Linley, Bebe, Reynolds, Yale, and their relatives had joined into a squad of nearly twenty people. Linley’s group thus began their wanderings over the Infernal Realm.
They went to the mysterious depths of Lake Punisi…
They went to Firecrow Mountain, of the Takkak Mountains…
They occasionally made a detour to visit some Purgatory Commanders or Lord Prefects of the Infernal Realm…
However, the Infernal Realm was simply too vast. Despite having journeyed for dozens of years, Linley’s group had only managed to travel from the western part of the Bloodridge Continent to the eastern part.
The eastern part of the Bloodridge Continent. Within the Fogmount Prefecture. Fogmount City.
The streets were teeming with people. Linley’s group strolled forward while looking about.
Bebe’s wife, ‘Nisse’, made a suggestion. “We’ve come to adventure in the Infernal Realms, but to be honest, the places with the most unique items are the Blacksand Castles. Let’s go pay a visit to the local Blacksand Castle. There definitely will be countless queer items within it.” Women loved to shop.
“Blacksand Castle is essentially a black market. It holds more items than the Bloodridge Castle does. Linley, let’s go take a look.” Delia’s eyes lit up as well.
Bebe nodded hurriedly. “Let’s go straight to the Blacksand Castle, Boss, what do you say?”
Laughing, Linley nodded, then led them towards the Blacksand Castle.
The Blacksand Castles scattered throughout the Infernal Realm were all identical. They appeared to be made from flowing black sand. Although the surface of every single Blacksand Castle was covered with flowing black sand, the castles themselves had remained erect for countless years. Linley’s group casually intermingled into the crowds and entered the Blacksand Castle.
The counters of Blacksand Castle were clearly teeming with more people than that of the Bloodridge Castle.
“There’re quite a few little trinkets.” The females all quite happily began to stroll about while purchasing some small trinket.
“The items on this floor are all ordinary merchandise items. Let’s go higher up. The more precious items will be there.” Linley advised.
The first floor of the Blacksand Castle contained items that were worth ten thousand inkstones or less. The items on the second floor were worth a million inkstones or less. As for the third floor, the items there were worth more than a million inkstones. And this was just a general range. Still, Blacksand Castles were most famous for their fourth floors!
The items on the fourth floor were truly rare curios. Some were valuable, others weren’t.
The precious items of the Redbud Castles and Bloodridge Castles were all real items, and thus the prices were clear as well.
But Blacksand Castle was ‘a black market’, after all. First of all, the prices would thus be lower than places like the Bloodridge Castles. And yet, many of the sellers of Blacksand Castle were all private sellers. Blacksand Castle made no guarantee regarding the authenticity of the items within. This was a matter for the buyer to determine.
Linley’s group finally arrived at the fourth floor.
“The countless curios of the fourth floor are divided into costly and cheap items. The most important thing is one’s judgment. In addition, one can bargain.” Nisse laughed while speaking. “If you end up being tricked into buying a useless item for an astronomical price, all you can do is blame yourself. But if you have a good eye and are able to buy a precious item for a low cost, then you’ll have made a fortune.”
Linley’s interest was roused by Nisse’s words.
“Come, let’s take a look at what treasures are here.” Linley laughed as he walked towards the nearest counter.
“Amusing.” Linley looked at many of the items and their listed prices, then secretly laughed. Given Linley’s spiritual energy, he was able to gauge the authenticity of these items with fairly good accuracy.
Bebe followed behind Linley as well.
“Hey, Boss, what sort of rock is this rock of yours?” Bebe pointed at a black rock on the counter that was tinged with a hint of blood and which faintly emanated a fiery aura. Linley gave a glance at it. This stone’s listed price was five million inkstones, an astonishing price.
The personal responsible for this counter was a fairly skinny, white-haired elder who was wearing a felt cap. He gave Bebe a sideways glance with his faint blue eyes, then said coldly, “This stone is tinged with a hint of the blood of the fire-type divine beast, the ‘Vermillion Bird’ of the legendary Four Divine Beasts.”
“Vermillion Bird?” Linley was startled, and then he laughed involuntarily.
If this truly was the blood of the divine beast ‘Vermillion Bird’, then even five hundred million inkstones would be a low price for it, to say nothing of five million! In addition, Linley had noticed that although the aura emanating from this stone was strong, there was no way it could compare to that drop of Azure Dragon blood essence he had acquired in the past. The Vermillion Bird and the Azure Dragon were both divine beasts. The aura of their blood should be at the same level.
“Vermillion Bird? Don’t you know that the Vermillion Bird was a Sovereign?” Bebe pursed his lips. “Forget about divine beast Sovereigns; even a drop of blood from ordinary Sovereigns would contain ridiculous levels of power. This rock of yours was probably stained by the blood of an ordinary fire-type divine beast.” Bebe himself was a divine beast, and so naturally he could speak authoritatively on this subject.
The old man gave Bebe a sidelong glance, then said calmly, “The blood long since seeped deep into the stone. Thus, the aura it is emanating is very weak. If you don’t want to believe it, there’s nothing I can do. I’m not begging you to buy it.” The old man was putting on airs.
A weaker person might truly be hoodwinked by him.
“Let’s go.” Linley and Bebe continued onwards to other counters.
“Boss, there really are real and fake items here.” Bebe sighed in amazement while looking at the other items.
“Right.” Suddenly, Linley’s face changed. He saw an item located atop one of the counters, and his gaze focused on it intensely. This was a caltrop-shaped red gem, and it was quite eye-catching to behold.
“A red caltrop diamond? One of the three major talismans, the red caltrop diamond?” Linley was shocked. He felt his head grow dizzy and he looked at it carefully.
Of the three Overgod talismans, Linley had already acquired the ‘pentametal crown’ and the ‘nine soul pearls’; he now only lacked the red caltrop diamond.
“Good sir, are you interested in this red caltrop diamond?” The young, bald, silver-eyed caretaker of this counter laughed while speaking.
“I am interested.” Linley saw the price right away; a billion inkstones!
“A billion inkstones? You really dare to list a price like this?” Bebe, seeing this, let out a cry of surprise. A decent estate within a city was only a billion inkstones or so. Bebe weighed the bald, silver-eyed youth appraisingly, then snickered, “Tell me, what sort of treasure is this, that you value it at a billion inkstones?”
Linley had seen the black parchment, but Bebe had not. Thus, Bebe didn’t know about the red caltrop diamond.
The bald, silver-haired youth let out a low laugh. “The two of you, have you heard of the Overgod missions? One of them was to collect three talismans, which are the pentametal crown, nine soul pearls, and this red caltrop diamond. Although I dare not say that this is definitely the legendary red caltrop diamond, but look; this diamond definitely wasn’t man-made. There is a chance that it is the legendary Overgod talisman.”
“If it truly is a red caltrop diamond, why wouldn’t you offer it to the Sovereigns?” Bebe pursed his lips.
Linley laughed while looking at the youth as well.
“I’m just an ordinary Highgod. By what right would I ask for an audience with a Sovereign? In addition, I’m not certain as to whether or not it is real either.” The bald, silver-eyed youth said. “If I was certain of it, how could the price be merely a billion inkstones?”
It must be understood that drops of Sovereign’s Might started at a hundred trillion inkstones.
An Overgod talisman, by contrast, would definitely be worth an astronomical sum. No amount of inkstones would be worth more than an Overgod talisman.
“Perhaps this red caltrop diamond of yours truly wasn’t forged by human hands.” Linley said.
“Of course.” The silver-eyed youth said.