City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

Trouble

When priestess Noelene sensed the portal from Faelor emitting waves of energy, she rushed over to see Richard panting badly on the floor with a chest that was much larger than him tossed nearby. Not far away, Gangdor was slumped on the ground, his burly body covered in shiny sweat. Three massive chests that were bound together had toppled next to him, just their size making her legs feel like jelly. Although Gangdor was astonishingly strong, he still had to activate both his bloodline and his runes alongside the buffs of various spells to haul these things back. Still, he wound up so exhausted he collapsed the moment they exited the portal.

The Archeron soldiers streamed out of the formation one by one, each hoisting a chest that they could barely carry. They too collapsed the moment they left. The final person to walk out was Flowsand, but even she was carrying a miniature magic sealing chest that caused Noelene’s jaw to drop.

“Richard!” Noelene liberated Flowsand immediately before grabbing Richard by the collar and raising him up from the ground, “Couldn’t you just have brought another person back? You made even Flowsand move a chest?!”

Richard replied with a charming smile, “Beautiful priestess Noelene, planar teleportation is very expensive. Another person would mean another 40,000 gold in cost.

“You!” Noelene was left tongue-tied for a moment, but then she tightened her grip and raged, “You’re a royal runemaster but you want to save a mere 40,000 gold?”

Richard’s smile became even more enchanting, “I gave the money I saved to Flowsand.”

Noelene suddenly felt like she couldn’t stay angry for a length of time. Still, she was rather reluctant and glowered at Richard for a while before putting him down. She had once again displayed a strength far beyond her petite frame.

“Flowsand, how long can you stay this time?” she asked her junior.

“Two days,” Flowsand replied.

Noelene frowned. “So short? There’s going to be an intermediate-grade sacrifice in a week. Stay a few days, I’ll give you the chance to host it. Right now, you need divine grace.”

Flowsand shook her head, “No, we can only stay for two days at most. Don’t worry about the grace; with the offerings Richard brought back this time, we can hold a ceremony tomorrow.”

Noelene turned to Richard in surprise, her gaze growing much softer, “There are offerings already? Seems like this fellow is pretty capable. Alright, I’m not worried then; go meet high priestess Ferlyn, she wanted to see you the moment you returned.”

After Flowsand left, Noelene then freed up the other weary Archerons one by one, letting them recover as quickly as possible. Richard handed two magic sealing chests full of ores and metal to her, exchanging it for nearly a million gold coins. This time around, he had her exchange 200,000 of that for 400 magic crystals, spending another 300,000 for 100,000 enchanted crossbow bolts. The remaining amount was converted into cash.

With the limited time, Noelene could only employ a dozen or so level 10 mages. The obsidian ingots Richard had returned with were slightly lower in value than cloudiron, but still much more valuable than lafite steel. These metals were specifically used for the weapons and armour of high-grade rune knights. The ingots Richard had returned with were worth 500,000 and would take a full two months to enchant. That wasn’t good enough.

Noelene watched as Richard had the Archeron soldiers organise and transport the supplies, utterly surprised when she saw the obsidian ingots. She hadn’t thought Richard would get his hands on another source of high-grade materials so quickly. She couldn’t help but order all the obsidian once it was enchanted, willing to pay for it in advance.

However, there were still dozens of magic sealing chests which had yet to be opened. Richard opened ten of them, and the priestess’ expression immediately changed. The chests were densely packed with all sorts of weapons, and looking at their glossy black surfaces that seemed almost liquid she knew every one of them was a premium product forged from obsidian. Although they hadn’t been enchanted yet, every one could be sold for about 5,000 gold or so. Staring at ten crates of such weapons, Noelene found it almost difficult to breathe.

She picked up a broadsword and examined it closely. The dwarves’ exquisite workmanship was hard to miss, greatly increasing the value of these weapons. “How many?” she couldn’t help but ask.

Richard wiped the sweat off his forehead, “Four hundred.”

“Four hundred!” Although she had already guessed it, the priestess was rather shaken by the confirmation. Even a grand priestess of the Eternal Dragon would be stirred up in the face of two million gold.

“What do you intend to do with these things, anything that needs my help?” she asked. She could effortlessly handle ores worth a million gold with her connections, but these weapons worth double that surpassed her ability.

“I plan to enchant them and then take them to Faelor to sell them off,” said Richard.

“I can think of a way to help with that, but it isn’t my field of expertise. If you don’t have a suitable channel, you can come back and look for me.”

“Thank you! I feel like giving you a hug already!” Richard grinned, a particularly odd charm to his smile.

Noelene blushed a little and snorted, pointing to the remaining two chests on the ground, “What about them?”

Richard hesitated a little, but eventually he opened one of them to reveal more weapons hidden inside. This was the chest containing the premium goods that were handmade by Bamor, capable of becoming epic weapons.

The moment Noelene’s eyes fell on them, she gasped, “Epic-base weapons?”

She couldn’t stay reserved any longer, picking up a two-handed war hammer right away and inspecting every inch of it. The tip was two-sided, one side a hammer while the other was a spike. Both were flickering with an unusually sinister tint, not a magical radiance but a display of the smith’s exquisite skill.

This was a first-class epic-base weapon. If it passed through the hands of a truly skilled grand mage, there was even a small chance of it becoming a legendary weapon. Even in Norland these weapons were amongst the finest works. The dwarves of Norland weren’t much stronger than those of Faelor in terms of smithing, and while Norland had mages aplenty they really lacked such high-end weapons. Every one of these weapons could easily sell for a hundred thousand gold.

The total price of these five weapons wasn’t as high as the 400 others put together, but they still felt different to Noelene. The items Richard had revealed earlier were resources that made others envy the plane he controlled. However, these epic weapons meant he had already integrated into that plane and fostered close ties with its higher powers. This meant the planar war had already advanced to the second phase. How long had it been since the fellow even entered Faelor?

Noelene placed the hammer back into its chest and cast her gaze on the last unopened one. Intuition told her its contents would shock her greatly.

Richard could tell that Noelene was expectant, but he hesitated a little before walking to the chest. Placing his hand on the cover, he was in no hurry to open it as he lifted his head and smiled at her, “Reason tells me I shouldn’t open it.”

But then he popped the lid open loudly, revealing chunks of dark maple amber of all sizes. A rich fragrance immediately filled the hall.

Noelene was so stunned even her gasp was delayed. “Top quality maple amber…” she muttered softly. She could instantly tell how much this chest was worth.

Richard slowly closed the cover of the chest, standing in front of it and waving his hand to direct her attention back to himself. It was only then that the priestess regained her senses, instantly turning red and clenching her teeth, “You brat! You did it on purpose, right? Do you want to make me look like a joke? Do you want to die?”

Richard giggled in consent. Anyone trained in magic would lose their sense at the sight of so many top quality maple ambers.

She bit her lip hatefully, “You’re really asking for it!”

Richard laughed heartily, signalling to the soldiers to lift the chests and head out of the hall. Before leaving, he suddenly turned around and flashed a smile in her direction, “You’ll have to ask Flowsand first!” With that, he turned and left gleefully.

“Richard! Wealth will only be wealth!” Noelene didn’t know why she had said those words.

“I will turn it into power!” Richard replied.

As she watched his receding back, Noelene suddenly felt like she was losing her senses for a moment as she saw the shadow of another man. She sighed gently, muttering under her breath, “This fellow… Know what’s best for you, don’t be too careless.”

Richard returned to his island without talking to anyone else, calling for the old steward at once for the latest news about the family. He flipped through the information on the family planes as he listened inattentively; after all, only ten days had passed in Norland since his last return. What could happen in ten days? The private planes were most likely to undergo an upheaval.

But as the butler went on, he suddenly raised his head in astonishment, “What? The taxes of another territory halved?”

“Yes. Sir Kunder said that bandits were rampant within his territory. The tax payments have been robbed for two weeks in a row.”

Richard lifted his head to stare at the ceiling, gently tapping on the armrest of his chair for a moment, “If I remember correctly, Kunder manages a decently sized territory that’s on the border. Let me think… he’s next to the Schumpeters, no?”

“Yes.”