Beck Subplane

"..."

Even in another world, as long as it was a real one, universal values still had something in common.

Restricting exports?

Not a big problem!

After all, he had spent time in the great melting pot of the modern world. Though most of his time had gone into researching ascension, what he had seen and heard had still taught him a little.

Yin Ming's mind raced. After a pause, he said, "As we know, demons feed on Soul Crystals!"

"How about this? First, find a demon and beat it stupid. Then feed it Soul Crystals until it is full. Get me a strand of its hair, and I'll kill it through Abyssal Summoning."

"Then we'll obtain demon flesh containing Soul Crystal components. We only need to find a way to extract—"

This step was the easiest for Yin Ming. The Scavenger Gourd could handle the purification.

With this assembly-line operation, every ten thousand Soul Crystals would incur a loss of around ten to twenty percent, plus ten to twenty demons. That was not unacceptable.

Silence...

Black kiln factory: "..."

Live-smuggling ring: "..."

Foie gras farm: "..."

Good thing this was another world. Otherwise, they would definitely sue him for slander.

"Wizard, that won't be necessary..."

Red Nose's lower body inexplicably went cold. He had spent some time mingling in the Abyss.

A demon lord had nearly died because of his betrayal. He had thought himself a little quasit well versed in human nature, but only now did he realize that before a true "human," his thinking was still far too naive.

"Don't worry! The purification technique shouldn't be difficult. We just need to find a substance that corrodes demon flesh without reacting with Soul Crystals. The resulting losses will all be on my account," Yin Ming said with immense generosity.

Red Nose: (ΩДΩ)

Was this a matter of purification technology?

Was this a matter of who bore the losses?

Red Nose took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to turn tail and run. "Wizard, what I mean is, there's no need to go that far. The Abyss has an open subplane where we can trade."

As he spoke, Red Nose took out a metal sphere about the size of a Soulstone. Its smooth surface showed nothing unusual. He explained, "The subplane opens on every new-moon night. All demons may enter freely, while wizards, warlocks, and Magic Beasts need a subplane invitation."

The subplane was called "Beck." It was called a plane, but its area was only about half the size of the Landon Duchy.

There were no native creatures within it. It was entirely a place for extraordinary beings to exchange what they had for what they lacked.

It belonged to the Abyss, yet it was not shrouded by the Abyssal Will.

The rules stated that regardless of race or depth of hatred, fighting, hunting, and killing were forbidden.

It was only permitted as a trading ground—a special foreign-trade zone of the Abyssal world?

"Fine! We'll keep my method as a backup for now. After all, I'm not some devil."

After thinking for a moment, Yin Ming agreed to trade in the subplane. Abyssal Summoning carried certain risks as well. If a token summoning was refused, it would become a random summoning.

A Zero Ring rune could also summon a demon king. The other party might be unable to descend, but crushing the summoner to death with a single finger was a common occurrence.

"Then, on the next new-moon night, at the Beck Subplane..."

Before Red Nose could finish, Yin Ming cut in. "Choose three locations. I'll inject magic power into the Soulstone. One jolt means we meet at the first location, two jolts at the second, three jolts at the third."

A Soulstone could be used like that?

Injecting magic power into a Soulstone caused pain like the soul being torn apart, yet it could actually be used as a signal code?

"Bonewood Tower, Crimson Leaf Gallery, Maple Spirit Ancient Tree."

With a dark expression, Red Nose named the three locations. Just as he was about to return to the Abyss through the Abyssal Sacrifice Rune, Yin Ming suddenly interrupted him. "Wait!"

"Wizard, what else do you require?" Red Nose's muscles trembled as he turned around and forced out a stiff smile.

"Lend me some blood..."

The true blood of the Zero Ring Jungle Giant Lizard had gone cold and could no longer be used to draw runes.

Yin Ming had no plans to look for a second Magic Beast, so he could only make do with what was close at hand and take some ready-made true blood.

Red Nose had returned to the Abyss for three months, and he was stronger than the other Monkey Quasits. The runes drawn with his true blood should be able to summon a Monkey Quasit.

"..."

[Zero Ring: Abyssal Summoning.]

Yin Ming used Red Nose's true blood to draw the spell's energy circuit.

He tossed a strand of monkey fur into the rune array and activated it with magic power. As wisps of Abyssal aura seeped out, Red Eighteen appeared at the center of the array.

"Wizard, Soul Crystals can't be taken out of the Abyss. How about you drink some Bloodline Potion too, turn into a quasit, and return to the Abyss with me to retrieve them?" Red Eighteen wore a gray leather skirt around his waist and spoke with his eyes wide open.

Yin Ming: "..."

In order to keep being human, he had even developed the immortal path's External Elixir Art.

And now this thing wanted him to stop being human for ten thousand Soul Crystals?

Yin Ming took a deep breath and asked, "Do you know the 'Beck' subplane?"

As the confidant of the war demon Romance, Red Eighteen had heard of the "Beck" subplane. He nodded. "Yeah! I heard it's an open trading plane, but I've never been there."

Red Nose had not lied. Such a place really existed. Once he found someone to verify whether the invitation was genuine, that would be more or less enough.

"Fine! We'll meet at the Beck Subplane on the next new-moon night and trade there."

"But our lord won't allow us to leave the territory."

"Smack..." "Can't you just defect? The Soulstone is in my hands anyway. Are you planning to let it retire?"

"Then where exactly?"

"Bonewood Tower, Crimson Leaf Gallery, Maple Spirit Ancient Tree. I'll stimulate the Soulstone with magic power. One jolt means go to the first place to meet, and so on," Yin Ming said.

Red Eighteen: "..."

You probably didn't know that stimulating a Soulstone with magic power was used as torture in the hands of other demon lords.

Intimidated by his tyrannical might, Red Eighteen chose to endure. He drew the sacrifice rune with blood. As the rune spell lit up one by one, he stepped onto the array and returned to the Abyss.

"..."

Red Nose might not have royal blood, but his intelligence was clearly higher than that of other Monkey Quasits.

Who knew whether he had experienced something in the Abyss, or whether learning truly helped Monkey Quasits awaken their intelligence.

"Time to go! Someone will come looking soon!"

Whether it was Abyssal Summoning or Abyssal Sacrifice, the core principle came down to one word: fast. Fire one shot, then change locations.

Yin Ming stored the Jungle Giant Lizard's corpse in the gourd and sprinted toward the dungeon.

"Green, where are you heading in full battle gear?" As soon as Yin Ming returned to the dungeon entrance, he saw Johnny Green leading over a dozen fully armed warlocks out of the dungeon.

"Don't even mention it! Who knows which Abyssal lord has gone insane!"

Johnny Green wore a miserable expression as he poured out his grievances. "In previous years, we never detected Abyssal aura even once. How many times has it been these past few months?"

"Detecting Abyssal aura would be one thing! But all of them are Zero Ring in intensity, and every single one is within the Landon Duchy!"

"Ahem... You've worked hard."

Yin Ming smiled awkwardly and headed to the dungeon's exchange building. Having Anthony Silvercoin appraise extraordinary items was more reliable than most scholars.

Thanks to reader The Speechless World for the 5,000 Qidian Coin reward!!!! If my hand weren't broken, I'd definitely add another chapter!!!