Chapter 337: Trade Fair Day One
The dark room did not even have a trace of light. Li Mo was seated in a chair, facing a blank wall. His eyes were lifeless, like an idiot who had succ.u.mbed to hysteria.
“To be frank, the young lord isn’t experiencing any physical defects; his bodily functions are all working as per normal. It’s only that he suffered from quite a mental trauma. I’ve tested his brain, and though he’s sitting still, not moving an inch, with dull eyes, his brain is fluctuating wildly.
“What’s strange is that these nerve commands are hidden deep into the recesses of his mind, unable to be vented. They’re like floods, which won’t be stopped merely from blocking them out. There needs to create a means to discharge them, for all his bottled-up anger to be directed outward.”
A bespectacled doctor explained with a grim expression from behind a transparent gla.s.s door.
Li Guan was shocked. ” Doctor Lu, why would such a thing happen to young Mo? I recall that humans will often have the ability to regulate themselves… Shouldn’t he have found some other ways to vent out whatever anger he’s bottling up inside him?”
Doctor Lu shook his head. “That is usually the case, similar to how a man who gets scolded by his boss will end up venting his frustration on his wife. It’s also considered as a means to vent.”
“However, such a method is hardly adequate, and there’s no way to exhaust all the inner rage cleanly. Instead, it will only gradually acc.u.mulate over time. This is precisely the case for your n.o.ble son. With how he has no way of venting the emotions he’s been feeling recently, and given his cowardly personality, that’s how he ended up withdrawing into his mental prison, completely shutting himself off from the world due to his dissatisfaction with himself.”
Li Guan nodded. As a father, he knew very well what his son’s personality was like, and his cowardly nature was as if he had no figurative backbone to speak of. Meanwhile, Li Mo had been feeling so stressed lately was all due to Xia Fei’s existence; be it the Golden Finger Cup, Avril or even last night’s humiliation. Li Guan was convinced that Li Mo turning into an idiot now should all be credited into Xia Fei’s account.
Gritting his teeth, he cursed Xia Fei’s name several times in his heart.
“Doctor Lu, you’re the chief psychiatrist of the Alliance’s psychiatry department. You must surely have a way to save my son’s life,” Li Guan pleaded.
Doctor Lu furrowed his brows and sighed. “I do have a way, except…”
“Except what?”
“Except it might completely change your son’s personality. I have a drug, which has been banned for use in the Alliance, called Demonic Madness Powder. After administering it, it can completely break down a human’s inherent mental defenses, turning them into a primitive. As long as they experience any emotion, they’ll need to vent it immediately, completely forgoing repression.
“As such, all the repressed anger that your n.o.ble son is feeling will be directed outward, though that can also cause him to have a change in personality, going crazy. He’ll laugh whenever something happy happens to him but retaliates many times over if wronged. He’ll gain a completely stubborn personality that refuses to admit defeat no matter what.
“It’d be fine if this were any other commoner, but because your Li family is one of the top financiers in the Alliance, the young lord would be completely unsuitable to take up the family business if he were to attain such a personality, or partic.i.p.ate in anything close to negotiations. After all, there will be no way for him to hide what he’s feeling—he’ll be completely incapable of intrigue in any sense of the word.
“Worse will be the fact that the Demonic Madness Powder has a high possibility of driving the user mad. A desperate sort of madness, even turning into a murderous fiend when the murderous intent inside them surges to its worst, which was how the drug got its name.”
Li Guan was hesitant. He paced back and forth in the corridor for quite a few rounds, his eyes laying on his now idiot son for a very long time.
Li Guan slapped his thigh heavily. “Doctor Lu, please give the Demonic Madness Powder to my son. I, Li Guan, will shoulder any and all responsibility for whatever else that may happen.”
Doctor Lu was stunned. “Are you sure you want to do this? Though Li Mo is a bit of a shut-in and somewhat of a coward, he’s still a very obedient son. If he takes the Demonic Madness Powder, you may very well lose your filial son and have a savage one who is completely insane and gives in to his madness.”
Li Guan stubbornly nodded, his eyes radiating an emotionless coldness. “I’d rather have that for a son. The Li family has never had a coward in our bloodline, now and forever more.”
…
Xia Fei faced 144 meteors, and their speed and intelligence had all been boosted from before.
The difficulty of capturing all these utterly wily meteors was extremely difficult.
Another sunrise approached, and Xia Fei was leaning against the hill, exhausted. He was chewing on a piece of gra.s.s in his mouth.
…
“While the training difficulty of this meteor ball’s primary mode is very high, it’s very beneficial to your physical agility. In just this day and night, I’ve personally witnessed you slowly improve. Crafty Approach is also called the technique that pushes the limits of human flexibility, but over the last two days of training with the meteor ball, you’ve managed to push your Crafty Approach to greater heights. If you persist with this for long periods of time, I’m certain that you’ll be able to achieve peerless agility,” Phantom said in all seriousness.
Xia Fei nodded. “I’ll definitely keep pus.h.i.+ng myself. While speed is great, having flexibility is important as well.”
Returning to the hotel, he spotted Bean and his group already dressed in suits, looking fairly striking and appearing very excited.
“Brother Xia Fei, you’re back! We brothers have been searching for you the whole morning, but we’re unable to find you at all.” said the simple and honest Hammer as he approached him.
Xia Fei smiled. “I went out for a walk. Where are all of you off to?”
“To head to the fair, of course. All of us here are definitely looking forward to picking out some good stuff from there. Today’s the official opening of the carnival, so you’d better quickly get changed. We can all go together and have a look around,” explained the little person Bean very excitedly.
Xia Fei knitted his brows. “Heading off to the fair? Aren’t we standing here in the fair venue right now?”
It was the bespectacled Mosquito who shook his head earnestly. “Oh, no. Not at all. This is the trade carnival, while the real fair we’re talking about will only be held on the Thirteen Pearl Island. This is why the carnival is meant to be a place of celebration and gathering, whereas the trade fair is independent from the residential venue. It opens at a set time every day, where auctions, tagged pricing, or private transactions will all be accomplished there…”
Without even waiting for him to finish, the crafty Monkey slapped him at the back of his head.”Look at you speaking so gentilly, totally embarra.s.sing your bros!”
Xia Fei was speechless, uncertain whether it was the bookish Mosquito or the hooligan-like Monkey who was the one losing face.
“Brother Xia Fei, Planet Thousand Island has a total of 1111 islands, and thirteen of which form a circle, looking like a string of pearls. That’s why it’s called the Thirteen Pearl Islands. That’s where the trade fair will be taking place.”
Xia Fei nodded. He had spent the last two days focusing only on training with the meteor ball that he had actually forgotten to inquire about the rules behind the fair carefully.
Mosquito clutched the back of his head as he muttered to himself pitifully, “Isn’t that the same as what I just said.”
Xia Fei followed the twenty-odd princelings of the Adjudicator Union as they swaggered boldly out of the hotel. They hired a high-speed yacht by the pier and sped across the azure blue sea, going straight toward the Thirteen Pearl Islands.
Along the way, plenty of rapid pa.s.senger planes flew overhead, going in the direction of the trade fair. Many luxury liners were still on the sea, and their numbers were clearly more than what there was two days ago.
The jet-powered yachts were extremely fast, able to reach a speed of eight hundred kilometer an hour, so they arrived at the Thirteen Pearl Islands in under twenty minutes.
Looking from afar, these islands were even more majestic than the Sparrow Island, where Xia Fei was residing on. The terrain was also fairly even, with a single island having no problem accommodating over a hundred thousand people at any given time. Meanwhile, there were also more buildings here on these islands, so using them as the venue for the trade was far more suitable than those smaller, tourist islands.
Alighting from the yacht, Xia Fei followed the crowd and got ready to pa.s.s through inspection.
After Xia Fei verified his ident.i.ty and safely made it past, he found an excuse to separate from Bean and the others. These hooligans were clearly here to check out the chicks, and it was more important for them to join in the revelry in the trade than to search for treasures that they might need. Mixing around with them would surely invite plenty of trouble, which was why Xia Fei had decided to go off on his own.
The road was lined with stalls on both sides, and the ident.i.ty of these merchants was all apparent from the badge they wore. It was just that none of the goods they were hawking caught Xia Fei’s eye; he already had weapons of such quality like Celestial Moon and the b.u.t.terfly Serpent, so he was hardly interested in most that were on display.
There was a tower a distance away. He referred to the map, which informed what sort of items were being sold there. He saw that there was an exhibition hall, set up by a company called Extreme Force, dedicated to showcasing weapons and equipment made by it, at the tower.
“There ought to be some pretty decent items in such a large exhibition hall, right?” Xia Fei muttered to himself as he made his way over.
Five minutes later, Xia Fei found himself walking away in disappointment. It turned out that most of what was sold inside were thermal weapons, and they were the portable type. These were hardly a threat to a high-rank ability user like Xia Fei, unless they were weapons of ma.s.s destruction, and were much better suited to defenseless and frail commoners looking to defend themselves.
He took a look around several more exhibition halls and all Xia Fei felt was further dissatisfaction. Though the trade fair was huge in size, and the crowds were plenty, the items available were all fairly routine and normal. Could there be some trick to this?
Xia Fei could not make sense of it, so he decided to check out the other islands that were exclusively set aside for this fair; perhaps what was on offer in these other locations would be more suited for his needs.
Choosing a path off the beaten track, Xia Fei scanned through the items displayed on the stalls as he continued toward the pier.
Xia Fei realized that these stalls were not exactly completely stocked with useless trinkets but rather featured a mixed variety of goods. It was actually more interesting than the exhibition halls, since there would at least be novel items to be found.
Phantom was explaining to Xia Fei along the way, for he had a far more discerning eye than Xia Fei, able to play the role as an evaluator and advisor to what they came across.
A strong gust of wind from the sh.o.r.e came blowing landward, toppling a golden vase that a stall had on display, causing it to roll right over to Xia Fei’s feet. The old man tending to the stall quickly hurried over to retrieve it.
Xia Fei used his foot to stop it in motion, causing a transparent bracelet to fall out from inside due to inertia.
Xia Fei’s eyes lit up. “Hmm? What’s this?”