Chapter 83: Wolf King's Heart

Blackmap District, Mountain Furnace Street.

The carriage stopped by the roadside. Paying twenty copper pennies as fare, Gune stepped out of the carriage.

Raising his collar and lowering his hat brim, Gune glanced at the house number and walked toward a small alley ahead.

The moment he turned into the alley, Gune had already fastened a swirling ghost-face mask over his face.

As he moved forward,

Gune's body was rapidly changing: his height grew by half a head, and his figure became much thinner.

This slender silhouette closely resembled that of a Blood-Ear Elf.

Using his Blood Curse abilities, altering his form was no problem.

At the end of the alley,

"Thump... thump... thump..."

Gune knocked rhythmically on the wall to one side.

After a moment, the wall suddenly opened a narrow passage just wide enough for a person to slip through sideways.

Gune sidled through and entered.

What met his eyes was a dim storage room lined with wine barrels on both sides.

This was the storage room of an adventurer tavern.

The one who opened the secret door was an elderly bartender in a black cloak, with a dark face, stubbly beard, and somewhat aged.

The old bartender eyed Gune warily, his cloak bulging.

If Gune guessed correctly, there was definitely a revolver or a short double-barreled shotgun aimed at him.

Firearms like that were still quite effective against low- and even mid-rank Transcendents in certain situations.

At the same time, in corners Gune couldn't see, he sensed at least two other Transcendents watching him.

The adventurer tavern was a place with heavy traffic and much chaos.

There was no shortage of adventurers who, having learned a few incantations or Transcendent skills, or obtained a Transcendent profession, thought themselves exceptional and engaged in robbery or even theft.

Not to mention that this was also one of the entry points to the black market.

Naturally, the security here would not be weak.

"I'm here for the black market gathering," Gune said, his voice very hoarse.

"Over there." The old bartender pointed to a stone door on one side.

Gune walked over.

Old Cohen had brought Gune to this black market before, so Gune knew his way around.

Reaching the stone door, he pushed hard.

Creak, creak, creak...

The stone door slowly opened.

A dark, sloping stone staircase tunnel appeared before Gune.

Gune moved his feet and slipped nimbly inside.

After passing through a hidden passage and rounding a corner, Gune entered an exceptionally spacious underground hall.

It looked very much like the great hall of some huge underground castle.

At this moment, the hall was brightly lit, with a great many Transcendents coming and going.

Gune swept his gaze over them—no fewer than a hundred people.

"Quite a crowd," Gune muttered to himself.

These Transcendents either wore cloaks with black mist shrouding their faces or directly wore masks.

In the entire vast black market, no one revealed their true face.

Along the edges of the underground castle hall were a few stalls.

Most of these stalls sold items, while a few bought them.

However, the things sold or bought at these stalls were not valuable items.

Rather, they were things that were not too expensive but were contraband, hard to obtain outside.

After all, truly valuable items had to be auctioned at the exchange meet to fetch higher prices.

Gune made a rough circuit, spending over two hundred gold pounds to buy a few materials he needed and some incantation scrolls, then stopped.

He quietly sat down on a chair in the exchange hall on one side and checked the time.

1:42 PM.

Eighteen minutes remained until the exchange meet started at two o'clock.

While waiting, Gune began to inventory the items he planned to sell this time.

A Storage Leaf Bracelet, a Mithril Bronze-grade dagger, and a batch of "Life Spring Water."

Yes, among the things Gune was selling at the black market this time was indeed "Life Spring Water."

A few days ago, the daily yield of Life Spring Water was about a large bowl, just enough for Gune to drink himself.

But in recent days, with the rapid growth of the Life Tree, the Life Spring Pool, originally the size of a "large bowl," had begun to approach a "sea bowl."

A sea bowl's capacity was more than enough for Gune's own consumption, with a little left over.

At the same time, Gune knew that over time, this "sea bowl"-sized "Life Spring Pool" would surely become a "basin," then a "large basin," and eventually a true "spring pool."

Gune would certainly not be able to use that much.

And the human world was severely lacking in Life Spring Water.

So it was very necessary for Gune to sell some Life Spring Water.

After all, the Blood-Ear Elves' monopoly on Life Spring Water had driven its price exorbitantly high.

Naturally, Gune wanted a piece of that pie.

Anyway, within this black market, no one could trace the true source of the Life Spring Water.

But it was certain that selling Life Spring Water must be the work of some "Blood-Ear Elf."

After all, across the entire Oya Continent, only deep within the twisted secret realm of the Blood-Ear Elf clan did Life Spring Water exist.

The continuous sale of this Life Spring Water would allow Gune to reap huge profits.

It could also satisfy, to some extent, the human world's demand for Life Spring Water.

It would also make those Blood-Ear Elves stricter in their internal investigations, even sparking a trend of hunting for traitors, causing more internal strife among them.

Killing three birds with one stone—why not?

Time passed minute by minute, and soon the two o'clock black market exchange meet was about to begin.

As the bell tolled two o'clock,

the many Transcendents who had been manning stalls or wandering around came to sit in the various seats of the exchange hall.

Gune roughly counted about a hundred and fifty people.

"I wonder how many of them are non-humans or members of heretical cults," Gune mused.

"Ladies and gentlemen!"

An exceptionally loud voice suddenly rang through the hall.

Everyone fell silent and looked toward the stage in the hall.

On the stage, a middle-aged man wearing a blood-lion mask had appeared at some point.

"Without further ado, today's exchange meet officially begins."

The man, who had hosted the black market Transcendent exchange meet many times, was well-versed and went straight to the point.

"First, we have a batch of fine Transcendent treasures for auction."

"The first treasure: Wolf King's Heart."

As he spoke, a treasure chest emitting an interwoven luster of blood-red and green appeared silently on the counter before him.

The chest was engraved with numerous life runes and source energy seals.

"The Life Chest is made from Transcendent ancient plants rich in life force. It can lock in the Transcendent vitality of active Transcendent organs and provide some nurturing."

Gune looked at this chest, and this information about it naturally surfaced in his mind.

"This is the heart of a Transcendent third-rank Wolf King, with very strong Transcendent vitality."

"Combat-system Transcendents, don't miss this. The Wolf King's Heart can serve as a main heart. After augmentation, this heart can greatly increase body size, improve physique, enhance defense, blood circulation, and even increase blood density."

"After all, it's a king-rank heart—many benefits."

"Starting bid: 1000 gold pounds. Each bid must increase by at least 100 gold pounds."

"1100 gold pounds."

"1200 gold pounds."

"1300 gold pounds." This bid came from Gune.

"1500 gold pounds." In an instant, Gune's bid was overtaken.

This third-rank Wolf King's Heart was undoubtedly a very fine Transcendent treasure, and even Gune was quite tempted.

Nowadays, Transcendent organ transplant surgery was quite mature.

Moreover, Transcendents themselves had very strong life force, so augmenting and integrating an organ was actually easy.

Once integrated, this Wolf King's Heart with its strong Transcendent properties would greatly enhance the Transcendent's strength.

Of course, there were drawbacks. If the Wolf King's Heart's Transcendent properties conflicted significantly with one's own, some wear and tear on Transcendent properties was inevitable.

But before integration, a test of compatibility between the catalyst and the Wolf King's Heart would certainly be conducted.

At such times, the strength of one's Transcendent talent became evident.

High Transcendent talent meant high compatibility and less wear; weak talent meant low compatibility and more wear.

Compatibility was one of many aspects reflecting Transcendent talent.

Without a doubt, Gune's Transcendent talent was quite excellent.

But regardless, a king-rank heart had enormous utility.

Hence, so many Transcendents were bidding on it.