Chapter 820 - Traveling Merchant Group
Chapter 820
(Unedited)
…
A week has passed since Shin Jiao and his group has entered the Xinglo Kingdom. They have encountered many things and have met a lot of people in this land. Since using both of his teleportation techniques and ability did not work, his only way to go out for now is the path that Im Jae and Im Ao took. But that path would lead him deeper into the kingdom.
And so in preparation, Shin Jiao decided to turn their motley crew of low-level mages into a traveling merchant caravan.
This week he has created a small automated factory inside his dimensional world that would create two items, a small magic light bulb, and a mana battery.
Through the slave mages, he has learned that not only are people using gold and silver as currency, they are also using an evenly cut and thumb-sized black square stone which mages call mana stones. These mana stones are naturally harvested from mana vines which can be found in certain parts of the kingdom.
The mana stones are of no use to normal people, but for mages, it is very precious.
A single mana stone is equivalent to 100 gold coins or 10,000 silver coins. This is enough to support a family of 3 for their lifetime.
However, mana stones are very precious that it is seldom found. Most mages would use gold or silver than mana stone to trade as they would prefer using the stone to further enhance their power or use it in their magic research.
Since learning about the existence of mana stones, Shin Jiao decided that he would trade some for it so that he could use those instead of his own power to supply mana in those small mana batteries.
Meanwhile, Shin Jiao got to know the woman that Im Ao and Im Jae called as teacher Jiang. Her name is Shinyu Jiang, an Archmage from the kingdom before it fell. Though she is not a dark mage, she is a well-versed mage that knew a lot about the land.
However, her magic core seems to have been severely hence her power fell from an Archmage to a regular 9th level mage.
Shinyu Jiang is a 35-years-old scholar and teacher of the kingdom but decided to move outside to figure out the invisible barrier separating the mortal and the immortal world. Shin Jiao learned that while researching, she was attacked by a horde of beasts and lost all of her people and even her power was affected.
Since he learned of her identity, he decided to make use of her to teach the rest of the mages that he freed from slavery.
These slaves are either outcasts from their clans, left for dead by their teammates or families, or escapees of the war. So Shin Jiao decided to take them all and make them useful for a change.
However, in just one week he discovered a problem… food.
People needed food every day to survive and to be able to travel. Unlike in the immortal land, though immortals needed to consume food especially those in the lower realms, they only needed to consume it once or twice a day.
But once someone reaches the lord level and higher, food is not necessary anymore. One can just absorb the universe's energy and be able to supply their bodies with some energy. But of course, they still needed to eat once in a while. It's a kind of mysterious law in the immortal land.
But in this place, food is necessary to survive just like real mortals.
And so, this created a bit of a problem for him.
While thinking to this point, Shin Jiao thought for a while and another idea came to his mind. Since he has this problem, then most of the people in this world have the same problem, right?
Upon thinking up to this point, he has thought of a great plan, a good product that would surely make them able to enter the kingdom's mainland… preserved food, particularly packed noodles and canned food.
While thinking to this point, Shin Jiao decided on canned food firsts. He would try to find a way to acquire more food ingredients upon entering a new village.
With this idea, he walked out of the tent and stretches his back.
Right now, they are camping in the forest while training the mages. He needs to prepare them to be of use to him in the future. As he walks out, he scanned his surroundings and was immediately dumbstruck.
Within the 100 meters radius, there is a small river stream. They use that stream as a water source and also a place to themselves up. He created a temporary bathhouse that is separated between men and women.
And right now it seems that almost all of them are taking a bath. He only found five people outside that are guarding the perimeter of the camp and the rest are taking a bath.
He immediately retracted his absolute sense as he had seen a bit too much. Shin Jiao smirked at himself for even noticing Im Jae and Nariz Gumal which is among the women. The two seem to be famous as they are truly beautiful along with Vilma Song and Hua Xiao. But Vilma Song and Hua Xiao are proud and haughty so they never interact with others that much and kept to themselves.
So, in these past few days, the female mages have gotten close to Nariz Gumal and Im Jae and would sometimes ask them about the world outside the barrier. They are especially curious about Nariz Gumal's age which is around 1,000 years and would ask her many questions.
Im Jae on the other hand kept it a secret that she actually came from the Xinglo Kingdom, so everyone thought that she was just a young and beautiful immortal.
While retracting his senses, Shin Jiao suddenly saw a figure walking out from the camp. The figure soon reaches a clearing and he noticed him whistling in the air.
Then Shin Jiao saw an eagle flying towards him.
"Hmm… a spy? I see… so they have someone amongst the slaves…" Shin Jiao muttered as a slight smile appears on his face.
He has been monitoring this group and has not noticed someone sketchy until now. But since he discovers this, Shin Jiao would not let anyone create such trouble for him.
When the eagle flew after that man inserted something on its leg, Shin Jiao waves his hand and an invisible barrier was activated.
The man quickly turns around and came back to his post, but did not notice that the bird is unable to leave the area.
Shin Jiao did not hesitate to capture the eagle and takes a look at the message that the man sent.
'Traveling to Yumtan village… training mages to fight… enemies weakness are 3 people… 2 beautiful women and a little boy… Capture those three and the enemy would be controlled.'
Upon reading that message Shin Jiao showed a smirk on his face.
"So he is working for someone after all…" Shin Jiao said as his figure suddenly disappear.
He suddenly appears near the guard who has sent this letter.
The guard did not notice him appearing, and without warning, Shin Jiao extended his hand and capture that person by his neck from behind.
"Ugh… Who… who are…" the man struggled but was unable to do anything.
He wanted to cast a spell, but he suddenly feels losing connection to this mana source.
Shin Jiao uses his psychokinesis to cripple the man's ability to fight and immediately checks his body for anything else.
Upon seeing that there is poison inside his mouth, Shin Jiao smile.
"They even though of committing suicide like this… interesting…" he thought as he removes that man's poisoned tooth.
"Arrghhh… Help! Help!" the man cried in pain as he struggled while shouting.
"It's no use… I will only give you one chance. Who do you work for?" Shin Jiao said as he lets go of his hand and leave that guy floating in the air.
"I… I… I don't know what you…" the man wanted to deny, but upon seeing who his attacker is, his eyes went wide in disbelief.
How could he have been discovered? He was very cautious and did not leave any traces of doubt. He was very careful and knew that he did not make any mistakes. So how was he discovered?
In fact, the man is really good at covering his tracks. However, it was all an accident that he was discovered by Shin Jiao.
"I will give you two options… tell me who you work for and I will not let you suffer pain. Or… I will forcefully extract information from your mind." Shin Jiao warned.
Though it is impossible to access one's mind as it is connected to the soul, only by absorbing the soul's experience could one extract information from it, yet the man did not know this. Plus Shin Jiao knew of a way to cloud the man's judgment making him tell him everything he knew.
However, these words have already terrified the man.