"Five thousand seven hundred gold coins and three hundred and fifty thousand gold coins. Tsk, tsk..." Haines looked at the two items in Xu Yi's hands, marveling. "Honestly, Xu Yi, that's one hell of a difference. If I were Fulaiduo, I'd have thought you were just making trouble too."
"I wanted Archmage Thorne's notebook for myself, so naturally, the cheaper the better. If I hadn't acted a little hard up, how could I have bought it for just five thousand seven hundred gold coins? By my estimate, it should have been worth at least a hundred thousand," Xu Yi said.
"At least a hundred thousand?" Puzzled, Haines snatched Archmage Thorne's notebook from Xu Yi and flipped through it. Like many other mages' notebooks, it merely recorded some questions concerning magical research. Nothing seemed particularly unusual, so he asked in surprise, "What's so special about this? You'd actually spend that much on it?"
"If even you could spot what was special about it, how could I have gotten it so easily?" Smiling, Xu Yi took the notebook back and carefully put it away. "All I can tell you is that, with what's in here, I can definitely develop something that will bring our Xinfei Merchant Guild millions, or even tens of millions, of gold coins in profit."
"Hey, aren't you taking your bragging a little too far?" Haines immediately objected. "If you said you could use this thing to earn your Xinfei Merchant Guild a few hundred thousand gold coins, I'd believe you, given your track record. But millions, or even tens of millions? Are you kidding me?"
Xu Yi shrugged. "Believe it or don't."
Haines snorted, then pointed at the necklace in the box Xu Yi held. "Then what about that necklace? You spent a full three hundred and fifty