29: Chapter 29 This wave of losses has left me utterly devastated.

A golden light.

No, it was more like a miniature golden sun, exploding without warning amidst the bustling night market stalls.

The black blind box in Chu Yaoyao's hands had long since turned to dust. In its place was a clump of cyan-gold liquid wrapped in a hurricane, suspended in mid-air and emitting pure fluctuations that made the soul tremble.

“Holy crap! Look at those light effects.”

“Is this the kind of commotion a hundred thousand bucks can buy? I don't believe it!”

The surrounding crowd looked as if they had been hit by a freezing spell, each with their mouths wide open, making strange 'he-he' sounds in their throats.

Even Zhang Hao, who was maintaining order, dropped his glow stick on the ground with a 'clack,' startling the deathly silent scene back to life.

Su Qingxue was the closest and felt it most intensely.

Under the pull of this aura, the ice-attribute spiritual energy in her body actually began to stir uncontrollably. It was a suppression coming from the level of life itself, an instinctual longing for evolution.

“This is...” Su Qingxue's pupils contracted sharply. Her usual coldness collapsed instantly, and her voice trembled, “An A-Rank Supreme Treasure... Evolution Source Fluid.”

Evolution Source Fluid.

As soon as those three words were uttered, it was like pouring a ladle of cold water into a boiling oil pan; the entire night market completely exploded.

Anyone in the know understood what this meant.

This wasn't a pill used to increase cultivation, nor was it a weapon used to kill enemies. This was a divine object that could directly upgrade one's Talent Rank!

Although it only worked on talents below A-Rank and could only raise them by one level, that was enough to make countless great families fight to the death for it.

Raising a B-Rank Talent genius to A-Rank meant the family could produce an extra Grandmaster or even a Martial King in the future!

This value simply couldn't be measured in money. In the black market, this stuff was a legendary item that had a price but no supply. The starting bid was at least five million, and the final transaction price was often over ten million!

“I... I struck it rich?”

Chu Yaoyao stared blankly at the clump of liquid in her hand, her exquisite little face filled with confusion.

She blinked once, then blinked again.

The next second, an ear-piercing scream echoed through the clouds.

“Ahhh! I knew it! I knew this young lady was an RNG Goddess! I am the Chosen One!”

Chu Yaoyao jumped for joy on the spot like a little squirrel that had just stolen a pinecone. She grabbed Su Qingxue beside her and shook her frantically, “Qing Xue, did you see that! It's golden! It's golden! I'm asking you, are you impressed now? This is a treasure that can upgrade talent! It's way more valuable than your delusion-breaking ice crystal! Hahahaha!”

Su Qingxue was shaken until she was dizzy, but she could only manage a helpless, bitter smile.

It was true.

Although the delusion-breaking ice crystal was precious, it only increased mental power. This Wind Spirit Source Fluid, however, was a genuine talent leap.

If someone like Wang Teng with a B-Rank Talent consumed it, they would immediately become an A-Rank genius and rise to success from then on.

“This is just too ridiculous...”

In the crowd, an old man wearing a practice suit was currently staring tremulously at the blind box in his hand.

He had just taken advantage of the chaos to buy a low-level blind box for five thousand yuan.

“I... I also opened something...”

The old man shakily pulled a pill from the box. The pill was perfectly round with three pill veins on its surface, emitting a faint medicinal fragrance.

“An... obstacle-breaking pill?”

A sharp-eyed mercenary nearby cried out in surprise, “Is that the obstacle-breaking pill that allows a peak Martial Apprentice to break through to Martial Artist without side effects? The one that goes for eighty thousand a pill on the market?”

“It really is an obstacle-breaking pill!”

The old man was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes, “This old man has been stuck at the Ninth Grade Martial Apprentice level for three years. Now... I can finally break through. Five thousand yuan... I’ve made over ten times my money back!”

Crazy.

Everyone had gone completely crazy.

If Chu Yaoyao's A-Rank Supreme Treasure was an unreachable myth, then the old man's obstacle-breaking pill was a tangible reality.

Five thousand turned into eighty thousand!

One hundred thousand turned into ten million!

This thrill of instant wealth immediately pierced through everyone's rational defenses.

“Boss, I want to buy! Give me ten!”

“Get lost, I was here first! I'll pay double!”

“Brother Fan, Grandpa Fan, look at me! I have money!”

The crowd swarmed toward Lin Fan's stall, their faces waving banknotes and becoming distorted due to extreme greed and excitement.

However.

As the creator of this carnival, Lin Fan was currently slumped on his small stool, and even the lemonade in his hand didn't taste good anymore.

He looked at the priceless Wind Spirit Source Fluid in Chu Yaoyao's hand, then at the hundred-thousand-yuan balance increase in his backend, and his heart bled.

“What a sin...”

Lin Fan clutched his chest, a look of profound grief and regret on his face.

How did it turn out like this?

He had clearly used the Eye of True Sight to check! Although the raw material inside that black blind box was the skull of a D-Rank Mutant Shadow Leopard, logically it should have produced a D-Rank battle technique or Shadow-attribute materials at most, worth two or three hundred thousand at the very best.

How did it drop an A-Rank Supreme Treasure?

This wasn't scientific!

[System Notification: Detected that target 'Chu Yaoyao' has triggered the 'Unlucky Pity Mechanism'.]

[Unlucky Pity Mechanism: When a target's luck value drops to the extreme (below -50) and they make a high-value purchase, the myriad races blind box system will automatically trigger the 'Extreme Misfortune Turns to Luck' effect, forcibly increasing the drop quality by three major ranks to soothe the Unlucky One's wounded soul.]

[Current rebate multiplier being calculated...]

Looking at the system explanation popping up on his retina, Lin Fan almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

Soothe the soul, my ass!

Who's going to soothe my soul?

That's ten million yuan! If he had known this thing could mutate into Wind Spirit Source Fluid, wouldn't it have been better to open it himself? Or even sell it for five million!

He sold it for only a hundred thousand?

“I've lost big time... I really lost big this time...”

Lin Fan wanted to cry but had no tears.

Especially seeing Chu Yaoyao's smug “praise me, praise me” look, Lin Fan wanted to die even more.

“Brother Fan, what's wrong?”

While struggling to hold back the crowd, Zhang Hao looked back at Lin Fan, “Our business is so good, why do you look like you've lost money?”

“Fatty, you don't understand.”

Lin Fan looked up at the night sky at a 45-degree angle, a single crocodile tear rolling down his cheek, “I didn't lose money; I'm doing charity. If I'm not among the Top Ten Figures Who Moved China, I'm not watching.”

Though his mouth said he lost, his body was very honest.

[Ding! Congratulations Host, selling the blind box has triggered the 'Unlucky One's Counterattack' critical hit.]

[You have received a hundred-fold rebate reward: S-Rank Talent Advancement Card (Can upgrade any S-Rank or below talent by one level).]

Hearing that crisp system notification, Lin Fan's previously lifeless eyes instantly lit up.

An S-Rank Talent Advancement Card?

If this thing were put up for sale, never mind ten million, people would scramble for it even at a hundred million!

“Ahem.”

Lin Fan instantly sat up straight, the grief on his face vanishing, replaced by the compassionate demeanor of a master.

He picked up the megaphone and shouted at the frenzied crowd:

“Everyone saw that, right? This is the strength of my God and Demon Blind Boxes! Honest prices, no deception. If you're lucky, a bicycle becomes a motorcycle, and a motorcycle becomes an aircraft carrier!”

“However, everyone must consume rationally. After all, a... cough, a Chosen One like Miss Chu is one in ten thousand.”

Lin Fan purposely emphasized the words “Chosen One.”

Hearing this, Chu Yaoyao lifted her chin even higher, like a proud little peacock, completely failing to hear the sarcasm in Lin Fan's voice.

“That's right.”

Chu Yaoyao carefully placed the Wind Spirit Source Fluid into a specially made jade bottle, then waved at the unlucky ones around her who had opened beast bones and rotten furs, “You guys just don't do enough good deeds. You should be like this young lady and help more old ladies across the street, understand?”

The 'unlucky ones' holding their few hundred yuan worth of trash materials looked at Chu Yaoyao's punchable face, each so jealous their cells were practically splitting, wishing they could rush up and take a bite out of her.

Was this the gap between worlds?

Comparing yourself to others really is infuriating!

...

At the same time.

On Jianghai City's largest local streaming platform, in the “Douyin” livestream room.

A livestream room named “Shop Explorer Old Six” was seeing its popularity soar at a terrifying speed.

“Family, did you see that? Did you see that?”

The streamer “Old Six” was holding up his phone, his excited spit almost spraying onto the screen, “Those of you who didn't screen-record that scene just now basically lost a hundred million! An A-Rank Supreme Treasure! Opened right at a night market stall!”

The camera shook as it pointed at Lin Fan's stall, which was surrounded by a crowd so dense not even a drop of water could leak through, and at Chu Yaoyao and Su Qingxue, who stood there like cranes among chickens.

“That's School Beauty Su! And the little princess of the Chu Family!”

“It's confirmed, it's really confirmed, this isn't a script! Whose script could hire these two young ladies? Whose script could use an A-Rank Supreme Treasure as a prop?”

Comments scrolled frantically, densely covering the screen.

“Holy crap, for real? An A-Rank Supreme Treasure from a night market stall? Not even novels dare to write that!”

“Address, streamer, hurry up and post the address! I'm calling a taxi right now.”

“Lin Fan? Isn't that the legendary F-Rank Trash? This plot twist is way too fast!”

“Does the person upstairs still have dial-up internet? He's the ‘Godfather of Blind Boxes’ now. Even my second uncle's neighbor's dog is talking about this.”

The livestream's popularity shot straight to number one on the city rankings and even began to spread toward the provincial hot list.

In an instant, the entire underground circle, martial artist forums, and school bulletin boards of Jianghai City were all discussing the same name: Lin Fan.

And in the shadows not far from the night market.

Several middle-aged men in black windbreakers with deep, heavy auras were silently watching all of this.

“A-Rank Supreme Treasure... Evolution Source Fluid.”

One of them, a man with a scarred face, said in a low voice, a hint of greed flashing in his eyes, “It seems the rumors aren't false. This Lin Fan really does have something in his hands.”

“Should we...” The person beside him made a throat-slitting gesture.

“Idot.”

Scarface snorted coldly, “Those are people from the Su and Chu Families. If you want to die, don't drag me with you. And...”

He took a long, deep look at Lin Fan, who was sitting behind the stall looking calm but was actually checking his rewards.

“This kid dares to be so high-profile; there's definitely someone behind him. Check his background first so we don't capsize in a gutter.”

Similar conversations were happening in various corners of Jianghai City.

Some were greedy, some were watching, some were dismissive.

But everyone realized one thing:

The sky over Jianghai City was about to change.

And the center of this storm, the youth sitting behind the folding table, was currently squinting his eyes at a luxury car speeding toward him from a distance, revealing a 'kind' smile.

“The EXP baby is finally here.”