Chapter 78 Desert

Chapter 78 Desert

San Lu was surprised; a happy smile appeared on his face, then a gesture toward the faraway stone building said respectfully, "My Lord, please come with me; my shop is located there." Then he walked forward,

Lin Lee nodded and followed him calmly. Other merchants around were disappointed, so they walked away looking for other targets.

Lin Lee was looking at the stone buildings around; even though there is a huge labyrinth-like structure underground in this kingdom, which is filled by different tribes, he asked, looking at San Lu beside him, "San Lu, can you tell me about this great dragon desert?"

San Lu was surprised, looking at Lin Lee, then became thoughtful. 'It seems this guest doesn't know anything about desert.' Then he replied with a smile, "Of course, my Lord, I will tell you, this desert is the largest known desert; half of it is located in the east, in the Great Xuan dynasty, and the other half is located in the Great Dragon dynasty of the south."

"There are thousands of tribes and slave races living in this desert, but the resource competition among them is extremely huge. The Sun Eagle tribe, Stone tribe, Sand Python tribe, and Sandra tribe are the top tribes living in four corners of this desert; each one established a huge empire in this desert and ruled a lot of small kingdoms like this one," San Lu explained calmly.

Lin Lee nodded, then asked, "What are the Great Xuan Dynasty and the Great Dragon Dynasty?"

San Lu was surprised again, looking at him strangely. Then his expression returned to normal, and he took a deep breath and replied, "I don't know too much, but our ancestors said there are outside regions beside this desert region, and these regions belong to two great dynasties; after our ancestors, no one visited outside regions; it's a pity we are weaker than our ancestors, and we can't survive outside this desert." He replied with a sad expression, recalling the record of his ancestors, which he read in his family genealogy as a merchant family.

Lin Lee was surprised, then became thoughtful: 'The creatures in this desert are extremely weak; I haven't seen anyone exceeding the innate realm among them. Probably that's why they can't survive outside.'

"My Lord, we have reached." San Lu said, gesturing at the building entrance,

Lin Lee snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. He followed inside through the entrance, looking at a lot of shops around with different types of objects for sale, and a lot of customers were moving around through these shops and checking stuff one by one.

'No matter what civilization, markets are always crowded.' Lin Lee thought funnily, then appeared in the shop of San Lu, following him.

"Father, you are back." A female voice sounded upon entrance.

Lin Lee glanced at the small female humanoid wolf with pointy ears and eyes and vertical, light brown pupils. She also glanced at Lin Lee in surprise, then curiously asked, "You are not from the desert tribe. I can smell precious water from you."

"What is the desert gold?" Lin Lee asked calmly,

San Lu realized he hadn't explained about currency, patted his forehead, apologized, and then explained the currency circulation in the desert.

Lin Lee became thoughtful: 'Water is indeed expensive here; there is a very low concentration of water vapor in the air. Because there's no rainfall in the year, they can't even gather water in large quantities through the air. A gallon is 10 liters, which makes it 1 desert gold per litter. There is 1000 silver in one desert gold, and a normal family of three people in the desert can survive for a month on 10 desert gold worth of food.

"What do you drink? If there is no water in the desert," Lin Lee asked curiously.

"We don't drink water; we eat a special stone that is produced in some desert regions that fulfills the water requirements." San Lu replied, showing a blue and green stone the size of a thumb and passing it to Lin Lee. Lin Lee grabbed it, then let nanobots devour it. Instantly, he found out that all the minerals that are available in the water are inside it, but upon analyzing more, it has chemicals that damage the cells and tissues inside the living body and reduce the life expectancy upon daily consumption. "How much does this stone cost?" Lin Lee asked calmly,

"It's 10 desert silver coins per stone; one stone is enough for a day." San Lu replied calmly,

Lin Lee nodded thoughtfully, then passed the jug and said, "Here, take it; I will just buy something in return from your shop and the extra water; you can keep it in exchange for the information you have told me."

San Lu was startled; his eyes lit up, then he thanked happily and started showing the things he had in the shop. On the other hand, Mi Lu was looking at the jar, drooling.

Lin Lee glanced at the round golden metal lying inside the shelf; he felt law fluctuation from it and asked, "What kind of metal is this?"

"This is sun and moon metal; it absorbs sun light during the day, and at night it turns moon metal, which releases that silver light. We use it commonly in the desert to illuminate the buildings," San Lu explained, pointing at the golden chandelier hanging in the shop.

Lin Lee nodded, then said, "I need this metal." He then grabbed a few different crystals and stones, which he felt might be useful, and a cactus-shaped purple plant, which is extremely poisonous; according to San Lu, it is the food of monsters in the desert.

"My Lord, you can visit other shops in this whole market; anything you want to buy, I will pay for it. Also, I will pay you 100,000 desert gold for 10,000 gal of water." San Lu said generously,

Lin Lee become speechless, 'This guy is acting generous on my money,' then didn't care nodded, after he left the San Lu shop and visited the whole market, except for some weapons, metals, and stones, as well as some murals and physical exercises. He didn't find anything special.

... Chapter End ...