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Leian did not stay outside for long. After straightening his clothes slightly, he calmly stepped into the trading firm's building.

The first floor was extremely spacious, with countless moonstones embedded in the ceiling, bathing the entire hall in brilliant light.

Leian looked up and saw counters lining the front, left, and right sides of the hall. People moved constantly through the center, most of them fairly capable warriors and mages.

He blended into the crowd and walked along the counters as he looked around. The goods on sale were remarkably varied: battle qi cultivation techniques, meditation methods, magic scrolls, weapons, magic crystal cores, ores, and more. There were even counters offering customized magical beast pets.

Leian had previously visited the Youquan Trading Firm in county cities, but those branches were far smaller than this place. It was also from those county branches that he had learned that the information he wished to buy was only available from trading firms at the imperial capital level.

With that in mind, Leian changed direction and headed for the staircase leading to the second floor. As soon as he approached the stairwell, he spotted a maid in a red gauze dress.

A round raised platform stood before the maid, upon which rested a crystal ball the size of a head. When she saw Leian, she immediately held the crystal ball in both hands and poured a stream of milky-white magical power into it.

At that moment, the crystal ball suddenly shot a beam of white light toward Leian. The light swept over his body before vanishing.

Once the light disappeared, the maid seemed to have confirmed something. She immediately put on a smile and said respectfully, "Welcome to the Youquan Trading Firm!"

Leian nodded slightly and unhurriedly climbed the stairs.

On the first floor, some nearby customers watched his retreating figure vanish into the stairwell, envy appearing on their faces.

The imperial capital trading firm had three floors in total. The first floor served warriors and mages below level seven. To enter the second floor, one had to possess at least level-six strength. As for the third floor, it served only Saint Realm experts.

The maid standing guard at the stairwell was actually a low-level mage. Her main duty was to activate the appraisal magic within the crystal ball and determine whether visitors were qualified to enter the second floor.

This appraisal magic was the most basic kind of light magic. It could generally only determine the lower limit of a target's strength, not their exact level.

Leian had already heard of the Youquan Trading Firm's rules, so he was not surprised.

The second floor of the trading firm was the same size as the first, but only half of it was occupied by counters. The other half consisted entirely of individual small private rooms.

These private rooms looked no different from the outside. Each door merely bore a serial number, with a thumb-sized crystal embedded beside it.

At the moment, some of the crystals were white, while others glowed red.

After reaching the second floor, Leian swept his gaze around and then walked without hesitation toward a private room marked by a white crystal.

He had already asked around in the county city. A white crystal meant that the room was vacant, while a red one indicated that it was currently receiving a customer.

When Leian pushed open the door of the room marked with a white crystal, he saw a long wooden table in the center of the modestly sized chamber. An elderly man with gray-white hair and beard sat behind it.

After Leian closed the door, the old man gestured toward the wooden chair opposite him. "Please, have a seat."

Once Leian sat down as instructed, the old man spoke again. "May I ask whether you know the rules of our trading firm?"

Leian was briefly stunned, then understood that the old man was likely referring to the firm's pricing standards. He nodded lightly. "I know a little."

"That makes things easier." The old man smiled as he stroked his beard. "What does our guest require?"

The old man appeared exceedingly confident, and his question covered an extremely broad scope, as though they could fulfill any request Leian might make.

In truth, that was no empty claim. After all, in the eyes of god-level experts, there were practically no secrets in the entire plane that could remain hidden.

Of course, ordinary people's requests rarely reached that level.

And there was another prerequisite: one had to be able to afford the price!

Leian's purpose in coming here was clear. He wanted to know about Beirut. After thinking briefly, he probed, "I would like some information about the Yulan Continent."

"Oh?"

The old man raised his brows, looking somewhat surprised. He had worked at the trading firm for decades and had rarely seen anyone below the Saint Realm inquire about matters concerning other continents.

Still, surprise was surprise. Since the customer had a need, he naturally had to provide service. He immediately said, "There is far too much information about the Yulan Continent. What aspect would our guest like to know about?"

Leian looked directly at the old man and said expressionlessly, "It concerns a god-level expert. Of course, not the ruler of the Yulan Continent, but another god-level expert."

After guessing that the Goddess of Dark Night was the ruler of the Youquan Continent, Leian had also gathered information elsewhere about the other four continents.

Across the entire Yulan Plane, there were five continents: Yulan, Youquan, Elven, Chiyan, and Nansen. Basically, every continent had at least one god-level expert presiding over it.

There was no need to mention the Youquan Continent. The Elven Continent was primarily inhabited by elves, and it was said to have two god-level experts: the Elven Goddess and the Elven King.

The Chiyan Continent was primarily inhabited by humans and divided into several kingdoms. It was broadly controlled by the Radiant Church, and its god-level expert was the current Light Pope.

The Nansen Continent was also primarily inhabited by humans, but every nation across the continent worshiped the Dark Church. Its god-level expert was the current Dark Pope.

As for the final continent, the Yulan Continent, it contained only one empire—the Yulan Empire. It was said that the empire had been founded by the Yulan War God, who was himself a god-level expert.

As for whether there were god-level experts beyond those six, the answer was certainly yes. When Leian had inquired about such matters before, he had heard the names of several other god-level experts. Yet when he asked where they were, no one could provide an answer.

In Leian's view, these god-level experts were obscure either because they had already left the Yulan Plane or because they lived in seclusion somewhere, known only to fellow gods.

After hearing Leian's question, the old man was no longer as surprised as before. He had seen far too many people asking about god-level experts.

After all, god-level experts generally did not show themselves. To ordinary people, they were the most mysterious beings of all. And the more mysterious and powerful something was, the more it aroused curiosity.

The old man smiled and said, "According to detailed and reliable historical records, other god-level experts did indeed appear on the Yulan Continent besides the Yulan War God.

Before asking which one you mean, let me ask this first: are you certain that, given your status, you can afford the price of information about a god-level expert?"

The old man spoke very bluntly, but Leian was not angered. He simply asked, "What sort of price are we talking about? Of course, I do not wish to know much. I only want to know when this person became a god."

Hearing that, the old man nodded. "That information is indeed not very expensive. May I ask under what status our guest is making this purchase?"

The Youquan Trading Firm set different prices for people of different strengths. For example, certain information could be exorbitantly expensive for someone below the Saint Realm, yet only worth tens of thousands of gold coins to a Saint Realm expert. Sometimes, the firm might even provide it for free.

On the surface, the old man was asking about his status, but what he really meant was the customer's strength.

Leian did not have much gold on him, so he could only reveal his strength to secure a lower price.

"A level-nine warrior."

"Level nine?"

Before Leian had even finished speaking, the old man's eyes widened, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes twitched slightly. This was the second time he had shown surprise.

Level-nine experts were not common. An empire had only a little over a hundred of them, while the number of known level-nine warriors across the entire Youquan Continent was fewer than five hundred.

The Youquan Trading Firm had records of virtually all these several hundred level-nine experts. Although the old man did not dare claim that he remembered every single one, he certainly would not overlook such a young and promising genius, especially one from their Byron Empire.

Yet he was certain that the man before him was absolutely not in the trading firm's records.