While Li Luo wrapped up his dilemma, Lu Qing’er was struggling with one of her own. She too was spoilt for choice.
“There’re so many… how do I choose one?”
She had about seven or eight fishes near her, each one with a different white-eye treasured artifact. Some were upper and some were lower grade, and she could not make a decision.
Finally she caught hold of one fish, an upper white-eye inner armor that would add a solid boost to her defenses. They would be chasing down Lin Suo soon, and she knew that she was the weakest, and protecting herself would be important.
But just as she was about to make the transaction, she spotted a faint glimmer of golden light nearby.
Curiosity piqued, she made her way over.
She saw that there was a large seabed reef, with a small slit amidst the gray corals. It was narrow enough that only Lu Qing’er’s slimness allowed her to fit snugly through.
The space within was not large either, and only dimly lit by the light filtering in from outside. Within it, there were three fishes swimming in a lazy circle.
The white light coming from them was not like the other fishes. Lu Qing’er saw that there was a thread of gold in the white light.
Quickly taking them up for a closer look, she saw that each of them held a white-eye treasured artifact, although the white eyes had a faint gold line in the middle.
“Gilded white-eye?”
As young mistress of Golden Dragon Bank, there was much knowledge that she had been exposed to. She immediately understood what it was thanks to her expertise with handling treasures before.
Gilded white-eye referred to upper white-eye treasured artifacts that were on the verge of becoming gold-eye treasured artifacts. It was a hint of the power within that was just waiting to come out. In other words, such treasured artifacts were the best of the white-eye treasured artifacts, and naturally the most expensive as well.
Although still considerably inferior to true gold-eye treasured artifacts, but they were also a notch stronger than upper white-eye treasured artifacts.
That was why Lu Qing’er was so surprised to see not one, but three of them here!
She looked at them again. One was a black armor, another was a rhombus-shaped jewel with some sort of icy power, and the last was a bow with some light-rune trimmings.
A wonderful spread…
Lu Qing’er sighed regretfully. From what she had seen so far, all the upper-grade treasured artifacts had cost over 500 dao-gold per piece. These gilded white-eyes had to be 1000 or more, she estimated. Not a price she could afford to pay.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to look.
She pulled the icy jewel close. Its frosty energies were probably a good fit for her resonance.
“Sunless Globe, upper gilded white-eye, made from subterranean dark crystal and forged to preserve the icy power of the stone. Will greatly increase ice resonant power’s efficacy. Price: 200 dao-gold.”
Lu Qing’er’s eyes lit up with pleasure. This Sunless Globe seemed almost custom-made for her.
Eh?
She gasped. Wait… 200 dao-gold?!
How was that possible?!
She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Indeed, it was 200 dao-gold, with no extra zeros.
“Impossible. Could it be miswritten?” she mumbled to herself. If other upper white-eye treasured artifacts were 500-600 dao-gold, then how could something far superior to them be 200 dao-gold?
It was too far off the mark.
A sudden thought occurred to her and she stretched out a hand to catch hold of the other two fishes.
“Blacklight Panoply. Upper gilded white-eye. Made from blacklight steel with superb defenses. The armor is heavy and requires strong physical stamina. Price: 200 dao-gold.”
“Lambent Hawkeye. Upper gilded white-eye. This bow is fashioned from the bones of the lambent hawk, which can be activated by resonant power. Fires at the speed of light, unleashes a sonic wave that disrupts enemy state of mind. Price: 200 dao-gold.”
Three gilded white-eyes for a total of 600 dao-gold? That was the price of a single ordinary upper white-eye!
How?! Was this some sort of easter egg?
The coincidence was too good to be true.
Moreover, these three treasures were a perfect fit for her team. Sunless Globe for her icy powers, the cumbersome Blacklight Panoply for the tireless beast-man Qin Zhulu. Perhaps now he would also have the defenses to balance his recklessness… although knowing him, he might simply take it as the green light to be even wilder than before. As for the Lambent Hawkeye… wasn’t Li Luo using two shortswords and a bow?
They might as well have written their names on it already.
It would be insulting her intelligence if she was supposed to accept this as coincidence.
In any case, her mind was made up. She made the transaction, paid 600 dao-gold, then left with her new treasures.
No matter how these treasured artifacts came about, they were already here, and she was not about to pass them up.
They would need the best equipment if they were going to take on someone as strong as Lin Suo. Li Luo had even started to prepare some sort of dangerous secret technique for her sake. She had to do her best too.
With these three gilded treasured artifacts, their chances would be much better.
The Golden Dragon Dao Fields this time had been extremely odd from the start. Back at Xia Kingdom, she would ask her mum what was happening…
Quickening her pace, she came out to see Li Luo and Qin Zhulu already waiting for her.
Qin Zhulu was running his fingers up and down a powerful-looking black spear, as heavy as his last. He could not take his hands off his new toy. Li Luo was looking more ambivalent, nervous, excited, but also worried.
“You’re back. Found something suitable?” he grinned when she arrived.
She ran to them and took hold of Li Luo’s sleeve, then led him quickly to the shelter of some trees. “Come with me, both of you,” she whispered.
Both boys looked at each other, puzzled, but followed.
As they slipped into a small grove, Lu Qing’er immediately pulled out Blacklight Panoply and Lambent Hawkeye before they asked any questions.
Both stared at the golden line in the middle of the white-eyes for a long time in stunned silence.
PS: I’ve hit a slump in Tiktok, so I wrote two chapters today. See my Tiktok for more details, haha.
