The red butterfly flew out from the mist, the butterfly swarm gathered again near the campfire that illuminated the black fog, and Shard emerged from the phantom of the butterfly swarm.

However, his face no longer showed a look of anticipation. Miss Higgins, the witch, and Old Lady Miles’s small camp still remained by the campfire, as did the boy’s soul frozen in mid-air. But, neither the witch nor the elderly lady was to be found here.

"What happened?"

He carefully searched around and found a note pressed beneath a rock by the campfire. It was likely a message from Miss Higgins, informing Shard that they were going to purchase a very important item, and if Shard arrived, he didn’t need to look for them.

"But I only have 50 minutes."

In his mind, he thought about this, then turned to speak to the campfire:

"Come out, I know you’re watching me."

The campfire, which had been quietly burning, suddenly leaped to a height of at least ten meters, with coins of various kinds flying out from the flames, assembling into a demon face within the blaze with a clattering sound. The strange fire flickered among the gaps between the coins, and as the face opened its mouth, Shard caught a whiff of sulfur and even felt the heat licking his eyebrows.

"Invited guest, you have finally returned." (Demon Language)

On the surface of the coins, the glimmer of flames rippled, though it indeed formed the shape of a human face, it appeared more grotesque than those non-human-shaped beings. In comparison with this demon, Shard still preferred the kind of demon like Stone Mirror Demon: Goethe who appeared in a true human form:

"Where are the witch and the old lady?"

The demon laughed from within the fire:

"Oh, guest, oh guest, this is a place of fair trade. Without coins, you shouldn’t attempt to obtain any information."

During his first visit, Shard obtained a coin, and in the last card game, he won three, but spent two when using Fate’s Pedestal in divination for his origin. So, he had two coins left. However, because items from past times couldn’t be brought to the present, upon departing, those two coins were left to the care of Miss Higgins. Apparently, Miss Higgins and Mrs. Miles forgot to leave the coins when they departed.

Shard frowned slightly:

"Didn’t I leave a deposit last time to purchase that soul?"

Shard pointed to the boy frozen in mid-air, as more flames appeared in the demon’s eyes:

"Did you bring 50 coins?"

"It would be 48, I gave you two last time... Alright, I didn’t bring enough coins, but I’m not willing to trade my existence with you, I’m not that generous. How about this, I have a good idea."

Shard looked at it, and the enormous face made of coins also stared at Shard.

"I propose a gamble with you. If I win, the boy is mine, and you tell me where the departing witch and the old lady went. If I lose, I won’t want the boy’s soul."

The demon looked at him, and the light in the gaps of the coins had turned crimson:

"Need I remind you? This soul was originally mine, he willingly sold it to me. The only reason I haven’t taken it now is because you proposed a trade. It was mine to begin with. You losing means the price is simply returning my belonging to me?"

Flames licked at Shard’s face, but with his extremely high flame resistance, he remained unfazed. The demon then proposed its own idea:

"However, a round of gambling is indeed an interesting proposition. If you win, the soul is yours, and I’ll tell you where they’ve gone. If I win, I want your sin."

"It took the bait!"

Shard thought quietly, as he had predicted such a situation, though he showed no expression on his face:

"Sin? Which one? How much?" 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Gluttony, I want 3 marks!"

Based on the information Shard got from Sin Mansion, sin could be divided into "Flawed," "Ordinary," "Perfect," and "Treasure." Last autumn, only Gluttony reached the Treasure level. The condition given by the then-owner of Sin Mansion to allow Shard to leave was for Shard to hand over his 3 marks of Gluttony.

Besides Shard himself, the only other "Treasure" level sin holder he encountered was the thief’s head in the City of Eternal Night Art Museum. The thief was perpetually sealed within the museum for attempting to steal in the City of Eternal Night and even tried to deceive Shard into bringing it out.

"You are too greedy, opening with 3 marks for a Treasure-level sin? You think I don’t understand anything? This filthy soul is worth 3 marks of Treasure sin?"

To appear genuine, Shard instantly rejected the demon’s proposal, moreover, the offered price itself was unreasonable:

"I just want to save him, not to let you extort me. 1 mark at most, if you win, I’ll give you 1 mark of Treasure Gluttony. And, I get to decide what we gamble on, we bet on cards."

The glow of flames licked both the inside and outside of the demon’s coin face, it also presented its own condition:

"1 mark is acceptable, but we won’t gamble on cards. Since you understand sin so well, I absolutely cannot trust you, just as a demon wouldn’t trust its own clan. I’ll only give you one chance, we bet on coins, if you disagree, the transaction is off."

In fact, Shard had prepared other plans to let the demon suggest coins on its own, yet he didn’t expect it to be so cooperative:

"You are a coin yourself, betting on coins, do I just watch you trick me?"

He immediately retorted:

"Just like you don’t trust me, why should I trust you? I have no problem with the wager, but let’s gamble with cards. I can let you inspect my deck."

"Outsider, the more you say this, the less I can gamble cards with you. If you have any coins on you, we can use your coins to bet."

The sentence structured in Demon Language made Shard suppress the smile on his face with all his might. He stared into those eyes with flames in the cracks for a while before speaking:

"Fine, but I want to add a condition: if I win, you have to tell me where that Deity of Wealth is."

"That’s impossible. If you want to meet The Great One at the camp, you need to find your own way. That’s a basic rule here."

Shard smiled, pulling out that handful of gold coins given by the doctor from his pocket... though they were actually gold-plated, then he picked up that specially made one:

"Your words have already given me a clue. The grammar of Demon Language not only has time pronouns but also indicates spatial position. The Deity is indeed already here. Alright, let’s gamble with the coin, call it heads or tails, one round decides victory."

As he spoke, he flicked the coin into the air, where it shimmered with a strange, glaring glimmer in the firelight:

"Do you want to check it? If not, we can start now."

The massive face looked at the coin in Shard’s hand, hesitated for a moment, and did not raise any doubts:

"This is a currency I haven’t seen before, but it looks quite ancient, a product of the Third Era?"

"That’s not important."

"Very well, we’ll start now, but it won’t be you and me tossing the coin. To be fair, let him do it."

As the demon’s words fell, the soul of the boy suspended in the air fell back to the ground. Regaining his movement ability, the soul looked at that face in terror, wanting to hide behind Shard, but remembering what he had done, he didn’t dare to approach Shard either.

Shard threw the coin to the boy, who clumsily caught it, then discovered that Shard was not looking at him.

"Do you guess Sun side or Moon side? Or should I pick?"

Shard asked, the demon in the flames letting out a strange, sinister laugh:

"You pick."

"I pick Moon."

"Alright, I pick Sun."

Under their watchful eyes, the boy nervously tossed the coin in his hand, and once it landed in his palm, he immediately showed the result.

The upward side showed the Moon.

Shard was not surprised at the result at all, as the doctor had assured that there was no problem. The giant face in the fire didn’t immediately express any opinion, and the previously arrogant expression now showed a hint of contemplation. The boy holding the coin stood there trembling, unsure of what to do at this moment.

A pure soul, in a bizarre place like the "Black Mist Camp," is more easily corrupted than a living being protected by flesh. Even if the bonfire could protect him, he was currently standing right in front of a genuine Ancient Evil Spirit.

"Return the coin to me."

Shard said to the boy, took back his coin, and then made a sudden slash in the air. As the unstable crack appeared in the air, the glow of the Nether Moon pierced through the gap, shining on the soul and Shard’s face.

Even without any mysticism knowledge, the boy at this moment realized this was where he belonged. He bowed to thank Shard, but Shard stopped him:

"I brought you back not because I felt sorry for you, but because as a human, I cannot watch a soul fall into the demon’s hands. Now leave, you don’t need to thank me."

The boy still bowed his lips tightly, and just before crossing that crack, he shakily left his final words:

"But sir, what can I do? I am not you; I am just an ordinary person. I know I shouldn’t have done anything to Miss Higgins, but... what could I do? I don’t have your power, nor your insight; I am just an ordinary person."

He stepped into the mudflat illuminated by the Nether Moon, and the crack closed instantly.

Shard ignored the boy’s last words but looked up at the massive face floating above the bonfire. The latter also looked at Shard at this moment;

"I understand now, you are cheating."

Holding the coin, Shard was not flustered:

"Please explain carefully, how am I cheating."

The demon’s face showed no expression, the rigid features making it look even more terrifying than when laughing maniacally:

"There is a peculiar force; I cannot determine what it is, but that force specifically targets me, yes, I can sense it."