Chapter 1211: Nether Pearl
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Hence, Cantory immediately took a step to the side, and sneeringly said, “President Felic, if you regret what you’ve done that day, there’s still a chance for you to redeem yourself. As long as you apologize to Harquess sincerely, he might choose to forgive you because he’s very magnanimous.”
Harquess initially thought that he had managed to stop Cantory, but he didn’t expect Cantory to make things worse for him. What a joke, you want President Felic to apologize to me? If Father and the other elders find out, they’ll skin me alive!
Cantory didn’t really intend to resolve the conflict between the two of them, but rather he knew right from the beginning that Lin Li would not apologize. In fact, this was exactly the same trick that he played at King Bradlor’s palace previously. He just wanted Lin Li to reject the suggestion, and end up provoking Harquess.
After what happened last time, Cantory was already clear that he couldn’t rely on the Gilded Kingdom or the Illuminati to deal with Lin Li. Hence, he thought of using Harquess of the Octopus Clan, which was one of the seven hegemons of the sea that was not inferior to the Gilded Kingdom.
In fact, the incident that happened at the market previously made Cantory think that he was about to succeed. However, to his surprise, Harquess didn’t do anything else after kicking up a ruckus, and taking the stained mageweath back with him. Of course, he would have never been able to guess how shocked the Great Monarch and grand elder of the Octopus Clan were after Harquess brought it back to them. He merely thought that the Octopus Clan couldn’t be bothered to hold it against Lin Li.
Cantory believed that if Lin Li said something outrageous this time, Harquess would definitely be angered further, and not let Lin Li off easily again.
However, before Lin Li could say anything, Harquess suddenly waved his hand with a look of dismay, and said, “There’s no need for that, Cantory, we’re pressed for time, and we didn’t come here for this. It’s more important to do what we have to.”
However, Harquess couldn’t bring himself to appear deferential towards Lin Li, and had no choice but to use their limited time as an excuse to leave as quickly as possible.
Harquess’ words made Cantory more or less disappointed, but he didn’t dwell on it. He didn’t think that Harquess, the young monarch of the Octopus Clan, would be afraid of Lin Li, the president of the Tower of Dusk. After all, Harquess had a point. The Secret Merchant Market would only be open for a short period of time, so if they wasted too much time there, others might buy all the good things that they wanted.
Cantory merely glared at Lin Li resentfully before turning around to say to Harquess, “Harquess, you’re right, we shouldn’t waste our precious time on someone so unrepentant. Someone here just doesn’t know how to treasure such a great opportunity to get to know a Master of Inscription. What a pity.”
Cantory wanted to say something to spite Lin Li further, but the latter was acting as if he hadn’t heard him at all. He merely continued to browse every stall belonging to a secret merchant. From time to time, he would slow down to look at some of the items at the stall.
Lin Li’s reaction made Cantory feel as if he was talking to a wall, which was really upsetting. Hence, although he changed his mind, and decided not to talk about Harquess’ mageweath again, he didn’t really leave with Harquess immediately. Instead, he stayed close to Lin Li.
However, Cantory had no idea that his behavior had not only had no effect on Lin Li, but it even made Harquess, who was beside him, feel extremely uneasy. Harquess wanted to stay far away from Lin Li so that he would at least have a suitable excuse when his father and the elders asked about it.
However, Harquess couldn’t leave alone without Cantory. Whenever he secretly avoided Lin Li and stayed far away from him, he would end up getting dragged towards Lin Li by Cantory. To be honest, if not for the longtime friendship between him and Cantory, Harquess would have slapped Cantory to death.
Although there were now two more pests following him, Lin Li didn’t take it to heart at all. Instead, he continued to do what he had to, treating the both of them like they were nonexistent. On the other hand, Connoris and Angelano naturally couldn’t be bothered about the two of them. They had lived for thousands of years. Cantory’s little tricks were childish, and it wasn’t worth their time and effort at all.
Lin Li would stop from time to time while shopping. After browsing through more than 10 stalls, he finally showed a change in expression when he saw the things at a certain stall. He was looking at a fist-sized black sphere that was probably like an enlarged version of a black pearl. As soon as he looked at the black sphere, his attention was immediately drawn to it because it contained a massive death aura.
“Ah, you’ve got great judgment, Sir. This is the Nether Pearl that we paid a great price to obtain from the Nether Sea. Look at its luster and mana fluctuations, it’s definitely at the peak of the Legendary-level. If this is embellished on a magic staff, it’ll definitely be a powerful tool for a mage,” said the masked secret merchant. He immediately gave Lin Li a pompous introduction of the pearl when he saw that Lin Li seemed to have taken a liking to the pearl.
The Endless Ocean was actually just a general term for the boundless ocean. The various regions of the Endless Ocean actually each had a specific name. For example, the region ruled by the Octopus Clan was known as the Black Sea, while the area ruled by the Giant Shark Clan was known as the Red Sea, and the area ruled by the Siren Clan was known as the Luminous Sea.
The Nether Sea had a different name in the beginning—the Sea of Abundance, and was the most fertile sea region in the Endless Ocean. That was precisely the reason that the Sea of Abundance naturally became the sea area that many coveted and vied for. There were countless intense battles that caused countless Sea Clans to perish, and the death aura gradually spread throughout the entire oceanic region, causing the Sea of Abundance to become a Death Sea.
Compared to Anril, the area of the Endless Ocean was countless times larger, and there was naturally a shocking number of Sea Clan members there too. Legend had it that as many as tens of billions of Sea Clan members had died in the great war of the sea that spread through the Endless Ocean back then. If all the corpses of the Sea Clan were thrown onto Anril, there would be enough to bury Anril under them.
The famous land of the Undead, the Nether Valley, which was located near Alanna had become a dead land because the High Elves had launched a massacre that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. The Sea Clan members that died in the Nether Sea amounted to as many as hundreds of millions or even a billion. Under the pollution of the death aura, it was no wonder that the former Sea of Abundance turned into the Nether Sea.
In the current Endless Ocean, the Nether Sea could be considered an absolute land of the dead that no living being would dare to go near. Even when one was in the periphery of the Nether Sea, their vitality would be devoured irreversibly, not to mention within the Nether Sea. Even if one made it out alive, they would not be able to live for long.
Besides, the erosion of the death aura was only one aspect. The more terrifying threat was the Undead creatures of the Sea Clan that dwelt in the Nether Sea. Even if only a tenth, or even one percent became Undead creatures, it would still be a terrifying number. Fortunately, there seemed to be a certain force in the Nether Sea that bound the Undead creatures of the Sea Clan to it. Otherwise, there would probably be a massive disaster.
However, it wasn’t that living beings were absolutely nonexistent in the Nether Sea. Well, at least there was a type of giant sea mussel that the people were aware of. It was called the Giant Moro Mussel, and still lived in the Undead region of the sea. The Nether Pearl, which the secret merchant mentioned, was a product formed by the Giant Moro Mussels after devouring death aura.
It was said that the Giant Moro Mussels had another name in the beginning—Giant Colorful Mussels, and produced colorful pearls emitting various rays of light instead of Nether Pearls. The colorful pearls contained magical power that could make the products in the sea grow rapidly, which was an important reason that the sea was called the Sea of Abundance.
The current Giant Moro Mussels were not Undead creatures, but were largely different from real living beings. They could be considered half-dead.
Legend had it that the Giant Moro Mussels continuously devoured the Undead aura in the Nether Sea, and condensed it into Nether Pearls in their bodies, all for the sake of purifying it in the Nether Sea in hopes that they could recreate the glory of the Sea of Abundance.
However, countless years had passed, but the Nether Sea did not change in the slightest because of the existence of the Giant Moro Mussels. Instead, the death aura even became richer, and affected the area above the sky. Even on days with fair weather, the sky above the Nether Sea would still be covered in gray clouds that not a single ray of sunlight could penetrate.
Just like the secret merchant said, the Nether Pearl was indeed considered a holy artifact of a Necromancer. If a Necromancer owned a Nether Pearl, he would be able to cast the Tide of Death easily even if he was only at the level of the Archmage. He almost wouldn’t have to worry about the burden on his mana that the Tide of Death would bring about. At the same time, Necromancers would be able to reach the Legendary-realm easily as long as they kept the Nether Pearl with them and sensed the Death Energy in the Nether Pearl at all times.
For Legendary-level Necromancers, the Nether Pearl boasted great benefits too. For example, when embellished on a magic staff, it would be akin to putting Necromancers in a reservoir of mana, and also significantly improve the success rate of Legendary-level Necromagic spells.
Of course, this thing was not of much use to Lin Li. However, he had a lot of subordinates who were Undead creatures. Apart from his Undead servants Ujfalusi and Norfeller, there were also dozens of Retribution Knights in the Black Front Fortress. If a level-20 Retribution Knight could have a weapon that was embellished with a Nether Pearl, his power would probably reach level-22 or level-23.
Unfortunately, there was only one Nether Pearl for sale at the stall of this secret merchant, which was far from enough to be equipped on all the Retribution Knights under Lin Li. He could only equip the leader of the Retribution Knights with it so that the other Retribution Knights could also have their strength augmented along with the increase in their leader’s strength.
At the thought of this, Lin Li reached out to pick up the Nether Pearl after obtaining the permission of the secret merchant. It was actually really different from ordinary items. As soon as Lin Li’s fingertip touched it, he immediately sensed a penetrative chilliness that spread down his finger. As a Sanctuary powerhouse, Lin Li managed to block the chilliness, but if a Legendary-level powerhouse was in his place, they would probably be at a huge disadvantage.
After picking up the Nether Pearl, Lin Li channeled his mental strength into it to check the level of power within it as well as the composition of its Laws, only to receive a huge disappointment. The Nether Pearl was near the peak of the Legendary-level, and the mana seemed to be pure, but the composition of Laws seemed to be very disorganized.
It might seem contradicting, but it wasn’t difficult to achieve that. As long as one could channel the mana generated within outwards using some special means, the Nether Pearl could temporarily have a relatively pure Undead power.
The secret merchant didn’t expect Lin Li to scrutinize the Nether Pearl inside out after picking it up to have a look. Thinking that Lin Li really intended to buy it, he hurriedly said, “Rest assured, Sir, this Nether Pearl is definitely genuine. You may take it home with you with 5,000,000 gold coins.”
Hearing this, Lin Li couldn’t help but sneer, and thought to himself, This Nether Pearl is genuine, but it’s of inferior quality. How dare you sell it for 5,000,000 gold coins? What an unscrupulous merchant indeed.
In fact, counterfeit goods were not the majority of the goods in the Secret Merchant Market, but goods of inferior quality were. For example, a merchant might brag about a powerful ancient magical weapon in an exaggerated manner, but in fact, it could only be used once. Another example would be a magical prop that might really contain terrifying power, but no one knew what price they had to pay after using it.
The same went for the Nether Pearl. Although its mana was close to the peak of the Legendary-level, its basic Laws were very messy, which was the reason that its true value plummeted. If a Necromancer had a magic staff inlaid with a Nether Pearl, not only might his strength not increase, he might suffer physical damage too.
Be it Necromancers or Undead creatures, the source of power did not come from magical crystals, but rather was generated from the burning of the soul fire. The Death Energy in the Nether Pearl was like the fuel for soul fire. The consequences of using impure fuel were imaginable. For example, if gasoline of inferior grade was added to a car that required superior-quality gasoline, there would be a huge impact on the engine of the car.