Chapter 1713

Dilapidated bamboo supports propped up rotten wooden boards, and three items were placed on the wooden board. One of them was a severed finger as thick as Xia De's wrist, and the sticky black blood at the root of the broken finger had already frozen into ice. The other two items were completely invisible.

Ms. Higgins breathed heavily a few times, then gathered her courage and said to the shadow behind the stall: "Excuse me, do you know..."

She took out a note tremblingly and read out the ancient runes on it: "Where is the merchant who steals souls?"

Xia De blinked suspiciously, while that black shadow shook its head slightly, then pointed to its own stall with its hand.

The witch thought for a while and asked in a low voice:

"I must buy your things before you can answer my question?" This time it nodded.

"I need time to consider; my money is limited after all."

Saying this, she was about to step back. Even if she had to buy something to ask for directions, it didn't necessarily have to be bought here; they could completely go deeper into the market to have a look.

But that shadow was reluctant to let go of any guest. As the witch stepped back, dozens of blood-stained black chains flew toward the witch from under the shadow's feet. Fortunately, Ms. Higgins had never relaxed her vigilance, quickly waving the torch in her hand forward, while golden light shone in her right hand. The warm light dispersed some of the chill. Xia De was quite familiar with this kind of power; this was the power of the sun.

Among the chains attacking the witch, more than half slowed down after being illuminated by the torch's light, while the rest continued to approach the witch. So the fireball in the witch's right palm covered the surroundings like a bomb explosion, but because of the black fog, it could only extend a very short distance around her.

With the help of those lights, Xia De clearly saw that the black chains were surprisingly spliced together by chains of runes representing 【Greed】. This was definitely the 【Seven Deadly Sins Chains】 he was most familiar with, but the Seven Deadly Sins Chains definitely didn't fear the power of the sun. "Be careful."

Mrs. Myers and the timid boy Andor Ade hurriedly walked up to help. The two waved the torches in their hands just like the witch, making the remaining chains slow down. At the same time, Xia De's empty left hand had already taken out a greatsword with silver moonlight from the black fog.

Clang~

The greatsword slashed at the chains, and while silver light chips and sparks splashed, the collision between the two made a buzzing sound that made one's scalp tingle. At the same time, more and more blood-stained chains appeared from all directions, surrounding the four people. Xia De then instructed the four to gather together, facing different directions. The afterimages of the torches they waved connected into lines, but that only made a small portion of the chains slow down.

"Why can his Seven Deadly Sins Chains have so many!"

Like being besieged by a snake swarm, but all this was silent. Xia De, who knew the characteristics of the 【Seven Deadly Sins Chains】, reminded loudly:

"This thing has no attack power, but once entangled, spellcasting ability and action ability will be imprisoned. Do not try to destroy the chains with ordinary methods; use destructive power—Black Moon Mark—Shedon Seal."

Xia De reached out and grabbed the chain closest to him. The moment he touched it, the flow of spirit in his body stagnated, but the pitch-black moon mark had already appeared on the chain.

The chain slowly disintegrated into fly ash, and at the same time, the exploding golden shield pushed all the remaining blood-stained chains outward.

The witch Ms. Higgins also understood, kissed her right index finger, and then the dust that corroded life drifting from her index finger also made a small portion of the chains rust and decay.

But whether it was Xia De's sorcery or the witch's secret art, the spellcasting consumption of both powers was quite large, and the recovery of spirit in this kind of strange place was almost stagnant; they couldn't waste all their power like this.

"Seven Deadly Sins Chains!"

Chains protruded from Xia De's sleeves, making a clattering sound, while under the manipulation of the Living Rope Trick, they stirred into a ball with the temporarily pushed-back chains. Chains intertwined with chains, the six deadly sin runes and the countless 【Greed】 intertwined together. Xia De suddenly had a strange feeling in his heart. This was his first time clashing with the 【Seven Deadly Sins Chains】, and the homologous power immediately gave him a brand-new realization.

And although Xia De only had one chain, he completely occupied the upper hand. The runes symbolizing the six deadly sins emitted faint light, which made his companions very uncomfortable, but it could completely suppress the chains that only had "Greed."

But this was still not enough. Xia De could deal with dozens of chains, but couldn't deal with hundreds or thousands. It was as if endless chains flew out from all directions, even protruding from the mud under his feet and hanging down from the sky above his head.

Seeing that chains had already bound Mrs. Myers' ankle and tied the boy's neck—of course, the witch didn't care about the latter—Ms. Higgins had no choice but to say helplessly:

"I'll buy! I'm not leaving now, I'll trade right here, take your chains back."

The chains that were still squirming all stopped, leaving only Xia De's chains still clattering.

No one dared to move. The four people breathed slowly, but suppressed their breathing so as not to let their body temperature flow away too quickly. Xia De counted to twelve in his heart, and the chains retreated extremely slowly into the depths of the black fog that were invisible to everyone's eyes. Looking at the black shadow behind the stall again, it seemed to have maintained the action of pointing at the goods with its finger, not moving at all. But they all knew that if they dared to step back now, the blood-stained chains that would surge out in an instant would immediately swallow them.

After such twists and turns, even with the light of the torches, Mrs. Myers and the boy were already pale. The witch had to support the old woman so she wouldn't fall, grabbing her hand to give her warmth. Mrs. Myers now only had enough strength not to let go of the torch in her hand.

"I, I'll support her."

The boy, who had gathered his courage, said to the young witch in the cold and fear. The latter frowned, but didn't hesitate:

"Take good care of this lady; protecting her is protecting yourself."

She let the boy support Mrs. Myers to stand behind Xia De and her, and gave the two a glowing yellow stone; it seemed this could provide temperature. Afterward, she also softly expressed her apologies to Xia De for what had just happened; after all, it was she who had dragged the group into danger. However, compared to danger, Xia De was more concerned about time.

He was concerned about those chains that only had 【Greed】 runes, but he also knew this wasn't a good opportunity to investigate, so he asked the black shadow on behalf of the witch:

"What do you have here? We can only see one item."

The black shadow still didn't speak, maintaining its static posture, and the black fog shrouding the items finally dissipated. Beside the thick severed finger, there were coiled blood-stained ropes and solidified blood in a dirty glass tube.

That rope was an artifact, and as for the other two items, they should both be powerful supernatural materials.

"What are these?"

Xia De continued to ask, but didn't get an answer. The black shadows in this camp probably didn't have the ability to speak at all. The witch also asked once, but didn't get an answer either.

The light of the four torches illuminated the uncertain faces of the crowd; the firelight was already significantly weaker compared to when they first set off.

Ms. Higgins frowned and thought for a while, exhaled into her palm, and then said to Xia De:

"I'm afraid this camp won't explain the use and function of the goods. We can only pick one at random; this is no different from gambling on luck."

"Is the currency you carry enough? Judging from the situation just now, if you don't bring enough currency, it won't let us leave without paying... It will probably charge us other things."

Ms. Higgins pursed her lips and nodded:

"Before setting off, Her Majesty gave me and the lady a sum of money; I have 23 coins on me." "I have 6 coins here."

The silver-haired old woman leaning on the boy said immediately. Seeing Xia De look at her, she tried her best to smile:

"I'll leave it to you young people next."

The boy who hadn't spoken also said tremblingly afterward:

"I have 7 coins here. My coins were sold to me along with the map by the witch who gave me the method to enter here."

"Then the remaining question is very simple—what is the cheapest thing here?"

Judging the value of items from their appearance was a very stupid behavior, but sometimes there was no other choice. Three items, finger, rope, and blood; although the rope was the only artifact, it couldn't be considered definitely the most expensive; although the finger was the only item that revealed its appearance in advance, it couldn't be inferred that it was definitely the cheapest.

The two ordinary people had no chance to speak at this time; it was still up to Xia De and the witch Ms. Higgins to make the decision. "I don't have the ability to estimate, nor the power to appraise treasures."

Xia De said first, while the red-haired witch said hesitantly:

"Because it involves trading, I learned appraisal-type secret arts before entering here. Let me try." She rolled up her right sleeve to reveal her fair wrist, then used her left hand to grab her right wrist, opened her right palm, and aimed it at the three items in turn.

"Oh!"

She made a breath-holding action, and at the same time, her eyes widened. But after only two or three seconds, she groaned, and black blood flowed from her mouth and nose. She released that breath, her whole body trembling as she fell backward; fortunately, she was supported by Xia De in time.

"Cough, cough."

After a violent cough, the dirty blood was spat onto the ground, and it quickly corroded the low wild grass under her feet. "I'm fine, I'm fine."

She covered her chest and waved her hand, but no matter how one looked at it, she didn't look fine:

"I was attacked; it's like this camp is attacking me. It seems that without permission, you cannot touch or investigate goods that don't belong to you."

"Here."

Xia De handed out a bottle of No. 3 Holy Water. After the witch drank it down, she expressed her gratitude with a hoarse voice, but her face was still very bad:

"What now? I have no way."

"You also said just now, you can only gamble on luck. The currency is your own; you decide." The two looked at the three items together, and after looking at each other, the red-haired witch pointed to the bottle of blood: "I want this."

The black fog that was almost static began to flow. The black fog condensed on the wooden board between the goods and the four people, forming a scale in a cloud-fog state.

The black shadow finally moved, picked up the bottle of blood, and placed it on the left end of the scale. The scale tilted to the left, and then it made a gesture of invitation. This action was easy to understand, so Ms. Higgins took out a leather bag from her skirt pocket, her palms trembling, and placed the coins with her own head on them one by one on the right side of the scale. Although she still didn't know if this bottle of blood was the cheapest thing here, fortunately, after placing only 4 coins, the scale reached a state of balance.

At that moment, the scale that was originally just in a state of thick fog actually solidified into black metal. The scale reflected metallic luster under the light of the torches in everyone's hands, the color deep and exceptionally heavy. Xia De took a fancy to it at a glance.

"Speaking of which, Yin Luna's birthday gift..."

The four coins were collected by the black shadow, and then it pushed the scale with the blood on one end to the group, and then returned to the posture of not moving at all like at the beginning.

Ms. Higgins carefully collected the bottle of blood from one end of the scale, but she didn't know what the blood was, so she put it into the bag she carried with her.

Afterward, seeing that the black shadow didn't object, she touched the scale with deep color, and Xia De also reached out to touch it. The surface of the scale had intaglio patterns of shells, coins, and olive branches; it was extremely cold and extremely heavy. Whether it was Xia De or the witch, they could confirm that this was just an ordinary item.

The witch asked softly:

"Now that this shadow is not moving again, do you think this scale is a clue to guide us to find the next merchant?"