Welcoming Home the Remains, First Entry to Floor 0!

Xu Kun bowed, then solemnly lifted the white bones from the throne and gently stored them in his backpack!

Next, he swung the Cheng Ying Sword in his hand!

With a few swishes, the throne before him turned into chunks of rubble.

"Senior Ling Feng said his remains were beneath the throne. I'll have to dig them out!"

Weighing the featherlight Cheng Ying Sword in his hand, Xu Kun shook his head and put the divine weapon away.

Then, with a wave of both hands, a large blade blazing with crimson flames landed in his grasp. He gave it a swing. This heavy feel was just right!

Rongjin Sunset Blade: (;´??????`) No! What sin did I commit?! I'm a divine weapon, not a shovel!

As if foreseeing what it was about to endure, the flames covering the sentient divine weapon trembled all over.

"Behave yourself, or I'll use you to chop firewood from now on!"

After that threat, perhaps because the Rongjin Sunset Blade believed Xu Kun was capable of any insanity, it truly stopped resisting!

"Good. That's more like it!"

With that, Xu Kun gripped the shovel... no, the divine weapon, and plunged it into the dirt.

"Heh, it's pretty handy!" Xu Kun raised a brow, then, fittingly, spat into his palms a few times and rubbed the saliva over them before gripping the blade handle with both hands!

"Heave-ho, heave-ho!"

After some strenuous digging, Xu Kun had excavated a huge pit beneath where the throne had stood. When he heard a "ding" from the tip of the Rongjin Sunset Blade, he hurriedly stopped.

"Little thing, don't go breaking someone's bones. If you're this careless, don't blame me for using you as a firewood-chopping knife to appease Senior Ling Feng's anger!"

The Rongjin Sunset Blade trembled continuously.

"I think you just want to use me as a firewood-chopping knife! Don't make excuses for your twisted hobby, hey!"

Casually tossing the Rongjin Sunset Blade aside, Xu Kun crouched down and brushed away the dirt with both hands. At last, he touched a chilling skeleton. He examined the spot he had just struck and found no damage whatsoever!

"As expected, an extraordinary person leaves behind an extraordinary skeleton. Even a divine weapon couldn't scratch it!"

Xu Kun was relieved. He did not bother looking for tools. He was wearing the Minotaur Gauntlets anyway, and he would not feel bad even if this low-tier equipment got dirty. He simply used his hands to dig away the soil bit by bit.

Rongjin Sunset Blade: (??w??) Little bro, at least I'm still a firewood chopper. You've gone straight to being a dung scooper!

Minotaur Gauntlets: ?(????-?)~? Lowly as I am, I dare not speak. As long as my master doesn't wear me while doing that sort of thing, it's fine!

Rongjin Sunset Blade: (??w??) What if the master insists on wearing you for it?

Minotaur Gauntlets: ?(????-?)~? I hope the master will wash me clean!

Rongjin Sunset Blade: =????(???*)

He painstakingly dug Ling Feng's entire skeleton out of the earth, piece by piece. After clearing away the sand and soil, Xu Kun inspected it once more before finally shaking his head and sighing. "After death, no matter how illustrious one was in life, they still end up as nothing but a pile of bones!"

Xu Kun respectfully bowed three times toward Ling Feng's skeleton before storing it away. He even deliberately placed the two skeletons in adjacent slots as a sign of respect!

"I've never heard of Yue Country. Still, even though more than five hundred years have passed, there should be records of it in ancient texts. If I really can't find anything, I'll ask my history and geography teachers!"

Ling Feng's final wish was for Xu Kun to bring his remains and A Qing's remains back to their homeland for burial. Naturally, Xu Kun would not refuse such a reasonable request!

As a Huaxia person, returning to one's roots was the final hope of every compatriot who died within the Haotian Pagoda and every martyr who fell on the battlefield.

Every year, Huaxia's upper echelons held events to welcome home the remains of fallen heroes. They would not hesitate to pay a considerable price to hostile factions for this purpose!

This was the faith and romance ingrained in the bones of Huaxia people. Even though they were all part of the Human Race, the Human Race in the other major war zones still could not understand this inheritance embedded in their bones!

Taking out the golden pass, Xu Kun gave the Mist Island trial participants from other races—those to whom he had sent a grand gift—another look before leaving!

"Not bad. In such a short time, a third of you are already dead. Keep it up. If you don't work hard, how will you know just how hopeless your future is?"

Laughing loudly, Xu Kun activated the pass!

As a reward for earning an SSSS-tier rating in the novice trial, Xu Kun's pass naturally came with permanent access. When he had studied the relevant material during tutoring, he had also seen that temporary passes existed!

When he saw that section, he had been quite curious. What was the point of a temporary, one-time pass?

Floor 0 of the Haotian Pagoda was not some tourist resort. The key was that permanent passes like Xu Kun's had no market price, while temporary passes actually had a listed price!

A pass with single-use access cost as much as five million Human Race Currency!

Such an expensive item naturally caught the attention of a money-grubber like Xu Kun. After looking into it further, he finally understood why it was so costly!

Because on Floor 0 of the Haotian Pagoda, a place known as the Myriad Races Trading Ground, you could buy all kinds of things you wanted!

Besides commonly available goods that the Human Race could produce, many items were unique to certain races!

If you wanted to buy things exclusive to those races, entering Floor 0 of the Haotian Pagoda was your only hope. Otherwise, on Blue Star, no matter how capable you were, would you dare go to another race's territory to trade?

If you truly had that kind of capability, you probably would not need to trade at all. Wouldn't it be better to just rob them?

That was what Xu Kun had thought at the time!

There were countless specialties among the myriad races. To purchase what they needed—such as life-extending medicines, rare ores, crucial materials lacking for forging equipment, or items mutually needed between members of different races but too risky to trade elsewhere—the only place to handle such matters was Floor 0 of the Haotian Pagoda, where Xu Kun was about to set foot!

Ding! The teleportation array leading to Floor 0 of the Haotian Pagoda has been activated!

The golden book scroll in Xu Kun's hand turned into a streak of light, opening a teleportation array before him. Xu Kun stepped into it, and his entire body vanished from the Desolate Shrine!

Only Ling Feng, the wooden man, remained, still tirelessly leaning on his sword and staring blankly into space!

"Huh? Why did it stop moving?"

Surrounded by a glittering golden environment, Xu Kun did not feel the scalp-tearing sensation of teleportation.

A notification tone Sounded in his ears once more.

Ding. As this is your first time entering Floor 0 of the Haotian Pagoda, the current Floor 0 has been divided into regions for the various races. Please select the region you wish to visit!

A detailed map soon appeared before Xu Kun. The trading districts of the Myriad Races were packed together like blocks of tofu, varying in size!

After looking over several of the larger trading districts, he found that every one belonged to a powerful race among the Myriad Races!

On Floor 0 of the Haotian Pagoda, it was not a race's overall strength that determined how much territory it occupied. The main reason these major races took up so much land was that they had more people who had obtained passes. On top of that, major races possessed more resources, so the trading districts they needed to establish were naturally much larger!

Among the various trading districts, Xu Kun quickly found the one belonging to humanity!

"Oh? It's this big?"

Although humanity was not considered a high-ranking existence in the Myriad Races Sequence, the territory it occupied on Floor 0 was second only to those peak races!

"So the rumors were true. When it comes to infrastructure and business, humanity really has never admitted defeat to anyone!"

Xu Kun praised them before continuing to zoom in on the map. Even the human trading district had been divided into several sections!

In the end, a red five-pointed star came into Xu Kun's view.

"This is..."

Xu Kun tapped it, only to see that it was the "China Trading District"!

The red was China red, and the star was the five-pointed star on the red flag passed down by China to this day!

"Do they really have to compete this hard? Everyone else's trading districts are all crooked and irregular, but our great China's trading district was actually built in the shape of a red five-pointed star!"

"I'll choose this place!"

Ding. Selection complete. "Kun" will land in the Human Trading District—China Region!

The familiar dizzying sensation wrapped around Xu Kun's body again.

With a splat, the teleportation ended, and Xu Kun landed on the ground flat on his ass.

"Ow... Can't this damn teleportation array be a little gentler?" Xu Kun rubbed his butt as he stood up.

He looked around, then frowned. "Why is there no one here?"

The streets on both sides were no different from the buildings on Blue Star, yet every shop with its various signboards hanging outside was closed today.

Xu Kun found this hard to understand.

Just as Xu Kun was feeling puzzled, a hand suddenly slapped his shoulder.

"Hey, bro!"

"Fuck, who was that?!"

Xu Kun turned around, but there was no one in sight!

"Hey, I'm down here!"

Xu Kun thought he had run into a ghost. Only after hearing the voice coming from below did he lower his head to look.

Well, would you look at that?

A short, squat, fat man no more than one and a half meters tall was currently looking up at Xu Kun with an angry glare. It was as though Xu Kun's earlier reaction had deeply insulted him. He was so angry that he had even stopped rolling the two golden walnuts in his hands!

Xu Kun scratched his head awkwardly. "Sorry, Uncle, I really didn't notice you just now!"

Who the hell would have guessed that the person patting his shoulder would be so short?

Comparing their heights, Xu Kun secretly wondered if the man had jumped up to pat him on the shoulder just now.

It would have been fine if Xu Kun had said nothing, but the moment he spoke, the other man grew even angrier. "Who are you calling Uncle?! I'm only eighteen this year... uh, no, twenty-eight... no, that's not right either. Anyway, I'm still young. Call me Big Brother!"

"Ah, got it, Big Brother. What can I do for you?"

Xu Kun felt that he was a newbie. The streets were empty, while the man before him clearly looked like an experienced veteran. He needed to show the right attitude and ask him for guidance.

Only then did the short, fat man snort in dissatisfaction and resume rolling the two golden walnuts in the Center of the palm. Combined with his flamboyant outfit and the finger-thick gold chain around his neck, his image could be summed up in two words: nouveau riche!

"That's more like it. First time here?"

Big Brother was absolutely right. This really is my first time here, but why is everything closed?"

The short, fat man casually glanced at the top of Xu Kun's head, then made a gesture with the hand behind his back. Xu Kun felt a gust of wind sweep over him, and he shivered for no reason.

"You don't know?" the short, fat man asked without changing expression.

Xu Kun's face twitched. I already said it was my first time here. Why the hell would I know?

"Forget it. Looking at how dumb you are, I'll just tell you directly. What did you come to the Myriad Races Trading Ground for?"

"This..." Xu Kun hesitated.

The short, fat man sneered twice. "What, you think people come here for anything other than two things?"

As he spoke, the short, fat man held up two fingers as thick as carrots.

Xu Kun replied respectfully, "Please enlighten me!"

The short, fat man nodded in satisfaction. "The first thing is, naturally, buying whatever you need!"

Xu Kun nodded calmly. Otherwise, who would come here to wander around for no reason?

"As for the second thing, if you're not buying, then you're selling. Any hard-to-sell items can be sold here for a good price without any worries!"

As he spoke, the short, fat man sized Xu Kun up from head to toe. "Looking at how poor you are, you don't seem like you've got anything worthwhile. What do you want to buy? Say it. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll handle it for you!"

Who was he looking down on?!

Hearing the short, fat man's mocking words, Xu Kun nearly pulled out the Rongjin Sunset Blade to teach him a lesson!

Rongjin Sunset Blade: ?(*?O?)=3 Bro, calm down, bro!

In the end, Xu Kun chose not to pull out his blade. He forced an awkward yet polite smile onto his face. "You guessed wrong, bro. I'm so poor, how could I afford anything good? I've just gotten hold of some ordinary stuff recently and thought I'd come here to sell it for potion money!"

"Oh? Makes sense. Someone like you probably just got lucky one day and picked up a few decent little trinkets to sell!"

Xu Kun: (???_??) I'll endure!

"What you said is absolutely right, bro!"

The short, fat man wore a smug expression as if everything had gone exactly as he expected. While playing with a golden walnut, he held out his hand. "Hand it over!"

"What?" Xu Kun stared at him in astonishment.

"The things you want to sell. I already told you, I'm in a good mood today. I'll take whatever you're selling, and I guarantee you a fair price!"

Xu Kun's eyes widened, as though a red-eyed effect had been applied to them!

The hunt had begun!

The corners of Xu Kun's lips curled up slightly. Forcing himself to remain calm, he said, "Fine, then take a good look, bro!"

As he spoke, Xu Kun reached into his backpack, then clenched his fist around something and held it out before the short, fat man!

"Bro, take a look at this. How much do you think this thing is worth?"