Chapter 27: The Highest Bidder
Hell. Within the territory of Yemu Prefecture.
This was a mountain range utterly devoid of life. The rocks were scorched black, and withered, rotting weeds lay scattered about.
Within this continuous mountain range was a lake spanning dozens of miles in every direction. The lake water was extremely murky, and it also emitted waves of deathly aura. Some bleached white bones and corpses floated on the lake's surface. This mountain range was a forbidden zone!
Even the demons dared not approach this place.
"Gurgle, gurgle~" The deathly still lake water suddenly began to bubble.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, the wide lake surface parted like a curtain being drawn open. The lake water split apart of its own accord, creating a passage dozens of meters wide that led directly to the depths of the lakebed. Nearly a hundred figures flew directly out from the lakebed. Except for the one leading figure, who wore a gray robe, all the others were clad in black robes.
Above the lake, nearly a hundred people stood suspended in midair.
The leader, the gray-robed man, had pitch-black hair. But what was most striking were his two eyebrows, which hung down all the way to his chest. If Loysius and the others were to arrive and see this gray-robed man, they would be greatly shocked, because this gray-robed man looked exactly like the master of Moon Lake Castle.
"Bastards!" The gray-robed man's eye muscles twitched. He was on the verge of exploding with rage.
The gray-robed man said in a low voice, "I, Urnisen, have apparently been in seclusion for too long. Those people have forgotten my name, actually daring to destroy my divine clone! I said I would make them regret it!" His heart was filled with boundless fury.
He had two divine clones.
He had first cultivated his Death divine clone, while his main body became the Darkness divine clone. In terms of strength, his achievements in the laws of Death far surpassed his achievements in the laws of Darkness. Even so, with the strength of his Darkness divine clone, plus a large number of guards, he shouldn't have run into any problems.
Who would have thought this time...
One clone was finished.
"Kill. Kill them all!" The gray-robed man's heart was filled with nothing but murderous intent.
He only had two clones in total. Losing any one clone was equivalent to losing a life. Losing a divine clone naturally sent him into a rage.
"Master, where are we going now?" A black-robed man behind him asked respectfully.
"My Moon Lake Castle is closest to Diyi City! According to the rules of the Demon Castle's assessment missions, they would definitely choose the closest route." The gray-robed man said in a low voice. "Those demons have probably already taken a metallic life form and returned to Diyi City."
"We will now go to Diyi City first!" The gray-robed man said coldly and sharply.
"Yes, Master (Milord)!"
The nearly one hundred black-robed men behind him all responded respectfully at the same time, though their forms of address differed slightly.
"Hmph, no matter what, they all have to return to Diyi City! We'll intercept them directly outside Diyi City." The gray-robed man then looked at a black-robed man. That black-robed man's body suddenly vanished, and at the same time, a streamlined metallic life form appeared in midair. Then, including the gray-robed man, nearly a hundred people entered the metallic life form.
"Whoosh!"
The metallic life form instantly streaked across the sky, heading towards Diyi City.
In terms of speed, this metallic life form far surpassed the one Linley and the others were riding in.
Not far from Moon Lake, a metallic life form was hovering in midair.
The silver-haired old man flew back into the metallic life form and directly ordered, "There's no one left in the castle. Let's go!" Immediately, the metallic life form transformed into a blur and disappeared into the distant horizon.
Inside the rear cabin of the metallic life form, the silver-haired old man stepped in, looked around at everyone, and announced loudly, "Everyone, please stand up and gather in the central aisle."
"Stand up?"
Although puzzled, Linley and the others still stood up. Nearly a hundred people in the rear cabin gathered in the central aisle. Suddenly—
The metallic life form rapidly shrank in size. Both its length and width decreased significantly. Then it reshaped itself, creating a hundred seats.
When they had come, there were twenty people per row, with fifty rows in total.
Now there were five seats per row, with twenty rows in total. The volume was much smaller.
"Now that there are fewer people, the metallic life form doesn't need to be so big." The silver-haired old man said indifferently. After speaking, he left the rear cabin and returned to the front cabin.
With only a hundred seats now, everyone in the rear cabin was sitting relatively closer together.
"We're going back."
Linley looked out through the transparent window of the metallic life form, feeling a sense of relief in his heart.
"Boss, when we get back to Diyi City and hand over the Moon Ring at the Demon Castle, we'll be demons too." Bebe grinned and said to Linley. "Then we can put on the Demon Medallion. Hmm, at least we won't have to queue up and pay the entry fee to get into the city."
"Entry fee?"
Linley and Delia were speechless. What was a one-mo stone entry fee to them?
"Does anyone have a Moon Ring? If anyone has a Moon Ring, I am willing to buy it with money." Suddenly, a voice rang out in the rear cabin. This voice immediately drew the attention of almost everyone in the cabin. The speaker was a handsome man with a somewhat effeminate air.
"Buy it with money?" Linley was startled. "This is so blatant. The Demon Castle personnel are still in the front cabin."
Bebe frowned and said, "Uh... saying it so loudly, if that silver-haired old man finds out, won't that be bad?"
Regina's eyes were sparkling at that moment, looking around at the people. Hearing what Bebe said, she lowered her voice and explained, "Bebe, for the Demon Castle assessment mission, they only check if you have the token. They don't care how you obtained it. Whether you snatched it or bought it, as long as you hand over the Moon Ring when the time comes, it's fine."
Linley and the others suddenly understood.
"The Demon Castle does this to encourage mutual plunder." Linley thought to himself.
But then again, Hell was like this. Killing and fighting were the themes here.
"Want to buy one? Haha... I happen to have an extra Moon Ring." Suddenly, another voice sounded in the rear cabin. This voice immediately excited Regina and some others. They all immediately looked over.
The one with the extra Moon Ring was an extremely burly man, but he was only about one meter twenty-three tall, with a thick beard.
"A dwarf?" Linley raised an eyebrow.
"What's the price?" A woman with long golden hair spoke up.
"The price isn't high. One million mo stones. If you want it, pay up." The burly dwarf said directly.
"One million?" Someone immediately exclaimed.
For a Highgod, one million mo stones might not be much. But for a Demigod, one million mo stones was an astronomical figure. For example, Linley and the others had only gotten seventy-five thousand mo stones when they sold a Highgod artifact before.
But could an ordinary Demigod even obtain a Highgod artifact?
Only after repeated battles and plundering could one possibly accumulate wealth exceeding a million.
"Too expensive." Regina frowned. She didn't have enough money to buy it.
"I'll take it." The effeminate handsome man immediately spoke up.
Although nearly a hundred people had returned alive, there were still twenty to thirty people who hadn't obtained a Moon Ring. Hearing that someone wanted to buy one, the others immediately panicked.
"I'll pay 1.1 million mo stones." Those people disregarded everything else.
"I made the offer first." The handsome man said urgently.
The burly dwarf, however, said, "I said one million, so one million it is. It's yours. Give me one million mo stones." The burly dwarf was very straightforward and directly completed the transaction with the handsome man. The others were disappointed.
Regina sighed.
It wasn't that she was unwilling to spend the money; she simply didn't have enough.
"Does anyone else have a Moon Ring?" Someone else was shouting in the rear cabin.
At this moment, a middle-aged man in a white robe said with a faint smile, "Same price as that dwarf brother. One million mo stones. Whoever wants a Moon Ring, give me one million mo stones, and I'll give you a Moon Ring."
"More?" Regina looked over, but she didn't have enough money.
"Swish!" Instantly, several figures turned into blurs and rushed over.
"Here you go." A woman with green hair directly shoved a ten-centimeter cubic block of sapphire stone into the white-robed middle-aged man's hand.
"Sell it to me." Several others shouted as well. "We'll give you one million mo stones too."
"I already gave him my one million mo stones. This Moon Ring is mine." The green-haired woman said hurriedly. At the same time, she stared at the white-robed man. She was also worried that he might be trying to cheat her, but she believed he probably wouldn't.
The white-robed man smiled and put away the one million mo stones. With a flip of his hand, he produced a Moon Ring and handed it to the green-haired woman: "Here you go."
The green-haired woman was overjoyed. She took the Moon Ring and returned to her seat.
The other few people were disappointed.
The white-robed middle-aged man, however, smiled slightly: "Don't fight. As long as you have enough money, I'll sell you enough Moon Rings." With a flip of his hand, the white-robed middle-aged man actually produced five Moon Rings.
This scene stunned many people.
"This guy, how many Moon Rings did he get?" Everyone in the rear cabin stared at the white-robed man.
Immediately, those few people also paid one million mo stones and each took a Moon Ring.
The white-robed middle-aged man continued to smile and said, "Who else wants a Moon Ring? Just come over. I still have some here." He smiled as he looked around the cabin. The entire rear cabin fell silent for a moment.
Those who had enough money had already gone to buy one.
Although there were still over twenty people who hadn't gotten a Moon Ring this time, only six of those twenty-plus people had assets exceeding one million. The others simply didn't have enough money to buy one.
Regina suddenly stood up and said with a smile, "Sir, could you lower the price of these Moon Rings a bit? One million mo stones is really too expensive. These Moon Rings are only useful to us. To anyone else, they're just space rings."
Space rings were worthless, not even worth one mo stone.
"That's right!" Others immediately chimed in. "Why don't you lower the price a bit? Say, five hundred thousand mo stones? How about that? I believe quite a few people would buy them."
"Yes, five hundred thousand mo stones." Regina also agreed. Regina herself actually had assets of about eight hundred thousand mo stones.
"How can that be?" Those who had already bought Moon Rings were unhappy. "We paid one million mo stones for ours."
The white-robed middle-aged man said with a faint smile, "I said, one million! If you don't have enough mo stones, I'd rather not sell than lower the price." After saying this, the white-robed middle-aged man said no more.
Regina's expression changed slightly.
"Regina, how much do you have on you?" Delia suddenly spoke up.
Regina looked at Linley and the other two. In fact, Linley and the others had already secretly communicated through their divine sense. Their harvest this time was truly enormous. Just the single Death God Puppet was worth one hundred million mo stones, and the wealth in the Black Armor Guard's space ring added up to an astonishing total.
"I... I'm still short two hundred thousand." Regina said with some anticipation.
Bebe giggled, flipped his hand, and produced two sapphire stone slabs: "Here, for you!"
Regina looked at them, a bit excited: "Thank you!" She immediately took them and ran over to the white-robed middle-aged man.
Outside Diyi City, the gray-robed man was sitting cross-legged on a patch of grass. Dozens of subordinates stood beside him.
"Master, a metallic life form from the Demon Castle is flying this way. It's coming from the direction of Moon Lake Castle." A voice sounded in the gray-robed man's mind. The gray-robed man immediately opened his eyes and said in a low voice, "Follow me!" Then, leading dozens of people, he turned into a blur and flew over.
About a few dozen miles away from Diyi City.
The metallic life form Linley and the others were riding in was flying at top speed towards Diyi City. Linley and the others were very happy, as they could already see the outline of Diyi City in the distance through the windows.
"We're finally here." Linley and the others had smiles on their faces.
Suddenly—
"Bang!" The entire metallic life form shook violently. Then, with a "Boom!", the entire metallic life form completely exploded into countless fragments. The caught-off-guard demons inside immediately stabilized their bodies and hovered in midair.
Linley and the others hovered in midair, but as they looked around, their faces instantly turned pale.
Surrounding all of them, hovering in midair, were nearly a hundred black-robed men. These nearly a hundred black-robed men had completely surrounded Linley and everyone else. No one could escape. The aura emanating from each black-robed man was extremely terrifying.
"Highgods. They're all Highgods!"
Including Linley, everyone who was surrounded had their expressions change drastically!