57: Chapter 57 Bargain Hunting, Half-Price Sweeps Away People

Early the next morning, the first place on Black Reef Island to become lively was not the Pier, but the Shanty Market in the south.

Crowded there were almost entirely people who had been driven to the brink of survival by the recent chaos in the Outer Sea.

There were Loose Cultivators.

There were artisans.

There were also remnants of small merchant caravans who had fled all the way from the deeper Outer Sea.

Having been severely beaten down last night, the Zhao family worked exceptionally hard today. Before dawn, Patriarch Zhao personally delivered the population movement records of Black Reef Island for the past half-month, the debt contracts of the Loose Cultivators, and several temporary pawn registers to the inn.

After flipping through them, Lu Changyuan only asked one question.

"What is the least valuable thing in this area lately?"

Patriarch Zhao lowered his head and answered, "People."

"Why?"

"The eastern sea route is blocked, and the Deep Sea Royal Clan is turning the sea upside down to search for paths. The merchants can't get out, and those trying to make a living have nowhere to go." Patriarch Zhao kept his voice very low. "Many low-level Loose Cultivators originally relied on pearl diving, repairing ships, refining crude Magical Artifact blanks, and escorting ships to scrape by. Now that the Outer Sea is in chaos, their livelihoods are cut off, but their creditors are not. More and more people are selling their ships, artifacts, and indentured labor contracts."

Lu Changyuan nodded.

This was exactly what he was waiting for.

What Blue Moon Island lacked most right now was not a few scattered Magical Artifacts, but people who could farm spiritual fields, mine, repair ships, forge blanks, and produce results as soon as they were stuffed into the Workshops.

Previously, Blue Moon Island had barely propped up its operations by raiding the four-family coalition and consuming the Chen Clan's reparations.

But that was achieved through fighting.

To truly get the Workshops, Piers, spiritual fields, and mining lines on the island up and running, they ultimately had to rely on population.

And this current chaos in the Outer Sea happened to deliver people right to his feet.

"Spread the word."

Lu Changyuan closed the booklet.

"The Changyuan Trading Company will only do one thing today."

"Recruit people."

Patriarch Zhao's heart shuddered, and he immediately responded, "Yes."

An hour later, outside the Shanty Market in the south, a temporarily set up long table appeared.

Sitting behind the long table was Lu Hu.

His iron abacus was hanging from his waist again. His face was still dark, but his voice was even colder than when he was shouting at people last night.

"Those who can farm spiritual fields, stand on the left."

"Those who can mine, identify ores, and smelt ores, stand in the middle."

"Those who can repair ships, mend masts, carve crude Array Patterns, and forge crude Magical Artifact blanks, stand on the right."

"Don't try to fool us with skills you don't have. If we find out you're faking, you'll be thrown out directly."

As he barked out his orders sentence by sentence, the originally chaotic crowd actually began to separate slowly.

Some people's eyes lit up.

Others were half-believing and half-doubting.

Many more stared at the chests of Spirit Stones on the table, their adam's apples bobbing, like wolves starved for too long smelling blood.

Lu Changyuan stood in the back, not speaking personally.

He only watched.

Watching whether these people were panicked, greedy, ruthless, or if they had already been ground down to their last breath.

The brokers and middlemen of Black Reef Island smelled the opportunity and came over.

At first, some tried to use old precedents to beat down the price, saying these Loose Cultivators and artisans carried debts and dragged along family members, so they weren't worth any Spirit Stones at all.

But Lu Changyuan didn't waste any words.

He simply had Patriarch Zhao call over the few creditors who were usually the most ruthless, and spread the booklets open in public.

"The people, I will take."

"The contracts, I will also take."

"But I won't take over your bad debts."

"One price: forty percent of the market rate."

"If you want to sell, sign now."

"If you don't, keep them yourself."

He spoke very calmly.

The faces of the several creditors looked incredibly grim.

Forty percent was practically bottom-fishing.

But the problem was, if they held onto this batch of people any longer, they would only become less and less valuable. The prices of food, water, and mooring fees on Black Reef Island were rising every day, and no one wanted to feed a bunch of useless contracted laborers who did nothing but consume spiritual rice.

What's more, the Zhao family stood behind the Changyuan Trading Company.

The news of last night's kneeling had already spread across half the island.

No one would choose to clash head-on with the Zhao family and this terrifyingly mysterious merchant caravan at a time like this.

Half an hour later, the first sale contract was stamped with an imprint.

Then came the second, the third, the fourth.

Once the floodgates were opened, there was no stopping it.

Sitting behind the long table, Lu Hu processed the people one by one and verified the contracts one by one, growing more energetic the more he checked.

Among these people, there weren't many who could actually fight.

But there were indeed plenty who knew how to work.

There were old shipwrights who had worked on ship masts and holds for over a decade.

There were miner bosses who could identify three types of low-grade mineral vein patterns.

There were crude array masters who had carved simple Spirit-Gathering patterns for market stalls.

There was also a batch of low-level spiritual farmers who originally grew spiritual salt grass and cultivated tide rice by the sea.

In normal times, recruiting these people one by one would be both time-consuming and expensive in Spirit Stones.

But now, they were being pushed to the table in batches like moldy old goods.

Lu Changyuan saw it very clearly.

This was not just picking up bargains.

This was swallowing a disaster.

The chaotic situation that others couldn't withstand happened to become the nourishment to build up Blue Moon Island's Foundation.

In the afternoon, Patriarch Zhao personally ran over to report, his forehead covered in sweat.

"Young Master, we have already secured over two thousand four hundred people."

"Further back, there are still several batches of indebted Loose Cultivators and bankrupt small fleets willing to merge into your service, only begging to bring their families along."

Lu Changyuan said indifferently, "As long as they aren't useless, take them all."

"How should we count the family members?"

"At half the price of Mortal laborers."

Patriarch Zhao hurriedly noted it down.

Sitting aside, Lu Hu smacked his lips at what he heard.

"My Lord, isn't this haul a bit too ruthless?"

"Is it ruthless?" Lu Changyuan asked in return.

"It's not?" Lu Hu lowered his voice. "At this rate, when we return to Blue Moon Island, we're probably going to have three thousand more mouths to feed."

Looking at the numb and nervous people crowding before the table, Lu Changyuan only said calmly, "Three thousand mouths in exchange for three thousand pairs of hands."

"What Blue Moon Island lacks is not food, but the people who can grow it."

"We now have spiritual fields, Workshops, mines, an island-protecting array, as well as a military treasury and a public treasury."

"What we lack is precisely the underlying framework to get these things moving."

"If others can't afford to feed them, I can."

Lu Hu thought about it and realized it was true.

Currently, the thing Blue Moon Island lacked least was precisely the Spirit Stones they had just acquired from their sudden wealth.

If they didn't quickly convert the Spirit Stones into manpower and productivity, leaving them piled up in storage pouches would just be dead money.

By evening, when the last batch of people was escorted to the table, Lu Changyuan finally saw the youth from the alleyway last night again.

He wasn't bare-chested this time.

He was just wearing a faded, washed-out short jacket, his shoulder still wrapped in coarse cloth, with that chipped iron sword of his strapped to his back.

But his eyes were just as dark and heavy.

As soon as Patriarch Zhao saw him, his expression became somewhat unnatural.

"Young Master, this kid... is from a collateral branch of my Zhao family, named Zhao Ye."

"His Aptitude is mediocre, and he has a stubborn temper. He has never been liked in the clan over the years."

"A few days ago, he even offended the main branch and was sent to haul salt rocks to pay off his debts."

Lu Changyuan glanced at the youth.

"Do you want to leave?"

Zhao Ye fell silent for a moment, then cupped his fists. "Yes."

"Why?"

"If I stay here, I'll either rot to death or become a dog for someone like Zhao Shaoheng." The youth's voice was hoarse, but there was not a hint of flattery in it. "I don't want to."

Patriarch Zhao's cheek twitched upon hearing this, but he didn't dare to utter a single word.

Lu Changyuan asked again, "What can you do?"

"I can practice the sword, haul cargo, keep watch, and dive into the sea."

"None of those count as real skills," Lu Changyuan said indifferently.

Zhao Ye pursed his lips and said in a low voice, "Then I will start as a laborer. As long as you give me a way to survive, I will train myself in whatever skills are needed in the future."

Lu Changyuan finally smiled.

Now that was a decent answer.

He didn't start by swearing oaths or kowtowing to beg for shelter.

He simply knew himself well and could swallow his pride for now.

This kind of person had tough bones and a hard heart.

Thrown into a place like Blue Moon Island, he might not fail to rise.

"From today onward, your surname is no longer Zhao."

Lu Changyuan looked at him, his tone calm.

"You are coming with me."

"I bestow upon you the surname Ye."

"Your name is Ye Zhe."

Zhao Ye was stunned at first, then immediately dropped to one knee.

"Ye Zhe pays respects to My Lord."

Lu Changyuan didn't let him say more and merely raised his hand.

"Go to Lu Hu first to collect your token. You will be assigned to the temporary merchant caravan guard unit and follow the ship."

"Whether you can stay depends on yourself."

"Yes!"

When the sky had completely darkened, the Changyuan Trading Company finally finished its recruitment for the day.

A total of three thousand one hundred and seventy-two people.

Among them were spiritual farmers, miners, shipwrights, and crude array masters, as well as many low-level Loose Cultivators and Mortal laborers who could only do heavy physical work.

A huge sum of Spirit Stones had been spent.

But what they got in return was the Foundation that Blue Moon Island would not be able to do without for a long time to come.

Looking at the long lists of names, Lu Hu finally couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"My Lord, others come to the Outer Sea to run merchant routes and make money."

"But you've gone and bought back the entire framework of an island in the process."

Lu Changyuan only looked at the increasingly chaotic lights by the shore and said calmly, "Being able to be bought means they still have value."

"If they stay here, in a few days, even their lives might not be worth anything."

Just as he was speaking, a commotion came from the direction of the Pier.

Immediately afterward, several streaks of escaping light rushed over from the end of the sea, followed by a large, chaotic mass of spiritual light and shouting.

Someone in the Outer Sea area had gone mad with killing over a ship of spiritual medicine and mineral materials snatched from the blockade zone.

On the Pier of Black Reef Island, many people's eyes instantly turned red.

Even the Zhao family guards subconsciously gripped their weapons.

Patriarch Zhao quickly ran to the courtyard gate, his expression tense.

"Young Master, the sea route ahead is in chaos."

"I heard that two bankrupt merchant fleets and a group of Loose Cultivators are fighting over cargo salvaged from a shipwreck. They've already gone mad with bloodlust."

"If we leave now, I'm afraid we will run right into them."

Lu Hu frowned. "Should I go grab a share too?"

Lu Changyuan didn't even look in that direction.

"No."

"Notify everyone to load the ships early tonight and leave the island tomorrow morning via the southeastern secondary channel."

"Let whoever wants to fight over this dead man's fortune do so."

"We have enough cargo, and we have enough people."

"Right now, the most valuable thing is not swallowing another chest of spiritual medicine."

"It is to safely bring what we have already swallowed to the Xingyan Grand Market, and then back to Blue Moon Island."

Everyone in the courtyard shuddered and immediately obeyed.

In the darkness of the night, the flames soared to the sky over by the Pier, and the sounds of killing grew louder and louder.

Yet the cargo ships of the Changyuan Trading Company quietly stepped up their loading in the dark, like a deep-sea beast that had eaten its fill of flesh and blood and was preparing to slip away.

Lu Changyuan stood at the bow of the ship, gazing at the chaotic sea, his eyes completely devoid of emotion.

"Do not pursue a desperate foe, and do not enter a chaotic situation."

"Prepare to set sail at full speed."

"Destination: Xingyan Grand Market."