I'll also work hard to conquer the dungeon today.

Chapter 727, Section 2.7-14: La Soméshmiri Ruins: Treasure

"Is Mr. Grace here? I've heard you have a magical scale, so I've come to pay you a visit. I hope you'll grant me an audience."

A maid stood behind the iron gate, looking at Dao Lin expressionlessly, and slowly said, "You're too late, the mission is already over."

Shui Qi subconsciously took out the task sheet, and the next second the paper with the words "[Task: The Unbalanced Golden Scales]" written on it turned into yellow sand and disappeared.

Dao Lin frowned and asked, "May I ask who completed the task?"

"A young man with hair similar to yours just left. I'm sorry, I have work to do and cannot continue to entertain you." The maid bowed to the group and then turned to leave.

"Is it Mingxi? Or... Mingjin?" Noy pondered.

"It's one person, not two. The fact that they didn't appear before us means they've made their own decision. Let's wait and see." After all, if they had just left as the maid said, given that this mansion only has one road, they would have definitely run into them on their way out. The fact that they didn't means that the other party was deliberately avoiding them.

“The twins are stronger than me. I couldn’t possibly detect them if they deliberately hid. Ye Gui could detect them, but it’s a pity they didn’t come with us this time.” Noyce touched the back of her hand and subconsciously glanced at the sword behind her back.

"Let's go back first."

When the three returned to the entrance of the exchange, they saw the man they had met before talking to Mu Yegui.

Xie Qing clutched his forehead in distress, saying in annoyance, "Spare me! Barrest has nothing to do with us. In fact, we're looking for it too. One escaped during the hunt last night, and we still haven't found the one that slipped through the net. If this keeps up, I'll be assigned to clean toilets!"

"After all that talk, you still haven't told me where Barrest came from, or where you got your information from," Mu Yegui said, staring intently at him.

"Regarding this, I can only say that I suddenly found out at a certain moment. To put it another way, it was originally sealed in my mind, and then it was unlocked at a crucial moment, something like that." Xie Qing tapped his head, a smile flashing in his blue eyes, and said softly.

A gentle breeze lifted the white triangular scarf on his head, revealing wisps of dark hair, and a slight smile graced his handsome face. Beneath his smooth, full forehead, his slightly narrowed blue eyes were deep and bright, giving him an air of mystery that was both alluring and enigmatic.

This person is more enigmatic to others than he appears.

"So, to make up for my mistake, I've brought you some information."

He took out a square, cube-shaped black box from his pocket. Each corner was decorated with gold, and there was a very abstract pattern on the top. Overall, the small box was very beautiful and looked strangely familiar.

"The black market," Mu Ye said softly, lowering his eyes.

"That's right, this is a small box that came from the black market. To be precise, its official name is the 'Counterfeit Treasure Box,' a numbered item, number 105. In simple terms, this box is like a blind box; it can contain tools for making counterfeits. Each box can only contain one tool, and the contents are random, making it a blind box-like item. However, every tool obtained is just as good as a numbered item." The numbered items Xie Qing mentioned refer to the 108 numbered items, including number zero, which are the most widely known of these items.

However, there are not only 108 items. Items outside the order, starting from 109, are called unnumbered items because their numbers are not displayed.

These items are almost everywhere, but they are ignored and overlooked because they are not numbered. Some are not ranked because their function is too useless, some are not ranked because they have only existed for a short time, some are not ranked because all the numbers have been taken since they appeared in the world, and some are not ranked because they are only a part of the numbered items, and so on.

Mu Yegui had heard of unnumbered items long ago, but as if it were a rule, he had always ignored their existence until this moment when he realized how many unnumbered items there were.

"A vendor on the black market said that the ruins in the southern district can drop items. In addition to white, there are six other different colors, and each color can yield different items."

"The 'Fake Treasure Box' comes in seven colors: white, black, red, blue, purple, yellow, and green. As I mentioned, it's a blind box, but because of the different colors, the contents inside are completely different. The black box contains shaping tools, such as clay, wood, and stone, which correspond to genuine items of the same type. For example, a stone monument can be counterfeited using the stone from the black box, achieving a 90% level of authenticity. Unless you deliberately use authentication tools or have seen the genuine article, it's virtually impossible to detect that it's a fake."

"Next, I'll begin to share the intelligence I'm about to deliver," Xie Qing paused before continuing.

“I found traces of forgeries in many places in Batulando: the only signpost for the ‘Treasure Hunt’, the monument, fragments of the solar calendar stone on the Sun Wheel Altar… I found traces of forgeries in almost every place Millie went.” Xie Qing’s blue eyes narrowed slightly, his expression serious and solemn.

Whether this box actually fell from the Southern Ruins battlefield remains to be verified, but Millie is definitely connected to the counterfeit group.

But what exactly is their purpose? What makes them go to such lengths to carry out this action?

"Fortunately, the tools of the [Fake Treasure Box] can only be used with the [Fake Treasure Box] type. In other words, if you want to fake an ancient map, you need to use fake paper as well as fake pens and ink, otherwise the realism will be greatly reduced."

"Don't be wary of me. We, the Devouring Void, are just a small organization, and we're not here to conquer dungeons. We have a business partnership with NPCs. We received a commission from Governor 'Agatha' to investigate the anomalies in Batulan. So, we can definitely cooperate. You tell me what anomalies you've discovered, and I'll tell you what information I've gathered. Isn't that a win-win situation?"

With her cool silver eyes fixed on those deep, dark blue eyes, Mu Yegui touched the ring on the middle finger of her left hand and said in a low voice, "Mr. Xie Qing is indeed very good at deceiving people. If I hadn't learned some of the truth, I might have really been fooled by you."

"I'm telling the truth," Xie Qing said with a light laugh.

“But Barrest is fake, isn’t it?” Mu Yegui retorted.

Xie Qing was slightly taken aback, then chuckled in frustration, "I'm really defeated by you..."

Is the information you receive necessarily true?

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(End of this chapter)