"Gone?" he asked.

The twin sisters nodded together, the identical faces making it hard for Fang Hong to distinguish one from the other at first glance.

However, the tone of Elisa, the elder twin, was distinctive enough to recognize her, cultured and refined: "Please convey our thanks to Miss Atira for her hospitality," she said.

"Yes, yes, her charcoal-grilled mushroom slices were delicious, and her craftsmanship is amazing!"

Thus, Fang Hong knew that the food lover was the younger of the twins. The lively and adorable Alice smiled sweetly at him, "Also, thank you, Mr. Ade, for maintaining our Magic Guided Conductor for free. Our group is really so poor."

The more she spoke, the more outrageous her claims seemed, until she herself couldn't help but giggle in embarrassment.

Listening to this, Fang Hong couldn't help but laugh wryly.

Though the Rain Listener's Adventure Group might be somewhat obscure, suggesting they were poor was out of the question; after all, the Rain Listeners were in some respects a Grand Guild, and their only Adventure Group could hardly be lacking in funds.

Just by looking at their equipment, Fang Hong felt himself to be the true pauper. Although they had made a small fortune in Dolifen, by the standards of a top-tier Guild, that sum would barely suffice for one person, to say nothing of it being the budget for an entire Adventure Group.

And was there any piece of top-line quality equipment on the market that didn't cost a million or more?

Not to mention the Legendary Short Swords he had crafted. Though they were of a lower Level, they would still fetch at least two to three hundred thousand if sold. Unfortunately, those were no longer his to claim, and most of the materials had been provided by the Rain Listeners anyway, so Fang Hong forced himself not to turn green with envy at the sight of the 'Dawn' in Elisa's hand.

Luckily, Grant provided him with a sky-high fee for his services afterward, which somewhat soothed the sting in his heart, since no matter how he tried afterward, he couldn't forge a second Legendary Short Sword.

"If Jita is seeing you off, then I won't bother," Fang Hong replied, "Take care on your way."

"Hehe," Alice giggled, "Our team isn't too far from you guys; there's no need to worry about the road. Is Mr. Ade trying to play the role of my sister's guard?"

"Alice—!"

Seeing her own sister's furrowed brows, the twin sister couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Jita tugged at the back of her clothes with a frown, "Sister Alice, we need to go; the Crystal Lantern is running out of Magic Power."

"Got it, got it, Little Jita, why are you always so serious, you're so cute!"

Watching the three walk away, Fang Hong saw Alice do something that made Jita scream, followed by Elisa's chiding voice in the distance. He shook his head but felt as if a spark of inspiration for his previous work had caught his attention.

Fang Hong's brows furrowed again.

He felt as if he had grasped that fleeting spark of inspiration, yet there was a final threshold, as if it were blocked by paper, seemingly easy to puncture, but he couldn't quite break through.

Such a sensation was truly irritating.

"Crystal Lantern?"

"Crystal..."

He looked at the Clockwork Fairy in his hand, its opened Shell revealing the clear Seal Ring Component underneath. It was rather large, taking up quite a bit of space. But since the Clockwork Fairy was designed to be a Flexible Construct with agility as a priority, there was still a considerable amount of Margin left, somewhat like the principle of a bird's skeletal structure.

Just at that moment, Parker's somewhat noisy voice came down from the platform above.

"Where's my crystal? Big Cat People, such a large crystal, I clearly placed it here, how did it disappear? Did you see it?"

His voice was so loud that it startled a group of bats in the cave ceiling, which flapped their wings in disarray above everyone's heads for a while. Tianlan screamed sharply on the platform, then got into a scuffle with the Papalarians, causing chaos with chickens flying and dogs jumping.

In the end, it was Luo Yu who came and pulled the two apart. Atira's voice came from above, and Fang Hong could almost imagine the Elf Girl rubbing her eyebrows, looking annoyed as she scolded them both.

If it had been any other time, he would have burst out laughing.

But at that moment, he was frowning deeply, the thread of inspiration getting closer and closer, as if it would break through the soil at any moment. He only heard Reed, biting on his pipe, saying to Parker, "I saw Ade take your crystal."

"Ah," Parker exclaimed in surprise, "I knew it, that greedy Alchemist. Those alchemists, all of them, I should have understood earlier, they are even more insatiable than Giant Dragons."

"Parker, don't you dare mess with Brother Ade!"

"Don't worry, we Papalarians are not as petty as you little humans."

"What did you say!?"

"Parker, Tianlan!" Atira's voice drew out.

And with that, the platform finally quieted down.

Reed, somewhat teasingly, asked the Papalarian, "That doesn't sound like you, was that crystal not worth a lot of money?"

"The crystal..." Parker scratched his head.

"That crystal was originally 'borrowed' from the captain by Mr. Parker," Hilveld came out from her carriage with her maid, having listened to the whole debate, and then answered with a smile.

"Ah," Parker had a look of sudden realization, "That's right."

"Damn—," Fang Hong nearly blacked out and almost collapsed on the spot. He had felt somewhat guilty, wondering if he had accidentally taken something from the Papalarian again, which would have been too much of a coincidence.

As it turned out, the crystal was his in the first place.

The people on the platform started discussing other topics, but at that moment, Fang Hong was stunned, standing there mumbling to himself, "Wait, crystal... crystal..."

"Closed Loop Device, crystal..."

Suddenly he jumped three meters high: "I've got it, I've thought of a way!" Fang Hong ran back, grabbed the rope ladder and climbed up the platform, shouting as he climbed: "Parker, Parker! Quick, show me your Explosive Crystal!"

In Fang Hong's mind, that moment was like a streak of lightning—this typical Closed Loop Device, combined with the Crossbowman's Explosive Crystal. Issue a closed command, preemptively sever the connection with the Clockwork Fairy's Core Crystal, then let it fly straight and detonate.

Isn't this a perfect way to avoid psychic backlash?

Isn't this the embryonic form of the Rotao Fire Giant Spirit?

"Damn!" His scalp tingled with excitement, and only one thought dominated his mind: "Self-destruct Fairy, I'm going to be rich!"

...

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