Chapter 161 - "Uhh... Sure?"

Fumio steps out of the portal into a huge dark place. He already expected Red to be waiting for him outside the portal because he followed the man out. However, he is surprised of Dominic Little's presence, the man holding a big LED lamp.

"Hey there." He greets the man.

"Hey kid." Dominic nods in return.

"What are you doing here?" Fumio asks.

"What? I can't be in my own territory?" Dominic asks in return.

"Huh?" Fumio frowns in confusion.

"We're in Australia, buddy." Dominic smirks.

"Huh… Well. Nice." Fumio is stunned.

"Yeah. Incredible, isn't it? One second, you're in Hinohara, in the next second, you're in Queensland." Dominic shakes his head in amazement; him traveling to Red's cave back in Hinohara and back just a few minutes ago through the treasure dimension, is still fresh in his mind.

"And oh. Are you thinking of adding some cows to your farm? I can get you thousands of calves if you want."

Red's vertical farms also made a huge impact on him.

"In fact, I am… My coffee shops in Japane are about to open. I will need some milk and whipped cream." Red nods as he gestures Dominic to lead them out of the cavern.

As the three walk into a tunnel, "Hm?" Fumio notices shiny things sticking out of the tunnel walls.

He summons a ball of flame on his hand for extra light and looks closer at the wall.

"Gold?" He then touches the yellow-colored object in interest and slight greed.

But as he scratches the nail on his thumb on it, he realizes that it is not metal.

"Pyrite." Dominic says.

"Oh." Fumio retreats his hand and resumes to follow Dominc and Red in disappointment.

"Isn't this a bit paranoid and overkill, Dominic? Putting the wood chip in an abandoned gold mine?" Red chuckles.

"Am I? With how valuable that wood chip is?" Dominic looks at Red as if Red is the one crazy.

"Fair enough." Red shrugs.

"But. This place looks untouched in… say a few decades." He notices.

"It is. But the mining stopped not just a few decades ago, but a hundred and fifty years ago." Dominic corrects.

"During the Great Harvest, the Great War, and the World War, this has been the sanctuary of my family." He explains.

"More like a glorified bunker." Fumio comments.

"Kid, what's your problem?" Dominic stops walking and glares at Fumio.

"Whoah." Fumio raises his hands up to his chest.

"I didn't mean to offend. I'm sorry." He apologizes.

"But what's up your butt?" He asks however, not finding anything he said potentially offensive.

"Until you've wiped the milk off your lips, and get a bit of danger in your eyes, watch your words and tone with me, kid." Dominic harrumphs.

"Heheh…" Red chuckles.

"…" Fumio's ego takes a hit and he shuts up.

Red not having his back also makes him feel embarrassed.

"Coffee shops, huh." Dominic turns his attention to Red.

"If your coffee beans come from that incredible farm and garden of yours, it can only be killer. I mean, I've had your tea and it must be the best cup of tea I've ever tasted."

"*ugh*" Fumio scoffs, feeling a sycophantic vibe from Dominic.

"What?" Dominic hears Fumio.

"Nothing. Just clearing my throat." Fumio comes up with an excuse.

"But you're right. Boss' coffee is just as good as his tea." He adds.

Dominic is pleased by Fumio's change in attitude.

"Anyway. I heard that Japanese clans have a very tight surveillance on non-clan affiliated business, as if their very stringent business registration process is not already enough. But if you start your business in my territory? And if your coffee will be the best around? You'll rake in money immediately." He tells Red.

"If I recall correctly, the global coffee revenue back in the turn of the millennia was a quarter of a trillion US dollars. That was equal to the entire revenue Australia's mining industry that year. I don't know how much the coffee industry grew since then, but it has to be huge." He starts rambling.

"Buddy. I'm only opening five coffee shops." Red chuckles.

"Okay. Sure. But what if I help you turn it into a coffee empire? Just headquarters your company in my country. I'll give you tax breaks too." Dominic offers.

"How much tax break? I heard that Australia has quite the high business tax. Not to mention the income tax." Red asks Dominic.

"…" Dominic has not thought that far.

"Half?" Red asks with a smirk.

"…" Dominic is stunned.

"Come on… that's." He is too offended that he becomes speechless.

"How about the Little Family hold 25%, and all you'll have to worry about are coffee beans, and other ingredients. I'll worry about building the infrastructure and the expansion of your business worldwide through my connections.

"As for tax break, I'll give you 25% too. Oh. I can give you and your… group, every one of them, Australian citizenship too." He bargains.

"Fumio. Wanna have a dual citizenship?" Red asks Fumio.

"Uhh… sure?" Fumio shrugs.

"But, if I may speak freely?" He turns to Dominic.

"Yes?" Dominic is pleased with Fumio's attitude, though it has a tinge of fakeness in it.

"Aren't you counting the eggs before they're hatched?" Fumio asks.

"I am." Dominic admits.

"But I'm that confident with your master's crops. Why aren't you?" He smirks.

"I am. It's just… expanding worldwide? I don't know how Starbos Coffee did it, but I'm guessing they have great backing to do have achieved it." Fumio shrugs.

"Ever wonder why Australia, with its size, and its small population, only has two S-Class Superiori in it but it's still left alone?" Dominic asks.

"Uhhh… Because it's not worth conquering?" Fumio chuckles.

"Fair enough." Dominic admits.

"But also, because me and Argus are friends with over half the western world. We're even friends with the S-Class of Japan." He explains.

"ah…" Fumio nods, understanding that if Dominic is well-connected, then making a coffee empire is doable, especially if the product speaks for itself.

"Let's talk about this some other time." Red interrupts the two.

"Did you gather what I've asked for?" He asks Dominic.

"I did. But you should have told me to bring them." Dominic nods.

"I didn't expect you to find them easily." Red shrugs.

"Can you get them for me right now? I don't think I need a tour from you." He asks Dominic.

"You sure? This place is a maze." Dominic says.

"I am. You'll find us at the deepest levels of the mine. Is it okay if I remove the furniture in it?" Red says.

"… How did you know?" Dominic is surprised.

"It won't make a difference whether you know it or not." Red shrugs.

"Very well." Dominic is not worried for Red's safety and leaves Fumio and Red alone.

"Boss… This place." Fumio takes a deep breath.

"Yes." Red nods. "Mines in general, are rich in spiritual energy." He explains.

"I see. Are mines within natural spiritual energy gathering formations?" Fumio asks.

"No." Red shakes his head.

"It's only because it held spiritual energy conductive materials like gold, is why it's rich in spiritual energy." He explains.

The two soon reach the deepest levels of the mine.

"This place is huge." Fumio says as he scatters balls of flames in each corner of the cavern.

"Don't tell me you're building another base here?" He asks Red with a chuckle.

"No. I don't like man-made caves." Red replies as he pulls out something out of his storage ring.

"… Whoah…" Fumio is in awe seeing a house-sized, hexagonal shaped structure made out of yellow metal. He can also see the edges of the structure has intricate lines carved on them.

"These… are seals." Fumio cannot help but notice the familiar looking spiritual energy gathering seals.

He further notices that not only are the seals carved intricately, they are also connected to each other and are arranged in patterns, and those patterns give shapes to different parts of the structure.

"Seal formations to be exact. It's just like the eight spiritual gather seal plates you used to use when cultivating in the city." Red explains.

"I see." Fumio nods.

"But that 'formation' is only two dimensional. This… structure is three dimensional." He comments.

"That's right. But that could barely be called a seal formation. This right here, is what a seal formation looks like." Red nods.

"And. Don't try to examine it. It's tens of levels above your proficiency." He adds.

"Damn." Fumio shakes his head.

"How long did it take you to make this?" He asks Red.

"A few hours? I'm not sure." Red says as he folds a some parts with his bare hands, doing some final adjustments to the seal formation.

"A few hours…" Fumio sighs.

He knows that one wrong move in carving or drawing a seal will scrap the material, and for Red to make the most complicated seal work he has ever seen, with a very expensive type of material, impresses him very much.

Looking at the seals any further however, is starting to make his head spin because of how complicated they are.

"So… This is where all the gold you got from Darcy went?" He gives up trying to figure out how the seals work.

"That's right." Red confirms.

"And you didn't waste any of them?" Fumio asks.

"No. I'm not like you and the others who are shitty in making seals." Red chuckles.

Fumio rolls his eyes.

"What are those?"

He then sees Red pull out blocks upon blocks of Himalayan rock salts and puts them in the middle of the seal formation.

"Himalayan salts." Red says before activating the seal formation.

*VVWWOOMM*

Fumio gets startled by the sudden and very violent movement of the atmospheric spiritual energy around them.

He recovers quickly however and watches as the spiritual energy start gathering inside the seal formation.

A few seconds later, he sees that the pink colored Himalayan rock salts are starting to absorb the spiritual energy being forced upon them by the seal formation.

"Holy shit…" He cannot help but utter, realizing what Red is doing and the purpose of the seal formation is. 

He looks at Red, and he sees an expression in Red's face he has never the man wear before.

Red is grinning excitedly at his successful experiment and discovery.

To the inhabitants of Terra, the Himalayan salt is just rock salt that has impurities that makes it pink.

To Red however, and the denizens of the Infinite Realms, the substance is what they call the Infinite Spiritual Energy Crystal.

Spiritual Energy Crystals are dime a dozen in the infinite realms, used for currency and cultivation by low-level cultivators. Once those crystals run out of energy however, they turn to useless dust.

Infinite Spiritual Energy Crystal meanwhile, is infinitely rarer than the ordinary Spiritual Energy Crystals.

What makes it even more valuable than its ordinary counterpart aside from just the rarity, is because of its reusability.

Once the Infinite Spiritual Energy Crystal runs out of its energy, it can be refilled again almost infinitely.

The reason why Red is grinning excitedly, is that he just confirmed, that the Himalayan Salts is indeed the Infinite Spiritual Energy Crystal, basing on how it is reacting towards Spiritual Energy Crystal.