After an hour, Jackson walked into the hotel room carrying a whole sack of eclipse spiritstones and poured all of it on the table.
“Ms. Linsor, these are all the eclipse spiritstones that I managed to collect. This is around 70% of all the eclipse spiritstones out there.
“Those who have the remaining ones are either uncontactable or they refused to sell.” Jackson gave her a simple explanation of what happened.
Initially, he didn’t want to spend any of Grace’s money. Hence, he tried to explain the gravity of the issue to those who had the eclipse spiritstones.
Unfortunately, no one believed him. It was useless even when he tried to use the Embersteel Order’s reputation to convince them.
Most of the people he approached thought that he was a liar. They thought that he was jealous of them for having the eclipse spiritstones in their possession.
As such, he was trying to steal the eclipse spiritstone from them by lying.
In desperation, he could only follow Grace’s idea of purchasing the eclipse spiritstones at a high price.
Most people became less suspicious when they heard that he was willing to pay them for the eclipse spiritstones.
However, there were a skeptical few who still refused to sell the eclipse spiritstones to him. They remained steadfast even though he tried his best to convince them.
In the end, he could only give up as he had run out of ideas. He had done his very best. It was unfortunate that they didn’t believe him.
“Thank you for your hard work, Jackson. We have done all we could. We’ll let fate deal with the rest.” Grace wasn’t surprised to hear that.
She had never thought of saving everyone. She did it out of her love for the country and the people. As such, she had done all she could.
“I was just the messenger. It’s not a big deal. It’s just that I think you have spent too much money on this.” Jackson appeared a little guilty.
He thought he could convince others with his fame. However, he had thought wrong. The people didn’t care for him and were only persuaded when money was mentioned.
“It’s just money. It’s not a big deal. We’ll try to save as many people as we can.” Grace was quite nonchalant about it.
“Ms. Linsor, there’s one more thing,” Jackson seemed to have remembered something as he suddenly said.
“When I was out purchasing the eclipse spiritstones, I heard something interesting. There were rumors that Ryan brought these eclipse spiritstones as treasures from the oasis.
“To gain more benefit, many powerful people have come to Dusthaven Village, and they are already rushing to Deadlands. They’re ready for a treasure hunt in the oasis.”
“Is that so? I had no idea that they’d be moving so fast.” Grace frowned a little and was surprised to hear that.
She had assumed that they could spend more time observing and assessing the situation before embarking on their treasure hunt journey in Deadlands.
Nevertheless, the appearance of the eclipse spiritstones ignited their desires and galvanized everyone into action.
After all, arriving earlier at the oasis meant that they would have a better chance to gain more treasure. The risk involved could be disregarded as the benefit to gain was greater.
“Ms. Linsor, when are you going to Deadlands?” Jackson asked inquisitively. He had unknowingly regarded Grace as the backbone.
“As soon as possible, naturally.” As she spoke, Grace turned her gaze toward the door where Osley stood and asked, ” Mr. Will, are the camels and the rest ready?”
“We’ve already made the final payment to the village chief. The camels are ready,” Osley replied with his head lowered.
“Good. Send my word. Ask everyone to hurry up and get ready. We’ll rest for another couple of hours at the hotel. We leave at midnight.” Grace gave her order.
“Right away!” Osley answered and left quickly.
After two hours, a very long procession of heavily saddled camels was headed toward Deadlands. Daytime and nighttime in Deadlands were polar opposites.
