"Thank you." A specific number suddenly formed in Erin’s mind. ’If I craft ten Holy Blood Alchemy Cores for you, it’s not too much to ask for ten children in return, is it? And if we have ten children, at least three of them must take my name and inherit the Melovanga Clan’s estate.’
Li Xiang inexplicably shivered. He secretly activated his Spiritual Sense. ’There’s no danger around here.’
After eating the Spirit Fruit, Erin was full of vigor and threw herself back into the tedious work of Alchemy. This time, however, she was in high spirits, feeling even more cheerful than before.
"Erin, I’ve been thinking," Li Xiang said. "Ten is just too exhausting. That would require 2,000 milliliters of fresh blood. How about we cut the number in half?" After all, Erin was only in her early twenties, and a normal girl her age would still be comfortably studying on a university campus. He reasoned that even though it was part of their original contract, contracts could be amended.
Even Li Xiang felt that taking 2,000 milliliters of her blood was excessive. ’How much blood does a human body even have, anyway?’
But as soon as the words left his mouth, Erin sternly rejected him. "No! It has to be ten. Not one less!"
Li Xiang: "..."
He was instantly moved. ’Erin is so dedicated to our contract. A partner this trustworthy is hard to find in this world.’
"Then take your time. No need to rush. I’m going to head out for another spin."
With Li Xiang’s Extreme Speed of Mach 12, Europe was his personal backyard; he could go wherever he pleased.
A day later, Li Xiang took stock of his acquisitions, sorting the goods in his warehouse by category. The Otherworldly Warehouse was unique; there was no gravity inside, so all the items floated, remaining motionless once placed.
This way, even artifacts wouldn’t be damaged by collision or pressure.
The supplies he had acquired over the past few days were, naturally, extremely abundant. For example, from the wineries of Bordeaux, France, he had plundered 12,000 cases of Grand Rafael and 8,000 bottles of Petrus red wine (emptying the cellars of Mouton Castle).
Burgundy cheese: 15 tons of Epoisses Cheese and 2,000 wheels of Mondor Cheese.
From the Balenciaga haute couture workshop: 560 embroidered long dresses from the unreleased autumn/winter collection and 900 crocodile skin luxury bags (along with the designer’s original sketches).
Italy:
From the Uffizi Gallery in Florence: 380 original Renaissance masterpieces, including Botticelli’s "Spring."
From private residences on Lake Como near Milan: 2,700 meters of Armani haute couture suit fabric and 120 templates for unreleased Prada handbags.
From Murano Island in Venice: 90,000 pieces of painted glassware from centuries-old workshops (along with their furnace formulas).
Switzerland:
From the vaults in Zurich: 850 tons of 99.99% pure gold bricks (standard 12.5 kg bars; stacked, they could circle the Alps twice).
From the watch factories in Vallee de Joux: 2,200 Patek Philippe Starry Sky Series watches (including 5,000 unassembled Tourbillon Movement sets). (Li Xiang had hesitated slightly when plundering these famous watches. In terms of craftsmanship, China’s current technology had long since surpassed that of Swiss watchmakers. However, they were still world-famous brands with high added value, and these were all readily available, so he reluctantly took them. He figured he could just give them away as trinkets in the future.)
From Zermatt Snow Mountain: 12,000 pairs of top-of-the-line skis (including custom models for Olympic athletes).
From Novartis Pharmaceutical: over a hundred thousand boxes of various high-end pharmaceuticals.
Germany:
From Munich: 9,000 barrels of special festival brew Munich Beer (200 liters per barrel, enough to fill half of King’s Lake).
From the Black Forest Region: 80 tons of raw cherry brandy from century-old trees (stored in oak barrels, an amber liquid with a fragrant aroma).
United Kingdom:
From the British Museum: All artifacts, including 32,000 Chinese pieces such as the Guiding Bodhisattva Painting from Dunhuang and the Scroll of the Admonitions of the Court Lady (Tang Dynasty copy).
From Harrods Department Store: 1.5 tons of royal-warranted caviar.
From the Scottish Highlands: 600 barrels of rare vintage Macallan whisky (raw spirits distilled between 1946-1972).
Other smaller countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain also yielded plenty of goods. From the Netherlands came 5,000 tons of Gouda cheese (in standard 12kg wheels). From Belgium, over twenty tons of Godiva truffle chocolates and 9,000 oak barrels of Trappist ale.
From Spain, he took 150,000 legs of Jabugo acorn-fed Iberian ham (approx. 7kg each, vacuum-packed), 8,000 tons of Andalusian olive oil, artworks such as Picasso’s preliminary sketches for "Guernica," and Flamenco attire like 3,000 golden-fringed shawls from Seville.
And from Norway, millions of King salmon from the deep-water farms in the fjords, and so on.
The total haul was as follows: approximately 20 million tons of food and alcohol; about 8 million head of cattle and sheep; around 300,000 cubic meters of luxury goods, leather, and clothing fabrics (including packaging); about 100,000 pieces of art and artifacts; and approximately 3,000 tons of gold and 500 tons of platinum.
Suddenly, Europe was facing severe shortages of all kinds of goods, and the prices for corresponding commodities on the futures market skyrocketed.
For instance, the sudden disappearance of so many cattle and sheep caused a meat shortage, and the prices of beef and lamb in supermarkets soared. Europe urgently tried to procure beef and mutton from countries like Brazil and Argentina. But those nations complained bitterly in reply: "Don’t you know? We were looted a short while ago, too!"
The European nations: "Our apologies, we honestly weren’t paying attention."
The Latin American nations: "This is outrageous! When we were looted, you didn’t care at all. Now that it’s happened to you, you’re complaining to everyone."
In fact, Li Xiang had shown great restraint. He hadn’t looted *everything*. He had left enough supplies for the people of each country to ensure they wouldn’t starve to death. At most, their lives would just be a little tighter for a while.
It was just that some European countries, who had grown accustomed to their comfortable lives by "relying on the spoils of their robber ancestors," were simply having a hard time adjusting.