"I'll take it." Yang Kai couldn't be bothered to haggle. Since the item was useful to him, he naturally intended to buy it.
The shop assistant's face lit up with a broad smile the moment he heard those words.
"However, I don't have any Demon Crystals," Yang Kai added.
The smile on the assistant's face froze instantly, and he regarded Yang Kai with a look that clearly said, "You must be joking."
Yang Kai reached out and produced a spiked club half the height of a man. Demonic energy radiated from it in a sinister aura, giving the assistant quite a fright — he thought he was being robbed. But then he heard Yang Kai say, "Does your shop accept this kind of thing? I can use it as collateral."
Only then did the assistant understand Yang Kai's intentions. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said with a slightly awkward smile, "Our humble shop doesn't normally accept such items, but this gentleman's demonic treasure seems to be of rather high quality. I can go ask the shopkeeper on your behalf."
Yang Kai gave a noncommittal grunt, and the assistant turned and walked over to the counter.
There was no one behind the counter. The assistant went over, lingered there for a moment, then quickly returned. Facing Yang Kai with a smile, he said, "The shopkeeper would like you to come over for a face-to-face discussion."
Yang Kai eyed him with suspicion, then followed him to the counter. The assistant pointed downward and explained, "This is our shopkeeper."
Yang Kai looked down in the direction indicated and only then discovered a short little fellow beneath the counter — barely half the height of a man, completely hidden by the tall counter. No wonder he hadn't noticed him before. The little man's race was a mystery; his head was absurdly large, his body stubby and compact, giving him a rather comical appearance. Yet his eyes gleamed with shrewd intelligence as he fixed his gaze on Yang Kai and said, "I hear this gentleman wishes to use demonic treasures as collateral in exchange for a map and a war wagon?"
Yang Kai casually placed the spiked club on the counter and nodded. "That's right. How much do you think this is worth?"
The little man reached out and ran his fingers over the club, releasing a thread of spiritual sense to probe it. His eyebrows shot up immediately. "A King-grade demonic treasure!"
A King-grade demonic treasure — presumably one that only a Demon King could wield. Yang Kai had quite a few of these on hand, all war trophies seized from the Demon Kings he had killed in recent days.
The Demon Race's artifacts were useless to the cultivators of the Star Boundary. Every major battle yielded a great haul of confiscated goods in Tiger Roar City, and Yang Kai had naturally taken his share.
Thinking back on it, he should have accumulated a fair amount of Demon Crystals too, but that stuff reeked of demonic energy and served no purpose for him, so he hadn't kept any. Had he known this would come up, he should have prepared a stockpile of Demon Crystals before setting out — it would have saved him all this trouble.
The little man carefully appraised the quality and grade of the spiked club, then gave a slight nod. "Our humble shop doesn't normally deal in these items. However, since it's a King-grade demonic treasure, we can make an exception this once. That said, this piece is only worth one million high-grade Demon Crystals — far from enough. Does this gentleman have anything else to offer as collateral?"
If not for the King-grade demonic treasure, he wouldn't have bothered with Yang Kai at all. Anyone who could produce such an item for collateral surely had other valuable goods on hand. Accept them here and resell later — the profit would be even greater.
"One million?" Yang Kai turned his head to look at Xiao Wu. He truly had no understanding of the market prices in the Demon Realm, and the only person he could consult was the maidservant he'd brought along.
Xiao Wu transmitted her voice discreetly, "That's a little on the low side, sir. You could push the price up slightly."
Just slightly low — that was acceptable.
Yang Kai raised his hand again, and with a series of clattering thuds, four or five demonic treasures of various designs appeared on the counter. He looked down at the little man. "How about now? Is this enough?"
The short shopkeeper and the assistant beside him both froze. The suddenly added demonic treasures all radiated sinister demonic energy, not one bit inferior to the spiked club — in fact, some surpassed it.
In other words, these were all King-grade demonic treasures!
King-grade demonic treasures could only be wielded by Demon Kings. For this man to produce so many at once — they clearly weren't his own. He had obviously killed other Demon Kings and taken them as spoils.
Every single treasure represented a slain Demon King. In an instant, the shopkeeper and the assistant regarded Yang Kai with an entirely different look in their eyes, as if a wave of bloody scent was crashing over them...
The short shopkeeper didn't dare show any negligence. He hurriedly said, "Please wait a moment, esteemed guest. Allow me to examine them first."
After a thorough appraisal, all of them were confirmed to be genuine King-grade demonic treasures, each worth a minimum of one million high-grade Demon Crystals. Perhaps because he sensed that Yang Kai was not someone to trifle with, the short shopkeeper even proactively raised the valuation on three of them.
The six treasures tallied up to a total of six million nine hundred thousand high-grade Demon Crystals — more than enough to cover the map and the tiger-headed war wagon, with a surplus to boot.
A short while later, Yang Kai walked out of the shop with Xiao Wu. The map and the tiger-headed war wagon had already been stored in his spatial ring, and he held another spatial ring in his hand containing the remaining nine hundred thousand high-grade Demon Crystals.
The main purpose of this outing had been the map. Now that his objective was achieved, there was nothing else Yang Kai needed to buy.
As he strolled along with Xiao Wu, he held the map in his hand and sent his spiritual sense into it, familiarizing himself with the layout of the Demon Realm. His consciousness darted through the map as the names of one continent after another flashed past his mind's eye. Yang Kai committed them to memory silently, pondering where he should begin looking for any trace of Emperor Mingyue.