Chapter 975: Chapter 975

Chapter 975: Chapter 136: That Midsummer Night

Gu Shen knew that the devil was always watching him.

However, he also had countermeasures.

After a short rest in the “Pure Land World,” Gu Shen returned to the real world.

He had gone through some relaxation.

At this moment, his tense spirit had improved a lot.

Gu Shen picked up the communicator and dialed a number.

“Regarding the ‘marriage’, I don’t have the final say…”

Duke Zhuxue looked helplessly at Lin Lin.

He said with a headache, “The task of restarting the Duolu River Disaster Realm, you indeed played a crucial role. But can you ask for something else?”

Lin Lin thought for a moment and said, “I want to return to Gu Castle, extend my stationing period, hm… add another five years, ten years is fine too.”

Lin Chou gritted his teeth and looked at his brother.

Winning the battle, he made this request.

“What’s so good about that ghostly place Gu Castle?” Duke Zhuxue slammed the table heavily, “What makes you think about it all the time?”

He was very clear about Lin Lin’s plans.

Annulment of the marriage and extending the stationing period, these two requests, are essentially the same thing!

If he really had to marry the Light Goddess, Lin Lin’s royal identity would have to be revealed in advance, and under such circumstances, he couldn’t possibly continue staying at Gu Castle… Lin Lin’s firm attitude even made Duke Zhuxue a bit suspicious.

Does he like Gu Castle too much, or dislike Meng Xizhou so much?

“There’s nothing good about Gu Castle,” Lin Lin said calmly, “But that’s my place, I want to stay there, is there a problem?”

“Meng Xizhou is in Central City now.”

Duke Zhuxue paused for two seconds and seriously asked, “How much do you hate this Light Goddess? She has been waiting for you in Central City for more than half a month! At least see her once?!”

Lin Lin shrugged, “I won’t see her. In fact, her demands are the same as mine, which is to dissolve the Lin-Meng marriage. I’m afraid that private contact at this time would just cause unnecessary misunderstandings for you all.”

Very good, very cunning…

Duke Zhuxue was about to say something else when his communicator suddenly rang.

Glancing at the caller’s identity, Duke Zhuxue chose to answer it.

Duke Zhuxue spoke in a low voice, the anger from the previous conversation with Lin Lin disappeared entirely, replaced by a slight smile, “Are you satisfied with the small courtyard on Xuankong Mountain?”

What needed to be discussed with Duke Zhuxue?

Lin Lin raised an eyebrow at the title he heard, intrigued, and perked up his ears, only to hear laughter from the other side of the phone.

Duke Zhuxue glanced at his brother with a silent cold snort and then turned on the speakerphone.

Gu Shen earnestly said, “There’s something I need to trouble the Duke with.”

Duke Zhuxue’s smile remained unchanged.

“I heard that Northern Continent has a lot of Mithril materials, and I want to purchase some high-quality Mithril from you.” Gu Shen got straight to the point without any pleasantries.

“High-quality Mithril?”

Duke Zhuxue was slightly surprised to hear this request; it was something he hadn’t anticipated.

Mithril is indeed a special material in the Transcendent market, difficult to obtain even with a lot of money; it’s something whose value cannot be measured by ‘common items’. Some of the more dangerous sealed items above D-level require ‘red silver’ for containment.

However, for truly “important figures,” “Mithril” isn’t that significant either.

Because the sealed items they use almost never have the risk of losing control, and when performing tasks that require locking Extraordinary Essence, the council and related organizations will provide the corresponding “Mithril,” meaning they don’t need to collect it themselves.

What did Gu Shen want with Mithril?

But Duke Zhuxue didn’t ask further; he knew very well that this wasn’t something he should explore.

“No problem, how high quality of Mithril do you need?”

Lin Chou’s voice was straightforward.

He gently tapped his fingers on the jade desk, his smile unchanging.

Gu Shen, this little fellow with exceptional talent and a strong background, is sure to become something great in the future. On ordinary days, what Mithril wouldn’t he be able to get? Only in the North Continent would he need to dial his number… finally having this chance, he had to agree first.

“I want… Black Silver…”

The voice over the phone pondered slightly.

When hearing the words “Black Silver,” Lin Chou’s smile became a bit stiff.

However, Gu Shen wasn’t finished: “I want Mithril of a quality higher than Black Silver, can you provide that?”

If the person on the other side wasn’t Gu Shen, Duke Zhuxue would think the call was a prank on him.

Black Silver… the annual yield from the entire Northern Continent is just a little.

That is Mithril used to seal quasi-S-level sealed items!

Gu Shen heard the silence from Duke Zhuxue’s side, he actually had an idea in his mind.

Black Silver is the kind of item even someone like Mr. Shan treats with care and saves; this type of treasure that could be a gift of apology to the Netherworld King… must be extremely rare.

“Mr. Xiao Gu. If you want Black Silver… I do have some here.”

Lin Chou gave a bitter smile and said, “But if you want mithril of higher quality, that’s really too difficult. That kind of ‘mithril’ has been blessed by the Fire Seed Melting of the Divine Throne and is known as Miracle Silver. Even if I wanted to give it to you, I couldn’t.”

This favor, I’m afraid I can’t lend out.

Is the only thing higher in quality than Black Silver the Miracle Silver?

Gu Shen felt a headache coming on, and glanced at the Truth Ruler.

The deal he made with the devil was to no longer use black silver for sealing.

But in that deal, he played a very basic yet effective word game.

No use of black silver was allowed, but nothing was said about other mithrils.

It’s just that… mithril lower in rank than Black Silver probably can’t effectively block the devil’s prying.

“Sorry for the disturbance.”

Gu Shen apologized, “I’ll ask someone else.”

Just as he was about to hang up—

“???” Lin Chou looked at his brother in shock.

Lin Lin pulled up a chair and slowly sat across from his brother. He smiled and said, “I happen to have a piece of ‘Miracle Silver’ in my possession. I can give it to you.”

After a slight pause.

Lin Lin added a condition with meaningful intent: “But you owe my brother a favor.”

Zhu Xue’s expression was somewhat subtle.

He glared at his brother with both surprise and anger.

Who talks , bastard?

Doesn’t this make me, a dignified Northern Continent Duke, look both petty and incompetent and fond of taking small advantages?

“No problem,” Gu Shen agreed straightforwardly, “Thank you, Duke Zhuxue.”

Zhu Xue, once more: “???”

The phone call ended.

Gu Shen didn’t even thank Lin Lin.

The two of them acted in harmony, cooperating fluently, like a comic duo, making Zhu Xue feel was a pre-arranged drama, where he was the only audience member kept in the dark.

“Very well.” Lin Lin said calmly, “And now, you owe me a favor.”

“You know how this favor should be repaid…”

“Of course, you can also choose not to repay it.” Lin Lin stood up casually and said, “But the pity is… I know you too well. You’re the type who would break out in hives and lose sleep if you owed anyone even a penny.”

Lin Chou hadn’t been this infuriated in a long time.

I am indeed that kind of person… preferring to let the world owe me rather than to owe anyone else anything, perhaps because I was born into the North Continent Royal Family. Since childhood, my greatest pleasure was collecting “favors.”

And the thing I hate the most is, of course, owing others a favor.

“Hey, where did you get the ‘Miracle Silver’ from?” Zhu Xue stood up and called out to Lin Lin, who was about to leave.

“Usually, the youngest in the family finds themselves playing with toys in a corner, don’t they?”

Lin Lin paused slightly, and in a tone filled with ostentation, said, “Those ‘Miracle Silvers’ were things I picked up in a corner on the second floor of the attic—not very fun, I’m afraid.”

Mithril tempered by the forge.

The top-tier Order Silver in this world.

In his words, it was just an “unexciting toy.”

“You and I both know that so-called ‘Miracle Silver’ seems incredibly precious in the eyes of the mundane, but when the array patterns on the second-floor attic were first constructed, it was nothing more than ‘waste scraps’ piled in a corner, ignored by everyone.”

Lin Lin leaned against the door with a mocking smile and said, “Too bad, by then you had already become a proper noble, not like me, squatting in a corner picking up those ‘waste scraps’… Brother, your childhood was really full of regrets.”

“…” Duke Zhuxue was left speechless, able only to remain silent.

Lin Lin turned and left.

Lin Chou sat on the long bench in his office, closed his eyes, and after a long time, shook his head with a faint smile.

And from thick pages of a book, he took out a yellowed photo.

In the photo was a group portrait of three people and a dog.

It was taken over ten years ago at the Queen’s Castle, where the flowerbeds were neatly maintained, new trees were just sprouting, and the nearby pool sprayed tiny water droplets.

Filling this scene by pressing the shutter at that time was the young and vibrant Aunt Wen.

The then-young Empress, without the winding wind and snow or flames, simply placed her hands on the shoulders of the two young men and stood plainly beside the spring, smiling with a warmth of spring that seemed to embody all the light in the world.

The young Lin Chou held a cane, wearing a suit that didn’t quite fit his physique, trying to stand tall and straighten his tie to appear strong, but he only achieved the opposite effect.

On the other side was the blue-shirted Lin Lin, two hands resting on a wooden sword and a lazy dog circling his feet, sneering openly at Lin Chou next to him. At the moment the shutter clicked, he cheekily stuck out a middle finger with no airs of dignity.

This didn’t resemble a group photo of the Lin Family of the North Continent Royal Family.

It looked more like the family photo of countless households, innocent, youthful, and with a touch of cuteness. For original chapters go to novel fire.net

Lin Chou’s fingertips caressed the yellowed photograph…

The smile on his face became distant.

On that midsummer night, past friends were like dreams and fireflies.

Now, while old dreams remain, the fireflies have gone.

The people in the picture… have all changed, in one way or another, acquiring a layer of frost.