Catching Monsters

Chapter 393 At your own risk
Donghai Province was the easternmost province of the Zhou Kingdom. It was rich in fish and shrimp. As the saying goes, "Those who live near the mountains live off the mountains, and those who live near the water live off the water."

Many cities in Donghai Province are built along the coast.

Jiang Yun and Linglong traveled from the capital to this place, and even with their fast horses, it still took them a full ten days.

Haiyan City is the largest city in Donghai City. According to Linglong, it was originally just a poor fishing village, but it is rich in sea salt.

Many years ago, it gradually prospered as many inland merchants came to buy sea salt.

Although salt was later designated as a state monopoly by the Zhou state, and ordinary people could no longer engage in the sea salt business, Haiyan City had already taken shape and continued to prosper thanks to its fishing industry.

Jiang Yun and Linglong rode their horses and passed through the city gate smoothly. As soon as they entered the city, they could smell a strong fishy smell.

The pedestrians on the street were not as refined as the people in the capital. Instead, many men were shirtless, doing hard labor, and most of the women were not like the demure ladies of the capital.

Instead, they were all thick-waisted and strong.

Linglong, riding beside Jiang Yun, said, "I visited Haiyan City years ago. The women here are not like those in our capital, who rarely leave their homes."

"On the contrary, many girls also go out to sea to fish from a young age."

Jiang Yun nodded slightly. The Zhou Kingdom is a vast and diverse land, and it is normal for customs and traditions to vary slightly from place to place.

Then Jiang Yun asked curiously, "Are there ships here that go to the Demon Kingdom?"

On the way here, Jiang Yun had heard Linglong mention that every three days, a ship would depart from Haiyan City for the Demon Kingdom.

What Jiang Yun didn't expect was that Haiyan City had a lot of dealings with the Demon Kingdom, and there were even quite a few merchants in Haiyan City who were actually demons.

In Haiyan City, it is not unusual for the locals to occasionally see monsters.

Jiang Yun frowned slightly and asked in a deep voice, "It seems that the people of Haiyan City aren't that afraid of monsters?"

"Do you think the Demon Kingdom is a desolate land where people eat raw meat and wear animal skins every day?" Linglong explained calmly, "The Demon Kingdom is quite active in the East Sea Province."

"Those monsters, once they have cultivated a human form, like to imitate the appearance of humans, wear human clothes, eat human food, and live like humans."

"Some of these items, although the humans in the Demon Kingdom can produce them, are of far inferior quality to those in our Zhou Kingdom, such as silk and tea."

Hearing this, Jiang Yun's eyes were opened quite a bit. He realized that he had a stereotype about the Demon Kingdom.

"Let's go buy boat tickets."

In Haiyan City, people are not prohibited from riding horses, and the two soon arrived at a fairly large dock in Donghai Province.

At this moment, a sizable sailboat was docked at the pier. At the same time, Jiang Yun also saw many people, men and women, bound by ropes and treated as slaves, being escorted onto the sailboat.

"Are these slaves sold to the Demon Kingdom?" Jiang Yun dismounted and asked Linglong in a low voice.

Linglong nodded slightly and said slowly, "There are quite a few humans in the Demon Kingdom, but they are mostly slaves."

"In earlier years, the monsters from the Demon Kingdom liked to come to Donghai Province to kidnap people and take them back."

"But later these monsters discovered that there were sizable gold and silver mines on the island of the demon kingdom."

"Then they let humans mine it, and then used the gold and silver mined from the gold and silver mines to buy humans..."

Jiang Yun frowned slightly, looking at the people being treated as slaves. They all had their heads down, and the oldest one looked to be no more than twenty-four or twenty-five years old.

"Buying so many people in broad daylight? Doesn't the government care?" Jiang Yun asked in a deep voice.

There are probably more than fifty people boarding this ship.

Over the years, countless slaves have been sold to the demon kingdom.

"We can't manage it all." Linglong said calmly, her hands behind her back, "The demon race has no use for that gold and silver, so they're very generous with their offers."

“These days, life is tough for ordinary people, and it’s quite normal for them to sell their children, especially when both parties have signed and sealed the agreement.”

"These demons are quite powerful, how can the government possibly manage them?"

"Moreover, the officials in the government may have secretly received a lot of benefits from the demon race as well." Linglong shook her head with a hint of helplessness on her face.

Seeing this, Jiang Yun stopped asking questions and, together with Linglong, went to the huge sailboat.

A monster emanating a faint demonic aura stood in front of the sailboat.

The monster had not yet fully transformed into human form, still retaining a tiger's tail and a steel knife at its waist. As Jiang Yun and Linglong approached, it raised its hand, signaling the two not to proceed.

"What do you do?"

Linglong smiled slightly, casually took out two jet-black demon cores, and tossed them over: "Buy two tickets." In the demon kingdom, ordinary gold and silver treasures are useless.

Hard currency consists of two things: one is human beings.

Humans can both work and serve as slaves.

At the very least, it can absorb the essence of humans for its own cultivation.

Secondly, there are the inner cores of other monsters, which are valuable items.

Ordinary demons, without any demon cultivation methods, can only absorb and devour the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. This most primitive method of cultivation is naturally not very fast.

However, absorbing the inner cores of other monsters is a shortcut.

Of course, the four major demon races—dragon, fox, tiger, and snake—also learned from humans and introduced pill tickets after discussing among themselves.

With Dan Tickets, one can exchange them for Demon Cores at designated locations, which can then be used as currency in the Demon Kingdom.

However, many demons still don't like this method; they prefer to hold a real demon core in their hands, which gives them peace of mind.

Looking at the two demon cores in his hand, the tiger demon's face immediately lit up with a smile. He looked at Jiang Yun and Linglong and said respectfully, "Please wait a moment, this is our tiger clan's ship. If you want to board, you need the approval of a great figure in our tiger clan."

After saying that, the tiger demon quickly turned around and boarded the boat.

The sailboat is carved with exquisite patterns, including lifelike mythical creatures such as dragons, phoenixes, and qilin.

Of course, a huge tiger demon was carved on the bow of the ship.

The sailboat has three decks. The lower deck is where human slaves are transported, and the environment there is dark and gloomy.

The middle and upper levels are basically filled with monster merchants traveling between the East Sea Province and the Demon Kingdom.

On this middle floor, many places were also filled with purchased human supplies.

At this moment, in a room at the very top of the sailboat, a tiger demon disguised as a human was sitting by the window, holding a newspaper he had bought from Haiyan City, and carefully reading and learning the characters.

He was dressed in a human scholar's robe, and his demeanor exuded the air of a human scholar.

Bang bang bang.

There was a knock at the door. He turned around and said, "Come in."

"Lord Wei, two humans have arrived, claiming they wish to travel to our demon kingdom and have even paid for their boat tickets." The tiger demon who came to report respectfully handed over two demon cores.

Wei Li reached out and took the two demon cores, saying calmly, "Two demon cores of an eighth-grade minor demon?"

"What do those two look like? What are they doing in the Demon Kingdom? Are they doing business? Or something else?" Wei Li asked.

The tiger demon respectfully said, "These two people, one male and one female, seem to have an extraordinary air about them, so they shouldn't be from Haiyan City."

"Here's the demon core for you. Take those two people on board." Wei Li, his eyes filled with curiosity, casually tossed the demon core to the tiger demon.

Wei Li was extremely interested in human culture and lifestyle, and he would always accompany his Tiger Clan's ships whenever they came to the Zhou Kingdom.

I just wanted to visit Haiyan City.

However, Wei Li had always wanted to travel deeper into the Zhou Kingdom, but his father and elders disagreed.

My father and elders told me that not all humans are as kind to monsters as those in Haiyan City.

In the inland areas of Zhou, many people hate monsters to the core, and will annihilate them as soon as they are discovered.

Wei Li also expressed his regret about this.

……

Jiang Yun and Linglong didn't have to wait long before the tiger demon arrived, smiling and saying, "Gentlemen, our Lord Wei Li has given his approval to allow you to board the ship."

The tiger demon led the two towards the ship. He was in a good mood after receiving two demon cores and reminded them, "You are not slaves boarding the ship after all. There are some things I need to tell you in advance to avoid causing trouble on the ship."

"This ship belongs to the Tiger Clan, and there are many monsters guarding it."

"Even if you two have great abilities, don't act recklessly."

"In addition, I will arrange for you to stay in ordinary cabins. If any monsters cause you trouble, you will bear the consequences yourself."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yun paused and asked, "Does the statement 'If a monster causes us trouble, we will bear the consequences' apply to the two of us, or to the monster that causes us trouble?"

(End of this chapter)