Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2458 The Interest

Clamor Clamor

Caesar casually stored the vessel inside his ring and simply walked away without paying any further attention to the transaction he'd just completed, but almost immediately after he left, the previously quiet place erupted into complete chaos behind him.

The Crosser greedily pounced on the neighboring skeleton without the slightest hesitation, reaching toward its body and trying to tear apart its bones with his own hands; after personally feeling the astonishing power contained within that single rib, those bones were no longer the worthless remains of some ordinary skeleton in his eyes, but an incredible treasure filled with precious units of death.

But the skeleton didn't remain motionless and unresponsive as it had when Caesar casually ripped one of its ribs away. Instead, the moment the Crosser attacked, it immediately stood up while clutching the bones it had been displaying for sale and began defending itself fiercely against the greedy assault.

Within merely a few seconds, the quiet street of the undead market, which had remained strangely calm despite all the bizarre things sitting along its sides, transformed directly into a chaotic battlefield!

But strangely enough... the Crosser never shouted out what he actually wanted from the skeleton, the skeleton itself never opened its mouth or uttered a word while fiercely defending itself, and even as the confrontation unfolded directly beside them, none of the other sellers sitting throughout the market bothered to move from their places or interfere...

"Hey, what do we have here!" Caesar, who had already left the commotion behind him without concern, stopped beside another undead leaning against a mud wall and immediately began examining everything displayed across the sheet in front of it.

Seven second-grade planetary artifacts, four third-grade planetary artifacts, and a single fifth-grade planetary artifact were lying there among the merchandise, each plainly displayed before him.

And that wasn't even counting the small quantities of extremely rare minerals placed alongside them, minerals so difficult to obtain that they couldn't easily be bought or sold even through the dedicated trade network. Throughout the entire universe, pieces of such rare minerals reaching this size rarely appeared on the market at all!

"..." Caesar began rubbing his chin while carefully examining everything spread before him, allowing his gaze to move from one item to another before finally raising an eyebrow toward the undead sitting there. "How much for all of this?"

"..." The undead took its time slowly lifting the sagging skin hanging over its face and obscuring its vision, then stared silently at Caesar for nearly an entire minute before finally speaking in a low, unpleasant voice that sounded as though several dry bones were grinding against one another. "Nineteen Funerary Coins."

"Hmmm." Caesar rubbed his chin a little more and began pretending that he was seriously considering whether the price was acceptable.

<Stop already!!> Mortex's voice suddenly struck Caesar's ear with obvious frustration. <Aren't all the treasures you've already collected throughout the journey until reaching this place enough for you? The number of spatial rings you've filled with planetary artifacts and extremely rare minerals has already become ridiculous. At this point, you're practically carrying around the moving treasury of an entire Millennial Empire.>

What's wrong with carrying two treasuries instead of one? Caesar chuckled inside his head, clearly seeing no problem whatsoever with what Mortex was complaining about. I spotted a bargain and bought a thousand spatial rings for only a single Funerary Coin on the previous planet, so I've still got plenty of empty ones waiting to be filled!

<You're risking your life!> Mortex's voice immediately returned, his warning becoming even more serious. <If word gets out that you're capable of charging those items you're using by yourself, and that you can do it this easily whenever you want, an entire war will break out over you. You don't understand the significance of what you're doing!>

Alright then, are you seriously telling me that while you were alive, you never used this same method to raise the levels of your own followers? Caesar waved dismissively as though the answer should have been obvious.

<No!> Mortex replied immediately and without the slightest hesitation, then continued, <Those units capable of accelerating someone's transformation toward the undead state or raising their standing afterward must encompass the Path of Death itself, not merely a Law like the one I used. No one before you has ever been capable of creating units of death with such simplicity and ease, not even me.>

Oh, so what you're saying is that I'm special. Caesar continued carefully examining the displayed artifacts and rare minerals before him, seemingly far more interested in evaluating the merchandise than in the significance of Mortex's explanation.

Mortex shouted at him in frustration, <Why the hell do you think I'm personally guiding the way for you and teaching you all of this myself? Do you seriously think I have that much free time on my hands?> Then, after venting his irritation, he continued, <Listen, if you insist on continuing to collect treasures for your living empire, then fine, keep doing it, but at least make proper Funerary Coins somewhere away from prying eyes before you start spending them.>

Do you seriously think I have enough time to sit somewhere off to the side making Funerary Coins one by one and then making every single one of them look authentic?! Relax~ I've already used this exact method on all seven planets we've stopped at so far, and no one discovered anything. Caesar waved dismissively, And even assuming someone eventually notices, then what? Can they actually do anything to me? He then cast a casual glance toward the herd herder sitting at the head of the market and watching the ongoing fight without interfering. Even him, I could erase easily.

<Can you erase the jinn on the surface of this planet just as easily?!>

...There you go mentioning that name again without explaining what it means. Caesar waved dismissively once more, then took an item out of his spatial ring and casually handed it over to the undead sitting before him. "Here, you'll find twenty-five units of death inside this. Use them yourself, or give it to that herder over there and have him turn them into Funerary Coins for you, then keep whatever remains."

"...!" The undead was visibly shocked by what Caesar had just handed over, then immediately rose from its place, took the item with it, and began walking with hurried steps directly toward the market herder.

<I didn't continue explaining because you didn't seem even remotely interested in what I was trying to tell you!!> Mortex shouted in obvious frustration inside Caesar's head. <Can I finally explain why I specifically had you land on this planet now?>

"One moment..." Caesar replied absentmindedly as he once again began looking around at everything displayed throughout the market, his attention immediately drifting away from Mortex and returning to the countless items spread across both sides of the street.

Within only a few minutes, Caesar went from one seller to another and bought everything that caught his attention without bothering to bargain over the prices even once, and in those few short minutes, he practically emptied the entire street of merchandise that had belonged to individuals who had remained sitting in their places for thousands upon thousands of years.

The market herder remained seated at the head of the market throughout the entire process, silently watching everything Caesar was doing while finding himself uncertain about what exactly he was supposed to do in response.

His instincts were constantly urging him to attack Caesar directly and seize whatever Funerary Coins he still had left after making so many purchases, while the remnants of intelligence that still survived within him told him to simply remain where he was, accept his rightful share of the proceeds from the sellers, and avoid bringing unnecessary trouble upon himself over something that was already benefiting him... and in the end, after struggling between those two impulses, he chose to listen to his remaining intelligence.

With a total expenditure of 220 Funerary Coins and no more than a few minutes of his time, Caesar collected large quantities of planetary artifacts, rare minerals, high-level spatial rings, ancient arrays, and old research books, accumulating a collection of treasures that would have been valued at more than 1.8 billion pearls if they were taken outside the Necrofortress Galaxy and sold in the external world.

"Hmm, just as expected from a planet located in the inner half." Caesar leisurely strolled out of the market after finishing his purchases, repeatedly tossing his primary ring into the air and catching it again with obvious pride and delight at what he'd just obtained. "A few more visits like this and I might actually start rivaling Father in wealth."

The natural Necrofortress Galaxy contained an almost uncountable number of planets and stars scattered throughout its enormous expanse. Perhaps those celestial bodies were soulless and therefore couldn't be refined like the planets and stars belonging to other natural galaxies, and perhaps they weren't arranged and organized into convenient rings that could easily be defended and traveled between, but regardless of those shortcomings, the sheer size of the galaxy itself could only be described as enormous in every sense of the word.

That vast galaxy had remained virtually untouched for nearly 80 million years, with no one systematically extracting anything from the countless worlds within it throughout all that time. Perhaps it no longer contained any plants or anything that could truly be described as living, but the quantity of minerals hidden throughout its countless planets was enormous and had remained almost completely untouched for all those years... and even that represented only one part of the wealth waiting throughout the galaxy.

Every original inhabitant of this galaxy had died, including every cultivator, every Emperor, every Nexus State, and every Dominator; not a single one of them remained alive, and every one of those people had possessed treasures of their own before their deaths. Their total numbers were estimated in the quadrillions, and now those former inhabitants wandered across the countless planets as skeletons still wearing spatial rings, while the lands beneath their feet remained filled with buried treasuries and accumulated riches that no one had ever bothered to uncover or touch!

And on top of all that accumulated wealth, there were the visitors and Crossers who continued arriving from outside. For some inexplicable reason, large numbers of Crossers and ordinary visitors came to the Necrofortress Galaxy every single year, most of them arriving while carrying practically their entire fortunes with them, and most of them eventually died here while those fortunes simply remained behind...

If someone were to say that the Necrofortress Galaxy could rival Robin, or perhaps even Antares himself, when it came specifically to the amount of wealth that could easily be gathered and taken away... such a statement wouldn't actually be an exaggeration.

"Alright, Mortex, I'm in a good mood now." Caesar finally slipped his primary ring back onto his finger after admiring it enough, then turned his attention toward the voice accompanying him. "Tell me about those jinn."

<No, you already ruined the moment.> Mortex replied with obvious annoyance at Caesar's behavior. <It'll be better if I simply let you see them with your own eyes.> Then, rather than explaining any further, he directed Caesar toward a particular direction with a brief gust of air. <Run in that direction for half an hour, and for your own sake... don't release even the slightest sound or aura.>