The gate soldiers were split into two teams, inspecting every person entering Azure Moon City and collecting the entry fee. Evan noticed that each soldier was actually at the God-Lord Realm—if even a mere guard was this strong, he couldn't begin to imagine how powerful the City Lord must be.
With his current strength, he really was nothing but an ant. And the entry fee was outrageously high—ten mid-grade Violet Cloud Crystals per person. Evan did the math: at least tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, entered the city each day. The amount of entry fees collected was simply terrifying.
After Lena Zhong paid the entry fee, she and Evan entered Azure Moon City. "Evan, this place is a real den of dragons and tigers. Don't cause trouble—here, even a God-King is just a mid-tier figure, and God-Emperors or God-Venerables might show up at any time. You get what I'm saying, right?"
"Got it, don't worry. My little life is precious—I'm not about to throw it away here. Azure Moon City really is enormous. I wonder where the good restaurants are. After flying for days, I'm starving," Evan said.
"The best restaurants are where all the big shots gather. Are you sure you want to go there? And the prices are terrifying—just a single dish can cost dozens of upper-grade Violet Cloud Crystals, and the good wine needs upper-grade God Stones to buy." Lena whispered.
"In that case, let's just find a regular inn to stay at. Being too flashy isn't good—it's way too easy to attract attention. Better to keep a low profile!" Evan replied.
The streets of Azure Moon City were extremely wide, at least a hundred meters across, paved with bluish stone that was obviously very hard. On both sides, plenty of small vendors hawked their wares—much like the Immortal Realm and the lower worlds.
Sometimes you could find real treasures at these street stalls. Evan glanced casually at both sides of the street, when suddenly a restless feeling surged in his heart—as if something was calling out to him. He'd felt this before, like the time he encountered Heaven Ape.
Maybe it was a stroke of luck. Keeping his face calm, Evan said to Lena, "Since we're in Azure Moon City, why don't we check out what these vendors are selling? Maybe we'll find something rare. What do you think?"
"Do whatever you want. Some things look pretty but are actually useless, and there are lots of fakes waiting to trick people. So you'd better be careful when picking out stuff," Lena said.
Evan sensed that the restless feeling in his heart was coming from somewhere on the left side of the street, but there were plenty of vendors there. He could only search slowly for whatever it was he needed.
He headed left. There were lots of people crowding around the stalls, watching and buying. Evan squeezed up to one vendor's stall and carefully inspected the items laid out—there were weapons, pills, artifacts, and some pretty stones.
Most of the weapons were divine artifacts, but usually just lower-grade ones with modest prices. In the God Realm, many refiners could forge weapons, but their quality was generally low to mid-grade. Those who could craft upper-grade divine artifacts were typically recruited by some major faction.
As for refiners who could make supreme divine artifacts, they were truly respected figures. Especially those who could forge jewelry and armor—such masters only appeared among the ten great powers, and even then, some refused to join any force. They were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
Evan didn't see anything he liked and moved on. After passing three stalls in a row, he still hadn't found what he wanted. Lena, on the other hand, noticed a simple, ancient jade pendant. She sensed a faint energy fluctuation inside, and judging by its age, it was extremely old.
As the mistress of Fragrant Grace Hall, Lena was very familiar with antiques and jewelry. She bought the pendant for three upper-grade Violet Cloud Crystals, but believed that a true expert could easily sell it for fifty.
She wasn't short on money, but the fun of doing business had little to do with how much she made.
Just then, Evan came to a stall run by a filthy old man. There were only two or three people in front of him, and a foul smell wafted off the old man, making people want to leave as soon as possible. Maybe that was why his business was so poor.
He had only about ten items on display—a pitch-black ceramic bottle, a few dull beads, a rusty broken sword, and half a cracked jade pendant. But one thing stood out to Evan: a horn. A dragon horn. A short, broken, incomplete dragon horn.
Evan realized the unease he'd felt was connected to this dragon horn. In the God Realm, dragon horns weren't all that rare, but very few could recognize one. This was just a short, broken piece, so even if someone knew what it was, they wouldn't buy it—totally useless junk.
Lena saw Evan staring intently at the dragon horn and asked, "You're interested in that piece of junk? It looks like some kind of divine beast's horn. Do you know what kind it is?"
"No idea, but I'm really curious about divine beasts, so I'm curious about anything from their bodies too. Let's just buy this broken horn—what do you think?" Evan smiled.
He turned to the filthy old man and asked, "Sir, how much for this?"
The old man seemed not to hear, eyes closed as if asleep. Evan had met plenty of oddballs like this before—either powerful experts or eccentric personalities best not offended.
So he raised his voice and asked again, "Sir, how much for this item?"
Evan's voice drew the attention of quite a few passersby. Even though the old man was filthy, Evan and Lena were both well-dressed, so people figured if they could stand it, so could everyone else. With that mindset, a small crowd gathered.
At that moment, the old man opened his eyes. He glanced over the onlookers, then fixed his gaze on Evan. For a split second, his expression changed dramatically, as if he'd seen something terrifying. But the change was so brief that most people, including Lena, didn't notice.
Who would pay attention to a filthy old man? But Evan saw it clearly—there was shock and disbelief in the old man's eyes.
"Young man, you want to buy something from this old fellow?" the old man asked weakly, as if he hadn't eaten.
"That's right. I think your divine beast horn is a bit unusual. Even though it's all battered, I've always wanted a divine beast of my own. Of course, that's impossible, so just owning this horn is already pretty good," Evan said...