Sage Monarch (Sage Emperor)
chapter-259

The Municipal Business Pavilion was the main place to do business in Silvermoon. It consisted of a host of temples, each of which was run by a different business, and focused on different goods and services.

Of course, the most profitable type of business involved trading demon cores with the Rich-Lush Continent.

As soon as Yang Qi entered the pavilion with the rest of the caravan, he saw that the place was already busy. Most of the people present were from the Rich-Lush Continent, who were exchanging their demon cores for spirit stones.

All of a sudden, a booming voice echoed out from further in the pavilion.

“One demon core from a ninth phase demonling for one low-grade spirit stone. That’s the price. Take it or leave it!”

Yang Qi looked over and saw an old man, a Lifeseizer, who had a bag full of demon cores and was negotiating with a seller of spirit stones from the Western Continent. The latter was the one who had just spoken, and he had a snide smile on his face.

“What?” the old man said angrily. “Yesterday a ninth phase demon core was worth a mid-grade spirit stone. How could the price have dropped so dramatically? And that’s on top of the mid-grade spirit stone tax I paid to get in the city! This is exploitation! What's going on here! I'm going to go file a complaint!”

“You old codger!”

SMACK!

The Western Continent merchant viciously slapped the old man across the side of the face, knocking him off of his feet. Then he set about trampling the old man. “Who the hell do you think you are? How dare you try to haggle with me? We set the prices, ya hear!?”

He stomped on the old man over and over again, making it impossible for him to get to his feet. Of course, it was worse considering the merchant was in Quinary Lifeseizing, and the old man was a level or two below him.

The old man screamed, but was unable to extricate himself.

“Dammit!” Just about everyone in the caravan with Yang Qi was bristling with rage, and a few stepped forward to interfere.

Before they could, the leader of the caravan held out his hand to block them. “Keep yourselves in check,” he said quietly. “We can’t cause problems in Silvermoon. If we do, they’ll have the perfect excuse to simply kill us. Let’s just get our business done and then get out of here.”

When the merchant saw that no one dared to interfere, he looked very pleased with himself. Grabbing the old man’s bag of demon cores, he raised his voice and said, “This man violated the rules of Silvermoon by causing a scene in the pavilion. Take him away and lock him up to await a verdict.”

“Yes sir!” the ruthless guards replied, hurrying forward to grab the old man.

Again, no one dared to do anything or speak up.

At this point, the arrogant merchant turned to the caravan and said, “You people are imperial traders from the Sage Ancestor Dynasty, right? Here for large-scale business? Come with me!”

“We’re not going to set up shop here like usual?” the leader asked timidly.

“Large-scale business goes on inside.” The merchant turned and began walking. “Follow me.” The man spoke as if he were issuing orders to servants. However, considering the circumstances, they had no choice but to just follow along with his arrangements. Yang Qi went along, looking around to study the spell formations as he did.

Before long, they were in an area behind the main section of temples.

It was a large square, in which three people sat sipping tea, their eyes glittering. They were Legendaries, natives to the Western Continent, and business administrators in the city. The one on the left was a burly, middle-aged man with swarthy skin and an imperious look.

“Sirs, the imperial traders are here,” said the merchant who had led them here.

“Excellent,” the swarthy man said. “Leave your trade goods here and be off.” With that, he waved his hand dismissively.

“And the spirit stones?” the leader of the caravan asked.

“Spirit stones?” another of the administrators said. “We’re running low on spirit stones, but things should be back to normal in two or three years. Go have the financial affairs officer write you an invoice, and come back then.”

“What?” the leader of the caravan blurted. “Are you serious? We came here to trade for goods, not invoices. If we have to wait three years I’d rather just take my merchandise with me.”

“What did you just say?” the swarthy administrator said. “We said to leave your goods here and then be on your way. Either that, or die!” The man’s wording left little room for negotiation.

“Hold on!” Yang Qi said suddenly. Easing his God Legion Seal to let out a bit of his Legendary aura, he continued, “First of all, I'm not an imperial trader. Second of all, I have top-rate demon cores, the type that have to be sold individually. But I’ll only take spirit stones up front, not invoices.”

“Oh?” another of the administrators said. “So, you’re a Legendary. Alright, what type of demon cores do you have? I'm sure we can make a deal.”

Yang Qi extended his hand, revealing a glittering demon core that radiated the power of hell.

“Seventh Legendary transformation. A Ghost-God demon core.”

The administrators’ eyes immediately began to shine with greed. One of them said, “Hand that over for inspection. If it's real, we can give you spirit stones for it!”

“Alright,” Yang Qi said, tossing the demon core over. The administrator grabbed it and looked over it closely, whereupon his eyes narrowed. “What gall. This is stolen! It was only recently that a number of items were taken from Lady-Princess Silvermoon’s official residence. One of them was this very demon core. How dare you openly try to sell me— urgh!”

The man suddenly felt a twinge of pain, and looked down to find a spear imbedded into his chest, sucking away his true energy.

Hardly able to believe what he was seeing, he said, “You killed me? How… how dare you!”

“I kill trash like you whenever I feel like it. You Western Continent savages are all the same. Demonfolk one and all. Not even human!”

He twisted the spear, and the administrator exploded into a cloud of blood. Reaching out, Yang Qi took back his demon core.

At first, he had hoped to acquire spirit stones in the proper way, but clearly, these Western Continent savages hated people from the Rich-Lush Continent. Not only did they refuse to hand over the spirit stones, they actually intended to rob them and then kill them to cover up any evidence. Therefore, Yang Qi decided to simply go all in right from the start, and fight fire with fire. In fact, why not pillage all of Silvermoon? Then it would be obvious who was afraid of whom.

‘What? What's happening?’ That’s what everyone in the trade caravan was thinking. At the moment, they just didn’t understand how a powerful Legendary could have been killed so easily.

“An ambush!” the remaining two administrators shouted, activating the spell formations in the courtyard.

Every corner of Silvermoon had spell formations, crafted from mithril and inset with spirit stones. And whoever controlled a spell formation could become ten times as powerful as they actually were.

Unfortunately for these people, they were far too weak to be a match for Yang Qi.

Before they could do anything other than shout about an ambush, they were stabbed through the chest by the Infernal Deity Spear. Then they exploded, and their wealth fell into Yang Qi’s hands.

“You….” the caravan leader said. “You actually killed three high-ranking administrators? They’ll accuse us of treason! The Sky-Heaven Dynasty will put us on their most-wanted list. This could even lead to war between the two continents.”

“If it’s war they want, then it’s war they’ll get,” Yang Qi replied. “Don’t worry. I'm friends with Prince Wei, so I’ll take care of all of you. For now, I'm going to take on Silvermoon, and relieve the city of all its spirit stones.” The Grand Emperor's Pagoda appeared, and Yang Qi put everyone from the caravan inside.

“Y-y-you….” stammered the merchant who had led them into the courtyard. He slowly began to back up.

“You Western Continent hellions are all going to die.” With a glance, Yang Qi unleashed his psychic tempest, and the man exploded.

Then, Yang Qi absorbed the Grand Emperor's Pagoda back into his body, hefted his Infernal Deity Spear, and walked back toward the business pavilion.

BOOM!

The door leading into the pavilion exploded, and the guards looked over to see Yang Qi walking out. “Hey, who are you!? What are you doing?”

Yang Qi stabbed him and hoisted him up into the air, where he then exploded.

“Ambush! Ambush!”

Shouting guards began to rush over, but all Yang Qi did was look at them, and they burst into flames and transformed into ash.

“Dammit! Who dares to cause trouble in Silvermoon's Municipal Business Pavilion?” someone shouted. Suddenly, the entire pavilion trembled as a huge hand of true energy appeared and shot toward Yang Qi.

“Utterly useless,” Yang Qi muttered. In response to his words, the hand shattered. Then, he hurled his spear out into the air. Whack! A certain area of the air exploded, and an old man tumbled out, blood spraying everywhere.

“That was the guardian of the Municipal Business Pavilion, a Personal-Domain Legendary! He’s in charge of watching over all the spirit stones, and now, he's dead? Just like that?”

“Just who exactly are you? I can’t believe you’re causing trouble right here. Are you tired of living?”

“What? What just happened? What’s going on?”

“Such explosive vital energy of heaven and earth!”

The fluctuations immediately attracted the attention of many top experts in the area. Some of them were merchants and some were just city-dwellers, but all of them began to head toward the source of the commotion.

“Someone’s attacking the treasure stores and stealing the spirit stones!”

“That level of power is incredible.”

As it turned out, Yang Qi was already in the treasure stores of the pavilion, taking all of the spirit stones.