Path of Light.

Chapter 937 936. Lu Yun Fortress
The Louyun Fortress in the distance is hidden in a canyon by the sea. Most of the buildings are hanging on the cliffs. Below the canyon is the sea, where dozens of three-masted sailing ships are anchored.

It has to be said that the gray dwarves have a strong talent for construction. They built the Nouwen Fortress on the cliff next to the natural shelter.

A large number of buildings are built close to the cliff, and some buildings even go deep into the cliff.

The buildings stacked on top of each other do not appear crowded.

The port is just below the cliff.

This is a natural shelter. In order to avoid the tide, an arc-shaped dam was built in the distance. When the tide is high, sea water can only spread in from the channel on one side of the dam, preventing huge waves from directly hitting the port.

Roy's team approached the Rowan Fortress, which was like a miniature of Castletown, but much smaller than Castletown.

The three-masted sailing ships of the Northern Army Fleet were anchored in the harbor. These three-masted sailing ships not only had argali ram horns installed on the bows, but the sides of the hulls were also covered with black iron hulls, and the decks were lined with bronze cannons.

Although Roy knew that the artillery fired solid bullets, the scene of so many ships anchored in the port was still very shocking.

In addition to bronze cannons, the ships were also equipped with some crossbows.

What Roy was actually most worried about was that some ships in the Northern Army Fleet were also equipped with magic cannons. After all, the magic cannons on his magic airships also came from the treasures of the gray dwarves. Roy knew the power of those magic cannons, so he was particularly wary of whether the Northern Army Fleet also installed such magic weapons.

Looking at the three-masted sailing ships from a distance, the cannons on the decks were not very clear.

"How about it?"

"It's not very clear from here. It seems that there are no imperial merchant ships docked at this port."

"In that case, the Northern Fleet did not openly support this group of imperial merchants..."

"I want to take a look inside the naval port."

Roy jumped down from the high cliff on the coast and decided to go to the port of Fort Luyun to take a look.

"In my opinion, we might as well sneak into Luyun Port from the sea. That way it would be more covert." Jie Zena suggested to Roy.

"You, Tiffany, and Olive will enter the sea from here, then go around to the Louyun Naval Port to observe the true situation of the Northern Army fleet. The rest of us will go to the Louyun Fortress's trading market to collect some intelligence. Regardless of whether the investigation goes smoothly or not, we will meet here in two days."

Roy leaned against a rock and made a simple action plan in the sand.

Zeena says:

"That's fine too. I will sneak onto the ship and see what the Northern Army's three-masted sailing ship is like!"

Woods asked with some doubt:

"Didn't we intercept a ship at the edge of Kangamor Forest yesterday? These three-masted sailing ships all look similar in structure. Why would we risk going to the harbor?"

"We live on Kui Island, which is like a thorn in the throat of the gray dwarves. If the Northern Army fleet wants to open up a sea route from the Frozen Island to the Garo Island, it will definitely attack Kui Island. So before the Northern Army fleet arrives, we need to investigate the true strength of our opponents." Roy said.

"We have captured nearly 100,000 gray dwarves. I don't think the Northern Fleet will rashly attack Kuei Island. I think they are probably still waiting for the victory report from Commander Machio!"

After saying that, Roy chuckled somewhat complacently and continued walking forward.

……

The wind and sand on the Mensa Plain are quite strong. Even on the coastline, the dry and hot wind blowing from the inland will make your skin extremely rough when it blows on your face...

Moira, Sabrina, and Alice all covered their faces with scarves. They wore the woolen robes that the imperial people were accustomed to wearing, and walked along the coastline towards Fort Rowan two kilometers away.

Not long after walking, Roy felt the ground beneath his feet was shaking slowly.

"Boom... Boom... Boom..."

Huge footsteps came from behind him. Roy turned around and found that a huge long-haired beast appeared behind him. Although its movements seemed slow, its speed was not slow at all.

This hairy beast is about eight or nine meters long and looks like a giant lizard. It has a flat duck beak nearly one meter long in front of its head. Its sturdy body is supported by six thick legs. It is covered with long gray hair and carries a large amount of cargo on its flat back.

There were some orcs sitting on the giant beast, and they also came from the north.

Soon the behemoth surpassed Roy's team.

The orcs sitting on the giant beasts were wearing heavy fur armor, with sharp weapons hanging around their waists. They stared at Roy and the others with sharp eyes, exuding a wild aura.

Roy found that these orcs looked very similar to humans, the only difference was that they all had curved horns on their heads.

Roy had seen in many sacred texts that most demons in hell had horns on their heads.

I didn't expect that among the orcs, there are also tribes with horns on their heads...

Thinking of Sayil bending over with his face almost parallel to the ground, he looked very afraid of these orcs.

Roy raised his head and looked at the orcs. He saw a pair of very lively eyes among them. It should be an orc girl. She had a dagger on her waist and was staring at Roy curiously with her big eyes.

Seeing that Roy noticed her, the orc girl immediately glared at Roy, looking very aggressive.

Only after the orcs had completely left on their duck-billed beasts did Sayil dare to raise his head.

He saw Roy looking at the backs of the orcs, approached Roy and said:

"They are the warriors of the Aries tribe who guard the southern foot of the Black Gold Mountains. They often go to the market in Lu Yun Fortress to purchase weapons and armor pieces. The giant beast is also a Kadoma beast raised by the Aries tribe. It has the ability to cross the desert wasteland."

The Aries tribe has a very high reputation among the orc tribes in the Mensa Plains. Ordinary orcs must give way and salute when they see orcs from the Aries tribe.

These warriors of the Aries tribe rarely venture out of the Kangamore Forest...

At this moment, Roy suddenly remembered that they were guarding the southern foot of the Black Gold Mountains, and in fact, they seemed to be guarding against the gray dwarves of Durrag's Knee at first!
……

The northern fleet of the Gray Dwarves built a military fortress in the northern part of the west coast of the Mensa Plains. This was mainly because the situation in Durrag's Knee was not optimistic. A large number of Gray Dwarves hoped to migrate to the Seven Realm Sea in the south. On the way of migration, a large number of supply stations and safe havens had to be built along the way.

The gray dwarves have set up at least dozens of safe havens and supply stations like this on the sea route of migration south.

In fact, Kui Island is one of the larger supply stations among these.

The Orc Tribe is willing to open two such ports on the west coast of the Mensa Plain to the gray dwarves, hoping that their immigration plan can be implemented smoothly.

Of course, the all-out war between Durlag's Knee and the Dark Legion of the Abyss is still going on. The coalition forces of orcs and dwarves are guarding the Black Gold Mountains south of Durlag's Knee. This black mountain range, which stretches 16,000 kilometers from east to west, completely separates Durlag's Knee from the Mensa Plains.

The Gray Dwarves once tried to build a huge underground kingdom under the Black Gold Mountains. Unfortunately, the underground rock layers of the Black Gold Mountains are all loose and broken. Not only is the soil loose, but the complexity of the ground veins has made the geological prospectors of the Gray Dwarves Kingdom discouraged and never mentioned the idea of ​​building an underground kingdom. The most important reason why the tribal orcs are willing to let the Gray Dwarves build the Luyun Fortress is that they need to buy some black iron weapons and protective gear from the Gray Dwarves Kingdom every year.

The orc tribe lives a relatively primitive lifestyle, and many of their metal utensils were actually brought over from the dwarf kingdom.

The only difference is that the dwarf kingdom is located in the Roland continent, while the Mensa Plains where the orc tribe is located is located in the middle of the eastern continent. Further south of the Mensa Plains is the elven kingdom, and further north of the Mensa Plains is Durrag's Knee, the hometown of the gray dwarves.

By the way, the full meaning of Durrag's Knee is 'living on the knee of the god'.

The vast Twin Seas separated the Seven Dwarf Kingdoms from the Orcish Horde.

If the Dwarf Kingdom wants to purchase the weapons and protective gear needed by the Orc Tribe, all goods will need to cross the Twin Seas. These weapons and protective gear are cheap to make, but the shipping cost is very expensive.

The gray dwarves, who are separated from the orc tribe only by the Black Gold Mountains, have certain advantages over the dwarves in this regard.

Although they lost their hometown, Durrag's Knee, they took out all the wealth in the kingdom's treasury.

In addition, in order to build the two major military fortresses of Aden and Luyun on the west coast of the Mensa Plain, the gray dwarves paid a rent to the Orc Tribe, and also promised the Orc Tribe that they would sell some black iron weapons and protective gear to the orcs.

Sayil said that most orc tribes lack iron tools, but every child in the orc tribe needs to have the first hunting knife in his life when completing the coming-of-age ceremony.

Currently, only a few tribes have blacksmith shops, and these blacksmith shops can only make some crude iron weapons with iron ingots. The quality of these weapons cannot be compared with the black iron weapons made by the gray dwarves...

Sayil introduced everything as he walked, and the team finally arrived in front of Lu Yun Fortress.

……

When he arrived at Fort Rowan, Roy discovered that Fort Rowan was mainly divided into two parts.

One part is the military port of the Gray Dwarf Northern Fleet. No merchant ships will dock here, which means that imperial merchant ships cannot dock in Luyun Port under normal circumstances.

The other part is a group of buildings surrounding the trading market, which is located on the flat cliff top. This market mainly sells some specialty materials from the Mensa Plains. The gray dwarves will also put some black iron tools on the market.

When he got here, Roy discovered one thing: even the orcs could not approach the gray dwarf’s military port, let alone the imperial merchant ships.

This naval port is actually a completely closed military control area.

A relatively free place is the trading market in Luyun Fortress, where orcs from all over the place come. They bring some supplies and specialties from their hometowns here, hoping to exchange them for some black iron wares from the gray dwarves.

The trading market is located on the top of the cliff, and the military port is at the bottom of the cliff...

The gray dwarves' cargo was hoisted up using a cantilevered pulley crane on the clifftop.

The trading market on the top of the cliff is very large, and many of the tents are arranged very loosely, with goods piled in front of the tents.

The orcs who come here to buy black iron weapons are all in groups. They will not take the initiative to talk to other orcs, but they all hope that a gray dwarf will take a fancy to the goods they bring. Only after they sell the materials can they use the money to buy black iron weapons on the gray dwarf stalls.

Orcs have a special preference for axe weapons, mainly because axe weapons have a blade on one side and can be used as a hammer on the other side...

In addition to black iron weapons and armor pieces, these orcs also like a hanging iron pot made by the gray dwarves. Many orcs like to use iron pots to cook mushroom soup.

When the members of Roy's team walked into the trading market, they were immediately noticed by the orcs in the market. They all stared at them with strange eyes, with a hint of hostility and a strong sense of alienation.

Roy had just walked a few steps into the trading market when he met several orcs with lion-like faces.

These tall lion orcs with sharp brass knuckles tied on their arms pressed their shoulders against Roy's shoulders. They had one blue eye and one red eye. They stared at Roy fiercely and said:

"You humans better get out of Fort Nouwen."

Roy didn't understand the orc language, so he could only look back at Sayir.

The half-orc Sayil could only say in a low voice with a pale face: "These lion-tiger orcs are the guardians who maintain the law and order of the market. They are asking us to leave here."

Roy looked at the lion-tiger warrior.

He had originally hoped that Sayil, who was familiar with the place, could help smooth things over and allow them to stroll around the trading market.

Roy saw that the lion-tiger warrior's face became even more severe, and he spoke a long string of orcish:
"Take this dirty orc and get out of here!"

At this time, Sayil's face became even uglier, and sweat broke out on his forehead.

Roy waited for Sayil to translate, but Sayil just mumbled:
“They asked me to go with you…”

"Tell him that we are also doing business in this market, and ask them to be flexible!"

After saying that, Roy lowered his head and pulled out a wooden box wrapped with straw rope from his magic waist bag. The wooden box looked very rough.

"We don't want to do business with the cunning Imperials!" The Liger warrior seemed a little impatient.

Roy didn't listen to what he said at all. He couldn't understand it anyway. He just used the dagger at his waist to cut the straw rope wrapped around the wooden box, then lifted the lid of the wooden box and opened it casually.

After opening the wooden box, the dark and shiny color inside immediately attracted the attention of the surrounding orcs...

A row of thick-backed machetes made of black iron lay in the wooden box. Each machete was coated with a layer of rust-proof grease. The layers of Damascus patterns on the blade were dazzling in the sun, and the smooth ebony handle was extremely comfortable to hold.

Roy picked up a heavy thick-backed machete and asked Sayir:
"What is the currency in circulation in your orc tribe?"

"gold."

Sayer casually took out a gold coin with the portrait of the Statue of Liberty printed on it from his arms, and on the other side of the coin was a lion head with a sword and shield printed on it.

Sayil handed the gold coin to Roy and took the thick-backed machete.

He waved it casually in his hands twice and it felt very good.

Before he could say anything, the orcs around him became agitated.

Some orcs took out gold coins from their pockets and handed them to Roy, while they kept shouting something in orcish...

"Did you play?"

“I’ve had fun…”

(End of this chapter)