Chapter 37: The Best Price, Reserved for Family

At the Spearhead Tavern, in front of the counter,

"You got visited by the Zealous Bandit yesterday?"

Old One-Eye said with considerable astonishment.

"Yeah, that little thief was slipperier than a loach—he actually wriggled right out of my grasp." Zhou Yun said, rather sullenly sipping the crimson wine in his cup.

A Lower Warren thief actually gave him the slip—

that left Zhou Yun a bit hard-pressed,

Xiang Xiang Leina's brain might be faulty, but her psychic abilities still had some level to them,

Zhou Yun could fight her to a standstill, yet couldn't catch a single thief,

Ashford's Lower Warren was starting to feel a little over-competitive.

"What shocks me is that you actually caught the Zealous Bandit red-handed."

The astonishment in Old One-Eye's tone did not lessen:

"There are legends that the Zealous Bandit possesses some kind of precognitive ability."

"He can sense in advance when his victims will be home, and when a theft absolutely won't be noticed."

"So no one has ever seen the Zealous Bandit in the act of stealing—what's left for the victims is usually just an iron door melted clean through."

Zhou Yun frowned slightly at the words.

This Zealous Bandit's precognitive ability sounded quite powerful,

able to precisely avoid danger and pick the right time to strike,

at least it sounded a bit more reliable than Xiang Xiang Leina's hit-or-miss precognitive dreams.

Zhou Yun glanced at the winged figure in the Bai Guang and asked:

"Oi! Buddy,"

"Did you find anything? Is it Chaos corruption?"

"…I'm not entirely sure either." The winged figure in the Bai Guang's tone was a bit lacking in confidence.

Not sure. That answer was rather thought-provoking.

Zhou Yun rubbed his chin and, for the moment, tossed the puzzlement to the back of his mind.

He didn't want to play a game of cat and mouse.

Zhou Yun looked at Old One-Eye, rapped on the table, and asked: "What did your boss up top say?"

"It can be arranged." Old One-Eye nodded and said.

Before Zhou Yun could ask the price, Old One-Eye shifted the subject:

"My boss up top can issue you two passes to head up to the Upper Warren."

"This pass will be very useful—more useful than you imagine."

"You two just go straight to the checkpoint gate, and the PDF there will hand the passes to you."

Hearing Old One-Eye's words, Zhou Yun's brow creased slightly.

PDF—the Planetary Defense Force handing the passes to us.

Zhou Yun sized Old One-Eye up and down,

Old One-Eye's boss was at a pretty high level.

A guess suddenly popped into Zhou Yun's head, but he didn't voice it.

"The conditions?" Zhou Yun rapped on the table and asked.

"He wants to meet you in person, in the Upper Warren." Old One-Eye said in a flat tone.

"He's got that big a pair of balls?"

Zhou Yun couldn't help but laugh out loud:

"Isn't he afraid I'm a lapdog of the Worms of the Underworld?"

The moment Zhou Yun uttered the name Worms of the Underworld,

he noticed Old One-Eye's body stiffen slightly,

as if that name carried some kind of curse,

he took a deep breath before continuing to Zhou Yun: "You actually even know about this…"

Old One-Eye leaned in a little closer to Zhou Yun and lowered his voice:

"Don't say its name out loud—the Worms of the Underworld will hear it."

Zhou Yun's eye twitched slightly; it seemed his guess had been correct,

Old One-Eye was one of Governor Augustus Flax's people.

"I was wondering if you might be a spy from the Adjudication Court. Turns out you're the Governor's man."

"…I am. I used to be a guard at the Governor's palace in the Top Warren."

Old One-Eye nodded lightly, stroking his single eye:

"But I was an unfit guard. Under the Governor's lead, we tried to kill the Worms of the Underworld."

"But when we actually faced the Worms of the Underworld… it was still small back then, yet we were still terrified."

"At that moment, I seemed to see a monster that gathered every evil thought in the world—we all trembled before it."

Old One-Eye let out a sigh.

His eyes seemed to reflect the terrifying figure of the Worms of the Underworld,

that young gene-thief chieftain crouching in the palace, extending its claws—

"In that one brief instant of trembling, the Worms of the Underworld used its claws to take one of my eyes, and fled through the pipes down into the Lower Warren."

"Everything today is the fault of my past self. I betrayed everything the Hua Di Huang Sect taught, and let a profane xenos slip away."

"The Governor gave me a chance to make up for that mistake. Almost all of our guards from back then headed to the Lower Nest to track the Underworld Worms."

"But most of those old comrades have already been wiped out. I'm one of the few who survived."

Old One-Eye fell silent for a moment,

as if the fear from the past had swallowed him once again.

Zhou Yun stared at Old One-Eye, waiting for him to speak.

"I know you have your own conflict with the Underworld Worms."

Old One-Eye suddenly chuckled:

"Heh, even without a conflict, once you know what kind of monsters the Underworld Worms are, that's enough."

"We can cooperate, Zhou Yun," he said. "The Governor wants to talk cooperation with you."

"We both want to fight the Underworld Worms, don't we?"

"These passes are the start of our cooperation."

"What about the money? How much for two passes?" Zhou Yun said, waving his hand.

Old One-Eye was slightly taken aback.

"The Governor doesn't care about such a small amount of money," he said.

"That won't do. Name your price!" Zhou Yun said firmly.

Old One-Eye stared blankly for a moment, then gestured a price.

"No good, add more! It has to be more expensive!"

"Those are two passes to the Upper Nest — how can you not charge more?"

Zhou Yun said righteously.

Old One-Eye hesitated a while, then gestured an even higher price.

"Two passes to the Upper Nest, fully legal and compliant."

Zhou Yun gestured a price to Xiang Xiang Leina — double what Old One-Eye had quoted him.

Xiang Xiang Leina looked shocked, staring in disbelief at Zhou Yun's quote for the two Upper Nest passes.

"Two Upper Nest passes — and they're actually legal and compliant."

Xiang Xiang Leina's gaze drifted, as if she couldn't quite believe it:

"But at this price—"

There was hesitation in her tone.

"Don't rush me. This price is one I talked down only after wearing my tongue to the bone for you."

"The best price goes to family."

Zhou Yun pointed at the price on the table and said with a perfectly sincere face.

In truth, his heart was a little unsteady too,

he had no accurate idea how much an Upper Nest pass cost either,

doubling it — a hundred percent profit sold to Xiang Xiang Leina — was it too expensive?

"Your bargaining skills are incredible!"

Xiang Xiang Leina couldn't help clicking her tongue:

"The smugglers I found charge more than this."

"Are these passes reliable?"

Hearing Xiang Xiang Leina's words full of hesitation, Zhou Yun's eye twitched slightly, and a wave of regret rose in his heart.

Damn, said it too cheap!

"Ahem, ahem, ahem."

Zhou Yun quickly coughed twice and said:

"What I meant was, that price is per pass."

"For the two of us, it has to be doubled!"

The doubt in Xiang Xiang Leina's eyes vanished instantly, and a smile appeared on her face.

She said quite happily: "Now that's more like it."

You guys, join the group! Why won't any of you join the group!

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(End of this chapter)