He instructed Theia to look after the Saintess and Elvia.
Once one of them woke up, they were to leave the Royal Capital immediately.
After finding a place to hide in the wild, Lin Gui walked out of the post office alone.
Back in Caran City, Theia had handled such matters.
But now, for the sake of safety, he could no longer let her take any risks.
The Middle District and Upper District, where supplies were purchased, were the most active areas in the city.
There was no guarantee that people from the Church weren't operating there.
The Holy Church of Light had numerous ways to perceive demon energy.
In addition to visual observation, they utilized Holy Light sensing, soul detection, and even specially trained scent hounds.
Even though Theia's control over her demon energy was nearly perfect, Lin Gui was unwilling to let her venture out into danger.
Coming downstairs, the first floor of the post office was already closed and empty.
He stepped out onto the street.
The refugee district had managed to acquire a bit of a festive atmosphere; the refugees passing by had expressions that were slightly more relaxed.
The prices of the rice and flour sold in the noble shops had dropped significantly.
Many people were finally able to eat a hot meal.
They were happy for it.
Lin Gui pulled out his procurement list.
The list wasn't long: food, drinking water, medical supplies, concealment items, camping gear, and maps.
And... the pile of novels Theia wanted.
The supplies brought from Caran City hadn't been depleted much on the road.
However, compared to the journey from Caran City to the Royal Capital, the road ahead to Shield City, the dwarven city-state, was much longer.
Shield City was not located within the borderlands.
Instead, it was in the Blackwater Corridor, 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 significantly more supplies.
He first visited several general stores and alchemy shops to purchase equipment.
The prices of equipment were surprisingly cheap.
An enchanted dagger of the Transcendent Rank cost only a few dozen gold coins.
The apocalyptic rain of blood forty years ago had claimed the lives of countless powerful warriors.
It had also led to a massive influx of powerful equipment into the market all at once.
Consequently, equipment that had been expensive during the Golden Age had seen its prices plummet during the City-State Era.
Except for the Stellar-tier equipment used by Legends and demi-artifacts, the basic price of other weapons did not exceed a hundred gold coins.
Equipment grades were categorized according to the energy they could carry.
They were: Black Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Stellar-tier, Demi-artifact, and Divine Artifact.
These corresponded to the ranks of Low Rank, Mid Rank, High Rank, Transcendent, Legendary, Epic, and Demigod.
The emerald wood bow Theia had used previously was genuine Platinum equipment.
She had bought it for twenty-three gold coins.
Yet here, a Platinum emerald wood bow couldn't even be traded for one jin of pork.
At the livestock market in the Upper District.
“256 gold coins per jin.”
The pork merchant quoted the price with a deadpan expression.
Lin Gui's eyelid twitched.
Though the perfect combination of Levitation and the Shroud of the Gloomy Night had allowed him to achieve financial freedom, he had, after all, started out as a street urchin.
In the past, he had lived by counting every silver coin.
During the auction, Elvia had bid on his behalf, so Lin Gui hadn't felt the weight of it concretely.
But now, Lin Gui's expression contorted, and he began to try to haggle.
“Ahem, I say, brother, the King ordered a celebration.”
“Other merchants are offering discounts to respond to the King's call.”
“Why don't you have any corresponding discount promotions here?”
Lin Gui pointed at the shocking price list nearby.
There were no words celebrating the Saintess's prophecy or announcing a promotional sale.
The meat shop owner replied blankly, “The livestock market is a major source of funds for the high noble lords. The King doesn't have the status to reach his hand in here.”
“Sigh, fine. Give me five jin...”
In addition to the pork, Lin Gui purchased some other meats, vegetables, and fruits.
With a wave of his hand, he froze them and placed them into the crates floating in mid-air.
Lin Gui pulled out a voucher to pay.
In total, he spent over 4,000 gold coins...
Over 4,000 gold coins...
Lin Gui had worked as an adventurer in New Covenant for so many years and had only saved 1,600 gold coins.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Gui comforted himself.
It was fine; this was all the noble lords' money anyway.
He headed near the Transport Guild in the commercial district to the Cartography Hall.
“I want maps of all known Golden Routes in the borderlands.”
“And all Golden Routes in the Blackwater Corridor where Shield City is located.”
The clerk behind the counter lazily lifted an eyelid and quoted a price.
“145,680,000 gold coins.”
Lin Gui, who had just pulled out his bank voucher, froze and slowly looked up.
“...How much?”
Lin Gui knew Golden Routes were expensive, but this quote still exceeded his imagination.
He hesitated for a moment and changed his question.
“Then how much for a Golden Route from the Royal Capital to Shield City?”
The owner looked down and did the math. “For the latest route map, 15 million gold coins.”
Lin Gui's eye twitched.
Fifteen million gold coins... He looked at his bank voucher.
After his splurging at the auction, he didn't have much left; he couldn't possibly scrape together such a massive sum.
He tried asking helplessly, “Is there a discount if someone from a transport team buys it?”
The owner was taken aback and looked at Lin Gui skeptically.
Someone running a business dealing in such priceless maps was naturally no ordinary person; he himself had the strength of a High-tier Transcendent.
He could tell at a glance that Lin Gui was merely a Mid-tier High Rank mage.
That rank wasn't even qualified to be a handyman for a transport team.
Lin Gui silently took out the badge of the North Wind caravan from his breast pocket and handed it over.
The owner took the badge, froze for a moment, and then looked at Lin Gui with a strange expression.
“You're Lin Gui?”
Lin Gui looked puzzled. “How do you know my name?”
He had never mentioned his name to the man.
The owner's expression became even stranger.
“The people from the North Wind caravan were going crazy looking for you yesterday; they even put a bounty out at the Adventurer's Guild.”
“Huh?” Lin Gui found it even stranger.
“What are they looking for me for? Isn't the scheduled departure date the day after tomorrow?”
The owner shook his head.
“You don't know? The North Wind caravan already left the Royal Capital this morning with the Royal Capital Knights.”
“They left a message saying that if anyone saw you, they should tell you to go to Twilight Fortress.”
“Twilight Fortress...” Lin Gui understood instantly.
Freya and the others had almost certainly been requested by the Royal Capital's officials to “put out a fire.”
They were going to fill the massive power vacuum left at Twilight Fortress after Caesar had used the Soul-Slaying Blade to cripple that Legendary Duke.
It seemed he would have to set out tomorrow as well.
“Alright, thanks for the heads-up.”
“So, can members of a transport team get a discount?”
The owner looked confused.
“Since you're with the North Wind caravan, why are you buying this Golden Route map?”
“You guys have run this line for who knows how many years; you even blazed the trail yourselves.”
“You didn't know the way?”
Lin Gui frowned; he couldn't explain it.
He couldn't very well say he was just a temporary worker.
The reason he was buying the map was so he would have a backup plan in case he was kicked out halfway through.
The reason Freya and the others were willing to take him along was largely because his strength was “weak enough.”
A Mid-tier High Rank mage couldn't stir up much trouble in the wilderness.
If it were a High-tier Transcendent wanting to hitch a ride? Even if they knew Levitation, it would be useless.
When crossing the wilderness, trust between teammates was paramount.
A single backstab could lead to the entire team being annihilated while surrounded by demons.
Even though Freya was a Mid-tier Legendary, it wouldn't be strange for her to be killed instantly if she were exposed in the wild.
After all, where they were going was a Forbidden Zone.
There were thousands upon thousands of Legendary demons in the Forbidden Zones.
And they were willing to take Lin Gui along precisely because he and his two companions were too weak.
They were confident they could neutralize Lin Gui's group before they could do anything unusual.
“So,” Lin Gui pressed, “is there a discount?”
The owner shrugged. “The most I can take off is a hundred gold coins.”
Lin Gui: “...”
What was the difference between that and buying a piece of equipment for one copper coin less?
Helplessly, he switched to another question.
“Then how much for the Golden Route from Shield City to the Wall of Sighs?”
The owner asked back, “The Wall of Sighs? Which node are you talking about?”
He pointed to the large map on the wall.
Lin Gui followed his gaze and saw a striking red line above Shield City that ran across the entire Blackwater Corridor.
His eyes widened, and he gestured with his hand to measure the length of the entire Wall of Sighs.
Then he moved his hand to the horizontal distance of the borderlands.
The two were actually about the same length!
“Wait! Why is the Wall of Sighs so long?!” Lin Gui was shocked.
This damn thing spanned over nine hundred kilometers!
This was called a wall?!
The owner smiled. “It's a horizontal wall formed by the ruins of nineteen 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 only roughly labeled with the words “Sighs,” the corner of his mouth twitched.
He had thought the Wall of Sighs was about the size of a small city-state.
Who would have known he had been misled by his own map?
This was going to be troublesome.
The scale of the Wall of Sighs far exceeded his imagination.
Trying to use this Forbidden Zone to locate Avalon would be basically impossible.
Now he could only place his hopes on Eve's Prophecy.
In the end, Lin Gui chose the four Golden Routes closest to Shield City from the many that connected the nineteen nodes of the Wall of Sighs.
He also bought a copy of the latest version of the Akara Continent world map.
This spent almost all the gold coins remaining on his bank voucher.
He had gone from a multimillionaire to a complete pauper.
Lin Gui sighed.
If he had known, he should have pulled a few more jobs with Elvia.
Rate on N.U.
