Chapter 1217: Giant Sharks
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“What?! It’s already been sold?!”
The Secret Merchant Market was originally quite quiet, especially since the guests on the second floor were wealthy and n.o.ble figures who made sure to remain polite and maintain the gentlemanliness of n.o.bles even when bargaining.
However, the sudden roar of fury was like a bolt of thunder that broke the silence, and attracted the attention of everyone in the hall of the second floor. There were several luxuriously dressed n.o.bles standing in front of the stall of the secret merchant who’d just sold the seahorse slaves. The person who yelled was the one standing in front.
Those n.o.bles were all at least two meters tall and above, looking rather strong and muscular, but the skin they exposed was silvery white. Their beady eyes were flickering with a shocking light, and their mouths were so large that they seemed to be reaching their necks. There were also gills on both sides of their necks, opening and closing slightly.
Even a random commoner of the Gilded Kingdom would be able to tell these ferocious and bizarre-looking people were from the Giant Shark Clan, one of the seven overlords of the Endless Ocean, what more the other guests that were present. Besides, the people in the hall also recognized at once that their leader was the young monarch of the Giant Shark Clan, Grina.
The Giant Shark Clan was in control of the largest sea area in the Endless Ocean and the richest marine resources, especially since they had the largest slice of the pie after the great war in the ocean back then and obtained countless benefits. Among the seven overlords of the Endless Ocean, the Giant Shark Clan was definitely the strongest as they even had the potential to become the ruler of the Endless Ocean at one point.
However, the strength of the Giant Shark Clan did not reach the point where it could subdue all the other clans in the sea in the end. After several large-scale battles, they still failed to conquer the seas in the face of the joint resistance of several Sea Clans. However, the Giant Shark Clan managed to stop in time as they were able to achieve a deterrent effect on the other clans despite having suffered large losses too.
No one knew how strong the Giant Shark Clan had become, but one thing was for sure: it was definitely stronger than it had been before the great war. After so many years of rest and recuperation, coupled with the digestion and absorption of the spoils they’d reaped from the war, even the other Sea Clans had already developed to an unprecedented extent, not to mention the Giant Shark Clan. If the Giant Shark Clan could not reach the level that they used to be at, they wouldn’t be qualified to be one of the seven overlords.
Hence, after seeing that the person who clamored turned out to be Grina, the junior monarch of the Giant Shark Clan, the n.o.bles and bigwigs of the other clans looked away in unison. Everyone knew that the Giant Shark Clan was notorious for being unreasonable. Even if they stared at Grina for a little longer than they should, they might arouse his displeasure, let alone if they confronted him.
Faced with the junior monarch of the Giant Shark Clan, the senior secret merchant secretly wiped some sweat off his forehead, and couldn’t help but be secretly thankful that he had sold the seahorse slaves away before the n.o.bles arrived. Otherwise, they might shortchange him to the point of paying lower than the cost price.
Although the Secret Merchants Alliance were prestigious and esteemed in the Endless Ocean, and claimed to guarantee fair transactions in the market, there was never absolute fairness in this world. Even the Secret Merchants Alliance would not really go against an overlord like the Giant Shark Clan for the sake of a secret merchant. Anyone would know whom to choose between the young monarch of the Giant Shark Clan and a senior secret merchant.
Facing Grina, the junior monarch of the Giant Shark Clan, the senior secret merchant couldn’t help but behave respectfully even though he had a mask on. He said, “Dear honored guest, the 67 seahorse slaves you mentioned have indeed, very unfortunately, been sold to someone else.”
After receiving the confirmation, Grina couldn’t help but secretly clench his fists, but he nevertheless suppressed the anger within him. No matter what, the Secret Merchants Alliance was still somewhat authoritative. If he were elsewhere, he wouldn’t care about whether he was being reasonable or not, and would simply punish the secret merchant for causing him to make a wasted trip
At this point, a Giant Shark Clan member who stood beside Grina asked the secret merchant another question on Grina’s behalf, perhaps because he was afraid that Grina might lose his temper. “Let me ask you, who bought those seahorse slaves? I believe that people who can come here are definitely not ignorant. You should know who he is, shouldn’t you?”
Those who were able to become secret merchants, especially those at the senior-level, naturally had their own sources of information. Besides, Lin Li had already done two groundbreaking things despite having only been to the Gilded Kingdom for a short period of time. It would be strange if the secret merchant didn’t know who he was. Anyway, the slaves had already been sold, so there was naturally no need for the secret merchant to continue keeping Lin Li’s ident.i.ty confidential. Hence, he hurriedly said, “Yes, the person who bought those seahorse slaves was President Felic of the Tower of Dusk from the Breezy Plains.”
“Tower of Dusk from the Breezy Plains?” Perhaps because he had just arrived in Gilded Kingdom, the name Felic did not ring a bell to Grina. After all, among the many forces of the Endless Ocean, there had never been one named the Tower of Dusk.
Seeing this, the secret merchant quickly continued to explain without waiting for Grina to question him further. “Yes, they were invited by the Gilded Kingdom to attend the founding celebration this year. Soon after they arrived, they got into quite a huge conflict with the Gilded Kingdom.”
Afterwards, the secret merchant briefly told Grina and the others about the two incidents that happened between the Gilded Kingdom and the Tower of Dusk. Those two incidents were actually not that complicated, and the Tower of Dusk had simply embarra.s.sed the Gilded Kingdom. However, for some reason, the Gilded Kingdom had been tolerating them time and time again.
“Hmph, Bradlor is really such a degenerate! That’s just how the humans are, they’re so wishy-washy about everything.” After hearing that, Grina immediately showed extreme contempt and disdain. He didn’t think that the Tower of Dusk, which he had never heard of, really had any impeccable strength and power. He reckoned that Bradlor had to have just been worried about ruining the founding celebration.
Actually, it wasn’t strange that Grina would have such thoughts, and he definitely wasn’t the only one who did. The Gilded Kingdom was a human kingdom that held significant power in the Endless Ocean, while the Tower of Dusk was a small, nameless force from the Breezy Plains. Anyone in the right state of mind would be able to tell which one was stronger.
In fact, only a few people were aware of the real reason, something even some of the ministers of the Gilded Kingdom did not know of. Even with this senior secret merchant’s sources of information, he wouldn’t be able to find out more. Thus, what he told Grina was just some commonly known facts.
Hearing that the one who bought the seahorse slaves was just the president of a small nameless force, one of Grina’s subordinates, who was beside him, stepped forth, and said, “Junior Monarch, since those seahorse slaves have just been sold, they couldn’t have gone that far. Do you want me to take some people with me and chase after them to bring the seahorse slaves back?”
“No hurry. Now that we know who they are, why would we still need to worry about them running away?” Although Grina was a little peeved, he was not in a hurry at this time. For him, knowing whom the seahorse slaves had been sold to was enough. Not to mention a small and nameless force, even if the seahorse slaves were now in the hands of the Gilded Kingdom, Grina was confident that all it would take for him to gain owners.h.i.+p of the seahorse slaves was a word from him.
In Grina’s opinion, the seahorse slaves could basically be considered theirs as long as they did not fall into the hands of the rivals of the Giant Shark Clan. Hence, he wasn’t in a hurry anymore, and simply started shopping casually with his subordinates in the Secret Merchant Market in a bid to pick up some things he liked along the way.
At this point, Lin Li and the others had already returned to the emba.s.sy of the Tower of Dusk. The first thing Lin Li did was to give the broken King Hunter’s Blade to the vampire Norfeller, and told him how to use it.
The King Hunter’s Blade was the pinnacle of human craftsmans.h.i.+p, and even though it was broken, it was still a very powerful magic weapon. However, it was strange that no one asked about it in the Secret Merchant Market, especially since it was marketed as an item with a rich history and incredible sharpness. In fact, it was precisely because there was a special method to use and activate the power of the King Hunter’s Blade that not just anyone could use it. In Anril, Lin Li was probably the only person who knew of the method other than the Immortal King.
The dagger was shrouded in a layer of faint silver light with rays of subtle blade light several meters long darting out. However, there wasn’t a single mana fluctuation in the light. If one didn’t look at it, it would easily go unnoticed.
In the in-game world, the King Hunter’s Blade might have been the professional weapon of hunters, but there wasn’t much of a difference between Hunters and a.s.sa.s.sins. The only difference was in their targets. Most of the time, the sensitivity of magical beasts to danger was actually much higher than that of humans. Hence, the King Hunter’s Blade’s ability to conceal its aura was very useful for a.s.sa.s.sins as well.
Of course, hiding aura was only one of the abilities of the King Hunter’s Blade, and the truly powerful aspect of the King Hunter’s Blade was its power. After the Heaven’s Wrath Daggers that Norfeller originally used were embellished with the Gems of Curse, they became extremely powerful magical weapons. However, Norfeller was now already a Sanctuary powerhouse, yet his power seemed a little insufficient in a Sanctuary-level battle.
The King Hunter’s Blade was named after the King Hunter, and was known to be capable of killing all the magical beasts in this world. Although it was quite an exaggeration, its power was definitely not ordinary. The in-game world was almost the same as Anril, and there were also many powerful magical beasts in addition to just some tigers and lions. Even the wyrms which were famous for their defense would have their scales slit open easily like paper by the King Hunter’s Blade.
With Norfeller’s Sanctuary-level power, the King Hunter’s Blade would definitely exert its maximum power, and even the Domain Worlds of ordinary Sanctuary powerhouses would not be able to resist it.
After letting Norfeller get familiar with the King Hunter’s Blade, Lin Li didn’t idle about as he quickly chanted an incantation to open the spatial rift leading to the Sky Castle, and stepped in. Upon returning to the Sky Castle, Lin Li gave the Nether Pearls that he obtained to his subordinates who were in charge of creating the magical weapons, and instructed them to create new weapons for the Retribution Knights
In addition, Lin Li arranged for Wilkinson and the others, who were responsible for concocting potions, to increase the number of Nether Servant’s Blessing Potions by a small amount. He was certain that the matter in the Secret Merchant Market would soon spread, and when the time came, there would definitely be many people coming to the Tower of Dusk to buy the Nether Servant’s Blessing Potions. However, that which was rare was dear. Even though the costs of producing the Nether Servant’s Blessing Potions were very small, Lin Li wouldn’t really open the floodgates and produce them in bulk, because he obviously had to exploit the merchants.
By the time Lin Li returned to the Gilded Kingdom again, it was already dawn. However, just as he stepped out of the spatial rift, he heard some noises, and reckoned that there seemed to be a commotion. Dorick, the deputy head of the Mage Legion, was waiting in the outer room of the room.
Lin Li walked out from the inner room, and saw Dorick, who had waited for a long time, and was sorting out the things that they bought from the Secret Merchant Market. While walking, he asked, “Dorick, what’s up with all the noise outside?”
Dorick, who was still looking a bit anxious, was visibly relieved to see that Lin Li had returned. He heaved a sigh of relief, and immediately went forward to bow to him. He said, “President, you’re back. There are a few Giant Shark Clan members outside who are demanding that you hand over the Seahorse slaves you bought last night. Based on the way they addressed the person leading them, he should be the junior monarch of the Giant Shark Clan.”
“Hand it over to them?” When Lin Li heard this, he couldn’t help but sneer. Regardless of whether the seahorse slaves were of any use to him, he wouldn’t hand them over without rhyme or reason. The Giant Shark Clan was prestigious in the Endless Ocean, and was vaguely the leader of the hegemons of the sea. However, they were far from being able to frighten him.
At this moment, another mage from the Mage Legion came outside the door, and asked, “Deputy Head Dorick, has the president not returned yet? Those Giant Shark Clan members outside say that if you still don’t appear, they will barge in themselves. Connoris and Lord Norfeller are still stopping them.”
“Just tell Connoris and Norfeller to send them away without any concerns,” Lin Li instructed Dorick, and continued to sort the things, not wanting to bother wasting time on the members of the Giant Shark Clan.
At this point, Connoris and Norfeller were standing at the entrance of the emba.s.sy, together with Dorick who had just come over and the mages of the Tower of Dusk’s Mage Legion. There was a bunch of aggressive Giant Shark Clan members in front of them, and their appearance was almost identical to sharks’. Fortunately, the Giant Shark Clan members were clearly of distinct cla.s.ses, which allowed others to tell them apart.
Apart from some guards, there were five Giant Shark Clan members who seemed to have supreme status, and one of those five was dressed n.o.bly. The five people were led by the junior monarch of the Giant Shark Clan whose strength was already at the peak of the Legendary-level. With the inherent divine power of the Giant Shark Clan, even ordinary Sanctuary powerhouses might not be able to defeat him. On the other hand, the other four people were extremely famous in the Endless Ocean too as they were known as the Four Divine Generals whose strength was above the Legendary-realm.