"Franz, what are you trying to do?" Eric snapped.
The several dwarves behind Franz spread out in a semi-circle, blocking all retreat routes as Franz grinned at Eric with humor that didn't quite reach his eyes, "What I want to do? Eric, two months ago your old man borrowed five thousand gold coins from us to buy mining materials, today's the due date. The son bears the father's debt, if you cannot cough up the coins today, don't even think of walking out of this restaurant!"
Eric's face scrunched up in anger.
He did not hear a word of this matter from his father, but judging from the current situation, it was probably true. Even for the likes of Franz, he would not cook up such a blatant lie.
Despite half guessing the genuineness of the claim, five thousand gold coins were no small sum, the wealth he had on him amounted to a little more than two hundred gold coins.
"How much in total?" Huang Xiaolong interjected at this point.
His voice drew everyone's attention to himself.
"Brother Huang, this…!" Just as Eric opened his mouth to object, Huang Xiaolong waved his hand, assuring him: "It's fine." For him, coins were mere numbers.
Disregarding other sources, just the gold coins found in over sixty spatial rings from Li Molin and the other Deities Templar experts from three years ago were enough to drown the entire Dwarven City when piled together.
Franz's eyes rolled over Huang Xiaolong from top to bottom, laughing as he said, "Skinny human punk, I almost couldn't tell that you're someone loaded. That time, Eric's old man borrowed five thousand from us, based on one-tenth monthly interest, counting to date, the sum is six thousand gold coins!"
"What did you say?! One-tenth interest monthly!" Eric jumped to his feet in anger, "Franz, why don't you just go rob?!" He had never heard of such ridiculously high interest rate.
Franz flashed an evil smirk, "This was agreed upon when your old man put his name on the paper."
Eric wanted to argue further but was stopped by Huang Xiaolong's extended arm. A finger pointed to an empty space between them and gold coins drifted into a neat pile. Shimmering golden light filled Franz's vision.
The sudden pile of gold coins shocked everyone watching.
Seconds ticked, and a short while later, Franz regained his senses, ordering one of his men to count the gold.
"Boss, it's exactly six thousand gold coins." The man reported to Franz after he was done with counting.
Franz turned to Huang Xiaolong with a beaming smile, "My apologies, I was hasty and run off my mouth, it's not one-tenth interest but one-fifth, a thousand gold monthly interest, so the total is seven thousand gold coins. There's still one thousand more!"
Eric was genuinely enraged this time, taking a step forward.
"Is that so?" Huang Xiaolong looked at the dwarf Franz with indifferent eyes. Clearly, this Franz took his generosity for granted, his little-crooked mind spun quickly, hiking the price up another thousand on the spot. For him to be able to give out illegal loans inside the Dwarven City, this Franz probably had quite the backing, otherwise he wouldn't have the guts to do this.
Franz laughed, "Yes, of course, if you do not have the remaining one thousand, you can pledge it against that ring on your finger," pointing at the Asura Ring on Huang Xiaolong's left hand ring finger. Although he had no idea what kind of ring it was, his experienced eyes still determined that it was very valuable, definitely worth more than one thousand gold coins.
Huang Xiaolong found it ironic that a street thug actually dared to covet his Asura Ring.
"Are you sure you want this ring?" Huang Xiaolong smiled.
Franz nodded confidently: "Sure."
Huang Xiaolong raised his arm, his finger lightly tapping on the ten centimeters thick stone table surface. In everyone's eyes, a clear finger-sized hole appeared through the hard stone table.
Franz and his lackeys stared stupidly at that small finger-sized hole, unconsciously drawing in a cold breath. When their gazes focused on Huang Xiaolong again, the shred of arrogance had vanished, replaced with fear.
"How about this, if you can pierce a hole like I did on this table, I'll give you this ring." Huang Xiaolong offered.
"Misunderstanding, it's a misunderstanding, I made a mistake, the interest is only one-tenth!" Franz frantically waved his hands with an awkward smile on his face. Not waiting for a reply, he signaled the men to collect the money on the floor. He couldn't wait to flee the scene.
"Not so fast!" Huang Xiaolong drawled.
Franz and his lackeys stiffened on the spot.
"Brother, your intention…?" Franz asked cautiously.
"Loan slip." Huang Xiaolong reminded.
Only then did Franz remember. With swift movements, he took out the loan slip and placed it on the table courteously before turning around and fleeing the restaurant.
Picking up the piece of paper, he passed it to Eric.
Eric looked at Huang Xiaolong, filled with gratitude, "Brother Huang, I..!"
"Don't worry about it, save the words." Huang Xiaolong smiled, "Several thousand gold coins is nothing much for me."
Eric put away the slip, saying, "Brother Huang, are you a high-level Xiantian realm expert?" In Eric's eyes, only high-level Xiantian realm experts had the power to pierce a hole through the thick stone table.
The tables in this Hero Restaurant were custom-made using the dwarf race's highest quality mineral rock, they were so hard that average weapons couldn't even leave scratch marks on their surface.
Huang Xiaolong merely smiled instead of answering.
Eric, who has been observing Huang Xiaolong's reaction, thought that it was acquiescence in silence. He sighed, "With Brother's strength, amongst the human, race you must have quite a high status, right?"
On the Ten Directions Continent, a high-level Xiantian realm expert was sufficient to hold an Elder position in the bigger human race clans.
Not knowing how to answer, Huang Xiaolong continued to keep silent.
"Cheers." Huang Xiaolong raised his wine bowl.
Two bowls made a soft clink sound, wine flowed and words were exchanged. Huang Xiaolong found out that Eric was obsessed with weapon forging and had a great talent for it. In fact, there were similarities between weapon forging and refining medicinal pellets. Certain techniques used in refining medicine were applicable to weapon forging as well. In the past few years, Huang Xiaolong had been practicing the Gold Dragon Pill Refinement Tactic and know it well like the back of his hand.
Hence, Huang Xiaolong's opinion on weapon forging greatly benefitted Eric.
When both walked out of the restaurant, it was three hours later.
Eric insisted to send Huang Xiaolong off till the city gates, and when they parted, Huang Xiaolong gifted Eric with ten thousand gold coins. During their talk, Huang Xiaolong knew that Eric had a dream to open his own weapon forging shop. This sum of ten thousand gold coins was enough to open a big weapon forging shop.
Eric refused to take it at first, but in the end, he kept it, promising Huang Xiaolong that he would return this ten thousand gold coins and the previous six thousand once his business took off.
Huang Xiaolong smiled, not minding it.
With Eric watching from the city gates, Huang Xiaolong left the Dwarven City, heading off in the Elf Forest's direction.
It didn't take Huang Xiaolong long to leave the dwarf territory, arriving at the edge of the Elf Forest. Just as he entered the forest, his path was blocked by two exquisite female elves.
"State your purpose!" Two pretty female elves sounded lofty and terse when questioning.
Huang Xiaolong then told them his purpose.
The two pretty female elves gave Huang Xiaolong a look over with slight contempt, one of them spoke, "Nowadays, all kinds of wild cats and stray dogs can use healing our Tree of Life as an excuse to enter the Elf Forest while harboring ill-intent in their hearts!"
"Forget it, the Queen has ordered, anyone who comes to heal the Tree of Life must be treated with courtesy." The other one said, turning to Huang Xiaolong, "Follow us, don't get lost."
The elf race had always carried a hostile attitude toward humans. Seeing that Huang Xiaolong was of the human race, neither of them bothered to show basic courtesy.
The truth was, there had been many who claimed to came to heal the Tree of Life, yet upon entering their holy land, countless attempts were made to steal the life water from the fountain of life.
Although life water couldn't compare to Life Crystals, it was still a priceless treasure nevertheless.
A tiny frown etched on Huang Xiaolong's brows at both female elves' attitude, however, he did not say anything.
Half an hour later, the two female elves led Huang Xiaolong to a cluster of bamboo huts. One of them pointed to one of the small bamboo huts saying, "You stay there. Tomorrow, someone will come guide you into the holy land. I hope you don't run around when healing the Tree of Life. If anything unfortunate happened, don't blame us!"
Finishing their words, both elves turned their backs and left, no longer bothering themselves with the human.
Huang Xiaolong looked at the cluster of temporarily erected bamboo huts, the small bamboo hut assigned to him was about five to six square meters. This obvious biased treatment was proof that they took him as someone who came to Elf Forest to 'play' or someone harboring other intentions.
If the person was someone of status and identity, their treatment would be different. At the very least, they wouldn't be living here!