Chapter 25 (1/2)

Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio  Editor: Nyoi_Bo_Studio

Gerrard was running faster than a horse, and it only took him half an hour to catch up with the marching commercial corp.

When he threw the bodies of the leader Ruhr and the vice leader Burke on the truck, everyone yelled with great enjoyment.

The businessmen were both shocked and happy, and they examined the two bodies carefully to make sure their identities were true. Some of them even took out the copied reward papers, and compared the two dead men with the portraits!

Yes, these two dirty and ugly Orcs were exactly the cruel and cunning leaders of the criminal gang that led a huge number of bandits, and had plagued the four villages in the northwest all these years, attacking the villagers and businessmen.

The Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves had been destroyed!

The businessmen were as cheerful as a group of larks. They stood in a circle and conveyed their gratitude to Gerrard, who was standing in the middle of the circle. Later, they pooled together a great amount of money as a gift to Gerrard.

Of course, Sui Xiong did not want to take this money, because he thought that it was only natural to wipe out the whole gang. Besides, it was the Orcs that formed a group to ambush him in the first place. He did not understand why these businessmen gave him money. To be honest, if Sui Xiong wanted to receive money, he would just go to the town and get the reward from the Association of Thieves.

But this time he was persuaded by Gerrard. Gerrard told him that in the civilized world, it was a perfectly justified thing for the businessmen to give him a reward when he had wiped out the bandits. If he did not receive the money, they would be unhappy. Sui Xiong was not a stubborn fuddy-duddy, so he would not refuse to the money he earned legally.

There was more than one benefit besides receiving money. Many valuable spoils of war were found with the two dead bodies. Since the two were frightened to death, they did not have the chance to use the objects they took with them. These objects were all intact. Take the magic leather armor and Bloody Hands’ magic machete, for example; they were worth as much as a month’s salary for a normal businessman.

Not to mention the other objects. For example, in the Space Pocket owned by Ruhr, there was nothing but some money and potions. He had changed all his money for various outfits, so he could increase his combat effectiveness. But inside the space pocket of the old Shaman, there were more than one thousand gold coins, all kinds of gemstones, and many advanced potions and scrolls.

Old Soth believed that the objects in the two space pockets, the outfits of the two Orcs, and the reward they were entitled to, were worth over 20,000 gold coins.

20,000 gold coins! When hearing the number, Gerrard was totally stunned.

Think of it this way: the villagers in the White Leaves Village made their living by felling and burning bark, as well as planting the Golden Vine. The vine did not taste good, but it could be used to resist negative energy, and was the staple food of the residents in the Ashes Forest. An average family could only save three to five, or six to seven gold coins in a whole year. On top of that, they had to hand in at least seventy percent of their income to the Church of the God Wu Mian to pay tax. This left them with only one or two gold coins.

“Wait, seventy percent of their income is taxed? This is too cruel!” Sui Xiong exclaimed. “Why haven’t those villagers rebelled!?”

“Your Majesty, the tax is not heavy at all.” Gerrard looked surprised, and began to explain. “The church collects their tax on the condition that the farmers have enough food to eat. In other words, they collect their tax from surplus. The Lords did not care if the farmers had money or not.

Sui Xiong now realized he was wrong. Obviously, no one would want to live in a village where skeletons would appear at night if his basic needs were not met.

As it was written in the story of the snake catcher (by the Chinese thinker Liu Zongyuan), although catching a serpent was dangerous business, it was much better than being heavily taxed, or becoming a serf!

No matter where we go, the government order is sometimes more terrifying than a tiger! Sui Xiong thought, and sighed deeply.

Gerrard had no idea what Sui Xiong was thinking, and said, “The whole White Leaves Village could save up to 200 gold coins in taxation per year; the 20,000 gold coins were worth the taxation of 100 years. Or think of it this way: when I was still an adventurer, the team I was in could save, at most, 1,000 gold coins. And that was while everyone in that team was very strong and competent. We were a very good team.

“Your Majesty, we can receive 5,000 gold coins or less by killing the evil dragon; around 1,000 gold coins by killing a criminal who murdered an aristocracy; and about 2,000 gold coins by wiping out the famous gang of bandits, the Cavalry of Orcs and Wolves. So you can really feel that the 20,000 gold coins is really a big sum of money!”

Sui Xiong nodded, finally having a grasp on the value of the 20,000 gold coins.

“We can build a temple with the money. Your Majesty, I think we should find a village and make that village our follower. Although it is just one village, we do not need to take any risks, and it is quite safe. And two years later, when the village is under good control, we can begin to search for more villages and make the people there our followers. Then we can even build a town…” Gerrard’s imagination was flying. “After a century or two, we can own few towns, over ten villages, and thousands of faithful followers, at the very least.”

Sui Xiong did not show his approval or disapproval of Gerrard’s suggestion. He thought that Gerrard was thinking far too much. Even the Chinese, who always talked about China’s ‘Two Centenaries,’ were just killing time by mentioning the project. No one could really made a plan for the next one or two centuries and try to execute it.

But on second thought, Sui Xiong began to see the sense of Gerrard’s wild imagination.

Both Sui Xiong and Gerrard were immortal. For them, a century or two was not that long. They may only need to see a few more winters and summers to see the leaves sprouting in the spring and falling in the autumn, or to see a villager living his whole life.

Being immortal was not fantasy in this world, but reality.

“Your Majesty, what do you think of the plan?” Gerrard asked.