On March 14th, after nearly two weeks of trade negotiations, the human side finally finalized all trade details with the Star Scar Merchant Group represented by Mr. Ga.
The trade contract agreed upon by both parties consisted of five articles in total.
One: Humanity would lease the development rights of Cang Star to the Star Scar Merchant Group in exchange for 10% of future development dividends, foregoing a one-time rental fee in favor of technological support, with a lease term of one year.
Two: The Star Scar Merchant Group would conduct currency exchange trade with humanity, at a rate of one million Ascension Coins to one unit of purified chaos energy, with an initial exchange.
Three: The Star Scar Merchant Group would provide the Tianshui Star civilization with a series of advanced technologies, covering energy co-generation, matter conversion, gene compilation and optimization, and various other foundational fields, with the overall requirement being no fewer than one hundred items.
Four: If humanity were to lease or sell the development rights of Meltstar in the future, the Star Scar Merchant Group would have priority option rights.
Five: During the effective period of the Cang Star lease, the Star Scar Merchant Group could establish a liaison station on Tianshui Star, with no more than ten individuals stationed on-site.
Among these five trade articles, the one that consumed the most time in negotiation was the third.
The human side alone spent several days just compiling the list of advanced technologies they wanted, producing a super-massive list of over a thousand items.
One could well imagine that Mr. Ga could not accept this.
It indicated that trading so many technologies for the one-time rental fee of leasing Cang Star was far too much of a loss for the Star Scar Merchant Group.
The human side, naturally, argued its case with full force.
The two sides dragged out negotiations for several days, sometimes arguing for hours over a single detail without giving an inch.
This kind of dense, tug-of-war style of negotiation was extremely draining. Even without participating, merely watching from the sidelines felt exhausting.
Therefore, despite the entire negotiation process being live-streamed, as time passed day by day, the number of people choosing to watch online grew fewer and fewer.
People now only paid attention to how the contract, negotiated for so long, would finally be signed.
After Mr. Ga made clear its stance that it would only sign a contract with an Awakened One, the fact that the officials still treated the negotiations so seriously meant that once talks concluded, an Awakened One would be sent to sign.
But Han Qiu kept posting videos on his end, stating that he had not received an invitation from any nation's officials, which made the situation even more murky and confusing.
Additionally, the person who had proposed the smuggling trade during earlier negotiations voluntarily applied to withdraw from the negotiation team due to the subsequent flood of public opinion.
It was not until today that the viewer counts in the various live-stream rooms returned to their peak for the first time in a long while, because the officials announced that the contract would formally be signed with the Star Scar Merchant Group today.
Shortly after the small ascent-descent module carrying Mr. Ga landed on the ground, when a group of people appeared in the camera's view, one of them instantly detonated the barrage of comments across every live-stream room.
"Seriously??!!!"
"It's actually her!!!"
"Oh my god, I never expected the Awakened One to be my idol!"
The person who appeared in the shot was none other than the Dean of the Beixing Mind Power Development Academy, Shi Jingyi.
Today she wore a set of formal attire, a white shirt, black tie, plus trousers and leather shoes, looking as if she were an elite from the business or political world.
But the long hair, combed into a braid hanging down her back, made her aura more complex, blending elite competence with a martial artist's free-spirited ease.
She had only appeared in this image once before, when she assumed the position of Dean. For her to now appear on camera, no wonder it caused a sensation.
"Ever since I learned Awakened Ones existed, I've felt Shi Jingyi would be one of them. She's just too strong!"
"I feel the same. As a graduate of the academy from the next class, Lecturer Jingyi's strength has been underestimated by the Field. In actual combat, these so-called top-tier Ascendants might not be her match."
"I also think she's an Awakened One. Think about it, with so many people knowing her and liking her, how strong would her faith power be?"
"Wonderful! I'm relieved that Dean Shi is an Awakened One. She's my favorite Ascendant! Way better than that Han Qiu fellow!"
"If Shi Jingyi is an Awakened One, of course I'll support her. The year before last, she risked her life as a volunteer going to the epicenter. Not many powerhouses could do that."
The comments across the major live-stream platforms were full of surprise and delight, along with vast swathes of support.
In the meeting room of the Countermeasures Research Office, Gao Liangwei and the others were watching the live stream. On one large screen on the wall, the on-site feed played with zero delay, while another screen displayed the comments from countless netizens.
Among the attendees, someone looked at those comments and sighed with emotion: "The Higher-ups' judgment is indeed sharp. The decision to put Shi Jingyi forward was absolutely correct."
"This is her unique advantage, her popularity among the common people is simply too high. And as a teacher, she doesn't have such a strong sense of unity with the officials. Even people who dislike the officials won't hold much prejudice against her."
Everyone nodded upon hearing this.
Indeed, although teachers were also part of the "system," and some professors even had the opportunity to directly transfer to government office, belonging to a sort of official reserve in a certain form.
But most of the time, people did not associate teachers with officials, so in people's hearts, Shi Jingyi leaned more toward the common folk than toward officialdom.
While others focused on Shi Jingyi, Li Meng looked left and right, then lowered his voice: "Guan Tong didn't come along?"
After the Duanmu Feng and former Dean incidents, based on his understanding of Guan Tong, the latter was unlikely to let Shi Jingyi go alone.
Gao Liangwei heard Li Meng's words and said: "He should be on-site too, just not informing us."
"Is that so?" Li Meng looked toward Zhang Minglu. "Dr. Zhang, do you feel the same?"
Zhang Minglu stared at the tie Shi Jingyi wore on screen, made a few facial expressions, then said: "Don't you all think that tie of hers is a bit too black?"
Everyone looked carefully, and it did seem so.
They also understood Zhang Minglu's meaning. That did not appear to be a real tie, but rather a shadow transformed into a tie!
Zhang Minglu's insight was indeed keen.
Guan Tong was precisely manipulating his shadow, transformed into a shirt tie, hanging on Shi Jingyi's chest, accompanying her in action.
Through shared shadow senses, he could roughly stay synchronized with Shi Jingyi.
Those going to the scene this time were not only Shi Jingyi, but also the earlier negotiation team.
The team had negotiated for nearly two weeks, going back and forth several times, and skillfully used the safety tether lines to board the ascent-descent module.
Shi Jingyi, however, was like Mr. Ga and its kind. She gave a light push off the ground below, her body leaping lightly several meters high, directly jumping aboard.
Mr. Ga was waiting inside the module. When it saw Shi Jingyi, it immediately greeted her with far more enthusiasm than usual.
"Welcome, welcome! After so long here, I finally meet one of the same kind."
These words stung the hearts of quite a few people, including the negotiation team.
Especially Zhao Ming and the others on-site, who could clearly sense the change in Mr. Ga's attitude.
During the nearly two weeks prior, when Mr. Ga negotiated with them, those compound eyes barely restrained themselves at all, remaining almost perpetually in their natural scattered-focus state.
But this time, the moment Shi Jingyi appeared, its compound eyes became extremely focused. And its speech needed no mention. Before, it had never called anyone else "of the same kind."
This attitude difference, not even bothering to pretend, was enough to prove that humanity's judgment was correct. Mr. Ga was extremely arrogant, completely treating humans other than Awakened Ones as beneath notice.
Yet amid their dissatisfaction, everyone could not help but look at Shi Jingyi together.
So she really was an Awakened One?
There was no lack of Ascendants in the negotiation team. Zhao Ming and the others were all Ascendants.
But from Mr. Ga's earlier behavior, one could tell it knew these Ascendants did not include an Awakened One.
Now, the moment Shi Jingyi appeared, before she had even said a single word, it was already calling her "of the same kind"... This showed it could judge who the true Awakened One was.
"Hello." Shi Jingyi greeted it neither servilely nor overbearingly, then asked: "Why do you call me 'of the same kind'?"
Mr. Ga chuckled: "Awakened Ones across the sea of stars are all of the same kind."
Someone in the human negotiation team could not contain their anger and said with displeasure: "Only humans are the same kind as humans. How can you divide people by whether they are Awakened or not?"
Mr. Ga acted as if it had not heard that person at all, completely ignoring them, making the person's face turn purple with rage.
"Mr. Ga, may I ask, did you not hear what I said?"
Mr. Ga's head spun around, emitted a "chi chi" sound from its mouth, and only then spoke in human language: "Low-tier human, do not interrupt my conversation with one of the same kind."
"What did you say? You..."
Mr. Ga no longer paid that person any attention, turning back to smile at Shi Jingyi: "Please have a seat. Let us sign the contract."
But Shi Jingyi frowned: "Apologize to my compatriot first. He did not offend you, yet you insulted him."
Mr. Ga seemed quite surprised upon hearing this, as if it had heard something inconceivable.
It paused for several seconds. Seeing Shi Jingyi's resolute attitude, it gave a slight nod.
"Very well, I retract my earlier 'insult' and apologize to you." After saying this to that person, it spoke again to Shi Jingyi with a pointed meaning.
"My same kind, forgive me for forgetting that you must not have become an Awakened One for long, and are not yet accustomed to this identity."
"....."
From afar, Guan Tong, through the shared shadow senses, could feel the genuine sincerity in Mr. Ga's phrase "low-tier human."
This prompted a question to rise in his mind.
If Mr. Ga, this Awakened One, only regarded other Awakened Ones as its same kind, then what attitude did it hold toward the other "true same kinds" of its own Yinluo Civilization?
Would it also consider them low-tier?
If so, then what the Yinluo Civilization's current situation actually was became very intriguing.
If this civilization really had, as Mr. Ga said, passed all the trials of the Doomsday Rules... Could Mr. Ga's attitude toward ordinary individuals be related to this?
That was why it felt Shi Jingyi's failure to understand it was because she had not been an Awakened One for long.
In other words, after an individual becomes an Awakened One, do they all gradually become more and more like it?
Guan Tong thought back to when he had just mastered using his shadow to fly, hovering high in the sky overlooking the earth, when he had indeed also given rise to the thought that he had already transcended the scope of humanity...
At that time, he had promptly cut off that thought, not allowing it to develop further.
Now, looking at Mr. Ga, he thought that if he also became this kind of bastard in the future, then he would definitely be the first who could not accept it.
Moreover, Guan Tong had made another discovery.
By comparing the shadow sense-sharing with the computer live stream, he realized that this "live stream" actually had a delay, and not just one or two seconds, but on the scale of minutes...