Douluo: Reborn as a Dragon, I am the Lord of Soul Beasts

Chapter 18 Underground Forces, High-Rise Buildings
The capital of the Sun-Moon Empire is called Sun-Moon City, also known as Mingdu. As the political and economic center of the Sun-Moon Empire, this city is so large that even though Ying Qian is far away, he can still feel its prosperity.

"Teacher, ahead is Mingdu, the capital of our Sun Moon Empire." Xu Tianran's voice sounded in Ying Qian's ears.

"Yeah!" Ying Qian responded softly. After a day and a night of flying, they finally arrived at Mingdu's sphere of influence.

It was already night, but it was precisely because it was night that the shock was even stronger. Ying Qian looked around and saw large buildings stretching as far as the eye could see. Most of these buildings were more than five stories high. He even saw a building with more than ten stories. And buildings of this size were not unique. Looking into the distance, it was impossible to count how many such tall buildings there were. The lights of thousands of homes illuminated this seemingly endless city with such brilliance that it almost competed with the stars in the sky.

"It does feel a bit like the Demon City in my previous life." Ying Qian murmured to himself.

They flew for nearly a quarter of an hour before reaching the southern edge of Mingdu. After gathering their soul power, Ying Qian led everyone to land on the main street of Mingdu.

"Hmm?" Ying Qian looked at the main road under his feet with curiosity. He could feel that there was an imperceptible change in soul power under this compacted road surface. Ying Qian remembered the description of Mingdu in the original book, the city of steel. Presumably, under this seemingly ordinary main road, there must be hidden one terrifying soul guide after another!

"Teacher, if we walk along this main road for a while, we will reach the palace. Should we..."

Before Xu Tianran could finish his words, Ying Qian suddenly interrupted him and said, "Tianran, it's better not to call me teacher in a crowded place."

"I'm sorry, senior, I forgot." Xu Tianran apologized with a fist. At the same time, he secretly made up his mind to learn the confidence and composure shown by Ying Qian.

Ying Qian nodded, without saying anything, and continued to lead Xu Tianran forward. He knew Xu Tianran was a smart man, and with this reminder, there was no need to say anything more.

At this time, Juzi suddenly walked up to Xu Tianran and whispered a few words. After listening to Juzi's report, Xu Tianran immediately said to Ying Qian: "Senior, the royal family is coming here, do you want to go back with me?"

"No need for that. I'm not interested in dealing with members of your royal family. I'll entrust the bone garment to you first. Remember what you promised me and just take good care of her." Ying Qian refused.

"Please rest assured, senior. I will arrange for Sister Gu Yi to enter the Royal Soul Instructor Academy for further studies tomorrow morning. And she will be together with Juzi, learning soul guide knowledge under the guidance of the youngest researcher in Mingde Hall." Xu Tianran promised.

Hearing this, Ying Qian suddenly remembered something. Ye Guyi's martial soul is a top-level holy angel. It is possible to let her enter the Sun Moon Royal Soul Instructor Academy to learn soul guides, but relying on the Sun Moon Empire's method of taking drugs to improve cultivation is indeed a bit of a waste. However, it seems that there is no good choice at the moment. You can't send her to Shrek Academy, right?
Thinking of this, Ying Qian slowly said, "Don't worry about the enrollment. I have already told you about her life story. Because of special reasons, she has not yet awakened her martial soul. You should help her awaken her martial soul first. If she is suitable, it will not be too late to arrange for her to enter the Sun Moon Royal Soul Instructor Academy."

"I understand, senior." Xu Tianran naturally did not dare to question Ying Qian's words at the moment.

At Xu Tianran's signal, Juzi wanted to step forward and take Ye Guyi away. But the little guy dodged and hid behind Ying Qian, looking up at Ying Qian, with a pitiful look that seemed to express his reluctance to leave Ying Qian.

Ying Qian had no choice but to touch Ye Guyi's head and whispered, "Guyi, be good. Let me ask you, do you want to become a powerful soul master like me?"

Ye Guyi didn't reply, but nodded without hesitation.

"Since you want to become a powerful spirit master, you must first awaken your spirit. Gu Yi, be good! Stay with this beautiful sister first, I will come to you soon."

Looking into Ying Qian's eyes, Ye Guyi still didn't say much. He just raised his right hand towards Ying Qian and made a pinky promise.

Ying Qian smiled bitterly and had to stretch out his right hand. He could feel Ye Guyi's little finger hooked tightly around him, as if he was afraid that Ying Qian would disappear from his sight the next moment.

But this time, Ye Guyi did take the initiative to leave Ying Qian and walked to Ju Zi's side. His sensible appearance did make Ying Qian reluctant to leave.

At this time, Juzi took out another object from the storage soul guide, held it in both hands and came to Ying Qian, lowered his head and said very respectfully: "Senior, this is a voice transmission soul guide. As long as you are in Mingdu, you can contact His Highness at any time."

"Got it." Ying Qian accepted the storage soul guide, then quickly left before the royal patrol team arrived.

Ju Zi and Xu Tianran looked at Ying Qian's disappearing back and said, "Farewell, Senior."

As soon as Xu Tianran and Juzi stood up, the members of the Royal Patrol Team quickly came to Xu Tianran.

The leader was obviously a little surprised that Xu Tianran was still alive and standing here, and for a moment he even forgot to salute Xu Tianran. Finally, it was his subordinates who reminded him, and the leader knelt down hurriedly and said, "Subordinates, pay homage to His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince."

"Get up! Escort us back to the palace," Xu Tianran said gently, his gentle smile making people look as comfortable as if they were bathing in the spring breeze. But no one noticed the cruelty in Xu Tianran's eyes.

"Their hands are really deep! First it was the Royal Guards, and now it's the Royal Patrol Team responsible for protecting Mingdu's safety. They have people everywhere. It seems that I have been pretending to be too gentle these years. It's time to show my trump card."

Xu Tianran walked at the front of the team, his expression becoming more and more brutal. Little did he know that a more brutal storm was about to descend upon the entire Ming capital.

On the other hand, Ying Qian did not wander aimlessly in Mingdu after parting with Xu Tianran and the others, but wandered purposefully in the streets of various black markets. After visiting several black markets in a row, Ying Qian finally found a black market that could satisfy his appetite.

"Sir, these rare metals on your bill are rare metals among rare metals! You want such a large quantity of rare metals." The boss' voice was a little hesitant.

"What? Are you afraid that I can't pay?" Without saying a word, Ying Qian threw a shiny black object that looked like a stone onto the boss's desk.

The boss immediately supported his eyes and used the light from the soul guide to carefully examine the stone. After a long while, he trembled and said, "Is this a dragon scale?" "You are quite knowledgeable?" Ying Qian sneered.

Rare metals are not only metals obtained from mining, but also some things that can only be obtained from specific soul beasts. And dragon scales can be said to be the top of the rare metals.

Dragon scales with different properties can be used to make different soul guides. But no matter which kind of dragon scale it is, it is priceless. The only known dragon scale now is the silver dragon hunted by Mingde Hall three thousand years ago. All the materials left by the silver dragon's corpse are rare treasures. How many can be preserved until now? There are probably less than a hundred pieces at most, and even Jing Hongchen, the head of Mingde Hall, has no right to use this thing directly. It must be approved by the royal family.

"Can we continue the transaction now?" Ying Qian tapped the table impatiently.

"Of course." The boss said flatteringly, and then said: "Sir, please wait a moment. I don't have that much of the things you want in my store. I need to ask the higher-ups for permission."

Ying Qian waved his hand impatiently, signaling the boss to go back quickly. Ying Qian had long known that the underground black market in Mingdu was controlled by two major chambers of commerce. Pingfan League and Aodu Chamber of Commerce. Pingfan League was backed by the nobles of Mingdu and controlled all the catering and pornography industries in the dark world of Mingdu, while the power behind Aodu Chamber of Commerce was the military of Mingdu, which controlled the arms trafficking in Mingdu.

As for the other of the three major forces in the original novel, the Xishui League is still just a small force. Originally, the Xishui League rose rapidly relying on the royal family of Mingdu, and at that time, the royal family of the Sun and Moon Empire had been massacred by Xu Tianran. Xu Tianran was the spokesperson of the royal family. With his support, the Xishui League of the Holy Spirit Church naturally rose rapidly and forcibly took out a piece of territory from the mouths of the two major chambers of commerce.

But now, the Holy Spirit Church's chance to contact Xu Tianran has been destroyed by Ying Qian. Xishui League naturally cannot grow to the huge scale in the original book. And the ability of evil soul masters cannot be used in public, even in the underground market. Evil soul masters are not tolerated by the mainland. Even in the Sun and Moon Empire, no normal person is willing to deal with this group of bloodthirsty lunatics. Because they don't play by the rules at all.

Not long after, the boss came back. He rubbed his hands and said to Ying Qian: "Sir, we can meet your request. But our boss said that with so many rare metals, one dragon scale alone is not enough. Look."

Seeing the boss hesitate to speak, Ying Qian didn't want to waste time. He asked directly: "Then how much does your boss want?"

The boss held up five fingers.

"Fifty?" Ying Qian frowned.

"No, no, no, five are enough. As long as you can objectively produce a dragon scale that is exactly the same in appearance and quality as this one, then we can do this deal." The boss said hurriedly.

"Okay." Ying Qian said without any hesitation.

"What is the transaction time and location?"

The boss immediately handed over a note with the time and address written on it. Three days later, at noon in the evening, Mingdu.
After Ying Qian took a quick glance at it, he put the note away and left the store.

After Ying Qian left, the boss narrowed his eyes slightly, not knowing what he was thinking. Finally, he simply closed the shop, put on his clothes, turned around and plunged into the thick darkness.

On the other hand, after doing all this, Ying Qian did not immediately find a place to rest. Instead, he found a bar nearby. However, before Ying Qian stepped onto the stairs, the door of the bar opened first. Two bartenders dragged a wretched figure and threw him down the stairs.

Ying Qian dodged, and the man rolled over several times with the help of inertia and came to Ying Qian's front. With yellow hair, Shun Jin raised his head and showed Ying Qian a mouthful of uneven yellow buck teeth.

"Fuck you!" Ying Qian was so frightened that he almost kicked him in the face. Please don't come out and scare people in the middle of the night.

At this time, the cursing voices of the two bartenders were heard in the wind, "You want to drink without money? If I wasn't in a good mood today, I would have beaten you to death. Get out of here quickly and don't dirty our place. If I see you again next time, I will beat you up."

"That's right, a person like this has the nerve to brag about being a fourth-level soul engineer. He doesn't even dare to look after his own character. How can a soul engineer be this poor? Hahahaha."

The conversation between the two bartenders reached Ying Qian's ears word for word.

"A fourth-level soul engineer?" Ying Qian's mind moved, and sure enough, he felt the fluctuation of soul power on this person. Although it was not very strong, it was indeed real. Moreover, there was a strange fluctuation of spiritual power on his body, which Ying Qian had never felt before.

"He is a talented person and useful." Thinking of this, Ying Qian immediately caught up with the man's miserable figure.

"Hey!" Ying Qian wanted to pull him with his hands, but when he saw that he was covered in mud, Ying Qian finally held back.

"Brother, is there anything I can do for you?" The short boy turned around and asked Ying Qian.

"You want to drink, right? Come with me, I'll treat you." Ying Qian didn't waste any words and directly stated his purpose.

Who would have thought that the boy looked young, but he was indeed an alcoholic. When he heard that he could drink, the boy didn't care at all why Ying Qian wanted to treat him, but rushed forward happily to grab Ying Qian and find a place to drink.

Ying Qian stepped back and dodged the boy's hand. Then he was one step ahead and walked in front. The boy didn't get angry, but followed behind Ying Qian, and once again showed his representative teeth to try to get close to Ying Qian: "Hello, brother. My name is Gao Dalou, what's your name?"

“Humph, Gao Dalou.” Ying Qian smiled in his heart. He guessed right. Gao Dalou in the original novel was a very talented soul guide. At a young age, he reached the level of a fourth-level soul guide on his own without the guidance of a teacher. If it was really just a talent for making soul guides, Huo Yuhao would not be even one-tenth as good as Gao Dalou if he didn’t cheat.

(End of this chapter)