The Rise of the Black Plain

The rusty sword would be useless for him to use for himself. Still, it might be relevant for accessing some areas within the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus.

The locked chest might contain something valuable he would find the key to when he reached the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus, which could somehow help him, as the elf had told him.

The small vial, on the other hand, was the one that seemed to have the least potential to help Minos in any way, but strangely enough, it was the item he felt most connected to.

Some kind of 6th sense was telling him that that was what he should choose.

"How much is that vial?" He asked the mollusk.

"That vial is the cheapest of the four items. It costs only 600,000 high-grade crystals."

Gulp!

The two fish next to Minos swallowed their saliva as they wondered how expensive that was.

It was only a tiny vial, which neither of them could feel anything impressive about, other than that it was an ancient, high-level grade-4 item.

But all the items in that area were of that grade and seemed more valuable than that little thing.

That immediately made them think that the prices of things there were ridiculously high!

'What's up with those prices?' Sapphire wondered.

That mollusk explained to those two, even though no one there questioned it. "Every item in this place took a lot of effort from countless generations of our tribe members.

So the value of all the items here is naturally high, even more so considering that these are ancient and high-level artifacts.

For us Mollusk Collectors, these are the most valuable items because they are the ones that have the most history for us to analyze and entertain ourselves with."

Minos understood this and saw no problem paying such an amount, but part of him was hoping that the feeling he had felt was not wrong.

Just in case, he asked. "Do you know the stories of these three items? In particular, the history of this one I am buying?"

"I know some of them, but not everything. Unlike Pope Maximus' cloak, these items are naturally more difficult to analyze since they don't have an aura of a God about them." That mollusk said. "But I know a few things.

That sword, for example, must have belonged to a high-level cultivator of the Spiritual Church. From the location it was, its owner must have lost it during a battle on the high seas.

The locked chest also belonged to that organization, and the key to it must be either in the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus or lost somewhere in the Spiritual World.

The Church doesn't have the key to it. Otherwise, it would have already been bought from us.

We do not know what is in it, but it may be of little value to people not connected to the owner of it.

In the ancient past and even today, it is not uncommon for some great cultivators to keep memories and things emotional for them in items like this. ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ

So it could contain something of great value, but it could be that it is just a souvenir for someone who lived tens of thousands of years."

It briefly paused as it looked at that vial and said. "It was found in the Flowers Kingdom over 1.5 million years ago. We don't know anything about what's inside it. It could be ink, blood, or wine; we don't know because we dare not open it.

But this should be important because no one would store something worthless in a device like this and of this quality."

Minos heard that and felt compelled to buy that chest. But just as he was about to do so, he felt his skin creep and changed his mind.

"Very well, I will keep the small vial. Here are the 600,000 high-grade crystals." He took a few bags of crystals from one of his spatial rings and handed it to that creature.

Those two fish looked at Minos surprised once again, not expecting that he had so much wealth that he could spend all that on something that might be worthless.

With 600,000 high-grade crystals, a cultivator could easily pay for all their life expenses until they became Spiritual Demigods.

But these two didn't know that Minos had access to several times that amount of crystals because he was an emperor and controller of the Bank of the Black Plain!

That bank alone had more than 20 times that amount available for the emperor to use as he pleased!

That mollusk didn't bother trying to understand how a level 77 human could pay for that and soon went about the paperwork behind it.

It wasn't complicated to do that. After registering the sale of the high-level grade-4 vial, it returned with the proof of payment and that item in a golden box.

"Here it is." It said before asking. "Is there anything else that interests you? We have other things related to what you are looking for, but they are of lower levels."

Minos kept that item in his spatial ring and said. "No, that was all I wanted."

With that said, that mollusk would soon accompany these three to the exit of the Ancestral Chamber of Commerce, an area entirely different from the entrance, through which only buyers could leave.

There was no one but the employees of that place in the vicinity, so Minos and his two companions could depart far away without anyone noticing.

When they were already quite far from that place, Sapphire asked. "I wonder if that was the item, Ed? I found it so ordinary compared to the others."

"Hmmm, I believe so." Minos said, remembering the earlier sensation, something he could only associate with what he had acquired by spilling his blood on the map of the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus.

"I hope it really is..." Randall commented. "Anyway, what do you intend to do now?"

"I want to go to the center of this city," Minos replied. "An elder once told me that if I were to pass through one of the Cities of a Thousand Races, I should look for a statue of a human. According to him, such a thing would lead me to something interesting."

Minos was making up a story to justify his interest in passing through the central area of this city, following Henricus Longus' memories.

Henricus Longus had visited every major underwater city in the ocean and left things in each of them.

This was not something he had left for Minos but for future generations of humans in his family or people who knew his history.

That man knew that one day he would die, and like many high-level experts, he had created several ways to leave his mark on this world, leaving legacies.

Minos knew that one of them must be in this city, so he was interested in going after such a thing!

...