Chapter 49: Three Party Transaction
The Hunting Guild.
Once again, Zong Ge brought back a lot of dead magic beasts.
“Lord Shi Qi, please sit down for a moment, we shall immediately settle your bill!” The receptionist was both cordial and respectful.
By this time, Zong Ge had become the their most radiant hunter.
He not only cleaned out most of the exploration missions, but he also brought back large amounts of dead magic beasts.
There were many tide snakes and smelt rats.
Not only ordinary ones, but also bronze levels, iron levels, and even silver levels.
If this trend continued, the Hunting Guild’s mission pile would be gone soon.
Zong Ge withdrew to a small booth, and after taking a seat, the receptionist served him black tea and dessert.
“Your group’s strength surprised people.”
“My Lord, are you interested in this mission?”
“Recently, the reward for this kind of mission has been increased by 20%, a generous kickback.”
The receptionist seized the opportunity to market the Hunting Guild’s mission.
Zong Ge glanced at it, and noticed it was a resource gathering mission.
It wanted two types of resources.
One was flame crystal clusters, which often grew near magma river banks.
The second was tide snake eggs, the bigger the tide snake egg, the higher the price.
Zong Ge shook his head, “We are resting, reorganizing, and drilling. We only do these missions in passing. This mission is too troublesome, and I don’t want to waste our time.”
Until the moment Zong Ge left through the Hunting Guild’s door, the receptionist did not give up trying to persuade him, “My Lord, won’t you reconsider?”
Not long after Zong Ge left, a docked ship welcomed a visitor.
The Night Devil Hunting Group commander.
He wanted to collaborate with the survivors to encircle and hunt a tide snake group.
“This snake group has many female snakes that recently laid many snake eggs.”
“Smelt rats give birth to live young, and their newborns only acknowledge other smelt rats. When tide snake eggs hatch and break out of their shell with secret breeding methods, the newborn small snakes will imprint on their breeder, making them an excellent source of magical pets.”
“Snake Rat Island’s largest resource is magic beasts, and its most profitable are flame crystal clusters and tide snake eggs.”
“But flame crystal clusters are very hard to gather, there are always smelt rats living nearby. And during the ensuing fight, the crystals are likely to be destroyed.”
“But snake eggs are different, they will be protected by the snake group to their deaths.”
The Night Devil commander earnestly persuaded.
Unliked before, the strength the survivors displayed caused him to sit up and take notice, leading him to think about cooperation.
But the dragonman youngster tactfully refused him.
300
The Night Devil commander did not know that in the Deep Sea Monster Fish, the survivors already had 1000 flame crystal clusters and 300 snake eggs, many of which were of higher levels.
If a human wanted to take these flame crystal clusters or snake eggs, they would need to fight, and hunt the snake or rat groups, difficult things to do.
But the dragonman youngster was different.
He had the Bloodcore!
By beheading many tide snakes and smelt rats, the young man could transform into a complete silver level of those magic beasts!
Now, he only lacked gold level ones.
It was because of this that the survivors delivered so many magic beasts to the Hunting Guild.
The dragonman youngster no longer needed to absorb them.
Meanwhile, because the night Devil commander paid a visit to the survivors, Hei Fei’s group went on high alert.
“Lord Captain, the Night Devil commander just left. This subordinate made some inquiries, and it seems Long Fu won’t be collaborating with the Night Devil Hunting Group.” The first mate reported.
Hei Fei immediately let out a breath.
These days, his days were anything but relaxing.
With great fanfare, the survivors had been exploring the underground, causing him to be suspicious and vigilant.
The survivors’ great headway and good momentum made him even more wary.
Every time Zong Ge conducted military training, his prestige was apparent. Whenever Hei Fei heard the sailors’ battle cries, clanging blades, and most of all, the booming cannons, he felt contempt and provoked.
Whenever the survivors displayed themselves like this, Hei Fei would remember the time where he barely blocked the sword Zong Ge threw at him, and knew that he had no choice but to swallow his anger.
He wanted to leave this place, but his ships needed to be repaired.
He was behind the survivors.
But the survivors’ ships hadn’t been repaired yet.
They always had new damage.
Hei Fei began to think of every possible method, including bribing personnel, to secretly repair his ships.
All failed.
He faintly realized that he might be stuck in some whirlpool and couldn’t get himself free.
He began to feel regretful.
If he had known earlier, he might have listened to his first mate: immediately leaving Snake Rat Island!
But he couldn’t now.
Hei Fei was very worried that if he fled to another island, the survivors would attack him. In the port, they wouldn’t dare to touch him.
But staying here was also terrible.
Tan Qiu had invited him to dinner many times, every time under the pretense of purchasing beastmen slaves.
But Hei Fei knew this wasn’t so!
Don’t be fooled by the size of Snake Rat Island, it did not require many beastmen slaves.
Because Snake Rat Island hadn’t been developed for every long, the island did not have many inhabitants, and under normal circumstances, the ruling lord wouldn’t let his native race be outnumbered by foreign ones.
If the beastmen slaves rebelled, one of them could take on three humans. Therefore, there needed to be three humans for every beastman to ensure the territory’s population was healthy and stable.
Tan Qiu took a fancy to them, and fancied Hei Fei!
Tan Qiu wanted to unite everyone to deal with Rou Zang, and as a silver level, Hei Fei was an external force he could draw support from.
The conflict between him and the survivors caused Tan Qiu to see an opportunity and hope.
Like Hei Fei wanted to deal with Rou Zang.
Besides that, recent gossip that had sprung up also made him fidgety.
The gossip involved the dawning war in the Wilderness Continent, the rampaging pirates, and that the selling price of slaves were constantly sliding downwards in other islands.
Hei Fei was worried incessantly about this.
There were many factors that affected slave prices.
Nowadays, slave merchants were slashing prices to sell beastmen slaves.
Hei Fei knew the reason why!
The empire’s development in the Wilderness Continent was going well, and they held the advantage in the war. If allied beastmen armies were defeated, not only would they lose their territory, many of them would also be enslaved.
Beastmen soldiers taken prisoner were snapped up by slave traders, and then the defenseless beastmen villages were also raided, causing all of its commoners to forfeit their freedoms and suffer enslavement.
No one believed the empire’s armies could lose!
Therefore, the general market was welcoming large quantities of beastmen slaves.
As time passed, the newer beastmen slaves would be of better quality and more numerous, if one still had a pile of old slaves, how would they be able to sell them?
Nowadays, selling them would make less money.
Furthermore, after making back their capital, the slave traders would invest more into capturing slaves that would sell for more in the future.
Hei Fei also planned to do this too.
But now he was trapped!
Trapped on Snake Rat Island.
As Hei Fei was thinking of a good idea, aa flustered subordinate came over to report, “Captain, something doesn’t seem right.”
“What isn’t right? Are the smugglers coming to kill us?” Hei Fei immediately asked.
“No, it’s the beastmen slaves, they all look…sick.”
“Sick?” Hei Fei got up to check it out right away, they were his money, and he couldn’t be even a bit negligent.
The beastmen slaves were gravely ill.
Their skin was purple, and was beginning to fester and sink.
Hei Fei’s group had some treatment methods, but none of them worked.
Hei Fei immediately asked a priest to come over.
But when the Sheng Ming priest personally cast Purify, it didn’t do anything.
“There are no traces of magic, nor magic medicine. This is some kind of germ that is flourishing in these beastmen, it is exuberant and lively.” The priest used a divine spell to find out the truth.
He was unable to cure it, however he could use a divine spell to suppress it.
Hei Fei firmly declined.
Priestly divine spells were not free, they were actually very expensive!
Hei Fei then asked the merchant alliance magician to come over.
The merchant alliance magician also was helpless, “Treatment scrolls cannot cure them, on the contrary, it will stimulate the germs and make them multiply more within the beastmen.”
“Magic medicine can be used, but it needs to be specially mixed to target them specifically.”
“According to my understanding, there are no magic pharmacists on Snake Rat Island at this time.”
“Good news however, this sickness is specific to beastmen only, it will not spread to us humans.”
“Look, the shiba inu beastmen are sicker, while the oxmen aren’t as ill. Perhaps the shiba inu beastmen are the carriers and infected the other beastmen.
“Your ship holds aren’t the best living quarters, it is crammed with beastmen slaves and lacks ventilation, sunlight, and cleaning. These are prime conditions for germs to flourish.”
Hei Fei despaired!
This was a day of alarming and sad news.
He confined himself in the captain’s room, and didn’t sleep the entire night.
By morning, his eyes were very red as he walked out and shouted for the first mate to come over and receive orders.
He wanted to dump these beastmen slaves now, to stop any further losses.
“If we dress them up good and put them below market price, we can sell them!”
“I need to meet with Tan Qiu, did he not want my beastmen slaves?”
At this point, Hei Fei would say anything.
Tan Qiu greeted him with a smile, “You came just in time, I was in the middle of entertaining Long Fu.”
Hei Fei thought to himself, the survivors had already absconded with his beastman slaves. They now included these beastmen in their forces, then perhaps the survivors were interested in his remaining beastmen?
Thus, in the dining room, Hei Fei offered the beastmen slaves to the two.
The dragonman youngster expressed on the spot, “I am not interested.”
Tan Qiu smiled, “Captain Hei Fei, your beastmen slaves have all contracted a strange disease, I understand your desire to cut your losses. If you want me to take these rotten goods, it won’t just be a monetary affair.”
Tan Qiu brought up the same topic, and hoped Hei Fei would be willing to help him deal with Rou Zang.
He also requested the same thing of the dragonman youngster.
Hei Fei looked agonized, and he considered what he wanted to say.
The dragonman youngster also looked grave.
The situation on the seas had gotten worse.
There was much evidence that the Two Head Pirate Group wasn’t attacking Rou Zang’s pirates, the two sides seemed to be cooperating.
Rou Zang and the survivors hated each other to the bone, and if the two pirate groups were cooperating, the survivors would be in grave danger when on the seas.
More crucially, the survivors hadn’t found the Green Jade Gold Coffin in the underground at all.
Before the dragonman youngster left, Tan Qiu spoke with him and promised a heavy reward.
The survivors were many times stronger than Hei Fei, and Tan Qiu likewise valued them more, thus was willing to spend more to attract them over.
However, at noon, a major event occurred on Snake Rat Island.
A gold level tide snake chief rushed out of a cave and attacked the Night Devil’s encampment, throwing everything into disarray.
As it turns out, the Night Devil Hunting Group was probing a tide snake community and eyeing the snake eggs covetously, causing the community to grow restless.
During this, friction between tide snakes sparked, and many tide snakes were killed.
The tide snake chief was so furious that it killed its way to the surface, causing the entire island to shack.
Faced with a gold level magic beast, Tan Qiu immediately invited the silver level cultivators, including the dragonman youngster and Zong Ge, over to fight it. It took half a day to behead the gold level tide snake.
During the celebratory feast, Lao Zhong (Cang Xu) personally paid a visit to Tan Qiu to express that because of recent military training, they required more beastmen, however they were worried about Hei Fei, therefore they asked Tan Qiu to propose three party transactions.
The three parties of this transaction would be Tan Qiu, the survivors, and Hei Fei’s group.
Hei Fei would dump these beastmen slaves on Tan Qiu.
The survivors would exchange a lot of human fisherfolk and some other resources for the beastmen slaves.
Tan Qiu was very interested in this deal.
He asked Hei Fei to come to his study to talk things over.
When the two spoke in private, Tan Qiu explicitly stated to Hei Fei, “Sell all of the beastmen to me at this price. Otherwise, tomorrow the entirety of Snake Rat Island will know that your beastmen slaves are sick with a contagious illness!”
The deal was immediately reached that very evening.
With great pains, Hei Fei unloaded his heavy burden, at least he didn’t make a loss.
He was even somewhat happy about it.
He didn’t expect that he’d be able to cheat the survivors in this three party deal.
Rejuvenated!
Tan Qiu felt very satisfied, with the beastmen slaves in his hands now, he could now obtain a large number of humans. These Stone Egg Island fisherfolk were all ordinary people.
As for these sick beastmen slaves, all of them could be given to those arms smugglers.
What, all sick?
That had nothing to do with I, Tan Qiu.
Everything had been covered up you and yours Hei Fei, go find him to balance the books!
Tan Qiu wholeheartedly awaited the conflict between the two parties, it would allow him to grab ahold of the wheel, and thereby attract more people to deal with Rou Zang.
As for the survivors…
It was late into the night when the beastmen slaves were handed over, their germs had been secretly contained for the time being.
They also received a large sum of money.
It was almost ten times the amount of the sum of their previous mission rewards!
There were some treasured natural resources that could not be purchased on the market, as a noble, Tan Qiu controlled such channels for these.
The shiba inu young clan patriarch once again kneeled to express his gratefulness and loyalty.
Privately below, Zi Di and Zong Ge were talking, “I suggest that we go trouble Hei Fei and his men at dawn. He actually dared to sell use these sick and dying trash!”
The half beastman remained silent.
The dragonman bitterly laughed. This merchant daughter would not let any chance to obtain riches off.
What he was most satisfied with this plan was where the fisherfolk ended up at.
The fisherfolk did not belong on the battlefield, and forcing them to do so would only waste their lives.
Now, they would live on Snake Rat Island, this was what the fisherfolk wanted.
At the same time, they also contributed to the survivors’ cause.
Cang Xu inspected two to three times, then nodded to himself, “With this money, we can buy the alchemy materials we lack tomorrow. The Anti-investigation and Prophecy Formation can be built.