Volume 5: If you are poor, you should be alone Chapter 137: The Wolf King's Invincible Mouth Cannon
Xiao Yun had a relatively clear understanding of the Adventurer's Association, a vibrant civil society organization. Its headquarters was located in the royal city of a small country in the human kingdom of the southern continent, with branches spread across various adventure resorts. Its internal officials were divided into three departments: Research, Transportation, and Defense.
The Research Department is the department that is responsible for new land development, finance and personnel. It is said that it also takes on some assassination and protection business. It is strong and has gathered most of the elites in the association.
The Ministry of Transport is easy to understand . The fleets traveling between the ice-free port of Valentine in the southern continent and the elven port in the cursed land are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport.
The Defense Department is a general term for the defense departments of the Adventurer's Association camps built in various places and the fixed bases in various cities.
The organizational structure is clear, and the scope of power and responsibility is clear. Under this big framework, although there are also problems such as power struggles, dereliction of duty and procrastination within the Adventurer's Association, it can indeed beat many countries that are still practicing land power division and aristocratic hereditary system in terms of operational efficiency. If the association is not bloated, the source of members is complex, there is no clear organizational program, and it is impossible to achieve a consensus between the upper and lower levels, Xiao Yun feels that the size of the Adventurer's Association is enough to get involved in the power game...
But then again, if the Adventurer's Association was really a large group with a clear organizational program and political goals, then the king or emperor probably wouldn't allow them to grow to their current size... It can only be said that it is a blessing in disguise.
After the Defense Department's branch chief took office, the people from the Research Department basically stopped appearing at the Elf Port, and Xiao Yun couldn't find them even if he wanted to. So if he wanted to contact the Adventurer's Association, the breakthrough must be the Defense Department's branch chief.
So the next morning Xiao Yun hurriedly went to find his friend Hailin. After learning the location of the Adventurer's Association branch, he left Hailin behind and ran straight there. It turned out that there were only some clerks responsible for document entry and window staff facing adventurers in the branch, and the branch director was nowhere to be seen.
Xiao Yun, who was wearing a fur hat to cover his ears and acting suspiciously, was regarded as a suspicious person by the clerk of the branch. When Xiao Yun asked about the whereabouts of the branch director, his eyes became particularly sharp...
After finally dispelling the other party's doubts and asking about the branch director's residence, Xiao Yun almost vomited blood - damn, he has been a neighbor of that branch director for at least a week, and now he is looking for him all over the world!
Hailin, that funny guy, didn’t even say anything and just made it clear!
Uh...wait, it seems like we didn't give him time to explain clearly...
With an embarrassed look on his face, Xiao Yun went back to Hailin to get all the information about the branch chief Primo. After thinking it over, he did not run to the east area of the port to find the grassroots tribe leader, but went straight back to the Elf Hotel.
From Hailin, he learned that the branch director Primo and a good friend who looked like a spellcaster visited Ashu's food store every day, which showed that the branch director did not dislike or hate the Snow Wolf Tribe; but Ashu and his friends did not know Primo and his good friend, and had never mentioned this person, which meant that the branch director had no interest in dealing with the Snow Wolf Tribe. So before inviting the grassroots chief, he needed to confirm the attitude of the branch director.
Since the other party is such a hidden big shot, the character of a polite young man with a bit of recklessness should be more effective in testing the first contact; having made up his mind, Xiao Yun did not ask the elf waiter in the hotel for information, but ran to the west corridor on the second floor and knocked on the doors one by one.
When they knocked on the third room, a young human male who looked to be in his thirties walked out of the fourth room.
Seeing the man clearly, Xiao Yun suddenly perked up, and immediately knew that this big brother must be no ordinary person - this guy looks like the young British star Cary Grant, and his temperament is very much like Ian McKellen in his old age. He has long silver hair loosely tied into a ponytail and hanging on one shoulder, wearing a gray cloth robe and open-toed cloth shoes. If he were a little older, he would definitely be a free and artistic hermit.
The not-so-old hermit looked at Xiao Yun silently, his deep eyes seemed to see through everything... Even his eyes were impressive enough, worthy of a thumbs up; but it was a pity that his face lacked the wrinkles and his chin did not have a big beard, it always felt like something was missing.
"Hello, sir. I want to see Primo, the branch chief of the Adventurer's Association." Although some impolite thoughts were running through his mind, Xiao Yun smiled in a very simple and honest manner on the surface, and even pretended to be a little shy and restrained.
Sean: “…”
If Sean hadn't known that this Snow Wolf Cub was black from the inside out, he would have been fooled by this guy...
"Primo's room is this one. You knocked on my door." Sean pretended to be confused even though he knew the truth. "Who are you?"
"I'm Ayun from the Snow Wolf Tribe." Xiao Yun grinned, showing his eight big white teeth. The end of his words naturally rose (a speaking habit unique to young people). "Our tribe wants to rent a ship from the Adventurer's Association. The tribe leader sent me to meet Mr. Primo."
...Does this guy often act recklessly under the banner of the clan leader? He lies so fluently - you hardly go out during the time you live here, how did your clan leader send you here!
Sean was complaining madly in his heart, but he looked very calm on the surface, and turned sideways and made a gesture of invitation.
Xiao Yun thanked him, but did not immediately step in. Instead, he stood there and chatted with a very innocent smile: "Sir, may I know your name?"
"Sean." Sean said simply.
"I'm sorry for disturbing you by coming here and knocking on the door so rashly, Mr. Sean." Xiao Yun pretended to be embarrassed.
"...Nothing." Sean understood what this guy meant, and he walked into the house first. The cunning and crafty boy followed him in. If Sean didn't know this guy's background, he would have been fooled by his pretended respectful behavior!
Primo knew that the snow wolf man Ayun was coming, so he had already put away "Travels of the Mainland" and sat upright in his seat waiting; as soon as Xiao Yun came in, he looked over with sharp eyes.
——Who is this young ?
Primo's eyes were a little straight...
"Hello, Mr. Primo, I am Ayun from the Snow Wolf Clan." Xiao Yun immediately felt something was wrong, but didn't think much about it for a while.
Primo glanced at Sean and nodded slowly: "Hello, young man from the Snow Wolf Tribe, what can I do for you?"
"Our tribe wants to rent a ship from your association. The chief asked me to ask Mr. Primo if it's convenient." Xiao Yun resisted the urge to peek at the spellcaster next to him and spoke honestly.
Primo was silent... How could he respond to that? He was the branch director and was here to take care of the elderly. He didn't care about these things!
"Sit down and talk." Sean calmly tried to smooth things over.
Xiao Yun... Xiao Yun hurriedly thanked him with a look of gratitude, but the look in his eyes when he glanced at the gray-robed spellcaster was very strange.
He was sure that he had never dealt with these two people. At Carlisle's cocktail party last year, they didn't even run into him. How come they seemed to know him... very well?
Sean is okay, but Primo, especially, the "strange" feeling he felt was not because he had never seen him before, but because he thought that his cognition was different from his!
If it was because they had read the two travelogues he wrote... that would be even more unreasonable! If that was the case, even if it wasn't a good impression, at least there shouldn't be such an obvious distance between them!
With this strange feeling, the show had to go on. Xiao Yun sat down, spread his legs slightly wider than his shoulders, put his hands on his knees, leaned his upper body forward slightly, and stretched his neck forward, using body language to tell the other party that he was very eager to get an answer: "Mr. Primo, we will pay the boat rental according to the market price. May I ask if your association can rent the boat to us?"
Who is this frank and polite young man? Primo had a blank expression on his face, but he was howling inwardly.
Sean coughed.
Primo came back to his senses, leaned back, crossed his arms, and said in a deep voice, "You need to ask the Ministry of Transport if there are any vacancies. I can't give you an answer now."
Xiao Yun's eyes immediately became quite sharp... Not to mention Primo's obvious behavior of suddenly changing into a defensive posture (suddenly crossing his arms across his chest or crossing his fingers during a conversation both mean that he is uneasy and resistant to the topic), which revealed a lot of things, even his words had a big problem!
If others might be fooled by this answer, he would not! After all, in his previous life, he had worked as a regional manager in a Fortune 500 company, managing marketing, finance and projects. Only the gilded administrative and HR chief parachuted in from the head office could pose a threat to him. How could he not know the coordination and cooperation between different departments within the same organization?
According to the responsibilities of the three major departments of the Adventurer's Association, the Research Department is the big boss who is in charge of finance and personnel (deciding which new land to open up, how much manpower and material resources to invest, and to what extent to open up), the Defense Department is the marketing center that directly faces the market and the second in production and management (the window department for adventurers and responsible for local trade activities), and the Transportation Department is just a younger brother who runs errands - it's not even considered a technical department!
When Primo said this, either he, as the branch chief, was just a mascot and didn't care about anything at all; or he was absent-minded. As the head of marketing for the local branch, he didn't take the business brought to him by the Snow Wolf Tribe seriously, and had negative speculations about Xiao Yun's intentions - this is really annoying no matter which side it is!
Sean coughed again.
"What kind of transportation does the Snow Wolf Tribe intend to use the rented ship for?" Primo asked with a serious face.
"...Our tribe is negotiating cooperation with the sea tribe, and we need some human labor..." Xiao Yun glanced at Sean, and the corners of his mouth began to twitch. "I heard that many humans in Valentine are unemployed. Our tribe wants to hire some humans from Valentine..."
Primo's expression suddenly became somewhat scary, and Sean next to him looked over in astonishment.
"Does the Snow Wolf Tribe also plan to attract human vassals like the elves?" Primo asked rather unfriendly.
"It's hiring." Xiao Yun emphasized the word, "Our tribe has taken in a human exile. We know that it is difficult for humans to survive the long winter on the grassland, so we only want to hire humans from Valentine to work on the west coast from spring to autumn."
Now Sean couldn't help but interrupt: "Your tribe takes in humans?!"
It was not the first time that Xiao Yun had used the living sign of Thrall. He said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Yes, his name is Thrall. I heard that he was exiled by the human nobles. He has lived in our tribe for almost ten years."
"..." Sean and Primo looked at each other. After hearing this, although they both knew that the snow werewolf in front of them was not a good person, they began to like him more.
Then the two old men found that Xiao Yun was looking at them with even more astonished eyes.
Sean: “…”
Xiao Yun: “…”
Xiao Yun glared at me with dead fish eyes: "If I guessed wrong, I apologize... Do you two gentlemen have any misunderstandings about me?"
"Oh? Why do you say that?" Sean said stiffly.
"Well... after I mentioned our tribe's human companions, your attitudes have changed quite a bit..." Xiao Yun said with a twitch of his lips, "Especially, Mr. Primo seems to have a bit of a... bad impression of me?"
"..." Primo looked at his old friend, "Sean, did I say anything just now?"
Sean looked pained.
"Okay." Xiao Yun's facial muscles twitched, and he sat up straight. "I don't think I have dealt with the two gentlemen. If there is any misunderstanding between us, I hope time can resolve it. Mr. Primo, I heard that the price of the ticket for adventurers in your association's transportation department is one gold coin. This price is difficult for our tribe to afford. We hope to offset it with other costs, such as facilitating your association's development work on the west coast. Is there room for negotiation?"
Sean sighed, "Okay, you don't have to test him. Primo doesn't care about these things."
Xiao Yun's expression didn't change at all. He was very calm.
Primo finally reacted and his face turned black immediately: "Damn it!"
Obviously he is a smart man, but he was actually intimidated by a little brat!
Age is not forgiving, and my reactions have become slower. After Primo got angry, he felt a little sad.
"We, the Snow Wolf Tribe, are very sincere, whether it is cooperating with your association or hiring Valentine's human race." Xiao Yun was not here to slap him in the face, and his attitude was still very sincere. "If the two gentlemen are willing to give us a chance, we, the Snow Wolf Tribe, will prove our friendship to the human race."
"How to prove it?" Primo said coldly.
Xiao Yun said sincerely: "We can pay our employees in common currency, or we can exchange them for an equal amount of vermicelli at the price of six copper coins per pound. These are the two kinds of vermicelli sold in our food store. This is also the price we sell to Saint Bridge and the forest elves."
Primo and Sean showed expressions of agreement and nodded slightly at the same time - the northern continent is mostly mountainous, and the densely populated areas around Valentine are simply unable to be self-sufficient in food. Half of the food has to be imported from other places, which makes the price of food in Valentine three times more expensive than other areas. To be able to propose this condition, the snow wolf Ayun has obviously done research and came prepared.
Seeing their reactions, Xiao Yun felt a little weird... Did these two people value the interests of the human race more than he thought?
The people in this world don’t have any consensus on a community with a shared future for mankind. They stab each other in the back, hold each other back, and compete with each other for the worst, just like the people on Earth. These two are said to be a "legendary" duo of walker + illusionist who are close friends regardless of age difference... Could they be the kind of people without borders who have gotten rid of vulgar interests?
It is very likely that Thrall has no relationship with these two, but when they heard that Thrall had raised us for ten years, their attitude changed obviously in an instant!
Xiao Yun likes this kind of moral high ground!
Just as he was thinking this, the illusionist Sean said, "Is this your way of winning people's hearts, Snow Wolf Ayun? Do you intend to use this method to stabilize the human race you hired and achieve your goals?"
Xiao Yun: “…” Damn, I’ve been in the industry for so long, and you’re the first one who treats me like a bad guy!
Xiao Yunqiang smiled and said, "Mr. Sean, do you have some misunderstandings about me..."
"Let me be frank. I am acquainted with Carlisle's other teacher, the Sage Xavier. Compared with Xavier, the guidance given to Carlisle by you, a teacher from the Snow Wolf tribe, is really worrying." Sean interrupted him unceremoniously.
Xiao Yun blinked. Carlisle was not willing to expose his privacy, and Tim and Darren would not make trouble for no reason. The only possibility was... He was horrified: "You eavesdropped on General Crest's room?!"
"Excuse me, General Crest is a noble elf." Sean said expressionlessly.
Xiao Yun: "..." That's just me being filthy...
This guy is so rude!
But the fact that he was willing to say such impolite words directly proved that the other party was indeed moved by his proposal. The reason was the same as that customers who were willing to buy would find faults in the product and lower the price. Xiao Yun was not angry but calmed down: "Mr. Sean, do you think that it was wrong for me to give Carlisle advice and help?"
Sean choked for a moment.
Xiao Yun smiled calmly and said, "It would be a good thing if a small tree could grow in a greenhouse for its entire life, but the fact is that all small trees will be transplanted outdoors after they grow to a certain size, facing the strong winds and rainstorms, hot summers and cold winters outdoors. If a small tree that aspires to grow into a towering tree asks Mr. Sean what the sky outside the greenhouse looks like, will Mr. Sean honestly tell him that the sky outside the greenhouse is not always clear, or will he deceive him and let him indulge in unrealistic and childish fantasies forever?"
Sean was speechless: "..."
"We have a proverb in the Snow Wolf Tribe that all cubs must know how big the snow is in winter in order to grow. By chance, I was chosen as a teacher by Carlisle. I will naturally do my best to tell him how big the snow is in winter."
Sean stared at him for a moment: "Instigating Carlisle to deal with his own father, is this also called 'How big is the snow'?"
Xiao Yun was now certain that his conversation with Tim and Darren yesterday was really eavesdropped by this seemingly expert spellcaster... Damn, were these magic guys using cheats?
Although he was annoyed in his heart, he certainly could not lose on the surface. Xiao Yun smiled frankly, as if the other party had said something ridiculous: "Since Mr. Sean knows something about Carlisle, he should also know the current situation of St. Bridget. I don't think Mr. Sean would think that the relationship between father and son in a family is more important than the future of a country. When the old and foolish father becomes a roadblock to the progress of the country, if Carlisle, as a son, turns a blind eye to this because of the so-called father-son relationship, does not assume the responsibility of the surname Ferdinand, and destroys the great cause of the country to achieve the small cause of family affection, then I dare not and am unwilling to acknowledge such a disciple."
Sean was a little dazed, but Primo couldn't sit still and asked in astonishment: "What are you talking about? What is the situation of Saint Bridge?"
"It has been three years since St. Bridge's fleet has been traveling to and from the Northern Continent, Mr. Primo." Xiao Yun nodded slightly.
Primo is a legendary warrior after all. He would ignore it if it is not pointed out. Xiao Yun has made it so clear, how could he not understand it? He suddenly realized: "So that's how it is. Lamia Chamber of Commerce should take some action——" Then he muttered with dissatisfaction and annoyance, "Damn it, is it going to be chaotic again? Sean, if you say so, he is not wrong. At this time, that old guy Ferdinand is still making a fuss about something!"
Sean glared at his old friend with a mixture of amusement and anger.
"If I remember correctly, Carlisle started advocating Saint Bridge to open up its own maritime trade route only after he met you. Now Saint Bridge has aroused the hostility of the Lamia Chamber of Commerce, which seems to be related to you."
Xiao Yun laughed: "Mr. Sean, don't pigs trapped in cages have the right to struggle and resist? Even rabbits will bite when cornered. Lamia Chamber of Commerce, no, the Northern Federation has been cutting Saint Bridge's flesh for so many years. Is it wrong for Saint Bridge to resist and save itself?"
Sean choked again.
I didn’t feel it when I was “eavesdropping”, but it was really a headache to face this cunning snow wolf cub - what’s the matter with being confronted head-on every time!
But this guy always manages to make his heretical theories sound so reasonable that people cannot refute them!
"But after all, it was you who instigated Carlisle to start the war." Sean said angrily.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Sean, I don't quite agree with your concept of peace. I believe that most intelligent races yearn for peace, and we must also know that peace has never been achieved through concessions and compromises. Even the art of political compromise can only be established on the premise that the enemy can be forced to sit down at the negotiation table with strength." Xiao Yun remained calm and calmly threw out the big killer, "Whether it is between people, between races, or between countries, the principles are the same. If you seek peace through struggle, then peace will exist. If you seek peace through compromise, then peace will die."
Primo couldn't help but slap the table and exclaimed, he especially liked the last part, being able to win the title of "God of War" as a walker, the old man was also quite famous for his stubborn character; after hearing these words, he didn't even mind that Xiao Yun had once flattered the dark elves, he found this little guy particularly pleasing and friendly.
Sean stared at Xiao Yun with a horrified expression for a long time, then suddenly raised his hand and released some magic. A ball of light mist rolled over Xiao Yun's head.
Before Xiao Yun could even express surprise, the ball of light mist that pounced on him dissipated. He felt nothing, as if he was blown away by some breeze.
Xiao Yun: “Eh?”
"The undead detection has no response, so you are indeed not the Lich King?" Sean muttered to himself in disbelief.
Xiao Yun: "What?!"
