Volume 1: Farming Chapter 40 Obligation to Pick Up Bargains
Yu walked a few steps to Hongye's position, tilted his head and listened carefully for a while, then shook his head blankly: "No?"
"I can't hear you now." Hongye said uncertainly, "... Never mind, maybe I heard it wrongly. How could there be someone here? Yu, what did you say just now?"
"Oh, I say—"
The place where the two of them were standing was facing the direction of the cave. When Yu turned his head to speak, a gust of wind came from east to west, passed through the cave at the bottom of the cliff, and blew towards the two people who had not .
“?!”
Yu and Hongye both widened their eyes and looked towards the dark cave. They smelled... the smell of blood brought by the wind!
The two snow werewolf warriors rushed into the cave simultaneously without communicating - Ayun and two adult tribesmen were on the beach behind them. If there were any crises or dangerous creatures around the beach, they had to discover them in advance.
This cliff protruding from the sea is not high but has a large area. The naturally formed cave is very deep. There is no light after just a few meters. The cave becomes narrow and winding, and the narrowest part requires one to turn sideways to pass. As the two snow wolf warriors go deeper, the smell of blood brought by the wind becomes stronger and stronger, and the smell is numerous and mixed, as if there are many people fighting on the other side of the cave.
After climbing and jogging for several minutes in the depths of the narrow cave and wading through the puddles at a low place, the space in front of them gradually opened up. After turning a few bends, Yu and Hongye finally saw where the smell of blood came from... They both gasped, looked at each other, quickly lay down, hid in the cave entrance and peeked out.
At the exit of the cave and on the other side of the cliff, there is another long coastline. Five large ships with tattered sails are stranded on the beach. The hulls are obviously tilted. On the beach, there are several man-made grass sheds and temporary camps similar to the walled city. There are also many cargo boxes piled up in the camp, which are probably those moved from the ships.
If this was just a stranded ship resting here, it would be fine, as the inland sea is a prosperous sea trade route... But judging from what the two snow wolf warriors saw, this matter was not that simple: at this moment on the beach, a bloody battle was going on in the open space in front of the simple camp. On one side were the crew members who relied on cargo boxes for cover and kept shouting, and on the other side were two elves.
Logically speaking, the elves were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers, but... they were clearly the winners in this battle. The crews composed of humans and orcs were no match for them at all and were slaughtered and defeated. Even though they desperately swam around the piled-up cargo boxes, one or two crew members would still scream from time to time as they were hacked and killed...
Hongye lowered her voice to a very low level, almost like exhaling: "Why did the elves fight with the caravan?"
Yu shook his head slightly: "Hongye, look behind them."
Hongye moved her sight towards the wooden shed, and her eyes widened suddenly - there were many naked people with ropes tied around their necks in the wooden shed, including humans, orcs... and it seemed that there were even elves? !
Hongye's mouth suddenly opened wide enough to fit her fist in... This caravan actually came here to capture elf slaves? Are these people serious? !
The two werewolf warriors secretly observed for a while, and more than ten crew members were killed. Such a tragic battlefield made even the two werewolves tremble, not to mention the crew members involved. One of the humans wielding a scimitar seemed unable to bear this one-sided slaughter, and suddenly ran out of his position and rushed to the wooden shed at the back, caught an elf girl whose hands and feet were tied with ropes, put the scimitar across the elf girl's neck, and shouted something to the two elf warriors who were still fighting.
"mean!"
Yu and Hongye were furious, but... the next second, the hostage elf girl bumped into the scimitar herself, and the huge amount of blood spurting from her neck frightened even Yu and Hongye who were far away.
An elf warrior pulled out the long knife of the dead crew member stuck in the sand and threw it fiercely. The crew member who tried to threaten the other side with the elf girl was immediately pierced in the chest by the long knife...
"..." The two snow werewolf warriors lay down obediently again.
More than half of the crew of about a hundred people were killed, and they could no longer form an effective defensive formation. They lost their fighting spirit and fled in all directions. However, the two elves did not intend to let them go. They took off the longbows on their backs, and the bowstrings sounded. Arrows with magical halos flew out, and any crew member with their backs turned away would fall down.
A massacre, an absolutely one-sided massacre of the few against the many. After about ten minutes, there was no living person standing on the entire beach except for the two elven warriors.
The blood-soaked elven warriors walked silently towards the elven girl lying in a pool of blood. One of them picked up her body and sang a sad song like a nightingale.
They took off their bloodstained clothes, wrapped up the elf girl and tied her to their backs, then went into the wooden shed to untie the ropes of the other slaves; they were too far away to hear what they were saying, Yu and Hongye could only guess that the freed slaves were begging for something, and some of them stumbled over to the cargo boxes, opened them, and showed the two elf warriors the shiny things inside.
A large group of former slaves surrounded the elven warriors and talked for a long time. The two elven warriors seemed to nod, so the slaves stripped clothes from the dead crew members and put them on, and took things out of the cargo boxes and packed them up. Then they followed the two elven warriors to leave the beach and walk deep into the land.
Hongye and Yu waited until the group of people disappeared into the dense vegetation before they jumped up and ran back the way they came... There are elves nearby! It's too dangerous! We must tell Ayun!
...half an hour later.
After hearing about the small-scale bloody battle that took place on the beach "next door" from the mouths of two warriors who were definitely considered smart among the snow wolves, Xiao Yun's face turned a little pale... Damn, this world is really so fucking cruel!
However, Xiao Yun really didn't understand why Hongye and Yu were so nervous: "It is indeed dangerous to have a slave-hunting fleet operating nearby, but since they have all been wiped out by the elves, should everything be fine?"
“……”Hongye had no expression on her face.
Yu Youqiu didn't understand Xiao Yun's reaction: "Ayun, what are you talking about? Why is the slave fleet in danger?"
"Huh?"
"Wait." Hongye pulled Yu and said with a twitch of her lips, "I forgot one thing. Ayun is not very clear about some common sense. She once asked me whether the Orc Empire would invade the grassland..."
"?!" Yu showed an expression of having his worldview destroyed, and looked at Xiao Yun with a particularly horrified face, as if Xiao Yun had done something extremely evil to him.
Xiao Yun: “???”
...In this way, after imparting some "common sense".
This time it was Xiao Yun's turn to show an expression as if his worldview had been shattered.
"Do you understand, Ayun?" Hongye asked with concern.
"...I understand." Xiao Yun was unable to make any expression. He felt as if he had been fucked by a dog. "We grassland dwellers can live such a happy and stupid life all thanks to the two cruel neighbors living next door."
Hongye & Yu: "???"
Xiao Yun held his forehead with his hand. He didn't want to blow his hair, he just wanted to be quiet.
After coming to this world and knowing that there is the Orc Empire to the east of the grassland and the Human Kingdom to the south, Xiao Yun has been worried about when these two families will come to grab this vast plain of grassland... After all, in the history of the earth, the origin of civilization of every nation started from the plains with abundant water resources.
As for the snow-capped mountains in the north, Xiao Yun really didn't pay much attention to them... Even though he knew that the northern elves were very good at fighting and that the elves in a city could face the army of the Orc Empire head-on, Xiao Yun didn't think the northern elves were that scary - this was really empiricism killing people! Earthlings have a natural fondness for elves, a creature with natural beauty!
But the reality is, in this alien world, the elves are the most stubborn species!
Eleven years ago, after the Beast King reached the city of the Elf King, the Elf King took his troops on an armed tour to the Beast King’s hometown within half a year, and would not return to the city until the Beast King lost his temper!
Humans don't dare to enter the northern part of the continent by land because the jungle is the territory of the forest elves!
There is no such thing as a rich and powerful old man in this world who can keep elves as toys. Because once the elves know who has captured their own people as slaves, they will go on an expedition thousands of miles away to beat you up.
If you offend an elf, there will be millions of elves ready to slaughter your entire family. This is not funny at all in this world. In the words of the grassland residents, at least eight out of ten epic wars in this world are related to the elves...
Xiao Yun was simply at a loss whether to laugh or cry. The many YY works on Earth that depicted elves in a cute and fleshy way really screwed him over - think rationally and with a bit of intelligence, the elves have an average lifespan of over 500 years and are extremely strong. If there were no malicious intent in the world to make them cute and collectively lower their intelligence, how weak and stupid could such a group of long-lived creatures with magical talents be?
The dark elves rebelled and went underground to become the boss. They were able to confront the dwarf kingdom head-on with the weak background of the elves...
If they want to invade the grassland, they have to make friends with the two brutal neighbors, the Snow Mountain Elves and the Forest Elves. Now, let's not talk about the sparsely populated indigenous people, but what about the Orc Empire and the Human Kingdom? I'm afraid that even if they occupy the land, they won't be able to live well for long.
Rubbing his brows vigorously, Xiao Yun endured the headache and put the matter of the elves aside... There was nothing he could do. With the population size of the Snow Werewolves, he still expected to compete with the elves to see who was more stubborn? They were totally not in the same league. It was unclear whether they cared about you or not.
"After all, it was the merchant ship that captured the elves, which caused the elves to retaliate. It has nothing to do with us anyway." Xiao Yun said, "We will leave after collecting the salt, and we won't stay here for long. Even if we encounter the elves, we have nothing to do with either side, so they won't come to trouble us, right?"
Hongye and Yu thought about it and nodded reluctantly. The forest elves usually moved deep in the jungle and rarely came out. When they occasionally met each other during patrols, they would stay away from each other. If they really had any contact with the elves, that was not the case.
"Come to think of it, you said the elves took away the slaves and cargo from the merchant ships?" Xiao Yun's eyes were sharp. "There were five ships, and the cargo on them could not be taken away by just a group of slaves. Is there any left?"
Hongye and Yu looked at him blankly.
"What a coincidence that the merchant ship we came here to get salt ran aground on the beach nearby, and even tried to capture elves and killed them in one go. Doesn't this mean that we are destined to help clean up the battlefield? Well, when Ashan and Qingyan come back, we will go pick up the leaks... and volunteer to clean up the battlefield. Otherwise, with so many corpses lying there, what if there is a plague?" Xiao Yun slapped his thigh, "It's decided happily!"
Hongye & Yu: "???"
...So after Ashan and Qingyan returned to the team, Xiao Yun took all the members and set out to pick up the missing pieces and clean up the battlefield.
The cave below the cliff was close, but the road was too difficult to walk. This time, a group of people went around the shore. After walking for almost an hour and bypassing the cliff, Xiao Yun almost vomited when he saw the tragic battle scene with his own eyes...
Judging from the time when Hongye and Yu returned to the team, the fight should have taken place two hours ago. In just a short while, the corpses on the beach attracted countless predators, seabirds and seagulls, which bit, pecked and gnawed them, leaving the entire beach covered with minced meat and bone residue. Not to mention seeing it with your eyes, even the smell would make you fall over.
Holding back the nausea and driving away the scavengers, picking up the crew members' clothes that the slaves didn't take away, wrapping your hands, dragging the remains of these unfortunate crew members to the shore and digging a hole to bury them, this was considered completing your "duty", and then came the exciting moment - unboxing!
Uh... most of the cargo boxes piled on the beach had been opened, and most of them were empty, with nothing left. I had to turn over to the bottom before I found a few cargo boxes with items left in them.
Xiao Yun quickly used the machete dropped by the crew to pry open the first box... Damn, it was actually half a box of copper coins that looked like coins. What use is this thing on the grassland?! The currency is not in circulation at all!
After prying open the second and third boxes, Xiao Yun's face immediately turned from gloomy to bright: these two boxes were actually filled with water-soaked cloth. Although the dyeing patterns on the cloth were blurred, who cares about appearance in this place!
When he pried open the last box, Xiao Yun almost died of excitement - there was a whole box of sprouted potatoes inside!
"Ayun?!" Uncle Ashan looked at Xiao Yun in horror as he covered his chest, gasped for breath, and had a pale face.
"I'm fine... Uncle, this, this is a real treasure, I must take it back intact!" Xiao Yun pointed at a box of potatoes with his teeth bared, his tone almost like he was leaving a last will.
"Ayun, don't scare me!" Ashan quickly dropped the weapons he had collected from the crew members and ran over to hug his eldest nephew.
...After some effort to make Ashan understand that he was just overly excited, Xiao Yun stared at the temporary camp built by the crew like a rich landlord collecting rent.
“Iron pot! Damn, iron pot, hahahahahahaha!”
"Fuck, there's even a pocket watch!"
"Sewing kit, hahahaha! Steel needle!"
"Oh shit, there's a medical kit, wow hahahaha!"
A group of snow werewolves and a black panther were huddled together and shivering. Could it be that Ayun was crazy?
After moving out all the things looted from the temporary camp, Xiao Yun, who was addicted to picking up bargains, turned his attention to the five boats stranded in the shallows.
Qingyan must be the best at climbing. Xiao Yun, who is blinded by greed (...), doesn't care whether Qingyan is afraid of water or not. He stuffs the rope he found in the camp into Qingyan's arms and lets Hongye carry Qingyan towards the big ship in the sea.
“No, ahhhhh——!!” Qingyan screamed and struggled.
"Don't be afraid! You won't get wet!" Hongye advised while trying hard to lift Qingyan up with her hands. After running to the side of the ship, she threw Qingyan onto the hull with all her strength.
...Qingyan, who was scared to death, immediately stretched out his claws to grab the hull, and then climbed up instinctively.
"Tie the rope and throw one end down!" Xiao Yun shouted heartlessly from below.
Qingyan has countless MMPs to say deep in his heart.
The slave-hunting fleet seemed to have been stranded for quite some time. The damaged hull showed signs of repair. There were not many items left on the ship, but they were still valuable.
In the corner of a ship's cabin, Xiao Yun was ecstatic to find two bags of badly sprouted sweet potatoes... The value of this thing is almost the same as that of potatoes, a high-yield starchy side dish/staple food. Half of Europe is fed by potatoes, and the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong prosperous eras were also brought about by sweet potatoes. The value of these two together is much higher than an entire ship's worth of jewelry and jade.
"Thanks to this beach for stranding the slave ship, and thanks to the elves for clearing the area!" Xiao Yun looked towards the jungle with deep affection from the bottom of his heart, "Your expedition has brought us so much benefit... When we become rich in the future, I will definitely make you my friend!"
After searching inside and out, Xiao Yun even asked Qingyan to dismantle the other person's sail and take it away... Even though the sail is tattered and patched, it is oilcloth after all and is waterproof.
The group returned with a full load... and continued to stay in the salt fields to dry and boil salt. It was a rare trip, and it would be a big loss if they didn't bring as much salt as possible. Originally, they didn't have many leather bags to boil, but now they got a chance to catch the slave fleet, and got more than ten iron pots and several bundles of oil leather bags. If it weren't for the lack of manpower, Xiao Yun would have wanted to stay at the seaside until the end of summer.
A month later, at the edge of the jungle.
Six huge snow wolves, carrying a mountain of pack bags wrapped in sails, slowly moved north along the edge of the jungle.
"The moisture is a bit heavy. It's going to rain, Ayun."
Ashan, who was walking in front, looked up at the dark clouds in the sky, then turned to look at his eldest nephew riding on Ayue's back.
Xiao Yun had been frowning at the sky for a long time. Five days ago, the rain on the grassland became more frequent, almost every two days, and it was completely impossible to dry salt. He asked the tribesmen to pack up the harvest and prepare to go home. Unexpectedly, after embarking on the journey home, the frequency of rain in the past two days has become every day... This made him feel vaguely uneasy.
"...it shouldn't be so bad that the mountains would be flooded in the first year of the transformation to farming?" Xiao Yun was very unsure. The wheat had been harvested, but the soybeans, alfalfa, and vegetable fields were still in the fields. He didn't know if the river embankment built by the tribe would be effective...
The sky suddenly darkened, and the next moment lightning flashed across the sky. After a few seconds, rumbling thunder sounded.
"We can't go any further. Rest here." Xiao Yun patted A Yue's wolf head. After A Yue stood firm, he jumped down. "Go a little outside. Don't get too close to the jungle. It's not safe to be around trees when there's thunder."
We found a slightly higher slope, piled the materials wrapped in the sails on the slope, and collected some straw around to cover them. Then, bean-sized raindrops poured down like a curtain.
The snow wolves returned to their human form and sat in a row on the slope, holding their stomachs helplessly as they got wet in the rain. They were not afraid of the raindrops getting on their bodies, but they were very hungry... When it rained, the rain would completely cover the scent of the wild beasts and they would not be able to hunt, and if the rain did not stop, they would be hungry.
Well... Qingyan was the most embarrassed... Hongye felt sorry for him, so she pulled him into her arms and used her body to shield him from some of the wind and rain.
"I don't think we can cook tonight, so we'll have dried fish to make up for it." Xiao Yun opened the oilskin bag and took out the dried fish he made while drying the salt and distributed it to everyone... The fishing nets are made of tree bark fibers, and it's not difficult for Qingyan, a skilled sweater knitter, to weave a fishing net.
As the saying goes, live by the sea, eat by the sea. During the past twenty days at the seaside, Xiao Yun prepared a lot of seafood for everyone to taste. When he left, he also took away a lot of salted fish and dried shrimps, which they could eat on the way and bring back to the tribesmen who stayed behind to satisfy their cravings.
When they came, they were lightly armed and in human form, but it only took them five and a half days to walk. When they went back, they had too much stuff and even after turning into wolves, they couldn't walk fast. It took them more than two days to reach the place where they had to turn around because of the jungle.
After swallowing some of the salty dried fish and drinking some rainwater directly from their mouths, the snow wolves, who had been walking hard for most of the day, finally regained some of their spirits.
However, even after they rested for a while, the lightning and thunder still did not stop and seemed to be continuing, so they naturally could not continue on their way... Thunderstorms on the grassland are very terrifying. No matter how stupid and cute the snow werewolves are, they will not turn into wolves and run around in such weather. If they are unlucky, it can be fatal.
"It looks like we can only spend the night here." Yu wiped the rain off his face and looked worriedly at the supplies covered with straw, "Ayun, will there be any problem with the salt inside?"
"The salt is packed in oil-skin bags and then wrapped in canvas, so there's no problem. There's no problem with dried fish either." Xiao Yun felt a little scared when he said this. If they hadn't picked up a wave of slave-hunting fleets, it would have been difficult to transport the salt back with just the leather bags they brought... But if they hadn't picked up this wave of bargains, they wouldn't have been so greedy as to stay on the beach for more than ten days. They would have returned to the tribe long ago, so it's hard to say.
Yu nodded and rubbed his stomach again...he felt even hungrier after feeling relieved.
Xiao Yun looked at Yu's actions, took out the dried fish and fired another round... Eating too much dried fish that was pickled with salt and then dried would make your mouth bitter, but at least it was better than starving.
The dark sky and the heavy rain made it almost impossible to see the scenery five meters away, but the crunching sound of chewing dried fish could be heard. I don't know if the chewing sound was misinterpreted as rodents hiding in a hole somewhere to eat. When Xiao Yun was chewing salted dried fish in the rain, the outline of a humanoid creature suddenly appeared in front of him...
"......?" Xiao Yun wiped his eyes. Because it rained too frequently these days, he and his tribesmen wore round hats made of rattan to keep out the rain. But the disadvantage of rattan hats was that the gaps were too big, so rain always leaked down and stuck to his eyelids.
Ashan, who was sitting with Xiao Yun, also saw the "thing" coming and paused from chewing the dried fish.
The thing came closer, entering a distance where both sides could see each other clearly, so Xiao Yun, who was facing it, saw a face that was... quite gorgeous and exquisite, and even if it was soaked like a drowned rat, it was still quite beautiful.
Xiao Yun & the Snow Wolves: "..."
The patrol warrior Kai of the elves: "..."
