Chapter 43: Return My Slaves

On one of the survivors’ ship, Zong Ge carefully listened to Tripleblade’s report.

“Hei Fei mainly has oxmen and dogmen on hand, as well as a few goblins.”

“An ordinary adult male ox-man is priced at 8 gold. An ordinary adult male dogman is priced at 7 gold.”

“They have twelve bronze level oxmen, all fighters and priced from 60-90 gold. The bronze level dogmen are also fighters and have similar prices on them.”

“They also have three iron level fighters. One female oxmen, who is disabled and old, and priced at 580 gold. Two dogmen elders priced at 730 gold, while the young dogman patriarch is the most expensive, they want 940 gold.”

Zong Ge was somewhat pleased with what he heard. 

Because he wanted the dogmen, as they were cheaper than the oxmen.

But he was still very vexed.

“Ordinary adult male dogmen were still 7 gold each!

He had never had more than 5 gold on his person ever.

Zong Ge also didn’t understand the market pricing of slaves, so he asked Tripleblade, “Can it be cheaper?”

Tripleblade did not tell him about the minor conflict inside the tavern, instead he shook his head, “I already pushed down the price to its absolute lowest.”

Zong Ge’s face flashed with agony, “Even if that’s the lowest price, we do not have that much money.”

In fact, he used to have some savings too.

However, during the shipwreck of the Hog’s Kiss, he had lost it.

The survivors’ were nearly in the same situation as Zong Ge.

There had been almost no gold coins in the spoils they had seized from War Merchant.

“My Lord.” Tripleblade deliberated for a bit, then suggested, “We can make a request to the captain and the others.”

“If we all raise money, we will surely have enough.”

“When that happens, we can look to buy them.”

Zong Ge shook his head, “Were we not clear about their situation? Even if they managed to keep some money through the shipwreck, who would hold onto such superfluous and heavy things when fleeing for their lives?”

Tripleblade continued, “In fact, we have money!”

“We have many alchemy crossbows and firearms, along with countless alchemy recipes. Take one out at random, and exchange it for a large amount of money.”

“But now, all of those things are in the captain’s and his people’s hands, we can request a part of it, this is a reasonable request.”

“We have contributed a lot to reach today.”

Zong Ge nodded, “It is only fair!”

“But.” He shook his head again, “You should know that our outward identity is a just established mercenary group, while in reality hinting to others that we are actually arms smuggling criminals.”

“This identity is very useful, and has already dispelled the doubts of outsiders and also makes them afraid of our backer, they won’t dare to offend us.”

“As arms smugglers, we cannot sell our weapons as we please, we have a specific purchaser in the Wilderness Continent.” 

“If we sell, it will be a flaw.”

“Those recipes are also the same, we cannot wantonly sell them and provoke suspicion.”

“So, it’s that difficult…” Tripleblade frowned and bowed his head in perplexion.

Zong Ge nodded and looked at the ship where Cang Xu was at, “We are not the only ones that are perplexed.”

At that moment, a loud noise suddenly came from outside.

There was a problem. 

Zong Ge and Tripleblade glanced at each other, then immediately left the bow house and arrived on the deck.

A sailor on duty ran over to report.

“A suspected slave rebellion?” Zong Ge and Tripleblade gazed at Hei Fe’s ships.

The commotion was getting bigger.

“What in the devil are Hei Fei and his men doing?” Zong Ge and Tripleblade were somewhat puzzled.

According to the gathered intelligence, Hei Fei and his men were veteran slave traffickers, such a mistake shouldn’t happened.

Especially now, Hei Fei and his officers hadn’t acted immediately, rather they waited to see what the situation was like.

Were these not qualified slave traffickers?

Zong Ge did not know that Hei Fei and his men were actually guarding against the survivors.

Tripleblade thoughtfully said, “It might have something to do with us.”

He briefly described what had transpired.

Zong Ge clapped Tripleblade’s shoulder, “You did well.”

Tripleblade’s anger when he saw his fellow goblins killed was understandable. What pleased Zong Ge even more was that Tripleblade didn’t allow it to influence his emotions, instead he took advantage of it to beat down the price.

Tripleblade’s tough negotiation also made Zong Ge satisfied, it agreed with his temperament.

Tripleblade’s heart was moved when he sensed Zong Ge’s support, and he suggested, “My Lord, it would be for the best if we took advantage of this opportunity…”

Zong Ge firmly shook his head, and he murmured, “We are not thieves.”

While the two were discussing, the hull of a ship suddenly split open, and soon after, the rebelling beastmen poured out.

Zong Ge and Tripleblade did not notice warlock Mo Kong, they only saw a group of frantic beastmen charging at them.

Tripleblade instantly grew nervous, “My Lord, should we chase them away?”

But Zong Ge replied, “Not necessary yet. If we refuse this gift, we won’t give Hei Fei any face. Make the arrangements.

Tripleblade exposed a smile and accepted the order.

The sailors acted at once, and shouted loudly at each other. Then they split, with some chasing down the escaping beastmen and the others gathering together to welcome Hei Fei and his men who were in hot pursuit.

“Stand back! Come any closer and we will open fire!” Tripleblade was the first to act.

The first mate stopped at once, he had eaten a loss from Tripleblade already.

Behind Tripleblade was a row of sailors, each of them holding an alchemy crossbow or gun.

The first mate knew Rou Zang’s swordsmen force had been slain by these alchemical arms.

How could they even compare to Rou Zang’s battle squads?”

In the darkness, Mo Kong laughed and quietly changed the effect of his spell.

The young patriarch and his clansmen were bewildered, their wisdom constantly affected by the magic.

The magic influenced them to unconsciously flee towards the survivors’ group.

Now the magic confused them further, causing them to pace back and forth and lose the courage to break out further.

Thus, Captain Hei Fei had no choice but to step forward.

These beastmen were very valuable, especially the young patriarch. Him alone was worth almost a thousand coins, and if they were fortunate, they could sell him for even more!

Hei Fei, with a calm face, interrogated Tripleblade, “Friend, what is the meaning of this?”

“Those are our slaves.”

“Wealth, we took great trouble in getting.”

“Return it to us, and you will receive our friendship. The price we discussed previously, we can lower it a bit more.”

Tripleblade coldly snorted, and put up his hand to stop the approaching Hei Fei, “Stop first, Captain Hei Fei.”

“Don’t provoke a misunderstanding.”

“A group of beastmen rushed into our resting area, of course we want to get the situation under control. Don’t tell me you wanted these beastmen to attack our ships?”

Hei Fei took a deep breath, then did his best to ease the tension, “You’ve done me a favor, I want to thank you for helping us in intercepting those slaves.”

“The thanks you give will be to your satisfaction.”

“Before that, however, let me first lock up those lowly and irascible slaves again.”

After saying that, Captain Hei Fei waved his hand, indicating to his subordinates to follow.

The first mate was hesitant against so many alchemy crossbows and firearms.

But at that moment, Mo Kong used another magic spell.

He had recently collected a sufficient amount of both Tripleblade’s and the first mate’s auras.

Using these life auras, he successfully applied a curse on the first mate.

The fist mate’s mind was affected, causing him to suddenly grow furious and hateful. He glared at Tripleblade and walked forward, “Follow me!”

With him in the lead, and compelled by Captain Hei Fei’s authority, their men struck towards the beastmen.

The beastmen immediately grew restless, and circled tightly around the young patriarch.

The young patriarch was both annoyed and furious, he wanted to stand, however his heavy injuries left him struggling and dependent on the support of others.

The first mate’s action pleased Captain Hei Fei.

The disregard for danger these people showed as they dashed in also made the survivors hesitant. 

After all, this was not the countryside or the sea, this was a port.

The firearms and crossbows were more deterrents, none of them really wanted to fire them.

If shots were fired, then the conflict that followed would be bloody.

Even though Hei Fei’s fleet was weaker than the survivors’, why would they want to make war? The survivors had more urgent matters.

This hesitation immediately caused a surge in courage in Hei Fei and his men, and their footsteps became swifter.

“That’s it! Hehehe.” The warlock Mo Kong cackled, then cast another spell.

This time, his target was Tripleblade.

He had enough of Tripleblade’s life aura to curse him.

After a few breaths, Tripleblade’s heart welled with rage.

The previous scene of the goblin being killed at the tavern floated in his mind again.

The first mate, a defeated opponent acting so arrogant, was drawing near, he was provoking Tripleblade!

“Stop!”

“First and final warning.”

“Stop now, otherwise we will fire!”

Tripleblade drew out his cutlass and shouted in a stern voice.

The first mate coldly snorted, straightened his chest, and shouted, “Shoot me if you dare!”

Tripleblade’s anger reached its apex, and he was about to give the order to fire.

Ha!

At that moment, a wild sound was heard.

A two handed sword was hurled through the air, it passed over Tripleblade, over the first mate and his men, and was going straight towards Captain Hei Fei.

Hei Fei’s eyes flashed angrily, and in a panic, he took out his cutlass to counter it.

Ding.

With a crisp clang, the cutlass in Hei Fei’s hands ferociously clashed against the two handed sword, creating an eruption of dazzling sparks.

The two handed sword fluttered into the air, then fell, pointed down, and inserted itself into the floor tiles. The silver battle qi emitting around the sword blade gradually extinguished.

Hei Fei had been forced back a few steps, the hand that held the cutlass was slightly trembling.

He was both startled and furious as he looked up at a ship, there stood a tall and sturdy figure.

“Shi Qi!” Hei Fei growled, revealing the identity of the one who threw the sword.

“Hei Fei.” Shi Qi (Zong Ge) standing on the ship was overlooking the scene below, “If you want to make war, I will fight you to the end.”

Hei Fei took a deep breath, “My slaves…”

Zong Ge quickly interrupted him, “All I know is that we are detaining these beastmen. No matter where they are from, even Rou Zang’s sailors are now my captives.”

Hei Fei’s eyes flared open angrily, “You aren’t following the rules. You must know that this is not the sea, this is imperial territory, this is Lord Tan Qiu’s territory!”

Just as his voice came out, the city guard rushed forth from a street corner.

The elite soldiers quickly spread out in an encirclement, their leader was a male silver level fighter.

It was the city guard commander that had been absent from the banquet.

“What is going on here?” The high-ranking officer was solemn.

Zong Ge was somewhat surprised, the city guard had appeared rather quickly.

Originally, after the beastmen had rebelled, Hei Fei was worried this was a plot by the survivors and had asked Tan Qiu for help.

They were staying at the port and had paid the anchorage fee, thus they should receive Tan Qiu’s protection.

“They are stealing my slaves. Those villains!” Captain Hei Fei directly lamented.

“A group of people attacked my ship, I knocked them down, they are now my captives.” Zong Ge calmly replied.

After the city guard commander realized what the situation was, he pursed his brows.

If the survivors had directly attacked Hei Fei’s ships and stole the slaves, the city guards would naturally want to defend justice and help Hei Fei’s people deal with the survivors.

But, as it turned out, the beastmen had rebelled, fled here, and became the survivors’ captives.

From the survivors’ point of view, this was entirely self-defense.

He Fei believed that everything was a trick by the survivors. Why did the beastmen run towards the survivors’ ships?”

The words of both sides were reasonable.

Wholly incapable of dealing with this and having an incessant headache, the city guard commander said, “Since neither of you will concede, I ask that when dawn comes, you two will go to his Lordship’s castle and make your case.”

The commander was self-aware and knew that this kind of affair was difficult to deal with, something he was no expert in dealing with.

Since it didn’t concern him, it would be for the best if he handed it over to his immediate superior.