147: The number of lives lost surged by 2 million, a reminder from Chow Tai Fook

Just as the Zhi Family siblings were confidently planning everything in their private room.

Meanwhile, in the black market, Ye Xiao had almost finished browsing the entire market.

Because this was a beginner-level area, the quality of Skill Stone sold here was at least Excellent grade.

Elementary and Advanced Skill Stone, which were common in the Novice Area, were hard to find in the black market, unless they were skills that only dropped in the Novice Area and were urgently needed by certain Professionals.

Otherwise, the remaining ones basically had no market; most people either couldn't be bothered to pick them up or simply synthesized them.

The 20 Fireball Skill Stone Ye Xiao had bought earlier naturally also dropped only in the Novice Area.

However, Fireball was a common skill, and few people chose to buy it, so Ye Xiao was quite lucky to acquire them.

As for why Fireball appeared in the Novice Area, it was because some Professionals chose Mage as their initial profession but did not plan to follow the fire-mage path.

This was also the fundamental reason why Ye Xiao found so few Fireball Skill Stone in the Novice Area.

Finally, after Ye Xiao made a round, he had almost swept up all the cheapest Skill Stone in the entire market.

A total of 423 pieces, costing 110 million eternal coins.

On average, each Skill Stone cost about 250,000 eternal coins.

His actions stunned all the merchants in the black market.

After all, no one had ever seen anyone buy skills this way.

Even major factions wanting to synthesize Skill Stone would never spend 100 million at once to buy Excellent grade Skill Stone.

The cost would be too high.

And for ordinary Professionals, it was even more out of the question.

Most ordinary Professionals at this stage would not have more than 10 skill slots at most, and leveling up in dungeons before the third advancement would require at least four to six skills.

Thus, an ordinary Professional would at most buy one to three additional skills to strengthen their chosen build, which wouldn't cost much money at all.

Of course, if they chose Skill Stone of Epic quality or higher, that would be a different price.

But most ordinary people would only choose from Excellent quality Skill Stone.

After all, an Excellent grade Skill Stone only cost around 200,000 eternal coins.

In the public's perception, it wasn't considered expensive.

However, Ye Xiao buying 423 pieces in one go was truly unheard of.

Can one be so capricious just because they are rich?

Seeing the strange looks from all the merchants in the black market.

Ye Xiao knew what was going on, but he naturally wouldn't explain anything.

After he bought out all the Excellent grade Skill Stone, only Epic grade Skill Stone remained in the market.

And Epic grade Skill Stone had no price lower than a million.

At this price, the money Ye Xiao had would only be enough to buy about two hundred more before running out.

Ultimately, after Ye Xiao purchased 20 common Epic grade Skill Stone—Tenacity—

He then gave up on buying any more Skill Stone.

There was no other way; just one Tenacity cost 6 million, so 20 Tenacity cost a full 120 million.

Thus, combined with his previous expenses, this shopping spree cost him.

Ye Xiao spent a total of 260 million eternal coins.

More than half of the eternal coins from selling the godforged stone were gone in an instant.

Of course, he still had enough money to continue buying.

But Ye Xiao did not continue to clear out the stock.

Mainly, a large portion of the Epic grade Skill Stone were active skills, and some were profession-specific skills.

Ye Xiao's current damage was completely sufficient; simply stacking Talent for that would be somewhat counterproductive.

However, despite the high cost, Ye Xiao's improvements were quite significant.

His Experience Surge was directly stacked to 78 times.

His drop rate also reached 46 times.

His Mana Spring even reached an exaggerated 872 points per second.

In addition, his physical defense increased by 3722 points, high resistances increased by over 800 points, and low ones by nearly 500 points.

As for the physical defense reduction that Ye Xiao specifically needed, he stacked it to 68%.

Finally, there was the Tenacity that Ye Xiao spent 120 million on; each Tenacity could increase maximum health by 20%.

Don't think that 20% is small; for tank Professions at four or five advancements, with a full set of defensive gear, it's common for their health to exceed 50,000.

A 20% increase on 50,000 health directly adds 10,000, which is worthy of Epic quality.

Of course, for Ye Xiao, the effect was comparable to a divine grade.

Ye Xiao bought 20 of these divine-grade comparable Skill Stone, instantly increasing his health by 400%.

Combined with the attribute and health boosts from the 443 Skill Stone, Ye Xiao opened his attribute panel and couldn't help but take a sharp breath.

---

【ID: Night Shadow】

【Level: 90】

【Profession: Fusion Mage】

【Free Attribute Points: 0】

【Attributes: Strength 28959; Constitution 3168; Agility 8964; Intelligence 18642】

【Health: 2644650 / 2644650; Mana: 190220 / 190220】

【Skills: Fireball, Mana Spring, Experience Surge... Expand】

【Abilities: Lava Blade, Smelting Furnace, Death Domain, Dark Rebirth, Storm Rush... Expand】

---

Looking at his health, which was as high as 2.64 million, Ye Xiao felt a surge of excitement.

The magic-martial build required close-range normal attacks to deal extremely high damage, but Mages themselves were squishy, and getting close was undoubtedly suicidal.

According to records, when Qin Wuming developed the magic-martial build back then, almost all his remaining skills were used to strengthen health and dual defenses.

But now that it was Ye Xiao's turn, he had no such worries at all.

This 2 million-plus health was simply a humanoid boss; even high-tier tank Professionals rarely had such exaggerated health.

Not to mention, besides health, Ye Xiao's physical defense and magic resistance were also ridiculously high.

If Ye Xiao didn't cast spells during combat, anyone would call him a blood tank.

He closed his panel with satisfaction.

Ye Xiao did not choose to stay in the black market, deciding to come back in a few days to see if a new batch of Excellent grade Skill Stone would be available then.

Just as Ye Xiao was about to leave the black market, a slightly plump figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

Ye Xiao looked at the person and recognized him.

Zhou Dafu.

He was the small vendor who had to smile apologetically after being scolded directly by Zhi Xuan earlier.

Ye Xiao remembered that at that time, under Zhi Xuan's coercion, only this Zhou Dafu had spoken up to advise him, for which he was heavily reprimanded by Zhi Xuan.

At this moment, Zhou Dafu came up to Ye Xiao with a cheerful smile and said, "Xiao Xiongdi, that was a grand gesture. Buying so many Skill Stone at once, are you planning a monopoly?"

Ye Xiao chuckled inwardly. His actions, in the eyes of most people, were probably the same as Zhou Dafu's idea, thinking he was just reselling.

This saved Ye Xiao some trouble.

However, he didn't understand why Zhou Dafu was looking for him.

Given that the other party had kindly "helped" him earlier, Ye Xiao asked, "Do you need something?"

Zhou Dafu still smiled and said, "It's like this, I have a batch of goods here, I wonder if Xiao Xiongdi is interested?"

Hearing Zhou Dafu's words, Ye Xiao became interested.

If the other party still had a large number of Skill Stone, as long as the price was suitable, he wouldn't mind buying them all.

"But I don't have the goods on me. If Xiao Xiongdi has time, you can come with me to my place."

Upon hearing this, Ye Xiao couldn't help but vigilantly size up Zhou Dafu.

What did this guy mean?

Zhou Dafu seemed to notice Ye Xiao's wariness.

He then took two steps forward and suddenly whispered rapidly, "Be careful of those Zhi Family siblings; they might be ambushing you outside."

Then, before Ye Xiao could react, Zhou Dafu suddenly smiled cheerfully again and said, "It's alright, if you're busy, then next time. You can just ask around in the city then, and you'll know where to find me."

After speaking, Zhou Dafu cupped his hands at Ye Xiao and then walked away with a cheerful smile.