According to ancient texts, ‘Catherine the Unrelenting of the Grey Plains’ is one of the two major monsters here,” the Elven lady explained.

“Just one? Named Catherine? Not a bad name, though I wonder what it looks like. And the other one?” Luo Yong asked.

“The other has no name. Only upon reaching level thirty can one be called Catherine.”

“According to reports, the two half-humanoid spider monsters here both have the upper bodies of women and lower bodies of giant spiders—a hybrid.”

“One is level twenty-five, the other thirty. At your current strength, you stand no chance against them.”

“What about you? What level are you now?” Luo Yong was less concerned about fighting the two big spiders than he was curious about the Elven lady’s level.

“Not telling you.” She tossed her hair, shooting him a look. “You’ll find out in time. For now, let’s focus on the task at hand.”

“Alright.” Luo Yong produced a scroll and marked a coordinate in a safe zone outside the canyon.

Then, together with the Elven lady, he set off toward the canyon’s depths.

“Oh, by the way, back in the sanctuary I ran into a little green spider that could use psychic attacks. It took a lot to kill it. Do the two big monsters here have that kind of ability too?” Luo Yong suddenly asked halfway through.