Chapter 296 – VIP Lord Mu

Upon discovering the mysterious merchant, Mu Yuan immediately dispatched Lu Liu to greet him while he took a moment to compose himself. Standing within the Scepter of Heavenly Authority, he discreetly observed through his lord’s vision.

“I can’t discern anything unusual about him,” he remarked.

Isloria added, “This person’s attire doesn’t match the styles of the Seven Great Nations, nor does it resemble the traditional garb of continental powers like the Holy Griffin Empire or the Star Luo Holy Temple. It doesn’t even bear similarity to the renowned ancient empires like Sacred Radiance…”

“In conclusion, I can’t determine anything either.”

Isloria—the walking encyclopedia—demonstrated what it meant to be cultured.

Though she had been in this era for less than half a year, she had already gained a clear understanding of various nations, having collected and stored all available online information in her external memory.

This was the power of an academic prodigy.

Mu Yuan always felt the illusion that he was an academic underachiever.

He opened his interface.

“Territories possessing this special beacon have a chance to attract mysterious merchants traveling through myriad worlds to briefly stop by.”

The arrival of the mysterious merchant was related to the miracle building ‘Beacon of Commerce.’ Given this, there was a 99.8% probability that the mysterious merchant was trustworthy.

Currently, the Tianyuan Territory was located beyond the Alliance’s borders—a suspended isolated island with poor communication and virtually no trade channels, making the need for special merchants like the mysterious one even more urgent.

Even so,

“Given his mysterious origins, we must take basic precautions.”

Since the mysterious merchant had entered from the southeast direction of the territory, Mu Yuan instructed Lu Liu to lead him toward the Eastern Forest Garden.

This was a scenic leisure garden constructed within the Treant Forest.

However, since its completion, Lord Mu had rarely visited the garden. He didn’t have the time, and others were even less likely to go.

Mu Someone had originally thought that after matters on Blue Star were settled, he could relax—lying on the grass basking in the sun, having a few nuns feed him grapes, and enjoying the leisurely life of a lord.

Instead,

The lord’s leisurely life. (×)

The lord hasn’t slept for days. (√)

“Most importantly, the garden is situated within the forest, making it the absolute domain of the treants. The War Treants and Treant Lords, who have been rooted here for a long time, can exert 150% or even 200% of their combat power.”

There were also no ordinary civilians here. If a fight broke out, he could even have the Scepter of Heavenly Authority unleash its thunderous might.

But that still wasn’t enough.

“With Deadbone and Dolai absent, then…”

He sent Uta, Rakshasa, and Bone Two Three Four to standby in the eastern part of the city.

He also retrieved the artifact ‘Talisman Stone: Divine General’ from the warehouse—a tool capable of summoning a Legendary Realm enforcer—and placed it in his pocket, ready for activation at any moment.

Then, Lord Mu brought along Isloria and Daisy, the expert haggler, to accompany him.

—Daisy was a non-combatant, so she had returned to the territory before the fusion with Blue Star, when the company had halted all commercial activities. Unlike Sophia, she didn’t need to wander outside.

Moments later,

In the tranquil garden, Mu Yuan observed the mysterious visitor.

The mysterious merchant observed the local lord.

“I am the mysterious merchant ‘Qi Ye·Astravi·Zhu Xing·Ben·Yiye Tamuqila…’ You may address me as Qi Ye.”The self-introduction of the mysterious merchant took a full thirty seconds.

“Your name isn’t mysterious enough. Poor rating.”

Lord Mu gave a brief introduction and got straight to the point.

“Where are the goods?”

“The goods are right here.”

Merchant Qi Ye swiftly unloaded several three-to-four-meter-high shelves from the sheep-like pack animal in the blink of an eye.

The shelves were arranged in an arc, encircling the pack animal.

On them were displayed dozens of items gleaming with treasure radiance.

Mu Yuan felt as if he had stepped into a small shop, with the key difference being that every item on these shelves was extraordinary.

Qi Ye said proudly, “We mysterious merchants come and go without a trace, stopping only briefly in a few territories or special regions. What we sell here includes many super rare treasures that are hard to find elsewhere, or even unheard of.”

“Are you troubled by having vast wealth but being unable to buy suitable treasures? Are you troubled by searching for a high-tier treasure for months or years, only to find nothing? Are you still troubled by your troops being ineffective, desperately seeking a high-tier remnant soul but failing to obtain one? Are you still troubled…”

“Today, the mysterious shelves are open to you. You can take away any product from here, with the only condition being that you offer something of equivalent value in exchange.”

The mysterious merchant Qi Ye slightly bowed and stepped aside, making a welcoming gesture.

The pack animal let out a “baa,” as if saying: Lord, come take a look.

Mu Yuan looked over.

Among the treasures were some he recognized or had seen before, as well as others he had never heard of. However, most were related to miracle buildings. No matter how obscure or unfamiliar the item, he could identify it at a glance.

As expected, most of the goods here were of high grade.

But there were also some items that appeared to be of lower grade yet were exceptionally rare and surprisingly unique.

「Sword of 100% White Blade Catch (Rare)」

「Description: A replica of a certain special divine weapon, enabling the wielder’s sword strikes to be 100% caught empty-handed by the enemy.」

「Note: This 100% is a base probability, fluctuating based on the enemy’s tier and the wielder’s tier.」

——

「Blade of 100% Armor Break (Rare)」

「Description: A replica of a certain special divine weapon, possessing the ability to specifically target armor. Any armor touched by this weapon has an extremely high probability of shattering on the spot—the probability depends on the armor’s grade.」

「Note: This weapon cannot inflict damage on flesh.」

In addition, there were items like “100% Guillotine,” “100% Millennium Kill,” “100% Dissolving Potion,” and so on.

Mu Yuan could only comment: Slightly impressive, slightly impressive.

Though bizarre, they were indeed impressive.

For instance, the ‘Blade of 100% Armor Break’ had significant practical use. The ability to destroy armor essentially meant ignoring defense. The only uncertainty was the exact probability of armor break.

Aside from these, the shelves naturally also contained legitimate items for sale.

「Calamity-Inducing Demon Flower (Rare)」

「Calamity-Inducing Demon Flower (Excellent)」

「Item: Spatial Teleportation Scroll (Excellent)」

「Material: Equipment Blank (Excellent)」

「Remnant Soul: Balrog (Excellent 3-Star)」

「Remnant Soul: Gnoll Great Chieftain (Excellent 3-Star)」

“You don’t even have epic-tier troops here?”

Qi Ye was waiting for the local lord to express admiration, but instead, he heard such a remark.”You damn well don’t have enough Zhuo San’s Remnant Souls? Do you even know what an Epic life form means?”

He cleared his throat and said calmly, “Epic life forms no longer exist in the form of remnant souls. Of course, with the capabilities of our Mysterious Merchant Alliance, obtaining channels to recruit Epic life forms is as easy as lifting a hand.

“However, such channels are only provided to our regular clients. If Your Excellency can spend a certain amount with me this time, I can offer some Epic-level recruitment opportunities the next time we meet.”

“Oh—”

Mu Yuan replied flatly.

He had only asked casually. Epic life form recruitment opportunities? Who cares? And it’s just an opportunity at that.

In business, he was used to downplaying things. Daisy taught him that.

But using this as a pretext, he had also gleaned some information—only regular clients, those with a high enough spending rank, were eligible to purchase Epic-level goods.

That made perfect sense.

Once you cross the threshold of Epic level, even a pig would become noble and exalted.

Although there were no Epic-level goods available at the moment, Mu Yuan still saw plenty of items that made his eyes gleam.

「Guiding Compass (Special): Points to the nearest Miracle Building. Usage count (3/3).」

「Stealth Potion (Rare): Eliminates all traces of the user’s aura. Duration: six hours.」

「Stealth Orb (Excellent): Eliminates the auras of the holder and nearby allies.」

The Stealth Potion was crucial.

The auras of humans, intelligent beings, and monsters were vastly different. Mu Yuan found it hard to describe the exact distinction, but if he encountered an individual or creature in the wild, he could instantly determine whether it was a normal being (player, soldier, resident, wanderer) or a monster.

It was instinctual.

The same applied to monsters.

Humans, soldiers, and normal living beings were like candles in the dark or delicious pastries in their eyes. They would pounce without hesitation.

Even if their forms were similar, they and monsters were two distinctly separate existences.

This was also the root cause of why it was difficult to avoid conflicts with monsters during exploration. Even the Undead General couldn’t help but leak some aura when taking action.

Traces left behind from battles, if spotted by experienced intelligent monsters, could further reveal whether one of the combatants was a living being.

Mu Yuan was absolutely covetous of the Stealth Orb!

He didn’t show it, quickly shifting his gaze away as he pondered.

‘The items are good, but whether I can afford them is another matter entirely.’

‘Forget Epic-level items; even most Excellent items are sky-high prices for me, let alone a practical accessory like the Stealth Orb.’

The Elven Courtyard held two exchange gatherings per month.

Boulder City hosted one auction per month.

Mu Yuan rarely participated in either. With just over a thousand Soul Crystals in his pocket, he felt quite wealthy and financially comfortable, yet he knew that in the eyes of true big shots, such an amount wasn’t even spare change.

His development time was still too short.

The financial strength of his Tianyuan Territory was nowhere near that of the Linglong Lord or the Amber Lord.

‘It seems the only relatively valuable items I can offer are Natural Dew and Icy Purity Fruits?’

He did have other precious items, but there was no way he would sell them.The more Mu Yuan thought about it, the poorer he felt. When would he ever escape poverty?

“So, how exactly does the trading work? The items listed below don’t seem to be priced in Soul Crystals, do they?”

“Certainly not in Soul Crystals,”

said the mysterious merchant Qi Ye. “We mysterious merchants adhere to equivalent exchange, and the value points of items depend on their rarity.”

He produced a scale.

“This is the Equivalent Scale, capable of assessing the value of any item. The pricing standard of our Mysterious Merchant Alliance is determined by this Equivalent Scale, and no one can alter it.”

The scale was small, but its trays seemed to contain boundless space—no matter how many items were placed inside, they would never overflow.

One side of the scale held the item, while the other displayed its value.

Qi Ye placed a Soul Crystal on one side, and the other end showed “1,” indicating that this crystal was worth one value point.

However, when Qi Ye tossed in ten Soul Crystals, the other end only displayed the symbol “7.”

When he threw in a hundred Soul Crystals, the other end marked “30.”

The depreciation was even more severe.

“In our Mysterious Merchant Alliance, an item’s value primarily depends on its rarity. The rarer and more unique an item is, the higher its value.”

“Soul Crystals inherently hold some value, but they are not rare enough, so they are only worth one unit. Moreover, the more Soul Crystals there are, the less rare they become, and the less valuable they are.”

Understood. The more Soul Crystals there are, the fewer they’re worth, right?

Mu Yuan roughly grasped the concept.

With the mysterious merchants, an item’s value is not mainly determined by how useful or powerful it is, but by how common or scarce it is.

High-tier items inherently hold value and are rare, so when placed on the Equivalent Scale, they naturally yield a higher valuation.

The only difference lies in whether it’s one hundred, three hundred, or six hundred.

However, items of lower tier or with weaker inherent power may not necessarily be valued low on the Equivalent Scale.

Qi Ye said, “I will only remain here for a few hours. Bring out your rare treasures for trade. If you only have Soul Crystals, you won’t be able to acquire many items from me.”

After speaking, he waited patiently.

Gathering rare treasures takes time, especially for a small, inexperienced, and shallow territory like this.

…

Leaving the forest and returning to the core area of the territory, Mu Yuan began to ponder.

Daisy had compiled a list with dozens of product names.

“There are several items we must purchase, and over a dozen more that we should try to buy if our finances allow. In that case…”

She did a quick calculation, “But can we offer enough equivalent items?”

Before leaving earlier, she had roughly inquired about the value of an outstanding-grade treasure. After some calculations, her brows furrowed. “This mysterious merchant is quite the profiteer!”

Moreover, the types of rare items a territory can offer for valuation are limited. Yet, if the quantity of one type of item accumulates too much, its price gets heavily discounted.

In Daisy’s view, the notion that “the more of the same item there is, the less rare and valuable it becomes” was just an excuse for price suppression.

Under this rule, a lord cannot use Soul Crystals to purchase high-tier goods. To acquire desired items, one must grit their teeth and part with one, two, or even N rare items.

However, the goods offered by the mysterious merchant are indeed extremely rare and hard to find elsewhere. More than half of the items are ones Daisy has never seen on the Taixuan Covenant Platform or in markets across the Taixuan Alliance.Want to buy? Then produce items of equivalent value.

The Taixuan Lord at least possessed the vast official trading platform of the Taixuan Alliance, enabling him to exchange Contribution Points for many high-tier treasures. But what about other lords? Many lords lacked channels to purchase high-tier treasures. If they had the chance to encounter mysterious merchants, no matter how expensive they seemed, they would have to splurge desperately.

Moreover, as the mysterious merchants put it, their goods weren’t expensive but priced at equilibrium across realms. Those who found them costly simply couldn’t produce sufficient items of equivalent value.

“The only high-tier equivalent items we can offer are Natural Dew and Icy Purity Fruits, but according to the Mysterious Merchant Alliance’s standards, we can only provide ten of each at most. Any more would be too disadvantageous.”

Their stockpile of Natural Dew and Icy Purity Fruits was actually quite limited.

Beyond that, they could only offer various rare-tier agricultural products. However, these were very common, and even with rare-tier status, they might not equate to much value.

Using these as substitutes would be too unfavorable.

Daisy frowned in contemplation.

“Actually…” Mu Yuan pondered for a long moment, “If pricing is based on item scarcity, then to be honest, we have quite a few equivalent items we can offer.”

He looked at Isloria, “For example, you’re an epic lifeform. In theory, strands of hair plucked from you should be rare items, and quite rare at that.”

How many strands of hair from a two-star epic ‘Guardian of Stars’ existed in the entire Eternal World? Probably not many.

Just ask—isn’t this an exceptionally rare item?

“If it’s just hair, the valuation might not be high enough…” Isloria understood, “We need to find some… epic byproducts that inherently contain certain energy, possess certain value, and are extremely rare and uncommon.”

This seemed feasible!

Thinking of this, she also felt pleased. Who could resist the joy of getting something for nothing?

Soon, Mu Yuan began gathering rare items.

He had Daisy prepare Natural Dew, Icy Purity Fruits, and other proper equivalents, just in case.

He himself summoned Bone Two Three Four, Asun, and other subordinates.

Upon hearing this, Bone Two immediately pulled out dozens of bones from its body with cracking sounds, making Asun nearby shudder. If Falcon Lord were to pluck like that, it would become a bald bird.

Please no—

“There’s no need for that many. Just extract a few particularly special bones.”

Soon,

the Deathbone Lord’s 「Ashen Bones (Rare)」

Wind King’s Wings’ 「Wind King’s Feather (Rare)」

the Treant Lord’s 「Six-Month-Old Tree Root (Rare)」

the Ghost General’s 「Soul Power Crystal Dust (Rare)」

Polar Star Arrow’s 「Starry Sky Arrow (Rare)」

Guardian of Stars’ 「Star Fragment (Rare)」

…

Lord Mu was an honest man and wouldn’t actually use Isloria’s hair for valuation—not because a few strands wouldn’t amount to many value points.

These crowd-sourced items were all genuine rare artifacts with real value and substance.

These materials didn’t show up in the Lord’s Eye, but they could be identified through appraisal crystals, confirming they were extraordinary items.

Items dropped from epic lifeforms—could they be ordinary?

Epic lifeforms were treasure troves from head to toe. Not to mention rare materials, even exceptional materials could be extracted. However, doing so would harm the subordinates, so how could Mu Yuan choose that?

Rare-tier materials were sufficient.Common rare materials aren’t particularly uncommon, but rare materials originating from epic lifeforms—their scarcity, when rounded up or down, might perhaps roughly approximate… epic-grade materials.

After gathering the materials, Mu Yuan returned to the Forest Park.

It was time for the transaction.

The mysterious merchant Qi Ye looked at the human lord approaching. Though he didn’t believe such a minor lord could produce any rare items of equivalent value, he still held a sliver of anticipation in his heart.

What if?

His requirements weren’t high—just being able to trade for one or two, maybe two or three transactions of excellent-grade goods would suffice.

He brought out the Scales of Equivalent Value.

The small scales hovered mid-air, seemingly balancing all things.

Daisy stepped forward, picked up a segment of jade-white bone, and placed it on the scales.

“Beep beep beep—”

The numerical value on the left side of the scales began to flicker.

1, 3, 5, 9, …, 29!

An unremarkable piece of bone material could actually be valued at 29 value points!

Even Qi Ye widened his eyes. He took out a monocle lens, put it over his left eye, and examined it carefully. “This is actually a bone segment from an epic undead lifeform, no wonder it’s worth this price.”

Just as he murmured this, Daisy took out piece after piece of Ashen Bone from her storage device.

Fourteen pieces in total.

The left side of the scales continued to flicker.

Mu Yuan pointed at certain items on the shelf. “We’d like to exchange these equivalent items for products number 16 and 88. Is that acceptable?”

“Absolutely, please wait a moment.”

Qi Ye’s voice seemed noticeably more enthusiastic. He deftly operated something and quickly retrieved the two products from the shelf.

Simultaneously, the dozen or so bone segments placed on the right side of the scales disappeared. The valuation on the left side beeped as it dropped, eventually settling at 14 value points.

“You can still purchase more items, or perhaps you have more equivalent items to offer?”

“We do indeed have more equivalent items.”

“Oh?”

Hearing the local lord say this, Qi Ye grew even more enthusiastic. He never expected to earn such substantial results in such a small territory.

His perspective had been too narrow.

He’d definitely come back next time if given the opportunity.

As he thought this, the Fox Woman in the distance brought out a batch of equivalent items.

They were pale cyan feathers. Each feather was as long as a person’s arm, swirling with visible green wind currents around them.

These were Wind King’s Feathers.

The scales calculated a unit price even higher than the previous bones. It appeared that Wind King’s Wings were much rarer in existence than the Undead Lord.

Seeing this, the mysterious merchant Qi Ye’s enthusiasm increased +1+1+1.

“Come, come, what would you like to purchase?”

He seemed more anxious than Mu Yuan himself, worried this business deal might slip away.

But there was no need to rush.

Daisy placed a third batch of equivalent items.

These were roots from War Treants. These roots took up considerable space—too large to fit in storage devices—so a team of elites had carried them over from a distance.

“More, there’s actually more…”

Qi Ye murmured.

But the local lord remained unhurried. Under his instruction, the Fox Woman brought out the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh batches of equivalent items, pouring them into the Scales of Equivalent Value as if they were free.

The statistical value points on the left side of the scales kept rising, the beeping sounds growing increasingly rapid, mirroring the pounding of Qi Ye’s heart at that moment.

So much, too much!

What minor lord was this? Who said this gentleman was a minor lord, huh?!This is a distinguished guest, a true VIP!

Even the legendary VIP clients aren’t this extravagant, right?

Qi Ye wore a beaming smile, his gaze fervent.

Soon, he brought one rare item after another for Mu Yuan.

“You have purchased ‘Stealth Potion (Rare) ×15’.”

“You have purchased ‘Stealth Orb (Excellent)’.”

“You have purchased ‘Guiding Compass (Special)’.”

“You have purchased ‘Spatial Teleportation Scroll (Excellent)’.”

“You have purchased ‘…'”

…

“You have purchased ‘Hero’s Token (Special)’.”

After a while, looking at the now sparse shelves of treasures, Lord Mu still felt unsatisfied.

“Your stock here isn’t plentiful enough.”

6K Aowu!

(End of Chapter)