Chapter 576 - Suspicion
Chapter 576 - Suspicion
Zhao Hai was given a scare when he turned around. Billy and Juno were looking at him as though they were looking at a monster. Zhao Hai recovered and smiled bitterly and said, “Did the two of you guess it?”
Billy and Juno nodded simultaneously. Zhao Hai forced a smile and then said, “Don’t worry, I’m not afraid of the two of you knowing. As you have guessed, that was my Space Divergent Ability. But this ability is strange as it doesn’t have any attack power. It can only be used like Space equipments, so I didn’t bother to tell anyone about it.”
Billy and Juno nodded, they didn’t hold even a trace of suspicion to Zhao Hai’s words. They only knew that most offensive attacks didn’t belong to the Space element. If Zhao Hai can use his Space to attack, he would certainly be able to contend against 9th rank experts. In that case, his fame should have been larger than what he had right now.
But Billy and Juno knew that even if Zhao Hai cannot use his Space to attack, he still held a huge advantage compared to the others. However, the two didn’t care about any of these. They were now Zhao Hai’s friends, it was much better for them if Zhao Hai was stronger.
Billy laughed and said, “Mister can rest assured. Apart from the two of us, nobody would be hearing about this matter. As for this old guy, you don’t have to worry a lot about him. He’s already this old, so he knows what he should and shouldn’t say. For him, having you as a friend is much better than being your enemy. At the same time, Mister has helped us with cleaning this place up. Now, we can mine this huge lode of iron.”
Zhao Hai bitterly smiled. For the Dwarves, acquiring new mineral loads was the most important thing. This has become a core principle of the entire race.
Juno also smiled bitterly, Billy said that he was old and experienced. Although it was true, age wasn’t really an important factor. In any race, Patriarchs would surely not be simple characters. Otherwise, the current existing races wouldn’t have survived.
The three inspected the valley, and when they did not spot any red stones, they left. All this time, the smile on Billy’s face was unbroken, Zhao Hai had surely given them a huge hand in eliminating this scourge.
The three returned to Billy’s place and after having sat down, Billy turned to Zhao Hai and said, “Mister, get us some good liquors. Today is a very happy day, we need to share a cup of two together.”
Juno laughed and said, “You old drunkard, you really are quite shameless when it comes to drinking. Do you really think that Mister Zhao Hai would provide you liquor just like that? Right, since we arrived at this matter, how big is mister’s Space? Why do I feel like you have never been on full capacity before?”
Zhao Hai forced a smile and said, “You’re quite right, my Space is very big, I really don’t know its full capacity. I only know that I can store a lot of things inside. Moreover, I can also carry out some Teleportations. Aside from that, then there’s nothing else.”
Juno and Billy almost simultaneously asked, “Teleportation? You said that your Space can do Teleportations?”
Zhao Hai nodded and said, “Yes, but it’s quite difficult, I need to do a lot of preparation in advance. Currently, my Teleportations can only send me back to Golden Island, I still can’t go to other places.”
The reason why Zhao Hai revealed this was because he knew that he would be doing a lot of teleportations in the future. Therefore, it’s much better to just reveal it right now.
Even if Zhao Hai’s tone seemed to express the simplicity of his ability, Juno was still quite envious of Zhao Hai’s teleportation. He smiled bitterly and said, “No wonder Mister can have a lot of things while appearing and disappearing every time. For mister to have these abilities, it was no wonder that the Buda Clan can develop to be what it is right now.”
Zhao Hai forced a smile and said, “There’s no other way. The Buda Clan already had a weak foundation. When my Buda Clan was exiled to the Black Wasteland, my family’s housekeeper sold off all of our valuable stuff in exchange for grain, daily necessities, as well as equipment in order to survive in the wasteland. At that time, I was unconscious. When I woke up, I discovered the situation that the Buda Clan was in, which isn’t very good. We planned to live like the Hurricane Family, planting Bamboo Rice and Oil Trees in order to survive.”
Juno and Billy knew about the Buda Clan’s past situation. When they heard Zhao Hai right now, they can imagine the hardships that the Buda Clan had encountered.
Then Zhao Hai sighed and said, “We didn’t know that since the Black Wasteland was right beside the Carrion Swamp, magic beast invasions were quite common. Beasts and undead would run out of the swamp and wreak havoc on the wasteland. Because of that we cannot do even a little bit of farming. Because of that, we have to leave the place.”
Juno and Billy also heard about the Black Wasteland, but they haven’t gone there before. The Dwarves had already left the Black Wasteland for a long time, therefore they don’t have any recent information about that place.
Zhao Hai then continued, “Luckily, we managed to leave the place early. Who would’ve known that the Carrion Swamp’s fog would actually invade the Black Wasteland. We wouldn’t have been able to get out alive.” Then Zhao Hai sighed and then said, “We’re also quite fortunate. Back when we were in the Black Wasteland, I’ve become so depressed that I decided to kill myself. When I went to the Carrion Swamp, I unexpectedly came upon my Magic Staff. The staff not only cured the Water of Nothingness in my body, it also allowed me to use Dark Magic. Even if my Divergent Ability isn’t able to attack, the Dark Magic provided me with offensive power, making me create countless undead. Due to this, I was able to establish my reputation in the continent as being a Dark Mage.”
The other matters were also known by Juno and Billy. They knew that after that, the Buda Clan started chiseling their name into history. Because of this, they came to admire Zhao Hai even more.
Although, Zhao Hai didn’t say where he got his 9th ranks from, they didn’t ask him about it. After all, 9th ranks are the Buda Clan or any other family’s trump cards. Nobody would want to reveal information about them easily. What Zhao Hai told them today was already giving them enough face.
Juno coldly snorted and then said, “The Asku Empire is indeed made up of fools. Before being controlled by the Radiant Church, they were already the second most powerful nation in the continent. But now, they had actually placed at the bottom of the rankings. I must say, they deserved what they got today.”
Billy also coldly snorted, “The Radiant Church gives birth to those mad men. Just because they deem themselves as messengers of God, they wanted to control everything, even the affairs of the Dwarf Race. They didn’t know about Sir Artifact’s influence in our race. They actually sent someone to preach here, they seem to be unafraid of death.”
Zhao Hai forced a smile and said, “Not only the Dwarves, this happened to the Beastmen as well. Last winter, when I was doing business in the Prairie, I met the current Patriarch of the Herculean Bull Tribe, Wales. I met him at that time when he received news that a Prince of their tribe had rebelled and killed the old Patriarch, competing with Wales for the seat. Wales was out when he received the news, so it was too late for him to respond. But who could imagine that the Fighting Bulls would actually take the throne away from him, casting him away after using him. In the end, the Herculean Bulls had no other place to go other than seeking refuge with the Mastiff Tribe.”
Juno and Billy weren’t aware of the matters in the Prairie. They don’t have any way to get information regarding the Beastmen. The grain and fruit oil that Juno produces was mostly given to the Dwarves, therefore they didn’t have any contact with the Beastmen.
Not only them, even if other Humans had businesses in the Prairie, it would be quite difficult for them to hear about the matters of the Herculean Bull Tribe. Because of this, when they heard Zhao Hai talk about the affairs of the Beastmen, the two’s ears immediately straightened out.
Zhao Hai then added, “When Wales got the news, the Fighting Bulls were chasing after him. At that time, I had a lot of grain in my hands, so I accompanied him to the Dog Race’s domain. Using my food, they managed to reinforce their strength inside the Mastiff Tribe’s place. When the winter started, the Herculean Bulls started their counterattack, eradicating the Fighting Bulls in one fell swoop and reclaimed the position of the Royal Tribe of the Cow Race. Because they were grateful to me as well as me having a Beheading Blood Oath with Wales, I managed to become the Herculean Bulls’ Foreign Prince.”
The two never imagined Zhao Hai to be a Foreign Prince of a Beastman Tribe, so they were puzzled before as to how Zhao Hai has a good relationship with the Beastmen. Now that Zhao Hai revealed his identity to them, they now understood Zhao Hai’s standing in the Prairie.
Then Billy looked straight at Zhao Hai and said, “Beheading Blood Oath? Did you really have a Beheading Blood Oath with a Beastman?”. Zhao Hai nodded.
Juno looked at Billy in confusion as he asked, “What is a Beheading Blood Oath? Why does it sound so ruthless?”
Billy forced a smile and said, “A Beheading Blood Oath is the most sacred pledge that Beastmen can settle on. Beastmen generally won’t use it easily. As long as two people have a Beheading Blood Oath with each other, betrayal would cause them to get punished by the Beast God. This pledge is not a joke.”
When Juno heard Billy, he felt relief. Now he was fully convinced of Zhao Hai’s position among the Beastmen.
Zhao Hai looked at their expressions and then nodded, “Right, it is because of this Beheading Blood Oath and the position of Foreign Prince that I was able to get relationships with the Beastmen. In the end, i managed to get contact with the Beast King and have him agree to having a milk wine partnership with me.”
Juno sighed and then said, “You say it like it’s easy, but it’s actually very difficult. It seems like you don’t look down on the Beastmen when you interact with them, this might contribute to how easily they managed to trust you. Most Merchants would want to get more benefits from their transactions with the Beastmen. And the Beastmen weren’t fools either, so how can they not notice this aspect? In this case, the Beastmen would surely distance themselves from those Merchants.”
Billy sighed as well, “Actually, our situation is fairly similar with the Beastmen. The things that we produce are in demand with the Humans. So every Human Merchant that comes here would want to profit as much as possible, squeezing every mid of benefit that they can get from us. This explains why our Dwarf Race didn’t have a lot of friends among Humans. Except this old fellow, the only other person is you, Mister Zhao Hai.”
Juno coldly snorted and then said, “Actually, the cause of this matter is the Radiant Church. From what I can remember, the Humans didn’t think differently about other races. There were even some Dwarves that would open up blacksmithing shops in major cities in the continent. And their businesses were very good. At the same time, Beastmen would prosper in Human lands, hiring themselves as mercenaries as well as forming a party with Humans in order to hunt Magic Beasts.”
Zhao Hai was startled at Juno’s words, he didn’t know about any of these. Billy then added, “Exactly. I don’t know when it started, but the Radiant Church had started to preach that the other races were lower forms of beings and were not worthy to live along the Human race. Their priests didn’t treat other races whenever they get wounded, claiming that it would be blasphemous to the Radiant God. Because of these actions, the other Humans slowly started to think that the other races were truly of lower status, slowly driving them away from their settlements. The Beastmen suddenly weren’t able to become mercenaries, while the Dwarves were banned from opening up shop.”
When Zhao Hai heard Juno and Billy, he couldn’t help but stare blankly, then his face changed as he thought about Iron Hammer’s words. In the Divine Realm, the Human gods started to wage war with the Gods of the other races. In the war, the Humans wanted to send people down in order to eradicate the other races. And if the Radiant Church really did what Juno and Billy said, then wouldn’t that be like the moves by the Human Gods? If that’s the case, then thing had become more complicated.
But Zhao Hai didn’t express his suspicion. He had just linked all of these in his head and found some connections between them. If he really guessed correctly, then the Radiant Church would be a huge problem. Their background might be very difficult to deal with.