Hello, is this a letter addressed to Demon Fortress?

Instruct Shia to take good care of the saintess and Elvia.

Once one of them wakes up, they will leave the capital.

After hiding in the wild.

Lin Gui walked out of the post office alone.

Back in Karan, all of this was handled by Shia.

But now, for safety's sake, he can no longer let her take the risk.

The middle and upper floors, where supplies are procured, are the most active areas for personnel.

There is no guarantee that no church members are active here.

The Church of Light has many methods for sensing demonic energy.

In addition to visual observation, there are also methods such as sensing holy light, detecting souls, and even specially trained scent hounds.

Even though Shia's control over demonic energy was already quite perfect, Lin Gui was unwilling to let her take any risks.

When I got downstairs, the post office on the first floor was already closed and deserted.

He went out into the street.

The refugee quarter had a rare festive atmosphere, with the faces of the migrants showing a hint of relaxation.

The price of rice and noodles sold in aristocratic shops has dropped significantly.

Many people were finally able to have a hot meal.

I'm happy about that.

Lin Gui pulled out the purchase list.

The list isn't long: food, drinking water, medical supplies, hiding tools, camping gear, and a map.

And... a bunch of novels that Shia wanted.

The supplies brought from Karan were not consumed much on the way.

But compared to the journey from Karan to the capital.

The journey to the dwarven city-state of Shield City is much longer.

Shield City is not located in the border region.

Instead, it is located in the Blackwater Corridor in the northwest of the border region.

The straight-line distance is more than ten times the distance from Karan to the capital.

Therefore, Lin Gui must prepare more supplies.

He first went to several general stores and alchemy shops to purchase equipment.

The equipment was surprisingly cheap.

A super-grade enchanted dagger only costs a few dozen gold coins.

Forty years ago, the apocalyptic bloodbath claimed the lives of countless powerful warriors.

This also led to a large influx of powerful equipment into the market in a short period of time.

Therefore, expensive equipment during the golden age.

In contrast, prices plummeted during the city-state era.

Aside from the legendary Star-level equipment and semi-divine artifacts used by the legendary.

The basic price of other weapons is less than one hundred gold coins.

Equipment is classified according to the amount of energy it can withstand.

They are Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Starshine, Demigod, and Artifact.

These correspond to low-level, mid-level, high-level, extraordinary, legendary, epic, and demigod.

The Emerald Bow that Shia used before was a genuine platinum-grade weapon.

She bought it for twenty-three gold coins.

Here, a platinum and jade bow cannot even be exchanged for a pound of pork.

The meat and livestock market in the upper-level area.

"256 gold coins per jin (1 grams)"

The pork vendor announced the price with a blank expression.

Lin Gui's eyelids twitched.

Although the perfect combination of levitation and the Night Veil allowed him to achieve financial freedom.

But at least he started out as a homeless child.

They used to live off counting silver coins.

At the auction, which was conducted by Elvia on behalf of Lin Gui, Lin Gui had no real feeling about it.

Now, Lin Gui's expression twisted, and he began to try to bargain.

"Ahem, I say, brother, the king has ordered a celebration."

"Other businesses are offering discounts, responding to the king's call."

Why don't you have any corresponding discount promotions?

Lin Gui pointed to the price list next to him, which was shockingly expensive.

There were no words about celebrating the saint's prophecy or about discounts and promotions on the items.

The butcher replied expressionlessly.

"The livestock market is an important source of funding for the great nobles; the king is not yet qualified to reach out to it."

"Fine, give me 5 jin..."

Besides pork, Lin Gui also purchased some other meats, vegetables, and fruits.

Waving my hand, I froze it and put it into a box floating in mid-air.

Lin Gui took out the receipt and paid.

It cost a total of over 4 gold coins...

More than 4 gold coins...

Lin Gui had been an adventurer in the New Testament for so many years, and he had only saved 1,600 gold coins.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Gui comforted himself.

It's alright, this all comes from the money of the noble lords.

Arrive near the Transport Guild in the commercial district, at the Map Drawing Museum.

"I need a map of all known gold routes in the frontier regions."

"And all the gold routes in the Blackwater Corridor where the city of Ironshield is located."

The shop assistant behind the counter lazily raised his eyelids and then quoted a price.

"One hundred and forty-five million six hundred and eighty thousand gold coins."

Lin Gui, who had just taken out his bank receipt, froze and slowly raised his head.

"……How many?"

Lin Gui knew that the gold route was expensive, but this offer still exceeded his expectations.

He hesitated for a moment, then changed his question.

"How much does the Golden Route cost from the capital to the Fortified Shield City?"

The boss looked down and calculated: "The latest roadmap costs fifteen million gold coins."

Lin Gui's eye twitched slightly.

More than ten million gold coins... He looked at his bank receipts.

He had already squandered his money at the auction and didn't have much left, so he couldn't possibly scrape together this huge sum.

He tried asking helplessly.

"Are there any discounts if people from the transport team buy it?"

The boss was taken aback and looked at Lin Gui with suspicion.

The person who can run such a priceless map business is naturally not an ordinary person; he himself possesses extraordinary strength.

He could tell at a glance that Lin Gui was just a high-level mid-level mage.

This rank isn't even good enough to be a handyman in a transport team.

Lin Gui silently took out the badge of the North Wind Caravan from his pocket and handed it over.

The boss took the badge, paused for a moment, and then looked at Lin Gui with a strange expression.

"You're Lin Gui?"

Lin Gui looked puzzled: "How do you know my name?"

He never mentioned his name to the other party.

The boss's expression became even stranger.

"The people from the North Wind Caravan were almost frantic looking for you yesterday, they even put up a bounty on your head at the Adventurers' Guild."

"Huh?" Lin Gui was even more puzzled.

"What do they want from me? Isn't the agreed departure date the day after tomorrow?"

The boss shook his head.

"You didn't know? The North Wind Caravan left the capital this morning along with the Royal Knights."

"They left a message saying that if anyone sees you, you should go to Twilight Fortress."

"Twilight Fortress..." Lin Gui understood instantly.

Freya and the others must have been called in by the royal capital authorities to "put out a fire".

To fill the void left by Caesar's use of the Soul-Slaying Blade to cripple that legendary duke.

The huge gap in combat power left by Twilight Fortress.

It seems I'll have to set off tomorrow too.

"Okay, thanks for reminding me."

"So, can the transport team members actually get a discount?"

The boss looked puzzled.

"If you're with the North Wind Caravan, why are you even buying into this gold route?"

"You've been running this route for countless years; you even built the road yourself."

"You wouldn't know?"

Lin Gui frowned; he couldn't explain.

He couldn't very well say that he was just a temporary worker.

The reason I bought the map was so that if I got kicked out halfway through, I would always have a backup plan.

Freya and the others were willing to give him a ride, mainly because he was "weak enough".

Even a high-ranking mid-level mage can't cause much trouble in the wilderness.

What if someone of extraordinary rank wanted to team up with another player? Even if they knew levitation, it wouldn't help.

When traversing the wilderness, trust between teammates is of paramount importance.

A single backstab could lead to the entire team being wiped out, surrounded by demons.

Even if Freya is a mid-level legendary, it wouldn't be surprising if she were exposed to the wild and died instantly.

After all, they were heading to a forbidden area.

Legendary demons, numbering in the thousands, reside in the forbidden land.

The reason they were willing to bring Lin Gui along was because Lin Gui and his two companions were too weak.

They were confident that they could subdue Lin Gui and his group before they made any unusual moves.

"So," Lin Gui pressed, "is there a discount?"

The shopkeeper shrugged: "The discount will be at most one hundred gold coins."

Lin Gui: "..."

What's the difference between this and buying a piece of equipment for only one copper coin less?

He reluctantly changed the question.

"How much does the Golden Route from Stronghold to the Wailing Wall cost?"

The boss retorted, "The Wailing Wall? Which node are you referring to?"

He pointed to the large map on the wall.

Lin Gui looked in that direction and saw a striking red line running through the entire "Blackwater Corridor" above the Fortress of Shields.

He opened his eyes wide and gestured with his hand to indicate the length of the entire "Wall of Sighs".

Then move your hand to the horizontal distance of the borderland.

They are almost the same length!

"No way! How can the Wall of Sighs be so long?!" Lin Gui exclaimed in surprise.

That's almost 9 kilometers!

What the hell is this wall?!

The boss chuckled: "How could a wall formed by the ruins of nineteen city-states swallowed by the Black Tide not be long?"

Lin Gui pulled out his map of the borderlands.

Looking at the small area in the upper left corner with only the word "sigh" hastily marked, his lips twitched.

He had thought the Wall of Sighs was only the size of a small city-state.

Little did they know, they were misled by their own map.

This is troublesome.

The Wall of Sighs was far larger than he had imagined.

It's virtually impossible to locate Avalon using this forbidden area.

Now we can only pin our hopes on Eve's prophetic abilities.

Ultimately, Lin Gui found himself on one of the many golden routes connecting the nineteen nodes of the Wailing Wall.

The four routes closest to Shield City were selected.

And a latest version of the world map of the Akara continent.

This nearly depleted all the gold coins in his bank account.

He went from being a multi-millionaire to being penniless.

Lin Gui sighed.

If I had known, I should have done a few more stunts with Elvia.