The Crooked Merchant Flender!

It was just past noon.

After riding atop Yun'er on the roof for half the night, followed by a long journey...

Ye Qiu's back and legs still didn't ache in the slightest. He looked energetic, brimming with the youthful vigor of a young man.

He was already worth two hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins, but his clothes were still exceptionally plain. His black fighting outfit bore no decorative patterns, and it had all been sewn by Su Yun'er herself...

On his upright, nearly 1.8-meter-tall frame, it looked exceptionally sharp.

His handsome face still carried a trace of youth,

and beneath his short, tousled black hair, confidence and composure always lingered between his brows.

Ye Qiu looked at the three large characters atop the city gate and slowly came to a stop. Gazing at the great city before him, he couldn't help but curl his lips into a faint, cold smile.

Suotuo City!

This city was both strange and familiar to him.

As the starting point of the Shrek Seven Devils,

how could he dare forget it?

If nothing unexpected happened,

he would be active in this city for a period of time in the future.

"..."

Ye Qiu's gaze flickered, the smile on his face turning playful. He slowly resumed walking... and passed through the heavily guarded city gate.

Now,

since he had arrived here before Xiao Wu, Tang San, and the others, he naturally wasn't going to settle for merely recording the spatial coordinates.

Surely he had to do something?

Otherwise, wouldn't this trip really have been for nothing?

Besides, Ye Qiu also wanted to find a time to get some blood on his hands here!

As a Soul Master, killing was a required lesson!

Ye Qiu wasn't about to wait until he was in danger to worry about that kind of problem.

But before that,

Ye Qiu had one more thing to do.

"..."

Suotuo City was much larger than Nuoding City, and naturally much livelier. There were even quite a few soldiers patrolling back and forth along the streets.

Bustling streams of people flowed past without pause.

Ye Qiu had seen the prosperity of Heaven Dou City, so he was naturally accustomed to the bustle here. He quietly slipped into the crowd and strolled through the streets... searching for the target of his trip.

Shops lined both sides of the streets, offering every kind of merchandise imaginable,

but Ye Qiu had little interest in looking.

From what he knew of that miser, even if the man opened a shop, he would never bear to put money into it. Forget renting a better location; he probably couldn't even bear to turn on the lights.

For that reason,

Ye Qiu paid attention only to deserted streets and rundown shops.

"This should be the place, right?"

At last, Ye Qiu stopped.

Looking at a shop not far away, he couldn't help murmuring to himself, He can't even bear to turn on the lights... For a Soul Saint, he's really scraping by.

The shop Ye Qiu had spotted had a small storefront.

The sign hanging above its entrance, however, was quite different from those of the other shops.

At a glance, it was clearly connected to Soul Masters.

Engraved within the circular emblem on the sign were a small sword, a hammer, and a lizard with wings. The three symbols represented the Seven Kill Sword, the Clear Sky Hammer, and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, three Martial Souls renowned throughout the continent.

Many of Spirit Hall's tokens bore the symbols of these three Martial Souls.

The door stood open, and the interior looked rather dim, giving it an eerie feel. It didn't look at all like a proper shop.

Ye Qiu smiled, raised a hand to put on his mask, and walked in without another word.

As soon as he entered,

Ye Qiu immediately detected the distinct Soul Power fluctuations emanating from certain Soul Tools, though they were all very faint.

He had been prepared, but the shop's furnishings still surprised him somewhat...

It was far too shabby. Everything that could be spared had been cut!

The entire shop was empty, with no shelves, much less a counter.

The only piece of furniture was a recliner.

All the merchandise had been hung up in a very plain fashion, suspended from nails in the walls. Longswords, shields, and so on looked extremely battered, yet they all gave off Soul Power fluctuations.

No matter how he looked at them, they resembled worthless junk.

Ye Qiu glanced at the man in the recliner... Flender, the Four-Eyed Cat Owl, once the Horn of Flight of the Golden Iron Triangle.

He suddenly understood a little

why, between this man and Yu Xiaogang,

Liu Erlong had chosen the latter without hesitation.

Without comparison, there really was no pain!

Yu Xiaogang looked pathetic enough now, but this man was even worse...

Ugly would have been a perfectly fitting description.

He looked to be in his fifties and had a sturdy build, but his face was full of distinctive features... His chin jutted out, his cheekbones were broad, and yet both cheeks were very flat, making them look just like a pair of shoehorns. On top of that, he had a hooked nose.

Ye Qiu could only think that the man looked rather like a goblin.

The stiff black square-framed glasses he wore added a touch of slyness to his bearing, making him the very image of a crooked merchant.

Ye Qiu was a customer, at least, but Flender ignored him, keeping his eyes closed as he leisurely rocked the recliner beneath him.

Creak, creak...

The grating sound made one reluctant to stay here any longer.

Ye Qiu stopped and raised his eyes, searching the walls for what he needed. Before long, he found a piece of crystal as large as a human head on the wall near the entrance!

A completely transparent crystal wasn't worth much, and this one even contained large patches of cloudy material,

making it cheaper still.

Without giving anything away, Ye Qiu continued toward the wall and carefully examined the junk hanging on it... To deal with a crooked merchant, he would certainly need to employ a few tricks.

He had money, but he wasn't stupid.

There was no need to spend money unnecessarily.

Of course, unless it was necessary, Ye Qiu didn't want to steal it either.

After all, Flender wasn't forcing anyone to buy or sell, and more importantly, there was no grudge between them.

One could use any means against an enemy,

but there was no need to show hostility toward a passerby.

Ye Qiu stepped forward and took down a dagger he had been examining for some time. Dust fell from the wall, making him frown.

After taking down the dagger,

Ye Qiu looked around, then went over and took down the head-sized crystal. Standing near the entrance, he turned to Flender and asked, "How much for this dagger and this crystal together?"

The dim surroundings didn't affect Ye Qiu's vision in the slightest.

His Martial Soul was his eyes,

and he had even used the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, which was said to let him see through all manner of wondrous things.

Ye Qiu clearly saw Flender lift his eyelids slightly.

Immediately afterward,

Flender held up two fingers and said lazily, "Oh, those two pieces are quite good quality. If you really want them, they aren't expensive... just two hundred Gold Soul Coins."

Ye Qiu found it funny.

Leaving aside the dagger in his hand, the crystal was a textbook example of an inferior product, whether on the regular market or in Flender's eyes.

Yet Flender actually had the nerve to call these things good quality...

His skin was truly thick enough!

"Can't you make it cheaper?"

Ye Qiu asked calmly, his tone unchanged.