Strength required knowing your hand. Lying in bed after lights out, Shen Cong ran through his assets quietly.

"Awakening Lotus Seeds aren't a trump card exactly, but they're mine alone and they'll sell well. Activity Pearls can trigger a third round of physical development — there should still be a batch of pearl mussels in the Huanglishu reservoirs, worth collecting again. Banyan yogurt and the carcass-balls both qualify as genuine trump cards."

"The banyan yogurt combined with Activity Pearls and Bee Treasure — the pearl milk tea blend — isn't just good nutrition, it accelerates physical development and evolution, and it can break Activity Locks. That card I need to protect carefully. On the way back, I should make a collection run for both Activity Pearls and yogurt."

An Activity Lock-breaker was worth considerably more than it appeared on the surface. He could push the Treasure Bees through their Lock into the Lv1 era, improving production efficiency significantly. He could push the Vajra Ants through as well, with corresponding combat capability increases. The Water Tyrant egg, when it hatched, could be accelerated through early development stages. The pearl milk tea's long-term value was deep.

"The meteorite fragment is another major card — I only know it promotes Talent growth in organisms exposed to it, but there's more to learn. The Eastern Theater Command has excavated their own fragment. They'll uncover the deeper properties. I just need to get that information, and then I can use mine more effectively."

"The Jianhu Laboratory — I need to visit when the opportunity comes."

Meteorite fragments were almost impossible to acquire independently. Even the small fragment from the Huanglishu Mini-Oasis had catalyzed the Water Tyrant pair into apex predators. What the full Oasis fragments had done to the organisms around them was something to consider carefully. Only an organization with the Command's resources could actively assault an Oasis and take a fragment. No individual could manage it.

He had one. That asymmetry was going to matter.

"Actually — my greatest trump card is Great Vajra."

Looking at the ceiling, thinking about the truck, he…