The moment the countdown reached zero, the light pillars dissipated along with the figures within them.
The divine miracles across Hero Square collapsed along with the dissipation of the light pillars. The golden barrier shattered into specks of light, which were caught by people eagerly stretching out their arms high in longing to receive a miracle, only for the specks to spill through their fingers and scatter onto the ground.
Wang Wei stared heavily in the direction where Fang Yuan had disappeared. Though she had said that if she lived to see Fang Yuan return, she would arrest her according to the law.
Yet she knew full well that this might be the last time she would ever see Fang Yuan.
She had already crossed the threshold between mortals and gods, and was no longer an ordinary human.
Archives of past 【God Selection】 events recorded that Candidates who entered the 【Fertile Land of the Gods】 never returned.
Perhaps the Candidates who failed to become gods chose to stay in the 【Fertile Land of the Gods】 and become a part of it?
Wang Wei turned around and led the inspectors to continue maintaining order at the scene. It wasn't until the specks of light completely sank into the ground and vanished that the crowd's commotion finally ground to a halt.
They lowered their heads; they bent their backs.
They felt gratitude toward the gods; they reposed awe in the gods.
...
Fang Yuan stared with wide eyes at the round, long nose right in front of her that was practically poking her, scratching the back of her hand.
This divine creation before her appeared to be less than a meter tall, with a round body and short limbs. However, her nose was very long—visually about twenty centimeters—and she wore a pointed hat that almost squished her entire face flat.
At this moment, the divine creation was stomping her feet, her pointed long ears drooping to her shoulders twitching with her movements.
“Impolite Candidate, you broke my goods! Pay up!”
Fang Yuan's gaze lowered. Her shovel was currently stuck into a rolled-up, yellowed ledger.
She lifted the shovel, and the ledger lay completely undamaged on the floor, showing not a single trace of harm.
Fang Yuan glanced at the still-stomping divine creation, bent down a step ahead to pick up the yellowed ledger, and examined the writing inside. The handwriting was crooked, small yet wide, almost like chicken scratch.
However, the numbers were still legible, and a quick scan was enough to deduce the identity of this divine creation.
A shopkeeper.
Seeing her flicking through the ledger, the divine creation flicked her long nose, wrapped it around an abacus on the nearby desk, pulled it into her arms, and began clacking the beads loudly.
“Entering my shop without permission: 20 gold coins. Damaging my ledger: 34 gold coins. Reading my ledger without permission: 20 gold coins. Failing to maintain eye contact when speaking to me: 25 gold coins. Not answering when I speak to you: 15 gold coins.”
“That makes a total of 114 gold coins. But at a glance, you're clearly a customer of bad character, so that's another 35 gold coins.”
“Grand total: 149 gold coins. No credit allowed; immediate payment only.”
Fang Yuan completely ignored whatever gibberish this little runt was babbling about, her attention entirely drawn to the style of the store.
The place was filled with a composite aroma of old paper, dried herbs, dusty wood, and cold metal.
The entire general store wasn't large—visually about ten of Fang Yuan's wide strides long—yet as far as the eye could see, there wasn't a single empty space.
From ground level to the ceiling, every flat surface was packed with all sorts of bizarre goods.
The walls were made of deep, oily-sheened dark brown wood, lined all the way to the ceiling with heavy shelves. Even more shelves hung directly from the ceiling, suspended by brass chains or dark ropes.
Several empty brown leather gloves were busy working on their own amidst a chaotic pile of scrolls and goods, nimbly sorting items and putting them away.
A few quills swayed side to side on top of a desk, scribbling away. As they wrote and moved, two of the quills collided, and the atmosphere instantly shifted as they tangled up and began brawling with each other.
The divine creation with the pointed hat, pointed long ears, and long nose whipped her nose at them twice, wrapped it around one quill, and set it down onto another desk.
“Pay up, Candidate.”
Her long nose smacked hard against the back of Fang Yuan's hand, drawing her attention back.
Fang Yuan looked down at the divine creation and rubbed her nose.
The goods in this shop were indeed peculiar—could what they sold here be 【Divine Relic】 items?
She wondered how strong this divine creation was in combat. If she were to go on a zero-dollar shopping spree right now, what were her odds of success?
Thus, a smile bloomed on Fang Yuan's face. “Is it just you... of your species in this shop? What's your name?”
The divine creation with the pointed hat, pointed long ears, and long nose seemed extremely dissatisfied with her phrasing.
“Show some respect, Candidate.”
“I am the Nose-Pouch Merchant Spirit, Huo Duoduo. This general store is my property, so naturally I am the only boss here. You hammer-wielding star who shoveled your way up here, don't harbor any sneaky ideas about a zero-dollar shopping spree. None of these goods can leave the shop without my permission.”
Huo Duoduo clacked the beads on her abacus a few more times.
“I answered two of your questions—15 gold coins per question. You now owe me 200 gold coins.”
“Hmm? No matter how you math 149 plus 30, it doesn't equal 200, does it? So you're a fraud?”
Fang Yuan finally got it. Bad luck really was bad luck. Starting out directly owing 200 gold coins—who could compare to her, Fang Yuan? Her net worth shot up by 200 right at the start!
Huo Duoduo flicked her nose, tossing the abacus back onto the desk.
“You are morally corrupt and harbored thoughts of a zero-dollar shopping spree, so you must pay gold coins for your thoughts.”
Fang Yuan went, “Oh, oh,” and scratched her head with the handle of her hammer. “Then what if I die before I get a chance to pay you back?”
Huo Duoduo adjusted her pointed hat, which was on the verge of falling off, her pea-sized eyes brimming with dissatisfaction. “If you die, what else can I do? I'd just have to mark it down as Huo Duoduo's bad luck. But as long as you're in my shop right now, if you don't pay up, you'll just have to stay and work off your debt here. In about three or four hundred years, you'll be paid off and free.”
“Don't even dream of escaping from my shop, you hammer-wielding star who shoveled your way up here.”
Work three or four hundred years to earn 200 gold coins?
She really was a swindler!
Fang Yuan nodded obediently, making a couple of “oh, oh” sounds.
She raised the shovel and hammer in her hands and, under Huo Duoduo's gaze, tossed them out of the shop through the crack of an open window.
Huo Duoduo didn't call the brown leather gloves to close the window before she threw them.
Because those two items were completely worthless; keeping them in her general store would only lower its class.
Even if Fang Yuan hadn't thrown them out, she would have wrapped her nose around them and pitched them outside herself.
“Good, then you'll stay and work—”
Huo Duoduo's voice cut short as she saw Fang Yuan clasp her own mandible and occipital protuberance.
Fang Yuan winked at her. The muscles in her arms snapped taut in an instant; her left hand pressed down steadily forward to secure the front of her skull, while her right hand delivered a fierce, inward and upward wrench and twist.
Snap.
The angle of her head and neck instantly dislocated. The entire process was swift, precise, and silent.
There was no scream, no struggle—only that single, barely audible snap, followed by the heavy, eternal silence of her body completely going limp.
Huo Duoduo was dumbfounded.
And then came something that rendered her even more utterly flabbergasted.
Fang Yuan, shouldering her shovel and hammer, stood outside the window gap and waved at her. “Hi! Pointy-Eared Boss, nice weather today!”
Rate on N.U.
