Chapter 298: Step into a pit every day, 998 (5k)

That wandering merchant isn’t exactly a fan of the Scorching Sun Department, you know—even if you just want to ask a couple things, in his eyes, that’s already buying information.

And since it’s a deal, whether he’s even willing to do business with us is another question entirely.

After a moment’s thought, Cai Qidong dialed Wen Yan’s number.

In Nanwu County, the most convenient person—who’s met the wandering merchant, done business with him, and could also help the Scorching Sun Department ask about this stuff—well, clearly, that’s Wen Yan.

He put his phone on the table, waited for the call to connect and the timer to start, before finally picking it up.

"Hey, Wen Yan, got something I’d like you to help out with."

"Yo, Chief, just say the word. As long as it doesn’t cost me money, I’m up for anything."

Wen Yan brought up the money issue right off the bat—not because he wanted to, but because his savings were nearly wiped out by Gauss’s shenanigans.

He’d originally overestimated Gauss—thought five grand would at least last three days.

Never expected that after just one night, Gauss burned through it all.

He had a custom suit made—cost over thirteen thousand.

The five thousand he just borrowed was obviously nowhere near enough.

But hey, who could’ve guessed—yesterday afternoon, while out for tea, Gauss somehow got talked into getting a credit card, with a ten grand starting limit.

And less than an hour later, Gauss maxed that card out.

Wen Yan was thoroughly defeated—based on how Gauss spends, the cash left in his hand is one hundred percent not going to survive till next payday.

Hell, they’ll all be living on air long before the month’s end.

If things go south, they’ll have to mooch Sparrow Cat’s cafeteria meals just to eat.

"So what’s wrong this time?" Cai Qidong asked absentmindedly.

Wen Yan slipped straight into rant mode.

By the end of it, even Cai Qidong felt that if Gauss kept bleeding Wen Yan dry like this, the guy might be eating dirt way before he gets his next expense reimbursement.

"Alright, alright—enough complaints. I’ll get someone to send you a credit card, and an extra supplementary card too.

You give Gauss the extra card; you can set the spending limit for it yourself.

No need for you to worry about paying the bills—it’s all covered. That good enough for you?"

"You’re the boss, Chief!"

"Back to business. That photo you sent, I had some people take a look at it. Doesn’t look like anything local to Nanwu County.

The chain’s design and markings—that’s northern style.

Right now the experts I’ve talked to can’t give me anything more specific.

But they did recommend that wandering merchant—said he should know.

Can you reach out to him?"

Wen Yan said nothing.

Long silence. After a while, Cai Qidong added—

"The department will cover all expenses."

"Chief, it’s not about who’s footing the bill.

The thing is, with that wandering merchant—you know how he operates, right? What he wants is in and out, quid pro quo.

If all I ever do is buy information and never offer something exclusive in return,

he basically doesn’t want to deal with me anymore.

He said he took a huge loss on our last trade, even."

Cai Qidong thought about it—he had a point.

As they’d figured, the way these wandering merchants work, their path is all about making deals—over and over.

And just faking trades obviously doesn’t cut it.

What really pushes their career forward is new categories, unique stuff, that kind of thing.

He probably sells intel just to broaden his reach, to grease the wheels for his career.

After all, doing deals isn’t something you can just lock yourself in a room and grind out.

Cai Qidong mulled it over: what’s out there that’s rare and would be acceptable to sell to a wandering merchant?

After thinking it through, one thing came to mind—something the Scorching Sun Department has plenty of, but is extremely rare out in the world.

Pain Demon remains.

Back when Gauss summoned all those devils, they’d been taken away all in one go.

Of course, those devil corpses were all brought back to the Scorching Sun Department. The blood left on the ground had been scrubbed and neutralized so many times, you couldn’t lick a trace off the floor if you tried.

"Devil bones, blood, hide—or even better, a complete Pain Demon body, a real one, not some Little Demon.

Don’t think just because these days everyone’s summoning devils and demons, this stuff isn’t rare anymore.

Actually, not every devil or demon shows up with a body when they descend.

If it were otherwise, Europa wouldn’t be doing exorcism rituals all the time.

These devils summoned directly by the Demon King—all arrive with a body.

That’s the truly rare stuff.

Over in Europa, you could sell one to the Church for a small fortune.

But you tell him up front—this stuff is not allowed to appear in Divine Land, period."

"Chief, you’ve really got guts." Wen Yan’s words held a trace of admiration.

Called him Cai Heizi, and he totally deserved it.

Guy actually dares to sell a complete devil’s corpse, and to a wandering merchant, no less.

With Old Meng, that scam artist—he’d definitely maximize profit on that devil corpse by selling it straight to Europa.

Eighty percent chance, that secret’s bound to leak, and word will get to the Church and any other potential buyers.

By then, everyone will know that sly dog is playing dirty, but they’ll all just keep raising their bids—no way are they letting anyone else get it.

Old Meng, that shifty bastard, can laugh his way to the bank—crying all the way as he rakes in the cash.

If he’s lucky, he might even score a few things he couldn’t get before—stuff he could flip again for more rare resources.

Once that market heats up, there’s no way they’ll have time or energy to spare watching what’s happening in Divine Land.

Cai Heizi really is a piece of work—obviously, all these foreigners showing up recently, through different channels, coming to Divine Land or, rather, to Nanwu County, has gotten on Cai Heizi’s nerves.