CHAPTER 816: Scam

Han Shuo rushed to the west of the Ethereal City and found the Fire Elite Zombie, or Han Huo. As soon as Han Shuo saw him, he could tell that Han Huo's intelligence and strength had also reached a whole new level.

After entering Ethereal City, Han Huo noticed that there were all kinds of shops all around. Since he was in no hurry to look for Han Shuo, he started shopping around the city. Han Huo got into a fight with the clerks of an energy crystal shop because they disagreed on the price of a certain ore.

The Fire Elite Zombie, who had cultivated in the energy of fire, also possessed miraculous abilities in using the energy of fire. The shop did not have any exceptionally powerful experts. Five or six of the shopkeepers ganged up on Han Huo, but in the end, they were still beaten black and blue. If the divine guards of Ethereal City had not arrived in time, Han Huo might have burned down the shop.

The Ethereal City divine guards then learned Han Huo's identity and that he was also Han Shuo's son. After discovering this fact, the divine guards dared not harm Han Huo for fear of making Han Shuo unhappy. They desperately sent a runner to the city lord's mansion to inform Han Shuo of the incident, while struggling to keep both sides calm.

All of these divine guards had heard rumours about Han Shuo. And from their city lord's attitude towards Han Shuo, they could tell that Han Shuo wasn't someone they could risk offending. In addition, Han Shuo was known to be a genius pharmacist, and his Celestial Pearl Pharmacy was about to open in Ethereal City. If they wanted to purchase Han Shuo's coveted medicines, they would have to try to maintain at least a neutral relationship with Han Shuo. Therefore, the divine guards did not dare to do anything that might offend Han Shuo.

When Han Shuo and Han Tu arrived at the shop, they discovered that the front entrance had been smoked. Han Shuo and the shopkeepers were glaring at each other right in front of the shop.

"Father! Little Earth!" Han Huo immediately cheered when the father and son appeared. He excitedly went to hug Han Tu before looking at Han Shuo cheerfully.

"What's wrong?" Han Shuo was very happy to see the Fire Elite Zombie again. However, he noticed that the divine guards of Ethereal City had worried faces and the shopkeepers had angry faces. He knew that he should try to understand the whole situation before taking sides.

"Um... Mr Bryan, your son is shoplifting..." the chief divine guard at the scene awkwardly reported to Han Shuo.

Han Shuo stared blankly for a moment before turning to Han Huo, raising an eyebrow and asking, "Is that true?"

"You are talking nonsense. You are asking me for fifty black crystal coins just for a piece of Fire Stone! At the time, Little Gold told me that one Firespark Stone was worth nothing, and that he could find as many as he wanted. I was very generous and paid them five Black Crystal Coins for that cheap stone!" said Han Huo. He even pointed at the shopkeepers and said angrily, "You bunch of bastards, how dare you cheat me in broad daylight! Don't think I won't destroy your fraudulent shop!"

"You despicable tyrant! I will kill you, you colossal scumbag!" shouted one of the elegant looking shop assistants. Her face was flushed and her body was shaking with rage.

The other shopkeepers were also enraged by his words. If it weren't for the divine guards of Ethereal City, they might have rushed forward and tried to beat Han Huo up again.

"If you don't have enough crystal coins, don't buy it! No one is forcing you to buy the stone. Attempting to leave with the item after paying only five Black Crystal Coins is daylight robbery! How dare you try to make excuses to justify your outrageous act!" the shopkeeper shouted angrily, baring her teeth.

"Crazy woman, if you can open a scam shop, why can't I buy from you?" Han Huo made a disdainful face and said with contempt, "And you better stop screaming or I'll burn you to death!"

"I'll kill you!" the shopkeeper screamed. She struggled free from a divine guard from Ethereal City and charged at Han Huo.

"Please behave yourself!" the divine guard in charge shouted as he hastily formed a barrier of wind energy to block the approaching saleswoman. He then turned to Han Shuo with a wry smile and explained, "No matter where you are in Elysium, Fire Stone will never cost less than forty-five Black Crystal Coins. The price set by this shop is reasonable. Please understand, Mr Bryan."

"Little Gold told me it wasn't valuable! So don't try to lie to me!" Han Huo glared at the divine guard, rolled his eyes and said, "You have to be on their side because they bribed you, don't you?"

""Stupid, Little Gold never had to put much effort into finding precious stones. You are such a fool to take his words at face value!" said Han Tu as he laughed.

The Metal Elite Zombie had an extraordinary ability to detect metal ores and minerals. He could find rare and precious stones with ease. These ores might be worthless to Metal Elite Zombie, but to ordinary beings, they could be great treasures.

"Ohh... " Han Huo came to his senses immediately after hearing Han Tu's words. He patted his head and cried softly, "So I'm wrong?"

"Um, woman, here, I'll give you back the stupid stone. Now go away. Don't bother me anymore!" A piece of Firespark Stone was thrown, and it landed right in front of the shopkeeper's feet. The Firespark Stone, which should have glowed red, was dull and dark for some reason. It looked grey-white like any other ordinary stone and seemed to be nothing special.

"This is not a Firespark Stone! Who are you trying to fool?" the shopkeepers shouted angrily after looking at the stone. They glared at Han Huo with even angrier eyes, as if they had been insulted. Even a blind man could see that the stone Han Huo returned was completely different from the one he took.

"It's a Firespark Stone, it's just that its energy has been drained!" an old man who looked like skin and bones suddenly came out of the shop. He picked up the ordinary looking stone before looking at Han Huo with an astonished face. He asked curiously, "How did you do that? Even a master alchemist needed magical matrices to extract the energy from a Firespark Stone, and they had to spend at least a few days. You have held the stone for less than ten minutes, and yet you have managed to extract all the energy it contains. How is that possible?"

"Grandpa Myles!" All the shopkeepers were surprised by the sudden appearance of this old man. They all became respectful. Even the shopkeeper who had threatened to kill Han Huo became calm.

Myles gestured with his hand, telling the shopkeepers to be quiet. His eyes never left Han Huo, as if he wanted an explanation from him.

"It's just a piece of Fire Stone. Extracting the fire energy inside is too easy. It's nothing to write home about," Han Huo replied with a disdainful look on his face, as if he didn't want to talk to the old man.

After a moment of observation, Han Shuo discovered that despite Myles' senile appearance, he actually possessed Highgod strength. However, Han Shuo could not tell which of the Twelve Fundamental Powers he was cultivating.

"I'll give you another Firespark store for free. Can you do it again for me?" Myles smiled faintly, pulled an even larger Firespark Stone out of his space ring and handed it to Han Huo.

"You're quite an interesting guy, old man. Hehe, watch carefully," Han Huo held the red glowing Firespark Stone in his palm. Under the eyes of the crowd, the Firespark Stone slowly faded. In less than a minute, the FireFirespark Stone stopped glowing completely and turned into a dull and ordinary looking grey-white rock.

"This is miraculous!" exclaimed Myles under his breath. He looked at Han Huo in disbelief as he said, "This is incredible! I know many Fire Elemental cultivators, but I have never seen anyone who can extract the energy from a Firespark Stone, let alone so quickly!"

The Firespark Stones could be considered an energy crystal, and it was very different from the Fire Divine Essences. An average Fire elemental cultivator would never be able to extract the fire energy from a Firespark Stone. Not only Myles, but even the shopkeepers and the divine guards of Ethereal City were astonished by Han Huo's ability.

An ordinary Fire Energy cultivator might not be able to do this, but Han Huo was no ordinary cultivator. His body had been forged with the fire yuan energy at the Extreme Fire Place. For him, absorbing the fire energy in a Fire Stone was a piece of cake.

"Speechless now, aren't you?" Han Huo said smugly. Raising his head, he said smugly, "Is there anything else? If not, ciao."

"You brat, where did you learn to be so cocky?" Han Shuo couldn't help but rebuke Han Huo with a smile when he saw how arrogant he was.

"Hehe, nowhere, father. We have not seen each other for a long time. Let's not waste time with them. Let's leave this scam shop and celebrate our reunion!" Han Huo immediately cowered.

Han Shuo threw out a bag of black crystal coins, which landed right in front of the shop. With a faint smile, he said, "This is one thousand black crystal coins. Consider it compensation for your shop's losses. Please don't be offended!"

"Whaa.... wait!!!" Unknown to Han Shuo, Han Tu and Han Huo began to scream at the same time. And before Han Shuo could react, the two of them had rushed to the front of the shop and picked up the bag of black crystal coins that Han Shuo had thrown. Holding the bag tightly, Han Tu took out one hundred black crystal coins from the bag, placed it on the ground and said, "My father must have taken out the wrong bag. One hundred black crystal coins is more than enough to make up for your shop's losses!"

Those at the scene could clearly hear Han Shuo say 'one thousand black crystal coins'. Han Tu shamelessly tried to take back his father's words.

Han Huo nodded frantically and said, "Yes! It's enough! It's more than enough! We were very generous to give your scam shop one hundred black crystal coins! Don't ask for more!"

"Um..." The divine guard in charge made a grimace and was speechless.

Han Shuo was very embarrassed. He had not expected these two children to be so stingy.

"Father, how could you be so wasteful? Black Crystal Coins are good stuff. With enough of them, there's nothing you can't buy! How could you waste them like this!" Han Huo sighed and lamented, "If I had enough Black Crystal Coins, I wouldn't have wasted so much time with these people. How could you throw away a thousand black crystal coins like that?"

"You bunch of bums!" Han Shuo was torn between laughter and tears when he saw Han Tu and Han Huo being so mean about money. Several thousand black crystal coins were nothing to him. It seemed that although these two children of his had made tremendous progress in strength and intelligence, they still weren't good at making money.