Death Notice

“Hehe, you gave me a lot of good advice, which helped me greatly. Selling to you first was only natural. Yet, I didn’t fully understand that high-rank apostles like you have come far in your career paths. You shouldn’t be interested in these things, right?” Qin Lun asked with a smile.

“You’re pretending not to know for sure. Men are so sly—you think I’m helping someone else shop, don’t you!?” Kelly sighed, saying honestly, “Helping someone else shop is partly true, but you only guessed half right. Among the three items you showed, there really is something I want!”

“Are you a martial artist?” Qin Lun raised his eyebrows and asked without thinking. When he saw Kelly looking at him with a half-smile, he bashfully rubbed his nose.

“Quit that fake act! I know you’re very tricky. You’re pretending to be an innocent kid, and you’re doing it poorly!” Kelly folded her arms, looking at him with scorn.

“Cough, cough, cough!” Qin Lun coughed repeatedly. This was the first time he felt the fierceness of this strong woman in their conversations.

The longbow and bow dance technique he showed were core items for an archer class. With Kelly’s strength, she had core items long ago and naturally didn’t need those. The only one left was that B-rank martial skill “Flamingo,” which might be what she needed.

Qin Lun originally wanted to learn “Flamingo” himself, but this B-rank martial skill was very special. To use it, one must have deep combat energy training. Back then, the martial artist Kael had already taken half a step into second-order class change, yet using this B-rank skill still caused backlash. That showed how high the requirements were.

“Ah, the Flamingo of Phoenix Soaring Fists!” A hint of nostalgia flashed in Kelly’s eyes as she murmured, “I don’t know where you got that skill. If it’s a loot from killing some apostle, then your strength must be way above a newbie. Any martial artist who can skillfully use combat energy wings is at least second-order level!”

Qin Lun was startled upon hearing this. He hadn’t realized that martial artist was so strong. Kael had put up almost no fight during “Tree World Descent,” so Qin Lun treated him like just another passerby. If he had come earlier and seen Kael instantly kill the Ghost Owl, he probably would have remembered it strongly.

“Name a price! Beast King’s Hunting Bow, Bow Dance Technique, and… Flamingo—I want them all!” Kelly snapped out of it, waved her hand, and spoke with authority. “Well… you know I’m building my own career system. I planned to trade these three items for other things…” Qin Lun said with a smile, “Oh, what do you think about the other three things I consigned?”

“The other three?” Kelly raised her fine brows and glanced at the screen. “That skull coin is likely a token from some quest race, but coins come in many copies, so about ten thousand shattered crystals is fair. The blue combat gauge has low quality, but for newbie apostles, it still has a market, so thirty thousand shattered crystals is reasonable.

As for that purple leather armor—no, it should have been dark gold equipment! The shattered laws faded a bit, but after repairing it, it should at least become bright gold quality. You only set a fifteen thousand shattered crystal base price? What a wasteful fool…”

Listening to Kelly scold him bluntly, Qin Lun could only force an awkward smile and stand by.

Halfway through, Kelly suddenly narrowed her lovely eyes and raised her brows thoughtfully. “That bright gold leather armor… it couldn’t be from the same archer apostle as the longbow and bow dance technique, could it?”

“Oh, yes!” Qin Lun nodded honestly.

“So it is! You idiot, since that archer class apostle paired the leather armor and longbow, their attribute skills must favor archers too. And you’re selling them separately… hahaha, big sis here will take it all! Three hundred fifty thousand shattered crystals—deal or not?”

Kelly licked her lips, smiling as she said, “You’re a grown man—be decisive!”

Qin Lun’s mouth twitched. Ignoring the gladiator’s leather armor’s fifty thousand shattered crystals, the other three items in his mind were worth about three hundred thousand shattered crystals total.

His mispricing of the skull coin and combat gauge had some accidental factors. His misprice of the gladiator’s leather armor was just careless. He knew its shattered laws had faded and its quality would rise after repair, but he never expected it to jump from purple quality to bright gold.

In comparison, his pricing for dark gold equipment like Beast King’s Hunting Bow, Bow Dance Technique, and the Flamingo skill scroll wouldn’t vary much. Even with fading shattered laws, Beast King’s Hunting Bow remained dark gold equipment, hinting it must have been violet gold quality before.

Qin Lun had only seen two violet gold weapons. Due to high consumption, the owner of “Burial of Light and Darkness” had listed it at a hundred thousand shattered crystals. Without the mold flaw, its real value would be one hundred fifty to two hundred thousand. As for the holy ice crystal sword he once saw, that was just bait—worth over two hundred thousand shattered crystals.

Beast King’s Hunting Bow couldn’t beat that sword’s holy ice crystal material. But adding the matching Bow Dance Technique, its value was definitely above two hundred thousand. As for the “Flamingo” skill scroll, its rank was high, so Qin Lun allowed minor price changes.

However, by looking at the scroll, he knew it had short-term hover abilities. For melee users, that was rare. With B-rank level, it was worth double a normal skill—at least a hundred thousand shattered crystals.

Kelly offered exactly Qin Lun’s bottom-line price, maybe even shorting him by several thousand. But that strong woman gave him free advice on career paths before—a favor not to overlook. So this deal felt fair.

Sure, Qin Lun could ignore that favor and haggle with Kelly again. But that wasn’t his style at all.

He got elven race and demon clan sponsorship simultaneously in Devil’s Horn partly due to his image valuing favors. Whether it was genuine or fake, he wouldn’t ruin it just to grab more shattered crystals.

Qin Lun lowered his head, thought a moment, then looked up smiling. “You once helped me immensely. Maybe your views on career paths were common sense to you. But for me, they let me make a big choice in my fighting path.”

The young man paused and met Kelly’s eyes directly. “So here’s my plan: If you need ‘Flamingo’… then this skill scroll is yours! Tomorrow I’ll give your contact info to the auction house—you can pick it up directly! For Beast King’s Hunting Bow and Bow Dance Technique, you’re just buying them for someone else… get him to come find me himself!”

Kelly shuddered, her pupils narrowing to pinpoints. After a long moment, she nodded with a light laugh. “All right, I won’t stand on ceremony then!”

After the call ended, Qin Lun sighed in relief and went upstairs to rest.

The next day, when he reached the auction house, the Flamingo skill scroll was already gone. Qin Lun quickly closed deals for the combat gauge and skull coin. He only took back the gladiator’s leather armor along with the other two displayed items, waiting for Kelly to send someone to contact him again.

To Qin Lun’s surprise, Kelly didn’t reach out in the next few days. But he didn’t mind—he had time before his next entry into a quest world. At worst, he could seek new trades later.

Over those days, Qin Lun hung out in bars and entertainment spots, asking other apostles about the “real trading place” Kelly mentioned.

He’d never realized before that professional apostles’ true market wasn’t in Devil’s Horn. Or rather, it wasn’t on the same plane.

The top large apostle teams in Apostle City had loose alliances and rivalries. Taking “Lost” as an example, they joined forces with several other big teams to form an “Order Front” alliance.

Devil’s Horn had three apostle alliances: besides “Order Front,” there were “Chaos Alliance” and “Apostle Monument.”

The apostle alliances were very loosely structured, basically groups in name only. Qin Lun couldn’t find out if senior members of big teams had deeper agreements. He only knew each league pooled many resources to open plane-based market squares for trading by league members.

The three apostle leagues gathered nearly all professional apostles—about six thousand out of a total of over ten thousand apostles in Apostle City. The rest ten thousand plus were basically apostles who hadn’t class changed.

This info wasn’t a secret in Devil’s Horn. Most professional apostles knew it, and even some new apostles had heard.

However, for those not class changed, whether they knew about the plane market or not, the auction house met their needs. Most new apostles lacked formal teams, so they saw no need to join an apostle league. Only professional apostles who couldn’t fulfill their needs at the auction house sought the plane market.

Learning this, Qin Lun couldn’t help a bitter smile—Kelly was right; he was ignorant. He and the serial killers like Hill were wrapped up in their own worlds. With quest gaps being short, his two months in Devil’s Horn wasted chances to learn such basic facts.

Apostle league plane markets weren’t open to outsiders like Qin Lun. But he could just join a black iron team or start one, then register under a large team.

For instance, Hill’s “YD1255 Black Iron Team” could sign an affiliate pact with apostates at “Lost’s” base. Paying ten to twenty thousand shattered crystals per person monthly let them register under “Lost.”

Those big teams didn’t demand protection money—the fees mainly maintained the market plane. Of course, it also gave their league more grassroots support.

Don’t underestimate the name! With that base, the big teams often influenced Apostle City in many ways. Most actual new members of big teams came from these registered groups too.

As Kelly said, many small teams eventually failed. Once they realized the quest worlds’ cruelty after their team broke, they chose to join big teams. Their past registrations then affected that final choice.

Just as Qin Lun pondered whether to discuss this with Hill and others, Shepherd contacted him first!