Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 328 The Gray Market Firm's Investment and Su Li's Advancement

Faced with Su Li's promise, Hela's eyes lit up at first, but then she curled her lips into a mocking smile: "What's the point of freedom? I'm already a hundred and eight thousand miles away from my hometown, and I can never go back. If I return to the Endless Sea, I'll just be sold to another place by the fleet."

Su Li glanced at Meryl Ramsay, making Meryl look somewhat embarrassed; she couldn't guarantee anything. After all, she wouldn't go that far out to sea.

Everyone knew that Hela was telling the truth about this desperate and dark world. Outside the realm of civilized order, chaos and despair were the norm, and once she became a slave, it would be almost impossible for her to regain her former status. Leaving the protection of her territory and the continent of the Empire, she would undoubtedly be sold back into slavery by other cruel and ruthless crew members.

The ups and downs of a person's fate are highly related to whether or not they have a powerful force behind them.

Su Li felt that saying anything more at this point would be pointless, and there was no need to let herself get down. After all, Hela's tragic past wasn't her fault, and besides, there were countless tragic things in this world. Wasn't Hilder tragic? Wasn't Phyllis tragic?
The key is to think more about how to solve the problem. Su Li thinks that, given Hela's current situation, giving her a home and a sense of belonging in the Black Forest Territory is a more effective solution.

If she had someone to care about her and a warm home in Hessen, her longing for the distant tiger-man territory would be somewhat alleviated.

So Su Li wasn't in a hurry. Anyway, the harvest season was just around the corner, and there was no way to plant spices on a large scale at this time.

The Ramsay family arrived in Hessen Territory primarily for these two missions, and after completing them, Meryl Ramsay went on a trip to enjoy the scenery.

The scenery of Blackwood is beautiful, especially in springtime when the trees along the roadside are in full bloom. Combined with the idyllic pastoral style of the territory, Blackwood resembles a perfect scene of the Empire's peaceful years. Without the corruption of chaos or the appearance of monsters, the people of the territory are enjoying a rare period of good times.

This is also an important reason why the entire Black Forest Territory supports Su Li so much. Victory is always the best way to unite people's hearts. After driving out a large number of evils, who wouldn't like this peaceful farming life?

Another reason the Ramsey family didn't leave was that they were waiting for the Gray Market Chamber of Commerce. Their trip to the Black Forest Territory was anything but simple.

They arrived with vast wealth and intended to actively participate in the commercial trade of the Black Forest Territory. Their primary focus was Senator Smith's [Star Iron Armor] deal, a deal rife with exorbitant profits. By simply mixing a small amount of Star Silver Iron into the superior-grade armor, they could sell it to the Gray Market Guild at near-superior-grade equipment prices.

The two parties had agreed that a set of armor would cost 100 gold crowns, and Su Li would only receive 80 gold crowns, with the rest being the profits of the Gray Market Trading Company.

Chairman Roger was overjoyed with the deal, after all, it meant they had obtained a set of excellent armor without doing anything!
He had also seen it in the Black Forest Territory during this time; ordinary fine-grade armor only cost 20 to 23 gold crowns.

Of course, these armors weren't forged in the Blacksin Armory, but rather produced by the Imperial Dwarves residing in Blacksin Town. There are already over 1100 Dwarves residing in Blacksin Town. This doesn't include the garrison troops of the Redbeard and Grayrock clans! They are all prisoners of war and slaves captured by Su Li in various wars, as well as Dwarves who migrated from Gray Mountain Province. In other words, the population directly under Su Li's rule. If we add the garrison troops sent to Blacksin Territory by the other two Dwarven clans, the number of Dwarves in Blacksin Territory will exceed 3000!

The dwarves are rightfully called the empire's second-largest citizens. Of the more than 10,000 people in the entire Hessian Territory, dwarves make up one-third! Therefore, the provincial council and the provincial government have given dwarves a great deal of power.

With so many dwarves, Su Li's Black Forest Armory delivered 300 sets of pseudo-Star Iron Armor to President Roger in one go, earning 24000 gold crowns.

This profit margin made Su Li, Oliver, and Hilde feel uneasy. There was no way around it; the cost of these 300 sets of superior-grade equipment wouldn't exceed 2000 gold crowns, but the selling price was a whopping 24000 gold crowns. The profit margin had exceeded 1000%!

Even if this is an arms deal, it's still an extremely lucrative one.

It can only be said that Senator Smith was extremely ruthless. He managed to pocket over 50000 gold crowns without paying any price. The corruption within the empire is truly shocking! It was a profound shock to a country bumpkin like Su Li.

It can be said that anyone who gets involved in the corruption of the empire can directly feast on the fat and become a fat rat.

However, Su Li was also in the right in this matter. The caravan from the Gray Market Merchant Guild had come to Black Forest Territory and was willing to buy the equipment for 80 gold crowns, so Su Li had no reason not to sell it. As for what they did with the equipment, that was not Su Li's fault at all.

Even so, all of this forced Su Li to further strengthen his military preparedness. After all, if the city lord of Maleburg discovered this corrupt secret and came to his door in an unreasonable manner, Su Li had to find a way to withstand his wrath.

The enhancement of weaponry was remarkably effective. While the territory focused on crafting equipment, genuine Star Iron Armor was being produced in a steady stream. The territory's Vengeful Sun Half-Griffin Knights, Black Forest Guard Knights, and high-ranking squire units were all constantly being re-equipped. In particular, the high-ranking squire units gained over a dozen sets of Star Iron Armor in just one month.

Judging from the results, crafting Fine-grade equipment increases the probability of obtaining Superior-grade equipment slightly more often than other quality equipment. However, the artisans in the territory can't determine whether this is due to the larger scale and higher skill level of Fine-grade equipment crafting, or simply because Superior-grade equipment is of lower quality than Perfect-grade, making it more likely to appear.

Regardless, with the development of this spring, the number of elite-level equipment in the territory is growing rapidly.

Besides military equipment, the Gray Market Trading Company has also made a lot of investments in the territory. Their most important projects, in addition to the smuggling estate and bank building mentioned earlier, are the slave exchange!
They spent 2500 gold crowns to build a slave trading post and slave-catching camp at the site of Flashspear City. The trading model was similar to that of Malleyburg. The slave guild inside the city was a large showroom where slaves were sold to merchants, knights, and plantation owners in the city. The slave-catching camp outside the city was an important slave transportation base, transporting large numbers of slaves from all directions while also buying large numbers of slaves from Blacksene Territory to resell.

The reason they chose Flashspear City as their base, rather than Blackwood Town, was not because they favored Flashspear City, but because they were considering the future war situation.

Undoubtedly, in the expansion and cleanup of the Black Forest Territory, the position of Flash Spear City will be more important. Even now, Orstein's military conquest of the West has already made the Gray Market Trading Company very rich.

As the harvest season approached, and more than half a month had passed, Marshal Erstein's westward expedition had yielded even greater results. He had captured two more fortresses, four strongholds, as many as seven villages, and 23 manors.

This wave of territorial expansion alone increased the population of the Blacksem Territory by more than 1000 people. Even the smallest villages and outposts had 30 to 50 households. Farms like Limburg Farm and Knight's Manor had at least 20 to 30 people.

Su Li was very lenient with these people. Following the glorious war values ​​of the Church of the Goddess of the Sun, he did not plunder or destroy these villages. In this respect, the teachings of the Goddess of the Sun must be commended; the glorious values ​​require a glorious conqueror to bring civilization and stability to the occupied territories, not chaos and death. Therefore, even when forced to resort to force, generals should still minimize the suffering and death brought by war. Harming civilians and looting occupied towns are strictly prohibited. Enemies who surrender voluntarily should be treated with courtesy—if they also adhere to the glorious values.

Of course, this also demonstrates the flexibility of the Church of the Sun Goddess. If the other party also adheres to the values ​​of Glory, they will treat them with courtesy. Conversely, this means they will only follow this principle in civil wars within the same church. If the other party is not a follower of the Church of the Sun Goddess, or is even a hostile evil race, then the Sun Knights should not be surprised if they are ruthless and merciless.

The result was that the several pioneering territories destroyed in this battle provided Su Li with a large number of prisoners, including more than 30 knights and more than 100 armed squires. In addition, there were dozens of priests from the Church of Yurik, the Hendricks sect, and even the Church of Redmar.

Su Li had virtually no use for these people, and he had no plans to expand his army at the moment, so he sold them to slave traders in his territory.

Without a doubt, the Gray Market Merchant Guild was the first large-scale foreign guild to invest in the slave trade within their territory. Because they were based at the site of Flashspear City's construction, they were among the first to obtain substantial slave trading rights from the army.

On another front, the gray market merchants also returned to their old business of buying and selling large quantities of witchcraft items that had long since disappeared from public view.

As the harvest season approaches and the summer solstice celebrations arrive, a large number of knights and adventurers who ventured into the Black Pine Forest and the Grey Mountains have returned. They explored numerous ancient ruins, evil wizard towers, and monster lairs in the forest, bringing back countless strange and wonderful magical artifacts that need to be appraised by an appraiser.

Ordinary people dare not use these items before the appraiser has completed the appraisal, otherwise no one knows what terrible consequences they might cause.

This made the Gray Market Trading Company incredibly wealthy. They acquired hundreds, even thousands, of magical artifacts from adventurers, like finding hidden gems among antiques. At this scale, even with the smallest probability, they were certain to have acquired a batch of truly valuable treasures. After all, appraisers' fees were extremely high, and many adventurers simply didn't dare gamble. If the appraisal result wasn't even worth the fee, they would suffer a huge loss.

How much did they profit? Let's put it this way: based solely on rumors Su Li heard, they acquired one rare-grade item, three perfect-grade items, and over twenty elite-grade items. All of this combined amounts to over 40000 gold crowns!

The value of even a single rare item is difficult to measure in monetary terms. Their immense profits are not only due to the abundance of the Black Pine Forest, but also because these wandering knights and adventurers are far more professional than any army when it comes to exploration and adventure.

Even with their help, the handsome Gilles, a rare character, successfully completed the adventure and obtained a rare-grade [Sea Gold Amulet]. This ancient elven heirloom radiates protective energy, and its power becomes even stronger when facing evil sorcerers.

After wearing this rare amulet, Gilles' movement speed, defense, and spell resistance will all increase significantly.

At the same time, it has an incredibly powerful characteristic called "Radiant Light". When Gilles wears this amulet, whenever he uses his bloodline ability, it will activate this Radiant Light. Under the intense light, the defense of all friendly forces within at least 200 meters will be greatly enhanced, becoming as hard as steel.

Under this characteristic, basically the stronger Gilles is, the tougher the army he commands will be, like burning steel, absolutely no problem.

However, Su Li was no longer concerned about how strong Gilles was. Under the bright sunlight, through his sweat-blurred vision, Su Li only focused on one thing: how could this knight in front of him be so strong?
At this moment, Su Li was breathing heavily, his lungs hissing like a broken bellows, but he still dared not be careless in the slightest. He gripped his warhammer tightly with both hands and looked at the knight in front of him who brought him unparalleled pressure.

The opponent's name is Klaus Benjamin, nicknamed Frostthroat, a high-ranking elite ice knight. In battle, he can enchant his warhammer with his icy bloodline and unleash a chilling breath. In one battle, he once froze an entire charge of goblin wolf riders with his breath. He currently serves as a knight commander in the high-ranking squire unit and is one of the top eight selected by the high-ranking squire unit for the Arena Festival. Su Li's battle with him will determine who will be promoted and thus represent the high-ranking squire unit in the grand arena festival competition.

To be honest, Su Li had hardly heard of him before the battle. Su Li could recognize every Black Forest Guard Knight and call out their nicknames, battle records, and family members, but he wasn't that familiar with the high-ranking squires.

To put it another way, Su Li always thought that Klaus Benjamin's combat ability might be relatively average because he wasn't selected as a member of the Black Forest Guard Knights.

But it wasn't until they engaged in combat that he was shocked to discover that this high-ranking elite knight's combat power was simply unbelievably strong!

What Hilde said to him was clearly a white lie!

Only through real battles and carnage could he understand that a knight forged in blood and fire could not be simulated in a training ground.

Su Li was indeed able to discern the opponent's next move under the special training of Hilde and Freya. However, combat is not a game of back-and-forth, but a contest of life-or-death situations, of improvisation, and of fearless courage.

This is something that Freya and Hilde and his simulations could not replicate; this desperate and ferocious fighting style is the true fighting style between knights.

Both Su Li and Klaus use warhammers, and even if someone is wearing perfect-grade armor, being hit by such a warhammer once will instantly cause severe damage.

The warhammer has almost become the symbol of this Glorious Games, because when weapons are unsharpened and training weapons are used, the warhammer's power is undoubtedly the greatest.

Especially after using their bloodline abilities, the blue and red warhammers, imbued with powerful psionic energy, smashed into their opponents with a deafening roar.

Su Li's chest felt cold from being hit several times, and he almost thought he had died in battle. His heart was completely cold.

Of course, Klaus was also having a hard time. Although Su Li made some mistakes at the beginning of the battle, he gradually adapted to the rhythm and showed unparalleled resilience and combat power. In particular, every time his bloodline erupted, it really gave Klaus a terrifying feeling of facing the Red Dragon Tyrant.

Klaus felt his legs trembling. He knew it wasn't his own fear, but rather a manifestation of his opponent's powerful bloodline ability; the intense flames made his veins feel like they were being burned. He stared intently at his opponent: "Which knight in the chapter are you? There are many fire-attribute knights in the squire units, but few are as powerful as you. Are you Arsonist Remy Maxwell? Or Thug Emmanuel Richard?"

Su Li's face was hidden under the double concealment of his helmet and mask, so the other party couldn't see his face, but could hear his grinning laughter: "Don't try to distract me. The same move won't work twice on a paladin. You want to distract me again so you can launch a sneak attack?"

Klaus immediately sensed something was wrong when he heard the laughter: "Your stamina recovers way too fast, doesn't it?"

That's right! Su Li's high-intensity knight training every day has pushed his physical strength and endurance to the limit.

With a loud shout, Su Li charged forward, unleashing the martial art "Mountain Crash!" This was a common martial art from the Church of the Goddess of the Blazing Sun. It did not involve divine grace or bloodline, but with the support of a strong physique, it could deal considerable damage through a burst of speed.

As Su Li unleashed a burst of blazing red flames, his right shoulder and elbow slammed into Klaus's chest. The impact instantly created a ring of air, sending grass clippings flying several meters away. Klaus lost his footing and fell backward.

But this was also his way of responding to the situation. As a knight with unparalleled combat experience, he knew very well that if he were to withstand the advanced martial art of the knight's charge, Mountain Crash, when he was already nearly exhausted, it would only hasten his collapse.

So he used the opponent's momentum against them, leaning back as he unleashed a powerful sweeping kick with his right leg, aiming to knock down the fire-attribute knight who had been charging recklessly. He knew his opponent's tactics all too well; after charging, the knight would inevitably use his bloodline ability to control him. Activating bloodline abilities takes time, and he was exploiting that time difference.

Upon seeing this move, Su Li finally revealed a smile of victory in his grasp. After charging forward, he decisively turned around, swung the heavy hammer with one arm, spun 360 degrees with all his might, and then slammed it down!

If this blow lands, this elite knight will never be able to get up again.

As expected, with the resounding clang of the warhammer, Klaus's eyes widened instantly. A sweeping kick is powerful, but it also has a large opening. When the heavy hammer crashed down from the sky, his seemingly invincible strike became a fatal flaw that sent him to his doom! His opponent wasn't playing by the rules!

With a thunderous crash, flames scattered and the ground cracked as the powerful elite knight was slammed into the hard ground of the training ground.

The surrounding medical knights of the Church of Sharya immediately rushed forward, and several of them hurriedly lifted him out of the crack. They then fed him a bottle of Sharya's Hand potion, which only cost 50 silver coins, with a cost price of just over ten silver coins. The territory was generous enough to distribute it to all knights. (Of course, the territory wasn't doing charity; all treatments had to be paid for by the participants themselves. Those who were unconscious were considered to have accepted treatment and would pay upon waking. The price was fair and transparent: 5 gold crowns per potion! All knights who received treatment during the competition paid this price.)

As the Hand of Sharya potion was administered to Klaus, the powerful elite knight struggled to his feet.

This amazed Su Li. These knights were incredibly tough; they couldn't even be killed by such severe injuries. No wonder they could fight on par with trolls four or five meters tall, and even manage to kill those trolls with regeneration abilities. After donning his perfect-grade vibranium rune armor, he truly felt like a tin can, far surpassing the trolls in hardness and possessing almost the same vitality.

After Su Li left the training ground and took off his armor, Hilde greeted him, offering a clean towel to wipe the sweat from his face. She smiled and encouraged him, "Lord, your strength has truly improved by leaps and bounds! Klaus is widely recognized as one of the top three strongest knights among the high-ranking squires. Many even placed bets that he could win the championship representing the high-ranking squires, but you defeated him in the elimination rounds! I feel you already have the strength to contend for the championship!"

Su Li no longer believes the encouragement Hilder gives him. At least during this competition, this woman proved the saying: the more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to deceive you!
She always set encouraging goals for Su Li, as if victory and the championship were just a little bit away. As long as he worked hard and gave it his all, he could reach that ceiling.

Su Li had fought her way to this point precisely because she believed her words of encouragement. But the battles to come would certainly not be as easy as she made them out to be, and if Su Li truly believed that, she would face many hardships.

So after wiping away his sweat, he asked, "What's the itinerary for today?"

"Today's scheduled activities are all finished. But while you were fighting just now, some good news came: Ingrid requests to see you."

Ingrid? A look of surprise flashed in Su Li's eyes as he looked at Hilde: "Could it be that the legendary amulet has finally been completed?"

(End of this chapter)