A Handful of Bird Feathers for a Hundred Thousand Gold Coins, and an Invoice for the Great Enshrined

The wind in mid-air was scorched by the Evil Fire emanating from Qian Daoliu.

This living ancestor of the Spirit Hall hung in the sky, his chest heaving, his two old fists clenched so tightly they cracked. Should he fight? That black iron fork beneath him was evil, capable of summoning heavenly lightning; should he not fight? Was he really going to just stand by and watch his precious granddaughter's pubic hair picture book be printed and distributed all over the streets by these bandits?

If that were to happen, the Spirit Hall's reputation, built up over tens of thousands of years, would be completely ruined.

Crunch his teeth so hard they were Qian Daoliu ground to powder, forcing back the harsh words that were on the tip of his tongue, and squeezing out a bloody sentence through his teeth:

"Alright... good lad. I admit defeat! I'll take all these dusters! Name your price!"

"That's right, harmony brings wealth."

Ling Yun, with his hands in his pockets, gestured with his chin towards Ning Rongrong behind him. "Rongrong, give this big customer a ransom price."

Ning Rongrong, now channeling her inner God of Wealth, stepped forward, clutching her golden abacus, and grinned, "Great Enshrined, you're so generous! According to the rules of our Vast Sea Black Market, others would pay five thousand gold coins per feather, but given your esteemed status and the fact that this is your granddaughter's personal, original feather, we're offering a special family price—one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coin per feather! No haggling, no credit!"

"Ten thousand? You little brat, why don't you just rob someone?!" Demon Subduing Douluo was furious in mid-air, his eyes turning red as he raised his Coiling Dragon Staff to smash it down.

"Shut up!"

Qian Daoliu roared, blocking the Jiang Mo. He knew perfectly well that these rascals had him by the throat. But he Great Enshrined, usually subsisting on the wind and dew beneath the statues; who carried hundreds of thousands of gold coins or silver dollars around?

Qian Daoliu's old face turned a deep purplish-red as he turned and glared at his two subordinates behind him. "Take off all your valuables! Use them to pay off the debt!"

Jiang Mo and Qian Jun, the two old men, turned green with embarrassment. In front of hundreds of idlers below, the two men shamefully untied the top-grade storage belts hanging from their waists. Jiang Mo even more painfully pulled out a piece of radiant, ten-thousand-year-old fire-attribute right arm bone from his pocket and smashed it on the broken square table of the Old Huang's Mutton Restaurant.

"This Soul Bone is a top-grade item from ten thousand years ago, and with the other parts inside, it's worth at least 300,000 gold coins! That's more than enough to buy your few broken dusters!" Demon Subduing Douluo roared through gritted teeth.

Ning Rongrong picked up the viewing mirror and glanced at it twice. She then happily shoved the Soul Bone and belt into her large sack and casually tossed the several neatly tied "angel feather dusters" into the air.

Qian Daoliu caught his granddaughter's feather with a dark face, then turned around and was about to turn into golden light and run away.

"Hey! Great Enshrined, please wait!"

Ning Rongrong jogged a few steps, pulled a piece of yellow paper from her sleeve, scribbled a couple of lines with a charcoal stick, then pulled out a large red radish stamp that read "Heaven Dou City Management Brigade" from her waist, breathed on it, and stamped it onto the paper with a "thud".

With a flick of her wrist, she sent the paper flying towards Qian Daoliu, her voice clear and crisp:

"Same as always, cash on delivery. Here's the official purchase invoice from our Old Huang's Mutton Restaurant! If Great Enshrined find it useful for dusting, remember to give us a good review! And if your mutton sheds again next season, we'll keep it for you!"

Qian Daoliu glanced down at the tattered invoice stamped with a red seal, then looked at the few feather dusters in his hand that reeked of mutton.

"Puff----!!"

The 120-year-old Sky Invincible was so shocked by those words that he coughed up a mouthful of blood, staining half the sky red! He didn't even have the face to utter a harsh word. Clutching his chest, he transformed into a golden light and, carrying the two unlucky fellows, Jiang Mo and Qian Jun, fled back to Spirit City as if his life depended on it.

Ten thousand miles away, on Sea God Island, at the bottom of the Ten Thousand Demons Trench.

As dawn broke, the sea breeze whistled against the mast.

Tang San had someone hang upside down from the mast of the pearl-diving ship, exposed to the cold wind all night. His lips turned purple from the cold, and his eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, but the murderous glint in his eyes was chillingly bright.

'Now...'

With his head hanging upside down and his hands held in place by the hemp rope, Tang San silently used his Mysterious Jade Hand technique to pry the rusty iron nail, which had been sharpened to a fine point, out of his waistband.

On the lower deck, the steward in the yellow robe was wrapped in a thick cotton coat, leaning against the slop bucket, snoring loudly.

Tang San narrowed his Purple Demon Eye, calculating the wind direction. As a grandmaster of the Tang Sect, even hanging upside down, this iron nail was enough to kill that heartless steward from ten steps away!

'Wait till I kill you and take the keys to the ship...'

Tang San Crunch his teeth and his wrist twitched violently. "Die!!"

The rusty nail whistled through the air and pierced straight into the yellow-clad steward's throat!

But right there, halfway there, in a potentially fatal situation...

A sudden gust of wind swept across the sea. A plump wild seagull, flying low over the deck with the wind and waves, was struck squarely on the seagull's fat rear end with a "thud"!

"Gah--!!"

The seagull let out a pitiful cry, startled, and its tail twitched.

A long string of grayish-white, runny bird droppings, carried by the sea breeze, landed precisely in Tang San's wide-open mouth as he hung upside down!

The strong, fermented, sour smell of seafood, mixed with a gooey texture, exploded on Tang San's tongue.

"Ugh... I'm going to vomit!!"

Tang San's eyes rolled upwards abruptly, his stomach, which hadn't eaten for days, convulsed violently, and the bile from the previous night mixed with that bird droppings sprayed directly onto his face.

The seagulls' Growl startled the yellow-clad steward below.

As soon as the steward opened his eyes, he saw Tang San vomiting all over his face in mid-air, with a bloody iron nail and an injured seagull flapping its wings on the deck.

"You little bastard!"

The steward flew into a rage, took off his tattered, hard-soled straw sandals, jumped up, and began to beat Tang San's face with the soles of his shoes.

"You dare to ambush me? And you even used nails to stab the wild birds on our Sea God Island?! Don't you know anything about protecting wild animals?!"

The steward's hand ached from slapping, and he spat a large wad of phlegm onto Tang San's forehead.

"You never learn! You're hopelessly incorrigible! Give me another five pounds of Pearl for today! If that's not enough, I'll chop you up and feed you to the seagulls!!"

Tang San was slapped so hard his face was bruised and swollen, and the smell of bird droppings in his mouth made him unable to utter a single word of explanation. He hung upside down from the mast, watching the seagull flutter away. The last glimmer of light in his eyes was completely crushed into mud by this cruel and absurd reality.

What's the point of defying fate or using Hidden Weapon? In this place that devours people without spitting out bones, you can't even withstand a seagull's droppings.