After Xie Sen mentioned he wanted to stay at the hotel, the staff warmly led them to the elevator: "The accommodations are on the fifth floor. Have a pleasant stay."
Maine and Long Teng put their contracted beasts back into their spatial storage, entered the elevator, and the staff pressed the floor and ascend buttons for them before exiting and returning to their original positions after they went upstairs.
Long Teng was curious: "Sen, when did you see the brochure? You want to buy seashells?"
The elevator reached the fifth floor almost instantly. Xie Sen glanced around; there were surveillance cameras in all four corners of the elevator. "I'll talk to you later."
He sensed that from the first to the fifth floor, he was getting closer and closer to Xiao Yin. So he didn't exit the elevator but looked at the buttons. The highest floor was eighty-eight. He pressed it, but there was no response.
Maine walked closer and looked: "The buttons above the eighty-eighth floor are all equipped with miniature scanning devices; they probably require authorization."
Hearing this, Xie Sen pressed the seventy-ninth floor button directly. The elevator ascended rapidly. The higher the floor, the higher the temperature on Xie Sen's right shoulder. When the elevator stopped, he subconsciously looked up; Xiao Yin was even higher up.
The elevator doors opened, and two tall, muscular adult men stepped in. Both were sweating, wearing thin jackets—one black, one green—unbuttoned, practically naked. Ferocious animal prints adorned their chests, and blue tattoos covered their arms, as if their skin were canvases.
The two men seemed surprised to see them. They pressed the button for the 56th floor, while Xie Sen pressed the 5th.
The man in the black jacket glanced at him and chuckled, "Little brother, why aren't you getting out? What are you doing going down?"
Xie Sen looked at him. While not short by modern standards, he was quite small next to the average male, over 1.9 meters tall. The man hadn't clearly seen his face before, but now he did.
Black eyes, black hair, very fair skin—clean-looking like a young man just entering society.
The man's eyes shifted slightly, his smile deepening. "Little kid, want to go on a graduation trip? Brother Bruce knows it best, I'll take you for a ride," he said, reaching out to put his hand on Sherson's shoulder. "How... ah..."
Before he could finish the word "how," his outstretched hand was grabbed by Maine's cold-faced hand, twisted behind his back, and he was completely unprepared. His hand was instantly bent to the other side, letting out a painful howl.
"You little brat, you're asking for it!" The man in the green jacket, seeing this, revealed a fierce glint in his eyes and raised his foot to kick Maine. Long Teng pulled Bai Jiao behind him and quickly kicked out, hitting the man's knee precisely. The man's foot was forced to bend midway, kicking the man in the black jacket in the stomach.
Just then, the elevator doors opened, and the two tumbled to the elevator door like a human pyramid. The people waiting for the elevator immediately scattered, watching the commotion with curiosity.
Long Teng, hands on his hips, his eyes gleaming like a dragon seeing a glittering beast: "Want to fight? I'll take you on!"
The two men who had fallen to the ground sprang to their feet, glaring fiercely at Long Teng: "I'll beat you to death!"
They both raised their fists and swung at Long Teng, who was incredibly excited; he hadn't fought anyone in ages! He quickly dodged the attack, darted behind the two men, and, propelled by their momentum, stumbled towards the elevator. Long Teng grabbed them by the collar and dragged them back: "Come back, your opponent is me," he shouted towards the elevator, afraid that Mei Yin would try to take it from him, "Don't do anything."
Mei Yin, her face cold, waited until Long Teng had pulled the two men away and kicked them even further from the elevator entrance before he came out with Xie Sen in his arms. Xie Sen, holding Bai Jiao's sleeve, joined the three of them to watch Long Teng fight.
More accurately, it was a one-sided beating. The two burly men were not weak fighters, but facing Long Teng, the Long Teng they had sworn an oath with, they were far inferior in both speed and strength.
The onlookers were utterly stunned: "My God, how can this boy, so skinny, have such strength? He actually grabbed someone stronger than him and threw him away!"
"Aren't those two the most popular in the two-person combat arena? They can't even beat a boy!"
"Yes, yes, those are the two brothers! I remember they had a match tonight!"
"Could there have been some shady dealings in the previous match?" someone couldn't help but suspect, after all, the two had been beaten so badly by Long Teng.
"They didn't use their contracted beasts! If they had summoned their contracted beasts, they would definitely have won."
Just then, two roars of wild beasts came from both sides. The two brothers, who had gotten up from the ground, were accompanied by two large contracted beasts, their bodies covered in black, hard hides, with wrinkled faces revealing two long, sharp canine teeth.
Long Teng's eyes lit up even more. He took out a small knife about the length of his arm, staring intently at the two contracted beasts, itching to strike. However, his knife was useless.
A team of men in black uniforms quickly surrounded the three fighters and their two contracted beasts. The captain, wearing leather boots, stepped out, his face grim. "The rules of the Netherworld prohibit private fights. Summoning contracted beasts is forbidden except in special circumstances. You three, please come with me."
Panic flashed in the eyes of the two men in jackets. They hurriedly summoned their contracted beasts back, forcing a smile. "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding. There was no fight. We were just letting the kid see what a contracted beast looks like."
Long Teng sheathed his knife. "No, I don't want to see your contracted beasts." He turned to walk towards Xie Sen and the others, but the captain stopped him. "Fighting is against the rules. You need to come with me."
Long Teng raised his hand, trying to brush the captain's hand away, but Xie Sen, not wanting to cause trouble, said, "They attacked first. My friend was only acting in self-defense."
The captain stared at Long Teng, who stared back, unfazed. The captain looked away, glanced at the surveillance footage, reviewed it, then looked at Maine, then at Long Teng.
Just then, his bracelet beeped with a notification. He glanced at it, said nothing, and had his men take the jacket-wearing man away.
Long Teng laughed and jumped to Bai Jiao's side: "Am I amazing? Hahaha, it's just that they're too weak. It would be better if they were stronger."
The onlookers: "..." Where did this monster kid come from?
Someone rolled their eyes: "Floors one through five are all battlegrounds. If you like fighting, you can participate and win prize money!"
Long Teng waved his hand, the diamond bracelet wrapped around half his arm reflecting a dazzling light as he swayed: "I'm not interested in the prize money."
The crowd: They wanted to punch him.
As Long Teng spoke, he suddenly thought the battle arena seemed quite fun; fighting for free was great, so he tilted his head and asked, "Main, do we want to go for a bit?"
Main's eyes gleamed; after forming a bond, he also wanted to test his skills. He didn't immediately agree, but instead said, "Let's check in and eat first."
Long Teng then realized it was getting late and clutched his stomach, "So hungry!"
Xie Sen gave him an amused look, walked to the front desk, and inquired about the layout of the Youhai Building. He learned that there were a total of eighty-eight floors; floors five through fifty-five were the accommodations, and the remaining floors were for eating, drinking, and entertainment.
The front desk asked him which floor he wanted to book, and he directly said, "I want to stay on the fifty-fifth floor. I like higher rooms so I can see further. Please give me a double room." The higher the floor, the closer to Xiao Yin.
The waiter entered his and Maine's information. "Your room number is 5505. Scan your wristband to enter."
Xie Sen completed the check-in and walked to the side hand in hand with Maine. Bai Jiao said to the waiter, "Give me a single room."
Long Teng put his arm around Xie Sen's shoulder and said, "We can sleep in the same room!"
Bai Jiao glanced at him, took his hand away, and reminded him, "I am female."
Long Teng said, "Ah Sen is also female. He has always lived with Maine."
Bai Jiao looked at him with a complicated expression: "We're different from them." Seeing that Long Teng was about to ask again, he said directly, "They're a couple." As he spoke, he reached out to the front desk to register their identities and received a single room key.
Long Teng wasn't satisfied and puffed out his cheeks, reaching out: "I want a room next to theirs."
There were three rooms; Long Teng and Bai Jiao's were next to each other, and theirs was opposite Xie Sen's, very close together. Seeing this arrangement, Long Teng became happy again and asked as he entered, "What are we having for dinner tonight?"
Xie Sen said, "How about seafood hot pot? There's a lot of seafood here."
The four of them walked around the room and went straight to the 56th floor for hot pot. Xie Sen had been eating meat for a long time, and this was the first time he had eaten seafood since coming here. The seafood was fresh and delicious, and he ate with great relish.
After filling their stomachs, they ate at a slower pace, and the four of them finally had time to chat.
After confirming with Maine that there were no listening devices, Xie Sen whispered to Long Teng and Bai Jiao, "What I'm looking for—I should call it energy—is on that seashell." He paused, then added, "You should have sensed it; animals that come into contact with energy become very intelligent."
Long Teng nodded quickly, "That's right, Big Black is very smart; it can even communicate with me!"
Xie Sen touched his right shoulder, "The pattern on my shoulder is connected to energy. When the energy is on other creatures and hasn't been retrieved by me, I can communicate with them even without touching them."
Bai Jiao immediately understood, "You know there's a seashell in the box because you've communicated with it?"
Xie Sen nodded, "Yes, there's a large pearl inside its shell, and the energy is in the pearl. That's why those people captured it. I have to save it; it..." Xie Sen sighed, rubbing his forehead. "It's been crying."
Long Teng blinked, then his eyes lit up after a moment: "So cool!" He subconsciously lowered his voice, "Should we steal it?"
Xie Sen glanced around: "To build a building like this, Youhai must be quite powerful. A direct confrontation would be disadvantageous for us. Stealing it quietly would be difficult, and even if we did, we probably wouldn't be able to leave Blue Star."
Bai Jiao opened his bracelet and looked at the information on the screen: "Youhai is the property of the Mermaid Clan's eldest prince. Those who cause trouble in Youhai, especially those with serious offenses, have almost all ended up in the belly of the fish."
Maine pulled up a brochure about the giant seashell from Youhai: "This is a recent announcement about the seashell, which has already caused a huge reaction. Youhai should announce the sales method soon."
Xie Sen looked at the screen. The title was 'A World-Class Pearl Appears!' The text included a picture taken underwater. In the dim water stood a giant silver seashell that was over two meters long and over one meter high. Its two shells were open, revealing a round pearl about one meter in diameter inside.
The pearl shimmered with a silvery sheen, while the inside of the shell displayed a kaleidoscope of colors, the two blending together to create a dazzling effect.