Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Why didn’t Lin Li just concentrate on one? In fact, that was a discovery he made during his research. The Divine-Smith-level mageweath was used to suppress the Ancient God of Light, so the laws involved in the mageweath were somewhat similar to the power of the Twin Serpents of Light and Darkness that suppressed the Divine Kingdom. It could be said that Lin Li’s comprehension of the Divine-Smith-level mageweaths might give Lin Li a more profound and deeper understanding of the power of the Twin Serpents of Light and Darkness. That understanding might even give him more help in his research on mageweaths.
Although Lin Li didn’t know how long it would take to study the Divine-Smith-level mageweath thoroughly, the gains he made during this study were also massive. The Divine-Smith-level mageweath was like a huge treasure that allowed him to reap a great amount of new knowledge with every bit of progress he made.
Lin Li was so immersed in his research that he was almost oblivious to what was going on outside as he was completely unaffected by the previous incident. Of course, he didn’t have to think about those nonsensical things anyway, as everything would be fine as long as the Tower of Dusk was not at a loss. On the other hand, the Gilded Kingdom seemed to have been insulted and humiliated. It was not within Lin Li’s concern whether the Gilded Kingdom had suffered a mistreatment or not. It was their fault for not taking their clowns in hand.
On the sixth day, the Gilded Kingdom sent the Foreign Affairs Minister Jefferson over again. However, Jefferson did not come to declare war, and instead he was there to remind Lin Li that the decennial Sea Market of the Gilded Kingdom was about to begin.
In addition, Jefferson also relayed a message from King Bradlor, saying that he had heard of Lin Li’s remarkable attainments in pharmaceutics. Hence, he hoped that Lin Li would put up a few potions for auction after the Sea Market began.
In fact, Bradlor did not think that Lin Li could come up with any impressive potions. In his opinion, Lin Li managed to step into the Sanctuary-realm at such a young age entirely because he had devoted all his energy to learning magic, and concocting potions and studying pharmaceutics was just a hobby of his. It was simply impossible for him to have any impressive achievements.
Of course, Bradlor was not planning to make Lin Li make a fool out of himself, but rather he was intending to buy every single potion that Lin Li put up for auction, regardless of what it was. That would boost Lin Li’s ego, and the king would also be able to use that method to express some of his goodwill to Lin Li. Otherwise, there was no way Bradlor would swallow his pride and come to the embassy of the Tower of Dusk to beg for forgiveness.
Lin Li did not think that much about it, and was merely curious as to how Bradlor found out that he was proficient in pharmaceutics even though Lin Li had never showcased his skills there before. However, he did not bother to dwell on that matter. Anyway, he would just do Bradlor a favor and put a few potions up for sale when the time came.
Hence, after speaking to Jefferson for a while, and agreeing to put the potions up for sale, Lin Li brushed him off and sent him away. After Jefferson left, Lin Li did not immediately go back to his room to continue studying the Divine-Smith-level mageweath, but instead decided to go out for a stroll to unwind and relax after being reminded of the matter of the Sea Market.
In the six days that Lin Li had spent at the embassy, there had already been drastic changes outside. Although there were still 10 days away from the official opening of the Sea Market, the people in the capital of the Gilded Kingdom were already in the mood for it, especially on the streets that were crowded with lots of people including many of the Sea Clan as well as other clans who were dressed in strange clothes.
Compared to the Sea Market in the world that Geresco had created, the decennial Sea Market in the Gilded Kingdom was countless times larger. For instance, the number of types of Sea Clan members in the capital of the Gilded Kingdom now was much higher than that of those who were at the Sea Market in Geresco’s world. There were those of the Silver Shark Clan who were chinless and had pointed noses and sharp and jagged teeth. There were also those of the Jellyfish Clan who had transparent tentacles and blurry faces, as well as the Lobster Clan whose eyes were beady like those of lobsters, and who had long spikes on their heads. Their pincers seemed clumsy, but they were just as nimble as human hands.
To be honest, although Lin Li was already a Sanctuary powerhouse, this was truly an eye-opener for him. He had seen shrimp and crab soldiers in mythical television dramas before he transmigrated, but he had never seen any in real life ever since he stepped into Anril.
However, the civilians of the Gilded Kingdom seemed to be used to seeing the members of the Sea Clan because they would just walk past them like how they walked past Lin Li. Of course, the Sea Clan members were indeed also foreigners for them, and while the strange-looking Sea Clan members might all seem aggressive, they were all disciplined. They followed the rules well, and there were even some Sea Clan members who were zealously bargaining for a better price with some commoners of the Gilded Kingdom.
Lin Li came out with the intentions of relaxing and unwinding, but in fact, he didn’t purely want to do so. More importantly, he was there to purchase some items. Studying the Divine-Smith-level mageweath required more than just placing it on the table and staring at it all day. In order to comprehend the various principles of mageweaths, he had to test them himself by conducting experiments. Otherwise, he wouldn’t know if what he had comprehended was correct or not. The tests required more than just drawing mageweaths, and he had to test some magic theories with various types of magical materials.
There was an abundance of magic materials needed for those experiments in the Tower of Dusk, but Lin Li couldn’t possibly open a spatial rift and return to the Tower of Dusk for the sake of retrieving some materials. Hence, if the problem could be solved with money here, it would be best to solve it with money.
When Lin Li first came to the capital of the Gilded Kingdom, he shopped at the various large markets here, but the items peddled at those markets at the time were just some ordinary items that he wasn’t interested in at all. This time, Lin Li did not go wandering around, but went straight to the largest market in the capital city which he remembered.
The largest trade market in Hopra City, the capital of the Gilded Kingdom, was a gift from the sea. In fact, it could be considered a trade city too. In Lin Li’s opinion, it was like a shopping mall that was full with a variety of stores which he used to visit before he transmigrated. However, in comparison, the trade market called the Gift of the Sea was several times larger in scale, and it was truly as its name suggested.
The door of the trade market was large and wide, seemingly about the same size as a real city gate. However, there were no heavy opaque doors, and people could instead see the lively and bustling scene behind the gate at a glance. There were four large words ‘Gift of the Sea’ written at the top in a common language known to all.
There was an avenue that was wide enough for four carriages to travel side by side, leading all the way to the deepest part of the Gift of the Sea. There were several times more passersby on the avenue than the outside, especially those of the Sea Clan and other clans. However, the avenue was fortunately wide enough to fit all of them, thus making it less crowded. Of course, when the Sea Market officially opened, the avenue would definitely be full of people regardless of how wide it was.
Lin Li walked slowly and leisurely along the avenue, with some Sea Clan members and other clans passing by him from time to time, and making him feel like he had entered a zoo. There were numerous stores lined up neatly on both sides of the avenue, as well as three- or four-story buildings with luxurious exterior designs. They were obviously owned by powerful merchants.
Whenever he passed by the stores, there would be a slightly narrower road with two forks that each led to a different side. In comparison, the stores on those two sides were inferior to those of the main avenue, just like in the world that Lin Li was in before he transmigrated. The stores in the prime locations were naturally owned by powerful merchants. Those who held the least power would probably have to set up their stores in the nooks and crannies.
When Lin Li first arrived in Hopra City, he shopped in all the major markets in the city, and had a general understanding of the stores there. Of course, back then, there was still a long time before the start of the Sea Market, so the stock at those stores was far less complete than now. Now, they could take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune. They put all their goods on display, and raised the price of all goods by a few percent.
However, those stores which were basically operated by some trade unions of the Gilded Kingdom, were stocked up with rare goods that were hard to find, though they were insignificant to Lin Li. After buying some magical materials in those stores, Lin Li headed straight to the innermost part of the market without paying attention to the other stores he walked past.
There was a special area in the store, which occupied a fifth of the area of the market, that was set aside for the merchants of the Sea Clan. It was said that the owner of all the stores in this area belonged to one of the large clans of the sea, known as the Octopus Clan. In addition to the Gift of the Sea, there were also such designated areas in other markets of Hopra. However, they belonged to the different clans of the Sea Clan.
The main reason for the segregation was to prevent conflict between the people of the Gilded Kingdom and the Sea Clan. After all, when it came to interests, merchants would put aside issues like rice and diplomacy. They would resort to anything for the sake of a 200% profit. That included the human merchants and the merchants of the Sea Clan. In fact, the segregation was meant to protect the merchants of the Gilded Kingdom. If they provoked the Sea Clan, they would definitely die.
Of course, these things had nothing to do with Lin Li; in fact, the segregation made it easier for him to find the Sea Clan specialties that he needed.
It didn’t take long for Lin Li to arrive in the area where the Sea Clan merchants operated. This place seemed more like the land of the Sea Clan. Although there were also some human merchants buying things there, the proportion was quite small compared to the number of Sea Clan members. After all, the Sea Market had yet to officially open, and the real liveliness would begin only when the major merchants and commercial giants of the mainland arrived.
Even though Lin Li had broad horizons, he still felt that he had gotten an eye-opener when he walked through the market. Although the Sea Clan merchants usually had business dealings with the Gilded Kingdom, they naturally put up all the best items in their inventory for sale in this major market.
When passing the first store, Lin Li was surprised by the items on display. It was a store owned by the Silver Shark Clan, and they mainly peddled magical gemstones and magic crystals. There were two blue crystal palaces placed in the most conspicuous spot of the store.
Since they were placed in the most conspicuous spot in the store like they were the best items, they were naturally not ordinary crystals. If one looked carefully, they would find a layer of silvery light on the surface of the pillars, which light was made of countless extremely small magic runes.
Although Lin Li had never seen such a thing, he immediately thought of a treasure in the deep sea after he saw the magic runes and sensed the laws in the pillar. It actually wasn’t a crystal, but a pillar condensed by the laws of the sea. Hence, it was called Divine Sea Pillar.
Legend had it that if the Divine Sea Pillar was placed on a ship, the ship would remain still even in the midst of a thunderstorm, let alone capsize. It could be said to be a life-saving treasure for ships traveling on the sea. If a mageweath could activate the power of the Divine Sea Pillar with the pillar as the core, it would help the ships suppress the wind and waves within 50 kilometers. In that case, even a fleet of ships would be protected.
If the sea merchants had such an impressive Divine Sea Pillar, the risks they encountered when doing business on the Endless Ocean could be reduced by half. The reason that only half and not all of the risks were reduced was that the risks of doing business at sea were far beyond strong wind and waves. They also included the pirates, who were the biggest enemy of the sea merchants. The Divine Sea Pillar could suppress the wind and waves, but not the pirates. In fact, the Divine Sea Pillar might even attract the attention of the pirates as they might very likely covet it.
Of course, ship protection was the most basic of the many functions of the Divine Sea Pillar. The most functional feature of the Divine Sea Pillar could probably be maximized only in the hands of mages above the Legendary-realm, or perhaps even the Sanctuary-realm.
For instance, if a Sanctuary powerhouse like Elder Zumar whose World Domain was the ocean world had such a Divine Sea Pillar, he would be able to increase the power of the ocean world by at least 50%.
