Chapter 11: The Third Floor
Purple Thorn Castle was packed with people.
The main gate of Purple Thorn Castle was a full hundred meters wide, and a bustling crowd surged through it. One could easily imagine just how good business was at this establishment.
Linley and his group stood among the crowd, gazing at the castle from a distance.
"Oh, the Purple Thorn Army?" Linley noticed at once that beside the main gate stood over a dozen warriors clad in purple tight-fitting outfits, draped in purple robes, with a special purple mark on their foreheads. They were indeed the Purple Thorn Army.
Beside him, Debra laughed and said, "Purple Thorn Castle is spread across the entire Purple Thorn Continent. Its master is the great Sovereign, the Purple Thorn Sovereign. Naturally, the Purple Thorn Army is here to keep watch. Actually, the Purple Thorn Army is just going through the motions here. After all, inside Diyi City, who would dare cause trouble? Unless they're tired of living."
"Hey, that steward named Edmund and his group—why are they heading to the back?" Bebe's sharp eyes caught sight of Edmund leading a group toward the rear of Purple Thorn Castle, not entering through the main gate.
Linley noticed this too.
In fact, although many people entered through the main gate, it seemed that just as many were heading to the back of the castle. The numbers were no less than those entering through the front.
"Linley, Purple Thorn Castle has a front gate and a back gate. Those who enter through the front gate are coming to buy items. As for those entering through the back gate, they're selling their goods to Purple Thorn Castle!" the green-haired youth Debra explained with a smile.
Linley understood now.
Purple Thorn Castle not only sold goods but also purchased them.
"Let's hurry," Debra urged.
Linley took Delia's hand, and together with Bebe, they followed the crowd toward the rear of Purple Thorn Castle. After walking several miles, Linley and his companions finally saw the back gate.
Sure enough...
This back gate was also a full hundred meters wide, with a bustling crowd streaming through it.
Delia laughed and said, "Most of those coming to sell are from tribes and families outside Diyi City. There really are a lot of people. Purple Thorn Castle buys at seventy percent and sells at full price. That's a thirty percent margin... Purple Thorn Castle is practically a gold-devouring pit."
"This kind of business isn't something just anyone can do," Linley said with a chuckle. After all, the master behind Purple Thorn Castle was a great Sovereign!
Then Linley and his group, along with the others from the Black Dragon Tribe, all entered Purple Thorn Castle. Although the Black Dragon Tribe's group numbered nearly two hundred, they were only a tiny fraction of the castle's customers.
"This place is huge!" Linley exclaimed.
On the first floor of Purple Thorn Castle, Linley and the others discovered that the main hall was over a thousand meters long and wide. A thousand meters in length and width—that was an astonishing number. Even if tens of thousands of people poured in, it wouldn't feel crowded at all.
"There really are a lot of gods here to sell things," Bebe said excitedly.
"This first-floor hall is for purchasing items worth less than a hundred Mo Stones, such as Demigod sparks and Demigod artifacts," Debra explained, familiar with the layout. "For example, I'm here to sell a Midgod artifact, so I'll go to the second-floor hall. That hall handles items worth around ten thousand Mo Stones, like Midgod artifacts and Midgod sparks. As for the third floor, that's for items worth millions of Mo Stones or more, like Highgod artifacts and Highgod sparks."
Linley and his companions followed the Black Dragon Tribe crowd up the stairs to the second-floor hall.
Of course, more than half of the Black Dragon Tribe members stayed on the first floor. Clearly, they were selling lower-value items.
"Linley, look—there are counters along the edges of the hall, with people sitting behind them. They're the purchasing staff of Purple Thorn Castle. Haha, you guys take a look around. I'm off to sell my stuff." Debra waved to Linley and then hurried over to a counter on the second floor.
After Debra left, Linley, Delia, and Bebe exchanged glances.
"Let's go to the third floor," Linley said.
Linley and his companions still had several valuable items: two Highgod artifacts and one Highgod spark. These were extremely expensive.
The stairs from the first floor to the second floor were wide, but the stairs from the second floor to the third floor were much narrower. Even the doorway was noticeably smaller, and the crowd was significantly thinner.
Clearly, not as many people came to sell high-value items as those on the first and second floors.
"Edmund!" Linley spotted Edmund at the top of the stairs, standing at the entrance to the third-floor hall with three subordinates. At the doorway, several figures in purple robes were talking to Edmund, who had taken out a spark.
"Why is Edmund taking out a spark?" Linley wondered.
Then the purple-robed staff let him through, and Edmund entered the third floor with his three subordinates. When Linley and his group reached the third-floor entrance—
The purple-robed staff stopped them.
"Huh?" Linley and the others looked at them in confusion.
"What are you here to sell? Show us," one of the purple-robed staff said. Seeing Linley's puzzled expression, he added with a faint smile, "Is this your first time? Unlike the floors below, everyone entering the third floor must present an item. Otherwise, entry is not allowed."
Linley understood. Recalling what Edmund had done earlier, he now fully grasped the situation.
Just then, two young men walked past Linley without paying any attention to the purple-robed staff and entered the third floor directly.
"Hey, why don't they have to show anything?" Bebe asked in confusion.
The purple-robed staff member was fairly patient and said with a faint smile, "Didn't you notice? They have Demon badges on their chests. They're Demons! As Demons, we trust their credibility. When they come, they definitely have items of sufficient value. No inspection is needed."
Linley sighed inwardly. "Demons don't have to pay the city entry fee, and they don't need to be checked to enter the third floor. Their status is clearly different."
Thinking this, Linley still flipped his hand and produced a black dagger. This dagger was a Highgod artifact left behind when Adkins's dark-element Highgod clone was killed.
"Go on in," the purple-robed staff member nodded.
Stepping into the third-floor hall of Purple Thorn Castle, Linley noticed it was noticeably smaller than the floors below, but it was still several hundred meters long and wide. However, the number of people inside was far fewer.
"Those are the purchasing counters!" Bebe ran ahead, and Linley and Delia followed him toward the counters along the edge of the hall.
At that moment—
"Lord Edmund, look!" The Black Dragon Tribe steward Edmund and his three subordinates all noticed Linley's group. "Lord Edmund, aren't those three from our tribe? The three out of the five who came to Diyi City for the first time? And they're here on the third floor!"
Edmund stared at Linley and his companions from a distance.
Among those from the Black Dragon Tribe who came to Diyi City this time, only five were first-time visitors. Edmund had met them all and naturally remembered Linley and the others.
"So they're carrying substantial wealth," Edmund said, narrowing his eyes. A cold, sinister gleam flickered within them. "It seems our tribe's surveillance is still insufficient!"
In the Infernal Realm, when one's wealth reached a certain level, it invited the covetousness of others.
If someone wanted to safely accumulate wealth, spending hundreds of millions of years to save up a million Mo Stones, they would likely be plundered by some powerful figure.
Edmund and his men had done this sort of thing more than once.
"Don't worry, my lord. Now that we know, those three won't escape your grasp. We'll just wait until we leave Diyi City to make our move," one of the Midgods beside him said slyly.
Edmund nodded.
Anyone who could come to the third floor had items worth at least a million Mo Stones. Such a fortune was enough to tempt even a Highgod like Edmund.
Along the edge of the third-floor hall was a row of counters, each staffed by a purple-robed attendant. Linley and his group approached a silver-haired old man in purple robes.
"Hmm?" The silver-haired old man looked up and said with a faint smile, "What are you selling? Show me."
Linley, Delia, and Bebe exchanged glances. Then Linley flipped his hand and produced the black dagger, handing it to the old man. "This Highgod artifact."
Linley and his companions still had the Gortez spear and the Highgod spark, but since this was their first time in Diyi City, there were many things they hadn't figured out yet. They weren't in a hurry—if they really needed money, they could sell the rest later.
Besides, Diyi City wasn't limited to Purple Thorn Castle for buying and selling. There was also the Black Sand Castle. However, the Black Sand Castle had a more chaotic mix of forces, and Linley hadn't fully understood the situation there yet, so he wasn't in a rush to go.
"This dagger is quite good," the silver-haired old man said, nodding in approval. "It's indeed a Highgod artifact. Its previous owner was likely a Highgod who cultivated the laws of darkness. He used this dagger to kill many strong warriors—the killing aura is strong. Not bad. We'll take it for 750,000 Mo Stones. Are you willing to sell?" The old man made his judgment.
Linley nodded. "Deal."
He had originally expected to get around 700,000 Mo Stones at most. 750,000 was already satisfactory. Linley understood that this dagger might be a fairly good Highgod artifact, and he might be taking a slight loss. But a small loss didn't bother him.
"Here's one hundred Zhan Stones, which is one hundred thousand Mo Stones. Two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand..." The silver-haired old man pulled out a large piece of blue stone.
Linley immediately understood.
"Just as I thought!" When Linley and his companions had killed those three Midgods, they had obtained some blue stones. At the time, Linley had guessed they were currency, as their aura was identical to Mo Stones, only much denser.
One Zhan Stone was a cube with a side length of one centimeter.
What the old man took out was a slab of Zhan Stone, ten centimeters long and wide and one centimeter thick. This slab was equivalent to one hundred units of Zhan Stones, or one hundred thousand Mo Stones.
Seven Zhan Stone slabs and five Zhan Stone bars.
"Seven hundred and fifty thousand. Take it," the old man said, handing them to Linley.
"May I ask, besides buying things, what is the actual use of Zhan Stones and Mo Stones?" Linley always felt that Zhan Stones and Mo Stones carried a special aura, as if they had a unique purpose.
The silver-haired old man's eyes lit up. He glanced at Linley and said with a faint smile, "Knowing that would be useless to you. There's no need to ask."
Linley was curious, but since the other party didn't want to say, he didn't press further.
"If you go through the side passage of this hall, you'll reach another area. If you want to buy something, you can go to that hall," the old man said.
Linley had already guessed this.
Because Purple Thorn Castle's front gate hall was for selling, while the back gate hall was for purchasing. They were two sides of the same coin.
"Let's go take a look," Delia said, curious.
"I wonder what the Infernal Realm has to offer," Bebe said eagerly. Linley smiled and nodded. Following the side passage from the third-floor hall, they headed toward the other hall on the third floor of Purple Thorn Castle.
Meanwhile, in the distance—
"Hmm? They're going to the other hall?" Edmund noticed this and frowned.
He immediately ordered his subordinates, "You, wait at the front gate. And you, wait at the back gate. Keep an eye on those three."
"Yes, my lord."
The two Midgods immediately left.