Chapter 248 – Healing Is Costly
Zhao Hai didn’t drink a lot today. He was friends with Wales, but this ‘friend’ couldn’t be compared to Spiel. Zhao Hai could get along with Spiel completely because of their personalities, so they truly became friends. With Wales, it was more or less mutual manipulation.
Zhao Hai and others returned to the space that night and also brought Greene and others into the space as well. Then, Zhao Hai spoke to them about wanting to make battle rations.
Greene and Kun Zheng trained outdoors when they were young, and they were also mercenaries for a period of time. The 2 of them knew well about the life of mercenaries, so they had a greater say about the matter of battle rations.
When Zhao Hai finished, Greened nodded, “This is a good idea. Some business owners on the continent treat mercenaries with importance, but I’ve never heard about it when it comes to battle rations. Many mercenaries whine that the flatbread is too hard to eat, but they have no other choice, since mercenaries have to prepare foods that can be kept for a long time. To be honest, I ate that kind of flatbread back in the day, and it was really bad.”
Kun Zheng nodded, “This can count as a low end business as well. Actually, such a low end business can bring in profit easier. I think we can turn blue-eyed rabbit meat into battle rations, so the price will be cheaper. But as for just the factory, it’s too much of a waste. If we have the time, we can purchase a poultry processing factory. Whether long-haired boars, blue-eyed rabbits or argali, we will have a place to ‘digest’ them later.”
Laura nodded, “Purchasing the factory isn’t hard, and neither is the production. The problem is the selling route. We can’t do it if we want to sell it in Fansile Duchy. Besides being too small, our names are too big over there. We have to change a venue this time.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “We’re going to Rosen Empire anyway, so we’ll leave it to you when it comes to business matters. With a ‘heavenly beauty’ like you, I don’t need to worry about things being unsellable, hehe.”
Laura rolled her eyes at Zhao Hai and then said, “There are many benefits when we form ties with Wales this time, but there are also lots of troubles as well, so we have to be careful. I think we should make a foothold in Beast God City first before we think about something else.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “Let’s rest for today. We’ve been in a hurry since yesterday, so first we plant the roots in Beast God City, and then execute our plan.”
Laura and others nodded. The plan Zhao Hai spoke of was actually the collection of special magic beasts and plants. It’s just they still knew too little about Beastmen Prairie right now, so Zhao Hai wasn’t in a hurry to collect those things.
Greene asked Zhao Hai suddenly, “Young master, what do you think about this Wales character? Is he trustworthy?”
Zhao Hai thought about it and replied, “He’s a rare clever being among beastmen. I think he’s more like a human. I’m scared about trusting him completely, but I think it’s ok to cooperate with him.”
Greened nodded, “From what you said about what Wales did, it can be said that he’s an ambitious and clever person. It’s dangerous to cooperate with such a person, but it’s good that we’re only cooperating. Whatever the case, Herculean Bull Tribe is also one of Beastmen Prairie’s powerful race tribe. Cooperating with him will bring us a lot of benefits.”
Kun Zheng spoke to Zhao Hai, “You were right in wanting their friendship flag instead of being the sole grain dealer. If we really went for the latter, other beastmen tribes would think that we’re trying to control the Herculean Bull Tribe using grains. We won’t get any benefit on Beastmen Prairie that way. There are some contradictions among beastmen, but treating humans with hostility is something common. If we do anything that makes the beastmen feel endangered, all of the beastmen will boycott us and then the Herculean Bull Tribe will deny the agreement. Instead of letting that happen, it would be more practical to get the friendship flag.”
To be honest, Zhao Hai really didn’t think that much, but he had to admit that things would probably unfold that way. Beastmen themselves had strong caution towards humans. If Zhao Hai really became the Herculean Bull Tribe’s sole grain dealer, he and others might be spited by all of the every beastman, considering the history of beastmen being cheated. It seemed that his choice at the time was correct.
After discussing about setting up shop in Beast God City again, Zhao Hai and others went to rest. But before he did so, he turned the Jackal Tribe’s people, which he stored, into undead creatures. The leader among them turned into a high level undead. He wanted to know who it was exactly that let the Jackal Tribe attack Wales.
And the result was within Zhao Hai’s expectations. It was indeed Gasol. Zhao Hai was sure that it must be Gasol after knowing about what went on between Wales and Gasol. It’s just he didn’t know about the reasons which Wales spoke of, since he wasn’t a Herculean Bull Tribe’s member.
These Jackal Tribe’s members didn’t come from a single tribe, but formed by many of the jackal tribes. Before they took action, Gasol gave their tribes lots of argali. That was why they came to deal with Wales.
It could be said that jackals were like the mercenaries of the beastmen. Zhao Hai knew after questioning, that it wasn’t the first time Gasol made them do such a thing. In fact, he would seek out the jackals every year, and let them help him deal with beastmen hostile to him. Jackals played the roles of mercenaries and assassins on Beastmen Prairie.
But all this wasn’t what Zhao Hai was concerned about. He didn’t get too many things out of the jackal, so he threw him back into Storage, and let out the 2 spirit jackals that were still alive and injured.
Their injuries weren’t light. One’s front paw was broken and was connected by only some skin, while the other’s spine was snapped. Both of them were at their last throes, and they weren’t going to make it.
Zhao Hai looked at these 2 spirit jackals without knowing what to do about them. Could they still be alive after being taken to the ranch? Would it admit them?
After a wry smile, Zhao Hai decided to test things out. With a flash of his figure, he brought the 2 heavily injured spirit jackals to the ranch.
Immediately after that, the notification voice said,
Zhao Hai couldn’t help but cursing the system for being too black-hearted. This was practically forcing him to treat the spirit jackal’s injuries. Without treatment, there would be no rank, and they wouldn’t be able to be raised. What a black-hearted establishment. It’s 10000 gold coins! How many more must Zhao Hai sell in order to get the amount back?
But it might be a good thing after thinking about it more. When encountering injured magic beasts later on, he could bring them into the space and let it treat their injuries. That way, he wouldn’t attract attention. Gold coins could be earned after using them anyway. Compared to the coins, levelling up the system was more important.
Zhao Hai immediately chose to treat the spirit jackals’ injuries. It was good that it was simply 10000 gold coins. Otherwise, he would be even more heartbroken.
With a flash of white light, the 2 spirit jackals became alive and well in front of Zhao Hai. There were no traces of injury at all.
The notification voice also came out at this time,
Zhao Hai nodded as he was quite satisfied with the results, but Zhao Hai didn’t raise spirit jackals immediately. He couldn’t use them now, so he decided to wait and see if they could be used later. If there was no need to, perhaps he wouldn’t raise them in his lifetime.
After sorting out the matters in the ranch, Zhao Hai returned to his room in order to sleep well for a night. He drank too much yesterday and he drank again today, so his headache was beyond painful. He also had to sort out the deal with spirit jackals earlier, so now that it’s all done, he felt like he was about to fall apart.
After an uneventful night, Zhao Hai and others came out from the space the next morning. Wales sent people to invite Zhao Hai for breakfast, but they didn’t go as they had breakfast in the space. They then readied the wagons in order to leave.
Wales was indeed smarter than other beastmen, but as someone who grew up in people’s hands, he still had some bad noble habits, and one of which was the knack for keeping up appearances. If it weren’t for this, he wouldn’t have brought so many tents as well as useless things.
By the time Zhao Hai was completely ready, Wales only just finished his meal and was slowly tidying up his things. Zhao Hai couldn’t hold back a wry smile when he looked at that. With Wales’ speed, it might be noon before the things could be packed up. Zhao Hai really didn’t know how many hours out of today could he use to hasten the trip.
But there’s no helping it. He promised Wales to travel together, so he could only wait. Fortunately, the herculean bull escorts weren’t slow in packing things up. They had finished around 9 o’clock in the morning, so they would finally get on the road.
What Wales and others used to pull wagons were a type of bull shaped magic beast. These bull shaped magic beasts were the same as their mounts. They were all ground based bulls. Their forward movement speed weren’t much slower than horses, yet they were more powerful. This could be seen from their wagons.
The wagons Wales and others used were very large. A single one of them was as large as 4 of Zhao Hai’s wagons. This impressed him very much. He looked at the ground bulls and imagined when he would get one for himself.
Wales wasn’t inside a wagon. Instead, he was riding on his own mount. Although Wales was a prince, beastmen rode on mounts since little. For the beastmen, riding on mounts was more comfortable than being inside wagons.