Book 22 Chapter 14

Negotiate

-King Don's office

He always overlooked the cylindrical arena from where he had the best view of the sword fights, the moments of life and death, and the only way to get up to his office and bleachers was to make an appointment with him at least a few months in advance.

Yet today, at an unannounced hour, the door to his office opened to reveal two visitors. To his surprise, they were young women. One was beautiful, dressed as black as night and carrying a black umbrella, and the other wore a cotton robe, so he could not make out her face, but she had a sculpted, graceful figure, and her every step was graceful.

"How did you make it this far?"

I've always been the king of money, but this time it was engineering school, no matter how young the girls were.

"Well, of course I walked up."

The woman in black, Yunfei, replied in a cheerful voice with a smile.

His words sent a chill down the spine of King Don, who had been through it all.

"What about the fifty warriors?"

"I'm sure they're all sleeping outside by now."

At the news that he had stunned all fifty warriors, King Don swallowed hard for a moment.

"This is not working. You're sleeping on the clock. I'm going to have to cut your pay or fire you."

King Don, pretending to be nonchalant, replied.

"That's a good call, but I don't think the outcome would have been any different if the number was twice what it is now."

It was a sign that he'd done enough.

"I find that hard to believe……."

"Want me to prove it?"

The smile on Yun Fei's face deepened. King Don found the smile very ominous.

"No, thank you."

"Well, it looks like the bodyguards are all asleep, so let's have a talk."

"No."

"Why not?"

"That's it……."

At that moment, two inyoung leapt out of the shadows of the corner of the wall facing Yunbi and Na Yerin, emitting a beam of light.

"Because there's still a favor to be had."

King Don spoke blandly. The two men who stepped out of the shadows in the corner were not the ones who guarded the stairs.

But…

"So?"

As if he knew what he was doing, he stabbed his black umbrella into the flashing light without looking back. The pottery storm that had been spewing life was instantly stilled.

Puck!

The next moment, he's sprawled on the ground, having come running from the right corner, and his side is throbbing.

Na Yerin didn't need the fuel's help, either; as good as their stealth was, it wasn't enough to fool her senses.

Her white sword sliced through the air as swiftly as a scroll, and in the next instant, her opponent's katana split as well, and before he could recover from his surprise, the sword qi pierced his blood vessels, turning him into a stiff log and dropping him to the ground.

Click!

Na Yerin quietly sheathed her sword as if nothing had happened.

"Now we're all going to sleep again, aren't we?"

Yeonbi laughed.

"When did you know?"

"Since I came in, of course."

"Yeonbi is a given," he replied. A cold sweat broke out on King Don's forehead. He hadn't realized that he would be so taken in by this young woman. He decided to do the businesslike thing and make the most sensible choice.

"Haha, I lost, so what's the point, you must have come all the way up here for a reason?"

"Of course there is, do you think I would have bothered without it?"

"Speak, for I am ready to listen."

"Good, that's a fast story. Long story short, I want to fight a scar, but the receptionist won't let me, and she says that's up to you, the owner of this place, and she has no authority over it, so I'm going to have to go over here and talk to her, which is annoying, but here I am."

If Ms. Zhang, the receptionist, had heard the story, she would have turned white.

"Heh, heh, heh. You mean Ms. Zhang at the reception desk told you that?"

"Well, they kindly advised me that it would work better if I showed them that I could do some business, so here I am, hassled, but with some skills."

The story was enough to send Mr. Zhang, who was already bleaching his hair, into a state of shock.

"Why do you want to fight the scars so badly?"

It didn't seem to hold a grudge like the last one did.

"Do I really need a reason, and even if I did, I don't think I'd need to tell you? Well, let's just call it 'prize' for now, because it's easier to understand."

"I might die. No, you have a one in nine chance of dying, and you're going to do it anyway?"

"Oh my God, you think you're somebody who cares about the value of life, and it doesn't matter to you whether these little girls die or not, because you're just making money in the middle, and it's all good, right? It doesn't matter if they die in there or not, it's all about the box office, right?"

It was a thorn in his side, but he didn't bother to deny it.

"Well, I won't deny it, but the question is, will the girls go out and make it a hit?"

All he could think about was the box office.

"With two pretty girls like this, how can it not be a box office hit? If it doesn't work out, even with all these big box office elements, I guess I'll have to blame it on your lack of ability?"

"Ah, Mr. ……."

He hadn't been called that since he was crowned Dark Lord.

"So, if it's a prize, how much do you want?"

"Hmmm… maybe a minimum of 300,000?"

Said Touro, who doesn't care about Yeonbi.

"Four, three hundred thousand, Miss, are you out of your mind?"

At the mention of large sums of money, the Money King's eyes widened.

"Surely you're sane?"

Why should I be surprised by such a thing?" replied Turo Yunbi. King Don pressed his thumb and forefinger to his temples in frustration.

"Haha, I get that the black lady is strong, I get that she's attractive, but that's not enough. She's not a box office draw. Besides, they're two beautiful girls, and she's not even wearing that gown you're wearing, so unless I'm clairvoyant, how can I tell if she's beautiful or not without seeing her bare face?"

Then Yeonbi exclaimed in disbelief.

"Oh my gosh, didn't you know that covering your face with superfine or cotton thread is a sign of being a superfine beauty! I can't believe you don't have that kind of common sense!"

However, the king of money was not an easy opponent, and you can't just rely on myths.

"You can't be in business for very long if you're stuck with that kind of bias. Anything you see with your own two eyes is real."

He was the kind of person who only unraveled when he saw it with his own two eyes.

"Can you do that if you just confirm it?"

Na Yerin, who had been silent until now, leaving everything to Yunbi, spoke up in a quiet voice.

"Lean?!"

Yeonbi cried out in surprise.

"Well… it's still hard. No matter how beautiful you two are, there's something decidedly lacking."

"What is that?"

King Don replied briefly.

"Fame!"

"You mean reputation?"

Na Yerin asked.

"Yes, reputation, call it a reputation, call it a name, but what you two need is a reputation, a reputation that can move people, that can get them drunk, a name that can shake the powers that be! How can you trust a man who doesn't have that kind of reputation to invest 300,000 yuan in you? You can't, Cancer, you can't."

"So what about me?"

With that, Na Yerin quietly removed the cotton robe she had been wearing. King Don had to swallow his breath for a moment at the beauty within, a beauty he had never encountered before, even though he had seen many beauties.

"Oooh, I never knew there was such beauty……."

Beauty that takes the viewer's breath away, regardless of age, actually existed. To be able to make a human being who had gone through the whole prenatal and postnatal process like him agitate… it was a beauty beyond words.

"Rin, you didn't have to take off your superlatives!"

Even Yeonbi looks a little puzzled, as if he wasn't expecting Na Yerin to take off her ultralight here.

"Lin? Sojae can't be… Bingbai Peak, the best in the world……."

Na Yerin nodded, her face calm.

"It's an undeserved and burdensome title, but if you're asking me if Bing Bai Peak Na Yerin is who I am, then yes, I am Bing Bai Peak Na Yerin, daughter of Martial Saint Lord White Lightning Sword Ning Bai Tian and Ice Moon Adept Ye Qing. Is 'me' enough of a reputation?"

"Is it good enough? Absolutely! Absolutely. It's enough. It's enough for me, the most powerful man in the world. As long as I, Sojae, come forward with my bare face, we can have not only 300,000 but 500,000!"

Don exclaimed in an excited tone. The moment he took off Na Yerin's initials, he instinctively felt, "This is it!" He'd never been wrong before.

"Let's make it a million, then, because 300,000 is no longer enough."

Yeonbi's face was not smiling.

"I've changed my mind, you're sacrificing too much."

I didn't want to be treated cheaply after all the sacrifices I'd made.

"Twice… a million?"

"Why, is that too little?"

The Don looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I got carried away for a moment and said it, but a million is honestly too much. Hmm, how about half a million? I think we can compromise on that."

"Okay, that's a little short, but let's make it N500,000."

Yeonbi agreed.

Pair!

King Don clapped his hands once in celebration of the agreement.

"Very well, ladies, I will give in to your provocations!"

"Good idea."

The Yeonbi, which Lin had stripped down to zero and would not have stood still if something had gone wrong, replied.

"But there's a catch."

"On what terms?"

"There are only two maidens left, fill in the third, and make sure it's the same woman, especially a pretty one. People love the blood of the beautiful."

"Gee, you should be ashamed of yourself, old man, for saying such a discriminatory thing."

The Yeonbi was a wake-up call, but the money king didn't budge.

"Not much."

In a sullen tone, King Don replied.

"I guess that's the end of the story then."

This was followed by a detailed discussion about the date and process of the match.

"You are not the only ones who want to challenge the Seven Deadly Sins. If there are others, the ladies will have to compete against them. If word gets out that Bing Bai Feng will be competing, it's possible that there will be a large number of women who want to compete against him."

"I don't care."

Na Yerin replied in a quiet but firm voice.

"Okay, no objections then?"

"No objection, is that a done deal then?"

"Not yet."

"What, not yet?"

Suddenly, a chill ran through Yan Bi's body. It was an aura that made even the Don King, who had been through the whole prenatal process, feel cold in his heart.

"I can't make a decision like this on my own. I need to talk to people for a while."

As if he'd made up his mind and was planning to walk away at the last minute, Yeomdo looked at Don Wang with suspicion in his eyes and said in a cold tone.

"Ho-oh, was the money king of Kang Ho-lando the kind of person who discusses business with his subordinates?"

No matter how I looked at it, it didn't look like it.

"Of course we do. The bigger the job, the better."

"So I'm just supposed to wait here, forever?"

"Don't worry. I'll let you know when I get back to my quarters and get some rest."

"Where do you think you're staying?"

They hadn't even decided on a place to stay yet.

"Oh, that doesn't matter, I'll figure it out in no time, no matter where I'm staying."

It didn't take long for the ruler of the land of the mighty to get his hands on that much information.

"Great, look forward to hearing from you."

If there was bad news, it wouldn't be fun.

"Don't worry, I won't let you down."

"I hope so, because that would be the best thing for him. Now go, Rin."

Na Yerin nodded and put her cloak back on, and as her radiant beauty was obscured by the cloak and cotton threads, a pang of regret flashed through King Don's heart. Even as the two disappeared, the ripples still dominated his mind. He shook his head hastily.

"Not if you don't get in touch with him soon!"

King Don jumped to his feet and hurried over to the bookshelves that lined the walls. The first book he picked up was a famous tome on the "rice market" called "The Complete Conquest of the Staple Food Market," located in the top row, second from the left. On the back of the book was a handle. He pulled it.

Drat!

But nothing happened except for the initial chirp. It was not a malfunction. There was no need to return it, no need to get it repaired for free. Undeterred, he pulled the books from the right side of the second compartment to the middle of the fifth and third compartments, which were titled "The Young Rich People of Kang Ho" and "Bury Your Money in Kang Ho!" respectively, but the titles were not important. Behind these books was also a handle, and he pulled it in turn. He repeated the same thing with the three remaining compartments below. One by one, he pulled out a book from each compartment and pulled the handles behind it in turn.

Grrrrrr!

Only after tugging on all six knobs in all six compartments did the secret door open, revealing the hidden entrance.

The mechanism knobs on this shelf were not just behind the book that had just been removed. If someone were to break in and remove all of the books from the shelves, he would only see twenty-four identical knobs lined up in rows and columns, five in each compartment. If one is out of order, the door will not open. If you get it wrong three times, there's retribution.

That's six squares with twenty-four in each, or a one in twenty-two chance of winning.

The door to Him was finally open.

Who in the world could be called 'him' by the dark ruler of Kang Ho Rando? The figure of the Don King disappeared into the darkness of the secret passage, and soon only silence filled the empty space.

金積神, king of money!

A lord of the underworld, ruling the nights of the mighty Horando. That's what the people knew, but what no one else did, King Don knew, was that he was a shadow of the true ruler of this place. He had a master he worshipped. He had experienced his master's fear and power, and he thought to himself, this is the one who is truly worthy to rule the night. The Don himself was merely managing the place as his agent; he had the skill to spend and collect money, and he had the power and the fear. The Don had been handed almost complete authority over all sales and transactions, but this time the stakes were too high. No matter what, he had to consult with his master.

This dark corridor was a secret passage to Him, and at the end of it was a secret room where He stayed in secret. Today was the day that the master of the room was staying there. It would be a shame to disturb the master's rest. He knocked on the door in a careful, polite manner and then stepped inside.

His master sat in his seat, clad in blood-red robes, a man whose mere presence overwhelmed everyone. King Don began to recount the events of the previous day.

"ck……."

It's a laugh.

"Kkkkk……!"

It's a small laugh.

"Kkkkkkkk!"

But it was also a growing laugh. But the laughter began to grow louder and louder, and soon it filled the room.

"Kahahahahahaha, I never thought I'd see you in a place like this again!"

The small, faltering laugh finally burst into mania. His laughter bounced off the walls, echoing in every direction. He had never seen his lord laugh with such joy before.

"Surely you didn't say that the white wench was Bing Bing Feng Na Yerin?"

"Yes, yes, my lord."

King Don replied with as much politeness as he could muster. Even he, the ruler of the night in Kanghorando, was but a mere servant before this man in red.

"You're sure?"

If he got it wrong, it could cost him his own head.

"I'm sure of it. There aren't many women with that kind of beauty and that kind of swordsmanship. It's definitely Bing Bai Feng Na Yerin."

The man in red laughed again. King Don had never seen his master laugh like this before. His master, whom he had thought of as a cold, bloodless demon, devoid of all emotion, was now laughing with genuine joy. It was a laugh of madness and joy all rolled into one.

"Yay! I can't believe how much fun I'm having in the palm of my hand! The world is so much fun!"

He slapped his left hand over his right shoulder. It had been nearly a decade, but the pain was still indelibly etched there. And that wasn't all. As soon as he heard Na Yerin's name again, a long-suppressed, dormant black desire began to burn within him.

I want to torment them somehow, he thought sincerely, I want to see them howl, I want to see them on their knees begging, I want to see them ravaged.

At that moment, his clenched right shoulder began to ache like it had been scalded by fire, the hatred etched into it whispering to him.

Go! Go, ravage and destroy!

"Heh heh heh……."

He shuddered at the pleasure and shivers that crawled up from the depths of his chest, from the dark bottom of his desires.

"I never thought I'd get all these heavenly gifts for doing nothing good! What a surprise."

He didn't know why the chaste girl was here, but it didn't matter. As long as I could enjoy myself, that was all that mattered.

I couldn't put an end to this joy all at once. Slowly, like savoring. Good food was not meant to be rushed.

"Do you know those bitches?"

Having been humiliated by the two women and not having any more humiliation left to add, King Don's tone was harsh.

"Kuk-kuk, I know a bit, especially about the white girl."

The man who called himself Lord of the World laughed again. It was a creepy laugh, with a hint of chill, that made even his most trusted henchman shudder.

"Let me ask you this: what do you think of when you see a garden covered in snow?"

The man who had become the king's master asked. The king replied.

"When I was a kid, I used to think I wanted to put my footprints there before anyone else, though I've already forgotten that."

"Ugh, why do I feel that way?"

His owner was strangely more talkative than usual.

"I'm not sure."

His master wanted to tell him the answer, not hear the answer.

"That's because you want to defile it, because you don't want to leave it pure and white!"

A cruel smile tugged at the corners of the man's mouth as he spoke.

"Don King!"

"Yes, my lord!"

"Let's have a festival, a blood festival! It's a tournament, with a prize of 500,000 yuan."

"Four, the prize is five hundred thousand nyang……."

It was a sum that would have made even the money king tremble with the amount of money that had flowed into Ganghorando over the years.

"I'm sorry, but the prize of 300,000 Nyang is considered a large enough sum. I'll renegotiate and send you an email to……."

"Why? Did you run out of money?"

"Oh, no, it's not, it's not a lot of money, but it's not something I can't afford. It'll put a bit of a squeeze on the funds I've been saving up, but it's not…… unreasonable, but using it to pay for a speculative offer is……."

Common sense says that shouldn't happen. People call it a non sequitur.

"You're gonna need a big bait if you're gonna reel in a walleye, and you're gonna need a big bait if you're gonna reel in that pompous hypocrite."

When he finished, he turned and walked over to the window side of the bleachers and peered down, as if he had finished speaking and would not hear any further arguments.

"Soon there will be three beauties up there as sacrifices, and I can hardly contain my excitement at the thought of their vividly colored blood."

Wham!

He said as he turned to leave, then remembered.

"Oh, by the way, send me an invitation!"

"Where are you referring to?"

"Fearless!"

He was silent for a moment, then instructed again.

"The recipient is Murimeng Zhu himself!"

His right arm flapped in the wind as he exited the secret door.

The man in red who rules the darkness of Ganghorando,

He was a one-armed man.