Trading Market (Part One)

(Thanks to Mu Se Yu Qian for the rating vote. Thank you.)

The buildings in the Camp came in every shape imaginable. Some houses were made from the enormous ribs of Demonic Beasts, with huge fangs or bones driven into the ground and hides of every color stitched around them. Others were wooden and stood crookedly. There were huts of straw, mounds of earth, piles of stone—all manner of crude structures. The place looked like a slum or refugee camp somewhere in North Africa. There was no main road to speak of. In a word, it was chaos, with creatures threading their way through the gaps, wide and narrow, between the buildings.

It seemed demons still had no concept of city planning. To Er Dongsheng, every building was an illegal construction! Still, given the demons' strength, they had built them remarkably sturdy.

All kinds of demons filled the Camp, and their bizarre variety opened Zhang Yiyang's eyes. Only then did he realize how few kinds of demons he knew. In truth, demons could produce offspring with almost any race. To spur mutations, the different races mated indiscriminately. Apart from the descendants of certain powerful Greater Demons, who might choose mates only from their own race to keep their bloodlines pure, ordinary Abyssal Species had no fixed preferences. Demons with lowly bloodlines were even more likely to produce offspring of mixed ancestry. After mutations piled upon mutations for several generations, even their parents might not know what to call them...

As Er Dongsheng walked, he surveyed his surroundings warily, looking around with curiosity. Crude as these exotic buildings and sights were, he had never seen anything like them. It was an unusual experience. In fact, he had insisted on coming alone so that, if he encountered a danger he could not overcome, he could flee without anything holding him back. Bringing Little Succubus to this unfamiliar place would only burden him.

Little Succubus was the only ray of sunlight in Er Dongsheng's painful struggle through the Abyss! She was the most wonderful gift heaven had given him! She was not even ten years old. Because she was a Mutant Succubus, her kind had always kept her hidden and protected her, and all the Succubi had treated her well on the surface. So although she was a Succubus herself, she had not acquired the cunning and cruelty of Succubi and ordinary Abyssal Creatures. Instead, growing up so well protected had left her with a touch of innocent, endearing simplicity. That was exceedingly rare in the Abyss! Even after her kind abandoned and forgot her, the poor little thing still bore no resentment toward anyone!

As she put it, she was just too stupid to master any mutation skills. It was not her mother's or her sisters' fault!

Perhaps that made her a little foolish, and perhaps she would struggle to survive in the Abyss, but Er Dongsheng cherished it beyond measure. In this dark, destructive, cruel world, how precious it was to have even a glimmer of familial love tying him to someone! He had once sworn to preserve that hard-won bond. Even if he had to sink forever into a sea of suffering, even if he had to destroy the entire Abyss, he would pay that price!

Could anyone imagine it? Deep in the heart of a demon who embodied destruction lay a longing for familial love! However frail and humble that scrap of love might be, he would hold on to it with all his strength!

Er Dongsheng was beginning to understand why demons were so determined to seize the Sunlight Plane. It held things they yearned for but could never obtain!

Sunlight, resources, beautiful women—and familial love!

"Come take a look! Tough Abyss Snake scales! Don't pass them by! Come see!"

A fellow whose race was impossible to tell held up a piece of red leather armor and hawked it in the common tongue, a language most intelligent races in the Abyss understood. Several more pieces lay piled on a stone beside him. A closer look showed that the scales on the armor were too rough, and their color was unnaturally vivid... Er Dongsheng laughed inwardly. He had hunted a formidable Abyss Snake himself; naturally, he could tell at a glance whether those scales came from one. He had barely arrived, and already he had found someone selling fakes. It reminded him of the noisy street markets of his previous life.

Even so, plenty of demons flocked to the stall. Some even stepped forward to ask what they would need to offer in exchange...

Er Dongsheng paid them no mind. He was not the one being cheated! Why stick his nose into it?

"Look! Half-Elves once from the Sunlight Plane, now members of a powerful race living on the vast plains! Come and see! You don't find these often! See how beautiful they are, how enchanting! We'll trade for anything, with priority for large offers!"

Several Abyssal Fairies had tied up a few Half-Elves and were shouting to attract customers. Fairies and Elves alike were beautiful women, and they drew a large crowd of Abyssal Species. There were even a demon or two among them!

Abyssal Fairies and Abyssal Half-Elves were entirely different races. They looked fairly similar apart from their skin color, but Abyssal Fairies were pure Abyssal Species who had existed in the Abyss since time immemorial. Abyssal Half-Elves, on the other hand, descended from Elves abducted from the Sunlight Plane by a demon lord in the Ancient Era. After millions of years of evolution, those once-pure Elves had become Abyssal Half-Elves with some demon blood, sprouting horns on their foreheads or growing tails!

But...

Abyssal Half-Elves are a formidable race! They live together on the vast grasslands, and their fighting strength is no worse than that of Abyssal Fairies. Could ordinary Fairies like these really capture them? The grasslands are their home ground!

Something about it struck Er Dongsheng as strange. He studied the captured Half-Elves more closely.

Beautiful women were always a pleasure to look at. Many "people" could not resist stopping to watch, though they all made a point of clearing space for the demons present.

That scent!!! A familiar bodily scent reached Er Dongsheng's nose. These Half-Elves smelled remarkably like his own Little Succubus! Could they be...

So that's it. They say Succubi are masters of transformation and enchantment, with exceptionally strong mental power. They weren't exaggerating!

These were plainly Succubi who had used magic to change their appearance... Er Dongsheng shook his head inwardly. The words honey trap came to mind. He did not know exactly what these demons intended, but he could guess the general shape of what would happen...

Deception and conspiracy lurked everywhere—that was Er Dongsheng's first impression of the trading market.

He continued on. Along the way, Er Dongsheng saw all kinds of demons, Half-Demons, and mixed-blood creatures trying to trade their possessions. Some had set up stalls inside buildings; others, like the ones he had seen earlier, stood right in the street, holding up their wares and shouting to catch people's attention.

There were just as many people jostling through the crowd in search of trades. With no common currency, anyone who wanted to buy something had to offer an item of equal value. They held gems, rune stones, magic items, and all manner of spoils from battle high in the air, calling out their offers excitedly.

Er Dongsheng stopped, intending to have a good look around and gather some information while he was at it!