Xizhe watched the performance of the small wooden stick, furrowing his brow deeply, unable to refrain from reaching out his hand to stop it. But it was of no use; as soon as he let go, the small wooden stick imdiately began to spin wildly again.
"This—"
Xizhe’s brows ford into a knot, and the next mont, he pulled out the small wooden stick, his gaze sharpened. With a "crack," he directly broke the wooden stick into two parts, one left and one right, inserting them separately into the soil in front of him.
As a result, upon entering the soil, the wooden sticks began spinning in circles again, one left, one right, as if possessed.
"This—"
Feeling completely puzzled, Xizhe couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Su beside him, seeing Su open his eyes and shaking his head at Moli, clearly not having lost the blue seal’s trail.
Then...
The atmosphere in the field grew oppressive, everyone’s eyes were cast downward, especially Hulk, knowing he had made a huge mistake, dared not even take a deep breath.
Only the two small wooden sticks inserted into the soil spun faster and faster, looking imnsely joyful, emitting a "whoosh whoosh" sound.
Feeling irritated, Xizhe waved his hand intending to retrieve the wooden sticks.
Just then, the two small wooden sticks stopped simultaneously, both pointing in one direction.
Hmm?
Before anyone could react, the wooden sticks flew out like bullets, whistling towards a distant patch of transparent air.
After flying dozens of ters, the wooden sticks seed to crash into transparent glue, their speed sharply decreased, slowing more and more, looking as though unable to maintain flight, about to fall.
At this mont, a hand appeared from the air, catching the two wooden sticks.
Following this hand, an arm erged from the air, then a shoulder, head, torso, eventually forming a complete person—Richard.
Moli and her group’s gazes quickly fell on Richard, accurately speaking, on Richard’s other hand, which boldly held a seal, none other than their blue seal.
"Seems like you’re looking for sothing. Is it this?" Richard glanced over at Moli and her group, slightly raising his hand, asking softly.
Moli’s expression beca sowhat intricate, Su’s eyes kept flickering, the elderly Xizhe’s mask obscuring his face, but his persistently rubbing fingers revealed unrest within.
The most reactive was Hulk, eyes wide open, staring at the seal in Richard’s hand, initially sowhat unbelievable, then thinking of a certain possibility, loudly asking, "How... how did you get it?"
Richard glanced at Hulk without answering, instead looking at Moli and calmly said, "Such a valuable thing, you ought to keep it well. I imagine you had guarded against my grabbing it right? Hence you chose to place it on ’the one who shouldn’t possess it.’ A good idea, just the result is..."
At the end, Richard shook his head, his expression sowhat lanting.
He didn’t explicitly state whether he retrieved it from Hulk by so thod or if Hulk lost it and he found it. In fact, it didn’t need stating, as it was no longer significant.
The crucial point was, he now had two seals, mastering all conditions for entering ancient relics. What he lacked currently was the precise location, access thod, and intelligence Moli and her group possessed about the relics.
In other words, previously, he wasn’t dominant, but now the scale of dominance has substantially tipped towards him.
And this was the real purpose of his ga with Moli’s group: he knew well, the victory or defeat of the ga, whether or not showing power, was rely occupying leadership superficially. So long as each side held a seal, any party could renegotiate, with no possible alternative. After all, only cooperation between two parties could unlock the tomb.
But now, it’s different. Having acquired two seals, he could choose to cooperate with Moli’s group, or not to. Choosing the latter might require considerable ti to locate the true site of ancient relics, the exploration being arduous. But regardless, he can at least explore, whereas Moli’s group without his cooperation, cannot even enter the relics.
Richard smiled and looked at Moli, speaking gently, "Well now, the ga is over. My terms remain unchanged, having won the ga, we must split the relic exploration gains fifty-fifty—that’s fair. You can agree, and then we’ll set off imdiately. Of course, you may decline, and I’ll find my own way—all up to you."
Upon hearing this, Moli’s n all turned sidelong glances at Hulk, clearly with an accusing air: Had Hulk not lost the seal, the situation wouldn’t be this way.
Embarrassed beyond asure, Hulk couldn’t help but lower his head, occasionally gazing at Richard, his expression sowhat angry.
Moli maintained her composure, calmly contemplating Richard’s words. After a while, she spoke up, "Fair... I thought after getting the two seals, you would seize the chance to demand a greater share."
"I did consider that," Richard said faintly, not intentionally portraying moral superiority, explaining, "However, I knew that if I squeezed your interests excessively, you might abandon cooperation, choosing to make trouble for .
If you abandon cooperation, I would lose the relics’ address and ample intelligence, requiring considerable ti to replace these lacks, and my ti is very valuable, unwilling to do so.
Moreover, if you choose to cause trouble, it would be worse, such as ambushing at the relics’ entrance attempting to attack, even following into the relics, deliberately provoking so disaster before withdrawing.
I explore relics just to see what they look like and acquire so intriguingly researched items, effectively breaking my current research impasse. I value this exploration quite a lot but not to the point of necessary success. Hence, I aim to do it well, but don’t need to aggressively pursue it.
Therefore, I emphasize fairness. In the relics lie items both you desire and I want, cooperative exploration, fair division, benefits you and ."
"I must admit, you’re more rational than I thought," Moli responded upon hearing.
"Thank you for the complint. As long as you accept, there’s no issue, let’s set off then," Richard replied.
"Wait a mont," Moli spoke, still striving to secure her own interests, looking at Richard, "No rush, it’s better to clear up so issues."
"What?"
"Although you’ve established the fairest way of division—half for each, how exactly will it be implented?" Moli inquired, "For instance, if there’s an item we both desire, how do we decide ownership?"
"You can use the thod of alternately selecting. For instance, upon entering the relics, the first item belongs to you, then the second item must belong to , the third item again belongs to you, the fourth item yet again belongs to . During this process, you can temporarily waive your ownership, giving all to , in exchange for ownership of nurous consecutive items later."
"But your thod can only allocate items of similar value." Moli comnted, "The premise is determining items’ value, if undetermined, then what? For instance, several unidentifiable valued damaged magic tools and a pile of powdery magic material with unclear function."
"Easily handled," Richard listened, practically without hesitation, replying, "This represents math’s simplest two-person cake cutting problem."
"Hmm?" Moli seed not to have heard clearly, asked, "What’s that an, explain."
Two minutes later, she began regretting uttering those words.
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