16: Old Ghost Hall

The ring… Lin Yu’s movements froze.

He picked up a piece of material and tried to stuff it into the ring.

It wouldn’t fit.

It was really full.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

One hundred cubic meters?

This old man really just spouted whatever came to his mind.

The volume of a standard material was approximately one-thousandth of a cubic meter.

Which was basically 10cm * 10cm * 10cm.

Ten thousand pieces would be about ten cubic meters.

Lin Yu activated his Eye of Analysis and, sure enough, it was as he expected!

It had shrunk by a full ten times!

It was indeed the black market, and indeed a counterfeit.

Even if he went back to find that old man now, he would definitely deny it to the death, or even turn the tables.

Forget it.

Ten cubic meters was ten cubic meters.

Ten thousand pieces of material were also worth one million.

It was not a small amount.

He piled the extra two hundred forty pieces of material in the corner of the room.

He would deal with them in the next round.

Now, the ring contained exactly ten thousand pieces of white basic material.

Worth one million.

Lin Yu did not contact the “Bronze Mask” again.

A single transaction of one million worth of goods was too conspicuous.

He valued his life and didn’t want to attract any unnecessary attention.

Better safe than sorry.

He came to the main hall of the black market again, starting to look for new buyers.

He didn’t go to the shops that looked very large, but specifically chose those scattered, small stalls that didn’t seem to be doing well.

At the first stall, the vendor was a woman wearing a clown mask.

“Do you buy materials? Standard ones.”

“Yes, what’s the price?”

“Market price.”

“Ninety-eight a piece, how many do you have?” The woman lowered the price.

“Five hundred pieces.”

“Do you have a storage device? Let’s trade somewhere else?”

“Alright.”

The transaction was completed quickly, and forty-nine thousand was added to his black card.

Lin Yu turned and left, without any hesitation.

He found a second stall, where a young man looked very dejected.

“Materials, do you want them?”

“Ninety-nine.” The young man was very direct.

“One thousand pieces.”

“Okay.”

Another ninety-nine thousand was credited to his account.

Lin Yu maintained extreme patience, moving like a ghost through various corners of the black market.

He split the ten thousand pieces of material into more than a dozen transactions.

The largest single transaction did not exceed one hundred thousand, and the smallest was only a few thousand.

The black market was vast, and white basic materials were a highly circulating hard currency; his actions did not attract anyone’s attention.

When the last transaction was completed, Lin Yu returned to his single room.

He placed his black card against the terminal in the room.

A string of numbers appeared.

Balance: 1,031,100.

Adding the initial one hundred thousand transferred by “Bronze Mask,” then deducting the eighty thousand for the ring and one hundred for the card.

And various price reductions.

Exactly one million thirty-one thousand one hundred.

Lin Yu looked at the number, put the black card back into his pocket, his heart completely calm.

It sounded exaggerated, but for him, this was just the beginning.

Over these five years, the various black loans he owed, compounded by interest, totaled about three million.

At the current efficiency, he could pay it off in three days.

However, Lin Yu had a more efficient plan.

But the premise of the plan was to have enough strength to protect himself.

Lin Yu brought up his attribute panel.

Name: Lin Yu

Profession: Myriad Card Creator (Epic)

Level: 0

Strength: 4

Constitution: 2

Agility: 3

Spirit: 45

Skills: Card Transformation LVMAX, Card Innovation LV10, Mirror Copy LV1

Except for his spiritual power, which was slightly above average due to five years of continuous Card Transformation and medicine, his other three attributes could only be described as weak.

The recoil from shattering a stone pier with one punch still made his arm bones ache faintly; this was the consequence of having too low a constitution.

He had to quickly improve his strength!

Besides leveling up, the fastest way was… taking medicine.

Lin Yu left the cramped single room and re-entered the flow of people in the black market.

This time, his destination was even clearer.

He passed through the noisy trading hall and turned into a more secluded, darker side road.

The air here was filled with a strong smell of herbs and pungent chemical reagents, mixed together to form a nauseating odor.

Occasionally, one could see the corpses of experimental animals that had died and had their life force sucked dry, lying by the roadside.

This was Yaoren Lane in the black market, and also one of the most chaotic areas in the entire West City black market.

Lin Yu, familiar with the route, walked to the deepest part of the alley, where there was an inconspicuous shop.

A wooden sign hung at the entrance of the shop, with three characters branded onto it with a red-hot iron: Old Ghost Hall.

This was where he had bought cheap spiritual tranquilizers for the past five years.

Compared to the other madmen in the alley who would gladly treat customers as materials, the owner of this shop at least retained a shred of “business integrity.”

Lin Yu pushed the door open.

Ding-a-ling.

The wind chimes on the door made a crisp sound.

The shop was dimly lit, and the shelves were filled with various labeled glass bottles, in which strange biological organs and plant roots were immersed.

A gaunt man stood with his back to the door, stirring a green bubbling liquid in a crucible with a glass rod.

He didn’t turn around.

“Spiritual tranquilizers are sold out, come back next week.”

This was Old Ghost Hall’s absolute best-seller; it was effective and cheap, and most people came to buy this, including Lin Yu in the past.

“I don’t want that.” Lin Yu lowered his voice; his “Crow” cloak effectively concealed his figure and voice characteristics.

The man’s stirring of the glass rod stopped.

He slowly turned around.

The man’s face also wore a mask, one of those ancient plague doctor masks, with a long beak that looked strange and terrifying.

His exposed skin was an unhealthy pale, and there were several ugly suture lines on his neck.

“Oh? Then what do you want?”

“Potions that can permanently enhance attributes.” Lin Yu directly stated his purpose.

The man under the bird-beak mask, the alchemist known as “Old Ghost,” let out a hoarse laugh.

“Big talk. The things here aren’t cheap.”

“Name your price.”

Old Ghost didn’t answer immediately. His eyes, hidden behind the mask, scanned Lin Yu repeatedly.

“Potions that permanently enhance attributes are forbidden among forbidden drugs. The materials for each dose are extremely precious, and the side effects are ridiculously high. Are you sure you can afford it?”

Lin Yu didn’t waste words; he directly slapped the black card on the counter.

“Check the balance.”

Old Ghost picked up an old terminal from the counter and inserted the black card.

When the long string of numbers appeared on the terminal screen, his movements noticeably paused.

1,031,100.

“Not bad.” Old Ghost pulled out the card and tossed it back to Lin Yu.

His attitude had done a complete one-hundred-eighty-degree turn.

“Since you are a distinguished guest, of course, I have the items.”

Old Ghost carefully took out three boxes and placed them on the counter one by one.