Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 834: Chapter 630 The Resentment of the Shulong People Towards Ferun Great Land

Hill took the list from the puppet standing beside him who was pretending to be a maid, his face showing an inscrutable smile.

An Ran quietly lifted his head for a glance, and shuddered, striving to appear more humble.

However, Hill had no intention of being intimidating, his hands kept flipping through the list, though myriad emotions slowly surfaced in his mind.

The words ’An’s Treasure Pavilion’ made Hill feel like laughing, yet sparked waves in his heart; it truly felt like a swift transition from fantasy to divine path and immortal hero tales!

In reality, the world only features such treasure-named chambers that reflect one’s powerful family background; moreover, they must indicate that these are considered treasures by the An Family.

Names like ’World’s Finest Pavilion’ or ’Peerless Pavilion’ that reek of arrogance never appear.

No matter how strong a noble clan is, it never overrides imperial power.

They could partially overshadow the emperor through collaboration, rather than relying solely on their own strength. Thus, unless struck by natural disasters or civilian rebellions, the royal position remains quite stable.

Hill felt that the Eastern World’s method of maintaining balance in all aspects was rather interesting.

Although the booklet listed high prices for specialties like porcelain and silk, they were indeed top-tier items; some porcelain Hill snatched from Deepwater City at that time is in fact only considered medium grade among these.

Hill pointed at a set of softly elegant ’Red Plum in Snow’ porcelain and asked An Ran, ”I see this is priced higher, why didn’t you bring it to sell in Deepwater City?”

This porcelain set is truly beautiful; even just drawn on paper, it allows Hill to sense the beauty of ’A lone fairy in an empty mountain, apart from the world’.

Even if the Ferun Great Land’s people do not see this beauty, its surface, thin as paper and jade-like translucent, is attractive enough.

”Mr. Polanio, for merchants, the top-notch things aren’t necessarily the best merchandise, especially for Ferun Great Land’s merchants as official merchant teams are relatively few.

For merchants with insufficient backing, selling top-quality goods may result in being forcefully seized by a lord. Making no money would be bad enough, but losing the family to fabricated charges would be worse.”

An Ran had just boasted a few words, immediately realizing that before him stood the so-called Ferun Great Land official merchant team; the Ferun Lord he was mocking happened to be this Archmage’s lord, so he hastened to add, ”Of course, I am talking about the decadent southern territories. Such deeds are repeated not just once or twice.

Even many merchant teams selling medium-grade items face misfortune, so most business chambers send goods to sell in Deepwater City.

Deepwater City does require hefty protection fees to pay gangs and officials, but they at least get things done.”

Indeed, although those Deepwater City lords are greedy, they have some limits and won’t exhaust resources without regard, preserving the status of the City of Trade.

Hill didn’t ask why Shoulong’s official magic ships didn’t sell these fine items either, as few Ferun Great Land lords are willing to spend lavishly on such porcelain.

But they are very willing to in another way.

On the Great Sea, pirates with extraordinarily fine weapons appear, ignoring passing ordinary merchant ships but daring to plunder Shoulong’s official fleet.

As for how those gigantic magic weapons, able to counter the Elven Royal Fleet, ended up on pirate ships—everyone knows.

Unless it’s a mission fleet dispatched in the Emperor’s name from the Shoulong Empire, no one wishes to play chase games with pirates or engage in cannon duels.

Medium-grade items sell quickly on the Ferun Great Land; Shoulong’s official fleet would not take that risk. Yet even then, there are always professionals on board during their Ferun stint who are tempted to betray and vanish with the merchant goods!

The crew of the magic ships are not people ordinary people get in touch with.

The Ferun land’s lords are indeed adept at corrupting hearts; Hill knows a pirate band in Sword Bay was once constituted by Shoulong people, sharing similar origins, later kicked out once losing their utility value.

Ultimately, they could only follow a wildly ambitious Shoulong official captain who betrayed with the entire ship.

Hill forgot that fellow’s name, but guesses he hasn’t gained much over the years—before Agleya controlled Sword Bay, the sea was mostly played in Ambori’s palm.

Those accustomed to being protected by Shoulong Empire’s divine dragons have no idea how much trouble can be caused by wicked, greedy deities.

The Goddess of the Near Seas loved, after successful pirate raids, to form giant wave claws to seize pirate ships for blackmail.

After Agleya defeated Ambori, while Sword Bay no longer saw such sudden dangers, it also left no room for pirates to exert power.

Agleya’s refinement of nearby seas was comprehensive, and there was no need to spend enormous amounts bribing the Goddess of the Sea’s merchant teams; naturally, all those funds turned into weapons.

Moreover, the merchants no longer need to worry about their ships being completely wiped out by Ambori. They can obviously form trade fleets with dozens or even hundreds of ships, and the pirates simply don’t have the capability to deal with such a large fleet.

Therefore, the pirates over at Sword Bay either converge in Luskan to engage in fierce competition with the native pirates there or go to the Moonshadow Sea to follow the instructions of the Pirate King.

Hill flipped through and found that those jade ornaments were indeed exquisite.

However, apart from those elegant and splendid pieces of jewelry, the Shulong People rarely sell decorative items to the Ferun Great Land. For the An Family to bring them out for Hill to see, it truly shows their sincerity.

Primarily, transparent jade holds even greater significance as spellcasting materials for the Ferun Great Land.

Jade is crafted by little deities from the Heavenly Court and has a calming effect, thus holding a high status in the Shulong Empire.

However, this does not stop the Ferun People from cutting them into small nail-sized pieces. Transparent jade stones are often used to cast healing or prophecy divine arts, which are very scarce in Ferun.

The sorcerers on the Shulong side do not have a great demand for gems and jade when using spells.

Except for jade, which can allow sorcerers to utilize the spiritual energy contained within this Heavenly Court jade.

Moreover, once the spiritual energy is used up, it can be placed in areas rich in spiritual energy to replenish it, and after some time, it can be used again. It doesn’t shatter after one use.

So, in the Shulong Empire, most jade is large decorative pieces, and those used to craft jewelry are essentially fragments produced from cutting these ornaments.

For instance, Hill’s eyes were on a Jade Mountain, truly a treasure he had never seen before: delicate and transparent black mountains with deep green and light green trees, and white stone veins meticulously carved into small streams, even with gray cliffs.

The sight of this mountain evokes a sense of leisure and peace. It is definitely a masterpiece that only a very artistic engraving master can create, and Hill really likes it.

Then he heard An Ran, with a tone a bit guilty yet resolute, advising: ”Mr. Polanio... Although this Jade Mountain is large, if you plan to cut it into small pieces... the Treasure Pavilion cannot sell it externally.”

Hill glanced at An Ran’s face full of panic, biting his lip, with clenched fists: ”If I wanted spellcasting materials, wouldn’t I directly buy the cut jade raw materials from you?

This beautiful piece of art, I’m not crazy, why seek discomfort with it.

I remember you’re selling a type of jade tiles, aren’t you?”

Those are small pieces about the size of mahjong tiles, and although they aren’t that transparent, they’re much better than some low-grade jade. Many Ferun Mages, after buying them, carefully divide them into four parts.

An Ran suddenly relaxed, his voice slightly weak, saying: ”This is the proud work of the Treasure Pavilion’s finest jade master. If destroyed, he would definitely leave the An Family immediately.

Because his heart and spirit are infused in the piece, he can feel whether his creation still exists.

Even though our An Family has some power, we dare not force such a master.”

He couldn’t help but add: ”Mainly because of a precedent... a snow mountain made of white jade sold to the Ferun Lord’s Qin Family, and now no jade master is willing to work for them.”

”Mutton Fat White Jade?” Hill asked, half-smiling, as if he had heard the story before.

”Yes, yes, yes!” An Ran answered repeatedly, ”It was supposedly cut into over a thousand pieces, and the master was so furious he coughed up blood upon finding out.”

”The stupidity of that lord is notorious, even on the Ferun Great Land.” Hill knew who it was, the notorious Prince Andreju, ”Selling things to him, is the Qin Family planning to deal with Moonshadow Island pirates? That’s probably their only purpose with him.”

An Ran clapped his hand suddenly: ”Ah! That makes sense. No wonder the Qin Family sold such good things to that lord at a normal price, knowing the habits of the Ferun People!

Years ago, a sailor chief of a magic ship, seemingly called Sheng Zhaolong, led a part of the sailors, killed the captain and first mate, and defected directly to Ferun, right at Deepwater City.

The dead captain was from the Qin Family.

They’ve always wanted to capture him and execute him, but unfortunately, they’ve never succeeded. For some reason, Ferun doesn’t fancy taking such jobs.”

Hill was silent for a few seconds before saying, ”Now is the time. You can tell them, in the current Ferun, there must be adventurers willing to take a job like this.”

On the seas in the past, even the pirates and sailors who had long interacted with Ambori frequently met with accidents because he was too fickle; clearly taking money but might whimsically sink the ship that just paid for its protection.

Those adventurers who took bounty jobs simply didn’t have the confidence to face the crazy Ambori.

An Ran didn’t quite understand Hill’s words but nodded and made a mental note of this matter. If it turns out as the Archmage said, then the Qin Family owes them a favor.