Chapter 152: Water Pigmen
The dwarf auction began.
Room 1 and room 21 bid one after the other.
Both were wake up calls.
“One is the gold level fighter Song Shou, and the other is the richest and most mysterious buyer.” Men Shi’s heart seemed to sink into the ocean, pressure was piling onto him.
He bit his jaw and was the third to bid, making a firm resolution to himself: Even if he has to sell himself oof, he will redeem his people!
The price competition continued, with some new competitors entering the fray as the price rapidly soared.
When the dwarfs on stage saw Men Shi, they were emotionally moved. Some did their utmost to struggle until the watching fighters drew whips to get them to behave. Others wanted to shout, but they had been silenced with magic and looked like mimes. Many more dwarfs were weak and without strength, for before they went on stage, they had been drugged.
The pirates were uninterested in these dwarfs.
Because 80 dwarfs packaged in a single auction, thus the powers that could absorb this amount had to be quite large.
Of the pirate groups at the auction, Qi You’s Ten Touch Pirates was the biggest. Second to him was Dian Wan’s Lightning Pirates, Yang Cong Tou’s Stench Pirates, and Hu Li’s Applause Pirates.
These for pirate groups were mainly composed of humans, with the outlier, the Applause Pirates, being composed of mostly frogmen.
Regardless of which group it was, recruiting so many dwarfs at once would have a strong impact on the original members.
Because their races, habits, and properties were different.
Especially since there were many dwarfs, no matter which power they join, they will band together to keep themselves warm, a challenge to the leader and the organization overall.
In this respect, entities like the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was rare. Because this mercenary corps not only had humans, but also a dragonman, dogmen, and a small giant.
To outsiders, it seemed this was perhaps because Commander Long Fu was a dragoman himself.
However, the real reason was that the survivors were a complicated bunch. They not only had a half beastman, but also a necromancer, a ghost girl, and a dragonman youngster that could change his race at will.
Because of the survivors’ foundation when they established the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, they involuntarily reflected their common origin leading to the peculiar phenomenon of having many kinds of races.
As the price rose, so too did the bids slow.
“This price is out of bounds.” Song Shou shook his head and helplessly sighed.
He withdrew from the competition first.
Although he was very interested in these dwarfs, he hadn’t selected an island yet and he didn’t have enough money.
Surprisingly, the second to withdraw was actually room 21.
Zi DI indeed wanted these dwarfs.
The reason she withdrew was because the price was too unreasonable. This price could purchase better and more dwarf slaves.
“Not many gold coins left.” Zi Di carefully calculated the money on hand.
The chance fortune of 50,000 gold coins was almost gone.
Buying Chi Lai cost 8,000 gold.
The gold level healing potion, gold level Gold Silk Chainmail, the Mircale Flower Pot, and so on were all gained by the survivors through fierce price wars. That depleted much of their financial resources.
“I have to save some money for daily expenditures.”
“Next, I also need to buy the water pigmen.”
In the Wilderness Continent, there was the Three Color River, it was extremely long and ran through two thirds of the continent.
Ther Three Color River was white upstream, and had ice floating in it, yellow midstream due to mixing silt, and red downstream for scarlet red vegetations grew all over it down there.
The water pigmen always lived in the upstream part of the Three Color River.
The auction list stated that these water pigmen all came from a single village.
The village located upstream of the Three Color River had been raided by human slavers.
Aside from the casualties incurred from resistance and during transit, all of the remaining water pigmen captives were being auctioned here.
Zong Ge valued this group of beastmen.
Zong Ge said to the dragonman youngster and others, “We need these water pigmen, their bloodline is very compatible with the Backwater Battle Qi technique. Not only do I know the cultivation method of the Backwater Battle Qi technique, but I also understand how to establish a Backwater Battle Squad.”
“With these water pigmen, we will have top quality sailors.”
“Water pigmen are easy to provide for and aren’t picky eaters. They can fish for themselves and normally, every adult water pigman is an expert fisher. During famine, they can even use river sand to allay their hunger, their powerful stomachs can let them digest it barely.”
“During naval battles, we will have an all new route of attack – we can attack enemy ships with the water pigmen.”
“Backwater Battle Qi can let someone operate in water for a long time, and after it is given to the water pigmen, they will redouble its power.”
Zong Ge successfully convinced the dragonman youngster.
Cang Xu was somewhat worried.
He privately found the dragonman youngster and generally said this. If these water pigmen are purchased, they will be trained by Zong Ge. He already has the Quick Knife Battle Squad, if he increases his strength again, won’t that increase the hidden dangers?
The dragonman youngster didn’t mind and instead advised Cang Xu, “We are an integrated whole, with the same goal. We need to try any way that’ll increase our strength.”
“I trust Zong Ge, he is very ambitious and wants to be leader. But he has never been a vile character.”
“Without Zong Ge, we won’t be able to form a Backwater Battle Squad, correct?”
The Backwater Battle Squad had a high performance to cost ratio.
Zong Ge was a crucial person.
The water pigmen would be controlled by the slave contracts they signed.
With this goal in mind, the dwarfs on stage could not compare to it.
Zi Di wisely gave up.
In the end, through his own power, Men Shi bought back all of his clansmen.
“I actually won!” Men Shi found it somewhat hard to believe he was victorious.
He wiped his forehead with his hand and noticed it was utterly sweaty.
Before this auction, he had never spoken. All of his money and energy was for the purpose of redeeming his people.
To him, this auction was heart stopping.
At a completely unreasonable price, these dwarfs were sold to Men Shi.
The market price couldn’t be used as a reference for this.
These were Men Shi’s people.
“We’re saved.” A dwarf gleefully sobbed.
Men Shi then left.
He strode towards backstage, prepared to depart with all of his people. He wasn’t interested in any upcoming auctions.
The originally full auction audience suddenly had a gap in it, in a somewhat abrupt manner.
The rest quietly waited for the next auction.
According to the auction list, the auction had reached its finale.
“Do we know what treasures will be on stage?”
Many people curiously guessed.
Hun Tong’s measures to maintain secrecy had succeeded.
Generally speaking, the final item was bound to be exceedingly precious. Even if this auction ended here, such an auction was bound to leave a deep impression on people and increase the influence of it further.
“There should only be two or three things before the final item.” Zi Di determined to herself.
The next slaves weren’t the water pigmen Zon Ge was looking forward to, but rather a mother and child.
The mother had wavy blond hair and looked delicately beautiful. The son only looked like he was six or seven and closely gripped his mother’s leg.
As the two were escorted up, they looked panicked and hopeless.
“Baron Zai Xiang’s territory was attacked by pirates. He was the feudal lord, however, he fearfully slinked off and fled before the battle, causing his troops to be routed and his entire territory to be looted by the pirates and many thousands were massacred.”
“The empire dispatched troops to quickly subdue the lost territory, expel the pirates, and to imprison the baron’s entire family for his crime.”
“As of now, Baron Zai Xiang and his heir have been beheaded by the empire. The rest of the clan was sold into slavery.”
“What you see before you now is not the baron’s wife, but rather the baron’s lover as well as his bastard.”
“In addition to them, there are also some retainers and subordinates, please see the magic images.”
Everyone gazed up and carefully observed them.
The woman had a bronze level life aura, don’t expect that she’d be able to fight or kill.
It was obvious that she was the baron’s canary, her cultivation was just a part of her status as a canary, that’s all.
As for their bastard, although he had a noble’s extraordinary bloodline, it was hard to tell how much talent he really had.
Besides, few people here had the patience to train this child.
The reciprocation cycle was rather long.
Unless the bastard showed extraordinary talent.
Therefore, the quality of the retainers and subordinates in the magic images greatly influenced how the buyers judged the worth of these slaves.
Zong Ge sized them up too.
He rapidly lost interest.
These retainers and subordinates had mediocre strength, the strongest of them was a mere bronze level.
Baron Zai Xiang’s clan didn’t lack talents but it was clear that those had been divided up already.
It was like when a prairie bison toppled over. First the lions would eat most of the flesh, followed by the hyenas, and then the vultures.
The baron’s lover and bastard had ended up here due to their slave merchant having a flash of sudden inspiration: if they were sold in an uncivilized place, perhaps their noble identity could fetch a higher price here?
Chi Lai was also watching.
He was not focused on the mother and child on stage, but rather on Long Fu and Shi Qi.
When he noticed the dragonman youngster and Zong Ge were not interested, his understanding of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps deepened a layer.
Suddenly, Fei She broke the room’s quietness.
He couldn’t help but wipe his eyes and cry out in alarm, “That’s, that’s Qing Xin?! Are, are my eyes deceiving me?”
For a moment, the three silvers all looked at him funny.
Fei She’s look changed, and his heart shouted, “Oh no”.
In a moment of desperation, he forgot there was an outsider inside the room with them – Chi Lai.
In room 21, Zi Di leaped from her seat, “Elder Qing Xin! She isn’t dead?”
In the magic images, she noticed there was a curled up figure in the corner of the iron cage.
Although she looked middle aged, and her skin, hands, feet, and other features showed he had been engaged in constant physical labor, Zi Di saw many things she was familiar with.
As the bewilderment faded, certainty grew ever more.
That should be Elder Qing Xin!
She was disguised.