He instructed Theia to take good care of the Holy Saintess and Elvia.
Once one of them woke up, they were to leave the Royal Capital immediately.
After finding a hiding spot in the wilderness...
Lin Gui walked out of the post office alone.
Back in Caran City, Theia would usually handle these chores.
But now, for safety's sake, he could no longer let her take such risks.
The Middle and Upper Districts, where supplies had to be purchased, were the most active areas of the city.
There was no guarantee that members of the Holy Church weren't operating there.
The Holy Church of Light possessed countless ways to detect demon energy.
Aside from visual confirmation, they had Holy Light sensory spells, soul detection, and even specially trained tracking hounds.
Even though Theia's control over her demon energy was near-perfect now, Lin Gui refused to let her run the risk.
Going downstairs, the first floor of the post office was already closed and completely empty.
He stepped out onto the street.
The refugee district actually carried a rare festive atmosphere, and the passing refugees looked somewhat relaxed.
The prices of flour and rice sold by the noble shops had dropped significantly.
Many people were finally able to enjoy a hot meal.
They were genuinely happy about it.
Lin Gui pulled out his shopping list.
The list wasn't long: food, drinking water, medical supplies, concealment items, camping gear, and maps.
And... a stack of novels requested by Theia.
The supplies they had brought from Caran City hadn't been depleted much during their journey.
However, compared to the journey from Caran City to the Royal Capital...
The upcoming journey to the dwarf city-state, Shield City, would be vastly longer.
Shield City was not located within the borderlands.
Instead, it lay in the Blackwater Corridor, far to the northwest of the borderlands.
The direct distance was more than ten times the distance from Caran to the Royal Capital.
Therefore, Lin Gui had to prepare far more supplies.
He first visited several general stores and small alchemy shops to buy equipment.
The prices of the gear were surprisingly cheap.
An enchanted Transcendent Rank dagger cost only a few dozen gold coins.
The apocalyptic rain of blood forty years ago had claimed the lives of countless powerful warriors.
This had also caused a massive influx of powerful equipment to flood the market.
Consequently, gear that would have been outrageously expensive during the Golden Age...
---had plummeted in price during the City-State Era.
Aside from the Stellar-tier equipment and demi-artifacts used by Legendary figures...
...the base price of other weapons rarely exceeded a hundred gold coins.
Equipment grades were categorized based on the amount of energy they could channel:
They were Black Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Stellar, Demigod, and Divine.
These corresponded to Low Rank, Mid Rank, High Rank, Transcendent, Legendary, Epic, and Demigod.
The emerald wood bow that Theia used to carry was a genuine Platinum Rank weapon.
She had bought it for twenty-three gold coins.
Yet here, a Platinum Rank emerald wood bow couldn't even buy a single pound of pork.
In the livestock market of the Upper District:
“Two hundred and fifty-six gold coins per pound.”
The butcher quoted the price with a deadpan face.
Lin Gui's eyelid twitched.
Even though the perfect combination of Levitation and Shroud of the Gloomy Night had granted him financial freedom...
---he had still started out as a street urchin.
He used to count every single silver coin just to get by.
At the auction, since Elvia had done the bidding for him, Lin Gui hadn't felt the sting of spending so much.
But now, Lin Gui's face contorted, and he immediately tried to haggle.
“Ahem, look, brother. The King ordered a kingdom-wide celebration.”
“Other merchants are offering discounts to support the King's decree.”
“How come you don't have any promotional discounts running here?”
Lin Gui pointed at the shockingly expensive price board nearby.
There were absolutely no words celebrating the Saintess's prophecy or offering any sales.
The butcher replied flatly,
“The livestock market is a vital source of revenue for the great noble lords. The King doesn't have the authority to stick his hands in here.”
“Sigh, fine. Give me five pounds...”
Aside from pork, Lin Gui also purchased some other meats, vegetables, and fruits.
With a wave of his hand, he froze them and placed them into a crate floating in midair.
Lin Gui pulled out his voucher to pay.
He had spent a whopping four thousand gold coins...
Over four thousand gold coins...
In all his years working as an adventurer in New Covenant Town, Lin Gui had only managed to save sixteen hundred gold coins.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Gui consoled himself.
It was fine. This was all the nobles' money anyway.
He walked over to the cartography guild near the transport guild in the commercial district.
“I want a map of all known Golden Routes in the borderlands,”
“and all the Golden Routes in the Blackwater Corridor where Shield City is located.”
The clerk behind the counter lazily raised his eyelids and quoted a price.
“One hundred and forty-five million, five hundred and sixty-eight thousand gold coins.”
Lin Gui, who had just pulled out his bank voucher, froze mid-motion. He slowly raised his head.
“...How much?”
Lin Gui knew that Golden Route maps were expensive, but this price was beyond his wildest imagination.
He hesitated for a moment before changing his question.
“Then how much for the Golden Route from the Royal Capital to Shield City?”
The shopkeeper looked down and calculated. “The latest route map is fifteen million gold coins.”
The corner of Lin Gui's eye twitched.
Over ten million gold coins... He looked at his bank voucher.
After splurging at the auction, he didn't have much left. He couldn't possibly scrape together such a colossal sum.
Helpless, he tried asking,
“If someone from a transport team buys it, is there a discount?”
The shopkeeper was taken aback and looked at Lin Gui suspiciously.
Anyone who could run a business selling maps worth millions was naturally no ordinary person. He himself possessed High-tier Transcendent strength.
With a single glance, he could tell that Lin Gui was merely a Mid-tier High Rank mage.
At this level, he wouldn't even be qualified to be a low-level laborer for a transport team.
Lin Gui silently reached into his coat, retrieved the badge of the North Wind Transport Team, and handed it over.
The shopkeeper took the badge and stared in surprise, then gave Lin Gui a very strange look.
“Are you Lin Gui?”
Lin Gui looked puzzled. “How do you know my name?”
He had never mentioned his name to the man.
The shopkeeper's expression became even stranger.
“Yesterday, the people from the North Wind Transport Team went absolutely crazy looking for you. They even posted a bounty at the Adventurer's Guild.”
“Huh?” Lin Gui grew even more confused.
“What are they looking for me for? Isn't the scheduled departure date the day after tomorrow?”
The shopkeeper shook his head.
“You didn't know? The North Wind Transport Team already left the Royal Capital this morning along with the Royal Capital Knights.”
“They left a message saying that if anyone saw you, they should tell you to head to Twilight Fortress.”
“Twilight Fortress...” Lin Gui understood instantly.
Freya and the others must have been recruited by the Royal Capital authorities to "put out a fire."
Specifically, to fill the massive void in combat power left at Twilight Fortress...
---after Caesar had crippled that Legendary Duke with the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】.
It seemed he would have to set out tomorrow as well.
“Alright, thank you for the heads-up.”
“So, does a member of the transport team get a discount or not?”
The shopkeeper looked bewildered.
“Since you're with the North Wind Transport Team, why are you buying this Golden Route map anyway?”
“Your caravan has run this route for countless years. You guys practically blazed the trail yourselves.”
“How could you not know it?”
Lin Gui frowned. He couldn't explain.
He couldn't exactly tell the man that he was just a temp.
The only reason he wanted to buy a map was to have a backup plan in case he got kicked out of the group halfway.
The main reason Freya and the others were willing to bring him along was because his strength was "weak enough."
A Mid-tier High Rank mage couldn't possibly stir up any trouble in the wilderness.
But if a High-tier Transcendent wanted to hitch a ride? Even if they knew Levitation, it wouldn't fly.
When traversing the wilderness, mutual trust between teammates was paramount.
A single backstab could lead to the entire team being wiped out by surrounding demons.
Even though Freya was a Mid-tier Legendary expert, if she was exposed in the wild, she could easily be killed in an instant.
After all, they were heading into a Forbidden Zone.
In a Forbidden Zone, Legendary demons numbered in the thousands.
They were willing to bring Lin Gui and his two companions precisely because they were so weak.
They were confident they could easily subdue Lin Gui and his companions before they could even attempt anything suspicious.
“So,” Lin Gui pressed, “can I get a discount?”
The shopkeeper shrugged. “At most, I can knock off a hundred gold coins.”
Lin Gui: “...”
How was that any different from getting a one-copper discount on a piece of gear?
Helplessly, he changed his question.
“Then how much for the Golden Route from Shield City to the Wall of Sighs?”
The shopkeeper countered, “The Wall of Sighs? Which node are you referring to?”
He pointed to a large map hanging on the wall.
Lin Gui followed his gaze and saw a striking red line stretching across the entire "Blackwater Corridor" just above Shield City.
His eyes widened as he gestured with his hands to estimate the length of the Wall of Sighs.
Then, he moved his hands to compare it with the width of the borderlands.
The two were actually about the same length!
“Wait! Why is the Wall of Sighs so long?!” Lin Gui was stunned.
It practically spanned over nine hundred kilometers!
How on earth was this a "wall"???
The shopkeeper laughed. “It's a defensive barrier formed by nineteen ruined city-states swallowed by the Dark Tide. How could it not be long?”
Lin Gui pulled out his own map of the borderlands.
Looking at the small area in the top-left corner that was lazily labeled with just the word "Sighs," his mouth twitched.
He had thought the Wall of Sighs was only about the size of a small city-state.
Who would have guessed he had been completely misled by his own map?
This was going to be troublesome.
The scale of the Wall of Sighs far exceeded his imagination.
Using this Forbidden Zone to pinpoint Avalon was practically impossible.
Now, his only hope lay in Eve's Prophecy.
In the end, among the numerous Golden Routes connecting the nineteen nodes of the Wall of Sighs...
---Lin Gui selected the four closest to Shield City.
He also bought the latest edition of the world map of the Akara Continent.
This purchase virtually wiped out all the gold coins on his bank voucher.
He went from being a multi-millionaire to a complete pauper.
Lin Gui let out a long sigh.
If he had known, he should have pulled off a few more jobs with Elvia.
Rate on N.U.
