Volume Two, The Demon Game Chapter Seventy-One: Shopping and Enhancement

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Lu Yi quietly slipped away from the crowd and asked in the team channel, "Yuchan, Shen Yixue, what are you two doing right now?"

"Suddenly hearing your voice startled me," Shen Yixue complained briefly before quickly answering Lu Yi’s question. "I’m checking the mage skills. Oh, this one’s good. Lu Yi, hurry and transfer some reward points over here. And there’s this one too..."

Lu Yi hurriedly said, "No rush, these skills won’t run away. Just write them down first. Yuchan, what about you?"

"I... I’m waiting for you by the stone stele," Yuchan mumbled unclearly.

Lu Yi immediately felt a wave of exasperation. "Yuchan, go to the bank quickly. Later, when I ask you to check something, do it quickly and tell me the results."

"Okay," Yuchan responded, and soon told Lu Yi she had entered the exchange area.

Lu Yi took a deep breath. "Yuchan, first check the equipment above white grade."

Soon Lu Yi received the results. The city did provide equipment for purchase, but only green-grade gear was available. The selling prices were not much different from those sold by adventurers, but the capabilities were far less diverse.

Lu Yi nodded in understanding. That made sense. Then he asked Yuchan to check the prices of medicines. As expected, the city sold medicine slightly more expensively than adventurers, but with guaranteed quality. Seeing this, Lu Yi abandoned his plan to buy cheap medicine.

Watching adventurers scramble to buy equipment, especially defensive gear being driven to sky-high prices, Lu Yi personally witnessed a green armor with defensive stats being bought for 1,600 points. That was already enough to buy a non-defensive blue-grade piece of equipment.

This gave Lu Yi a headache. It seemed if he wanted to assemble a decent set of gear, the reward points he had simply wouldn’t be enough.

After walking a bit further, Lu Yi’s left eye twitched slightly, as if sensing something. With eyes closed, he quickly arrived at a stall. Many talisman papers were displayed on the table, but what triggered his magical eye was a single bead.

Lu Yi reached out and picked up the bead. Its attributes immediately appeared in a glowing screen.

Name: Evil Spirit Pearl
Quality: Blue, Level 1
Type: Material/Consumable
Description: A pearl condensed through a special method by killing evil spirits. It can be used to craft equipment or fed to a spirit body to enhance its abilities. Warning: Losing this pearl in the training world will create a powerful evil spirit.

Lu Yi frowned. His magical eye could absorb energy from crystals and spirits; could this pearl also be absorbed by the magical eye? He glanced at the stall owner, a casually dressed man whose face was pale, his left hand unconsciously covering his abdomen.

Lu Yi had noticed before that after he picked up the pearl, the stall owner’s eyes visibly brightened. Lu Yi toyed with the pearl in his hand. "What a strange pearl."

While speaking, he asked Yuchan to check the price of the talisman papers in the exchange zone. Then he looked the stall owner up and down and said, "Where did you get hurt this badly, yet you still have to sell your goods so cheaply?"

The stall owner had intended to endure it, but when he straightened up, pain twisted his face and he let out a long, cold breath.

Lu Yi waved his hand. "No need to tough it out. Who are you trying to impress? Anyone with eyes can see you’re seriously injured."

Seeming to agree, the stall owner hunched over, sweat pouring down his forehead, clutching his abdomen.

Seeing the man’s state, Lu Yi nodded slightly. He guessed right—the city likely suppressed the injuries of people like this first and then gave them some time to gather the remaining reward points.

This explained why so many people flooded the exchange area as soon as training ended—they were all looking to grab bargains from those who didn’t have enough points for treatment and were unwilling to sell their equipment, so they had to dump unused inventory cheaply. To sell quickly, they often offered good items at low prices.

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Lu Yi casually placed the pearl back on the stall and said, "2,050 reward points—I’ll take this pearl."

The stall owner’s eyes suddenly widened, then he let out a suppressed groan of pain from his wound. "No, no way. Even if I sell it directly to the city, I’d get 1,800 points. You know how shady the city is. If I say this is 60% of its original value, or even 90% buyback, this thing should be worth 2,000 points. If you want to buy it, you have to pay 2,300 reward points."

Lu Yi clapped his hands and got up, making as if to leave.

The stall owner hurriedly said, "Hey, hey, we can negotiate the price."

Lu Yi continued forward. The owner grit his teeth and said, "Fine, 2,050 it is."

Lu Yi calmly completed the transaction and pocketed the pearl, then resumed browsing the stalls. Soon, a crowded stall caught his attention.

Among the onlookers, a man sighed softly, "Ah, a good item."

Another shorter man also sighed, "Indeed. Without that ability, it looks like a good item, but what a pity."

The crowd kept lamenting but no one asked or offered a price. Seeing this, Lu Yi squeezed in and quickly spotted the object of their discussion.

It was a small, jet-black crossbow with deep brown stripes running along it.

Name: Cursed Bow of Sorrow
Quality: Blue, Level 1
Type: Weapon
Effective Range: Crossbow bolts 15 meters (capacity 3), energy bolts 70 meters.

Sorrowful Arrow: Fires a crossbow bolt carrying undead resentment, causing mental shock within a one-meter radius and to the target hit. Those struck suffer haunting grief from the undead. Cooldown: 30 minutes.

Demonic Wing Barrage: Blood-tainted bolts transform into bat wings several meters wide, then fire a massive bolt. Damage depends on attributes other than strength and constitution. Maximum range can exceed a kilometer. Resonating with the blood can unleash greater power. Cooldown: 3 hours.

Backlash: Corroded by dark creature’s blood, the user suffers spirit harassment during use, affecting both skills and normal shots. This backlash cannot be blocked by red-grade equipment or skills.

Description: A powerful crossbow tainted by the blood of an unknown dark creature. Wielding it, you might encounter that unknown darkness.

"Good stuff," Lu Yi exclaimed exaggeratedly. "How much for this?"

The stall owner, finally seeing someone ask for a price, sat up excitedly. "Little brother, just 2,000 reward points to take it."

"So cheap?" Lu Yi seemed to have misspoken and hurriedly corrected himself. "Alright, I’ll buy it."

With the item in hand, Lu Yi quickly put away the crossbow and hurried out.

Seeing this, someone sneered, "Heh, this kid’s probably a newbie. That spirit harassment is no joke. Once you’re haunted, whether in the training world or Mist City, you’re affected."

The stall owner wiped sweat from his forehead. "Finally got rid of it. After one more treatment, I won’t be haunted anymore."

Lu Yi’s lips curved slightly. Spirit harassment? A backlash effect on a blue-grade item—how strong could it be compared to the Devourer of All?

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Lu Yi soon browsed through most of the exchange area and purchased two more pieces of equipment. Glancing at his watch, he realized the appointed time had arrived.

He quickly left the exchange area. Shortly after he reached the Hero’s Stele, Shen Yixue and Yuchan arrived respectively.

Yuchan still held snacks and carried nothing else. Shen Yixue carried a notebook, busily calculating something.

Lu Yi smiled faintly. "So, did you find anything you like?"

Yuchan tilted her head, then shook it. Shen Yixue, however, excitedly ran over to Lu Yi. "Lu Yi, I’ve picked out these things. Help me choose."

Looking at the dense page of notes, Lu Yi’s mouth twitched. These things probably couldn’t be bought for even 50,000 points. He was somewhat relieved he hadn’t transferred reward points to Shen Yixue earlier.

He then carefully examined the list. Most were indeed necessary—mental energy cultivation methods, elemental affinity training, and so on. He thought to himself, developing a person truly required vast sums of money.

In the end, Lu Yi circled some priority abilities to enhance this time, then led the two back to the bank.

It was called a bank only because a crooked sign reading "bank" hung above.

As Lu Yi stepped inside, a prompt sounded in his mind: "Welcome, captain of the Unnamed Squad. Would you like to exchange individually or as a team?"

Hearing "Unnamed Squad," Lu Yi felt a little embarrassed. He had indeed forgotten to name the team. "Team exchange."

As soon as Lu Yi finished speaking, they arrived at an empty hall. In the center was a glowing orb. Seeing it, Lu Yi almost grimaced—if he didn’t know this was Mist City, he might have thought he’d stepped into some other dimension.

Lu Yi called out to the orb, "Mist City, I want to search for Yuchan’s cultivation methods."

A mechanical voice soon responded, "Searching. No such item for sale. Assessing cultivation method level. You may spend 10,000 reward points to complete the method."

10,000 points—that meant at least purple grade. Realizing this, Lu Yi immediately said, "Complete."

A white light quickly shone on Yuchan. After the light faded, Yuchan tilted her head and looked at Lu Yi. "Good man, I feel like there’s more stuff in my head now."

Lu Yi gently patted her head. "Naturally. You go practice your new method over there."

Yuchan nodded and sat cross-legged off to the side.

Lu Yi transferred 10,000 reward points to Shen Yixue. The two quickly began strengthening themselves.

Having purchased the pearl and crossbow, Lu Yi’s remaining reward points were scarce. He gave up the professional templates and directly exchanged basic skills in boxing, palm techniques, finger techniques, footwork, and crossbow usage, along with five corresponding basic skills.

Shen Yixue exchanged for several cultivation methods and a number of spells. Finally, following Lu Yi’s instructions, she exchanged for a set of equipment.

At last, Lu Yi handed a blue-quality longsword to Yuchan, gave a movement speed enhancing accessory to Shen Yixue, and purchased some medicine and crossbow bolts. After this, the team had less than 5,000 reward points remaining.