Chapter 14

"...All right!" Kate said helplessly. Of all the Primitive Planes she had contacted, Qin Rong was the calmest and most troublesome.

Then the mirror flashed, and dense lines of text filled its surface. After frowning at it for a few moments, Qin Rong said helplessly to the mirror, "What language is this? I can't understand any of it."

The mirror flashed again, and Kate's speechless face reappeared. "This is the Universal Language, which all Plane Merchants must be familiar with. But I suppose Primitive Planes like yours have never encountered it before!"

Qin Rong raised an eyebrow noncommittally, ignoring his discomfort at Kate constantly calling them a "Primitive Plane." "In that case, translate it for us."

"...All right!" Kate, who felt increasingly helpless with age, nodded. For the sake of raising her rank, she would just treat this kid from a Primitive Plane as a customer. "Notice issued by the Cosmic Bank in Divine Calendar 3325 regarding trade and codes of conduct for Plane Merchants. Beginning in the first month of Divine Calendar 3325..."

It took about an hour before Kate finally finished reading the entire thing. After draining a large bottle of red wine to soothe her dry throat, she asked Qin Rong and Qin Yi, "So, what have you decided?"

Qin Rong turned to look at Qin Yi. Qin Yi immediately stood on tiptoe and whispered into his ear, "I just asked Andre. He really was the one behind this. He told us to agree first, and he'll explain later."

Hearing that, Qin Rong immediately said to Kate, "All right. We agree."

"Wonderful!" Kate answered excitedly. As long as they agreed, the number of new planes she had opened up would reach ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine. Then she could advance another rank.

Kate immediately projected the Planar Merchant Contract onto the mirror and said to the two of them, "Please sign your names at the end of the contract. Then you will become great Plane Merchants!"

Qin Rong and Qin Yi exchanged a glance, then placed their fingers where Kate indicated and signed their names. The moment they lifted their fingers, the contract turned into a ball of light and flew into their foreheads. Then a line of text suddenly appeared in their minds—

Native residents of Primitive Plane 89757, Qin Rong and Qin Yi, have voluntarily become Plane Merchants. This contract was officially established in Divine Calendar 995778. Contract holders, please carefully read the following notices and strictly abide by the rules and restrictions within the contract. At the same time, we wish the new contract holders great success.

What followed was a list of regulations, much like the documents issued by the Bureau of Industry and Commerce.

Once the two came back to their senses, Kate immediately smiled from the other side of the mirror. "Congratulations on joining the ranks of Plane Merchants. To celebrate, let us share a glass of this fine wine!"

As Kate spoke, three glass goblets suddenly appeared before her: one normal-sized and two as large as washbasins. She filled them to one-third full, passed the two washbasin-sized cups into the mirror, and after a flash of blue light, two normal-sized glasses filled with wine floated before them. Qin Yi accepted one in surprise.

"Why did they become so small?"

"Because part of it was taken by the Cosmic Bank as a handling fee for maintaining the power of space." Kate shrugged helplessly. "For a D-Rank Merchant like me—oh, soon to be C-Rank—it's not too bad. Merchants like me only pay half the value of the item itself in tax. But for the lowest-ranked Plane Merchants like you, the handling fee for a single trade is nearly two-thirds of the entire item." Kate explained with some frustration.

"How can it be like that? That tax is so high!" Qin Yi complained.

"There's nothing we can do about it, because the space channels essential to trade are maintained by the Cosmic Bank." Kate said helplessly. "It will be better once you reach A-Rank Merchant. At that point, the preservation rate of goods will be one-to-one. I've heard that Double-S-Rank Merchants can even receive rebates from the Cosmic Bank after every trade!"

Qin Yi pursed his lips at Qin Rong, then carefully raised the glass in his hand and took a sip. The greenish, sour taste, along with the sediment, made him frown involuntarily. Looking at Kate's blissful expression in the mirror, he complained, "Kate, why are you making us drink such poor-quality wine?"

Even the wine sold by the barrel in S City tasted better than this!

"What? What did you say?" Kate instantly bristled. "You actually called my wine poor-quality? Do you know that this is the finest and purest wine on the entire continent? How dare you call it poor-quality?"

"..." Qin Yi watched Kate fly into a rage, his forehead covered in black lines. He turned pleadingly toward the expressionless Qin Rong beside him.

Receiving Qin Yi's plea for help, Qin Rong nodded. Then, without saying a word, he left the room. A short while later, he returned carrying a bucket of homemade wild grape wine. Qin Mom had made it last year on a whim when she was craving some.

Qin Rong walked to the mirror and casually tossed the wine through it. On the other side, Kate looked doubtfully at the wine barrel, which was only about the size of a small Wahaha bottle. She carefully opened the cap and was instantly conquered by the fragrance wafting from the wine. She cautiously took a sip, then closed her eyes as though savoring the aftertaste. After a long while, Kate slowly exhaled and sighed in admiration, "So Primitive Planes aren't entirely worthless after all! Such fine wine is intoxicating."

Then she immediately leaned toward the mirror in excitement. "Is there any more? Let's trade! I can trade you the most precious Saint Fruit on this continent."

The most precious Saint Fruit?

Qin Yi and Qin Rong exchanged composed looks, barely able to suppress their laughter. Their casually brewed homemade wine could actually be exchanged for someone else's most precious Saint Fruit. Being Plane Merchants really was great!

They immediately nodded with broad smiles, signaling Kate to bring out the Saint Fruit.

Having received their agreement, Kate immediately got up and left. A moment later, she returned with an exquisite jewel-encrusted box in her hands. After carefully opening it, Kate took out the Saint Fruit. Qin Yi and Qin Rong, who had been so excited moments ago, froze when they saw it in her hand.

...Wasn't that... a sweet potato?

Author's note: Little Eight will lose internet access starting on the fourth~~~

So I'm working hard to stockpile chapters now.

Awoo~~

Everything posted later will come from the scheduled-post box~~~

Plane Merchants (Part 2)

Qin Rong and Qin Yi stared at each other, utterly dumbfounded and unable to process it. After standing there in a daze for a moment, Qin Yi cleared his throat and cautiously said, "Um... could you let us take a look at the Saint Fruit in your hand?"

"Of course." Kate Verus said as she carefully brought the Saint Fruit close to the mirror. An instant later, the Saint Fruit, now half its original size, was transmitted over.

After Qin Yi received the Saint Fruit, he examined it over and over. The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. Then he handed it to Qin Rong. Qin Rong accepted it, broke off a piece, and tasted it. Then he nodded to Qin Yi. "It really is a sweet potato."

Hallelujah!

Qin Yi forced himself to calm down and asked Kate in an even tone, "May I ask what purpose this Saint Fruit serves where you are?"

"The Saint Fruit is a heavenly treasure that gathers magical essence within itself. Once someone consumes a Saint Fruit, their magic power can increase tremendously. To be specific, an ordinary person with no magic power at all would become a Holy Magus after eating a Saint Fruit the size of a baby's fist. So it is extremely precious. If you are willing, I can exchange Saint Fruit for wine." Kate's patient and detailed explanation made Qin Yi's eyes shine. After exchanging a look with Qin Rong, he said with barely contained laughter, "That won't be necessary. To be honest, the Saint Fruit you described is a common food where we come from. If you have something more valuable, we can also exchange Saint Fruit with you."

Thank you to the author of I Am a Grand Magus. You made me understand the importance of sweet potatoes.

As Qin Yi thought this, the smile on his face became even more sincere and brilliant.

"Really?" Kate's eyes widened in astonishment. "Your plane really has Saint Fruit everywhere? Then I'm going to be rich!"

As she spoke, Kate paced excitedly back and forth on the other side of the mirror like a headless fly. After a while, she finally calmed down somewhat and said to Qin Rong and Qin Yi, "Because the value of Saint Fruit is impossible to estimate, I don't have anything here that I can use to trade for it. How about this? Tell me what you want, and I'll see whether I can get it for you."

Qin Rong and Qin Yi exchanged a glance, feeling that Kate's words made sense. However, in their haste, they could not think of anything they wanted. After discussing it for a while, Qin Rong said to Kate, "There's nothing we need for now. How about we stop here today? We'll make a detailed trade plan later, then contact you again."

"All right, then." Kate nodded regretfully. Then she looked eagerly at the Qin brothers. "But you must remember to contact me!"

"Mm." Qin Yi nodded. Then he reached out and severed the magical connection.

Once the magical fluctuations around them vanished, the scene before their eyes flashed, and they immediately entered Andre's space. Qin Yi looked at Andre irritably. "What exactly are you up to?"

"You said that temples couldn't be built in your world and that Faith Power couldn't be collected. I had no choice but to contact other spatial planes. You can't expect me to remain here forever, unable to return home, can you?" Andre said righteously.

"Didn't you say you no longer had any magic power? How could you still contact Kate?" Qin Yi suddenly thought of this question.

"I only said that I no longer had the ability to use the Great Prophecy Technique. I never said I couldn't cast such simple spells." Andre said innocently. "Besides, you have already stepped onto the path of cultivation. Sooner or later, you will leave this place. Isn't it a good thing to have an opportunity to become familiar with the outside world?"

"That's not it." Qin Yi was briefly at a loss for words. "I'm just worried. You said yourself that you don't know how you ended up stranded here. What if someone deliberately set you up? What you did was too dangerous."

"..." Andre fell silent for a moment and said nothing. After a while, he softly sighed, "I really want to go home too~"

"Muah!" Qin Yi stepped forward, hugged the mass of black mist, and kissed it twice. "We'll definitely work hard to help you. Didn't I write songs for Hong Kong before? Once the songs are released and everyone sees that Andre wrote them, there will definitely be fans who worship you. Then you'll have Faith Power."

"But temples can't be built here, so that method of increasing Faith Power is very slow." Andre complained. "And the lifeforms on your planet have such weak spiritual power, while spiritual energy is so scarce. Maybe even after you die, I still won't have collected enough Faith Power!"

Qin Yi's forehead filled with black lines. "Didn't you say that after I signed a contract with you, I wouldn't die so easily?"

"Ah, I was just saying." Andre, unable to act aggrieved, wriggled the nearly solid black mist around his body and spoke shyly.

"Can being a Plane Merchant gather more Faith Power?" Qin Rong suddenly asked.

"Andre, what do you think?" Qin Yi looked at the quiet mass of black mist and asked.

"The plane where Kate lives has relatively active magical elements and extremely abundant mineral veins. Food, however, is rather scarce. Since you have Saint Fruit and wine as leverage, you naturally hold the initiative in trade. Why not use Saint Fruit to lure the people of that continent into believing in us?" Andre said slowly.