"What kind of information?" Lian Sanyue stubbed out the slim cigarette between her fingers and lit another. Her glossy, red lips parted slightly as she languidly blew out a plume of blue-gray smoke. "Items have a price, but intelligence is priceless. If what you want touches upon sensitive secrets or matters of an exceedingly high level, the price I ask might be more than you can bear."
Intelligence had no set price tag; it was usually negotiated between buyer and seller.
"I understand." Zhang Yuanqing adjusted the backpack on his shoulder. "I will offer a price that satisfies you."
The backpack was filled with priceless materials and items that he had deliberately taken out of his inventory before donning the Flawless Human Skin.
"In that case, what do you want to know?" Flicking off the ash, Lian Sanyue leaned back lazily against her chair and asked with an idle drawl.
Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, then asked, "Do you know Young Soldier King?"
Lian Sanyue's eyes abruptly narrowed. In an instant, every trace of her languor and nonchalance vanished as she fixed an intense, piercing stare upon the young man before her.
Without answering, she rose gracefully to her feet and stepped out from behind the counter. Swaying her slender waist with lithe elegance, she circled Zhang Yuanqing once and clicked her tongue.
"An ordinary mortal? No, what method did you use to conceal your aura? Even I cannot see your true self."
Zhang Yuanqing noticed that her gaze drifted repeatedly to his hands.
He let his arms hang calmly at his sides, making no effort to conceal his bare fingers.
*Nonsense. While the Flawless Human Skin isn't a rule-based item, it can graft karma. How could you possibly see through it?*
Zhang Yuanqing replied coldly, "Who I am is of no consequence. Are we doing business or not? Give me a straight answer."
Lian Sanyue let out a soft laugh, returned behind the counter, and sat back down. "Why wouldn't I?"
After a brief pause, she added, "I know him. A very interesting Fire Master."
*A Fire Master? Ah, just as expected. Brother Bing, with his rank-A strength and speed but rank-C intelligence, really did become a Fire Master. I'll never slander Fire Masters again...* Zhang Yuanqing thought grimly, keeping his expression completely impassive. "How did you meet him?"
Lian Sanyue said slowly, "We met during a multiplayer instance. We entered an S-grade multiplayer instance that plunged into a terrible crisis. Our teammates perished one after another, until he and I were the only survivors."
*They met in an instance?!* Zhang Yuanqing was stunned and blurted out, "He's a Dominator?"
Lian Sanyue offered a faint smile and countered, "What do you think?"
Artifact Refiner was the Dominator-stage title for the Scholar profession. Naturally, anyone who could team up with a Dominator in an instance was a Dominator as well.
Zhang Yuanqing stood rooted to the spot, utterly motionless.
*I got one thing wrong.*
*I always assumed Brother Bing was a Saint, at most Level 6. But... if Brother Bing was a Dominator...*
Although the Demon Lord had not reached the demigod level, according to the audio from the Cat King Speaker, he had claimed to be merely one step away from the pinnacle.
A half-step demigod alongside a Dominator-level Fire Master, with the former even possessing the 'Little Sun' that countered the erosion of the Fallen Holy Grail—how could such a pair have perished alongside the Deceitful Eye Judge?
During the melee among Dominators at the school, the Gu King had displayed power clearly superior to the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter, yet still weaker than Elder Dog wielding a rule-based item. Thus, the Gu King was roughly Level 8.
The Deceitful Eye Judge had been the Gu King's longtime rival, meaning he couldn't have been a peak Level 9 Dominator. How could an 8th-level Witch Doctor, with the Fallen Holy Grail countered, have stood a chance against both the Demon Lord and Brother Bing?
There had to be some other secret behind that fateful battle that saw both the Demon Lord and the Deceitful Eye Judge fall.
*What a pity that Hei Wuchang was killed by the mysterious person disguised as the Demon Lord, his soul shattered. Otherwise, as a surviving witness to that battle, Hei Wuchang would definitely have known something...*
*Damn it. Looking at it this way, was Hei Wuchang's silencing an inevitability?*
An inexplicable sense of unease crept through Zhang Yuanqing, sending a shiver down his spine.
Suppressing his tangled thoughts for the moment, he returned to the matter at hand and asked, "Did Young Soldier King consult you about a method to suppress the Fallen Holy Grail? I want to know if he is dead or alive, and where he is right now."
Lian Sanyue stared at him for several seconds, then slowly shook her head. "I cannot answer this question."
"The price is negotiable!" Zhang Yuanqing said.
Lian Sanyue shook her head again. "It is not a matter of money. Young Soldier King indeed consulted me, and I gave him an answer. I even know where he is and what state he is in. However, this is not intelligence that can be sold."
*She really does know!!* A surge of excitement rushed through Zhang Yuanqing. Taking a deep breath, he pressed on, "Why can't it be sold? Name your terms, and I'll do everything in my power to meet them. You are a merchant; there's no reason to turn away wealth."
He knew that given Lian Sanyue's temperament, no amount of money might suffice, but he still refused to give up.
"You misunderstand." Lian Sanyue puffed out a wisp of white smoke at her leisure and said, "I cannot sell this intelligence because Young Soldier King has already paid me to keep it safe. He told me that in the near future, someone would come looking for me to ask about his whereabouts. When that time came, he wished for me to pass the information along, but only if that person could match the secret code."
"A secret code?" Zhang Yuanqing asked cautiously. "What kind of code?"
Lian Sanyue stubbed out her cigarette and locked eyes with him. "Answer me right now: who is Young Soldier King to you? You only have one chance. If you answer wrong, I will never answer another question from you."
*Brother? Pal? Good friend? Sworn brother? Older brother?* A flurry of terms flashed through Zhang Yuanqing's mind, but he rejected them all.
Those answers were far too ordinary and commonplace; they offered no security.
Even though there was only one chance, if someone kept sending people to guess, they would stumble upon the right answer sooner or later.
Furthermore, Brother Bing's real-world identity was no secret to certain individuals, such as the Deceitful Eye Judge, Hei Wuchang, or others he didn't know about.
And who was Brother Bing's good friend?
With just a little time spent investigating, it wouldn't be difficult to uncover someone named 'Zhang Yuanqing.'
Brother Bing would never have left behind such an obvious flaw that could drag him into danger.
As the thoughts whirled in his mind, Zhang Yuanqing found his answer. Taking another deep breath, he spoke in a tone laced with unspeakable sorrow and bittersweet relief:
"Detective Assistant!"
A smile surfaced on Lian Sanyue's face, and she snapped her fingers with a crisp *snap*.
"Congratulations. Correct answer."
Pausing as Zhang Yuanqing let out a long breath of relief, she said, "Methods capable of countering the Fallen Holy Grail's power in this world are exceedingly rare and operate at an extraordinary level. Methods capable of suppressing the corruption of that fallen power over an extended period are rarer still; even Dominator-level Spirit Realm walkers likely wouldn't know of any.
"Yet, as it happens, I do. That power does not exist in reality, but within the Spirit Realm. When Young Soldier King asked me how to suppress the erosion of the Fallen Holy Grail long-term, my answer was Spirit Realm No. 19."
*Spirit Realm No. 19...* Zhang Yuanqing repeated the words in his mind and asked, "A Spirit Realm designation? What kind of instance is No. 19?"
"I have already delivered all the intelligence Young Soldier King left with me. If you wish to know the specific details regarding Spirit Realm No. 19, pay me one million. If you want the walkthrough for the instance, you must trade a Dominator-level item for it," Lian Sanyue said.
*Trade a Dominator-level item? You're quite the extortionist...* Without hesitation, Zhang Yuanqing said, "Just tell me the specific details."
He could technically check the official database using Fu Qingyang's account, but he had to consider the possibility that the official archives had no record of it.
Designation 19. According to the numbering conventions of the Spirit Realm, Transcendent-stage instances were four-digit numbers, totaling 9,999 instances; Saint-stage instances were three-digit numbers, totaling 999 instances.
By that logic, Dominator-level instances were two-digit numbers, totaling 99.
Instance No. 19, which Lian Sanyue had entered, was Dominator-level. Setting aside whether the officials even had records of such an instance, if he looked it up under Fu Qingyang's account, the Money Prince would surely ask questions.
Getting the details for one million was a bargain; there was no need to investigate through official channels.
He immediately retrieved a Starlord-tier material and placed it on the counter.
It was a handful of sand shimmering with a fantastical starlight.
"Star sand, five hundred grams. Valued at 1.3 million." Lian Sanyue collected the material, pulled out six banded stacks of banknotes, and set them on the counter. "Here's your change."
Once Zhang Yuanqing stowed the three hundred thousand into his backpack, she began, "Spirit Realm No. 19, named: Secrets of the Five Elements. A multiplayer instance, S-grade, death-type. It was the last instance I entered after advancing to Dominator, and the very instance where I teamed up with Young Soldier King back then.
"There are five bosses in the instance, symbolizing Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. After defeating the bosses, a path opens to the deepest reaches of the instance, leading to a frozen abyss.
"What lies within the abyss, I do not know, because the instance ended once the five bosses were slain. But to this day, I remember the power of that abyss vividly. It radiated an aura capable of freezing all things and sealing everything away."
*Freezing all things, sealing everything?* Zhang Yuanqing asked, half-guessing, "An Eternal Night profession?"
"Correct!" Lian Sanyue gave an affirmative reply. "Yet that was only part of the abyss's aura. The power that freezes everything, I suspect, belongs to the Water Ghost profession, and its level reaches straight into the demigod realm. Heh, you know what a demigod is, right? If not, that'll be another million."
"The five Alliance Leaders of the official faction are demigods. As expected, the leaders of the major organizations are demigods as well," Zhang Yuanqing replied calmly. "Across both Spirit Realm regions, the number of demigods approaches twenty."
Lian Sanyue seemed slightly surprised and looked him up and down. "You know quite a bit. Your level must not be low, or perhaps you hold a high position in some organization?"
She continued, "Though you likely haven't reached the Dominator stage. If you were a Dominator, you would know that evil professions have no demigods, only combat power rivaling demigods."
*Evil professions have no demigods? So 'demigod,' like Dominator, Saint, and Transcendent, is the name of a specific cultivation stage rather than a mere combat-power classification.* Out of curiosity, Zhang Yuanqing asked, "Why do evil professions have no demigods?"
After asking, he added cautiously, "How much will that cost?"
Lian Sanyue shook her head. "No amount of money will help, because I don't know either."
Dropping the topic, she continued, "As an Artifact Refiner, I am exceptionally sensitive to the powers and characteristics of various professions. That was why I told Young Soldier King that as long as he returned to Spirit Realm No. 0019 and stepped into the abyss, the power of the Fallen Holy Grail would be sealed away—along with himself, of course.
"The corruption of the Fallen Holy Grail is irreversible save through death, yet he seemed convinced that one day, he would be able to return to normal. Well then, I have told you everything I know."
*So that's how it is!* Zhang Yuanqing understood.
It seemed Brother Bing had most likely used the Demon Lord's teleportation jade talisman after slaying the Deceitful Eye Judge to re-enter Instance No. 19. That matched the properties of the teleportation jade talisman.
As long as one had visited a location before, the teleportation jade talisman could transport them back there.
"Why did the main storyline quest conclude after killing the bosses? Was the abyss a hidden quest?" After asking, Zhang Yuanqing added, "This is an extension of the instance details; you can't charge me for this."
"It wasn't a hidden instance," Lian Sanyue said, shaking her head. "The aura of the abyss made even us, as Dominators, tremble. It was clearly not an instance a Dominator could clear. My speculation is that Spirit Realm No. 19 might be the amalgamation of two separate instances—the first half belonging to the Dominator stage, and the abyss belonging to the demigod stage.
"Another theory is that it might be a bug."
"How so?" Zhang Yuanqing asked inquisitively.
Lian Sanyue chose her words carefully. "The background of Secrets of the Five Elements is set in the Tang Dynasty. Back then, he and I lingered near the edge of the abyss. Aside from those two terrifying auras, I heard breathing—breathing rising from the depths of the abyss. Something might be slumbering within.
"Your level isn't low, so you should know that instances are founded upon ancient practitioners. Considering the abyss's trait of sealing everything, do you think it's possible...
"...that sealed at the bottom of the abyss is a practitioner from the Tang Dynasty? Because of the power that freezes and seals all things, they endured the passage of vast ages without dying, surviving all the way until the emergence of the Spirit Realm.
"The Spirit Realm incorporated their place of sealing into an instance. And because of that very seal, that entity can never break free into the world. That is why No. 19 is merely a Dominator-level instance—because participants would never actually face whatever is inside the abyss."
*So it counts as a bug? That makes some sense...* Zhang Yuanqing nodded slowly, yet a new doubt surfaced in his mind. "Why would the power of the Eternal Night profession appear in an instance within our region's Spirit Realm?"
The moment he asked, the answer came to him.
In ancient times, supernatural power knew no national borders. Foreign individuals with extraordinary abilities could venture to the Central Plains, and practitioners from the Central Plains could travel far overseas. It wasn't impossible for a Tang Dynasty practitioner to have traveled abroad and acquired an artifact or treasure belonging to the Eternal Night profession.
"I've figured it out; no need to answer," Zhang Yuanqing added.
Lian Sanyue nodded slightly and waved a dismissive hand. "We're closed. If you have nothing else, leave. I'm not in the mood for business today."
"Wait!"
Zhang Yuanqing called out, "This place is one of the largest intelligence hubs in the south. There is one more piece of information I want to inquire about."
"You certainly have a lot on your mind!" Lian Sanyue snapped in annoyance. "Speak."
"You know Elder Dog from the Songhai Branch, right? Do you know that he possesses a rule-based item called the Zoo?"
Lian Sanyue nodded.
An inexplicable excitement swelled within Zhang Yuanqing. Taking a step forward, he asked, "I want to know: who was that rule-based item's previous owner?"
Chapter 381