Badge in Azure

When the leader of the merchant convoy spoke, his eyes darted about, he was very distressed as he did not know who to direct his words at.

Saleen smiled, allowing Aini to speak. Saleen took out some good wine, and asked Cuisi to pour it for the three of them.

“I asked you here to inquire about something, what’s going on with that grade-8 mercenary group?” Saleen might treat the convoy’s leader politely, giving him wine, but Aini went straight into interrogating the other party.

“Great Mage.”

“My name is Aini.”

“Sir Aini, we have been invited by the Qin Empire to come forth and assist in the defense of the southern side.”

“Oh? Assist in the defense of the southern side? Has the Cloudflow Empire allied with Tanggulasi?”

“No no no!” The convoy’s leader denied vehemently and hesitated a little. Aini said, “Just spit it out, I am also not from the House of Commons.”

The convoy’s leader coughed, then said, “Sir, it has got to do with the internal affairs of Qin. It is rumored that the nobles in southern Qin are harboring ill intents, but Holy Rock City cannot possibly invade them just because of a rumor. They recruited four groups of manpower from Sikeqinya to form a line of defense at the south’s Red River. If a battle erupts, then these mercenaries will be useful.”

“What goods are you transporting?” Aini suddenly probed.

“Weapons and armor, but there are no sieging appliances, the large devices are for defense.” The convoy’s leader did not conceal anything. These matters had been approved by the House of Commons, there was nothing which could not be brought to light.

Aini took a glance at the two lackeys behind the convoy’s leader. These two followers seemed like high grade swordmasters, and in one or two years’ time, they could advance to a grand swordmaster. Mages rarely misjudged a person, unless the other party’s grade was very much superior to their own, or there was some special equipment present.

“Are the goods going to the Holy Rock City, or Red River?”

“To Holy Rock City, these goods are bespoke items, they are produced out of great materials. They are partially finished products, mages from the Holy Rock City still need to work on them.”

Aini nodded his head. That was basically how the Qin Empire procured materials, there were not so many outstanding mages overseas. If the empire only purchased finished products, the products’ attributes might not be as good compared to the ones gotten from in-house processing, not to mention the costliness.

“I would like to travel with your convoy to Holy Rock City, may I?” Aini asked.

The convoy’s leader was stunned, then replied, “You will have to ask Sir Dennis.”

“Dennis?”

“He is the temporary leader commanding the mercenary group this time around, he is a Black Metal Grand Swordmaster, but he has two grade-6 mages as subordinates,” the convoy’s leader answered cautiously. Aini wanted to travel together, but the leader could not make the decision because the mercenary group was responsible for the cargo’s safety.

“Two grade-6 mages? What is the name of this mercenary group?”

“The Purple Smoke Mercenary Group, its badge is an image of a Cloud Beast, this group is pretty renowned in Sikeqinya.”

“You don’t have to ask him, my team only contains about fifty people, you should only ask for his permission if there are more than one-hundred people. Take a look at this.” Speaking, Aini took out his clan badge.

The convoy’s leader stood up immediately, walking forward to receive the badge. He was no noble, but he had studied the art of badges in the past. When he traveled and ran into powerful families but did not know them, he would be at a disadvantage otherwise.

The Clyde family was quite famous too. Inspecting it carefully and making sure that it was not a fake, he quickly returned it to Aini, then said, “Great Mage, are you thinking of…”

“We are only requesting to travel together. During the setting up of camp, we will not demand to enter your compound, we will select our own location.”

The convoy’s leader then felt relieved, and said, “Since that’s the case, I will mention it when I get back, Sir…”

“Ha ha, don’t be nervous, stay for a meal.”

As Saleen and company had returned to the barrack, the kitchen outside was manned by the trusted soldiers. Very soon, the barbecued meat was sent in. Aini tightened his clutch around the convoy’s leader, starting a conversation with him.

Not wanting to offend Aini, the convoy’s leader sat down reluctantly.

Seeing the convoy’s leader staying behind, Aini then asked for his name, the leader did not dare get annoyed. A mage treating an average person in this manner was not considered impolite, most mages were not even willing to socialize. Even nobles would not blame a mage for displaying abrupt behavior.

The convoy’s leader was called Julian, he was a pretty influential headman in a royal trading firm. In Sikeqinya, his status was equivalent to that of a baron who peddled merchandize in the empire. Of course, such a position was not much respected in the other three empires. Only Sikeqinya’s emperor was so shameless as to sell noble titles, but the emperor did not accord any special treatment.

Even though Aini put on airs, the topics of discussion were of interest to Julian. Upon hearing that Aini had a business in Metatrin City and could acquire cheap magic nuclei, Julian became tempted. Towards the end, Julian was greatly motivated, he had decided to organize a merchant convoy to go purchase merchandise from Metatrin City.

A material like wood could still be easily transported. Places which were not close to the sea would not require high grade wood like the one found in Metatrin City. There were countless of primeval forests north of Metatrin City. Trees around a thousand years old were aplenty there, some trees which enjoyed longevity even had a history of more than ten-thousand years.

In the hands of a mage, such wood could be crafted into large sealed cabins, thus producing warships. The toughness of some wood was similar to that of metals. If it could be processed in Metatrin City before being transported by spatial equipment, then it could be marketed to the coastal areas of Sikeqinya where it could be used to produce warships.

The most important objects were still ores and magic nuclei. The transportation of ores was a little challenging, but it was extremely easy to transport magic nuclei.

The best produce from Metatrin City was level-3 and level-4 magic nuclei. Level-4 magic nuclei had great price differences, its price could range from three-hundred to one-thousand gold coins. Each time one of Saleen’s ships sailed, the cost would be below two-hundred-thousand gold coins if there were no casualties. It would not be a problem to obtain more than ten-thousand magic nuclei in one expedition. If Saleen was personally involved, he would travel in the pan’s turtle alchemical boat, and the process of collecting magic nuclei would be akin to picking money from the floor.

Even if a normal warship was used for the hunt, the cost of a level-4 magic nucleus would only be about one or two gold coins. These magic nuclei were sold for two-hundred to five-hundred gold coins in Metatrin City, much cheaper than any other shops out there. Saleen had already the ones with better quality, but even so, purchasing magic nuclei from Metatrin City could fetch tremendous profits.

Even if a normal person only brought back one magic nucleus on each trip, they also would not take a loss.

Nevertheless, there was a quota for buying commodities from Metatrin City. A businessman also knew that. If the quantity of magic nuclei were too high, the price would be depressed. Even so, the profit from selling a magic nucleus was around one-hundred gold coins. Reselling one-hundred magic nuclei would translate to a profit of ten-thousand gold coins. Other than dealing with armor-type equipment, this market was the most profitable one already.

Saleen did not want to establish brands across Qin. To him, it was safer letting businessmen from various places to resell these magic nuclei. Saleen’s men would hunt in the Frozen Sea, sell the goods in Metatrin City, and then let the businessmen reap the profits. Saleen would simply sit down and receive gold coins.

There was one more point. Saleen demanded that at least half of the sales of magic nuclei had to be barter traded. This meant that a businessman would have to deliver large amounts of supplies if they wanted to purchase magic nuclei. This would help Saleen save on the trouble of acquiring supplies.

For example, Saleen wanted rations. The businessman would have to pay half of the price in gold coins and the other half in rations, to purchase magic nuclei. If Saleen had to procure rations himself, he did not possess so much manpower to do so, not to mention the wastage of time.

Sikeqinya also produced rations. Even though Sikeqinya’s farmers were the laziest, the soil in the country was very fertile. The number of lands suitable for agriculture were almost equal to that of the sum of lands in the other three empires.

Most of the grains in Sikeqinya were used to brew wines, and the wines were subsequently trafficked to Tanggulasi or Cloudflow. Qin had not opened the sales channel for such wines, because Qin people preferred fruit wine, they were not interested in stronger-tasting grain wines. Julian was thoroughly exhilarated when he learned that grains could be used to exchange for magic nuclei.

Because bandits rarely plundered grain. Grain took up a lot of space and were onerous to be transported. To a bandit, it was more substantial to kidnap someone or rob gold coins. As a result, merchant convoys transporting grain were the safest.

Saleen had robbed Cexing City of a batch of grain, but he wanted to expand his territory. By having more residents in his city, he had to stock up a sufficient supply of grain. The current inventory of grain was surely inadequate, so obtaining grain remained the most pressing matter for Saleen.

At the moment, Saleen was only worried about one thing. He had lowered the prices of magic nuclei, so he wondered whether Alchemy City was angry or not. Even though the waters controlled by Alchemy City were not as rich as the Frozen Sea, they contained a considerable amount of magic nuclei too. This amount was so high that it allowed the mages in Alchemy City to train without any worries. By lowering the prices of magic nuclei, some mages from the Alchemy City would definitely be tempted, and would come forth to Metatrin City.

Julian gradually let his guard down, then Aini reverted to the topic he originally wanted to broach.

Lex understood the situation in Qin, just that Saleen was a great distance away at the moment, so he could not stay in constant contact with her. From Julian’s mouth, Saleen still managed to find out the content he needed to know.

The situation in Qin was not optimistic. In the Red River, the stream was traveling west, and it would eventually enter a larger water body where it would connect to Titan and Cloudflow. The southern nobles here were originally the confidantes of Emperor Chanake. After Emperor Chanake’s death, these nobles grew extremely dissatisfied with Safilos’ control over the Holy Rock City. Some rumors circulating even said that many of the southern nobles were preparing to establish their own dynasty.

These news had been intentionally leaked by the southern nobles to test the reaction of the Holy Rock City. If the Holy Rock City deployed troops on a whim, then the southern nobles would have a reason to rebel, and also have a reason to be independent. Prince Safilos was also a cunning person. On paper, he was purchasing wartime resources from Sikeqinya, but in fact, he had recruited more than ten-thousand mercenaries successively. These mercenaries were stationed at the Red River’s basin.

Holy Rock City planned to deploy thirty-thousand mercenaries at the Red River’s basin, which would conserve a lot of military manpower. The battle situation in Loulan was terrible, almost the entire duchy had crumbled. The castle which had been conquered by the northern nobles previously had now been seized by the Tanggulasi Empire once again.

The only good news was that Alchemy City had agreed to deploy sorcerers to Loulan’s borders to aid in the war. Holy Rock City only managed to remain stable because of its war puppets and the mages sent by the Alchemy City.

The battle situation in the Cloudflow Empire was bad. Almost the entire Titan Duchy had been occupied by the enemy. The Holy See’s army had crossed Chishui River, and its vanguards had advanced to Cloudflow’s borders already.

Cloudflow’s army had all along been subpar. If the Cloudflow Empire got conquered, then Qin would really be facing a multi-pronged invasion.