It was past noon, lunchtime, but the Demonic Souls Market was still crowded.
Reyn activated his Soul Eye and looked around. The sight that met him was shocking.
Wherever he looked, nearly a third of those around were superhumans. Their transformed souls shone with unique lights, standing out in the crowd.
"Is Longsand really full of so many superhumans?"
Reyn sighed involuntarily, thinking like attracts like. The Demonic Souls Market was likely the greatest concentration of superhumans in the entire city.
Strolling through the market, he discreetly observed the surroundings for a while and spotted representatives of many supernatural professions.
Iron Guardians, shadow warriors, rangers, and archers were the most common—over sixty percent of superhumans belonged to one of these four professions. Then came berserkers, fighters, and demon hunters—about twenty percent. The fewest were casters, including Plant Pastors, sorcerers, mechanics, and mages—roughly fifteen percent.
Additionally, there were superhumans from various churches, like holy swordsmen and Earth Church acolytes from the Empire's Triune Church. Reyn also spotted one night watchman, a follower of the Moon Goddess, and out of curiosity examined him more closely in secret.
There were also superhumans whose professions Reyn couldn't identify—perhaps rare classes unknown to the public.
In just over an hour, he saw so much new that his eyes darted everywhere.
Besides superhumans, Reyn saw all sorts of demonic souls: flying in the sky, running on the ground, swimming in water, and many whose names he didn't know or have any idea of origin. It felt like a zoo—everything colorful and changing kaleidoscopically.
Upon closer inspection, Reyn gradually noticed that most demonic souls at the market, especially live ones, belonged to magic beasts, predominantly initial rank. Mid-rank were rare.
These initial-rank magic beasts were mostly not wild-caught but artificially bred.
Demonic Soul Farms in the Empire were a highly developed industry, specializing mainly in various magic beast species. Souls for several common professions almost always came from such farms.
For example, "Basalt Rhino" for Iron Guardians, "Berserk Bear from Cordies Island" for berserkers, "Night Owl" for archers, and "Long-armed Mandrill" for rangers—these all had established breeding processes: from reproduction and rearing to maturation, element determination, and finally market slaughter and soul extraction. The whole cycle took five to seven years.
Thanks to stable supplies, prices for these demonic soul types were relatively low—from twenty to thirty golden shields at various vendors.
According to the vendors, these rarely encountered demonic souls typically came from the Sea of Dead Trees, located to the west of the Empire.
It was a vast primordial forest sprawling across a gigantic basin whose area equaled two or three provinces. The basin was surrounded by the World Mountains and plateaus on three sides, with only a narrow plain more than two thousand li long stretching eastward to the Empire's central regions.
Many superhumans, venturing out for the first time to hunt demonic souls, chose the Sea of Dead Trees, though they naturally stayed only on its outskirts and did not venture deep inside.
More than half of the demonic souls on the markets of imperial cities originated from the Sea of Dead Trees.
That very Feathered Serpent he had seen earlier had been captured with great difficulty by a team of soul hunters in the Sea of Dead Trees and delivered to Longsand.
Reyn wandered into one of the shops selling demonic souls without any particular purpose.
The shop was small; they didn't keep live creatures here, only trading soul stones, so it was quite clean and quiet inside.
Hundreds of soul stones were laid out on several shelves for public viewing. These metal-cast shelves were firmly anchored to the floor, their surfaces etched with runic script that occasionally emitted a faint glow. Clearly, this was magical protection to prevent the theft of the soul stones.
Each soul stone was roughly the size of a pigeon's egg and had an irregular polyhedral shape.
Soul stones were alchemical products; their raw material was white crystal. Before absorbing a demonic soul, they were transparent, indistinguishable from glass beads.
After absorbing a demonic soul, the stone's color changed depending on the soul contained within, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow like a precious gemstone.
If one approached a soul stone closely and looked carefully, they could see inside something like a blob of paint continuously swirling and shifting, revealing bizarre outlines of the demonic soul and flickering runes of elements.
It was precisely from these chaotic forms and element runes that soul appraisers determined the properties of the demonic soul.
With the Soul Eye, Reyn needed only a single glance to comprehend the true information contained within the stone.
All these soul stones had been appraised by masters, and their prices were set accurately in most cases. Only occasionally were there minor discrepancies with the true value, but the difference was negligible.
Although Reyn could have found a good deal here and made a little profit, it was incomparable to that mid-rank Feathered Serpent. To avoid drawing attention to himself, he decided not to interfere.
After inspecting the soul stones, he noticed another shelf nearby without runic protection, on which books lay.
Glancing over them, Reyn took notice of one in particular.
"Hm? "Book of a Thousand Souls. Abridged Edition"."
Though it was an abridged edition, the book was as thick as a brick. Reyn picked it up and felt its weight—it was no lighter than a real brick.
He opened it. The author was listed as the legendary mage Taimandora, who was also a master soul appraiser and had devoted his entire life to their study.
The 'Book of a Thousand Souls', written by the master, detailed over a thousand types of demonic souls, including their classifications, ranks, habits, weaknesses, habitats, possible elements, as well as the forms, names, effects, and strengths of those elements. The content was extraordinarily detailed, with each demonic soul and element accompanied by elegant illustrations drawn by Master Taimandora's own hand.
"No way, this is some treasure!"
Reyn was overjoyed. This book was exactly what he needed.
Possessing the Soul Eye, he could grasp the essence of a soul and information about its elements with a single glance, but he didn't know the names of those elements or how to correlate them with ones already known to humanity.
Reyn eagerly began reading, not forgetting to photograph each page with his phone.
According to Master Taimandora's research, all known demonic souls were divided into sixteen major categories.
The most numerous were not magical beasts, but insects, followed by fish; magical beasts ranked only third. The remaining thirteen categories included birds, plants, aquatic dwellers, spirits, aberrations, elementals, undead, humanoids, giants, demons, demonic spawn, draconids, and true dragons.
Each major category was further subdivided into numerous minor subcategories based on differences, totaling several hundred species in all.
Reyn was deeply impressed—this was a true biological taxonomy.
Of course, compared to the biology of his previous world, Master Taimandora's classification would seem utterly chaotic and unfounded to him.
However, this was a classification of demonic souls, not biological species, and there was no commonality between them.
In the book, Reyn found a description of the Feathered Serpent. Comparing the information, he immediately recognized the names of the elements from that market serpent: "Air Severance", "Whirlwind Art", and "Rapid Recovery". Its affinity with the air element was also described in detail.
The book had several hundred pages, and reading it cover to cover would take at least a day.
Moreover, this was the abridged edition, covering only about a hundred of the most common demonic souls—far short of the thousand claimed in the title.
Reyn closed the book and approached the counter.
"Owner, how much for this book?"
The shop owner, a lean old man, glanced at the title.
""Book of a Thousand Souls. Abridged Edition". Two hundred ninety-nine copper yuan."
"Well, almost three hundred!"
Reyn chuckled inwardly, not expecting such marketing tricks with prices to be used in this world too. Nevertheless, he obediently pulled three hundred-yuan copper bills from his wallet.
Three hundred copper yuan for a book was quite expensive, almost robbery, but knowledge was priceless, and he was willing to pay.
Receiving one copper liso in change from the owner, Reyn asked:
"Do you have the full edition of the "Book of a Thousand Souls"?"
"The full edition consists of twelve volumes. You can only buy it in specialized bookstores or find it in large libraries," the owner shook his head and, eyeing Reyn, explained: "A complete set of the "Book of a Thousand Souls" costs more than ten gold shields, and it's very bulky too. Few buyers take it, so we don't stock it. Sorry."
Reyn imagined twelve hefty volumes that would fill an entire suitcase. Even skimming them would take a ton of time, let alone reading them fully. Very few people would commit to such a purchase.
"Alright, thanks for the info," Reyn said and left with the book.
After wandering the market a bit more, Reyn felt hungry and decided to grab lunch outside before heading home.
Halfway there, he heard someone loudly hawking at the entrance to a shop:
"Soul roulette! Soul roulette!"
"Fresh batch of Gold-Devouring Ants just arrived today, all live! Only one gold shield each!"
"Buy and kill on the spot! If you get a Power element—it's an excellent auxiliary soul, can sell for at least fifty gold shields! Limited quantity, hurry and buy!"
Reyn stopped. This "soul roulette" piqued his interest. It sounded like the "stone roulette" from his previous life.
But was it real, or just another scam?
He entered the shop and saw several large tables cluttered with glass jars. There were two or three hundred jars, made of special thick glass with tightly sealed lids that had only a small air hole.
In each jar sat a fearsome-looking ant. Its entire body was jet-black with a dull sheen, and its sharply defined segments seemed forged from iron. It aggressively twitched its mandibles and legs, exuding an impression of tremendous power.
At the bottom of the jars swirled a thick, semi-transparent solution—clearly a special potion that made the ants sluggish and weak. They scraped frantically at the glass with their front legs, emitting sharp, grating sounds.
"What huge ants!"
Reyn was astonished. He recalled that the largest bulldog ants on Earth reached only three or four centimeters in length.
These Gold-Devouring Ants, however, were ten to twenty centimeters long, with the largest specimen exceeding that. Moreover, they were quite massive; their weight must have been hundreds of times that of a bulldog ant. If one bit, it would likely tear off a good chunk of flesh—or even a finger.
If a whole swarm of such Gold-Devouring Ants attacked a person, the outcome would be dire.
There were seven or eight customers in the shop, all clustered around the glass jars, scrutinizing and selecting ants.
"Do these Gold-Devouring Ants really eat metal?" Reyn asked. He had never seen such ants before, and the "Book of a Thousand Souls" said nothing about them.
"Of course," a middle-aged man who seemed to be the shop owner replied enthusiastically. "Gold-Devouring Ants feed on iron ore. This batch was discovered a few days ago in the mines north of the city, where they gnawed three miners to death. The mine owner hired a mid-level alchemist who captured them. Then he sold the entire swarm to us, down to the last one."
"Young man, care to test your luck and buy a couple?" the owner asked with a smile.
Reyn said nothing.
The owner, assuming he was hesitating, pressed on with even more enthusiasm:
"Young man, don't underestimate the Gold-Devouring Ants! Alone, they're weak, sure, but these are true insect monsters! Their souls have a chance of containing an element—and a very useful one: the Power element!
"Do you know the strength of ants? They can lift weights hundreds of times their own! Scaled to a human, that strength would surpass a giant's! The potential is limitless!
"Many close-combat warriors dream of the Power element! It may not be great as a main soul, but as an auxiliary—perfect!
"Just a moment ago, a customer bought a Gold-Devouring Ant with a Power element and sold it right here for fifty gold shields! Don't believe me—ask the others."
The owner pointed to a few customers selecting ants. Two or three nodded in agreement, confirming his words.
Reyn snorted inwardly. These people were clearly shills. Did they think he'd fall for it so easily?
It was possible to extract a Power element from Gold-Devouring Ants, but this owner's words couldn't be trusted. And he'd heard ant strength tales back in elementary school in his previous life.
He had already activated his Soul Eye and was examining the ants one by one.
The owner, seeing his indifference, stepped away to serve a newly arrived customer.
Reyn checked two or three dozen Gold-Devouring Ants, but found no elements in any. Moreover, their souls were very weak—two or three such souls barely equaled an ordinary demonic soul.
"Yep, total scam for suckers. Selling a dead ant for a gold shield..."
He mentally cursed the owner for the fraud. After inspecting over sixty ants, he suddenly froze. His gaze locked, and he exclaimed inwardly: "No way! There really is a Power element!"
This Gold-Devouring Ant looked almost identical to the others, perhaps slightly larger but not the biggest. Yet, to his surprise, it contained an element.
Reyn looked closely and confirmed—it was indeed the Power element.
He was pondering whether to buy it and cash in fifty gold shields when he saw a mage in a long robe pick up the jar with that ant and hand it to the owner.
"Damn, too late!"
Reyn grimaced in annoyance. This mage was third-level, with a keen eye—clearly a skilled soul appraiser.
The owner gleefully accepted the gold shield from the mage, grabbed an iron hammer, dumped the Gold-Devouring Ant from the jar onto the anvil, and struck while it was still dazed.
Bam!
There was a resounding clang, like hammering iron, and the hammer bounced off. The ant on the anvil still twitched.
The owner, familiar with the ants' toughness, swung the hammer several more times like a blacksmith working metal. Finally, the ant became a pancake of meat and chitin. Then the owner pressed an empty soul stone to it.
In Reyn's Soul Eye, he saw the Gold-Devouring Ant's soul fly out and seem to head toward him.
As soon as it emerged, the soul was pulled toward the nearest soul stone. A tug-of-war ensued, and the soul nearly tore in two.
"Bad."
Reyn had completely forgotten about his soul-absorbing ability.
Fortunately, he had previously experimented with his phone and found an option in the battery menu to disable charging. He quickly selected it.
Sure enough, with charging disabled, the Gold-Devouring Ant's soul was immediately absorbed by the soul stone. The white crystal darkened and deepened, as if ink had been poured into it.
The owner picked up the soul stone and saw a red rune appear and vanish on it.
His smile froze instantly.
The surrounding customers noticed the anomaly in the soul stone and cried out in amazement:
"Power element!"
Only Reyn, who knew in advance, wasn't surprised at all. The mage, looking smug, took the soul stone from the owner and continued selecting jars.
A few customers, fired up by what they'd seen, also picked Gold-Devouring Ants and handed them over. But no matter how many were killed, none had elements.
The mage bought two more, also without success.
Reyn ignored the others and methodically continued checking ants one by one.
However, after examining over a hundred Gold-Devouring Ants, he found none with a Power element. He patiently checked a few dozen more, still without result.
When only about thirty ants remained and Reyn had nearly lost hope, thinking this was just another ordinary Gold-Devouring Ant, three runes suddenly flashed before his eyes.
"Incredible! Simply incredible!..."
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