170: Chapter 171 Bad Luck

The leader had hit a soft wall and knew better than to ask again, so he gave a sheepish nod.

The group fell silent for a moment.

Just then, an envoy from Nanchang suddenly spoke up.

"City Lord Qin, speaking of which... Flower City has spiritual rice, Demonic Beast meat, and spiritual fruits. I wonder if you managed to procure any this time?"

His tone was probing, as if it were a casual question.

"Spiritual fruits and high-grade Demonic Beast meat are probably hard to buy. But as for spiritual rice... you should have some, right?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the envoys from the other cities exchanged glances, all of them wearing bitter smiles.

They all had people on-site when City Lord Qin Fang was making his purchases.

Yet the envoy from Nanchang seemed to be completely in the dark.

City Lord Qin Fang smiled slightly.

"We do."

He tilted his head and pointed toward the back of the caravan.

"Those two carts in the back, that's all of it."

The envoy's expression froze.

Then, he slowly turned his head, looking in the direction City Lord Qin Fang was pointing.

At the end of the caravan, two large carts were covered tightly with oilcloth. Hua City Mercenaries walked on both sides, their gaits relaxed, as if they were escorting two carts of firewood.

Two carts. Of spiritual rice.

"Two... two carts?"

The leader from Nanchang also turned his head, his mouth agape.

Two carts of spiritual rice. What was the status of spiritual rice in their cities? It was a special supply for the City Lord. Only those at the City Lord level could eat it. Ordinary people, let alone eating it, might not have even seen it before.

Yet City Lord Qin Fang had bought two large carts. Two large carts of spiritual rice piled up, covered casually with oilcloth, just like hauling two carts of ordinary grain!

The first to snap out of the shock was the envoy from Nanchang. But after he came to his senses, the thoughts in his head had changed. No. This wasn't a matter of money.

They were envoys from small cities and weren't very knowledgeable, but they could still do basic math—he could roughly estimate how much two carts of spiritual rice were worth. That number was large, but not absurdly so.

What truly made his scalp tingle was—that Flower City actually had so much spiritual rice. And were willing to sell it!

Spiritual rice wasn't something that just grew out of the ground; it required irrigation with Spiritual Qi, special soil, and long-term cultivation. Ordinary cities couldn't grow it even if they wanted to! The Spiritual Qi conditions restricted the planting environment strictly!

Two carts. At least several thousand catties. Flower City, an F-grade small city, where did it get it from?

He couldn't figure it out. But he knew one thing—the foundation of Flower City was far deeper than they had imagined. So deep that the bottom couldn't be seen.

The procession continued forward. No one spoke again. There was only the "rumbling" sound of wheels rolling over the ground, and the occasional gust of wind blowing across the wasteland.

City Lord Qin Fang rode on his horse, his smile never fading. He didn't turn back to look at the expressions of those envoys. No need to look. He knew what they were thinking. And he knew what they would tell their own City Lords after they returned. This was exactly what he wanted.

...

Flower City. City Lord's Mansion. After seeing off the envoy delegation, Minister Wang Fugui went to see Zhou Yun.

In the courtyard, Zhou Yun was watering flowers. Nuan Nuan was squatting nearby, fiddling with a flowerpot. Seeing Minister Wang Fugui arrive, she stood up and patted the dirt off her hands.

"Lord City Lord." Minister Wang Fugui bowed, "The envoy delegation has all been sent off. City Lord Qin Fang's caravan has also departed, with a hundred-person escort team accompanying them."

"Hmm." Zhou Yun did not stop watering.

"The transaction with City Lord Qin Fang this time was, all in all, quite smooth." Minister Wang Fugui took out an account book and flipped through two pages, "Ore, tools, and building materials were the bulk of it. Based on the exchange rate we set previously, Heyang, according to the contract, will use horses, cloth, and a batch of seeds to trade. With this deal, our horses finally have a source."

"Good."

"However—" Minister Wang Fugui flipped to the last page of the account book, his tone changing slightly, "There is one matter that this subordinate needs to report to you, Lord City Lord."

Zhou Yun lifted his eyes.

Minister Wang Fugui closed the account book and put it behind his back.

"When City Lord Qin Fang was purchasing, he also wanted some Red Flame Golden-Maned Pig meat and purple jade glazed fruit." He paused. "This subordinate refused."

Zhou Yun's hand stopped.

"Two carts of spiritual rice have already been sold, and this subordinate feels that is not a problem. Subsequent spiritual rice production can keep up, and selling them won't affect supply within the city. But the Red Flame Golden-Maned Pig meat and the purple jade glazed fruit are of higher grade, especially the purple jade glazed fruit..." He deliberated on his wording. "This subordinate feels that it is safer to keep these things in Flower City. Selling them is easy, but it may cause some unpredictable consequences later."

Zhou Yun put down the watering can. He looked at Minister Wang Fugui and smiled. "Fugui."

"Yes."

"If he wants to buy, sell it to him."

Minister Wang Fugui was stunned.

"Sell the Red Flame Golden-Maned Pig meat too?"

"Sell it."

"And the purple jade glazed fruit?"

"Sell that too."

Minister Wang Fugui's mouth opened, wanting to say something, but he swallowed it back.

Zhou Yun did not explain too much, just smiled and said:

"You just focus on doing the business well. As for matters outside of business, Lei Lie and Strategist Zhu Ge will handle them."

These words were spoken very lightly. Minister Wang Fugui heard the weight in them, was silent for two breaths, then put away the account book and bowed deeply.

"This subordinate understands."

He straightened up, and the expression on his face had already changed. A moment ago, it was the face of a calculating merchant; now, it had turned into a meaningful smile.

"Since that is the case..." He turned and walked out, his steps as light as if he were walking on cotton.

"Then this subordinate knows what to do."

Zhou Yun watched his back disappear at the courtyard gate, smiled, and picked up the watering can to water the flowers again.

...

On the other side, after the caravan left Flower City, it traveled all the way west.

The first half of the journey was quite smooth. The wind on the wasteland rolled up broken grass, sweeping past under the wheels all the way.

Dozens of large carts were connected head to tail, their ruts pressed deep into the ground. More than a hundred Hua City Mercenaries were lined up on both sides, but their steps were not tense; instead, they exuded a kind of almost relaxed steadiness. It didn't look like they were escorting heavy cargo. It looked more like they were just leaving the city on a routine trip.

Several envoy delegations followed behind. At first, they could suppress their anxiety, but after walking for a while, someone finally couldn't help but frequently scan the wasteland on both sides.

They knew too well what kind of place the wilderness was. Even though this road had been cleared back and forth by Hua City Mercenaries not long ago, it was impossible for the Demonic Beasts to be completely wiped out. After all, the wilderness of this world was never a place that could be peaceful just by killing everything. As long as the negative energy did not dissipate, Demonic Beasts would gather again, regenerate, and emerge from the shadows once more.

Just as they were thinking this, a patch of half-man-high withered grass on the left front suddenly swayed violently.

"Something's there!"

A guard from Qinghe City almost subconsciously tightened his reins. As soon as the sound left his mouth, his hand was already pressed on the hilt of his blade. City Lord Qin Fang also tilted his head.

But before they could see the movement clearly...

"Swish!"

A figure had already darted out from the flank of the caravan, so fast that it was almost just a blur. Before the people in the envoy delegation could really see what it was, a Black-Armored Wolf that had just pounced out of the grass shuddered violently in mid-air. Immediately following a "squelch" sound, a line of blood burst open at its neck, and its massive wolf head went flying off, rolling away.

The wolf corpse slammed onto the ground with a thud, its limbs twitching twice. The Flower City Mercenary who had struck had already sheathed his blade in one motion, not stopping his pace for even half a beat, only glancing down.

"Black Iron Rank."

"Not very durable!"

After saying that, he turned around with his blade and returned to the queue, as if he had just casually swatted away a bug that had pounced on him.

The caravan didn't even stop because of this. Several envoys were stunned, their eyes subconsciously following the wolf corpse that was still bleeding, and when they looked up again, that Mercenary had already returned to his original position, his expression calm, not even his breathing disrupted.

Someone from Nanchang opened their mouth, and after a long while, squeezed out a sentence in a low voice:

"... That's it?"

A Flower City Mercenary nearby heard it and laughed.

"What else?"

"Should we keep it for the New Year?"

As soon as the words fell, a very light rustling sound came from the right rear.

This time, no one even needed to be reminded. With a light "clang," an arrow shot out from the caravan, instantly burying itself into a gray shadow that was poking its head out from behind a dirt slope. That thing hadn't even shown its full appearance before it was nailed to the ground, rolling out half its body; it was clearly a Tusked Beast covered in armor.

The archer Mercenary held his bow in one hand and flicked his wrist casually.

"This one is also Black Iron Rank."

"Luck isn't great today!"

He said it casually. But to the people in the envoy delegations, their faces went slightly numb. What did it mean... luck isn't great? Did they have to run into a Bronze-level one for the luck to be considered good? Did they get it backwards! These were Demonic Beasts! Not weeds growing in the ground!

The leader from Liefeng, who was always stubborn, was silent for a long while before speaking dryly:

"This Flower City escort team... isn't it a bit too violent..."

City Lord Qin Fang rode on his horse, smiled upon hearing this, and didn't respond to that sentence. He just looked down at the ruts, then looked up at the front. The sense of stability in his heart grew deeper at this moment.

Previously, when watching the hundred-person escort team assemble in Flower City, he was shocked by the spectacle and the foundation. But now, truly walking on the road, he finally understood that the truly terrifying thing about these hundred-plus Bronze-level Mercenaries was not their numbers. It was that they already had an almost crushing composure toward this wilderness. This was true security! One word! Comfortable!

After walking another ten miles or so, the road ahead gradually split. The five envoy delegations were not on the same path to begin with, they had just been following City Lord Qin Fang's caravan, and now that they had reached the fork, it was time for each to go to their own city.

Several leaders reined in their horses. The leader from Qinghe City cupped his hands toward City Lord Qin Fang, with a smile on his face, and his tone was impeccable.

"City Lord Qin, then we shall take our leave."

"The road ahead is long, you... must be careful on the way."

These words were spoken politely. But when the four words "be careful on the way" fell, the taste was always a bit off. The sides from Liefeng and Maple Leaf also chimed in.

"Yes, City Lord Qin, after all, there is a lot of cargo."

"With such a long caravan, it's better to be careful on the road."

"Although Flower City has sent an escort team, the wilderness is ultimately the wilderness, and no one can say for sure if any mishaps will occur."

The few of them spoke one after another, their faces full of concern, but the meaning in their eyes could not be hidden. In the end, they were still unwilling. Unwilling that City Lord Qin Fang had really pulled off this deal. And unwilling that they had watched it with their own eyes, but didn't have the courage to take action themselves.

City Lord Qin Fang naturally could hear it. He sat on his horse, looked at the few people, and suddenly smiled.

"You are all right." He first nodded, his tone very gentle.

The expressions of the few leaders eased by half a point, only to hear him continue:

"However, the same goes for you all. Be careful on the way."

The few leaders paused simultaneously. City Lord Qin Fang raised his hand, pointing casually toward the wasteland on both sides, his smile undiminished.

"After all, the Demonic Beasts on this wasteland are still gathering."

"And by your sides..."

As he spoke, his gaze swept lightly toward the Flower City escort team.

The air was silent for a moment. The smile on the face of the leader from Qinghe City stiffened. The corner of the Liefeng leader's mouth twitched, as if he wanted to retort, but his peripheral vision swept across the Hua City Mercenaries on both sides, who looked calm and hadn't even drawn their blades, and he ultimately swallowed his words back.

On the contrary, on the Nanchang side, a young envoy couldn't help it, looked down at his own sparse guards, and then looked at the entire row of Bronze-level Mercenaries on both sides of City Lord Qin Fang's caravan, and suddenly felt an unspeakable sourness in his heart. People really cannot be compared to people.

City Lord Qin Fang didn't say anything more, just raised his hands and cupped his fists.

"Safe travels, everyone. After you return, please send my regards to your City Lords."

The few leaders could only suppress their thoughts and returned the salute one after another. Soon, the four envoy delegations turned separately and dispersed along the fork in the road. Only City Lord Qin Fang's caravan continued along the main road in the middle, moving forward slowly.

Wheels rolled, armor plates clinked softly. On both sides of the road, more than a hundred Hua City Mercenaries still walked with steady steps, like a moving wall, protecting the entire caravan firmly in the center.

City Lord Qin Fang looked back at the envoy teams that were gradually moving away, smiled, and then withdrew his gaze. Ahead was the direction of Heyang. And behind him were dozens of carts, enough cargo to shake the entire city of Heyang.

...

They traveled a bit further. The terrain gradually leveled off, and at the end of the distant wasteland, the outline of a familiar city wall finally slowly emerged. Heyang, they had arrived.

The breath that City Lord Qin Fang had been holding all this time finally relaxed a bit at this moment. He looked up at the city that was getting closer and closer, his brows and eyes even relaxed a little, and the heat in his chest surged up layer by layer. They had arrived. The cargo had arrived. The people had arrived. Along this way, there hadn't been a single mishap.

He looked back at the long caravan behind him, then at the Hua City Mercenaries lined up on both sides with steady steps, and the gratitude in his heart could no longer be suppressed. He simply reined in his horse and said with a smile:

"Everyone."

Several core members of the Thunder Tiger Mobile Team at the front of the caravan looked up at the sound. City Lord Qin Fang pointed toward Heyang in front, where the outline of the city gate could already be clearly seen, his tone filled with undisguised happiness.

"Ahead is Heyang. Once we enter the city, no one should be in a hurry to leave. You have worked hard to escort us all the way on this trip, and no matter what, I must properly perform my duties as a host."