Chapter 1228: Blinded by Gold

Anthony and Nai Ge Li Si felt as if tens of thousands of lightning bolts had flashed through their minds; they were carefully disguising themselves, but when they turned around, they saw someone boldly setting up a stall here.

The one who arrived was a goblin-shaped star-spawn descendant, who trotted over rubbing his hands, showing no trace of a star-spawn descendant at all, but instead looked exactly like a goblin.

Coming before everyone, his gaze quickly swept over all present, accurately identifying the person in charge: "Honored guests, may I ask if you intend to sell this bamboo worm? Our guild is purchasing some flying pack beasts, and we can offer a good price."

Well, upon hearing that, one could tell he was from outside—only outsiders would recognize bamboo worms, and everyone had taken to calling this outward form's descendants bamboo worms.

Anthony felt a stir in his heart and, on his lips, uttered the phrase about silver coins often hanging on his tongue: "Besides faith and the Lord, nothing is unsellable—only whether the price is suitable. May I ask what price you are willing to offer?"

"Oh dear, you know this saying too? This is a favorite saying of our guild master, how intimate—it seems we are bound by fate. I wonder if you have a psychological price in mind?" The goblin clapped his hands and said enthusiastically.

Anthony feigned displeasure: "You want to purchase, but how can you let the customer name the price? Is this how you do business? Who is your supervisor? I want to lodge a complaint."

The goblin's mouth gaped open in shock—having expanded this far out, he could still encounter such a knowledgeable customer? And even know how to complain?

After reacting, the goblin hurriedly said: "No, no, absolutely no intention of letting the customer name the price. It seems you are also well-versed in market conditions—admirable, admirable. May I inspect the condition of the goods, if you please?"

Anthony made a gesture of invitation.

"A malnourished, withered, weak bamboo worm pack beast, one……" the goblin said while looking and began to sing.

"Pfft——" Nai Ge Li Si burst out laughing on the spot: "Silver Coin surely hasn't given it proper training."

The goblin's spirit trembled: "You……you know the Silver Coin guild master? You are……you are Xiao Fei……you are Lord Nai Ge?"

Anthony smiled and nodded: "I never expected you to have expanded your commercial domain this far. I don't know which branch of the Silver Coin Guild you belong to."

While speaking, Anthony drew a pattern in the air.

The goblin's expression shifted, and he quickly drew another pattern, saying as he drew: "I am the deputy guild master of the Di A Ke Si caravan; I am Di A Ke Si."

Still the person in charge? The Silver Light Guild's guild master is only one—Silver Coin—and everyone else is deputy; deputy guild masters oversee caravans, meaning this is the overall head of this caravan.

After Anthony recognized the pattern the other had drawn, he drew another new pattern.

The goblin's expression turned solemn; he immediately produced a calculator, calculated on it for a long time, finally derived a string of numbers, then took out a book, found the corresponding numbers on it, and pieced together an identity.

"Greetings, President Anthony, my lord." The goblin bowed respectfully.

"Please rise—I didn't expect to encounter a pioneer of the trade routes here; you are quite impressive." Anthony said approvingly.

Nai Ge Li Si asked bewildered: "Wait a moment, wait a moment—what did you mean by gesturing for half a day? When did you become president? What does president mean?"

Anthony said to Di A Ke Si: "You explain it to him."

"Yes, President, my lord." Di A Ke Si turned to Nai Ge Li Si and explained: "President means the one who judges and decides as premier; the president's authority exceeds that of our guild master; the premier judges and decides all guild affairs. Just now, our gestures were the guild's hand signals and secret language."

"The president used high-level secret language to ask my identity; I replied with my department affiliation; the president gave his own identity code; I used bookkeeping to calculate the numbers, found these numbers' explanations in the inner ledger, and confirmed the president's identity."

Nai Ge Li Si looked dazed: "Isn't this too troublesome? Wouldn't a simple mark suffice to express one's identity?"

"It is necessary." Di A Ke Si replied respectfully: "If I were to have my soul searched, the mark would be exposed, but under this procedure, the enemy would need to know the identity code, learn bookkeeping, and discern the special markings in the inner ledger—ordinary people would find it hard to discern the correct identity code from this process."

Indeed, a soul search would reveal the mark, and even bookkeeping is easy to learn, but combined with the inner ledger, even Nai Ge Li Si would be troubled.

The inner ledger is what is called the secret ledger; each guild has its own method of secret bookkeeping; clearly writing zero might actually represent one, or two, three, four, five—mainly depending on the bookkeeper's habit.

When this secret ledger is written, aside from the bookkeeper himself, no one else can understand it at all; even if a soul search is conducted, if it's incomplete, the scattered fragments remain incomprehensible.

Even if fully searched, it may still not be understandable; some people study mathematics their whole lives yet cannot decipher a single accountant's secret ledger.

Nai Ge Li Si couldn't help but praise: "No wonder it's Silver Coin—this secrecy method is truly formidable. And you? What are you doing here? How did you come here? And what race are you?"

Though Di A Ke Si now appears goblin-like, from his name one can tell he is not a native goblin—not a native goblin, but a star-spawn descendant, and he has joined the Silver Light Guild, making this identity somewhat complex.

"I am a star-spawn descendant; I came here to pioneer trade routes; I was sent here via my tribe's pack beast teleportation." Di A Ke Si said.

"You are a star-spawn descendant? Then how did you join the Silver Light Guild?" At this, even Anthony couldn't help but be curious—star-spawn descendants are a species we only learned of after arriving here, yet Silver Coin's command actually has such a deputy guild master?

How did they connect and successfully join? Why hasn't Silver Coin mentioned this? Could it have been blocked by Ange again?

"Some time ago, a light disaster occurred; many in my tribe suffered from the light disaster and could only hide in the plane's shaded side, unable to touch sunlight; prolonged lack of sunlight makes us ill, and we cannot function normally."

"So I thought: is there something that can reduce sunlight's intensity, so we can touch sunlight through it? I was willing to exchange equivalent value, and as I thought this, I heard the guild master's voice in the void."

"He said: if I am willing to uphold the principle of equivalent exchange of the God of Commerce, he can establish trade relations with me; then I used some origin crystals to exchange for some light-blocking cloaks, which, when worn, allow normal activity."

"My tribespeople saw my cloak and also wanted one; I took their crystals, then bought more cloaks from the guild master; the guild master told me to leave appropriate profit, so I would collect two hundred crystals, give him one hundred fifty, and keep the rest."

"Being able to earn this much profit just by reselling, I strongly urged the guild master to teach me more trade rules; he said I could establish my own caravan—in that case, I only need to pay one-third of management and channel fees, and the rest is mine."

"If I pioneer a new trade route, I can share in the profits of the entire route, so I came here." Di A Ke Si said, his eyes glowing as he spoke, looking exactly like a merchant blinded by gold.