Not Going

Her name is Yakumo Yukari...

A Great Yokai who has lived for at least a thousand years. As for why she came here, it can only be said to be a coincidence. She arrived here by moving through a Gap. At first, she thought someone had ambushed her, but then she saw a 'Ghost' staying in a very strange house.

A very strange house. Although there were doors inside, no doors or windows leading to the outside could be seen anywhere else. It was simply like a tightly sealed cage!

She, lately, has been in a bad mood due to some matters.

When in a bad mood, she finds fault with everyone. An unfamiliar place coupled with an unpleasant mood made her attack without saying much to the other party... The above is not the key point!

The key point is that the Ghost in her hand actually held a treasure that made her heart flutter. She could feel the extremely full energy from afar. Although it didn't match her attributes and a considerable portion would be wasted upon absorption, even so, her improvement afterward would still be significant.

What reason does a yokai need when acting unreasonably!?

If a reason is needed, this will do!

How dare a mere Ghost smile at me? Seeking death!

The fight ended. The entire hall was searched thoroughly three times, inside and out. She was also looked at by Jiu Ming's Taunt three times. Unable to find a way to deal with Jiu Ming, then... should she negotiate for now?

Let's leave it at that for now.

"How about you accept two more of my requests?" Yakumo Yukari said with a slight smile on her lips, "There aren't many beings I'd introduce myself to. You can call me Yakumo Yukari."

Yakumo Yukari...? Huh!?

"My name is Jiu Ming."

Yakumo Yukari's eyes twitched slightly, her smile widening, "That's quite a coincidence."

That tone just now... If you understood why your attacks were ignored, could you still smile? You dare to smile?

"Ha, should I thank the charlatan who named me?" He chuckled, Jiu Ming put away the Sealed Cards on the coffee table, including the one sealing the Super Energy Crystal. "Two requests, since they can make up for such a large difference, they must be difficult to fulfill. But are you really not going to keep your own ability?"

An ability related to space!

"Actually, I have another type of business here," Jiu Ming pondered for a moment. "Actually, you can choose partial transactions."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a portion of the ability, similar to that Defective Electricity. You only need a fraction of the original. It won't eliminate your own ability. The more you trade away, the more your ability will weaken. Of course, you can also retrain it afterward."

"But you need to be aware that this is a stripping of the origin. It won't be smooth sailing to recover your original ability just because of your past experience and the realms you've reached. To put it bluntly, the difficulty of retraining is no less than before!"

"Oh, really?" Yakumo Yukari burst out laughing, unsure if it was mockery or genuine happiness at Jiu Ming's kindness, "You truly are a proper Shopkeeper."

In short, after her mood calmed down, they talked face-to-face for a while. She felt that this little brat in front of her wasn't that annoying after all?

On the premise that he wasn't human.

"En? Cough! Of course, because it's only a partial transaction, the speed of improvement after others load it will definitely not be as fast as the full version, so the price when trading with me is lower... much lower!"

What happened to ripping people off? What happened to being a black-hearted merchant? What happened to making the other party bleed and ruthlessly cutting their flesh?

Alas, I can't do it!

"Why don't I see any relevant content on it?"

Yakumo Yukari raised the small booklet in her hand.

"That thing is just a rough introduction, the rest depends on the shopkeeper's conscience, en en, that's right, it's like this."

So if you don't want to be ripped off, try to build good relations with the shopkeeper!

"How is the partial part calculated?" If it's just a partial loss, it might be acceptable. For her, it's just a temporary weakening. As for completely discarding the ability to use the Gap? She could only say absolutely not!

At least not until she encountered a situation where she truly had to give up this ability!

"Let me put it this way." Jiu Ming tapped the coffee table, and a faint light screen appeared on it. "Let's use a rating system. The rating of that Lightning Bead just now was 14300, and your Gap ability is 88888.8..."

"Hmph hmph." Yakumo Yukari chuckled lightly, narrowing her eyes as she looked at Jiu Ming. "Shopkeeper, you're not being entirely honest either. If it were just like this, the real value gap wouldn't be just six times, right?"

More than six times?

It wouldn't be a problem to double it!

This is only for people. For the Mysterious Shop, no matter what the value of your item is, it will give you the price it should give, and external factors, other factors will be completely ignored!

Got an opinion?

If you have an opinion, keep your precious item to yourself!

Anyway, there's no forced recycling here, but if you die... hehe!

"Well, I'm a merchant... but it seems I'm not the type who's good at ripping people off." Jiu Ming sighed slightly, as if regretting his lack of talent for being thick-skinned and dark-hearted. "For partial transactions, in addition to discounts based on the stripping ratio, there will be other discounts, the minimum limit... is random!"

Not entirely. Jiu Ming knew a range, between 2 and 10 times. As for the specific one, it depends on the Mysterious Shop's evaluation.

"If you feel it's a loss, you can exchange it with other things."

Jiu Ming began to feel that being the shopkeeper of the Mysterious Shop was not easy, because he couldn't exchange items of their true value for other items at the same price, unless the other party was a fool who didn't know the true value of the item in their hand.

Exchanging gold for bricks, based on weight, he did make a profit, but based on value... find a tall building and take a leap of faith to relieve his mood?

"Let's not rush this for now. Let's talk about the commission."

Putting this matter aside, Yakumo Yukari turned to another topic.

"Sure, tell me what it is."

"First, find someone in the Saigyouji family and kill her! Of course, if you run into any Saigyouji monks along the way, you can kill them too."

"Hmm... are there any extra benefits for killing them?"

"How about a good review?" Yakumo Yukari glanced at Jiu Ming nonchalantly, "You're not very generous."

"Let's move on to the second one." Jiu Ming shook his head. Killing people for no reason? It was completely unsuited for him. He was a mysterious (self-proclaimed) merchant, not some unscrupulous assassin who took money to do dirty deeds.

"Recently, I found a Flower Demon that I find quite displeasing and whose strength isn't that great. I originally wanted to teach it a lesson myself, but I'm tied up with some things. Can you do it for me?" As she spoke, Yakumo Yukari winked at Jiu Ming, "The other party is only slightly less good-looking than me..."

Slightly less good-looking? Why did that sound so strange?

Why didn't she just do something so easy herself? Was it really such a coincidence? What was the meaning behind that last sentence?

"No!" Without even a moment to think, Jiu Ming directly refused.

"Eh?" Yakumo Yukari, who expected Jiu Ming to refuse but was surprised by his decisiveness, let out a soft "eh?" "Won't you consider it more? Although I don't plan to give up my Gap ability, I can endure a temporary weakening."

"It's not because of you." Jiu Ming waved his hand, very seriously, "It's because of me. I don't want to do this kind of thing."

"Heh, I almost forgot. Even Ghosts were human in life." Yakumo Yukari sneered slightly.

"This has nothing to do with my stance. First of all, are all those Saigyouji people evil?"

"A group whose creed is to eliminate Demons and Monsters."

"The indiscriminate kind?"

"What do you think!"

"I see." Jiu Ming nodded, "If that's the case, then if I encounter them..."

"Hmph, if you encounter them, you'll have to act even if you don't want to, unless you want to die again." Yakumo Yukari snorted, her words filled with strong disdain.

"Dying again doesn't matter. It's not like it's the first time. It's just a matter of when, depending on my choice... Alright, let's not talk about this for now. Second, that Flower Demon, why are you trying to get me killed?"

Jiu Ming scratched his cheek. They had been rambling for a while, and he could tell that the girl in front of him seemed to be stalling for time. Oh my, mind games were so tiring, how many brain cells were lost in a single exchange!

Trying to stall for time to find out why you can ignore my attacks?

Well, it's simple, just stick your face over here...

Coupled with those two insincere requests, tsk tsk, from her words, it didn't seem like something she needed help with.

The first one, which clearly involved killing an entire family, should be avoided if possible. Setting aside the wickedness of it, if it were an act of justice, it wouldn't be bad to lend a hand if one had the ability?

Do what you can, don't force it and end up getting screwed...

As for the second matter, upon closer thought, it was pretty much the same. Conservatively speaking, if you replaced "good-looking" with "strength" in Yakumo Yukari's last sentence, it would seem to be close to the truth.

In short, it was becoming increasingly clear why the previous shopkeeper had been replaced. For someone like Yakumo Yukari, who was always scheming against you, one or two might be manageable, but if too many appeared, you might end up getting yourself into trouble if you were tricked.

"Refusing a guest's request isn't good, is it?" Yakumo Yukari tilted her head up with a contemptuous smile. "Are you scared?"

"You figured that out!? That's right! I'm afraid of being beaten to death, in every sense of the word, whether it's the first or the second."

In every sense of the word, being provoked to death, or dying from a stab in the back... and the possibility of each was quite high.

"Tch, so weak." Seeing that Jiu Ming showed no unnecessary reaction, Yakumo Yukari abandoned this boring act and, through those two commissions that even she felt lacked sincerity, confirmed one thing.