CSMCDB - Chapter 132
Chapter 132
"Guest, this is A Qi. He has the goods you want." The person in charge led Wen Yuncheng to a hidden small shed and introduced her to a person wearing a demonic mask.
Wen Yuncheng nodded. Without shaking hands or introducing herself, she sat down directly on one end of the sofa. "How much do you have?"
Although she acted this way, Wen Yuncheng immediately activated the recording crystal the First Princess had given her and placed a monitor on the man.
"How much do you need?"
"About two barrels will do." Wen Yuncheng thought for a moment. She also needed dragon blood to temper her body, and if she could really buy it... she could also give a share to the Little Ice Mountain. She asked for a pen and paper and simply wrote down the length, width, and height of a standard wooden barrel. "Star Stones are not a problem."
"..." The middleman called A Qi was stunned. He couldn't help but take another look at the cloaked figure. "One barrel of dragon blood... is already the absolute limit."
Wen Yuncheng leaned back against the sofa. "I said, Star Stones are not a problem."
"Of course, we don't mean to question you... It's just that dragon blood is truly difficult to obtain. Even when purchased from that side, the amount is limited." A Qi sat upright and explained earnestly. This client was clearly not someone who could be casually fooled. The black market's person in charge had vetted them; even a Star Venerate couldn't detect this person's tracks. He certainly didn't want to incur this person's wrath. "If the amount is too large... then Fu will need to have your information."
"..." Wen Yuncheng fell silent, seemingly in deep thought. A Qi looked at Wen Yuncheng's white fox mask, his heart pounding with extreme unease.
But in reality? Wen Yuncheng was ecstatic to have recorded the man accidentally blurting out "Fu." It's in the bag, it's in the bag. The secret realm is in the bag!
"One barrel, then. How many Star Stones, and when can you give it to me?"
"One week from now, we'll trade here again," A Qi said. "As for the Star Stones, you know the value of dragon blood. A full barrel of it will cost eighty million Star Stones at the very least."
Wen Yuncheng nodded, adjusted her cloak, and left directly.
She gave the crystal to the First Princess in exchange for a chance to enter the secret realm. Wen Yuncheng didn't enter the realm immediately, instead keeping a constant watch on A Qi's movements. On 1947's recommendation, she had specifically purchased an image display to connect to the monitor's viewpoint.
Of course, if it involved any inappropriate viewpoints, the display would automatically be censored with a mosaic.
A Qi didn't keep Wen Yuncheng waiting long. At dusk the next day, he quietly left the city alone and waited silently under a large tree in a remote spot in the outskirts. Wen Yuncheng guessed this was his meeting point with the member of "Fu."
Since it was a live feed, Wen Yuncheng squinted and studied the transaction location for a long time, discovering that it seemed to be just outside the town where the black market was located.
Wen Yuncheng immediately set off for the outskirts of the city. In order to keep an eye on A Qi, she had rushed back after giving the crystal to the First Princess and was staying at a nearby inn.
Once she was near the area, Wen Yuncheng directly activated her camouflage skill. She used her Mechanical Wings to ascend and search, then closed in on them. Wen Yuncheng carefully concealed her aura, and just as she got close, she also placed a monitor on the person who appeared to be the trader from the "Fu" organization.
Perfect.
The two carefully exchanged storage rings and then went their separate ways. Wen Yuncheng hesitated for a moment but didn't bother with the member of "Fu," instead following A Qi. After 1947 prompted that the "Fu" member was completely out of range, Wen Yuncheng drove the Flying Sky Shuttle at full power and smacked A Qi right in the head! Wen Yuncheng didn't let her guard down at all, subsequently using a magnetic pulse and a stun grenade. Only when A Qi was lying motionless on the ground did she go over to "loot the body."
So many storage rings. Wen Yuncheng quickly transferred the stolen goods, taking everything she could from A Qi's person. As for the Spirit Treasures he had branded with a blood contract, Wen Yuncheng didn't touch them; after all, removing such a mark was very troublesome. Wen Yuncheng didn't linger. After looting, she immediately reactivated "Camouflage" and left using her Mechanical Wings.
She didn't return to the city directly but flew through the air with her Mechanical Wings. As she flew, she took stock of her loot, transferring the items to her own storage ring and tossing away the ones A Qi had used for storage.
A barrel of dragon blood was sealed and stored separately in a storage ring. There were also some miscellaneous odds and ends, probably nothing too valuable. Perhaps they were items for future trades? Wen Yuncheng rummaged through them carefully and found an ownerless Profound-rank Spirit Treasure—a three-legged white jade cauldron.
Alright, this is mine now too. Wen Yuncheng tossed the small cauldron into her equipment template. She couldn't use this one too obviously for now; after all, it was stolen and could easily expose her. But if she encountered danger... when her life was on the line, who would care about being exposed?
There were also some miscellaneous spirit herbs, probably needed by some alchemist. Wen Yuncheng didn't understand these things and figured she would just give them all to Yan Ling to handle when she had time.
A Qi didn't have many good things on him. But that made sense—who would run around carrying all their important trade goods for no reason? Having just completed the transaction, A Qi had probably given the Fu member around eighty million Star Stones. Wen Yuncheng finally found the man's Star Stone cards. There were actually three of them.
The first card only had two million Star Stones. The second one had about forty-five million. Wen Yuncheng took out the third, which contained twenty-four million. A total of seventy-one million Star Stones. Wen Yuncheng transferred it all into her own card, then folded the three Star Stone cards and casually tossed them away.
Now, she was a multi-millionaire. The black market business was really easy to get into.
When A Qi woke up, his head was still throbbing with pain. He struggled to get up from the ground and finally realized what had happened. He frantically felt his body, and his heart nearly stopped from fright.
It was over. It was all over.
His entire fortune, his dragon blood, the Profound-rank Spirit Treasure and spirit herbs he had procured for his client... everything was gone.
Who—who did this? Did Fu go back on their word? No, that's impossible. They had cooperated so many times... Was it because of the dragon blood this time? His tracks couldn't have been exposed; not even the person in charge knew his movements. Although A Qi's star rank wasn't high, he was an expert in concealment and anti-tracking methods. If someone had been secretly following him, it was impossible for him not to know. The guy from "Fu" couldn't have reacted either!
Damn it, those bastards... did they really dare to mess with him?
The storage rings, right, he could still sense his storage rings...
After painstakingly sensing the connection to his storage rings and fumbling around until he finally found them in the outskirts, he fell into complete despair... They were empty.
The person in charge of the black market would kill him, and so would the client... especially that mysterious person who wanted to buy the dragon blood... Losing the dragon blood meant a loss of at least eighty million Star Stones. All his Star Stones were gone; he couldn't possibly cover this shortfall now...
The people from "Fu" robbed him. Whether it was them or not, it had to be them now.
A Qi steeled his heart, gathered his Star Power, and struck himself with his palm. He spat out several mouthfuls of blood, then tore his clothes and cut wounds on his body. Without a convenient weapon, he simply stabbed himself viciously in the stomach with his own hand, then clutched the wound and staggered back.
No, it's still not realistic enough...
A Qi gritted his teeth, rushed all the way to the city gates, and then directly shattered most of his own meridians. Under the intense pain, he immediately fainted.
Wen Yuncheng had no idea what happened after she left. Having reaped a huge harvest, she happily returned to the Imperial Capital and had a good night's sleep. The next day, when she checked the image display, she found the view was stuck at one angle—the ceiling.
Is A Qi sleeping? Did he faint from anger? Hasn't he woken up yet? Wen Yuncheng muttered. I didn't knock him into a vegetative state, did I? Please no, I kept A Qi alive to track him and reel in more fish.
Wen Yuncheng sighed and stopped looking at A Qi, turning instead to check on the "Fu" member from yesterday's transaction.
Her view was filled with a dark, damp scene. As the camera panned down, Wen Yuncheng saw the chains on the man's body.
...He was... captured? Was this an Imperial prison or one inside the Fu organization? Don't be so unlucky, right? I just placed two pawns, and they're both useless now? Wen Yuncheng silently looked at the map and, combining it with the location data in the upper-right corner of her view, determined the Fu member's position—it wasn't an Imperial prison.
Perhaps it was an internal interrogation site for the Fu organization? Wait, could it be that A Qi thought "Fu" was the one who knocked him out and stole the dragon blood? And so the black market and Fu had a falling out, and to get to the bottom of it, the trader was being interrogated?
Wen Yuncheng guessed at what might have happened and, following the indicators, marked the "Fu" trader's location on the map. She rolled up the map, planning to pay a visit to the First Princess and ask if this stronghold was under the Empire's control.
If it wasn't, she wanted to borrow a few bodyguards from the First Princess and go take down this stronghold. Hmm, she could also ask the Little Ice Mountain to come along for some training. Lin Jinyu didn't seem to have killed anyone yet.
However, all of this would have to wait until after she met with the black market and secured her compensation.
"Esteemed guest, my sincerest apologies, but there was a problem with the goods this time. We are currently negotiating a solution. I was wondering... if you could grant us a few more days?"
"Do I look like I have time to spare?" Wen Yuncheng's tone was icy and extremely impatient, as if she were suppressing her rage. "I need the dragon blood, and you know what it's used for. Are you afraid I can't produce the Star Stones? Don't worry, even if you name a price of one hundred million, I can afford it."
"No, no, no, that's not what we meant..."
"Then what do you mean? Are you trying to make me show up a few more times so you can figure out my identity? The first time it was several Star Kings, then a Star Venerate. What, are you going to send a Star Emperor after this is over?"
Cold sweat immediately beaded on the person-in-charge's forehead. They noticed? They actually noticed! This person... whether it was the Star Kings or the Star Venerate from the black market, they were all masters highly skilled in tracking. And this person actually...
Of course, he didn't know that with 1947's dedicated counter-surveillance, detecting these trackers wasn't difficult at all.
"My deepest apologies, my deepest apologies. We had no such intention. This was truly an accident, an absolute accident! One week... no, five days. Within five days, we will definitely present the dragon blood to you." As the person in charge said this, his mind raced, trying to guess the person's identity. They had used a detection device, but it showed that this was just an ordinary person—what a joke, what kind of ordinary person was like this! "Fifty million Star Stones. This transaction was our oversight. We will only charge fifty million Star Stones; the discount can be considered your compensation."
"Do I look like I'm short on a few Star Stones?"
"Of course, of course not. This is our unilateral compensation to you, a way to express our apologies..."
"Hmph. Five days." Wen Yuncheng adjusted her black robe and said in a low voice, "If I don't see the dragon blood in five days, then there's no need for a transaction."
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