Chapter 217: Yue Ye Merchant Group (II) (1/2)
Chapter 217: Yue Ye Merchant Group (II)
“For instance, a great part of the goods sold in the auction houses of our Temple Alliance, comes from the freelance merchants. And many of the things they bring in stem from the demon side. A lot of our natural resources are sold at their side in the same fashion. Thus, these freelance merchants are bustling in the space between the human’s and the demon’s side, coming in and out, without anyone bothering about their existence. Of course, it is not that simple to become a Freelance Merchant. And this profession is not only limited to humans, it is even occupied by some demons of high rank.”
Hearing this explanation, Long Haochen immediately understood what he meant, “So brother Dian Yan, what you mean is that we should think of a way to get in touch with these freelance merchants, trying to sneak into their group to penetrate in the demon territory.”
Dian Yan nodded and replied, “The freelance merchants will never come to the forts close to the frontier, because it isn’t a safe place for them. I grew up in Starseeker City. Therefore, I can ascertain that there are freelance merchants there. Since we want to penetrate deeply in the central area of the demon territory, we will have to pass through their provinces. Slaughtering our way to pass through isn’t realistic. We can be sure that near the central region, the probing will be tighter. They won’t miss our group of a dozen so easily.”
Long Haochen slightly leaned forward, “Many thanks for your warning, brother Dian. Just like you said, we should have some rest at Starseeker City, to replenish our food and water supply, and to get in contact with the freelance merchants.”
Standing at Dian Yan’s side, Luc Xi revealed a smile and secretly did a thumbs up.
After a journey of eight days, these two Demon Hunt Squads could be considered familiar with each other, but despite the time they spent together, the two teams were still somewhat reserved towards each other, there were still differences of opinion. Dian Yan’s previous suggestion was undoubtedly meant to show them that they weren’t useless to the 21st Demon Hunt Squad. While giving the 4th Demon Hunt Squad some face, it was an important help for this operation.
Pulling Cai’er’s hand, Long Haochen jumped down from Haoyue’s back, “Since we are going to look for the freelance merchants’ help, we should carefully conceal our identities. Shift gears everyone, and change into some plain and simple clothes. Then we’ll enter the city.”
Li Xin inquired, “Then, what will you do about our mounts?” 11 fine horses were quite valuable, so as a knight, she naturally felt sorry for this loss.
Dian Yan replied with a smile, “Let me handle it. Enter the city first, I will be looking for you later. There’s a pretty good inn located in the south of the city. There we will meet. ”
The 13 youths changed clothes. After the mounts were left to Dian Yan, the others entered the city discretely.
Long Haochen’s carefulness was justified: since there were freelance merchants in the city, it was pretty obvious that some of them would belong to the demon side. The more careful they were, the safer their trip would become.
Dian Yan handled everything even better than Long Haochen imagined. After less than one hour passed since they entered the medium-sized hotel, Dian Yan was back, accompanied by someone else.
It was a tall and imposing elder.
As the others had already returned to their own rooms to get some rest, Dian Yan directly led this old man to Long Haochen’s and Cai’er’s room.
Although Long Haochen and Cai’er were still not too intimate with each other, the two of them didn’t fear arousing suspicion, and directly shared a room. Long Haochen would never forget the little home they built in their living quarters in the Exorcist Mountain Pass, but of course, even though they lived in the same room, they were cultivating on their own during the majority of the nighttime.
“Younger brother Long, this person is my brother-in-law Dian Xuan, manager of the Yue Ye Merchant Group’s guard. Hearing that we were interested in a well paid work, he came in person to meet us.”
As he spoke, Dian Yan gave Long Haochen a meaningful glance.
Long Haochen bowed very politely to this elderly man and said, “Hello.”
Seeing that Long Haochen and Cai’er were already so good-looking despite their young age, Dian Xian couldn’t help but feel startled, nodding to them and asking, “I heard that you were a group of a little more than a dozen people?”
“That’s right. Counting in Dian Yan, we are a total of thirteen people: eight men and five women. Please take care of us.” Long Haochen was handsome in appearance, and still quite young. At this moment he showed a respectful appearance, faint traces of simple and honest shyness could be found. Let alone Dian Xuan, even Dian Yan looked puzzled, almost thinking out loud, Is this guy really the captain of a Demon Hunt Squad?
Dian Xuan declared in a deep tone, “Our merchant group needs some manpower to take care of odd jobs. You will be in charge of looking after the trucks, getting two silver coins per day. If there is no mishap, every one of you will get another gold coin after returning. How about it?”
Long Haochen had an extremely happy expression, “That would be very good. Thank you mister manager.” Having said this, he bowed once again to Dian Xuan.