Chapter 95

After seeing off his sister and Wang Xiao, Su Jing received a call from Peng Ming.

Peng Ming's voice, brimming with excitement, came through the phone: "Ah Jing, the cricket you gave me is truly amazing, it’s a real fighter."

Su Jing smiled, though he had never seen the cricket fight, he wasn’t surprised by its prowess, given how much of the Everlasting World's fallen leaves it had eaten. He said, "I haven’t even seen it fight. How is it so powerful?"

Peng Ming spoke rapidly, "In the first three matches, it didn’t even need to fight; its chirping alone scared the opponents away. In the following matches, it almost always won with a single move, either pinning the opponent to the ground or biting off its antennae or legs. It was fast, accurate, and ruthless. Even a well-known black general cricket was defeated in one move. Everyone at the cricket fighting arena was almost driven mad by it. Many people wanted to buy it, and the bids kept getting higher. In the end, the boss I accompanied offered the highest bid—50,000 yuan. Will you sell it?"

Su Jing was taken aback. Although many people engaged in cricket fighting, and some even placed private bets, the stakes in cricket fighting were generally not as high as in dog fighting, so the price of crickets was usually not that outrageous. A price of 50,000 yuan was unimaginably high. However, Su Jing said, "No, I won’t sell it."

Peng Ming was surprised, "You won’t sell it for 50,000 yuan? Didn’t you say it’s just a bug?"

Su Jing smiled, "I can cultivate many more crickets that are slightly less powerful but still much stronger than ordinary crickets. What do you think?"

Peng Ming immediately understood Su Jing’s intentions and said excitedly, "Really?"

Su Jing said, "Why would I lie? Keep that cricket. When you have time, take it to fight and build its reputation. Also, keep the contact information of those who want to buy it. Later, you can give them some slightly inferior crickets, and you can earn back the money quickly, from 1,000 to 10,000 yuan per cricket."

The reason Su Jing didn’t want to sell that cricket was mainly because it had eaten too many fallen leaves from the Everlasting World and was cultivated too well. If he sold it, the level of cricket fighting in the market would be raised too much. He would need to cultivate crickets of the same level to sell at a high price, which would waste too many fallen leaves. Therefore, it was better to keep it, control the market level, and then select some good varieties to cultivate, feeding them fewer fallen leaves. The crickets he would cultivate should still be among the best in the market.

Su Jing and Peng Ming agreed that Su Jing would be responsible for cultivating the crickets, while Peng Ming would handle the sales, with a 70-30 split. Su Jing clearly gave Peng Ming a significant share, and even with 30%, the money would likely exceed Peng Ming’s salary.

Su Jing went to the pet market and picked out a hundred crickets, each costing an average of 30 yuan. These crickets were actually better in variety than the one Su Jing had previously cultivated, which was just an ordinary cricket, probably only worth five yuan. Therefore, these crickets should be easier to cultivate and would save more fallen leaves.

Su Jing divided a large box into over a hundred compartments using a grid-shaped plastic board, placing one cricket in each compartment. Crickets cannot be kept together, or they will fight each other, leaving them all with missing limbs. When Su Jing was young, he once caught dozens of crickets in the fields and put them all in a jar. To his dismay, almost none of them were intact when he brought them home, with the worst one left with only two legs, which made him very upset for several days.

After settling the crickets, Su Jing selected some "Queen of Light" butterfly larvae and cultivated them with the fallen leaves from the Everlasting World. The ones he cultivated with ordinary leaves still grew extremely slowly, which was convenient for Su Jing to manage, allowing him to cultivate as many as needed. Additionally, several butterflies had already laid eggs, and he estimated at least a few thousand would hatch. The "Queen of Light" butterflies on Earth had very weak reproductive capabilities, leading to their near extinction in the wild. However, these "Queen of Light" butterflies from the Everlasting World were not only more beautiful but also had an incredibly strong reproductive ability.

Su Jing then fed some fish meat to the other cats and dogs. To be honest, buying so many dogs, even if they ate ordinary fish meat every day, was a significant expense, and an average family couldn’t afford it.

"Woof woof." Doulang ran to Su Jing’s feet, rubbing against his leg and whining pitifully.

"What’s wrong?" Su Jing squatted down and petted its head.

"Woof woof." Doulang barked again, biting Su Jing’s pant leg and leading him to the side. Su Jing followed it until they stopped by the refrigerator. Doulang jumped onto the fridge and pawed at the lid, as if trying to open it.

"Uh... Does this guy know the monster meat is inside?" Su Jing’s eyes widened. To be safe, he never let the cats and dogs see him take out the monster meat, and the fridge sealed the smell, so they couldn’t smell it. However, it seemed Doulang had caught a whiff of it. As the offspring of a lord-level monster, its sense of smell was indeed very sharp.

"Get down, no fooling around." Su Jing said sternly.

"Woof woof." Doulang whined pitifully but, having been mostly tamed by Su Jing, dared not disobey. It jumped down and rubbed against Su Jing’s leg, looking more like a dog than a lord-level monster’s offspring.

"Go wait in the yard." Su Jing said, and Doulang obediently ran to the yard. Su Jing then took a small piece of monster meat and went to the yard to feed Doulang as a reward for being well-behaved.

As Su Jing approached the carnivorous vine, he noticed it had more flower buds, about dozens of them, though they hadn’t bloomed yet. Looking at its base, his eyes lit up; three of the thirteen willow branches had sprouted tender green buds, indicating they had taken root.

"Vine, continue to take care of these thirteen willow branches and make them all sprout, okay?" Su Jing said.

"Ah yeah." The carnivorous vine answered obediently, even reaching out its vines to touch the three sprouted willow branches, as if seeking praise.

"Good, I’ll give you a piece of monster meat as a reward." Su Jing gave the carnivorous vine a small piece of monster meat, making it chirp happily. The carnivorous vine was still very naive and easy to fool.

After finishing these tasks, Su Jing started his own routine—exercising and cultivating his mental power. A healthy body was the capital of the revolution, and personal strength was the greatest guarantee. The old man who was nearly dead could still use mental power to kill him, so what would happen if a skilled and uninjured expert or a powerful monster came next time?

Therefore, in Su Jing’s view, besides making money to build the skyscraper and keeping the secret of the interdimensional garbage station, another important task was to enhance his strength and be prepared for any eventuality.

(P.S.: Thank you to everyone who has supported me with donations: I Love Novels, Magic Seal, Riding a Turtle to Work, yab374403624, Gunshot Dongge, So Flamboyant, Dragon Wu v Supreme, I Love Moisture, ~qing, Proud Mage, AAsadsdd, sihaizhizun, Xinyuan?, Xinyuan?, zx1371139353, ###yao###, Fufu Fu, You Min, Dragon Wu v Supreme, Book Friend 121026005814325, Reckless Person, The Road Ahead Has Two Sides, I’m Here to Troll, Song Zirui, Riding a Turtle to Work, Whiteboard Xiaocai, Whiteboard Xiaocai, Fan Yiduzai, Liu Xiufeng, and many others. Thank you for your continued support despite the slow updates. My neck has been very sore, especially near the back of my head, making me drowsy and unable to keep my eyes open. It’s better now, and I’m speeding up the updates.)