Chapter 30: Inventory
In the main hall of the first floor of the Demon Castle, a crowd had gathered, and Linley, Delia, and Bebe were among them.
"Miss Una!" Bebe stood at the counter, greeting the service staff, Una, with a smile.
Una looked at Bebe with some surprise, as well as Linley and Delia behind him. "Linley. I was just lamenting earlier. Too few of you from this batch came back alive. I didn't expect the three of you to all return safely. Congratulations."
"We were just lucky." Linley thought back to what happened outside Diyi City and still felt a lingering fear.
When facing that Urnisen, Linley realized he had no power to resist. The gap in strength was simply too vast.
"Miss Una. We've been here for a while now. When do we hand over the assessment tokens?" Bebe asked impatiently. Linley and the others had already been waiting in the first-floor hall for quite some time. Una smiled and said, "Don't rush. Becoming a demon isn't as simple as just giving you a demon medal. There are some procedures to go through."
After a moment—
"Those who successfully participated in the demon assessment at Moon Lake, go up to the second floor!" Suddenly, a burly man with short golden hair walked down from the second floor of the Demon Castle and announced loudly.
"Hurry up and go." Una said with a smile.
"Miss Una, we'll head up then." Bebe said cheerfully.
Linley and the other twenty or so people then stepped onto the second-floor hall of the Demon Castle. This hall was much smaller than the first floor and had many rooms. The golden-haired burly man led them to a black room.
Inside the black room, three people were seated.
"One by one. Give me the Moon Ring and the Demon Seal." One of them, a middle-aged man in a black robe, said loudly.
One by one, they stepped forward to hand over the tokens and begin the process of becoming a 'demon.' However, it was clear that the procedure was quite complicated. Fortunately, the man in black worked relatively quickly, processing one person every few minutes.
"Next!" The man in black said.
Finally, it was Linley's turn.
Linley immediately handed over the 'Moon Ring' and the 'Demon Seal' from the assessment.
"Name." The man in black said.
"Linley." Linley replied.
Suddenly, Linley felt his body tremble. The man in black had activated his divine domain, directly suppressing Linley and isolating him from the others.
"Now, I'll take your soul aura." The man in black flipped his hand and produced a small, finger-sized, emerald-green orb. He placed this green orb next to Linley, and it could be seen with the naked eye rapidly turning gray.
After a moment, the entire orb had turned gray.
"Soul aura? What is this?" Linley asked curiously.
The man in black looked up and glanced at him. Indifferently, he said, "This is called a 'Soul Imprint Stone.' It can absorb a person's soul aura. No matter how powerful the expert, everyone's soul aura is different. With a Soul Imprint Stone containing your soul aura, your identity can be verified."
Linley was inwardly surprised.
So such substances existed.
But it made sense. Back in the Yulan Continent, items created by alchemists had already amazed Linley. In the Infernal Realm, encountering even more complex things was not unusual.
"This is the Demon Medal, and this is the Sub-Demon Medal. You need to blood-bond both of them." The man in black instructed.
Linley's eyes lit up when he saw the Demon Medal. This was the symbol of a demon.
"Sub-Demon Medal?" Linley was somewhat surprised. This so-called 'Sub-Demon Medal' was actually a blue medal. However, Linley had never seen a demon wearing this kind of blue medal.
The man in black smiled faintly. "The Sub-Demon Medal is kept in our Demon Castle. When this Sub-Demon Medal becomes ownerless, we will know that you have died."
Linley understood.
It was just a tool to determine life or death.
He immediately blood-bonded them. Linley received the Demon Medal and, as required, wore it on his chest. He even directly fused the 'Demon Medal' with his 'Pulsing Armor.' After all, the clothes on his body were just the Pulsing Armor.
Outside the Demon Castle.
"Linley, will you all stay in Diyi City from now on?" Regina said to Linley. "I owe you two hundred thousand mo stones. I'll pay you back in a while." Regina didn't like being in debt to others.
"No need. We'll be leaving Diyi City soon." Linley said directly.
"Leaving? Where are you going?" Regina asked quickly. "Far?"
Linley, Delia, and Bebe exchanged glances. Bebe grinned at Regina and said, "Regina, the three of us plan to roam the Violet Continent, then drift across the Star Mist Sea, and take a good look around this boundless Infernal Realm. What do you think—is it far?"
Regina was taken aback.
Many Highgods in the Infernal Realm had never even been to another continent.
After all, the Infernal Realm had five continents, each vast enough to provide plenty of room for them to operate. Without a special reason, they generally wouldn't risk traveling to another continent.
"Then I... how am I..." Regina didn't know how to repay the two hundred thousand mo stones.
"Hehe, no rush. If we meet again someday, you can give it to me then." Bebe said with a smile.
"Alright. Thank you all so much this time." Regina looked at the Demon Medal on her chest and felt even more grateful. Becoming a demon had been her dream for many years.
After saying goodbye to Regina, Linley, Delia, and Bebe went to the restaurant to enjoy a celebratory meal for their success. Then they returned to their residence. Linley and the others had paid their accommodation fees by the year.
In the courtyard where Linley and the others lived, the three sat around a stone table.
"Now, it's time to take a good inventory of our wealth." Bebe said excitedly. With a wave of his hand, seven space rings clattered onto the stone table, making a crisp sound. Under the blood-red sunlight, the seven space rings gleamed.
"I have some too." Delia smiled and dropped two more space rings onto the stone table.
Linley smiled at the sight.
During this trip to Moon Lake Castle, they had initially been used as cannon fodder by the demons. After two volleys of God-Slaying Arrows, Bebe had collected four intermediate god corpses, and Delia had collected two. Then there were several more battles...
And not long ago, outside Diyi City, after receiving the ultimatum from 'Urnisen,' everyone had started killing each other indiscriminately.
Of the original nearly one hundred intermediate gods, only about thirty had survived. Linley and his group had killed over ten of them, naturally collecting their bodies as well.
"Boss, the biggest haul is with you." Bebe said.
Linley flipped his hand, and eleven space rings fell onto the stone table. Among these eleven space rings, three were obtained inside Moon Lake Castle, and eight were from the previous melee. But the most valuable among the eleven was the black Moon Ring!
"The wealth in this black Moon Ring alone probably exceeds the total of all the others combined!" Linley exclaimed.
This was the Moon Ring of the dead Blackguard.
A Blackguard was a Highgod, and an elite one at that, so his assets were naturally considerable.
"We've already checked the wealth inside this black Moon Ring. Just the azure stones and mo stones alone add up to over ninety million. There are also some Soul Gold Pearls and other items. The total definitely exceeds one hundred million mo stones." Bebe said excitedly. "Now let's check the other space rings."
The Blackguard's ring had been checked long ago.
As for the others, except for two or three that had been examined, most hadn't been looked into yet.
"Let's start the inventory." Linley and Delia also felt a sense of anticipation.
They divided the pile of space rings on the stone table into three stacks. Each blood-bonded their share and began checking the wealth inside. Large amounts of mo stones and azure stones were taken out, along with various items.
"Wow, damn, who was the original owner of this space ring? An intermediate god? He was really rich!" Bebe exclaimed in amazement.
Linley and Delia immediately looked up.
"How much?" Linley asked expectantly.
"Boss, this intermediate god's assets actually exceed ten million!" Bebe said immediately. "And there are quite a few intermediate god sparks inside the space ring too."
Although the intermediate gods participating in the demon assessment were generally quite powerful, most had assets of a few hundred thousand. Those with over a million were rare, and those with over ten million were extremely rare. Linley himself had checked four space rings, and the richest one had only a little over two million mo stones.
"Bebe, stop counting and move on to the next space ring." Linley said with a smile.
Just then, Delia let out a surprised cry.
"What's wrong?" Linley and Bebe both looked over.
Delia's face was full of smiles. "Linley, guess how much the total value of this space ring is?"
Bebe immediately guessed, "Ten million?"
Delia smiled and shook her head.
"Is ten million too low or too high?" Linley asked quickly.
"Too low, of course. It's more than ten million." Delia said.
Linley was shocked. "How much is inside?"
Delia smiled and said, "The mo stones and azure stones inside add up to about eight hundred and sixty thousand."
"Eight hundred and sixty thousand?" Bebe's eyes widened. "And you say it's more than ten million?"
Delia laughed. "I haven't finished yet. Although the mo stones and azure stones are only that much, this space ring also contains..." Delia flipped her hand, and two black crystals appeared in her palm—sparks!
Sensing the aura of the sparks.
"Highgod sparks? Two of them?" Linley exclaimed.
Delia nodded with a smile. "Yes, one is wind-element, and the other is darkness-element."
Linley was overjoyed, then asked curiously, "How did that intermediate god get two Highgod sparks?"
Delia chided him, "Linley, don't talk about others. Didn't we also get a Highgod spark? How long have we been in the Infernal Realm, and we already got the Blackguard's Highgod spark? Why can't others get one?"
"True." Linley nodded in understanding.
If they could get one, why couldn't others? It was just that they had been lucky enough to benefit.
After a while, Linley and the others had roughly inventoried all the space rings. Of course, they hadn't carefully examined some miscellaneous items. Linley and the others only tallied the easily countable items like mo stones, azure stones, and sparks.
"Right now, we have approximately one hundred and twenty million mo stones. Of course, that doesn't include the four Highgod sparks we have." Linley said.
The four Highgod sparks were: the one brought from the Yulan Continent, the one from the Blackguard, and the two found in the space ring just now.
"Delia." Linley looked at Delia. "I was planning to go buy you a wind-element Highgod spark later, but it seems we've obtained one ourselves. You should refine this one as soon as possible." Linley handed the wind-element Highgod spark to Delia.
Since Delia was following the path of refining sparks, Linley naturally wanted her to reach the Highgod level as soon as possible.
As for Linley and Bebe, they relied on comprehension, which couldn't be achieved overnight.
"Alright." Delia nodded slightly.
Beside them, Bebe was flipping through some items they hadn't examined closely earlier. After all, during the inventory, they hadn't scrutinized everything. For example, books—Linley and the others hadn't paid much attention to them.
"Boss, look at this." Bebe suddenly sounded somewhat excited.
Linley turned his head curiously and saw Bebe holding a thick book. On the cover was written: 'A Brief Explanation of the Seven Elemental Law Mysteries.'