Chapter 615

Chapter 439 – Dark Gold

“Hehe… The reason we can suppress the Dark Gold Society is actually due to multiple factors. Firstly, the original Secret Merchant Society split up, and we absorbed part of it, while the Dark Gold Society essentially took over most of the remaining portion of the Secret Merchant Society.

“Secondly, because the Artisan Guild conducts business with more defined boundaries and avoids certain fields, we are more easily accepted by official supernatural organizations. As long as there is demand, there will always be a market for clandestine transactions. The market for secret dealings will always exist, and someone must play the role of the trading platform. For churches and the secret police of various countries, it is better to entrust this market to us, who can at least sit down and talk properly, rather than leaving it in the hands of the uncontrollable and dangerous Dark Gold Society.

“If the entire market were controlled by the Dark Gold Society, rampant and unscrupulous secret transactions would lead to an increase in the activity of evil cult societies in various countries, and the probability of negative supernatural events would skyrocket. Therefore, various official secret institutions, led by the church, would prefer to give us control over the secret transaction market. Although we are not entirely free from trading with those evil cults, at least we do not engage in large-scale human trafficking. As long as we can meet the needs of most people in the secret world, they would not seek out the Dark Gold Society.

“Therefore, in the eyes of official secret institutions in various countries, the Dark Gold Society is considered a dangerous and evil organization, while we are often tacitly allowed to exist. The attitude of official institutions is also one of the main reasons we can suppress the Dark Gold Society.

“As for what you just mentioned about the dark-colored gold deity… There are many mysteries surrounding this deity. His name has been associated with the Secret Merchant Society throughout history. Information about Him is very scarce, making it difficult for ordinary people to make any judgments… However, I have already said before that the split within the Secret Merchant Society originated from internal strife among the upper echelons. After the internal strife ended, the nobleman of black currency even claimed to be the incarnation of dark-colored gold.

“For a large society with a healthy deity… such a level of internal strife is not appropriate. In the Fourth Epoch, almost no deity has ever incarnated under their own name. Therefore, in my opinion, whether this dark-colored gold exists is uncertain. Even if He does exist, He is probably not in a normal state.”

As Beverly’s words continued to appear on the pages of “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” Dorothy understood why the Artisan Guild could suppress the Dark Gold Society. Then, Dorothy continued writing on the page.

“The Dark Gold Society is our enemy, so you think the issue with the Trua Artisan Guild base was caused by them?”

After finishing her writing, Dorothy waited quietly for the text to sink into the page. Soon, Beverly’s response appeared again.

“That’s naturally the case. We are enemies with the Dark Gold Society, and their attacks on us never cease—from commercial competition to physical clashes.

“For example, they often use their abilities to infiltrate and assassinate, silently replacing the Artisan Guild bases in cities. They then disguise themselves as members of our guild and conduct transactions with other involved individuals in the city. While conducting these transactions, they gather information about the entire city’s secret world. Once they have the customers’ locations, they secretly go out to harvest the customers, collecting both their supernatural resources and even the customers themselves.

“After harvesting the supernatural resources of a city in this manner, they immediately withdraw and choose the next target. This way, they not only gain supernatural resources but also tarnish the reputation of the Artisan Guild in the local secret world, making it very difficult for us to rebuild a base there. This gives them the opportunity to dominate the secret market in that area later on. From your description of Trua, it seems that situation is currently happening there. Since you bought something from them, you should be careful. What you bought might contain landmarks or sigils. After they locate you, they will come to harvest you soon.”

Beverly’s words appeared on Dorothy’s page as quickly as if typed by a typewriter. After reading the information, Dorothy sighed in relief and continued writing.

“Thank you for the warning, but it might be a bit late. Those guys have already come, and they were two wall-crossers whom I’ve already dealt with.”

“Oh, you’ve taken care of them? That’s great. Since they sent two wall-crossers, it shows they value you quite highly. You managed to handle them, impressive.”

“Don’t you know who I am…” Dorothy wrote, as if chatting. She bit her pen thoughtfully for a moment, then continued writing.

“By the way, talking about wall-crossers reminds me of something else I want to ask you. Does the Dark Gold Society have some special secret method that makes the black earth wall-crossers, who are primarily ‘shadow’ and secondarily ‘stone,’ as hard as ‘stone’? Handguns cannot penetrate them. Because of this, I couldn’t deal with them right away and wasted a lot of spirituality.”

After finishing her writing, Dorothy began waiting quietly for a response. After a short pause, Beverly’s words reappeared on the page.

“Who told you that wall-crossers are primarily ‘shadow’ and secondarily ‘stone’?”

Seeing Beverly’s response, Dorothy paused and immediately wrote back.

“I heard it from a Hunter from the An Yin Bureau in Alster. When I met him, he was being chased by the Eight Pinnacle Nest’s wall-crosser assassin. Just before dying, he told me that. Isn’t that correct?”

“That’s definitely incorrect. First, you need to understand that the wall-crosser path is the primary heritage of the Dark Gold Society. Few other societies have this. Including the Eight Pinnacle Nest. So, the assassin you encountered back then was probably not an Eight Pinnacle Nest member but someone from the Dark-colored Gold. I’ve told you before that the Dark-colored Gold’s business is extensive, including assassination services. As long as you can pay, many people can hire assassins from the Dark Gold Society. What you encountered was likely a Dark Gold Society assassin hired by the Eight Pinnacle Nest.

“Before the Dark Gold Society begins activities in a new area, they often intentionally leak false secret information into the local secret circles to confuse perceptions. After their actions are initially detected, the false information they release often includes misleading details about wall-crossers, especially regarding their spiritual composition.

“I can tell you directly that wall-crossers are primarily ‘stone’ and secondarily ‘shadow,’ not the other way around. The Hunter from Alster was completely misled by the false information spread in Alster. For official secret institutions, if a supernatural profession’s spiritual composition is misdirected, measures against them will also be misjudged. They can take advantage of these mistakes to gain favorable opportunities in confrontations. For instance, you lost unnecessary spirituality because of false information just now. They particularly like spreading such rumors in newly active areas to facilitate their own actions.

“In the secret world, due to poison recognition and covert activities, information flow between various secret circles is not smooth. Everyone has significant information gaps with each other, making it difficult to form common knowledge. The Dark Gold Society often takes advantage of these informational barriers to employ deceptive strategies. In Pritt, the Dark Gold Society’s activities are not very prominent, so even the secret police in Pritt have very limited understanding of them. Few people know the correct spiritual composition of wall-crossers except for the old man in Tivyán.”

Beverly’s words appeared one by one on the page. Seeing this series of text, Dorothy couldn’t help but stand there in shock. She had been misled—wall-crossers were not primarily ‘shadow’ and secondarily ‘stone’; they were primarily ‘stone’ and secondarily ‘shadow’! They are hardened skin of the second tier, so they can certainly block handgun bullets.

…

Hmm… I have something to do tomorrow, and it’ll be busy. Also, it’s the beginning of the month, and I’m a bit stuck with writer’s block, so I plan to take a day off to adjust.