Chapter 236 - 235: The Deal

Chapter 236: Chapter 235: The Deal

The Black man chattered on for quite a while, but upon closer inspection, it seemed he hadn’t revealed any substantial information at all.

All the locations he mentioned were vague descriptions. It was either "probably near the forest to the east" or "possibly in the direction of the Inverted Tower." He didn’t offer a single precise location, his speech filled with the uncertain tones of "maybe" and "probably."

Fortunately, Gu Su had come fully prepared this time, specifically bringing Crow’s Caw with him.

As soon as the Black man casually mentioned a general direction, Crow’s Caw would immediately take flight, swiftly dispatching the White Crow Swarm under its command. They would speed off in that direction, meticulously scouting the terrain and any clues along the way, verifying and compiling all useful information. Not a single suspicious location would be missed, which saved Gu Su the trouble of discerning the truth from the man’s words.

And through this gradual communication with the Black man, Gu Su, with his calm demeanor and candid tone, slowly won the trust of these Koba Deceivers.

Although these Deceivers stressed from beginning to end that there were no direct connections between the manors where they hid, and that they usually just focused on their own survival without interacting, Gu Su had already seen through their facade from their subtle expressions and inadvertent remarks.

They actually knew about each other, but out of a caution born from the need to survive, they were unwilling to reveal anything easily.

Gu Su was well aware that if he disregarded the Deceivers’ feelings and devoured their hidden manors on a large scale, the news would spread. The Deceivers in other manors would surely become wary of him, perhaps even uniting to fight him, which was an outcome he absolutely did not want to see.

Therefore, he had to carefully weigh his options and exercise caution in deciding the scale at which to devour the manors, striking a balance between satisfying the Graveyard Demon’s growth needs and not completely alienating all the Deceivers.

And this time, Gu Su’s Communication with these Deceivers was undoubtedly very successful.

After a frank conversation, they had established a preliminary level of trust. The Deceivers lowered their initial guard and were willing to conduct some basic resource trades with Gu Su for their mutual benefit.

These Koba Deceivers were survivors who had narrowly escaped the clutches of the Mill Flayer years ago. They were tainted with the Mill Flayer’s strange aura and had to cover their skin with large amounts of leather to avoid being tracked. For them, leather was a necessity to fight the strange curse and survive.

Because of this, the price of leather had always remained high within their survival economy.

In addition, the three seemingly abandoned stables, cowsheds, and sheep pens in the manor where they hid steadily produced a small amount of leather each week. Naturally, besides producing leather, there were also other byproducts.

The flesh and blood of the livestock served as their food, but the organs and bones were useless to them. They couldn’t be eaten, nor could they be used to cover their skin.

Over time, the organs and bones they had accumulated piled up like a mountain. They had been struggling with how to dispose of them, so they could only let the pile sit there, taking up space and creating a foul odor.

Now, Gu Su’s appearance gave them hope for getting rid of this "waste," and they immediately hit upon the idea of trading with him.

Gu Su’s interest was instantly piqued. To him, these seemingly useless organs and bones were a rare treasure.

After all, for the Undead, bones and flesh had a higher priority than leather.

If the Deceivers hadn’t already confirmed they were keeping the flesh for food, it would have likely been Gu Su’s main target.

Now, the focus of the trade was placed on the bones and organs.

Gu Su immediately decided to use his stockpiled leather goods to trade with these Deceivers.

And don’t think for a moment that Gu Su didn’t have any decent leather goods. After devouring the Six-legged Giant Lizard, he had unexpectedly acquired a Beast Hide Processing Plant. Although he currently lacked the manpower to properly manage the plant, Gu Su was by no means short on Skinning Techniques.

The pelts from the small creatures he had hunted before—rats, rabbits, snakes, lizards, squirrels, and the like—had all been carefully preserved by Gu Su. By now, he had used his Skinning Techniques to stitch them piece by piece into large sheets of tanned leather.

Later, after the battle with the Shige Rabbits, he had also collected a considerable number of rabbit skins. Most importantly, among them were two of Green Quality.

Initially, Gu Su had planned to use this leather to make Leather Armor for his Undead Team to increase their Defense.

But with the gradual maturation of the Saw Grass and Blood Waterflea, a better source of materials for making Leather Armor became available. This older leather was temporarily set aside and now seemed somewhat redundant.

In Gu Su’s view, using this idle leather to trade for much-needed bones and usable organs was an absolutely foolproof deal.

Having made up his mind, Gu Su immediately ordered his Undead to bring all the leather stockpiled in the Graveyard Demon before the Deceivers.

As for the exchange rate, they had already set a price at the beginning: one skin for two portions of bones, trading items of the same quality.

If the Deceivers could offer something better, the price was negotiable.

The Deceivers were also very straightforward. They immediately made good on their promise, delivering all the bones they had accumulated over the years in one go, forming a pile like a small mountain.

As for the organs, the Deceivers didn’t eat them, so naturally, they wouldn’t spend any effort preserving them. They would casually toss any excess organs into a dry well far from the manor. As long as it didn’t affect their own lives, they couldn’t be bothered with it.

After so many years, the dry well had long been filled with accumulated organs. Over time, the surrounding area had transformed into a rotten patch of land reeking of a foul stench. The ground was covered in viscous black mud, the air was thick with a nauseating, putrid smell, and not even weeds could grow on this soil.

Gu Su followed the Black man to take a look at the dry well. His brow furrowed slightly, and he immediately contacted the Swamp Forest, ordering all the Slimes raised there to come and deal with the rotten land.

These Slimes fed on decaying organic matter, so a rotten place like this was undoubtedly an excellent food source for them. Moreover, they could also transport this material.

Most importantly, Gu Su believed that this rotten land could have a strengthening effect on the Swamp Forest, and even on his Corroding Mycelium.

This could be considered the best deal Gu Su had ever made.

If the Deceivers hadn’t been somewhat resistant, Gu Su would have wanted to just use his Corroding Mycelium to pack up and take the entire dry well and the corrupted land with him.