Start from the God of Death and break through the world.

Chapter 1072 Chu Chu: You're really shameless
It was Xia Ren who noticed the conflict on Chu Chu's face, so he tugged at Lu Li's sleeve and whispered, "Boss Lu, Chu Chu didn't actually mean that. She misses you a lot too, but she might not be in a good mood today."

"Shrimp! What are you talking about!?"

Before Lu Li could speak, Chu Chu bristled, her pretty face flushing slightly with anxiety, "When did I ever say anything like that!?"

"But...didn't you say just a couple of days ago that you had acquired a batch of high-quality Chaos-level materials, but since Boss Lu hasn't come back, did you acquire them for nothing?"

Shrimp meat can sometimes be incredibly potent, and this blunt statement left Chu Chu speechless with anger.

Chu Chu's pretty face was filled with a mixture of shame and indignation. Not wanting to blame Xia Ren, she could only stand up angrily, stomp her foot, and then take a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"Hey, Chuchu, you even helped me acquire the materials."

Lu Li noticed the keywords at this moment, smiled, and turned back.

"Who...who helped you acquire materials? Those were materials I was preparing for expanding my business with new beds."

Chu Chu stubbornly insisted.

However, Lu Li was more inclined to believe what Xia Ren had just said. He simply smiled and said, "Thanks, Chu Chu. I do need a new set of Chaos-level equipment."

"Hmph... I already said... it wasn't prepared for you."

Chu Chu turned her head to the side, "However... however, if you really need to upgrade your equipment, I can temporarily use those materials to make some equipment for you."

Lu Li wasn't really stupid. He knew that Chu Chu was just a little embarrassed after throwing a tantrum, so he naturally wouldn't hold a grudge. "Thank you so much. I'll give you my requirements specification right away. I've been thinking about these things for thousands of years."

"For thousands of years?"

Shrimp, who was listening nearby, was somewhat surprised. "Did Boss Lu stay in the mission world for this long this time?"

"What's the big deal, Shrimp? Have you forgotten? It's normal for advanced explorers to stay in mission worlds for a long time. Twenty years have passed in the space, so I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed in a mission world for tens of thousands of years."

Chu Chu, on the other hand, remained calm; she seemed to know a lot.

"I...that's not what I meant."

Shrimp waved his hand and said, "I was just thinking, if Boss Lu has been thinking about making equipment for thousands of years, hasn't he been thinking about Chu Chu for thousands of years as well?"

what?
Lu Li's expression was like this. He had never said that, but he had to admit that when he was designing equipment, he would take into account Chu Chu's abilities and crafting style to confirm whether his ideas were feasible, and he had indeed thought of Chu Chu.

"What...what are you saying, Shrimp? You, you...I've realized that sometimes you really don't know how to talk!"

Chu Chu's tone was somewhat arrogant, but since they were best friends, Xia Ren wasn't intimidated by Chu Chu's aura; she was just secretly laughing.

"Hmph... I don't believe that Lu Li would miss me."

Chu Chu snorted coldly.

"Yes I do."

Without hesitation, Lu Li said calmly, "If it weren't for the equipment Chu Chu made for me, I would have died in the last world. Every time I look at those broken pieces of equipment, I think of you."

Lu Li had no other intention than to express his gratitude, because the True Martial Set and armor had truly saved his life in his first battle against the High Priest; otherwise, he would have been killed long ago, and even the fused Lu Ran wouldn't have been able to hold on.

However, upon hearing Lu Li's words, Chu Chu blushed to the roots of her ears, and her posture behind the table became awkward. Her bare feet, which had been relaxed in the office, were now on the carpet, and her smooth toes, wrapped in his kisses, kept moving, leaving small indentations on the carpet.

"How can you be so shameless!"

Chu Chu thought she was very imposing, but her voice actually grew softer and softer until it was barely audible, "Let's get down to business, give me your proposal."

Lu Li was still a little confused about Chu Chu's change in attitude. He just felt that women were the most difficult creatures in the world to understand, so he simply gave up thinking about it and took out the requirements list he had prepared.

After taking it and looking at it for a short while, Chu Chu's expression began to change. Her blush faded, replaced by a headache from dealing with the client's requirements.

"Are you serious?"

Chu Chu waved the request form in her hand at Lu Li.

Lu Li nodded. "Seriously? Can't you do it?"

"Don't provoke me. Do you think I'm still a teenage girl?"

Chu Chu snorted coldly, "I can work towards that demand, but don't think that just because you're a long-time customer I'll give you a discount. It's a fixed price, 5 billion, not a penny less."

“I knew Chuchu could do it. Price is no problem. I’ll give you four more complete Inheritance Crystals as a reward for your hard work in collecting the materials for me in advance.”

Lu Li said with a smile, knowing that Chu Chu was always like this, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. She said she wouldn't give him any discounts, but in reality she had already given him a lot of discounts.

Although he gave Chu Chu a lot of minerals on the Motherland Continent, those minerals were at most at the peak of the Immortal level. After returning, Chu Chu could only get one percent of the space allocation, which was not as much as imagined.

Unlike the time with the shrimp, when they took enough ingredients to fill a galaxy and still haven't used it all up.

Therefore, Lu Li had no intention of taking advantage of someone's kindness forever after helping them once. That would not have been in line with his original intention of helping. Moreover, only if his personal blacksmith was wealthy enough could he afford to buy more high-grade materials to hone his skills. This was a virtuous cycle.

He already had a general understanding of the prices of Chaos-level equipment. Based on the requirements of the equipment he wanted to order, if he were to go to a well-established supporter's shop, it would cost at least 20 billion to get it done, and even then, the results might not be perfect.

The price of 5 billion was basically a free gift. Lu Li felt that Chu Chu still wanted to repay the favor, so he didn't point it out.

As for Chu Chu, who was a supporter, she was just as difficult to obtain inheritance crystals as Xia Ren. Lu Li couldn't continue to strengthen the remaining scattered ones, so he simply sent them out as subsidies.

"Hmph, at least you still have a conscience."

Chu Chu put away the inherited crystal.

However, just as Chu Chu was thinking that she seemed to have more inheritance crystals than shrimp and felt a strange sense of joy, Lu Li took out another document.

"Although I don't know if you can make it in time, Sosuke also gave me a plan this time."

Lu Li presented Aizen's equipment requirements, wanting to see if Chu Chu had improved her crafting speed after 20 years.

Chu Chu didn't refuse outright. Instead, she took the requirement document and looked at it for a while before smiling. "Look, look at Mr. Aizen! How well he makes requirement documents!? What you wrote is just a mess, it's so hard to read!" Lu Li felt a little embarrassed after being scolded by Chu Chu. He knew he was never good at paperwork, and when it came to equipment requirements, he would often write down whatever came to mind, sometimes even overturning his previous ideas. Naturally, Chu Chu would find it a bit overwhelming.

Aizen was different. His requirements were concise and clear, and he didn't make any excessive demands on Chu Chu. Naturally, Chu Chu felt that Aizen was a truly top-tier client.

"Can it be done this month?"

The reason Lu Li immediately came out to discuss equipment after tallying up the income was because Chaos-level equipment is not easy to make, and considering Chu Chu's previous work efficiency, he was afraid it might be a bit risky.

Chu Chu readily agreed, "No problem, add another 10 billion."

"Chu Chu really does treat people differently..."

Shrimp muttered to herself, because even she knew that Aizen's overall attributes were definitely lower than Lu Li's, so the equipment he needed to make would have to be of a lower energy level and made with cheaper materials, but Chu Chu's price was higher.

"Shrimp... I never realized you talked so much in front of strangers."

Chu Chu was a little embarrassed, not expecting that her introverted best friend would undermine her time and time again.

"But... Mr. Lu is not an outsider."

Shrimp pointed at his finger and said this subtly, leaving Chu Chu speechless for a moment.

“10 billion is no problem. Sousuke is selling goods in the market right now. We can sign the contract first, and I will pay the deposit in a couple of days.”

Lu Li said that he was actually penniless at the moment and had to wait for his and Aizen's profits to be realized.

"So straightforward, it seems becoming a ninth-tier cultivator is quite lucrative."

Chu Chu sighed, and this time she was genuinely impressed, because she never expected Lu Li to advance to the ninth rank so quickly.

Through the device set up in the office, she could obtain Lu Li's attribute details, and Lu Li's equipment requirements also listed his attributes, so Chu Chu knew that Lu Li was already a ninth-tier explorer, or at least had the strength of a ninth-tier explorer.

"Ah, Boss Lu has already reached the ninth level?"

Xia Ren was also very surprised when she heard this. She thought Lu Li was at the late stage or peak of the eighth rank.

"No, I'm still an eighth-tier explorer. My mark level hasn't exceeded that level, so the space just called me to participate in the world battle."

Lu Li explained.

"The End is truly shameless..."

Chu Chu remarked, "But it seems that some other spaces have done similar things before."

She could already imagine the true nature of the End Space, but the fact that the Origin Space did not respond to the challenge this time was somewhat unexpected.

As far as she knew, there were also powerful individuals in the Origin Space who, without having broken through their mark level, had already entered the ninth-tier realm through their own strength.

After thinking about it, she felt that it might be because the space itself wasn't considered a battleground for such people, since there were still too few of them.

Lu Li spent some time catching up with Chu Chu before leaving to go to the trading market to see Souyousuke.

As for the shrimp, it didn't go back to her shop either, but simply stayed at Chu Chu's place. I wonder what the two girls were going to talk about.

While walking, Lu Li was bored and opened Fatty Dragon's chat group. As soon as he entered the group, he was bombarded with messages.

【(Chaos): @Prisoner of Demons, you're truly inhuman! Do you even have any shame in the End Times?】

[Luomo Roll (Hongmeng): @Qiumo, no offense, but Brother Qiumo, could you please not be so twisted? I beg you to hurry up and enter the mission world, and stop letting the End Space cause trouble.]

[Gorilla Fire (Ancient): @Prisoner Demon, bro, brothers from other spaces used to call me a beast. I admit I'm not human, but you really are a dog.]

[The One Who Loves to Have Fun (Tiandao): (`) Warriors, aren't you disappointed that you didn't make it to the World Championship? How about we go to the Void Arena and spar with Brother Prisoner Demon?]

【…】

Lu Li discovered that the news of the World War that the End Space was going to fight had made the group members very excited. This was mainly because many of his familiar old group members were now at the peak of the eighth rank and were within the scope of this World War.

Lu Li didn't know whether the explorers had been punished after their space surrendered, but putting himself in their shoes, he knew that hearing about the war in his own space and then immediately surrendering would definitely not be a good experience.

[Prisoner of Demons (The End): I didn't want this either, but my mark just hasn't reached level nine. I'm helpless.]

After Lu Li spoke, a series of disdainful emojis appeared below, and everyone in the group copied and pasted them.
However, it can also be seen that those following suit are only people Lu Li used to know.

Over the years, Fatty Dragon's chat group has seen a constant turnover of members. New people have joined, new people have died, and some veteran level 8 members have disappeared from the group.

Even those strong individuals who can get 5S at the start, none of them dare to say that they will never die in the space. The few active group members that Lu Li is familiar with have been able to remain active after 20 years, which is already considered a great blessing for them.

For Lu Li, who was considered a newcomer to the group, they were all observing from the shadows. After all, Lu Li was already one of the top figures in the group, and there were also many legends about the Prisoner Demon circulating in the space recently. They all thought that the Prisoner Demon was a ruthless killer.

[The one who loves to have fun (Tiandao): Boss, stop with the Versailles nonsense. You destroyed the Dragon Ball world before, and now nobody has any dreams left. Shouldn't you send out a red envelope as a token of your appreciation?]

Lu Li chuckled at Xue Yu's words, thinking to himself, "What does it matter to me whether you have dreams or not?" However, he also knew that the other party was just joking.

Then, he sent a red envelope containing 100,000 End Coins in the group. Oh, he said he was penniless, which meant he didn't have any money in the hundreds of millions.

Seeing everyone's magnanimous boss emojis after grabbing the red envelopes, Lu Li finally understood the feelings of that big shot who once said, "I'm almost broke."

He's practically broke right now, but he can still send red envelopes to his group members. That's probably the feeling.

Lu Li scrolled through the group list and found that the profile picture of "I'm Almost Poor" had gone dark, indicating that this former big shot had died in the mission world, which made Lu Li sigh even more at the ruthlessness of time.

[Grumpy Older Sister (Final Destination): Enough of that, let's get down to business. Did you redeem any invitations from the group admin's shop before, Prisoner Demon?]

Lu Li noticed that the tag under his irritable older sister's profile picture had been changed to nine. It seemed that after many years, she had finally advanced to the ninth rank and had not regressed to a supporter.

(End of this chapter)