Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 31, Blessing, Curse
Olivier’s group had in total twelve people. They entered a restaurant, then headed to a corner of the restaurant and sat down at three round tables.
“Captain, you found an amethyst. Don’t be stingy.” Someone called out.
“Same old rules!” The leader, the big-bearded captain, laughed loudly. “Each person a bottle of Norcha [Nuo’si’sha]. If you want to drink more, buy it yourself.” Immediately, the big-bearded captain called out in a high voice, “Hey, hurry up! Twelve bottles of Norcha!”
Norcha was a fairly good brand of wine. One bottle cost around ten inkstones, while twelve cost a hundred and twenty.
Generally speaking, whoever amongst them found an amethyst would invite others to celebrate with them. After all, mining amethysts was a matter of luck. If your luck was good, you’d find one every few days. If your luck was poor, a thousand years could pass without one.
Seizing the bottle of wine, Olivier took a gulp, but his forehead was faintly creased in a frown.
“Almost thirty years, but I haven’t found a single amethyst!” Olivier was very annoyed. Raising his head, he took another large gulp.
After arriving in the Infernal Realm, Olivier’s luck had been pretty good at the start. After reaching the level of God, he had managed to scrape up ten thousand inkstones to take the Fiend trials, and had been lucky enough to pass, becoming a One Star Fiend. But who would have thought that he had failed on his very first mission?
In addition, while fleeing wildly, he had become accidentally separated from his good friend Bachelor.
Olivier had originally been travelling with Bachelor. After having worked hard to scrape up ten thousand inkstones to take the Fiend trials, he had planned to accept missions, but he failed in his very first one. Thus, in reality, Olivier hadn’t made any money at all. After having failed, his total wealth all together was just a pitiful few hundred inkstones.
Use a few hundred inkstones to return to a city? Impossible!
Fortunately, at that time, the mission point was fairly close to the Amethyst Mountains, and he had heard of the place before, and so he had carefully spent decades to stealthily make his way here. Per the rules of this place, as he had been unable to pay the five thousand inkstone fee, he had to pay three amethysts before departing.
“Forget about three amethysts. I haven’t even found one. It’s been almost thirty years.” The more Olivier thought about it, the more miserable he felt. Raising his head, he took another large gulp of wine, draining half of it. “This damn place...there’s no way to take on missions here either.”
If he wanted to go back safely, he would have to have enough money.
To have enough money, for Olivier, currently only a God, the only choice was to harvest amethysts.
“Olivier, hey. You aren’t the only one to not yet find a single amethyst, you know.” Someone nearby said. “Don’t be discouraged. Last time, didn’t we run into that unlucky fellow who had been here for ten thousand years without finding an amethyst?”
Olivier forced out a smile.
He had to stay on good terms with these people.
Harvesting amethysts in the Amethyst Mountains wasn’t necessarily safe. This wasn’t a city, after all!
In the Amethyst Mountains, if one was lucky enough, one might acquire a pile of amethysts all at once, but many people, upon seeing this fortune, might kill the person who acquired it and rob them of it. This was very normal. Thus, many Gods would form into small teams.
Olivier’s group of twelve was one such team. At least, they were able to protect themselves.
Tens of thousands of kilometers away from Olivier, Linley’s group of four was traversing the boundaries of the Fog Sea. Linley’s group hadn’t come here to harvest amethysts, just to enjoy the scenery.
“Jenkin, you don’t have to follow us. You can go harvest your amethysts. We’ll just stroll around the Amethyst Mountains for a time. In a day or two, we’ll probably leave.” Linley turned to glance at Jenkin and said casually.
Jenkin felt gratitude in his heart towards Linley’s group.
“Mr. Linley, the three of you have shown me, Jenkin, such benevolence. I truly don’t know how to repay you. In addition, after you leave, who knows how long it will be before we meet again? What’s more, mining amethysts is purely a matter of luck. Perhaps by staying alongside the rest of you, Mr. Linley, I’ll be able to run into some amethysts.” Jenkin jested.
“Not bad, kid. You are a loyal friend.” Bebe slapped Jenkin on the shoulders, pretending to be wizened and experienced.
Linley laughed and nodded. “Fine, then. We’ll accompany you in mining amethysts. I want to see if in the next day or two, we’ll be lucky enough to acquire one.”
The white mist billowed about, and Linley glanced at the boundless white mists. “Let’s go. Let’s go inside the white fog. Remember, everyone. No matter what, keep your eyes peeled on the outside. Make sure that you are able to see the outside.” As he spoke, Linley, Delia, Bebe, and Jenkin all entered the white fog.
Linley stared into the white mist in susprirse. “This white mist is so cool and refreshing.” The temperature in the white mist was very low. When it encountered the skin, it felt like ice cubes.
But Linley’s group didn’t mind.
“Boss, hurry up.” Bebe actually walked backwards into the mist, his eyes focused on the outside. “I can still see the outside. Keep heading in...” Bebe chuckled as he constantly flew backwards, and Linley and the other two naturally followed him in.
Everyone flew very slowly. After flying only roughly eighty meters, Linley’s group unconsciously came to a halt.
“Huh? How strange!”
Linley couldn’t help but begin to frown.
“Whooooosh.” In the boundless white fog, there was a gentle sound of blowing wind, but although the sound of the wind was very quiet, Linley still felt his head begin to grow dizzy. Linley furiously shook his head, forcing himself to stay clearheaded.
Delia and Bebe were trying hard to stay clearheaded as well
As for Jenkin, he was already beginning to grow dizzy and was unable to tell the directions. Linley immediately grabbed him while retreating slightly.
Only now did Jenkin become clearheaded again. Upon becoming clearheaded, Jenkin was shocked. “What happened just now? I thought I heard a ‘whoooshing’ wind sound, and then I felt the world begin to spin. I felt so dizzy.” Jenkin felt shocked and terrified.
“This Fog Sea is extraordinarily bizarre.” Bebe muttered in praise.
“Linley, we’d best be careful. We’re just here to look around, not to harvest amethysts. Don’t let anything happen.” Delia pulled at Linley’s hand as she spoke.
Linley held Delia’s hand and looked at the concern in Delia’s eyes. After having experienced the golden magma pool, Linley didn’t want Delia to be in any more danger again, and so he immediately laughed and nodded, “Don’t worry, we won’t go any deeper into the Fog Sea.”
“Hey, you guys.” Suddenly, a muscular man with short jade hair flew over. Laughing, he said, “You guys, be careful. Don’t get trapped inside. You won’t be able to get out.”
“Excuse me, friend.” Jenkin smiled as he spoke. “I’m curious about one thing. Why is it that if one goes deep into the Fog Sea, one won’t be able to come out? If I leave my clone outside while I go inside, since I can sense the direction and location my clone is in, shouldn’t I be able to come out?”
Hearing this, Linley’s eyes couldn’t help but light up.
His words made sense.
If one’s clone was outside, one wouldn’t lose all sense of direction. There shouldn’t be any problems.
“Hey, don’t ask me, I don’t know either. You can talk all you want, but reality is what matters.” The jade-haired man pursed his lips and laughed. “If you aren’t afraid, you can place your clone outside and use your own body to go inside and test it. But in every case I’ve ever heard of, not a single person who went in has ever made it out alive, regardless of what method was used.”
The jade-haired youth, finished with his words, said, “Alright, you guys, best of luck.” After speaking, the jade-haired youth flew off into the distance.
Linley turned his head, once more staring into the boundless white mist.
Suddenly, Linley was startled. “Hey, that’s...” From afar, a ray of violet light flashed out, and Linley immediately moved over there. Sweeping out with his hand, he grabbed that ray of violet light. It was an amethyst. Linley couldn’t help but laugh.
He hadn’t expected that he would be so lucky.
“Boss, is that an amethyst?” Bebe immediately drew near as well.
“Right. Jenkin, here you go.” Linley, with a flip of his hand, tossed the amethyst over to Jenkin. Linley already had a large number of amethysts. He wouldn’t care about one or two.
Jenkin knew that Linley was very rich. How could an ordinary person buy a metallic lifeform?
Jenkin didn’t waste any time with words, immediately storing the amethyst, then laughing, “Mr. Linley, your luck really is excellent. As soon as you arrived, you acquired an amethyst. I’ve heard of people who’ve spent a thousand years without finding one.”
“That’s only for people with bad luck. For those with good luck, they’ll find one every few days.” Linley said disdainfully.
“Boss, since your luck is good, I refuse to believe mine will be bad.” Bebe’s eyes were shining as he stared at his surroundings. “I’m going to harvest amethysts as well!”
“I’ll try my luck also.” Delia laughed.
As Linley’s group began to tour and explore the Fog Sea, Olivier’s group had flown back to the borders of the Fog Sea once more. The twelve of them separated slightly, maintaining a distance of less than a hundred meters. Everyone quietly waited...waited for amethysts to fly out.
“Amethysts? Who knows how long it will be before I get one.”
Olivier was currently controlling his ‘divine darkness clone’ by making it train. His divine light clone had already reached the God stage, but his divine darkness clone was still at the Demigod stage. Olivier was hurriedly trying to increase the power of his divine darkness clone.
“The current level of darkness-style divine power I have is too low. Once it rises and becomes on par with my light-style divine power, with my fusion of ‘light’ and ‘darkness’, how could any ordinary God be a match for me?” Olivier thought to himself, while at the same time carefully inspecting the Fog Sea.
The Blood Sun set. The Violet Moon rose into the skies.
When night passed, the Blood Sun once more rose into the skies. A new day had arrived.
During this entire day, Olivier’s group of twelve had stayed in their original positions, virtually not moving at all. Those who came to harvest amethysts were all extremely patient. It was normal for them to wait up to a hundred years or a thousand years in the same location.
“Huh?” Olivier looked suspiciously at a distant spot of violet light.
“Swoosh!” A ray of violet light rapidly flashed towards Olivier. Olivier was instantly overjoyed, and almost immediately, he charged forward. After having been in the Fog Sea for nearly thirty years, Olivier knew what the safe distance was.
The others were all farther away from the violet flash. How could they get there faster than Olivier?
“Is that?”
While drawing closer, Olivier found himself stunned. It wasn’t a single amethyst flying towards him; it was an entire collection of amethysts, fused tightly into a dense cluster...a small pile of amethysts!
“There has to be at least ten thousand here!” Olivier was stunned.
In the Fog Sea, it was true that occasionally, a pile of amethysts would fly out. There had even been cases of a million amethysts flying out all together in one clump. However, that had caused a massive slaughter to erupt. After all, a million amethysts represented billions of inkstones.
To Gods, this was an enormous fortune.
“So many amethysts?” With a wave of his hand, Olivier collected all of the amethysts into his interspatial ring. In the moment he stored it, he became clearly aware of the number. There was exactly eighteen thousand amethysts, worth over a hundred million inkstones! This was a true fortune!
“I hope no one else noticed.” Olivier prayed silently.
But when Olivier turned his head, he felt shock in his heart. Because those eleven people were staring at him!
“Olivier, your luck wasn’t bad.” The captain pursed his lips and grinned. “Although I couldn’t see exactly how many there were, I expect there were at least over ten thousand. The finder gets a share, but shouldn’t you take it out so we twelve brothers can divide it equally?”
Olivier’s face changed. Twelve people divide it equally?
This was something he had gotten himself.
Olivier ground his teeth. “How about this. Each of you can get eight hundred amethysts! The rest are mine. You also know that there were roughly ten thousand. With twelve people, I shall get just a bit more.”
“No need for you to divide it up. Remove the blood binding on your interspatial ring and let us inspect it, and then we can divide it up.” Immediately, some spoke out.
“Remove the blood binding?” Olivier understood in his heart.
The people of the Infernal Realm wouldn’t truly be so fair.
“Alright, Jenkin. No need to accompany us any further. You’ve already accompanied us so far. Continue with your amethyst harvesting. We’ll leave now.” From not too far away, a voice rang out. When this voice entered Olivier’s ears, it caused Olivier to have a very familiar feeling.
This was a familiar person’s voice!
“Mr. Linley, be careful on your journey.” Another voice rang out.
Olivier was instantly shocked. “Linley?” Olivier turned to look at the source of the voice, and within the hazy white mist, Linley, Delia, and Bebe were currently flying together. Bebe glanced over towards him as well, and then chuckled, “Boss, look, a group of people are surrounding one person, and, hey, that guy...hey, boss, that’s Olivier!!!”