"But my 122 cubes are scattered. One hundred are in Absolute Boundary, one of the Upper Nine Realms, bestowed upon me by the Life Master. The other twenty-two are in Bai Dong Realm, which is just one of the Forty-Four Realms."
"Your Wang family's gift is in Bai Dong Realm?"
"Yes."
"And the other two cubes?"
"I traded for them with other beings."
"Are there many who trade cubes?"
"Many," Wang Chenchen said. "But the trades are all conducted without meeting in person. Merchants can act as guarantors, though they charge a hefty fee."
Lu Yin understood. If the two parties met in person, they might be targeted. But if they traded through a merchant acting as guarantor, they only needed to exchange the realm cores without revealing themselves or learning each other's identities.
"How do merchants earn recognition—or, rather, trust?"
"Merchants deposit realm cores with the Great Realm Palace. If a merchant breaks the rules, the other party can contact the Great Realm Palace directly, and it will judge the case and award double compensation. Also, merchants are divided into fixed and mobile merchants. Only fixed merchants can facilitate trades. They have their own restrictions. I'll show you once we get inside."
"And who oversees the Great Realm Palace?"
"The Master Clans."
"Don't the Master Clans want the realm cores too?"
Wang Chenchen looked at Lu Yin. "You don't actually think everything should be fair and just, with everything out in the open, do you?"
Lu Yin stopped asking.
That was right. If everything were fair, the Master Clans' existence would be a joke.
The truth was that to survive in the Seventy-two Realms, one had to follow the rules, at least to some extent.
Unless one had the power to break them.
Not long after, Wang Chenchen took