"Oh? Is the Bailie people's territory no good?" He Lingchuan asked, intrigued. "I heard the land there is fertile and rich in produce."
"No good, no good," the man shook his head. "Whatever you say about the Qing Kingdom, it's stable. Go to Bailie, and halfway through doing business, your goods might just get requisitioned!"
"Forcibly requisitioned? How so?"
Any nation or faction had to protect economic stability at all costs. Unless pushed to the absolute brink, why would the Bailie people "requisition" foreign merchants' money and goods?
When the Yuan Kingdom went to war, they stopped at nothing to raise provisions and military funds. Yet no matter how much they bled their own people dry, they never dared "requisition" silver from transnational money houses like the Fenglong Money House.
When you couldn't control foreign capital, you had to treat it well.
"Isn't the Mou Kingdom at war with the Beijia Kingdom to the west? They always demand that surrounding smaller states help raise military supplies—heh, that's no secret. I heard that once, the pressure came down too hard and too fast, and the Bailie people simply had nothing on hand, so they made an emergency requisition of foreign merchants'..." The patron shrugged. "You know how it goes."
Another chimed in, "Forced sale, more like. My uncle was hit by that. Two whole storehouses of grain were taken by Bailie, leaving behind a few redemption vouchers claiming he could redeem them from the authorities three months later. But the price—aiyah, dirt cheap! Less than sixty percent of market value. Grain was expensive at the start of the year; his purchase price was well over sixty percent."
"And there's an expiration date too."
"Right, right, an expiration date. If you don't redeem it within a year, even that pittance is gone."
"Isn't that just requisitioning anyway?" The first patron sucked on a pickled snail and spat out the shell. "In any case, the backlash was huge. Plenty of merchants pulled out, no matter how the Bailie people tried to smooth things over. Who'd want to go there now?"
"Oh? The Bailie people are that close with the Mou Kingdom?" Qiu Hu took a sip of water. "Mou doesn't demand supplies from the Qing Kingdom, but goes after Bailie?"
"Who says Mou doesn't squeeze Qing? They just don't do it every single time," the others laughed. "None can escape, not a single one."
"And the Ya Kingdom to the east keeps pounding on Bailie, too. If they weren't clinging to Mou's thigh, the Bailie people would've lost their foothold here long ago."
He Lingchuan shook his head inwardly.
The Qing Kingdom's territory wasn't much larger than the Fu Kingdom's; in his eyes, it was a minor state, yet the Bailie people dared not lightly offend it.
Then there was the Ya Kingdom—a country whose name he had barely heard—which could also knock Bailie around.
What difference remained today between these so-called immortal descendants and ordinary mortals?
Family prestige would decline, bloodlines would thin, but only real ability stayed with a person.
He Lingchuan packed up two more portions of food, paid the bill, and left.
Returning to their inn courtyard, he found Dong Rui, freshly washed, rubbing his hands together as he bustled over. "What delicious stuff did you bring back?"
Full of anticipation, Dong Rui was met only with He Lingchuan pushing a bundle of fried rice and a steamer basket of pan-fried fish dumplings toward him. The dishes at Old Yao's Salted Fish Stall were all delicious, but anything brothy or soupy was impractical for takeout.
Disappointed, he glared at He Lingchuan. "That's it?"
"Shouldn't we watch our spending?" He Lingchuan replied with absolute seriousness. "We have over a dozen big bellies to feed here, plus Daniang, who eats as much as ten men. We'll eat ourselves out of house and home in no time."
Looking thoroughly disgusted, Dong Rui picked up his chopsticks and shoveled the rice into his mouth.
Oho, delicious!
"Isn't money a trivial thing?" Chewing on the grains, his speech was muffled. "I could just find some fat merchant to slaughter, and we'd eat well for days."
Zhu Daniang stepped out just then, scratching her belly with a front claw as she heard him. "How would that be enough to eat?" That was barely enough for a couple of slurps.
"...I meant the merchant's money! It'd keep us fed and watered for days!"
Come to think of it, so many of them had been eating and drinking on He Lingchuan's tab for months. Fresh food and water were dearest during the voyage, yet he and Daniang had been able to drink and lounge about whenever they pleased—all paid for out of He Lingchuan's purse.
If this He fellow didn't find a way to make money soon, they really would exhaust their savings before long.
"Kill someone and you'll have to pack up and move again—no wonder you're a wanted criminal." He Lingchuan popped a pan-fried dumpling into his mouth. "We're staying longer this time. If things go well, we might never leave."
He then asked Zhu Daniang, "Where is your sister?"
The twin sisters shared a strange and potent method of communication. After he and Zhu Daniang wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, Zhu Erniang had slipped out of the Demon Nest Swamp at the first opportunity to regroup with them. Zhu Daniang ought to know her sister's whereabouts now, too.
"A forested gorge," Zhu Daniang said. "Six hundred li east of the Mou Kingdom."
"How far from here?"
"At least two hundred li. Considering the terrain, even further." Zhu Daniang was giving a rough straight-line distance.
"I assumed she would stay in the Mou Kingdom." Mou had countless Daoist orders; were they unwilling to welcome a great demon like Zhu Erniang?
"If the Mou Kingdom loses the war, might they offer my sister up? To be safe, she didn't go into Mou." Zhu Erniang was ranked second on Beijia's Heaven Ranking bounty list, hunted openly and covertly by countless figures; she could hardly show herself brazenly in Mou. Right now, Mou and Beijia were trading blows in fierce combat, but if Mou ended up defeated, they might well hand Zhu Erniang over to atone for their crimes.
And the probability of that "if" didn't seem small at all—Beijia was universally acknowledged as the greatest superpower of the present era.
The victor held the right to demand the sky.
"As expected of Erniang—farsighted." He Lingchuan gave a thumbs-up. "Is she doing well there?"
"Mediocre," Zhu Daniang shook her head. "The mountains in these parts already have masters. For my sister to establish a foothold, running off the previous local lord wasn't enough; she also has to register and get approval from the Mou Kingdom. As you know, she needs a large territory, and her terrain requirements are peculiar. So neither she nor the previous lord is happy."
Burrow spiders naturally favored rugged ravines and interconnected burrows, ideally karst caverns where it was cool and damp—perfect for growing mushrooms and algae.
The problem was that other monsters favored such environments just as much.
Zhu Erniang also had a massive brood to feed, so any territory she seized would hardly be small.
Judging by how she interacted with other great monsters back in the Demon Nest Swamp, her neighborly relations in her new home were bound to be anything but harmonious.
He Lingchuan chuckled. "Neighbors once again! We should drop by to catch up with her when we have time."
Dong Rui was pleased too. "Several kinds of mushrooms grow on Zhu Erniang's mycelial mat. They're great with grilled fish!"
Zhu Daniang raised a front claw to rub her eyes. How could she make this fellow understand—no, how could she make both these fools understand that her sister didn't want to see them at all?
In the evening, the members of their party who had gone out returned one after another.
Sitting in the courtyard to enjoy the evening cool, everyone sighed with deep contentment.
So spacious, so open, so stable.
Then they began chattering about the news they had gathered outside:
"Since leasing Blade Harbor, the Bailie people have lost two more pieces of land, both seized by the Ya Kingdom to the east. Have any of you heard of the Ya Kingdom before?"
Everyone shook their heads. News of such distant, foreign realms had never reached their ears in the past.
"The Ya Kingdom was founded by the Hengding people. It borders Bailie to the west. Thirty-some years ago, they were merely nomadic tribes on the plains, skilled in mounted archery."
Chapter 868