Monster Paradise

After discovering the Gilded Fiend, Lin Huang did not rashly go up to it. Instead, he passed slowly through the crowd while approaching it and continued to use Leech Pods to observe its behavior.

The Gilded Fiend seemed to be looking for something in the stalls. This made Lin Huang rather uncertain as to why it did not use Divine Telekinesis but was instead checking the stalls carefully one by one.

Theoretically, given its identity, it had absolutely no need to worry about its Divine Telekinesis being sensed by others.

‘What exactly is this fellow looking for?’ Lin Huang was rather curious about this.

The Gilded Fiend moved ahead slowly, carefully scrutinizing each stall along the way. Although it tried its best to seem indifferent, any outsiders could tell right away that it was very likely searching for something.

In this inner world, practically everybody knew the Gilded Fiend. Upon observing its demeanor, they were secretly speculating about whether or not the four-faced individual might have heard some gossip of late about something valuable hidden in the market. That might be the reason why the Gilded Fiend had been sent to investigate.

Therefore, many people began secretly checking through all stalls in the market, trying to get a head start.

There were even quite a few stall owners who checked their own goods again, seeing if there was anything that they might have missed.

Even Lin Huang could not help secretly speculating, even though his purpose for coming here had nothing to do with buying goods. He even began attentively checking out all the items at the stalls along the way.

After all, anything that the Gilded Fiend—or even the four-faced individual—considered to be important, had to be valuable.

Even if Lin Huang could not use it himself, he could sell it off at a good price.

Lin Huang strolled around the market while quietly making his way closer to the Gilded Fiend.

Over three hours passed by in no time at all, and the Gilded Fiend had walked around the entire market twice, looking through all the goods at every stall. However, it had not bought a single thing.

Lin Huang had also followed the Gilded Fiend around for over three hours and had bought a few small items.

He had actually noticed many excellent items on both sides of the street. Although most of them were not enough to pique his interest, to most ordinary True Gods, many of these goods were of the best quality. For instance, there were medicinal pills that could aid one’s combat strength in achieving a breakthrough, top-grade god rule relics, and other assorted items.

Although Phantom City was similar to a virtual game world, the items one obtained from this world were the real deal, even in the outside world. There were even some fantasy items that could not be obtained at all in the outside world.

However, after strolling around twice while following the Gilded Fiend, Lin Huang had not noticed anything special that could pique the Gilded Fiend’s interest.

At the stalls, the highest grade items were expert-grade god sequence relics. At the Gilded Fiend’s level of ability, these things were nothing to it.

‘This fellow has been around the market twice already; there’s no telling how much longer it will keep walking around,’ Lin Huang could not help muttering in his mind upon noticing that the Gilded Fiend did not seem to have any intention of leaving yet.

Moreover, Lin Huang was not the only one who was intently keeping an eye on the Gilded Fiend.

However, these individuals observing the Gilded Fiend’s every movement had no intention of attacking it. Instead, they were curious about what it was looking for and wanted to snatch the item up before it could make a purchase.

After strolling around the market twice, the Gilded Fiend seemed to have thought of something a short while later. It suddenly halted and turned around, heading in Lin Huang’s direction.

‘Have I been discovered?’ Lin Huang was startled.

His first reaction was that the Gilded Fiend had discovered he was tailing it. However, he remained calm.

He glanced through the goods at the stall in front of him and casually picked up something pleasing to the eye, pretending to scrutinize it. He then asked the stall owner for the price.

“How much is this?” Lin Huang was holding an ancient coin. It looked rather rusty, and he did not recognize any of the words engraved on it. There were flowers and birds imprinted on both sides, and the craftsmanship seemed fairly good.

The ancient coin was only a showpiece to admire. There was no energy in it at all.

“10,000 Divine Stones!” The bald owner glanced at Lin Huang and immediately asked for a ridiculous price.

“Why don’t you rob me instead?!” Lin Huang raised his brows when he heard how much the item cost. Even though he usually did not like to bargain when he bought things, he could tell that the stall owner was trying to rip him off. “This piece doesn’t have any energy fluctuations at all; it’s just an ordinary item. You’re asking the price for a top-grade god relic. Boss, this isn’t how you do business.”

“How much are you willing to pay, then?” The owner smiled, not embarrassed in the least. Instead, he redirected the question to Lin Huang.

“One Divine Stone. I’ll take it if you’re willing to sell it for that amount.” Lin Huang immediately went down to 1/10000 of the original asking price.

“You said that I’m not sincere in selling this item to you at my asking price, but you’re clearly not sincere in wanting to purchase it since you’re bargaining like this,” the stall owner grumbled.

“One Divine Stone is almost clean net profit for you. I’m sure you didn’t spend very much to purchase this.” Lin Huang remained adamant.

Before the owner could argue, Lin Huang continued, “There aren’t many people collecting ancient coins after all, and you only have this one single coin at your stall. It proves that you also knew it would depend on luck whether or not you would be able to sell it. Therefore, there’s no way that you would purchase an ancient coin at a high price. You’d suffer a loss if you couldn’t sell it—only a simpleton would do such a thing.”

The stall owner had prepared a retort, but he swallowed his words entirely after hearing what Lin Huang had to say.

He had wanted to say that he had indeed purchased the coin at a high price. However, if he said so, it would be the equivalent of admitting that he was a simpleton.

“In that case, could you raise your asking price a little more?” After some consideration, the stall owner did not persist any further. His expression altered as well; he wanted to curry favor with Lin Huang now.

“Two Divine Stones, then. That’s my last offer.” Lin Huang generously added one more Divine Stone to his asking price.

The stall owner felt rather helpless, but he nodded anyway. “Alright, it’s sold!”

Lin Huang tossed two Divine Stones to the owner and was about to put the ancient coin away into his space storage when a deep, resonant voice suddenly spoke up.

“I want this ancient coin! How much is it?”

The voice caught the attention of many people’s attention as soon as it sounded.

The stall owner was stunned at first, but he immediately said with an apologetic smile, “Sir, the ancient coin has already been sold to this man.”

Lin Huang turned his head to look at the looming figure standing next to him. It was the Gilded Fiend that he had been stalking for over three hours.

‘This fellow is interested in the ancient coin I’m holding?!’

Lin Huang was stunned as well. He had not expected that the item the Gilded Fiend had been searching several hours for would accidentally come into his possession just like that.

He lowered his head to study the ancient coin, then secretly checked it with Divine Telekinesis. However, he still did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

At that moment, the Gilded Fiend turned its head and looked at Lin Huang.

“Friend, could you sell this ancient coin to me?” After making this request, the Gilded Fiend added, “I’m Gildy, Master Four Face’s subordinate.”

A strange gleam flashed through Lin Huang’s eyes. Although he had no idea what exactly the ancient coin was, it was undoubtedly an opportunity to get close to the Gilded Fiend…

“I can sell it to you, but the price… We can talk about it at leisure somewhere less crowded…”