Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 766 Reaping the Reward
Boom!
The head, covered in dark, inky scales with a subtle, flowing golden sheen, rolled to the ground with a dull thud.

The air seemed to freeze in an instant.

Everyone was stunned by the sight of this head!

The onlookers, Zhang Dongliang himself, and even the managers of Jingqi Pavilion all gasped in shock, feeling as if an invisible hand was gripping their throats.

Even though only this head remained, the aura emanating from it was so oppressive that it instilled despair and even made one tremble from the depths of their soul.

What is this thing's head?

Those evil spirits? Great evil spirits? Or something beyond evil spirits?
Everyone felt a chill run down their spines. They couldn't discern the origin of the head, but they could sense the aura emanating from it. It was so enormous and magnificent, with empty eyes that just one glance was enough to make one feel as if their soul was being ripped away.

This thing must be the head of a Super A-level creature.

"My God, what... what is this?!" Everyone stared wide-eyed, both terrified and curious.

Standing opposite Xiao Ran, Zhang Dongliang, who had been arrogant and smug just moments before, suddenly lost all color in his face.

His arrogant smile froze completely. His pupils contracted sharply as he stared intently at the terrifying head on the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably, his teeth chattering.

However, as the vanguard of Fusheng Money Shop and the most capable assistant to the owner, Zhang Dongliang's character and abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people.

After a brief moment of shock, he gritted his teeth and shouted, "What a joke! A corpse of some unknown creature is worth 240 million? Pavilion Master Xiao, are you kidding your own reputation?"

Xiao Ran didn't say anything, but walked up to the head, cut off a piece of flesh from under the head, and put it in a box.

He then handed the box to Zhang Dongliang: "A piece of flesh from the Netherworld Divine Beast Fangcun. I don't know what its effects are, but its value is far more than 240 million. If you can't make the decision, you can have your master come out. If it's not worth it, then let him use his privileges to take my shop away!"

Just kidding, this head belongs to the old ghost's mount, a true divine beast.

It's far superior to anything like the Nine-Lives Dragon.

They were treasures from head to toe, and Xiao Ran couldn't judge their value, but that didn't affect how valuable the items themselves were.

Even with just this one tentacle, Xiao Ran could feel a frenzied power contained within it as he held it in his hand.

This force made his heart pound, but if you looked closely, you would find that the tentacles were covered with a layer of saliva.

It was this layer of saliva that suppressed the aura emanating from Fang Jue and Fang Cun's heads.

Otherwise, when Xiao Ran took out this head, everyone present, including Xiao Ran herself, probably wouldn't have been able to stand up straight at that moment.

Whether this item, worth 240 million yuan in ghost money, is worth it depends on the owner of Fusheng Money Shop.

Xiao Ran believed that the other party must possess some kind of special cursed object, which could determine its value.

Faced with the box Xiao Ran offered, Zhang Dongliang couldn't help but swallow hard, and carefully raised his hands to take the box.

As Zhang Dongliang took the box, a small pure gold scale appeared out of thin air in front of him.

This scale is quite interesting. The beam is gleaming gold, but the weight is covered in rust. If you look closely, you can even see the words "Heartless Scale" on the weight.

A prompt also appeared in front of Xiao Ran.

"Notification! The Gold Master has activated the Cursed Item Privilege on you, [Thousand Gold Scale], which will weigh the goods you hand over."

"Warning! The Golden Man has activated his Cursed Item Privilege on you, [Short Weight], the value of the items you submit will be significantly reduced, with the total value decreasing by 20%."

"Warning! The Gold Master has activated the Cursed Item Privilege on you, [Pawn Song]. The value of the items you submit will be significantly reduced again, with the total value decreasing by 15%."

Goodness, you can do that?
Xiao Ran couldn't help but complain in her heart. It was bad enough that they were shortchanging her, but they even charged her the way they would pawn her.

Everyone understands what "short weight" means, but what about the pawnshop song?

It's actually just a rule in the pawn industry.

They'll belittle anything they take from you.

For example, I'll buy you a leather jacket.

The counter would then shout: "Insects and rats have eaten away at the board, leaving it bare and hairless."

If I buy you a cotton-padded coat, I'll complain, "The outer layer is worn out and the inside is tattered."

This is partly to lower the price, and partly to prevent the goods from being damaged during storage.

After all, you never know when someone might redeem something you've pawned.

At this moment, the other party is using two special privileges against me, treating Xiao Ran's belongings as pawn items to further drive down the price, which is really going too far.

However, Xiao Ran did not speak out about this. He wanted to see what other tricks the other party had up their sleeve, since there was still a big, intact head waiting behind him.

Don't forget that the side effect of the other party's "forced sale" is that if you can't buy it, not only will they have to return the item to you, but you won't even get your money back.

Xiao Ran guessed that the 240 million ghost money was probably not the other party's bottom line, but the newly opened Amazing Pavilion probably couldn't come up with an equivalent amount of goods for such a large sum of money.

I'm afraid I'll have to use my Grade A cursed item as collateral just to barely get by.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't anticipate that they would end up with these two enormous heads. It seems they've kicked a hornet's nest.

Only after being suppressed by privilege twice in a row did Zhang Dongliang dare to place the box in his hand on the support. He gently moved the weight with his fingers.

Each transaction costs 500,000 ghost money.

After dialing four times in a row, the price had already reached 200 million. Zhang Dongliang's face turned black, and large beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

The onlookers, seeing the price on the scale, couldn't help but get excited. They were very interested in the origin of the head behind Xiao Ran and wanted to know if this mere tentacle could really be worth so much money.

Seeing that Zhang Dongliang was not moving, they all urged him on, "Dial it! Hurry up and dial it!"

"Exactly! Weren't you all so arrogant just now? Why did you chicken out when they actually brought out their treasure? Step back, let me see how much this thing is really worth."

"Hurry up, stop dawdling. We've been queuing since last night and haven't even gotten in yet. It's almost lunchtime. If you're going to cause trouble, can't you hurry up?"

The urging from the crowd came in waves.

The Changchun Association already had a bad reputation, and now they're trying to use money to intimidate people. Anyone would be annoyed by that.

Now that the acquisition has failed, they're stuck in a difficult position, and everyone is eager to kick them while they're down.

Zhang Dongliang frowned, and amidst the repeated urging, he trembled as he raised his hand and carefully and gently moved the weight backward.

At this point, Zhang Dongliang already understood that they had lost. A single tentacle was worth so much, and there was such a large, complete head behind it. Its value was probably beyond measure.

But he was still unwilling to give up, and he wanted to know exactly how much this thing was worth.

So he gently flicked the weight with his finger.

The price has reached 250 million.

At this moment, the scale beam swayed slightly, which made Zhang Dongliang's eyes light up. Just as he was about to speak, Xiao Ran casually plucked a spirit fragment from the head.

"Sorry, I forgot, this piece should be considered a free gift with the bundled sale."

As Xiao Ran spoke, she flicked her finger, and the spirit tablet, flashing with golden light, landed heavily on the tray.

The scale suddenly sank again, this time clearly far exceeding the price of 240 million.

"Boom!!"

Meanwhile, Zheng Caishen, the most mysterious of the four leaders of the Changchun Association and the major owner of Fusheng Money Shop who was hiding in the distance, turned pale and dropped his teacup on the ground.

A buzzing sound came from my ears.

"Boss!!"

Upon seeing this, Shui Ma and the others rushed forward to support the owner's arm, but were pushed away by him.

A cold, murderous intent flashed across Zheng Caishen's sharply defined face as he roared, his eyes red with rage, "Idiot! Idiot! How could he possibly produce something like this? Why is there no information about it in the intelligence reports? That damned intelligence broker is a complete idiot!"

However, everyone knew that the information that the intelligence merchants could provide was limited. After all, they couldn't see what was in Xiao Ran's space. The clues they could find out were only the quantity of goods in the warehouse and a list of each item, which was already very high-quality intelligence.

Moreover, 240 million ghost money is a sum that no force can easily come up with in a short period of time at this stage.

Who would have thought that Xiao Ran would have such a head in her hands?

After a while, Zheng Caishen calmed himself down. He knew that his 240 million yuan had gone down the drain.

This money will inevitably affect the entire Fusheng Money Shop.

For the foreseeable future, I'm afraid I'll have to tighten my belt.

This feud is not over!

He took a deep breath, glared fiercely at the direction of the Amazing Pavilion, and turned to Shui Ma and the others behind him, saying, "Inform Penglai Tower that we will pay the 'bridge' fee in advance, but the money we borrowed from them will be postponed for six months."

Shui Ma nodded. Fusheng Money House still had capital. At least they could weather this period and make up for the losses when the next wave of funds came back.

However, just as Shui Ma was about to take out his communication device to contact Penglai Tower...

Suddenly, a series of prompts appeared in front of Zheng Caishen.

"You have been affected by the Gold Master's professional privilege, [Wealth Overpowers Others], and your assets have been temporarily locked!"

"You are subject to the privilege of the Gold Master [Forced Purchase and Sale]. You must deliver goods of equivalent value to the other party, or you must trade with your own equivalent items. If you cannot produce enough equivalent items, you will lose your qualification for this industry!"

"Warning: Penglai Tower is launching a takeover bid for Fusheng Money Shop. Once the acquisition is completed, you will lose your job as a goldsmith!"

A series of notification sounds made Zheng Caishen's pupils dilate violently. He suddenly raised his head, opened his mouth wide, and screamed in disbelief, "Penglai Tower!! Penglai Tower!! Despicable!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zheng Caishen felt a tightness in his chest, followed by a metallic taste rising in his throat.

"puff!!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood, and the next second the world spun before his eyes. He leaned back and fell heavily to the ground.

(End of this chapter)