During the most challenging early stages of his entrepreneurial journey, Li Cunxu would have desperately needed that crucial one gold coin. However, someone had already helped him through it—Chen Xi. Her assistance had made it unnecessary for him to seek that coin now.
Her one million, the ranch she gifted him, the Mech Hunters and Home Guard Dogs she hired—all of these provided Li Cunxu with immense convenience and support, allowing him to rapidly accumulate his initial capital.
Now, he wasn't as strapped for cash as before.
Naturally, there was no need for him to join the family and sell out his future.
But how could he make Xiao Ruan's sudden increase in strength seem reasonable without exposing his Blood Lotus Eye, thereby avoiding excessive suspicion from others?
Suddenly, an idea flashed through Li Cunxu's mind.
"Perhaps I can do this—disguise my Blood Lotus Eye as a Sacred Lotus Eye."
"That way, it would make sense for Xiao Ruan, a mere Slime, to be so strong."
"Coincidentally, the Pupil Technique·Blood Banquet Eucharist of the Blood Lotus Eye is quite similar to the Pupil Technique·Eucharist of the Sacred Lotus Eye. The Blood Banquet Eucharist can be disguised as the Eucharist, fooling others."
As for the other Pupil Technique, what if the Burning Lotus Blood Fire of the Blood Lotus Eye differed from the Holy Lotus Protection of the Sacred Lotus Eye?
Simple—just don't use it.
When awakening Pupil Techniques, there's an awkward situation called 'One-Eyed' or 'Half-Eyed.'
The so-called Half-Eyed refers to someone who has awakened the Sacred Lotus Eye but only partially—one eye is the Sacred Lotus Eye, while the other is an ordinary eye. Their Pupil Techniques are also halved compared to a complete Sacred Lotus Eye, with only one Pupil Technique and half the Pupil Power.
Disguising as Half-Eyed has one advantage: it allows him to avoid joining the Sacred Lotus Li Family.
The Sacred Lotus Li Family would still extend an invitation for Li Cunxu to return, but the pressure wouldn't be too great. Essentially, if he refused once, they wouldn't invite him again.
For Half-Eyed individuals, the attitude of the aristocratic families is generally indifferent—they wouldn't be granted core member status.
Before the Cataclysm, Half-Eyed individuals were called 'One-Eyed,' a highly derogatory term. The aristocratic families considered One-Eyed individuals a blemish on the family's image, a disgrace to the family, and would usually expel or eliminate them.
Those who awakened complete Pupil Art Eyes looked down on One-Eyed individuals with only half a Pupil Technique and half the Pupil Power, while those who hadn't awakened any Pupil Techniques would envy the One-Eyed. Thus, One-Eyed individuals occupied an awkward, middling position within the family.
Moreover, some deliberately slandered One-Eyed individuals, claiming that Half-Eyed individuals were the result of impure bloodlines, causing all Pupil Technique families to view 'One-Eyed' as a source of shame.
After the Cataclysm, the Old President intervened and managed the situation, freeing One-Eyed individuals from their plight of being hunted down and giving them a less discriminatory term: 'Half-Eyed.'
Even so, Half-Eyed individuals remained unloved and unwanted.
The family would still invite them, but only to prevent them from using their abilities outside and embarrassing the family.
As for how to disguise the blood-red Blood Lotus Eye as the golden Sacred Lotus Eye, Li Cunxu thought of colored contacts.
These colored contacts, of course, weren't ordinary ones.
They had to be specially crafted to disguise the Blood Lotus Eye as the Sacred Lotus Eye, and the other contact would need to meet the condition of disguising the left Blood Lotus Eye as an ordinary eye.
The first person Li Cunxu thought of who could create such advanced colored contacts was Master Jia from the Black Market in the Senmu District.
This Master Jia could create anything. He had once made contact lenses for the Sacred Lotus Eye, so lifelike that they perfectly mimicked the radiance and flow of the sacred lotus within the eye. Except for the inability to unleash Pupil Techniques, they were indistinguishable from the real Sacred Lotus Eye.
He had also forged Emperor Tools, and to this day, a group of Monarchs were still fighting over his counterfeit Emperor Tools.
The most crucial reason Li Cunxu sought him out was Master Jia's unparalleled level of confidentiality.
Master Jia never inquired about his customers' backgrounds. As long as someone paid, he would create anything for them, even for followers of the Evil Gods. He was absolutely neutral. Moreover, when it came to crafting confidential items, Master Jia would drink a Memory Erasing Potion after completing the work, erasing all memories of the item he had made.
The only downside was that his fees were quite high, and he only accepted cash.
"Forget about the Golden Slime for now."
Li Cunxu exchanged all the gold he had mined from the Vein Realm and the gold confiscated from Zhang Chiqian into cash, totaling seven million.
Looking at this sum, Li Cunxu sighed.
"It's a lot, but it won't last long."
In the Senmu District, at the black market, in a corner alley.
Li Cunxu, wearing a mask and a black cloak, turned the vending machine. The wall behind the vending machine slid open, revealing a door.
Those unfamiliar with the rules would get electrocuted upon pushing the door, regardless of whether they were made of gold or silver. If you were electrocuted within the black market's vicinity, chances were high that you'd wake up with all your belongings gone.
The correct way to enter was to say "Open Sesame" in perfect Mandarin and then bump into the wall to the left of the door, which would grant you access.
If your Mandarin wasn't standard, the consequences would be as painful as the force of your collision.
Inside was a dimly lit space, with sparse yellow streetlights lining the sides of the commercial street. A few cloaked figures hurried through the shadowy streets, their figures elongating and shortening under the lights, like wandering ghosts of the night.
This was the black market space, the real black market.
In a dimly lit tailor shop.
Li Cunxu spoke to an old woman who was knitting clothes:
"Truth is false, false is true, truth and falsehood intertwined. I seek the true master."
The old woman, focused on her knitting, replied without turning her head, "The second dressing room, in the mirror."
Li Cunxu pulled open the curtain of the dressing room, entered, and then closed it. He then walked toward the mirror.
The space within the mirror was a handmade workshop, with tools scattered messily on the floor and peculiar inventions decorating the room.
Master Jia, with silver hair and wearing a silver monocle, was holding a wrench and tapping on a wooden goldfish. The wooden goldfish, unimpressed, slapped Master Jia twice with its tail.
Li Cunxu revealed his Blood Lotus Eye and got straight to the point: "Master Jia, I want a contact lens to conceal my left eye, making it look like a normal eye. I also need one that can turn red into gold, allowing my right eye to mimic the Sacred Lotus Eye."
Upon seeing the Blood Lotus Eye, Master Jia showed no desire to investigate.
It was just a mutated eye; he had seen countless such eyes over the past thousand years.
He wasn't short on money either. He opened his shop in the black market merely to use the bizarre requests of his customers to spark his creative inspiration.
Although his memories would be erased, the inspiration generated during the process wouldn't disappear with the erased memories.
The two contact lens requests Li Cunxu made were too ordinary, lacking any technical challenge.
Master Jia, unenthused, said, "Two million for one lens, four million in total."
"Deal."
Li Cunxu promptly handed over the money.
Master Jia then took out two fish eye membranes and mixed various medicinal agents into them, completing the process in less than two minutes.
"It's done, give it a try!"
Li Cunxu put on the contact lenses made by Master Jia and looked into the mirror. The pupil of his left eye, which had transformed into a blood lotus, reverted to its original appearance, while the blood lotus in his right eye changed color, now shining gold, resembling a true Sacred Lotus Eye.
It perfectly met Li Cunxu's requirements.
Li Cunxu took out 500,000 and placed it on the table, "Master Jia, please keep this confidential."
"You know the rules well,
unlike those who come here for the first time."
Master Jia glanced at Li Cunxu and said.
Is being too familiar with the rules also a flaw?
Isn't that a bit convoluted?
(End of Chapter)