What puzzled Han Li even more was that besides those shops, the place was dead quiet—not a single person in sight.
After mulling it over for a moment, he let out a soft laugh.
How could he have forgotten!
This was no leisurely island in the Inner Star Sea. The people who had the nerve to come here were all at least Core Formation cultivators, or at the very least mid-to-late Foundation Establishment cultivators. And once you spread them out across all the other demonic beast islands, the total number naturally wouldn't be large.
The cultivators on this Ningcui Island had all gone out to sea to hunt demonic beasts!
Thinking this, Han Li raised his head and looked around.
Only then did he realize that this place was actually built against a small hill, with its back nestled against the slopes.
After a moment's thought, Han Li walked toward a sundry shop constructed from a jumble of stones.
"Do you have any recent sea charts of the nearby waters?" Han Li asked in an indifferent tone.
Before coming here, he had already known that the sea charts for all the demonic beast islands were constantly being updated, so naturally he needed to buy the latest version.
"We do! There are two kinds—rough and detailed. Which one would the honored senior prefer?" The shopkeeper was a mid-aged man at the Qi Refining stage. The moment he saw Han Li and Qu Hun approach, he perked up and began explaining eagerly.
"The detailed one," Han Li replied without hesitation.
"Detailed sea chart—one hundred spirit stones!" the middle-aged man said with an outrageous price tag.
"One hundred?" Han Li wondered if he had misheard the price.
But his expression quickly darkened, revealing a flash of anger.
Although he had no intention of stirring up trouble, he was not about to be shamelessly swindled by a low-level cultivator.
"Don't misunderstand, honored senior! This price wasn't set by me—it was set directly by our superiors. We're merely following orders. And when other seniors sell us the updated sea charts, the price they charge is far from cheap either!" When the sundry shopkeeper saw Han Li's face darken, he didn't show any fear. Instead, he began pouring out his own grievances.
"Your superiors? Which merchant alliance do you belong to?" Han Li's anger eased slightly, and he furrowed his brow.
He understood perfectly well that any merchant capable of doing business on a demonic beast island was certainly no small outfit. It could very well be one of the Four Great Merchant Alliances' shops.
"Heh heh, the honored senior is truly a perceptive man. This humble one makes a living under the Fengle Merchant Alliance," the middle-aged man said with a ingratiating smile after a brief pause.
"The Fengle Alliance—one of the Four Great Merchant Alliances—the one that runs the Fengle Auction House in Tianxing City?"
"That's the one, honored senior!"
Hearing this, Han Li wasted no more words and tossed out a mid-grade spirit stone.
The shopkeeper's face broke into a wide grin as he happily handed Han Li a jade slip.
"Are the other shops also run by your Fengle Alliance?" Glancing at the other storefronts, Han Li pocketed the jade slip and asked, not bothering to hide his displeasure.
"How could that be? Aside from that buying house over to the west, all the others are set up by other merchant alliances—they have nothing to do with our Fengle Alliance," the middle-aged man said with a touch of hostility, glancing at the neighboring shops.
Hearing this, Han Li said nothing further and turned to leave with Qu Hun.
After walking a few steps, he released his Divine Wind Boat and was about to fly off on it when suddenly a green streak of light descended from the sky, landing right in front of the buying house across the way.
Once the radiance faded, it revealed a burly Core Formation cultivator.
"Little Fan, your business is here!" The big man called out loudly toward the buying house the moment he appeared, then pulled a storage pouch from inside his robes and emptied its contents onto the ground.
A swirl of prismatic light swept across, and a strange fish corpse roughly two or three zhang long appeared on the ground.
Calling it a fish was only because its body was covered in a layer of greenish scales. It actually had a bizarre serpentine head, and beneath its belly was a pair of enormous sharp claws. On its back, toward the front, there was a gaping, blood-gushing hole—its demon core had apparently already been extracted.
"Oh my! It's Senior Hao! This Jade Scale Fish demon was a hard one to kill, wasn't it? Only someone with your great powers could take down these creatures!" A Qi Refining stage young man rushed out of the buying house, his eyes bright and clever. He hurried over to inspect the demonic beast's corpse while flattering the big man nonstop, which sent him into hearty peals of laughter. The man seemed to be of a jovial, open-hearted nature.
Suddenly the big man turned his head toward Han Li and Qu Hun, glanced them over, and then called out to them in his characteristically boisterous manner:
"You two look unfamiliar—must have just arrived at Ningcui Island! Interested in hunting demonic beasts together?