43,000,000 gold coins was a hefty sum. One gold coin was enough for an ordinary family to live well for a month. 43,000,000 gold coins would be enough to buy four or five alchemical battleships of the Gilded Kingdom. However, the nobleman simply agreed without frowning at all. “Sure, we’ll go ahead with that price. Give it to me.”
“Wait! I wanted to buy it first, why should we sell it to him?!” Seeing that the Divine Sea Pillar was about to be sold to someone else, Angelano got really anxious because the Divine Sea Pillar concerned his future, and would guarantee that he could live at sea. Besides, he was the one who wanted to buy it first, so he felt that the catfish-headed owner had no right to sell it to others. As for the price of 43,000,000 gold coins, he simply ignored it because Lin Li would be the one footing the bill at the end of the day.
“What are you clamoring about? I’ve already given you money, why are you still loitering around here?!” the catfish-headed owner hollered. However, while rebuking Angelano, he couldn’t stop looking at Lin Li and Connoris.
However, the nobleman who wanted to buy the Divine Sea Pillar smiled happily, looked at Angelano, and said, “Hey, that clown over there, do you still want to buy the Divine Sea Pillar? Listen carefully, it’s 43,000,000 gold coins, not 4,300 gold coins. Can you even afford it? Besides, if you can come up with 4,300 gold coins now, I’ll give you the Divine Sea Pillar! Can you afford it or not?!” While saying that, he handed his crystal card to the catfish-headed owner.
“You’re looking down on me, huh? Be careful, I might smash money at you!” Angelano retorted. He was not good-tempered in the first place, and after hearing another person call him a clown, he was naturally displeased, and wouldn’t be nice to him.
“Hah, smash money at me? I will see who else in this Gilded Kingdom can smash money at me, Vincent!” When the nobleman heard Angelano’s words, he sneered in derision with an arrogant expression.
Vincent? That name seemed to have rung a bell as Lin Li suddenly felt that it seemed somewhat familiar. However, after thinking about the people he knew, he realized that there seemed to be no one called Vincent among them.
The catfish-headed owner no longer bothered with Angelano. After receiving the crystal card from the nobleman, he immediately began to transfer the money. However, no one expected the catfish-headed owner to stop after performing some actions at the register. With a look of dismay, he then said to the nobleman Vincent, “Lord, there’s insufficient balance in your crystal card.”
“What?! How is that possible?” Vincent snatched the crystal card from the owner, and looked at it again and again. Seemingly having suddenly remembered something, he said, “Damn it, I just remembered that I paid the Coral Trade Union a large sum of money for goods this morning. How about you reserve the Divine Sea Pillar for me for three days? I’ll come and purchase it in three days’ time for 43,000,000 gold coins, not a single one less.”
“Lord, I’m just a merchant, I have to do business whenever possible. Besides, the people who are here to shop are all powerful figures of high status. I’m just a merchant, how can I afford to provoke them?” the catfish-headed owner said with a bitter expression, as if someone who he couldn’t afford to provoke would come to buy the Divine Sea Pillar in the next moment.
“I don’t care, let me tell you, I’ll be convinced and let you do whatever you want if you can sell it to someone else at a price of 43,000,000 gold coins,” Vincent said while his fat cheeks jiggled. He pointed his fat finger that was as thick as a radish at the catfish-headed owner. He viciously barked, “If you sell it any lower than 43,000,000 gold coins, don’t blame me when I make sure you can’t run this store anymore!”
At this juncture, Lin Li, who was at the side, not only found Vincent’s name familiar, but he also felt that the act that the owner and Vincent were putting up seemed very familiar. Although he could not recall who Vincent was, he could tell that they were just putting on an act to raise the price. However, there was one thing that Lin Li could not figure out. How are they so sure that I can afford to pay those 43,000,000 gold coins? That’s a massive amount of money for any force.
While Lin Li was secretly wondering and thinking about it, two people among the crowd suddenly walked in from outside. “Hagi, why is it so lively here in your store today? The Sea Market has yet to begin, but your business is already so prosperous, huh?”
When the catfish-headed owner saw the two of them, his expression changed immediately, and he could no longer be bothered to hold it against Angelano anymore. He stepped forward, and said, “Master, Donald, Prince Tory, what would you two like to see today?”
It turned out that the two people who walked into the store were the emissaries sent by the Rotterdam Kingdom. One of them was the imperial mage Donald, and the other was Prince Tory of the Rotterdam Kingdom. On the one hand, they were here to participate in the Gilded Kingdom’s founding celebration, and on the other hand, they were naturally there to shop at the Sea Market where all the treasures of the world were gathered.
Besides, Prince Tory and Donald had come to the Sea Market more frequently than Lin Li did. After all, Lin Li first went to Cursed Island, and since he returned, he had been studying the Divine-Smith-level mageweath. Hence, he had just begun shopping at the Sea Market. On the other hand, Donald and Prince Tory didn’t have that many things to do. Apart from socializing with the nobles of the Gilded Kingdom, they would spend the rest of their time shopping at the Sea Market.
It was obviously not the catfish-headed owner’s first time seeing Donald and Prince Tory. He called their names as soon as he came forth, and he seemed extremely enthusiastic.
“So it’s Prince Tory. I’ve always wanted to visit you, but unfortunately, I haven’t had the time and opportunity to do so. Feel free to let me know if there’s anything you’ve set your sights on. They’ll be on me,” said the nobleman Vincent, who was really wealthy. He was just about to spend more than 40,000,000 gold coins on a decorative item for the castle, and now he wanted to buy some things for Prince Tory and Donald.
However, Donald and Tory merely nodded at Vincent before walking straight to Lin Li and Connoris. Vincent and the catfish-headed owner Hagi watched in shock as Donald and Tory politely said to Lin Li, “Master Felic, I’ve just visited the embassy, but I was told that you weren’t in. I didn’t expect to meet you here.”
Hearing Donald and Tory greet Lin Li as Felic, the wealthy and powerful great nobleman, Vincent, suddenly shuddered and turned around to look at Lin Li and Connoris. After he took a look, the nobleman immediately turned pale, while the fat on his cheeks began to jiggle.
Although the catfish-headed owner Hagi was surprised by Donald and Prince Tory’s behavior, their business was still the most important. Hence, when he saw that they had gone to chat with one other, he turned around, and said to Vincent, “Look, I can at most reserve this Divine Sea Pillar for you for three days. If someone offers me a higher price, I have to sell it to them.”
“You don’t have to, I don’t want it anymore, I don’t want it,” Vincent said while waving his hands in annoyance. Seeing that Lin Li hadn’t noticed him, he hurriedly moved his fat body over, and scurried out of the shop like he was fleeing.
“Haha, that’s good, I want it if he doesn’t!” exclaimed Angelano, who didn’t sense that anything was wrong. He was thrilled to see that Vincent wasn’t going to vie with him anymore.
Watching Vincent leave, Hagi felt a little dejected because the others didn’t seem to be interested in the Divine Seal Pillar. Hence, he turned around to look at the clown Angelano, and couldn’t help but curse. “You clown, you’re bent on ruining my business, huh?! Come on, let’s go talk to the people of the Gilded Kingdom. I will see how the Gilded Kingdom maintains the order of the market!” He then reached out to grab Angelano.
In fact, Angelano might have been treated as an ordinary customer if he had wanted to buy something cheap. However, as soon as he entered, he asked to buy the Divine Sea Pillar, and to make matters worse, he was dressed in colorful armor that made him look really ridiculous. He didn’t look like he could afford the Divine Sea Pillar at all. Now that his business deal that was worth more than 43,000,000 gold coins had been ruined by Angelano, Hagi wished he could skin him alive. He no longer cared about maintaining peace.
Hagi wanted to pull Angelano over to settle the score, while the fat nobleman Vincent had also moved to the entrance of the store. However, at this moment, he heard Lin Li’s voice.
“Prince Vincent, where are you in a hurry to go to?” Lin Li finally remembered that his sailors had previously been caught by the Gilded Kingdom for assaulting the prince of the Gilded Kingdom whose name was Vincent!
However, Vincent indeed did not have much to do with the matter afterwards, and the main issue was that the Gilded Kingdom felt embarrassed because of the matter regarding the royal guards. Hence, Lin Li did not pay much attention to Vincent, and merely found his name familiar, but he did not recall who he was immediately.
However, that did not mean that the others didn’t remember Vincent, either, because Vincent was a prince of the Gilded Kingdom, after all. After Donald’s casual mention, Lin Li was reminded about it, and he immediately remembered that Vincent was the one who’d caused his sailors to be arrested.
Prince Vincent, who had already reached the door, was about to walk out, but after hearing Lin Li expose his identity, he froze right on the spot. Afterwards, he turned his stiffened body around mechanically with an awkward expression on his face, and said, “Oh, it’s you, President Felic, what a coincidence!”
“Haha, it is indeed a coincidence. I was just thinking of paying you a visit sometime so as to apologize to you for what my sailors have done.” Lin Li actually didn’t want to do anything to Vincent, since the matter was actually considered over. Besides, Cantory and Delano had also made use of Vincent to reap some benefits. Anyway, Vincent had merely suffered a beating, and had his title of a prince removed by Bradlor.
However, Vincent didn’t dare to think so. Even though Lin Li and his men created such a huge ruckus, the Gilded Kingdom didn’t dare to pursue the matter. If Lin Li were to kill him or sever his limbs, his nephew, the king, would definitely not stand up for him! The matter regarding the royal guards was a blatant insult, but Bradlor could bear with it too. In that case, how could the latter’s loser of an uncle receive his support?
At the thought of this, Vincent couldn’t help but shudder as if he couldn’t bear the weight of his fat body. His face was also soon covered with sweat droplets as if he had just come out of the water. He said in a shaky voice, “Master Felic, I’m joking, that matter was clearly my fault, and I deserved to be beaten up too for causing your sailors to suffer. I should be the one to apologize.’
Hearing that Prince Vincent was actually talking to Lin Li in such a subservient tone, the catfish-headed owner, Hagi, who was next to him was a bit dumbfounded. After listening to his words, he realized that Prince Vincent seemed to have also been beaten up by Lin Li’s sailors! He was the prince of the Gilded Kingdom, so how could he have gotten hit by a few lowly sailors? How could the Gilded Kingdom have tolerated it!?
“Is that so? Are you really going to apologize?” Although Lin Li originally did not intend to find trouble with Prince Vincent, he decided that he had to reap some benefits since the other party had taken the initiative.
“Ah.” Vincent froze in shock for a while. He initially thought that the matter was over, and that things could be settled by saying some nice things. He didn’t expect Lin Li to hint for him to give him something substantial.
As Lin Li looked at the stunned Vincent, the former’s smile gradually faded, and was replaced by a cold expression. He asked in displeasure, “What’s the matter? Prince Vincent, were you just making a casual remark?”
Vincent shuddered, and immediately snapped back to his senses before frantically saying, “What do you mean? President Felic, you must be joking. I genuinely want to apologize to you. I just don’t know if you can give me this opportunity.”
“Well, this shows a little bit of your sincerity,” Lin Li said as he finally nodded in satisfaction. He then pointed to the Divine Sea Pillar beside him. Without standing on ceremony at all, he said, “Just now, I heard you say that you want to buy that Divine Sea Pillar. It just so happens that my subordinate is quite interested in it, what do you think we should do?”
“Ah, I see, I will not buy it then. You may have it,” Vincent said after hearing his words, and he couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. It turned out that he didn’t want Vincent to spend a huge amount of money, but rather he just wanted Vincent to let him have the Divine Sea Pillar. Vincent was just pretending to be impressive, and he wasn’t planning to really buy that Divine Sea Pillar anyway. Since Lin Li wanted it, Vincent would let him buy it. Well, he wouldn’t be at a loss anyway.
However, since Lin Li said he wanted to see Vincent’s sincerity, how could Lin Li let Vincent get away with it that easily? The former immediately sneered, and said, “Prince Vincent, if I’m the one buying it, how can I see your sincerity?”
Prince Vincent finally understood that Lin Li was trying to exploit him! The Divine Sea Pillar was going to cost 43,000,000 gold coins. Where was he supposed to get so much money? Not to mention 43,000,000 gold coins, he couldn’t even afford 4,300,000 gold coins. Otherwise, how could he have come to put up an act?!
The thought of the miserable fate that he would end up suffering if he refused made Vincent’s face turn pale immediately as he teared up too. “President Felic, I’m no longer a duke, and the royal family has also stopped providing for my living expenses. I’m relying only on the rent collected from a few stores I’ve rented out. I don’t have that much money to buy the Divine Sea Pillar!”
