Mist Lord

Li Mingyu was, of course, furious.

His anger stemmed not from any particular affection he had for Li Aoyu. On the contrary, he had always looked down on his good-for-nothing younger brother, Li Aoyu, since they were children.

Li Mingyu was furious because he had missed a golden opportunity.

Even if Li Aoyu is utterly useless, he's still a brother by blood, someone you can trust completely, and he just happened to arrive on the Misty Continent. With Li Mingyu's full support, even if Li Aoyu were a complete idiot, he could still compete for this year's Rookie of the Year award to acquire more resources.

When the two territories cooperate, they will surely exert a strength greater than the sum of its parts, thus helping him to reach the level 7 territory and gain greater authority.

As a result, this grand plan was nipped in the bud by Xia Yuan before it could even be drawn up.

How can we not make Li Mingyu angry?

Don't be fooled by Li Mingyu's calm demeanor as he sits on the second floor, seemingly unaffected. That's just because he's a man of deep cunning; in reality, he's itching to skin Xia Yuan alive.

That's why, upon receiving the news, they spared no effort in using all their connections to create a massive trap.

Unfortunately, there has been no harvest yet.

Fortunately, Li Mingyu was extremely patient. If one day wasn't enough, he would try two days; if two days weren't enough, he would try three days; even if it took a week, a month, or longer, he would eventually catch Xia Yuan, the rat hiding in the sewer.

He will show Xia Yuan what true cruelty is.

"My lord, Zhao Wu is downstairs requesting an audience."

A guard came to report.

Because of the Li Aoyu incident, Zhao Wu was urgently summoned by Lei Hao, the faction leader, who gave him a severe dressing-down and suspended the faction's resource support for his territory this year. He truly suffered a double loss.

When Zhao Wu came to see him, his intentions were obvious; he was definitely there to ask for something in return.

"Bring him up!"

A hint of disgust flashed in Li Mingyu's eyes. He looked down on Zhao Wu, this kind of idiot, from the bottom of his heart.

So-called loyalty that isn't absolute is simply absolute disloyalty. Since Zhao Wu already made a move yesterday, trying to curry favor with him, why didn't he dare detain Xia Yuan on the spot and hand him over to him for punishment?

This has put us in such a passive position.

Ultimately, Zhao Wu was afraid of breaking the rules of Yunyang City and incurring punishment from the alliance leader, so he was unwilling to take the risk. Such a hesitant and indecisive person, wanting everything, is absolutely untrustworthy.

Of course, people like Li Mingyu would not let personal likes or dislikes affect their judgment.

Zhao Wu did volunteer to serve us, and this matter has become such a big deal. If we don't give him some incentives, wouldn't we discourage others? Who would be willing to serve him sincerely in the future?

I still have to see him.

.........

Cloud and Mist Pavilion.

Xia Yuan packed up and sold all the spoils he had seized yesterday, including iron ore, tattered armor, rusted weapons, and gray mist rat pelts, earning a total of 18 silver coins and 235 copper coins.

In the Misty Continent, one silver coin can be exchanged for 500 copper coins, making it the mainstream currency in the market.

On the contrary, due to the extreme scarcity of gold mines and the high value of gold, one gold coin could be exchanged for 100 silver coins, and it was basically not circulated in the market except for large-scale transactions.

Selling these spoils would be a bit of a loss, to be honest.

These things were of little use to him, but Cloud Mist Pavilion could turn them into treasures. Fur was tanned into leather, used to make tents, backpacks, boots, and other leather goods. Weapons and equipment were repaired if possible, and melted down and recast if they couldn't.

With one transaction in and one out, you're guaranteed to make a fortune.

But there was nothing they could do; Mingguang Village was currently extremely poor. They couldn't even forge their own weapons and armor, let alone have a blacksmith shop capable of making arrows and performing basic weapon and armor repairs.

Tanning leather is also a technical job, which Xia Yuan cannot do.

Losing a little money now is fine, as long as I can cash out quickly.

With the money in hand, Xia Yuan didn't rush to buy supplies. Instead, he went to the treasure chest blind box area. Here, they sold the lowest-grade wooden treasure chests, all priced at 15 silver coins.

"Would you like to try your luck with blind boxes, sir? Don't underestimate these wooden treasure chests; you might find all sorts of amazing things inside. Why not give it a shot? Cloud Mist Pavilion will take back anything you get."

Seeing that Xia Yuan was a new face, the female shop assistant in charge of receiving him knew that he was a newcomer who had just arrived yesterday, so she was extra enthusiastic and wanted to take advantage of him as much as possible.

Veteran lords know that most of the time, wooden treasure chests only yield junk, which is practically worthless.

Only a fool would play that!

"Can I choose for myself?"

Xia Yuan pretended not to understand the shop assistant's little scheme. They were all old foxes, why were they playing these ghost stories?

"OK!"

Xia Yuan didn't stand on ceremony, examining each treasure chest one by one, taking the opportunity to check for hidden information. Many of the chests were covered with a thick layer of dust, indicating that no one had ever visited them.

"I want this one, and this one."

Sure enough, most of these treasure chests contained junk, including rusty daggers, spider widow's bibs, goblin's foot-washing cloths, and all sorts of oddities.

It's rare to find two that I like.

After paying, I put the treasure chest directly into my storage space without opening it on the spot.

Otherwise, wouldn't we be exposed?

"Tsk tsk, there really are idiots who buy this..."

An old lord who happened to be passing by shook his head but did not stop it.

Newcomers who are always looking for shortcuts and trying to make a big profit with a small investment will never wake up until they suffer a few losses. It's impossible to persuade such a damned person with kind words.

Xia Yuan simply laughed it off and turned to go to the slave trading area.

Iron cages held piles of emaciated, slovenly, and listless slaves—humans, goblins, orcs, elves, dwarves, trolls—all races were present.

These slaves were mostly prisoners of war.

As a Mist Lord, in addition to dealing with the threat from Mist Monsters, you are also forced to participate in Civilization Trials every now and then, fighting against other civilizations' territories.

With each war fought, a large number of slaves inevitably emerged.

These slaves can be further divided into serfs who were originally displaced people and slaves who were originally soldiers.

Serfs were relatively cheap, costing an average of 2-5 silver coins each. Of course, skilled artisan slaves, especially blacksmiths, would be more expensive.

Soldier slaves were even more expensive.

Even the cheapest Tier 3 soldier slave like Satir costs 300 silver coins.

Besides being expensive, slave soldiers also pose a significant risk of going out of control. New lords wishing to purchase them should ideally sign a master-slave contract using a contract scroll; otherwise, the consequences could be dire.

Contract scrolls are even rarer than slaves themselves; they're not so easy to get.

It was all just wishful thinking.

After looking around, Xia Yuan finally settled on a family of four.

The husband, Wang Er, is a carpenter, and his wife, Wang Shi, is good at washing clothes and cooking. Although their son and daughter are currently a burden, they are also the best candidates to cultivate loyalty, and they might come in handy in the future.

The four slaves only cost a total of 6 silver coins.

With the little money left, he bought some arrows, food, and carpentry tools. Apart from the cost of taking the teleportation array later, he didn't have a single copper coin left.

.........

Plaza Restaurant.

"Greetings, Deacon!"

Following the guards up to the second floor, Zhao Wu, who had been swaggering in front of the newlyweds yesterday, was now as docile as a lamb, his face full of respect and flattery.

"I've heard about Elder Lei Hao's reprimand of you. This matter started because of me, and I will take full responsibility for any losses that may follow. Don't worry, I won't let you suffer any losses."

When they actually met, Li Mingyu changed into a mask, making everyone feel like a gentle breeze.

"Thank you, Deacon!"

Zhao Wu was overjoyed; at least his efforts hadn't been in vain, or he would have been devastated. "This is all the information I've gathered about Xia Yuan. Please take a look."

Having received a promise, one must prove its value.

The information is roughly divided into two parts. One part is Xia Yuan's personal resume, including his family background, educational background, personal preferences, personality traits, etc., all of which are recorded in detail.

The other part mainly describes the ins and outs of the feud between Xia Yuan and Li Aoyu.

"That's very thoughtful."

After reviewing the information, Li Mingyu couldn't help but want to curse again.

That idiot Li Aoyu deserved to die. It's one thing to covet someone's company, but why use such crude and simplistic methods, practically driving them to their doom?

Those pigs with brains full of dung have no idea what win-win cooperation or behind-the-scenes manipulation means.

They have truly disgraced the family.

"Is the person who gave you the information trustworthy?"

Li Mingyu instinctively remained cautious and skeptical, and did not fully believe it.

"It should be credible. This person is named Chen Wei. On the surface, he is the most loyal to Xia Yuan, never abandoning him, but in reality, he has long been bought off by the Second Young Master and is just waiting to complete the final harvest."

"Then let's bring him to meet us."

"He's downstairs, I'll call him up right now."

Zhao Wu is quite reliable. He had obviously heard about Li Mingyu's suspicious nature and would never feel at ease without personally verifying things.

He didn't intend to keep Chen Wei under his control; he was eager to get rid of this hot potato.

.........

As Xia Yuan led Wang Er's family away from Yunyang City via the teleportation array, he happened to see Chen Wei following Zhao Wu up to the second floor of the restaurant.

The fork in the road of fate was thus marked.