The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 222 Tiered Trading
"Have you brought all the goods?"

The giant octopus beastman, whose upper body remained humanoid and whose lower body still had eight tentacles, removed a ring-shaped ornament from one of its legs and handed it to the triangular bull beastman opposite it.

The accessory was probably a bracelet, inlaid with several small pink pearls, which suited his pinkish-purple skin quite well.

After retracting its tentacles, the giant octopus beastman sighed, "The quantity of goods in this transaction is limited, and I have done my best."

The triangular bull-man inspected the goods in the spatial container, frowned, and said, "There's far too much missing. Everything was fine every year before, so why is it so difficult this year?"

The giant orc looked pale and plopped down on a nearby rock.

"The situation in the sea has changed. When King Xesia was still alive, although the eldest prince was not favored by him, he was still a prince and represented our ancient giant octopus clan, so the living environment of our clan was actually not bad."

"But King Xesia died suddenly, and after the second princess seized the throne, King Haibora began to vigorously support his maternal clan, namely the Baman Snake Clan."

"King Haibola could not tolerate the eldest prince, so she found a pretext to send him to the underwater ice prison, and then banished the eldest prince from the North Sea."

"The status of our ancient giant octopus tribe in the sea has plummeted. More than 70% of the fishing grounds and territories we used to be allocated have been taken away by the Baman snake tribe. It's really not easy to accumulate even this little bit of cargo."

The triangular bull-man couldn't help but scratch the back of his head: "Alright, but I still need you to think of another way. Without the Whale Candle, after the Eternal Night comes, I wonder how many people in the tribe will be unable to bear the long darkness and loneliness and choose to walk towards death."

"The goods from the transaction are still in the same place. I will return the items to you in three days at the same time and place."

The ancient giant orc nodded and casually said, "Alright."

Ling Chengen tilted his head slightly, looking at Su Weihua with a puzzled expression. Afraid of disturbing the two people below, he connected with Su Weihua's mental domain using his mental power and asked, "Aren't spatial containers only openable by their owners? Why can they hand over the containers they have to others?"

"And what is a whale candle...?" A candle?

Candles made with whale fat?

Is it so luxurious?

Su Weihua also shook her head blankly, indicating that she didn't know either.

Seeing this, Ling Chengen had no choice but to give up trying to find out more. He planned to find a local who was more familiar with Haishi to inquire about the situation.

Ling Chengen and Su Weihua couldn't understand much of what the two people below were talking about.

But the two of them grasped a few important pieces of information.

For example, why are there basically only snake-type beastmen and merman-type people at the sea creature stalls today?

Other sea creatures are basically nowhere to be seen today.

Only a few of the ancient giant octopus beastmen managed to establish connections with the sixth prince of the merman clan, which is why they were able to come ashore and have their own stalls today.

Genelle, the sixth prince of the Merfolk, is the younger brother of King Haibola.

Therefore, King Hypola doted on the sixth prince.

But the other members of the sea tribe were not so lucky.

Many sea creatures take the annual sea market very seriously because it is their only chance to obtain supplies from the shore.

Seafolk's combat effectiveness is severely reduced on land, so once they come ashore, they are easily captured or injured if they encounter orcs who are hostile to them.

Therefore, the sea market is the only normal trading channel for the sea creatures to obtain goods from land.

However, this passage is now being affected by the changes in the sea tribes' royal power.

Many orcs had been preparing to participate in the market for goods for half a year, but a month ago, King Hypera suddenly promulgated a tiered trading system.

The royal family and the Baman snake clan, being close relatives of King Hypola, have the right to trade ashore without having to hand over 30% of their goods.

Other sea creatures wanted to come ashore and trade at the sea market stalls.

Thirty percent of the goods must be handed over to the royal family first.

On the surface, it means that the sea city is the result of the royal family's hard work and the connection they painstakingly established with the land-based orc tribes. In order to ensure the safety of the sea creatures that have come ashore, the royal family has increased the number of guards stationed there for protection.

Therefore, this 30% of the goods is actually a disguised form of protection money.

Initially, many sea creatures and orcs were unwilling to pay.

However, beneath the surface of the waters near Amber Bay, there are numerous royal guards, making it impossible for sea creatures attempting to trade on land without permission to break through their defenses.

They disembark from other places and travel by land to the sea city.

In fact, the risk of being discovered is still very high, because there are many guards patrolling the sea market. Once they discover unfamiliar sea creatures, they will check the sea market transaction certificate issued by the royal family.

If it is discovered that they have not done so, they will face extremely severe punishment.

Moreover, for most sea creatures with weak combat capabilities, going ashore from other places and traveling by land to reach the sea market is inherently very dangerous.

Some marine animals cannot stay out of water for extended periods, otherwise they will suffer from dehydration.

This is also a very big problem.

Because of the tiered trading system implemented by King Haibola, sea creatures are not allowed to freely go ashore to set up stalls and trade.

Among them, the Merfolk and the Baman Serpent Clan possess Level 1 trading privileges.

They are free to go ashore and set up stalls.

Other sea creatures that surrendered 30% of their goods have secondary trading privileges.

You can go ashore on the eleventh day after the market opens and enter the sea market for trading.

There is another batch of goods that only require 20% to be handed over, but they can only be brought ashore on the 21st day after the opening of the sea market.

There was widespread discontent within the Sea Clan regarding this tiered trading system.

However, compared to his philandering ways, King Xexia was relatively kind to the people of the sea.

King Hypola's rule was always characterized by oppression.

Those sea creatures who dared to challenge the authority of King Hypola and Queen Megi generally met with bad ends.

At best, they would be imprisoned in an ice cellar at the bottom of the sea; at worst, they would be banished from the North Sea or even subjected to blood torture.

The sea-folk dared not rebel against King Hypola's rule, so most of them eventually chose to hand over 30% of their goods in exchange for a certificate to trade on land.

After all, although the market is open for thirty days, it still has peak and off-peak periods.

The first fifteen days are the peak trading period in the market, and the last fifteen days are the off-season.

During peak season, there is a large flow of people, many transactions, and a large volume of goods sold.

During the off-season, there will be far fewer transactions. This is because many land-based hunting teams will rush back home after completing their transactions within the first fifteen days and will not waste any more time at the sea market.

The earlier you return, the less likely you are to encounter the cold air from the far north, and the easier it is to hunt prey compared to other teams, with more time to spare.

……

Ling Chengen and Su Weihua squatted on the cliff top, and after listening to most of the conversation between the two, they slowly walked back with their hands in their pockets.

On their way back, the two focused their attention on the seafood stalls.

The situation was indeed as the ancient giant orc had described.

The Merfolk and the Baman Serpent Orcs are split in half.

Occasionally, you can see two or three giant octopus orcs. Their stalls are small and located in a rather remote area. They seem to be very obsequious and cautious towards the merfolk and basman snakes around them.

Ling Chengen found the situation rather ridiculous.

The formation of the mirage has absolutely nothing to do with the royal family of the North Sea.

Although she had never been here before, many of the orcs around her knew that the sea market was gradually formed through long-term free trade between orcs from both the sea and land.

The royal family of the North Sea initially opposed it, but the sea people were curious and longed for things that didn't exist in the sea, so there were always bold orcs who would secretly go and exchange supplies with the people on land.

Over time, the mirage began to take shape.

Because the bans were repeatedly ignored, a relatively enlightened member of the royal family in the North Sea decided that it was better to guide than to suppress, and finally lifted the ban on sea creatures trading on land.

This led to the increasingly prosperous and larger-scale September Sea Market.

King Hypola has now sent some guards to garrison Amber Bay, ostensibly to protect his people, but in reality, it's just to collect protection money.

Actually, Ling Chengen wasn't that opposed to receiving the goods.

This is actually a form of disguised taxation.

But there is no precedent for this, whether at sea or on land.

The tax collection policy in Haibor is unfair, and it did not give the people below time to adapt, nor did it provide a reasonable explanation, which is why there is so much discontent now.

Moreover, while collecting taxes is one thing, the tax revenue should be used to do something practical.

Instead, she categorized taxpayers into different classes, and even brazenly reduced the profits available to other sea creatures in order to highlight the exalted status of the royal family and the Baman snake clan and allow these two clans to earn more.

Furthermore, let's leave aside the royal family.

I've heard that the sea creatures of the North Sea generally have a strong sense of awe towards the merfolk, and deeply respect the powerful merfolk.

However, the Baman Snake Clan is a sinful race exiled from the deep sea. They have not even been in the North Sea for thirty years. Just because King Xesia married Megi as his queen, and Megi's daughter, Hypola, became the new Sea King, the Baman Snake Clan began to dominate other sea races.

This is extremely unfair to other sea creatures.

Ling Chengen felt that this was just the beginning.

If the sea beastmen don't have a strong will to resist, they will probably face even more intense exploitation from Hypola and Megi.

The nature of the city will change completely afterward.

It is no longer a market brimming with goods where orcs can trade freely.

In the future, it will probably be difficult to see a scene of a hundred flowers blooming.

Ling Chengen passed by a Baman snake tribe beastman's stall, glanced at the half-meter-long green cod that was already dead, and casually threw it on a pile of rubble. The white scales were scraped off by the stones and scattered everywhere, and the sea breeze blowing in his face was tainted with the fishy smell of the dead fish.

Behind the exceptionally simple fish stall was a male Baman serpent beastman who was turning his head to examine the stalls of the land beastmen. He had shoulder-length gray hair, half-up and half-down, and his face and neck were covered with gray-black hard scales. He had a human body and a serpent body, and was wrapped in a tattered animal skin blanket that was not very warm.

Perhaps Ling Chengen's gaze lingered for too long, for the Baman snake beastman turned his head back, stared at her for a moment, and greeted her with a smile, "Fresh cod, just caught this morning, want some?"

Ling Chengen glanced at the cod's eyes and said indifferently, "Do you really think we land-dwelling orcs are stupid? Although we don't eat sea fish often, we can at least tell whether the fish is fresh or not."

"You cod, you've been dead for at least half a day."

"How could it have been fished out this morning?"

From the beginning of the mirage until now, there haven't been three beast times yet.

Moreover, the temperature wasn't high that day. If the fish had only been dehydrated three hours ago, its eyes wouldn't have become so cloudy and it wouldn't have smelled so bad.

The smile on the face of the Baman serpent orc vanished instantly, a fierce glint appearing in his eyes. He lashed his tail heavily on the ground, indicating that he was about to unleash his fury.

Ling Chengen showed no fear and before he could even show anything, Su Weihua's eyes also revealed a fierce light. The chilling aura unique to the Snow Wolf Beastman spread out instantly, forming a confrontation with the male Baman Snake Clan member.

Before the two could even test each other, three tall orcs dressed in animal skin coats strode up to them, standing between Su Weihua and the male Nabaman snake clan member, and said sternly, "This is the Haishi trading area, fighting is prohibited! What do you two want?"

Ling Chengen grabbed the expressionless Su Weihua, pulled him behind him, and said with a smile, "We didn't mean to do anything. We just glanced at this stall a couple of times and revealed that the fish had been dead for a long time. That angered him, and now he wants to cause us trouble."

The elephant-like beastman overseeing the city gave Ling Chengen a deep look, then glanced down at the stinking cod at his feet, his brows immediately furrowing.

But then he seemed to remember something, and in the end, he didn't say anything to the Baman serpent orc, but simply pointed in a direction.

"Alright, if you don't like the fish at this stall, then go look somewhere else. Don't cause trouble here."

After Ling Chengen and Su Weihua walked away, the three elephant-type beastmen ignored the gloomy-faced sea creatures beside them, turned around and walked to another place to continue their law enforcement work.

Su Weihua was pulled away by Ling Chengen. He looked down at his wrist, then stared at the back of Ling Chengen's head and asked, "It was that male of the Baman snake clan who provoked us first, so we are in the right. Actually, there's no need to worry about those elephant beastmen; they won't attack us."

Ling Chengen shook his head: "Forget it, it's not worth it."

Although taking action would definitely lead to victory.

But these kinds of fights are pointless, and even if you win, you're not happy.

They might even be driven out of the city, or even to the far north.

Those elephant-type orcs were well aware that the Baman snake-type orcs' fish weren't fresh, but they didn't want them to cause trouble, so they directly pointed out a place where they could trade for fresh sea fish.

Su Weihua looked blank after hearing what she said and asked, "When did they point us out?"

Ling Chengen glanced back and said with a smile, "The person just raised their finger, and you and that stupid snake were staring at each other, how could you have noticed?"

They are now following the direction the elephant-beastman pointed out.

Sure enough, they soon saw an even bigger fish stall.

However, this fish stall wasn't set up by any sea creature orcs.

The stall owner looked like a mountain beastman.