Volume 5: If you are poor, you should be alone Chapter 136 Humble Xiao Yun
Sean is a human, so he knows very well why the alien races in the northern continent have such a high opinion of the Lich King... When it comes to enemies that pose no threat to them, the strong are always willing to show their magnanimity by being tolerant and generous.
If Melville J. Bancroft were still alive—as a necromancer who successfully transformed himself into a lich, his life span was close to that of a dragon—then the powerful might politely show respect on the surface, but would definitely not say anything good about him in private...
Of course, although Sean knew this, he was not too dissatisfied with it. After all, compared with these alien races, the attitude of J's compatriots and the humans in the southern continent towards him was chilling: the human countries that sucked countless flesh and blood from the huge corpse of the old empire would never admit that they participated in a blood feast. The source of the destruction and dismemberment of the old empire must be attributed to "J"; in the southern continent, J's name is not even allowed to be mentioned... if you don't want to be hostile to all the royal families.
Sean despises this shameless "consensus" of the human world, but he has no power to change anything - when everyone lies, the only person who tells the truth will be stoned by others. The legendary magician "The End of Illusion" may be very strong, but not strong enough to oppose all the royal families in the human world.
When Sean's time was running out, he chose to come to the cursed land and wait for death. It was just a small protest against J's posthumous reputation not being evaluated fairly... It was all he could do.
At this moment, Sean was so frightened by his own assumption that he broke out in a cold sweat. His heart felt as if it was being squeezed by an invisible hand, and even breathing became difficult. "If the lich's life box is not destroyed, it can be resurrected infinitely. What 'J' buried himself was his human remains... Could it be... Could it be that 'J' is really so desperate that he has no attachment to humans? He parasitized the Snow Wolf - he chose the Snow Wolf Clan?!"
"The only human demigod in Bloomfield has chosen the Snow Wolf Clan!"
Primo was startled by Sean's sudden change in expression. He quickly put Youji down and stood up to help him: "Are you okay, old friend?"
Sean did not hear Primo's voice. The tremendous mental pain made him tremble all over and sweat profusely... He could not accept that the conclusion he came to was the fact. Even if this conclusion was just his unfounded guess, it made him extremely uncomfortable - the fate of "J" was the knot in the hearts of all human spellcasters. If J gave up the human race, then countless human spellcasters would lose faith.
"This is impossible..." Primo heard his old friend muttering to himself with a pale face and trembling lips. His voice was so faint that it sounded like a dream. "This is absolutely impossible... absolutely impossible..."
Primo sighed, raised his left hand, and chopped Sean's neck lightly; Sean rolled his eyes and fell silently.
After helping his old friend sit down on the sofa, Primo looked solemn, and cast his gaze in the direction Sean had been staring at before - transforming mental power into a field is the basic skill of a third-level magician, and the mental field possessed by legendary magicians above the fourth level is more reliable than any defensive props; what on earth did Sean hear that caused his mind to collapse and even his mental field to be unable to maintain?
Primo, who holds the title of "God of War", is not a warrior but a walker. He is the only legendary walker in the past thousand years who snatched the title of God of War from a warrior because of his expertise in head-on combat. Furthermore, no warrior from any tribe has been able to snatch this title from Primo in the past fifty years. Of course, in addition to being good at fighting, walker Primo also has other skills. He took off his bulky home robe, buttoned his chest, and pulled his sleeves down to cover his wrists. He opened the door and walked out of the room. When both of his feet stepped out of the door, his figure gradually faded and disappeared silently into the air.
"Find the assassin on the ship and kill him? What are you thinking about?" Xiao Yun rolled his eyes at Tim with disgust. "Use your knees to think more, don't just sit there and eat for free. Can an assassin acting alone get on the fleet that Carlisle regards as his own eyes and that you have been watching personally? Without someone of a certain status as an insider, how can the assassin get the ship? Even if he gets on the ship, how can he hide his tracks for more than a month in such a closed space on the ship?"
"Uh..." Tim couldn't help but think of what happened with Anthony, and exhaled, "So, there really is a noble who betrayed Carlisle."
"Don't say the word betrayal so often, it makes you look stupid." Xiao Yun said with even more disdain, "Loyalty is just a phrase used by superiors to brainwash those below them. You can say it, but you don't have to really believe it. If there is real loyalty, it's not for a certain person; it's either for a certain belief or for one's own interests. The so-called betrayal can only be these two. So-and-so betrayed so-and-so, huh, isn't it childish, just like a child playing house!"
It would be better for the boss to actually increase the employees' salary than to tell them to be a hundred times more loyal and devoted to the company...Those who brainwash others end up crippling themselves and are idiots, and this kind of thing has been happening all the time, both in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad!
"..." Tim's forehead was covered with sweat. Teacher Ayun was good in every way, except that he was so direct and didn't care about etiquette at all, which was really hard to get used to.
"Carlisle was too overconfident after Anthony left the stage. He controlled the country for several months in vain, but he didn't even bother to keep a firm grip on St. Bridget's army, which made him so embarrassed now." Xiao Yun didn't bother to care whether Tim could adapt or not, and said sharply, "The old king regarded the young and strong prince as a political opponent, but Carlisle was hesitant and couldn't get around this. Only you can handle this matter and help Carlisle - there is no need to find an assassin on the ship. After all, the assassin is a knife in someone else's hand. If you don't want to fight the knife, you might as well cut off the hand holding the knife. This is the only way to solve the problem once and for all."
"Teacher Ayun, please teach us how to do it." Tim cheered up. After being scolded for a long time, the main part of the scene finally came.
"It's obvious that there are nobles on the ship who are hedging their bets and helping the old king bring the assassin aboard. You can figure it out with your knees... It's impossible for a stranger from outside to go without food, water, or defecation during more than a month of sailing. The arm that holds the knife on behalf of the old king must have relevant traces hidden somewhere on the ship. What you have to do is to find this 'evidence' and destroy it in front of everyone."
"Huh?!" Tim and Darren's eyes almost popped out.
Xiao Yun said calmly, "Don't always think about fighting and killing. Those who can join the ship are nobles who have at least superficially surrendered to Carlisle and have made certain contributions to the fleet. The fact that you two are conducting a large-scale search throughout the fleet is enough to make some people dissatisfied. Do you want to target someone and call for killing their kind based on some 'evidence'? Are you trying to force them to turn against you?"
"Find the evidence but do not investigate further. Destroy it in front of everyone. Use this attitude to tell the person who is hedging his bets that you hope the matter ends here. The condition for the assassination to succeed is that the target is defenseless. As long as the other party is not hopelessly stupid, he will deal with the assassin himself."
Tim seemed to be thinking about something, while Darren was somewhat reluctant. Obviously, he could not accept this solution.
Xiao Yun smiled and said to Darren, "You think this is not quick and neat, and so do I. But how can you always do things as you please? After all, Carlisle has not become king yet, and he still needs more nobles from St. Bridget to support him, so he and you who follow him cannot just brutally kill the nobles who have come to him... There are more ways to destroy a noble than just using real weapons."
Darren nodded reluctantly to show that he understood. Tim, who had heard something more, was stunned for a few seconds before being shocked... How did he hear Teacher Ayun say that Carlisle could settle accounts without scruples after becoming king? !
Xiao Yun gave Tim a look that showed he understood. There was no need to say such words explicitly.
Which emperor of the feudal dynasty of China killed his meritorious officials after the country was stabilized? Learn from this!
The more unstable the team is, the more you need to stabilize people's hearts. That's what Boss Cao does.
During the initial stages of a business start-up or the establishment of a new department or team, the boss and management are always very tolerant of their employees. To put it bluntly, it's just a makeshift team, and they often kick one person out and fire another. What the hell are they doing?
Tim didn't want to wait for assassinations every day on his way back, so he breathed a sigh of relief after finding a solution to the problem from Xiao Yun. While Carlisle was away and no one was trying to take up Teacher Ayun's time, he took the opportunity to continue asking questions that had been weighing on his mind...
In the corridor, Primo, who was squatting in the corner near the door and eavesdropping, had a look of horror on his face.
Primo and Sean have been friends for several decades... In the beginning, they were close friends regardless of age. Sean was over 100 years old when Primo was still young. Later, as Primo grew older, there was no age gap between them. Over the years, Primo knew Sean's thinking habits very well. Primo even learned the details of the code name "J" that was only circulated among spellcasters from Sean.
“No wonder Sean reacted so strongly…” Primo quietly stood up and left, walking through the rest area. He raised his hand to wipe the sweat off his face. “This Snow Wolf Cub is so suspicious!”
Turning his head to look at the quiet corridor behind, Primo's expression was a little complicated; he was not a spellcaster, and did not have Sean's fanatical belief, but he was also a human being... If the only demigod in the human race in thousands of years abandoned humanity, it would be too heartbreaking.
The clueless Xiao Yun had no awareness that he had misled two human legendary powerhouses with his nonsense. After taking care of his disciple's worries, he immediately got busy contacting the sea clan... Whether it was catching natural seafood or engaging in seawater aquaculture, there was no more suitable partner in the world than the sea clan.
Moreover, it is more reliable to cooperate with the sea tribe than with the elves... because not only are they not a whole, they are also relatively scattered.
Among all races, the sea people are second only to humans in terms of population and prosperity - all shallow sea areas and beaches where humans cannot stand are places where the sea people reproduce and thrive. They have no shortage of food sources and few natural enemies, so they live a very leisurely life.
And precisely because life is easy, this sea tribe, whose population is second only to humans, is quite lazy... N sea countries, N sea kings and queens, and a large number of sea nobles have been established according to regions. They do not fight or attack, but are obsessed with art, inheritance, and creation. From time to time, some famous princesses and nobles from the sea would come to the shore to become singers...
Of course, although the sea people are lazy, they are not easy to please. In Xiao Yun's understanding, this race is a bit like those maverick celebrities in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. If they think highly of you, they will deal with you, but if they think less of you, they won't even bother to look at you. There are many people engaged in maritime trade, but few of them can get the sea people to escort them. At that time, Carlisle barely managed to establish a relationship with the sea people by borrowing the gimmick of forest elf artworks.
In this regard, Xiao Yun said that he had no pressure at all... Isn't it easy to please the literary youth? Just flatter him in the right way !
He, Totim, gave a story manuscript written by Evelyn to the young master of the Winston family. That night, the young nobleman of the sea clan, whose ears were covered with a layer of blue film and whose nose was strangely shaped but still quite handsome, sat in his living room.
Well, it was indeed in the living room of his room. General Kleist also rested in the room at night. Xiao Yun was not shameless enough to insist on using someone else's living room when his master was at home.
Master Winston, who was dressed like a human noble, gave people the impression of being a literary youth. He was the type of person that Xiao Yun was most reluctant to deal with when he was on Earth - you talked to him about reality, and he talked to you about feelings. Impracticality was written on every strand of his hair. They were natural enemies of Xiao Yun's extreme pragmatism. Xiao Yun would never interact with such people except for work needs.
And now is the time when it is needed... There is no room for pretentiousness in work, especially in dealing with people. I pinched my nose and accompanied this sea tribe literary youth to talk about the romantic imagination of the snow wolf tribe towards the sea tribe for a long time, and emphasized the respect and yearning of the snow wolf tribe for the sea tribe by using the specially beautified story of "The Daughter of the Sea". After the other party was photographed to be comfortable physically and mentally, I turned to the main topic and talked about the cooperation with MSG.
"It grows in low-temperature sea areas, is oblong in shape, has no thorns, and is light yellow or flesh-colored... You mean, sea worms?" After listening to Xiao Yun's description, Master Winston showed a strange look.
"Uh..." Xiao Yun also understood that the two worlds would have different naming habits. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Are the sea earthworms you are talking about large and delicious?"
Master Winston's expression was very difficult to describe. He seemed to be disgusted by Xiao Yun's vulgar words but couldn't say it directly, so he said tactfully: "There are no sea worms in our sea tribe's menu. As for the source of the delicious taste Mr. Ayun mentioned, we sea tribe eat kelp."
Xiao Yun was still very persistent: "Then is this sea worm about this long, very thick and fat, and when it drills in the sand, it wriggles like a caterpillar..."
Master Winston's face changed... If the Snow Wolf in front of him was not Ayun, the Snow Wolf who wrote "Travels of a Gourmet Hunter" and wrote "The Daughter of the Sea" out of friendship for the Sea Clan, Master Winston might have left. He had no choice but to bite the bullet and reply, "Yes, just as you described, the sea earthworm and the 'singular stingray and sea intestine' you mentioned are the same creature. It should be due to the different naming habits of our Sea Clan and the Snow Wolf Clan."
The young master had obviously reached a limit of patience and could no longer squeeze his acceptance. Xiao Yun immediately adjusted his strategy and placed the focus of cooperation on kelp - the oldest MSG-producing sea cucumber had contributed to Shandong cuisine during the Song Dynasty. If one were to do MSG business, sea cucumber would certainly be a better raw material than kelp. Due to overfishing of sea cucumbers in modern times and the development of science and technology, the main ingredient of MSG has shifted to high-starch crops.
Food must not be wasted. Xiao Yun doesn't even want to brew wine, let alone make MSG, so kelp is the only choice.
The sea tribe has the habit of eating kelp and the technology to cultivate kelp in low-temperature seawater, but they have never thought of selling kelp as a spice; the technical threshold for this thing is not high. Xiao Yun explained the principle and general process of making glutamic acid, or MSG, from kelp. Master Winston's face became more relaxed, and he nodded readily to agree to this matter, and then brought the topic to literary creation - this is the biggest problem of literary youth! Do the serious things while you are at it, but you are very interested in the unimportant things!
Xiao Yun felt bad, but he still had to show a positive and interested attitude to talk to the other party...
There is no willfulness in the adult world. For professionals, no matter you are autistic and introverted or aloof and arrogant, you have to adapt and learn to be good at dealing with all kinds of people; being able to do things cannot save being a bad person, but being a good person can definitely save being a bad person! Rich interpersonal relationships and networks can save poor business ability. This principle is true everywhere!
Just like the humble Xiao Yun who is now frantically flattering Master Winston and tickling the itch of Master Wenqing... In order to gain the friendship of Master Winston, he is forcing himself to become a literary youth.
In the room on the west corridor, Sean and Primo sat opposite each other.
"...How?" Primo asked nervously.
Sean's expression was quite... hard to describe. He said with a twitching mouth: "I can be sure that he is definitely not 'J'."
"What?" Primo was surprised.
Sean let out a long breath and pressed hard on the blue veins on his forehead. "A demigod, no, any legendary master would not do such a thing without dignity. I simply cannot stand his flattery of the sea nobles! He is Carlisle's teacher after all. What on earth was he thinking when he did such an unbecoming and undignified act as a prince's teacher?!"
"..." Primo's mouth twitched, "Well, I don't think the legendary Lich King is the kind of person you described... Didn't he try his best to please the dark elves? It's not surprising that he does the same to the sea people."
Sean calmed down for a while, suppressed his anger, and withdrew from the emotions caused by misunderstanding. The legendary magician could give Xiao Yun a fair evaluation: "Let's not talk about our self-proclaimed misunderstanding. If we regard this Ayun as an ordinary snow werewolf, his actions are not really that bad. On the contrary, they are quite amazing. Master Winston is ten times his age, but he sounds like the more ignorant one... Although I don't agree with this kind of indecent flattery, I must admit that he did use the most effective method to win the favor of the sea nobles in the shortest time."
Seeing that Primo didn't agree, Sean added, "If this cub's status in the Snow Wolf Tribe remains unchanged, in thirty years, no, maybe even shorter... in twenty years, the Snow Wolf Tribe will definitely have a place in the Northern Continent."
"Is it true?" Primo was surprised.
"You know about his innate political sense and his shrewd tactics. It's surprising enough for a man of his age to have these. What's even more surprising is that he is not proud of his talents or limited by his arrogance... Do you think Sage Xavier will do whatever it takes to please others in order to achieve his goals?"
"How is that possible?" Primo replied immediately.
"That's right. As the teacher of Prince Carlisle, Ayun from the Snow Wolf Clan, who should be young and energetic, can bend down... Not only that, he also knows exactly what means to use to please the other party, and he strictly implements them." Sean shook his head with admiration, "A dog barking at you and a wolf looking at you calmly, trying to figure out how to bite your neck faster, the latter is the most frightening."
"I admit that this snow wolf man is very special, but I am really surprised that you praised him so much." Primo couldn't help but laugh, "Old friend, what you said has made me a little curious about him."
"To be honest, I've begun to regret not getting along well with this young man from the Snow Wolf Tribe at last year's cocktail party." Sean said with a wry smile, "Compared to this young man from the Snow Wolf Tribe, I was the one who was restricted by prejudice and arrogance."
Xiao Yun, who was still clueless, looked exhausted after seeing off Master Winston who left with great satisfaction - if you force the literary youth to be a normal person, he will shout in grief and indignation that a gentleman can be killed but not humiliated; forcing a normal person to be a literary youth... well, you can still do it if you force him a little harder, but it will be tiring ┓(;_｀)┏.
Okay, men should be harder on themselves.
The cooperation with the sea tribe requires the use of the port of the forest elves. Xiao Yun has already made plans in this regard. It is just the right opportunity to deepen the relationship with Crest and get more familiar with him so that some things can be said more easily... It is a taboo to talk about deep things with someone you just met. Xiao Yun just got to know each other well. If he goes to the elf general and tells him that he can help him fight the airborne elder, it would be strange if Crest doesn't think he is a fool.
On the other hand... Xiao Yun stroked his chin and thought, it's time to pull some humans into his own bowl.
The processing of kelp into MSG needs to be done on the west coast, but the tribe's limited manpower cannot be spread everywhere, so they can consider a hiring model - the human kingdom is not short of people, and there is plenty of cheap labor on the southern continent across the inland sea.
Survival on the grassland was difficult and full of dangers. The tribe was very careful to raise a Thrall, so it was impossible to recruit workers from the human kingdom. Now the situation is different. The forest elf port is a natural fortress, and adventurers are diligent in clearing the surrounding monsters. Except for the few months of heavy snow and freezing, it is still reliable to hire a group of humans to come to the west coast to process MSG.
"Well... Saint Bridge is too far away, and we have to borrow the Adventurer's Association's fleet to recruit and transport people." Xiao Yunshen nodded in agreement, "Let's find a chance to contact the Adventurer's Association."
