Monster Paradise

“We haven’t found any unusual items. Right now, the only things we haven’t checked are what’s in the storage rings.” Saber9 looked at the last two storage rings after a meticulous search.

“Even if we haven’t discovered anything, it doesn’t mean nothing unusual is present.” Virtuoso’s gaze fell upon the two storage rings. “After all, we have no idea what the fragments of the castellan’s seal for this Phantom City look like.”

“Is there any way of accessing these two storage rings?” Lin Huang went straight to the point.

Virtuoso extended his hand and picked up the two storage rings, “These two storage rings belong to an older style of secret key rings. One must adjust their Divine Telekinesis to a specific frequency to be able to unlock them; that’s the only way to gain access. Having the rings is useless if you don’t have the secret key.

“However… I just so happen to know the secret keys for both these storage rings…” As they spoke, Virtuoso had already adjusted their Divine Telekinesis to a specific frequency. They glanced at the two storage rings in quick succession.

Even without Virtuoso saying anything further, Lin Huang and Saber9 knew that they must have read the memory of one of the four-faced individual’s close associates. Furthermore, this person just happened to have the information about the two secret keys in their memory.

Virtuoso searched both the storage rings for a long time before finally retrieving one single item.

“I used my Divine Telekinesis to scan every item in these two storage rings three times, but I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary…” Virtuoso suddenly turned their head to look at Lin Huang when they finished speaking. “However, I found this.”

They opened up their palm. In the middle of it was an ancient silver coin.

Lin Huang could not help frowning when he saw the ancient coin. Before he could open his mouth, Virtuoso spoke first.

“Does this ancient coin look like the one you bought at the market a few days back?”

“Not at all.” Lin Huang shook his head, “Yours looks like a silver coin. The one I bought looks more like a bronze coin. Not only are the colors different, but the size, thickness, and carvings also aren’t the same at all. Your silver coin is at least one size smaller than my bronze coin.

“Why? Do you suspect that this silver coin might be a fragment of the castellan’s seal?” Lin Huang asked, raising his brows.

“If you bring out your ancient coin, we’ll find out whether or not this is a fragment of the castellan’s seal.” Virtuoso had hitherto always been calm, but right now, his tone carried a sense of urgency.

The castellan’s seal fragments could sense each other. If the ancient coin in Virtuoso’s hand was able to sense the one that Lin Huang had purchased, they could basically confirm that the two ancient coins were fragments of the castellan’s seal.

Lin Huang felt that Virtuoso was indulging in wild fantasies. The ancient coin that he himself had purchased at the market was considered a commemorative coin. For whatever reason, however, Virtuoso had somehow linked both these entirely different objects together through some wild feat of imagination. Not only did they believe that the two coins were related, they even believed that both were fragments of the castellan’s seal.

However, Lin Huang did not bother arguing with Virtuoso over the subject. He retrieved the ancient coin—which had cost him two Divine Stones to purchase at the market—from his space storage.

The way he saw it, as long as the ancient coin that he took out showed no reaction, it would be sufficient to prove right away that Virtuoso’s baseless speculation was wrong. There was no need for Lin Huang to waste his breath arguing with them.

However, as soon as he took out the ‘bronze coin’, the ‘silver coin’ in Virtuoso’s palm began to vibrate intensely. At the same time, Lin Huang could clearly sense the ‘bronze coin’ between his fingers vibrating just as intensely also.

The feeling one got was that of a dog wagging its tail maniacally in excitement when its owner got home from work.

Without waiting for Lin Huang to inquire further, Virtuoso had already pulled his palm away from the ancient coin. Seeing this, Lin Huang let go of his own coin as well, allowing the ancient coins to hover on their own in midair.

Both coins were different in terms of color, size, thickness, and even patterns. However, the current scenario was proof enough that the two objects were being drawn to each other.

After Lin Huang and Virtuoso released their hold, the two ancient coins soon transformed into two dazzling beams of light—one gold, one silver—that intersected in midair like a vortex. They were whirling rapidly, like Gemini’s twin stars drifting in the galaxy.

As the vortex swirled, the distance between both beams of light became shorter and shorter, and the rays that they released grew increasingly more dazzling to the eye.

Very soon, the two resplendent beams had reached their brightest, to the point where both silver and gold colors could not be distinguished from each other. Even Lin Huang and the others were unable to look through the light beams to observe what transformations were happening within.

Meanwhile, Virtuoso had made preparations much earlier and shielded the area. If not for this, the dazzling rays of light—brilliant enough to illuminate the entire sky—would attract unwanted trouble.

A good while later, the blinding rays gradually faded away. The initial two ancient coins had disappeared, replaced instead by a golden coin that looked rather old.

“The two ancient coins really are the castellan’s seal fragments?!” Lin Huang’s face was full of shock. He had not expected that something he had bought so casually at the market would turn out to be a fragment of the castellan’s seal.

“We’re pretty lucky.” Virtuoso smiled.

“How did you figure this out?” Lin Huang was still a little confused.

“The castellan’s seal fragments can take the form of anything at all. However, the different fragments of the seal have a definite connection to each other,” Virtuoso explained, smiling, “Let me give you an example. If one of the fragments is a key, then the other fragment might be a key of another shape—or it could be a lock, even a door.

“When I saw this silver coin and scanned it, my Divine Telekinesis picked up nothing out of the ordinary. To be honest, this is rather rare in the inner world. Therefore, I immediately thought of the bronze coin you bought at the market. There aren’t any energy waves on it at all, as if two coins from the surface world had somehow drifted into this place.

“Of course, we can’t entirely rule out that someone brought common coins from the surface world into the inner world. Therefore, I wasn’t completely sure if the two ancient coins were fragments of the castellan’s seal. I would only be able to ascertain this through the two fragments sensing each other…

“You both know what happened next,” Virtuoso did admit that figuring this matter out had involved a great deal more guesswork on his part.

Lin Huang had nothing much to say about Virtuoso’s less-than-scientifically-rigorous logical approach. All that could be said was that the three of them had been very fortunate—it was pure blind luck.

“Wait for me a moment. Let me return these things,” Virtuoso explained, then hurriedly transported the clothing and items back immediately.

“Are you sure the swap won’t be discovered?” Lin Huang could not help asking as he waited for Virtuoso to finish transporting the items back.

However, Virtuoso’s answer was completely unexpected. “Of course it’s going to be discovered!

“As soon as the four-faced individual checks through the items in his storage ring with Divine Telekinesis, he’ll definitely find out that the castellan’s seal fragment is missing. Not only that, he’ll soon discover that outsiders have arrived in this Phantom City.

“Therefore, we need to find the last fragment of the castellan’s seal as soon as we can. The best would be before the four-faced individual finds out that his own fragment has been stolen.”

“Absolutely. If he discovers that the castellan’s seal fragment has been stolen, he’ll most certainly send people en masse to hunt for the outsiders. That would inconvenience our subsequent movements greatly.” Lin Huang nodded slightly as well.

“The longer we drag this out, the more difficult it will be for us to extricate ourselves,” Saber9 said, looking serious.