Chapter 8: Tarang
Mumbling something about I don’t believe it, the big man charged again, brandishing his mace. Driven by powerful strength, red light flashed from the mace, clearly using a fire-based heart method. The body of the mace was spinning rapidly, creating seven illusions. Another flash of lightning shot out of the staff and struck the defenseless big man, the Electric Lance (Level 7). With a shout, the seven phantoms instantly turned into one, blocking the lightning bolt. The big man flew into the air, and his mace flew out of his hands and flew into the trees.
The big man sat on the ground, panting, shocked by the amazing strength of the beautiful woman in front of him. “Boss, are you okay? Are you okay?” Four or five thieves rushed up and asked the big man with concern
“I’m fine,” the big man sighed, then shouted, “Let’s go. Whenever we see their car, we’ll retreat immediately.”
“Don’t rush off, I still have something to discuss with you!“
”What is it?“ the big man, who was about to walk, asked in confusion.
”Do you want to make some extra money?“
”How?“ At the mention of money, the big man became interested.
”The 200-mile road from here to Taram, is it all your territory?“
”Not really, there are other people.”
I was a little disappointed, but I still put on a smile and said, “I will pay you ten gold coins to safely transport my goods from here to Taram. How about it? This happens roughly three times a month.”
That’s thirty gold coins a month, which means a fixed income of thirty gold coins. The big man calculated for a while and immediately agreed, “Okay, we can agree. However,” the big man was a little embarrassed, “we can’t go into the city.”
I nodded, understanding: “Just send someone to notify us when you deliver the goods. Now I have to go to Taram, and I’ll talk to you when I get back.”
“Okay, I’ll send a few people here. Just stop by when you pass by, and I’ll be here.”
“My name is Qiu Shuihan, what’s yours?”
“Shi Fengying.”
“Who is this person?” I pointed at the old man.
“He’s a master of the Quanquan gang, and this robbery was their idea,” the man said.
Just in time, a survivor has arrived. “Brother Shi, you can dispose of these four bodies. I still have to hurry, so I’ll say goodbye now.”
“Then I won’t see you off.” The two sides that had just been fighting and killing each other were immediately turned from enemies to friends by the power of 30 gold coins a month.
On the bus, I used various methods to get a lot of useful information from the old man. This old man is one of the seven law enforcement officers below the five masters of the Quanquan Gang. Since the Quanquan Gang suffered a great loss in Yanggu Town and vowed to avenge this, they dispatched many masters to go east, but since they were already outside the Quanquan Gang’s sphere of influence, they had to cooperate with local thieves to plunder us.
The road back was not easy. I thought, it seems that I have to solve this once and for all when I come back. I may have to use my monster army. I changed my mind and summoned a vampire bat, took my letter and flew back to Dragon Mountain.
Talan City finally appeared at the end of the road. The Talan Pass was a major thoroughfare that was a must-visit for travelers and a place that had always been a battleground for armies since ancient times. A wide and deep moat lay before us, and the thick city walls seemed to be able to withstand all the wind and rain.
“After enduring countless hardships, we have finally arrived,” I said in a deep voice, looking at the three characters of Talan City on the city wall, which made everyone laugh.
The Water Group had already prepared a place for us to stay. It was a large mansion. Shui Yiyi, No. 11 Spring, introduced to us that a rich man who had gone bankrupt was in a hurry to sell the mansion, so she used 400 gold coins to buy the courtyard. In fact, the courtyard is usually worth at least 1,000 gold coins. I was very satisfied and named it Shui Lan Yuan.
After dropping us off, Lan Shi was about to go back.
“Don’t rush off, Lan Lao. I don’t have enough people right now, and I could use your help,“ I said with a smile.
”How can I help?“
”We still have to sell some things in the city, and this place still needs to be protected. Besides, if there’s anything we can’t handle, we’ll have to ask the people from the escort agency for help.”
“Very well, we will stay here for a few more days,“ Lan Shi said, thinking about seeing if there were any people who wanted to go back to the capital, and protecting them on the way back would earn him another profit, since they were staying here for free.
”I will not treat you badly, Master Lan, three gold coins a day.“
Lan Shi was stunned. This was even more profitable than protecting the dart.
”And when we go back, we will also be bringing some goods, so we will also need your escort.”
“That’s great,“ Lan Shi said happily, not expecting to meet a major customer who would send him money for several days in a row.
”Everyone, hurry up and quickly set up the venue,” I said to the ten young girls I had specially brought.
The ten young girls quickly got to work, taking clothes and equipment out of the car one after the other and beginning to set up the courtyard. And I started using my old trick again, recruiting a large group of children to promote for me. They talked about nothing but the fact that the leading clothing store in the capital had come here to sell high-end fashion, leading the trend of high society, with exquisite workmanship that was leading the world. Each piece of clothing could reflect a woman’s charm, show every advantage you have, give you an unparalleled confidence, and make you re-understand what it means to be a woman, etc. In short, they blew the capital of Milan out of the water, and there was nothing like it on earth; the first day of the sale was 10% off. Since aphrodisiacs and other such drugs cannot be advertised openly, they are not advertised, but they are definitely sold alongside other products.
In order to make the scene more exciting the next day, I sent invitations to the most important people in Taram City, inviting them to come. Taram is a big city, and there are plenty of slaves for sale. In order to prepare more manpower, I went to the slave market.
The slaves in Taram are different from those in the capital. The slaves here are not exactly healthy, but they are definitely not emaciated, unlike the slaves in the capital who are starving to the bone.
I picked ten men and ten women, all in their twenties. Just as I was about to leave, I was attracted to a few slaves. There were eleven men and women, shackled, with only a cloth covering their lower bodies. Their skin was dark, not dark-skinned, but from the non-continent (also known as Africa). The eleven people had relatively well-developed muscles, and more importantly, relatively good bone structure. The eleven people were being chased from outside the house by three people: “You black dogs, you just eat and don’t make any money. It’s strange that these last eleven people can’t even be sold.”
There was no despair, no hope, no pain in the eyes of the eleven men and women. There was nothing, just numbness. The whip hit their bodies, just adding another wound, but it didn’t evoke any reaction. The whip whistled down, and the blacks just walked straight towards the house.
“You,“ I pointed at the three people with the whips, ‘bring them to me.’
The three of them were overjoyed at hearing this, and swung their whips even more fiercely, driving the eleven people towards us.
”Okay, stop,” I said unhappily, ”I don’t want to have to buy medicine for them after I buy them.”
“Yes, yes,“ the leader of the group nodded vigorously, ‘Young Master, look at these people, they are all strong and healthy. Even the women are stronger than ordinary people, they are born slaves.’
”Really? Then why aren’t they selling?“ I said indolently, ‘If I wasn’t looking to buy a few, I wouldn’t be wasting my breath on you.’
”That’s right, I don’t know how many you want to buy, young master.“
”How much?“
”Sixteen silver coins each.”
“Do you think I don’t know the market price? These aren’t just any slaves, they’re adults, and they’re ten silver coins each.“
”Young master, please understand, it’s not easy for us,“ the man said, putting on a pitiful expression, ‘how about fourteen silver coins?’
”Thirteen silver coins, I’ll take them all.“
”Okay, deal,“ the slave trader said, gritting his teeth.
”They’re so pitiful!” Cathy said.
“Yes,” I agreed, ‘that’s why I bought them, so they wouldn’t suffer anymore.’ Damn, I don’t have that much kindness in my heart, and there aren’t enough slaves to save them all.
But to show my kind heart, I ran over to the blacks and used healing spells on them. I deliberately didn’t let Yuli perform the spell, but instead asked her for the ring of blessings to restore the eleven people. Naturally, this was to win their hearts. I removed the shackles from the eleven people, and the blacks’ eyes changed slightly, but they returned to their original expression (usually blacks always wear shackles).
After arriving at the Water Orchid Academy, I first ordered that these thirty-one people take a good bath, change into a new set of clothes, and then let them have a good meal. The originally quiet and quite intimidating Water Orchid Academy was suddenly bustling with activity after the addition of thirty-one people. Ten men and ten women were to be used as servants, and in the evening I had ten young girls give these twenty people a crash course, while I personally trained the eleven blacks.
The blacks stood in the moonlight and let me inspect their bodies at will. I felt secretly surprised. These eleven people all had decent strength, but it had been suppressed by someone else using drugs and some kind of mysterious technique. I believe that the true strength of the eleven is no less impressive than that of the current three brothers.
Generally speaking, in order to get a good price for the blacks, the traffickers have to teach them Mandarin (the common language on the mainland), so there are not too many obstacles to communication. I taught them a set of mnemonics first, and of course I also used the sleepwalking technique, otherwise their understanding of the mnemonics would not be too accurate. After the three of them indicated that they understood, I indicated that they should sit down, and then reached out and pressed on the vest of one of the blacks, and told them to start practicing according to the heart techniques I had passed on.
I secretly channeled the true power of Lanling. The steady qi did not enter forcefully or swiftly, but slowly entered through the heart acupoint. When it passed the danzhong acupoint, it did not pass through as before, but instead launched wave after wave of attacks on the danzhong acupoint. At the same time, a cold and sharp flow of qi slowly flowed out of the dan tian, not upwards, but downwards. It just passed over the lower abdomen, but then turned back, and the cold and sharp qi kept circulating around the dan tian. After thirty minutes of continuous impact, the seal was broken open, and a large gap appeared. The black man’s face, which had been clearly feeling his strength rising back up, revealed an unusual look. I told him to continue practicing according to his own martial arts method, and he would only recover roughly after ten cycles of heaven and earth. Afterwards, he broke the seal for ten other people. Then he gave each of the eleven people three pills to take in separate doses.
It was already bright, and guests were constantly pouring in. The name of the capital city of Milan had even spread to Taram. When the nobles and aristocrats here heard that Milan had arrived in Taram and was holding an exhibition, they all scrambled for invitations. For a while, Milan’s invitations were being sold on the black market for ten gold coins each, and the business of making fake invitations was booming, with each one costing ten silver coins to make.
Seeing the situation was not good, I quickly found a lot of unemployed people from the streets to serve as temporary staff. Even merchants from all over gathered at the Water Orchid Court, wanting to buy some to take to other places and sell at a high price. The atmosphere reached a climax when six young girls performed on stage in their costumes. A buying frenzy ensued, with more than 100 of the 600 costumes being sold in one day. However, the sale of medicines was not so good. Although beauty medicine and yin-protecting water sold well, there were not many aphrodisiacs sold. After all, most of the customers were women, and men were not comfortable buying this kind of medicine in front of women. It would be too embarrassing for them. However, the next day I immediately came up with a solution. While the women were trying on clothes, I thoughtfully ushered the men into a special hut for them to rest, and incidentally sell some more medicine. Taram is still better, selling one pill for eight gold coins and a piece of clothing for 110 gold coins. It seems that the people of Milan are much richer than those in the capital. It is also true that the people in the capital are all aristocrats, while Taram is full of rich people.
After selling all the clothes and medicine, I bought some goods and played for another two days. Before I knew it, four days had passed. During these four days, I brainwashed the slaves I bought (using spiritual power to invade the other person’s brain and instill a certain consciousness, of course, this requires that the other person’s spiritual power is low and they consciously accept it, otherwise the effect will not be strong), and then passed on some martial arts and spells. I also hired a lot of mercenaries to protect the Water Orchid Academy.
Within four days, I mainly trained these eleven blacks. The blacks could already freely use their internal energy. Legend has it that blacks worship the earth extremely, so I passed on their Eastern Earthly Positive Energy Heart Method, which is a type of heroic righteousness. I discovered that blacks have an extraordinary familiarity with swords, shields, spears, bows, and arrows. They use these things as if they were their own arms. What is meant by “as if their arms were their fingers” is clear after watching them use swords. The way they wielded their swords was extremely wild, so I passed on to them a set of wild sword techniques, plus the Dragon Shield. Their archery skills were also wild, and as for the bow and arrow, I only passed on the mnemonic, body movements, and postures of the Xuantian Nine Shots. There was no need to teach them anything else. Their understanding of archery was definitely above mine, and I was afraid that their technique was even more superb than that of the grassland nomads.
But there is one thing that bothers me a bit. These eleven people only listen to me, and no one else. There is no other way but to bring these eleven people with me.
Finally, it’s time to go back. We still have ten carts, pulled by twenty horses. We didn’t hire any more drivers, but instead, ten blacks drove the horses. When we passed by Shi Fengying’s territory, I had a private conversation with Shi Fengying, and then we set off again.
Once again, we returned to Yanggu City.
“What’s the news?”
“Young master, the Quanquan gang has mobilized all their best fighters, more than 200 of them,“ said Chen Youlai, the eleventh member of the Fire Squad.
”When and where do you think they will strike?“
”It’s impossible to do it in Yanggu City. As soon as it gets dark, martial law is imposed throughout the city, slave soldiers immediately take to the streets to patrol, and anyone seen on the streets at night will be arrested and sent to prison immediately,” said Lu Qing, the twelfth member of the Fire Squad.
“I don’t think they will cross the Li River to chase after us. More than 200 people crossing outside their traditional sphere of influence will cause misunderstandings. Besides, none of the members of the Imperial Knights are fools. Even if they are as secretive as possible, a group of 200 people will be quickly discovered by the Imperial Knights without the cover of their own people. If that’s the case, there aren’t many places where they can set an ambush. We just need to find a map to find out where they might ambush us.” Fire No. 18 Yue Yu said.
“Have you forgotten the mountain ridge we paid special attention to when we came?“ I said.
”Yes, the mountain grass is lush there, and it would be impossible to find 200 people hiding there, let alone 400. It would be even more impossible to find them,” Chen Youlai said with a sudden realization.
Before setting off the next day, I hired a mercenary group in Yangshi City. This was the most powerful one in Yangshi City. I offered twenty gold coins and asked them to escort me to the capital. The deal was done, and the other party sent thirty people, including twenty archers. I also bought eleven breastplates for the blacks and then led my men out of Yangshi City.
Here it is necessary to explain the difference between a mercenary group and a convoy. The two did not arise for the same reason. Convoys arose in response to the demand for protection for merchant travelers, while mercenaries arose in response to the need to supplement troops in the event of war. However, by now the difference between the two is not great. Mercenaries also take on the business of protecting merchant travelers and eliminating monsters, but convoys never intervene in wars.
Half of the people in the fire team set out to explore the enemy’s whereabouts. Relying on the clues left by the enemy at the mountain pass, they finally determined that the enemy was ambushing on top of this mountain pass. The enemy was also an expert at concealing their tracks. If it weren’t for the fire team’s special vigilance and special and arduous training in this area, they would not have recognized an ambush here.
We stopped 200 meters before the mountain ridge, circled the car, and everyone sat scattered in the circle, drinking water, eating, chatting, and from time to time someone walked out of the circle to fetch water from the nearby mountain spring. There was peace and quiet all around, a beautiful natural scene with mountains, water, and people.
We have been sitting here since morning and will continue to do so until afternoon. I am in no hurry. I am a legitimate businessman and I am not afraid of the imperial army. Some people, however, are afraid that the imperial army will show up and discover problems.
A shadow flashed next to me, “Young master, the enemy is here.”
I greeted the mercenary group and everyone quickly took up their positions.
From time to time, dazzling flashes could be seen in the grass in front of us, and the sound of clothes rustling through the grass could be heard from time to time.
“Shoot,” Yuri shouted, and in an instant, forty or fifty arrows pounced straight at the grass. ‘Ah, ah,’ ‘puff, puff,’ screams, the sound of arrows and shields intersecting, the sound of killing was in chaos, but the enemy did not pounce on them. The enemy understood that we had bows and arrows in our hands, and pouncing on us would only be looking for death.
This time, the enemy also came prepared, not only bringing bows and arrows, but also shields. The sound of arrows piercing the air and the screams of those who fell from time to time continued to come. No one in my group had died yet, because the people from the mercenary group were naturally the ones charging in the front.
After a three-hour stalemate, both sides finally ran out of arrows. The enemy had 40 bodies, while we only had 10, because we had the carts as shields. The hand-to-hand combat was finally about to begin. I gave a sign, and the people in the fire group understood, and they dived behind the carts. I said to the mercenary group, “Everyone withdraw immediately to Yanggu City. The enemy is too strong to fight.” After saying this, I took the lead and ran.
The eight members of the Fire Team, who were lagging behind, immediately launched a barrage of sixteen iron needles. Three of the seven people who had just pounced fell to the ground. Just as the enemy was about to fight back with concealed weapons, the eight members of the Fire Team threw their hands and launched another sixteen needles, and immediately retreated.
The eight members of the fire team were extremely fast and quickly caught up with the group. The chase was on, and the shields in their hands were also lost, and the bows had long been thrown away. The two sides chased and fled, running for 20 li without knowing where the people of the Imperial Knights had gone (in fact, a robbery had occurred north of the river, and they had rushed there, which was the Quanquan Gang’s strategy of feinting to the east while attacking to the west).
No one could stand the high-speed running for twenty li. Even the Yuri siblings were panting, after all, they were each carrying a small child. Unbeknownst to them, they were no longer running towards Yangcheng Ancient City, but had strayed off the official road by more than ten li.
A slope lay ahead, and we quickly passed most of it. Just as we were about to exit the slope, I shouted, “Form up and meet the enemy.”
The crowd, who had already been unable to stand it, almost immediately stopped when they heard this. Without their bows and arrows, they drew their weapons and formed a triangular formation. However, everyone was panting, and except for a few people, they all wished they could lie on the ground.
The hundred or so people who were chasing us stopped a hundred paces away and formed a formation. An old man with a triangle eye, dragging a heavy order from the underworld, the vicious light in his triangle eyes kept flashing, but he was out of breath and said, “Youngster, you are dead.”
A strange smile appeared on my face again, and a cold light flashed in my eyes. “Kill,” a booming voice burst out, and thirty-two people suddenly emerged from the ground on the slope. The sharp whistle of the arrows made people’s blood sink, and their faces turned pale. With the sound of the bowstring, there would be a scream. The people from Quanfengzhai, who had long since discarded their shields, could only suffer the scourge of the rain of arrows. The screams of agony never stopped. They could only find places to hide at the bottom of the slope. Trying to escape the rain of arrows was a pipe dream unless you had reached the level of a ground-walking immortal.
These 32 people are the people from the metal, wood, water, and earth groups that I secretly transferred from Zhenlong Mountain. Each person has three pots of wolf teeth arrows and a three-stone strong bow. Within 100 paces, even a qigong cultivator who has cultivated to the point of mastery and is wearing armor would not dare to take an arrow head-on.
After a while, the sound of arrows whizzing through the air stopped, and the arrows began to become less frequent. The 32 archers stopped firing arrows so easily, as the remaining 20-odd people on the other side were all masters among masters, and they had all found cover behind rocks, trees, and so on.
We immediately sent reinforcements to the 32 archers to prevent the opponent from attacking with magic, and then took advantage of the situation to break through.
The 32 archers began to shift positions, constantly shooting and killing the enemies who had been exposed again.
Under the concentrated fire of the 32 bows, the opponent’s masters simply had no room to manoeuvre. Many of them shouted countless times to surrender, but I ignored them all. These remaining 20-odd people were the cream of the Quanquan gang. As long as they were killed, the Quanquan gang would not be able to cultivate too many masters in the next ten years, and they would pose no substantial threat to us.
After finding a place to hide from the arrows, the enemy calmed down and began to fight back with magic spells. However, due to our timely reinforcements, the enemy had no chance. But the situation was temporarily at a stalemate. The enemy did not come out, and we did not want to give up the advantage and charge down to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy, who knew what kind of terrible hidden weapons and experts the enemy had.
I became a little anxious. We were already more than ten li away from the official road, and the Imperial Knights would never patrol this area. It was about to get dark, and once it did, the power of the bows and arrows would be reduced by two-thirds, and they would lose their deterrent effect. The opponent would take advantage of the darkness to break out, and the success rate would be extremely high.
“Yuli, do you have any way to drive the people out?” I turned to Yuli and asked.
“Yes,“ Yuli frowned, a little hesitant: ‘Isn’t it too many people to kill?’
”There’s no other way. If I don’t kill them, they’ll kill us, unless we stop doing business with Tarant. I said with a pretense of helplessness, but I was thinking about something else. More than 200 people robbed the passing merchants in broad daylight. Have all the people of the Imperial Knights died? They didn’t even notice a single clue.
“O God who looks down on the world, with the help of the omnipresent spirit heart in the atmosphere, the descendants of the gods of the world beg for your power here. The chaotic world is full of sins, so please send down your wrath that burns everything!” Yuli muttered the incantation, and suddenly the clouds in the sky turned red and lowered. Then, streams of red light fell from the sky, passed through the red clouds, and smashed onto the ground. The sharp screeching sound was ear-piercing and frightening. Large crater, and the area within 120 paces below the slope suddenly turned into a sea of flames. This was the eighth-level fire magic “Meteor Fire Rain”, which required powerful magical and spiritual strength. Even Yuli, who was born as a goblin magician, could not handle it.
The sound of arrows whistling through the air once again. The survivors who screamed and fled from the sea of flames were instantly reduced to ghosts under the arrows. Half an hour later, the sea of flames gradually died down. With Yuli and his brother as pioneers, everyone entered and began to clean up the battlefield. The enemy really did have quite a lot of treasures on them, and those strange-shaped hidden weapons were really an eye-opener. Some treasures were given to the mercenaries as spoils of war, and a death compensation of twelve gold coins was paid. Before nightfall, everyone returned to Yang City.