Monster Paradise

Lin Huang spent the entire morning clearing most of the stuff that he did not need and placed all of them in one of the Emperor’s Heart Rings of the deceased. After lunch, he started categorizing the items which he was working on, starting with the Life Crystals first. There were at least dozens of Life Crystals in each ring and some of them even had thousands of Life Crystals. He did not calculate the exact figure but there were a total of at least 200,000 to 300,000 of them.

Most of the rings contained a variety of weapons and relics. There were at least 4,000 to 5,000 gold-level weapons and armors. There were fewer relics but there were still at least 800 of them that were merely grade-1 and grade-2 relics. He would get at least a million Life Crystals if he sold all of the items. Besides, there were various elixirs that he was not sure about the expiry date, so he did not plan to keep them anyway.

The rest were some knick-knacks that seemed useless, so he got rid of them. He kept those with functions he was not sure of and decided to sell the rest of the items that he did not plan to use the weapons and relics. It was noon on the third day when he was finally done categorizing them.

It was a Saturday in the middle of May and Lin Xin would sit for her graduation exam in less than a month. After a week of adjustment, she had finally forgotten about Lin Xuan and focused on the exam. She even spent her weekends practising her battle and gunfighting technique in Gun Master.

Although she was not as talented as Lin Huang, her learning ability was amazing. She had mastered all 37 beginner level gunfighting techniques that Lin Xuan thought of as well as six techniques that did not require Life Power. She was almost invincible in the normal zone, so she decided to enter the hunter exclusive zone that was left behind by Lin Xuan. Although she was defeated more than she won, her abilities were improving fast. At the professional gun exam at school, she had achieved full scores for the past two months. She was also the top three in the battle assessment and culture studies, to the point she was labeled as the top student at school.

Seeing that she was busy on the second floor, Lin Huang summoned Bloody.

”Stay at home while I drop by the black market to handle some stuff.”

Bloody nodded. Although it was not a monster that was good in fights, it was a complete gold-level double mutated monster with a high intelligence. Lin Huang would be more relieved to have it stay at home. After briefing Bloody, he changed his clothes and his features to Ye Xiu’s. Riding on the Viridescent Thunderhawk, it took him less than ten minutes to arrive at the black market.

The Viridescent Thunderhawk landed on top of a six-storey building. Lin Huang recalled it and hopped into an alley. The Winter City black market was sprawling, occupying four streets. All of the stores were doing black market business. As the streets created a special pound (#) shape, many people, especially tourists would chance upon the streets by accident, so the area was developed into a mix of businesses. Although the profits one would gain from normal business would be better, many of the shop owners treated it as a hobby.

Most of the people in the streets were tourists and Lin Huang blended right in. As he browsed around the stores, he was looking out for his target. As he walked to the middle area, he saw an unique pavilion on the side of the street.

”Is that the Grace Pavilion?” He had finally found his target.

The Grace Pavilion was the biggest store in Winter City’s black market with a solid word-of-mouth reputation. However, there was a rule where they would not entertain any business that was less than 100,000 Life Crystals.

Such a rule gave other stores the opportunity to survive. The owner of the Grace Pavilion knew very well that if he was to disrupt the business in the black market, he would definitely be boycotted. He knew that no matter how powerful he was, he could not monopolize the entire black market. That was why he came out with such a rule. Word-of-mouth was vital in the black market and that rule only increased its fame in the underworld. Not only did their business not slow down, it was even better than before.

Lin Huang walked towards the pavilion. It was selling jewellery on the outside with many visitors. Lin Huang then approached a female staff.

”Do you guys have campanula here?”

The lady staff looked at him and asked, ”May I know how much you need, sir?”

”9.9 kilograms.” Lin Huang smiled.

”We only have 8.8 kilograms,” the lady staff hinted.

”Sure, I shall have 11 kilograms then,” Lin Huang responded.

”Please follow me, sir.” Since he managed to understand her hint, the staff brought him to an elegant room on the third floor.

”Thank you.” Lin Huang nodded.

As the staff left, a young lady who was dressed in a mandarin-collared dress that brushed her knees entered the room a while later. Lin Huang’s eyes lit up when he saw her, not because of her outer appearance, but because of the aura she gave off. She was very feminine and it was his first time seeing a lady like this.

”Hi sir, my name is Grace.” The lady smiled sweetly.

”My name is Ye Xiu,” Lin Huang stood up and greeted.

Judging by her name, the lady must be the owner of the store but he did not ask further.

”Please have a seat,” Grace invited. She sat across Lin Huang and got herself a cup of tea. She took a small sip of the tea and looked at Lin Huang, seemingly not in a rush to talk business.

”Sir, you’re new here. How did you come to know about the Grace Pavilion?”

”I found you guys on the network.” Lin Huang did not think that lying was necessary.

”Do you know about our unspoken rule then?” Grace took another sip and put down the cup.

”I do, you don’t accept business that’s less than 100,000 Life Crystals.” He finally understood why had she asked such a question. She was concerned that since Lin Huang was new, he might not know about the rule.

”Since you know our rule, what do you need from us or do you plan to sell us your things?” Grace’s smile became friendlier.

”I have a bunch of gold-level equipment and relics to sell,” Lin Huang finally voiced out his intention.

”How much do you have?” Grace’s eyes lit up.

”I have around 5,000 gold-level equipment 1,000 relics as well as some other items. I’m planning to sell all of them.”

”So many of them?” Grace was surprised.

”This place is too small to look at the items. Please follow me.” Grace stood up and brought Lin Huang to the other room on the same floor. It was much more bigger than the previous one. It was empty like a warehouse with two men standing at the entrance like bodyguards.

”Sir, you can bring out the items now.”

Lin Huang nodded and took out all the equipment which piled into a mountain. He then walked a few steps away and took out the relics which piled into a hill and then he put the rest of the elixir and items aside. Grace then waved to the two strong men.

”Come check the items.”

The two men quickly calculated all the gold-level equipment. Grace took out a coffee table and a couple of chairs, inviting Lin Huang to sit while getting a lady staff to get them a pot of tea. Then then chatted while sipping tea.

As they chatted, Lin Huang asked about the location where information exchanged within the black market. The two men who looked like bodyguards were conducting the stock check rapidly, spending less than five hours to complete their task.

”There’s a total of 5,381 gold-level equipment, among them are 3,067 weapons and 2,314 defensive items. There are 687 grade-1 relics, 411 grade-2 relics, 1,828 elixirs and 1,074 other items…”

Grace soon came up with a price.

”I’ve done the calculations. They’re worth a total of 1,578,627 Life Crystals. Since it’s your first time with us, I’ll round it up to 1.58 million for you.”

She then gave him a card that was half the size of a palm.

”Thank you so much.” Lin Huang took the Life Crystal storage card without thinking twice. He was satisfied with the amount that he was offered. He had come up with an estimation before arriving and he thought it would be around one million Life Crystals with the exception of the price of the elixirs. It was great that he received 1.58 million.

”Please visit us again if there’s more business in the future.”

”Will do.” Lin Huang grinned while swiping the card onto his account. He then returned her the card after seeing the 1.58 million Life Crystals credited into his account. Lin Huang left the Grace Pavilion as soon as his business was wrapped up and headed to the information exchange store that he heard about from Grace…