The moment the private room's door closed, Su Li heard at least four people standing outside.
Their footsteps were light, but to a third-rank knight, they were no different from elephants stomping beside his ears.
Barlow rubbed his hands together, the gemstone rings on all ten fingers clinking brightly against one another. He stared at Su Li's expression, trying to read something from that excessively handsome face.
Su Li lowered his head and looked at the parchment on the table.
The cannon blueprint was drawn with extreme precision; even the spiral grooves inside the barrel had been marked. For such a thing to appear in the hands of goblins from the Free City-State implied far too much.
Su Li pushed the blueprint back.
"I can't inscribe fourth-rank explosive runes."
Barlow's smile froze for half a second.
"Master Su, don't be so quick to refuse. The price is negotiable. Besides that Heart of the Flame Demon, I can also—"
"You didn't understand." Su Li leaned back in his chair. "It's not a matter of price. I don't have fourth-rank materials, and I've never inscribed a fourth-rank rune. You've come to the wrong person."
Barlow's expression shifted.
Of course he didn't believe him. The entire Silver Crown City black market knew that the enchanted weapons forged by the mysterious blacksmith of Ginkgo Alley far surpassed anything sold anywhere else. High-rank runes came to his hand with effortless ease, yet he claimed he couldn't inscribe fourth-rank runes?
What Barlow did not know was that Su Li's unusual aether had forced a second-rank Sharpness Rune to reach a level comparable to the peak of the third rank.
Barlow shifted his sitting position, his short legs swinging from the chair without reaching the floor.
"Master Su, you're a smart man. I won't beat around the