Qin Shilei was slightly surprised to hear that the staff was an orange-grade epic item, but he was not satisfied with that.
He typed another sentence on it, "A thousand pieces of Enlightenment Tea would also do, but in that case, I will not leave America."
"Don't you want to establish a heroic image in front of your compatriots? Then I will let everyone see if you can truly ignore the huge temptation and continue to be a hero."
Steve suddenly said sternly, "King Qin An, aren't you afraid I'll turn your Great Xia upside down?"
Qin Shilei said indifferently, "You can try!"
His plain words were filled with an aura of disregarding all threats.
The keyboard warriors of the Blue Star, unusually, did not interject, but quietly watched the two powerful figures clash from afar.
Uncertain of Qin Shilei's true capabilities, Steve was momentarily hesitant whether to continue threatening or to take the thousand pieces of Enlightenment Tea and leave.
The chat channel also rarely stabilized, with none of the usual constant scrolling.
After a full three minutes, a survivor from America suddenly spoke.
"Great Steve, just take a slight loss and use the staff to exchange for peace for our America! All of us survivors in America will be grateful to you."
Upon hearing this, countless evolved individuals began to persuade Steve to sell the staff for ten pieces of Enlightenment Tea and secure Qin Shilei's retreat.
Steve, sitting on the sofa, was so enraged that he slammed his palm onto the table in front of him, shattering it.
He cursed in a deep voice, "You actually want me to use my own staff to exchange for everyone's happiness? You are all quite calculating."
He never imagined that by simply wanting to make an appearance in front of his compatriots, he would be pushed into such a difficult position.
Steve, who believed in egoism, would never sacrifice himself for the benefit of others.
In his opinion, he would rather exchange for a thousand pieces of Enlightenment Tea and then flee to a distant land, than to sell his epic staff at a bargain price.
"Lord City Lord, why don't we give King Qin An a hard blow? I don't believe he truly disregards the lives of his subordinates?"
A man with a full beard suddenly suggested.
Steve pondered for a moment and said indifferently, "King Qin An is bullying us with his power, of course, we won't let him have an easy time. However, before that, we should strengthen our forces to better fight against King Qin An."
He thought fiercely in his heart, "You took our foundation, then don't blame me for shattering your foundation as well."
The bearded man's eyes lit up, "Lord City Lord, do you have any other methods to enhance our strength?"
Steve smiled faintly, "We can take this opportunity to gather all our Golden experts in America around us. Then, we will help them contract various powerful skeletons from hell. By then, our skeleton army will surely be able to teach the King Qin An's mansion a good lesson."
Without mentioning how Steve used the chat channel and various other methods to contact America's Golden experts, Qin Shilei had already returned to Brera, and An Qian and the others had also arrived there.
An Qian asked doubtfully, "Looking at the rankings, Steve is only Golden Six-Star, why could he easily injure Mu Ziping and the others?"
Qin Shilei explained, "The ones who injured them were a skeleton wielding a sword and shield and a skeleton with ice abilities. Based on my estimation, both of those skeletons have strength at Platinum Intermediate level or above."
Zhang Xiaoli frowned, "They are Platinum-tier pets, and two of them, both skeletons. Could the other party have mastered some method to contract skeletons from another world?"
Qin Shilei was also somewhat puzzled by this.
Even with his many means, he had not yet managed to help Zhang Xiaoli and the others contract another Platinum-tier pet.
The gap in spiritual power between Gold and Platinum was quite large, and it was extremely difficult for a Gold-evolved individual to successfully contract a Platinum-tier pet.
For this reason, Qin Shilei could only use the "Gluttonous Stomach" attribute to help Kong Qingshu and Zhang Xiaoli's golden beetle advance to Platinum.
As for An Qian's Wind Charm King, due to its poor feeding ability, a different method would have to be found.
"When we capture Steve, all the mysteries will be revealed."
Qin Shilei said indifferently, "The other party did not agree to the trade, so they are likely to attack again. And this time, they will not hold back. They will definitely hope to threaten us into leaving America by killing our people."
Kong Qingshu suggested, "Then should we concentrate the members of the Dark Night into a few cities, and then the four of us can split up and lie in wait, perhaps we can catch them."
Qin Shilei nodded, "This plan is exactly what I intended."
With their plan set, they immediately separated to act.
First, Qin Shilei used the blessed land to concentrate the personnel from the eight cities into four cities.
Then, Qin Shilei released the Vajra and the Purple Armored Beetle to patrol the areas around the surrounding cities.
Finally, he let the Dark Night members lead some of their Silver subordinates to hunt outside the city.
Qin Shilei pondered for a moment, then gave the Faceless Mask to Mu Ziping and had him ride the Golden Winged Thunder Roc to patrol between the four cities.
At this time, Steve had found and persuaded about a dozen familiar Golden experts, and had also helped each of them successfully contract a Platinum-tier skeleton.
Just as he was about to continue recruiting the remaining Golden experts, a middle-aged man walked in.
"Your Highness Thor, something bad has happened. King Qin An has posted a bounty on the chat channel again."
Steve's expression changed, and he quickly opened the chat channel and found the bounty.
"I, Qin Shilei, will help anyone who provides information that leads me to Steve to become a Platinum expert within half a year, and I will also gift them one hundred pieces of Enlightenment Tea."
As soon as Steve saw this bounty, he had an ominous premonition.
He looked around at his subordinates, and he always felt that their eyes held the glint of betrayal.
Even someone as powerful as him was not very confident that he could become a Platinum expert within half a year.
Steve did not believe that his Gold-ranked subordinates would not be tempted when they saw this bounty.
Under his suspicious gaze, his subordinates quickly pledged, "Lord City Lord, we will never betray you. Besides, we already possess a Platinum-tier pet, and we are not that desperate to advance to the Platinum realm."
Steve's confidant also warned at this time, "Don't think about defecting to King Qin An either. Perhaps you have a pet that will sell the City Lord out, and then King Qin An will eliminate you."
Just then, Steve's transmission talisman rang.
"Steve, I've thought it through. I'll follow you from now on. I absolutely cannot let King Qin An act so high and mighty in our America. But don't try to trick me; you have to help me contract a Platinum-tier pet then."
The voice from the transmission talisman was that of a Golden expert Steve knew.
However, Steve now had a trace of suspicion about the other party's intentions.
Did the other party decide only after seeing Qin Shilei's bounty?
Would they try to find out his whereabouts and then turn around and sell him to King Qin An?
After pondering for a moment, Steve still found an excuse to temporarily postpone the meeting request.
A fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and he said fiercely, "Since King Qin An is not giving us a way to live, then let's teach him a lesson first!"