What is the most important resource in the world?

Different people in different places would give different answers, but in Human Valley, everyone would say the same thing without hesitation: Divine Stones.

Divine Stones are a product unique to Human Valley. Neither the Sky Tower nor the Heavenly Realm possesses them — or if they do, they’re rare curiosities brought back by challengers who passed through the Trial Grounds. Divine Stones and Heaven Crystals share certain qualities and differ in certain ways. What they share: both are crystals storing immense energy, and when properly activated, both can produce extraordinary force. What makes them different: Heaven Crystals only affect living things. A human being is the most receptive vessel; war beasts with flesh, blood, and soul come second; puppet constructs with no life, no flesh, and no body receive nothing from Heaven Crystals whatsoever.

Divine Stones are precisely the opposite.

They work only on lifeless puppet constructs.

In Human Valley, Divine Stones carry a second name: the Endless Energy Source.

Wherever there is light, a Divine Stone absorbs it and replenishes whatever energy it has expended — and the recovery is reasonably swift. A fist-sized Divine Stone used as the core drive for a puppet beast, drained completely empty, will restore itself to full capacity in a single day under adequate sunlight.

This is why the name “Endless Energy Source” stuck.

In Human Valley, where circumstances make Divine Stones uniquely indispensable, they command a nearly fanatical demand. During wartime, their price can exceed that of Heaven Crystals of equivalent quality.

Everyone wanted as many as they could acquire.

Everyone, that is, except Yue Yang.

“What do you think is the most important resource in the world?” Back in the Grimoire World, Yue Yang put the question to Princess Qianqian and Yue Yu with a smile.

“Heaven Crystals,” Qianqian said, with a small dismissive sound. “Divine Stones are useless outside Human Valley. How could they possibly compare?”

“Not Heaven Crystals — the answer is rune formations.” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady weighed in with cheerful certainty. “Once you truly master rune power, that’s the only thing that deserves to be called an ‘Endless Energy Source.’ Why do you think our Baron Titan has no interest in Divine Stones, which everyone else scrambles for? Because he can use the Genesis Divine Pearl and Creation Domain to generate puppet constructs from nothing, endlessly. Without inheriting Mother’s knowledge and mastering the power of ancient runes, could our young lord be this free and easy about any of it?”

“Wrong.” Yue Yang indicated that neither answer was what he was after.

“Not Heaven Crystals, not rune formations — then what?” Inan’s curiosity was immediate.

“People.” He let the word sit. “You heard correctly. People.”

The answer landed strangely. Then, one by one, the women thought it through and arrived at agreement.

“That’s a little like cheating — people aren’t exactly a resource.” Qianqian considered it. “But if you insist on framing them as one, then yes. Humanity is a resource that renews itself continuously, inexhaustibly, and without expiration. An individual is weak — but as numbers increase, the power that ‘people’ as a resource can generate multiplies into the millions. The miracles it can produce are beyond counting.”

“No wonder you’ve been finding ways to collect ‘people’ ever since you set foot in Human Valley.” Yue Yu smiled. Whatever he did, she was behind him — and when he achieved something remarkable, the pride she felt came from somewhere very deep.

“As a resource, people can renew themselves endlessly, never spoil, never expire,” Yue Yang continued, lightly flicking the crescent blade in his hand. “The greater the numbers, the greater the force they generate — but only when properly commanded and unified in purpose. If there’s discord within, if everyone pulls in their own direction, then people become the sharpest weapon aimed at whoever tried to wield them — the greatest catastrophe in the world.” He tilted the blade. “People are a double-edged sword. Handle them poorly and you’ll bleed. Handle them well and you hold the most powerful resource and the sharpest blade in existence.”

“Is this what you comprehended in the Sword Path World?” Qianqian remembered the look on his face during that session.

“Couldn’t help it.” Yue Yang’s expression was precisely the brand of intolerable smugness that made Qianqian’s teeth itch and her fingers itch with it — she wanted very much to bite off his nose on general principle.

“A sword made of people,” Inan murmured, almost to herself. “The Sword of the Human Way… when the divine beings first created human divine soldiers — were they leaving a hint for those who came after?”

Yue Yang went still.

“If that’s really what it means—” Qianqian’s Six Senses Gift stirred. Something at the outermost edge of perception, a flash of connection she couldn’t quite bring into focus. “It would make sense with Human Valley. Yao and Yu aren’t bound by the rules here. I have a feeling about it — strange, but I can’t put it into words.”

“Human Valley doesn’t restrict earth divine soldiers either—” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady was still speaking when Yue Yang let out a shout that made everyone jump.

“That’s it. At least one of Human Valley’s secrets — I can see it now.”

He was on his feet before anyone registered he’d moved. Inan — who had inadvertently said exactly the right thing — found herself swept up in both arms and kissed soundly before she’d finished processing what was happening. Then the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady received the same enthusiastic treatment. Then Qianqian, whose resistance lasted approximately half a second before his sheer momentum carried the moment entirely.

“Xiao San, Xiao San, calm down—” Yue Yu backed up, genuinely alarmed that she was next.

“I’m perfectly calm. Yue Yu, come with me.” He already had her hand. He was already moving — toward the laboratory, at nearly a run, so impatient to test the insight he’d just grasped that he couldn’t be bothered to stop and explain it to anyone first.

“Don’t drag me — Xiao San, let go—”

Yue Yu was helpless. She’d long since learned there was no winning against him in this state. Equal parts exasperated and amused, she let herself be pulled along, thinking this was very much not the first time she’d been swept up in one of his revelations, and it plainly would not be the last.

“That scoundrel,” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said fondly, watching them disappear. “But what an instinct he has.”

“We should thank Inan.” Qianqian reached over and pinched the girl’s soft cheek. “You’re the one who opened the door for him. He could have spent a full year in Human Valley and never arrived at the real secret on his own.”

Inan’s tongue came out in a small, satisfied gesture of triumph.

Being able to help him — even accidentally — was her private pride. She wasn’t like Qianqian or Xue Wuxia, able to assist across so many domains. She wasn’t like Fengxian, Luohua, Wuhen, or Yue Yu, each irreplaceable in her particular way. The energy she contributed through their secret dual cultivation — the purification of Yue Bing’s channels, the amplification of his own reserves — was real work, but it was private work that couldn’t be acknowledged openly. She wanted to do more than that. Not only be his beautiful companion held in gentle reserve. Not only his quietly devoted little wife.

Even something unintentional was a start.

Human Valley continued its daily operations, entirely unaware of events in a certain laboratory.

Nobles maintained their requisite arrogance. Commoners bustled through three meals. The world ran in its accustomed order.

The morning after formally accepting Iron Lion, Wenxin, and the mercenary associations into his service, Yue Yang arrived at sunrise. The early light fell across his back and framed him in something that, to the mercenaries coming out to meet him, looked considerably closer to a divine manifestation than an ordinary arrival.

“Lord Titan.” Iron Lion had read the moment correctly. “We were preparing to go out and purchase more Sky-rank war beast eggs.”

“No hurry.” Yue Yang waved this off. “When something has been done once, repeating the same action immediately invites scrutiny. After yesterday, going back for more today would put every watchful eye in the exchange on notice. Prices would climb. People would start hoarding, convinced there must be something special about these eggs. Our target doesn’t change — but we apply a little misdirection.” He produced a sheet of paper and handed it to Iron Lion. It was dense with items, dozens of them, approaching a hundred.

Iron Lion looked at the list. He looked at Yue Yang. “Do you need all of these? Some are worth almost nothing.”

“Exactly. We can’t only list what we actually want. Mix in what we need, what we merely want, and what we don’t need at all — put it all together, and the pattern vanishes into the noise. No one can read our true objective.” Yue Yang smiled. “Buy everything on that list freely, the more the better. Keep purchasing. Don’t stop for any reason.”

“Understood.” Iron Lion had oriented himself to his role. A subordinate didn’t question the lord’s orders.

“To move quickly enough, I’m providing another three hundred Heaven Crystals.” Yue Yang held out a crystal card.

Iron Lion took it. His hand nearly betrayed him. The number on the card burned like an open flame.

After a silence, Iron Lion chose his words carefully. “Lord Titan — the fifty crystals yesterday already exceeded the fair value of those eggs. The transaction was mainly useful to us as a way of converting Shard Crystals into genuine currency. We accepted the five-crystal tip with deep gratitude. But we have just joined Star Diamond Castle. We have done nothing yet to demonstrate our loyalty. We cannot in good conscience accept three hundred crystals on top of what you’ve already given.”

Wenxin — who yesterday had been reduced to a weeping heap on the ground — stepped forward to second this, bowing respectfully. “Please take it back, my lord. Let us work with what we have and report when we need more.”

“Listen to me carefully.” Yue Yang met their eyes. “What I have the least concern about is Heaven Crystals.”

The statement hit the room the way a stone hits still water.

He has no concern about Heaven Crystals.

If one were to render the mercenaries’ collective internal response in appropriately modern terms: the jaws of six entire mercenary associations dropped simultaneously, and the sound, metaphorically speaking, was audible from the next district over.

Iron Lion found himself fighting the impulse to cry — the dignified, iron-controlled variety that required him to immediately snap another finger backward to maintain his composure. What kind of ancestors had he accumulated to land him here? Surely every grave in his family line was burning incense for him at this very moment.

But beyond sheer astonishment, something else moved through him. Handing three hundred Heaven Crystals to men who had pledged loyalty less than a day ago — no verification, no collateral, no conditions — was a gesture of trust that reached somewhere words couldn’t quite follow.

What is the most moving thing in the world?

Not timely help extended in hardship. Not good fortune heaped upon good fortune. Not rain arriving at the end of a drought. Not an old friend discovered unexpectedly in a distant city. Not even the joy of a wedding night. For a grown man who has spent his whole life trying to be worth something — trying to earn a place that matches the effort he has poured into living — the most moving thing in the world is the moment a man of standing looks at him and says: I trust you. Recognition from someone above him. Confidence placed without condition. That is a debt a subordinate could spend a lifetime working to repay and still not clear. The only currency that comes close is loyalty itself.

“I trust you.” Yue Yang clapped Iron Lion twice on the shoulder. The taps were light. What they did to Iron Lion’s chest was not. He felt something shift there like tectonic plates realigning.

“Understood.” He forced the word through a throat that had become considerably narrower than he remembered leaving it.

“One more thing.” Yue Yang drew Iron Lion, Wenxin, and the captains a step aside. “Alongside everything on the list — keep your eyes open for a rare plant called the Earth Core Fire Lotus. Anything over a thousand years old, report it to me immediately. You’ll also likely have merchants trying to sell you Divine Stones once word gets around that you’re spending freely. Don’t buy a single one. And keep Divine Stones completely away from Earth Core Fire Lotus — they must not come into contact under any circumstances. If opportunities present themselves, I would actually prefer large purchases of slaves wherever possible.”

Iron Lion and the others didn’t understand the reasoning behind any of this. They didn’t need to.

“Last thing.” Yue Yang dropped his voice further. “Until I indicate otherwise, pretend in public that you don’t know me. Ship all goods directly to Star Diamond Castle — Steward Duli will handle the reception arrangements. Don’t let anyone connect me to Star Diamond Castle easily. As far as anyone in Gold Leaf City is concerned, I am simply a student at the Heavenly Pride Wanderer’s Academy.”

He left them standing in the morning light and walked back through the rising sun toward the Silver Maple City exhibition hall — back into the role of an unremarkable student without a care in the world.

Nobody knew.

In the span of two days, a vortex had already begun to form — one that would, in time, pull the entire commercial order of Human Valley into its rotation.

Enlightened by a word dropped without intention by Inan, having grasped at least one of Human Valley’s true secrets and taken up what he was beginning to call the Sword of the Human Way, Yue Yang walked toward the rising sun with a smile that outshone it — the smile of a man who has confirmed that the board is already in motion, and that no one else has noticed yet.

(End of Chapter)