The club at three in the morning was exceptionally quiet as the tour bus drove straight in.
"Porcupine Granny!"
"Warranty! Quickly get my hammer fixed!"
Lord Foxy got off the bus and, seeing the gold-edged porcupine with newly grown spikes, immediately spoke up, chasing after the granny porcupine to get himself a new hammer.
While smashing Bianchi's head, the shock-absorbing hammer, already with a bent handle, completely broke, and the New Energy Warhammer exploded into a meteor of skyfire, turning even Lord Foxy's usual raptor mount into a bumper car.
Although Wang Qiqi had already said they would set him up with a brand-new big hammer.
Ansheng felt that among the many hammers he had wielded, the ones made by Porcupine Granny were the best.
"Huh?"
The gold-edged porcupine was stunned, looking shocked as she gave Lord Foxy a questioning look: "What hammer warranty? It can't be that shock-absorbing hammer weighing over a ton, can it?"
"Yes! I haven't even used it twice, and its handle unexpectedly bent and broke," said Lord Foxy.
".....You have a habit of posting on social media," the gold-edged porcupine thought for a moment and said, with a hint of gentle reminder.
Lord Foxy's social media posts, though not secretive, were full of rich content, featuring either guns or hammers, or impressively mighty spirit beasts.
He was either on his way to hammer a spirit beast or, having finished hammering, taking a photo as a keepsake.
"Come in and sit down! The red lobster you wanted will be sent to your car later by my good grandson," the gold-edged porcupine said with a bit of a tease, then invited Lord Foxy and A Bai to the club's rooftop to sit for a while.
Arriving at the top-floor office of Hailinglong.
The layout here was unchanged, still filled with the luxurious opulence of nouveau riche style.
"You haven't checked your phone today, have you?" the gold-edged porcupine asked, sitting on the mahogany desk. With a wave of her hand, Lin Hao immediately understood Granny's intentions and opened WeChat.
He pushed the group's messages in front of Lord Foxy, then went to prepare the tea set.
"What's this?"
Ansheng looked at the phone on the table, showing a group chat interface with the group name: Furry Enthusiasts Gathering Place.
And on the chat screen, there was a picture with Lord Foxy's photo, marked with a purchase offer of 700 million US dollars at the bottom.
"Me? Worth 700 million dollars?"
Ansheng looked at the phone in amazement, as well as the flurry of messages in the Furry Enthusiasts Gathering Place.
The bounty information was posted after eight in the evening, by which time Ansheng was already on a plane and hadn't checked his phone at all.
"Yes! You were originally valued at 500 million, but today the price suddenly increased," the gold-edged porcupine said:
"However, you don't need to worry too much. Spirit beast bounties like this have their own segment, and it's usually big bosses who get listed there."
Where there's a market, there's demand. Some powerful spirit beasts can be juiced or researched.
But.
People typically see the spirit beasts on the bounty list as entertainment, and no one really attempts to catch them.
The overall logic is simple: the wealthy and conglomerates capable of capturing them have already formed capture teams, and those they can't catch are the ones for whom bounties are posted, hoping talented individuals will catch them on their behalf.
But even they are powerless against them, so how could mercenary groups or official forces from small countries possibly capture those powerful spirit beasts?
Over time, spirit beasts on the bounty list were humorously dubbed as big bosses.
These spirit beasts all have numerous difficult-to-overcome capture points, either flying in the sky, living in the deep sea, or residing in strong countries.
"Wow, I'm worth quite a bit now!" Ansheng chuckled in disbelief after listening to the gold-edged porcupine's explanation.
Back when he was a Two-tailed Fox, Ansheng estimated that capturing him would probably require an armored vehicle or rushing with a tank to flip him over to just barely catch him.
But now he's become a Five-tailed Fox, close to a Six-tailed Fox; regular weapons are like noodles to him.
Massive destructive weapons can't appear in Xia Country; if they did, the Security Bureau would explode.
Of course.
According to the Security Bureau's evaluation system, multiple Territory-level Spirit Beasts might pose a threat, but anything of Territory-level is an immense treasure. Sending it to other countries, will it even return?
Anyway, Ansheng didn't believe it would ever return.
"Of course it's valuable; the uses for spirit beasts are unimaginably broad, just like you and Jiule City."
The gold-edged porcupine took a drag of smoke and said, "Granny has seen you never speak in the group, so I can roughly guess you've muted it. Just keep a mental note of this; nobody will come."
One mercenary entering the country usually causes an entire law enforcement department to rejoice.
Three mercenaries with weapons have the SWAT team thinking about their award speeches, six or more have armed police snipers with 155mm rifles at the ready.
And mercenaries usually operate in teams of ten or more, making the Security Bureau staff eager for promotion and commendation.
"Aowoo?"
A Bai, seeing the conversation with Lord Foxy, also looked at the gold-edged porcupine with curiosity and pointed to himself.
"You? You're not included," the gold-edged porcupine said, knowing that A Bai had assisted Feng Wenyu and the others in clearing out the Longevity Club's moles in Xia Dong.
But foxes have symbolic meanings.
They are seen as embodiments of deceit and evil in the church.
They're cunning masters in French literature.
They're spiritual guides in Celtic mythology and symbols of wisdom.
They're also one of the witch's manifestations or fatal lovers in the Middle Ages.
Besides those wealthy individuals on their deathbeds, otherwise, in the transfer of spirit beast powers, the rich have preferences.
Although the gold-edged porcupine wasn't sure who was posting the bounty for Lord Foxy, it was likely a woman.
"Let's not talk about those things." Ansheng waved, not too concerned about the bounty, and asked Porcupine Granny for paper and pen, writing down Chen Nian's phone number for her, saying:
"This is a supplier's phone number; in the future, for things like 4090s, blade wheels, or US version Apples, you can get them from him, a pure zero-cost purchase source."
"Huh?" The gold-edged porcupine was startled and looked at the phone number in her hand, asking, "Reliable?"
"Absolutely reliable!" Lord Foxy said.
In the world of duty-free business, mega-retailers don't question the source of anything, as long as it's not something like Earth-stomping brand goods, Porcupine Granny will only ask.
Is it reliable?
Is there a warranty?
Get more! The kids at home are all clamoring!
......
After sitting for a while at Porcupine Granny's place, chatting about the Spirit Beast Gang's operations, Ansheng checked the time and agreed to visit Granny again during the Mid-Autumn Festival before taking his leave.
Ansheng got a fishing box from A Bai, along with an oxygenation machine, packed two East Star fishes and the red lobster that A Qing loved into the plane.
The plane flew directly to Chang'an City, and he took a business car back to the inn. Ansheng put the fishing box on the ground, placed his two paws on it, used his hind legs, and pushed the box into A Qing's inn.
"Eeeh eeeh eeeh——"
The little fox smiled, lay in front of A Qing's bed, nudged A Qing's cheek with its snout, and said:
"A Qing! It's five-thirty! Get up for a midnight snack!"
"I specially brought some hometown specialties, along with a quilt made of silk from Sister Lin Fu's home for you!"