The most terrifying thing is when the air suddenly goes still.

Yue'an waited for quite a while but didn't receive a nod or agreement from the other party, leaving him feeling puzzled.

Still at the stage of pure mimicry in speech, and having never haggled over prices before, the little kitty didn't even know what "rounding down" meant.

He had simply memorized the three sentences Ji Xiujun had used when buying spirit stones before, and repeated them verbatim.

"High-grade energy crystals. How many do you have?"

"The price?"

"I'll take them all. Round it down to 120 million."

Yue'an understood the first two phrases, and even part of the last one - just the first two words, "take all".

Yue'an silently watched the speechless merchant, vaguely sensing that he had probably made some kind of mistake.

He didn't speak.

He didn't know what he should say.

There weren't any prepared phrases for him to use at this moment, given that he had only learned to speak yesterday.

The merchant felt that this exchange sounded oddly familiar - the last person who had wanted to buy everything had left quite an impression. Thinking back carefully, weren't these the exact same words as before?

He was stunned for a moment, then scrutinized the youth before him carefully before tentatively saying, "Customer, the price of high-grade energy crystals fluctuates."

Yue'an tilted his head slightly, not understanding what this had to do with him.

The merchant, thrown off by this reaction, tried again: "How about we round it down by 10,000 as usual? That's the maximum discount - 1.35 million."

He paused, then added, "Per crystal."

Hearing this, Yue'an immediately understood where he had gone wrong before.

The little cat remained silent for a good while, maintaining his completely expressionless face. He cut off the latter part of Ji Xiujun's original last sentence, keeping only the part he understood, and said simply: "I'll take them all."

The two parties reached a perfect consensus, and the merchant's expression immediately relaxed.

This person hadn't denied his earlier statement, so there was a 90% chance it was the same big customer from before.

Big customers were great.

Generous, straightforward, swiping their cards without hesitation. Not short on cash.

The merchant happily took out the card machine from under the counter, punched in some numbers, and said, "The deposit is 54 million."

One good thing about the black market - no taxes.

A single large transaction was enough to feed the entire store's supply chain for quite a while.

This year's luck was truly excellent, with two big orders in a row.

It's worth noting that when they stock 800 high-grade energy crystals at once, based on previous years' sales, it's enough for the store to sell for a year. In a bad market, they might not even sell out in a year.

The merchant watched the youth take a card out of his pocket, smiling. As his gaze swept over the card's surface, he paused slightly.

This card looked exactly the same as the one used by that military man who had bought out all their remaining stock last time.

It wasn't that there was any special mark on it, but black market merchants had a habit of leaving a subtle trace on anything that could help them recognize their big customers.

After all, it was quite normal for people entering and exiting the black market to change their body type, facial features, skin color, or even species each time. They needed some way to recognize them.

This merchant was in the habit of secretly leaving a tiny scratch on the surface of the customer's magnetic card.

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These old-fashioned magnetic cards were all of mediocre quality, making it very easy to leave a uniquely shaped scratch that couldn't be repaired. It was very easy to identify for big customers of large stores like theirs.

So it really was the same big customer from last time.

The merchant thought as he swiped the card, now openly appraising Yue'an's appearance.

This customer's image was much more pleasing to the eye than last time, exceptionally delightful to look at. He just wondered which actor this image was based on - he had never seen it before.

After swiping the card, the merchant returned it to Yue'an, then led him into the warehouse.

He pushed out a box one size larger than the previous one, opened it to reveal it was full of energy crystals emitting a faint purple glow.

"Please count them, customer," he said.

Yue'an was quick at counting, especially when it came to spirit stones and tails.

In just ten short seconds, he had swiftly counted everything.

Complete, eight hundred pieces, not one missing.

Yue'an nodded with great satisfaction, paid the remaining balance, skillfully closed and locked the box, then tapped a button on top. Wheels extended from the bottom of the box.

The merchant, observing his practiced movements, followed along as usual when the youth turned towards the exit.

Yue'an glanced at him.

The merchant still wore that same smile and, seeing Yue'an look over, asked, "Have you used up all the energy crystals you bought last time?"

Yue'an looked at him and nodded slightly.

The merchant, noting Yue'an's lazy demeanor so unlike the military bearing from last time, suddenly realized that the previous visit might have been a deliberate disguise.

Thinking of the information he had spread, he suddenly felt a bit embarrassed: "You're not from the military?"

Hearing this, Yue'an shook his head.

The merchant rubbed his hands together and asked, "May I be so bold as to ask where you got that disguise device?"

Yue'an had already reached the elevator doors. Hearing the merchant's question, he was slightly taken aback.

Huh?

"It looks so good!" the merchant praised, adept at flattering big customers. "I haven't seen such a finely made, attractive disguise device with special functions in a long time."

Yue'an made a mental note about this "disguise device," pushed the box into the elevator, turned to face the still-smiling merchant, thought for a moment, then nodded.

The merchant interpreted this as satisfaction with his flattery.

Yue'an watched the elevator doors close, his hand resting on the box beside him. A second before the doors opened at the exit, both he and the box vanished from within the elevator.

As expected, there were people lying in ambush at the exit this time too, intending to rob the robbers.

News spread fast in the black market, and Yue'an hadn't made any effort to conceal himself, so naturally, there were quite a few people waiting.

Yue'an floated slightly with the box, passing silently and swiftly through the ambushed corridor, then continued on without pause, openly returning to where he had parked.

Yue'an felt this trip had gone extremely smoothly.

Get in the car, go home, then wait to knock out Ji Xiujun's teeth and nail them to the wall.

Yue'an happily floated to the busy parking lot on the outskirts of the market.

Countless people were coming and going around him, some empty-handed, others pushing boxes identical to Yue'an's.

Yue'an landed, opened the car door and climbed in, dispelling both his invisibility and human form. He emerged from the pile of clothes, hooked the box and pulled it into the car.

But what he never expected was that just as he had readjusted to his original form's keen senses, he heard a series of rapid footsteps pounding towards him.

Yue'an's ears perked up alertly, and he extended a paw to quickly pull the car door shut.

But just as there was only a small gap left, the door was forcefully yanked open. A panic-stricken youth with tear-stained cheeks rushed in, then spun around and slammed the door shut with a "bang."

"Quick, start the car! Run!" The youth turned around, his voice choked with tears. Seeing the white cat crouched to one side, looking up at him, man and cat stared at each other for a second. Then the youth burst into tears, frantically hugging the milk-white kitty in panic. "Save me! Quick, contact Ji Xiujun!!"

Yue'an: "..."

???

Marshal Ji had been feeling his eyelid twitching all day, from the start of the court session right through to the end.

Even though the defense had completely given up struggling, throughout the day's proceedings, Ji Xiujun's lawyers had thoroughly announced all the charges. Those standing in the dock had confessed to their experiments without reservation and showed not the slightest hint of remorse.

This undoubtedly enraged the jury and the observing public.

People turned against them en masse. In the midst of the chaos, the angry jury, mediated by the judge, added two charges of intentional injury and illegal detention on top of the violations of interstellar law.

The subsequent hearings would no longer require Ji Xiujun's presence.

Everything should have gone smoothly.

But Marshal Ji's eyelid hadn't stopped twitching.

As he walked out of the Supreme Court and was about to activate his neural computer, he had barely taken a step when someone stopped him.

Marshal Ji looked at the person blocking his way - it was the Emperor's secretary.

At this moment, the secretary's face was filled with anxiety as he gestured for Ji to move to the side.

Ji Xiujun rubbed his eyelid, checking his neural computer, wondering if something had happened to the young Emperor to cause such urgency.

As Marshal Ji was thinking this, he suddenly noticed a record of a transfer of over a billion credits in his mailbox, with the recipient marked as blank.

Over a billion credits.

Transferred to a blank recipient.

Ji Xiujun: "..."

Looks like my cat has started buying his own cat food.

Ji Xiujun wasn't worried about Yue'an getting into any trouble, given his combat abilities.

Marshal Ji paused slightly at this thought, feeling that something still wasn't quite right.

By this time, the secretary had pulled him into a corner and urgently whispered, "His Majesty has disappeared!"

Ji Xiujun's scattered thoughts instantly snapped back into focus.