Commanding Wind and Cloud
chapter-166

Qian Jin nodded his head. This was his second time hearing someone talk about the requirements for becoming a mayor. Fabreidis had also once mentioned it, yet the requirements listed by General Wind were much more demanding.

"Come on!" General Wind tossed his brown cloak and trotted forward, saying that, "You need to disguise yourselves for sneaking into the Demons’ territory. You people are really lucky, usually, no trade caravans would pass through here, but recently there is one."

"A trade caravan?" Qian Jin also felt that they were unexpectedly lucky. Wherever they traveled, trade caravans would be warmly welcomed by the locals, including theZence Empire in the eastern continent, the Demons in the western continent and the Barbarians living north of the Demons and Zence Empire.

Tea, tobacco, spices and quite a number of fruits of the Demons species were needed by the Zence Empire. In the meantime, the Demons were in need of porcelain, glass and all kinds of textile products provided by the Zence Empire.

Even if there was an innate hatred between the residents of the Demons and Zence Empire, they didn’t prohibit economic exchange among different trade caravans. However, when it came to the weapons, grains and military supplies such as magic stones and warrior stones, there were strict stipulations banning the trading of such supplies.

Of course, the profits of these prohibited goods were much higher than generally traded commodities, and both the Demons and people of the Zence Empire maneuvered to trade these highly profitable goods at the risk of their lives.

In the open ground not far from the Reventment Battlefield there were twenty-plus carts that were each pulled by two horses, and more than forty men and women who were dressed in leather or iron armor, holding spears and steel blades in their hands and watching around vigilantly.

"They stay vigilant even if the camp is safeguarded by strong forces." Qian Jin couldn’t help but feel admiration towards this mercenary group responsible for safeguarding these goods, and at the same time wondering what kind of goods they were moving? And for what did they hire a master hand to disguise the convoy?

Though not having cast a look at the coachman sitting on the third cart, Qian Jin could tell from his beast-like intuition honed from Four Season Valley and the endless world that the man in dirty and coarse dress with a ragged straw-hat on his head, all of which made him identical with other ordinary coachmen, was dangerous.

Looking beyond the coachman sitting on the third cart, one could catch sight of a sharp crimson object against the dull train of wagons.

Apart from a coachman, on the fourth cart, there was a young female mage, whose crimson mage robe gave out a strong artistic flavor as it had been specially tailored and decorated to eliminate the plump look of ordinary robes.

A ruby the size of a goose egg was inlaid on the top of the exquisitely carved Annatto-wood wand, which was wrapped by numerous thin pieces of silver. Anyone who glanced at it would immediately catch a sense of its immense value.

Noticing the observing look of Qian Jin, the female mage lifted her wide mage hat with the wand, just to expose her pretty oval face, the smooth black hair resting on her slightly bulging breast and the faintly lofty look gathered in her eyes.

Qian Jin could understand the reason why this young female mage felt proud, because there were in all three gold stars on her breast, indicating that she was a Level 3 Mage. Though there was still a long way toward becoming a Level 10 Mage and even a Supreme Mage, it was quite rare for someone of her age to have become a Level 3 Mage.

A slightly obese man dressed in a golden-pattern gown jumped from the cart, sprinted to General Wind, bent over and said with a habitual merchant smile, "General, please inspect our goods as soon as possible, or else our shop could suffer some loss due to delay."

Just at the same time he was bowing and pleading, a small sack filled with gold coins was stealthily placed into General Wind’s hand which was covered by the long robe's sleeve.

Qian Jin felt deep admiration toward this merchant’s bribing action which was finished so fluently, it seemed like a natural motion which could be likened to the warriors being drilled to chop things down.

The three Chiliarchies were looking in different directions, pretending that they hadn’t seen what the merchant had done. Garrisoning in the borders was an arduous task. Consequently, gaining some pocket money from the trade caravans had become an unspoken rule, which was understood and practiced by the leaders of these caravans.

General Wind drew his sleeves and tossed them backward, stood up slightly straighter, put on a brimming smile, nodded at the three Chiliarchies suggesting for them to rummage through the caravan and then turned back to the caravan leader, "As I have always been convinced that Boss Leong is a law-abiding merchant of the Zence Empire. Now I have to bother you with a trifle thing, and I wonder whether…"

"For you General, anything." Boss Leong immediately bent over, smiled and narrowed his eyes, "So what you need me to do?"

"It's not a big deal." General Wind lifted his hand and pointed at Qian Jin, Duren Burg, and Fanta Kunge, "These three blokes’ parents were my benefactors. Now that they have grown up, they want to go outside to gain some experience. So I wonder whether you have the interest of hiring them as your guards to lead them around the outside of the empire."

"Hmm! Another three average warriors who want to spoil some mercenary provisions!"

A voice which was as crisp as the bird’s chirping yet with strong loftiness went from the thin red lips of the female mage sitting on the fourth cart and was then followed by the nodding of the mercenaries.

"Abela!" Boss Leong turned back, had a glare at the female mage, and then put on his accustomed smile. He slowly stood straight, walked toward Qian Jin and his two fellows and said, "Can you tell me what warrior level have you reached? We are heading for the Demons’ territory this time, and as you know there a lot of bandits there…"

Abela screwed her lips so high that a soy-sauce bottle could be hanged from there. The bright brown eyes blinked with scorn and arrogance. As the youngest mage of Yulee Crystal Magic Tower, she had already been admitted into the Yulee Mage Union even if she hadn’t entered an advanced mage academy. And this time she was just out for gaining experiences, on what ground should she care about these low-leveled warriors?

The mercenaries responsible for safeguarding the caravan nodded their head at the same time. Even if ravaging the human trade caravans was banned by the Demons’ Codes, there were still a large number of demon mercenaries and adventures who would plunder caravans from the Zence Empire, making it a frequent occurrence in the Demons’ territory.

Safeguarding the caravan had already made the mercenaries exhausted and anxious, how could they suffer the burden of these three new warriors? In case of a fight, wouldn’t they have to waste manpower to protect the three blokes?

All at once the mercenaries wore a wry face, from which one could sense their resentment.

Fanta Kunge couldn’t stop lifting his eyebrows. As a descendant of Fanta Family, he even dared contend with the bloodline warriors. Was there any reason for him to put up with this scornful bantering?

The warrior power of Demon Fighter spouted out from Fanta Kunge’s body all of a sudden! The coachman sitting on the cart with a hat covering half of his face slightly quivered, and two beams of cold lights flew from the dark shadow of the straw hat.

The vigilant mercenaries changed their aimless glance and fixed on Fanta Kunge, feeling so shocked that they didn’t know what to say.

Demon Fighter! Such a young Demon Fighter! The fat on Boss Leong’s face twitched again and again, and his small eyes were brimming with surprise. He had thought that the garrisoning army assigned these three men to spoil their profits, but the truth was that there was a Demon Fighter among them!

All at once the loathsome feelings of the mercenaries were expelled. For people like them who performed their mission at the risk of their lives, power was the greatest asset! Regardless of the other two warriors, as long as this Demon Fighter could join them, their entire battle power would increase.

"Great, great, great!" Boss Leong thumbed up, wore a broad smile and said, "The men introduced by General Wind are definitely powerful."

General Wind gave out an unrestrained smile, saying nothing but thinking to himself: Fanta Kunge’s power is strong enough to make you feel touched? If you have seen the might of Duren Burg and Qian Jin, you may not agree with them joining in the caravan. Even the dumbest person would feel it unusual that three powerful young men were allied to join a small trade caravan.

At the sight of General Wind’s stare, Qian Jin quickly nodded his head, suggesting that he knew what the general was worrying about.

Boss Leong looked at Fanta Kunge in a way much different from before and bent his body at an even larger angle.

Being a merchant entails the vision of investing, of which Boss Leong was pretty confident. Having become a Demon Fighter at such a young age, this guy’s future prospects were sure to be bright. If he didn’t try to befriend with this warrior when he hadn’t established his fame, his chances of forming a relationship with him after he became prominent would be much smaller.

"What should I address you warriors?"

Boss Leong took out a packet of cigarettes from his sleeve, and before he could hand it to the three warriors, Duren Burg directly took it away, "His name is Ren One, my name is Ren Two and the other one is Ren Three. Ren One doesn’t smoke as much as I do, so your kindness won’t be a wasted. Eh? The taste of the cigarette…is not as good as what I have been savoring recently~Alas! One is better than none!"

Boss Leong’s slightly pale face turned a little blue, as the names the young warrior told him were obviously pseudonyms, yet comprehensible. A large number of supreme warriors who had done similar errands before they rose up in the world would use a pseudonym as they didn’t want others to know about their past experiences.

But…what made Boss Leong felt a great regret was that packet of cigarettes, which was intended to be used to befriend the young Demon Fighter but was snatched by a non-Demon-Fighter Warrior. Besides, he even dared criticize the cigarette’s quality!

"Do you think that the cigarettes of gold quality are easy to obtain?" Boss Leong forced a smile, but was, in fact, was cursing Duren Burg, "It was by sheer luck that I procured this cigarette of silver quality!"