Chapter 39

"......I'm not here..." Tang Zheng replied weakly.

Bang!

As soon as he finished speaking, the door was kicked open.

As soon as he came in, A Zhi had a dark face, "Didn't you say you weren't here?"

Although his expression looked great, Tang Zheng didn't forget that this guy was a two-star warrior!

Moreover, he was clearly the type of spoiled child who might kill at the slightest provocation.

"I'm about to go out." Tang Zheng shrugged.

"Don't leave yet, wait a moment." A Zhi jumped over in a few steps and suddenly summoned a star pattern.

"What the hell?" Tang Zheng also suddenly summoned a star pattern.

The two of them stared at each other.

Then, A Zhi slightly closed his eyes and raised his hands...

A series of intricate dark red patterns rose from his palms like ripples.

He pressed his left palm down!

With his right hand, he pointed at Tang Zheng...

Tang Zheng felt a sudden warmth all over his body.

Then, in front of his eyes, three palm-sized human figures appeared!

Although the figures were very faint, almost just outlines, Tang Zheng could still vaguely recognize that the three figures were the viper he and Tian Meng killed in Fengmen Village, the little Gui he killed in the small alley of West Street, and the assassin who slit his throat last night.

Soon, a layer of cold sweat appeared on A Zhi's forehead.

He raised his hands again and put them down, readjusted his breathing, and calmed his star power before opening his eyes.

The moment he opened his eyes, the ghostly figures of the dead people in front of Tang Zheng disappeared...

"Tch... Only one star?" A Zhi sneered.

"Enough to kill you." Tang Zheng said with a smile.

A Zhi's face darkened again, clearly not wanting to think about last night's events. He said in a harsh voice, "Although you're a bit weak and caused me a lot of trouble, I'm a big man and won't hold it against you. You've killed three one-star warriors so far, two of whom you killed before lighting up your Life Palace. The Shadow Stronger List only recognizes heads, not strength... You're not bad, so I'll reluctantly invite you to join."

As he spoke, he threw a black dagger-shaped token.

On the token, a small star was engraved.

It was exactly the same as the one the assassin at Tang Family Castle had!

Tang Zheng's eyelids twitched, "Shadow King Token?"

"Do you recognize it?" A Zhi asked.

"I don't." Tang Zheng denied.

"If you recognized it, that would be great, and I wouldn't have to explain." A Zhi turned and walked away.

"Wait!" Tang Zheng was inexplicably left with the Shadow King Token and couldn't let him go like this, "I think you should explain a bit more?"

A Zhi was furious. He thought, "What am I, what are you, why should I waste time explaining to a one-star warrior and get angry? Is it worth it? Ah, ah, ah?" But when he remembered the long talk with Old Ghost last night, he had to suppress his anger.

No matter what, the person in front of him was good at killing!

"The ranking on the Shadow Stronger List is based on the number of heads you kill. The more people you kill, the higher your ranking. The higher the ranking of the people you kill on the Shadow Stronger List, the faster your ranking will rise." A Zhi said.

"Then I'll go to war and level up faster..." Tang Zheng said.

"You have to kill them yourself! With your own hands! And only killing those of the same star or higher will raise your ranking!" A Zhi finally calmed down and fished out a crumpled piece of paper, "Every time you advance, someone will give you a Shadow King Token. The things you can exchange for with the Shadow King Token and the rules for using it are all written here... Can you read?"

Tang Zheng ignored him, took it, and looked down.

The Shadow King Token that Ban Yilou didn't explain in detail was clearly written on this paper.

It turned out that besides the function of exchanging for money and beauties, the Shadow King Token was actually more important for buying and protecting lives!

A one-star Shadow King Token could buy the life of a one-star warrior, and ten one-star Shadow King Tokens could buy the life of a two-star warrior, and so on...

Similarly, a one-star Shadow King Token, once activated, would send people from Shadow Mountain to protect for three days, during which all attacks from one-star warriors would be blocked. Ten one-star Shadow King Tokens would block attacks from a two-star warrior for three days, and so on...

The paper had a detailed list about buying and protecting lives.

Tang Zheng also thought about the assassin at Tang Family Castle...

At the last moment of her life, she must have wanted to activate the Shadow King Token to protect herself.

Unfortunately, she was split in two by Meng Fenghua before she could activate it.

Even if she had successfully activated it, she probably wouldn't have waited for the experts from Shadow Mountain to arrive before she died.

Besides, every time Shadow Mountain sent someone to kill or protect, if successful, they would also receive a Shadow King Token. Generally, killing someone earned one token, and protecting someone earned two.

When Tang Zheng saw this, he, like the people in Purple Gold City, was greatly confused by the Shadow Mountain system—protecting someone only cost one Shadow King Token, but they had to pay two, wasn't this business a loss?

No wonder Ban Yilou had a headache whenever he mentioned the Shadow Mountain system!

Tang Zheng finished reading in a few glances...

A Zhi looked at him expectantly, "What do you think?"

"What do you mean, what do I think?" Tang Zheng threw the black dagger token back to A Zhi.

"The Shadow Stronger List! Don't you want to be on it?" A Zhi was angry.

"I don't see any benefits of being on the list..." Tang Zheng said honestly. He wanted his name to be known throughout the continent, and competing for the Starlight Stronger List would be more suitable, not to mention the Sweet Cone Formation that Meng Fenghua told him about, which was his ultimate goal!

"When your ranking is high, people will challenge you!" A Zhi said.

"I'm a pacifist." Tang Zheng smiled harmlessly.

"When your ranking is high, people will hire you to kill."

"I don't like killing."

"Hey, killing can make money!"

"But I don't lack money at all..."

"Who doesn't lack money?"

"I really don't lack money!"

"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, why don't you just die!" A Zhi was at a loss.

Seeing how troubled he was, Tang Zheng smiled, "Alright, since you invited me so sincerely... I'll consider whether to compete for the Shadow Stronger List."

"Consider my sister!" A Zhi really wanted to kill him with a sword.

Who was he? If he passed the heir test, he would be the next Shadow King of Shadow Mountain. He personally invited a mere one-star warrior and got a "I'll consider it" answer, which almost made him explode with anger.

Huff...

A cold wind blew, waking A Zhi up.

He was stunned.

Tang Zheng was already gone from the room!

"When... did he leave?" A Zhi rushed to the window, but saw only the dark, rainy night outside.

Silent as a ghost, coming and going without a sound.

A Zhi's face finally turned serious, and he stood by the window for a long time, not moving.

...

When Tang Zheng returned to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, Ban Yilou was not surprised at all. He was only surprised by the seven pieces of purple gold Tang Zheng lined up for him.

"Exchange all of them for Purple Gold Coins." Tang Zheng said.

"Impossible!" Ban Yilou gasped, "I don't have that many Purple Gold Coins to exchange!"

"Seven hundred taels of pure gold is one thousand and fifty taels of Purple Gold Coins. If you don't have that much money, what kind of shop are you running?" Tang Zheng laughed.

"Damn! Do you think over a thousand taels of purple gold is as cheap as cabbage?" Ban Yilou didn't know why, but every time he saw Tang Zheng, he would be angry after just three sentences.

Doing business with Tang Zheng was really a matter of life and death.

Tang Zheng looked at the sky, having been delayed by the little boy, and would be late going back. He decided not to waste time, "Alright, how much more do I need to get a VIP card?"

"What's a VIP card?" Ban Yilou was confused.

"It's... the one that lets you buy things from the inner cabinet..."

"That's called a Purple Gold Order! One of the five most valuable tokens on the Starlight Continent!" Ban Yilou was angry again at his random naming.

"Fine, fine, whatever you call it, give me one!"

"Your total transaction amount is six hundred and eighty-five taels of purple gold, you still need three hundred and fifteen taels." Ban Yilou answered.

"Three hundred and fifteen taels?" Tang Zheng nodded thoughtfully.

He definitely wouldn't be interested in the martial techniques and weapons in the outer cabinet.

So, he first ordered another set of all the mechanisms he bought last time.

Ban Yilou was stunned, "You bought so many, and used them up so quickly?"

"Yeah, the quality is pretty good, I'll buy some more." Tang Zheng nodded.

"What did you use them for? Fireworks?" Ban Yilou couldn't imagine how a full bag of hidden weapons and poisons could be used up in a day!

"..." Tang Zheng shrugged.

No matter what, business was business. Ban Yilou gave him another set, and he could see that Tang Zheng was just trying to meet the quota. Without waiting for him to ask, he said, "You still need one hundred and thirty taels! Want another set?"

Tang Zheng shook his head because, in a glance, he saw something on a shelf next to the counter...

"Old Ban." Tang Zheng pointed to the shelf, "What's that?"

The Treasure Gathering Pavilion was full of pearls and jade, but there was a very out-of-place shelf next to the counter!

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