The old man's expression shifted to something hungrier, "Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Ice Queen mentioned that you have Divine Corpses and Artifacts for sale?"
"The artifacts are sold out." Haru said. A smile crept onto his face, his favorite kind of conversation was starting, "I have roughly a thousand Divine Corpses remaining, from the recent Divine Battle in outer space. If you don't mind being hated by the Evil Pantheon, they're yours."
Most of the corpses were from Evil Gods.
"We who pursue Truth fear nothing." The old man said immediately.
Haru waved his hand. A sealed ball of light materialized in the hall, containing nearly a thousand Divine Corpses.
The five envoys swarmed it. As Gods of the Dark Faction, Truth Gods loved Divine Corpses, which were the primary material for alchemy puppets, a craft the Dark Empire excelled at.
After a thorough inspection, the envoys exchanged nods. Everything checked out.
"What price does Your Majesty require?" Haru considered. He raised five fingers.
"Fifty million Divine Crystals?" The old man's eyes bulged, "Your Majesty, these corpses are not worth that price. Ten million at most!"
Haru went quiet.
The five fingers had meant five million. He'd thought even that was pushing it. He'd underestimated the value of Divine Corpses by an order of magnitude. The silence stretched. The old man, reading it as hardball negotiation, gritted his teeth, "Eleven million. That is our absolute ceiling. If Your Majesty cannot accept, we must walk away."
He meant it. Haru could tell.
"Then eleven million it is." Haru agreed.
The envoys sagged with relief. This emperor drove a hard bargain, but at least the deal was done. If they'd known Haru's actual asking price had been five million, they might have vomited blood on the spot.
…
The old man paid eleven million Divine Crystals and received the sealed sphere, nearly a thousand Divine Corpses. Expensive, but with the Divine War approaching, power mattered more than savings. Haru was in an even better mood. He'd gotten more than double his expected price.
"If Your Majesty has no further business, we'll take our leave."
"Wait."
The five Gods froze. For a terrible instant, they wondered if this emperor was about to rob them. He wasn't, reputation mattered.
"I have two more corpses." Haru said, "Supreme God Tier. But they're Demon Lords. Interested?"
Silence. Then all five voices at once:
"The corpses of Demon Lords?!"
"Dimensional Demons—"
"*Two* of them at that?"
Five High Gods who'd been supernaturals for tens of thousands of years, who'd refined countless alchemy puppets, none had ever handled a Supreme God's corpse. And this empire had *killed* two Demon Lords?
The old man's mind raced. 'Castle Lords grow stronger by killing. He must have reached the Supreme God Tier by killing these two.'
A reasonable guess, but a wrong one. Haru had been a Supreme God before either kill, but the old man had no way to know that.
"Which Demon Lords?" he asked carefully.
"First of all, none of the two were Demon Monarchs."
"Of course." Although a flicker of disappointment passed through their eyes, as the corpses of the famous Demon Monarchs would have been collector's items, they knew how difficult it was to encounter a sole Demon Monarch outside the Abyss. And a Demon Lord was still a Demon Lord.
"They became Demon Lords at Arboriel."
The five envoys huddled together, whispering urgently.
"The alchemy potential is beyond anything we've ever—"
"But the Abyssal aura inside must be catastrophic. Ordinary Abyssal corruption, we can purify, but what about a Demon Lord-level corruption? If it erupts, it could set off an Abyssal Disaster across the empire."
"If any of us get tainted and become a Demon, our own emperor will execute us before any enemy gets the chance."
They wanted the corpses badly. The hunger was naked on their faces. But the risk exceeded what the five High Gods could decide, or fund.
The old man turned back to Haru, "Your Majesty, this matter requires our Emperor Webster's judgment. We must return to the empire and report this matter to him."
Not just for authorization. Two Demon Lord corpses would cost a fortune. A hundred million Divine Crystals at least. They'd need the imperial treasury for that.
"Fine." Haru said.
The envoys departed quickly.
Haru watched them go, already calculating. If this deal closed, the payout could push his [Armor of Sovereignty] straight to a top-level Supreme God Tier Artifact. He was looking forward to their return.
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