Gourd of Douluo

Chapter 669 Return to the Far North

As December came, the temperature in the northern part of the Tiandou Empire became increasingly cold.

After the cold current blowing from the Far North was blocked by the Siberian Mountains, a large amount of cold air masses accumulated here. The cold air was forced to rise, and the water vapor condensed and released heat, causing cooling and snowfall to sweep across the north.

Tiandou City was hit by a snowstorm that occurs once every 10 years.

The heavy snow buried everything in white overnight, and all that could be seen was white.

At the entrance of the town, many people gathered together to keep warm around the two bonfires that would never go out on both sides of the gate.

Refugees, illegal immigrants, and slave traders gathered here in all kinds of ways.

Every year, many people cross the Siberian Mountains and sneak into the Tiandou Empire. A large portion of the refugees recruited by Zhufeng Territory come from here.

Without proof of identity, they dared not enter the town. If they were caught by the guards, they would be thrown into jail. If they were lucky, they could be sent back, but if they were unlucky, they would be used as scapegoats for crimes or sold to slave traders by corrupt officials.

At the beginning, the territory was extremely poor and had nothing, so no matter if they were refugees or illegal immigrants, as long as they were healthy and willing to endure hardships, they would be accepted.

Now everything is on the right track. There is no shortage of people doing hard labor, so there is naturally no need to recruit everyone as before. Only those with special skills can be hired as an exception.

There was a sudden commotion at the entrance of the town, and a loud shout was heard: "The road is blocked by heavy snow, and 50 people are urgently needed to shovel the snow. Three meals are provided, and the wages are 5 copper soul coins per day. Those who are healthy and have no diseases will be given priority."

The shouting made the noisy town entrance quiet slightly. After a moment, everyone looked at each other for a while, and then rushed towards the middle-aged man wearing the Wind Chaser badge.

There were at least three or four hundred people stranded in front of the gate, and the fifty spots were almost scrambled for.

Warehouse management center.

The warehouse that was reduced to a charred ruin in the raging fire now stands again.

The warehouse door was open, and the workers were moving the piles of goods onto the carriages in an orderly manner. These were tea bricks, spices, medicinal herbs, and medicinal wines produced in the territory.

Although Wang Xiaofeng killed some corrupt nobles, it was far from causing serious damage to the old aristocracy that controlled the resources.

When one Edio falls, another Hateful Dio and Sad Dio will appear. Once they have completed their internal integration, a new mountain will be established.

The nobles, gentry and local rich people control the upper, middle and lower classes of class interests. If outsiders want to touch their interests, they will be counterattacked by these three together.

Soul masters possess unimaginable power that can change the world, and the particularity of this profession determines that resources will always be in the hands of a very small number of people.

Wang Xiaofeng will also be one of the very few people in the future who has the right to speak and even make the rules, but he doesn't want to play the game of big fish eat small fish for the few resources he has. It's just like transferring money from one hand to the other, which is meaningless.

He doesn't have that much energy to waste on these people.

The internal relations of the Tiandou Empire are complicated and involve conflicts of interest. Even the name of the Seven Treasures Glazed Sect is not useful. It is better to take this opportunity to temporarily abandon the highly saturated Tiandou market, open up foreign markets mainly in the Far North, and expand new customers.

The local residents of the Far North are poor, but the landlords, tribal chiefs, and warlords who rule the land are rich.

Coincidentally, Wang Xiaofeng has a reliable local friend, Victor, a medicinal herb merchant. By cooperating with him, he can enter the local market faster.

Oscar and his good brother Hot both work for Victor. In addition to discussing cooperation, they also visit Oscar on the way and persuade him to return to Shrek.

This guy shouted about love and struggle and ran out of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect alone to venture out. Although he was cunning, he had a set of hidden weapons equipped by his mistress, and his martial spirit was all-powerful and could fight, fly, and provide assistance.

But after all, you are an auxiliary soul master. When disaster strikes, you will not have the time to slowly summon your martial soul and release your soul skills.

It would be great if he could go back to Shrek and develop himself honestly. It wouldn't be shameful to be the Sword God of Shilipo.

Wang Xiaofeng was daydreaming as he held a small alchemy furnace wrapped in flames in his hands. Nitia, who was standing beside him, was holding a short meeting with the heads of various departments in the territory.

"This heavy snow came suddenly, but we made preparations early, so the output of medicinal materials and agricultural and sideline products only slightly decreased compared with the same period. But other places will definitely be affected, and market demand will increase. When demand exceeds supply, there will always be people who want to gain more profits for themselves, and dealers also have this intention. But we have to consider pricing carefully. There is no need to destroy Zhufengling's reputation among ordinary people for short-term profits. We don't lack that little money."

"Okay, I'll communicate with the dealers and try to keep the price stable." Gref lowered his head and took notes, "Do you want to tell the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect?"

"They themselves are not involved in these areas, so what is there to say?" Nitia said expressionlessly: "I don't care about the cooperation we have agreed on before, but all future contracts related to it must have my signature, otherwise the contract will be invalid."

Nitia grew up in Xingluo and was not familiar with the Tiandou Empire. Before she came, she was very confused as to why the powerful clans missed the Haotian Sect even after it closed its gates, and why the Qibao Liuli Sect had no allies after it replaced the Haotian Sect as the leader of the top three sects.

The cooperation between the Wind-Chasing Chamber of Commerce and them this time is a typical case. The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect's style of doing things is a typical businessman's thinking, focusing on interests over feelings. When there is money to be made, everyone is a friend, and when there is trouble, they are the first to run away, and the main idea is not to be involved in cause and effect.

When it came to grabbing the market, he rushed ahead of anyone else and wanted to open Zhufeng pharmacies all over the country overnight. However, he immediately withdrew his investment after facing backlash from interest groups from all classes.

From this incident, it can be seen that the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect is not a good partner. At the beginning, Wang Xiaofeng was short of money, and the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect offered the highest price because of Ning Rongrong's relationship, so the two sides reached a cooperation.

But now Zhufengling is no longer short of money and is self-sufficient. It does not need Wang Xiaofeng to pay for it, so the proportion of money in the transaction has decreased, and it is more of an exchange of resources.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect controls 47% of the country's mineral resources and 56% of the jewelry market share, which has no overlap with the industrial fields involved by Zhufengling. Therefore, apart from the exclusive contract for medicines, other cooperation will gradually cease in the future.

After talking about the business side of things, Nitia started to focus on the disaster situation.

"What is the extent of the damage to the house?"

After Nitia explained everything in detail, she announced the end of the meeting.

Wang Xiaofeng gave a thumbs up: "Thank you for your hard work."

"I'm glad you know." Nitia stretched, "I'm so tired."

She had been up since before six, had a quick sandwich for breakfast, and had been working ever since.

Wang Xiaofeng came behind Nitia and pressed her neck.

Nitia breathed a sigh of relief: "If you stop doing research one day, you can become a masseur and become the best in the industry."

Wang Xiaofeng smiled and didn't respond. If he was a scholar motivated by interest, then Nitia was a natural manager.

He could only set goals for the next stage of the territory from a very high perspective, but he had no idea what to do specifically and how to carry out the work, so he simply pushed it all to Gref.

However, Nitia was able to easily sort out the territory's key issues and work plans for the year after only two days of work, sort them out one by one, and then make relevant arrangements around them, trying to coordinate all the time nodes and reduce losses.

To understand how difficult it is to coordinate this, just look at the fact that Gref's hairline has begun to move back at a young age.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, all the goods were finally loaded onto the truck.

"Let's go!"

Following the sound of gongs and drums, the gilded bells on the necks of mules and horses trembled, the horseshoes splashed sparks on the bluestone slabs, and the entire caravan instantly turned into a flowing river of stars, pouring out of the town in a mighty torrent.

People stood by the roadside and stared, curiously looking at the team of hundreds of people. The caravan was so long that it looked like a dragon about to take off into the sky.

In the endless snow, a water-element mimicry creature shaped like a snowplow cleared the way ahead. A large group of people walked quietly. The guards and mercenaries in charge of security in the team looked vigilantly at the snow on the roadside, their eyes constantly scanning the dark places in the surrounding trees, their hands tightly grasping the weapons at their waists, ready to deal with any emergencies at any time.

The Black Wolf Mercenary Group is an old mercenary group that has been in the industry for many years. Although this is the first time they are cooperating with the Wind Chasing Chamber of Commerce, they have been able to maintain a basic tacit understanding. When their eyes meet, they can also recognize some signals representing danger and safety from each other's eyes.

Once we left the territory of Wind-Chasing Territory, everything was relatively peaceful.

However, not long after the team left the territory, a small-scale soul beast attack suddenly occurred.

Three ten-year-old silver-back snakes hung on the tree trunk, disguised as icicles and lying motionless. Taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the people below, they landed on the three guards in the blink of an eye. With a lightning-fast thrust, their fangs pierced into the skin and easily injected the cold poison into the body. Immediately, the three sturdy men fell to the ground like a puddle of mud.

Soon after they went out, they were attacked and lost three people. The mercenaries who claimed to be experienced were immediately angry and attacked in anger. In a short while, the three ten-year-old soul beasts were killed one by one.

Three white soul rings were suspended above the corpse. The mercenaries were all experienced and skillfully peeled off the most valuable teeth and heart.

The water element that was leading the way in front walked over silently, stretched out three tentacles from its body and "sucked" at the wounds of the three people. As the silvery-white poisonous blood was sucked out, half of the tentacle suddenly turned into ice and fell to the ground. The three guards who were poisoned by the cold woke up slowly under the surprised gaze of the mercenaries.

The other people in the caravan were not surprised. When the leader saw that their lord had expelled the cold poison from their bodies, he asked people to take the wounded to the car to rest, and then the caravan continued on its journey.

After the silverback snake attack, the security team, having suffered a loss, became cautious.

However, due to the coming of winter, food became scarce, and the soul beasts that originally only moved within the forest began to move around on the official roads that humans often walked on. It was obviously impossible to completely avoid the soul beasts at this time of year.

The caravan had traveled less than a kilometer when it was attacked by a pack of ice wolves. Fortunately, the mercenaries were numerous and powerful, and at the cost of two mercenaries being slightly injured, they managed to repel the wolves' attack.

After this incident, the rest of the road became much easier to walk on. It seemed that the evil spirit emanating from the caravan was sensed and no soul beasts dared to provoke them anymore.

At noon, the heavy snow was getting heavier, so the caravan found an inn nearby to rest for a while.

The hall of the inn was spacious, but there were not hundreds of stools to accommodate so many people, so everyone simply found a spacious corner and sat on the ground.

"Alas, the snow is getting heavier. I was attacked by wild beasts right after I went out, and then there was a natural disaster. Why do I feel like this mission won't make much money?"

"It's always like this in this line of work. There are times when things go smoothly. But this time it was really unlucky. And what on earth was that thing that cleared the way? What a weird spirit skill."

People become noisy when there are too many people around, and since the weather is cold everyone likes to have a drink to warm themselves up, several mercenaries started to complain unconsciously, until they were glared at by their leader several times, and then they shut up.

He took a few sips of wine with some dissatisfaction, then turned around and saw that the guards and shop assistants were all glaring at him, as if they would pull out weapons and chop him into pieces in the next second. He sobered up immediately and cold sweat broke out on his back.

This subtle atmosphere lasted until a voice came from outside: "Robbers are coming!"

The mercenary group's experts instantly summoned their martial spirits and rushed out. The vehicles and cargo were parked on the side of the road, with only a dozen people guarding the cargo.

The robbers came quickly. About thirty of them were riding horses and charging along the road, targeting the goods parked by the caravan on the roadside. This group of bandits had probably been eyeing them for a long time.

The leading bandit had three white, yellow and purple soul rings floating on his body. He was actually a Soul Master. The others all had one or two soul rings floating on their bodies. It was obvious that they were a bandit group composed of Soul Masters.

Such a powerful, large and highly mobile bandit group was so strong that even the local city lord could not do anything about it. They escaped every time we organized several anti-bandit operations.

After losing some good fighters in those encirclement and suppression operations, the bandits became smarter and would send people to observe for a long time before taking action to make sure it was not a trap.

But if you walk by the river often, you will get your feet wet.

As soon as the bandits approached the convoy, a terrifying pressure suddenly descended upon them.

The air around them seemed to freeze at this moment. The bodies they were so proud of kept making crisp crackling sounds under this pressure, as if they were going to be crushed into pieces.

The horses under them were even in even worse condition. The terrifying aura from the 100,000-year-old soul beasts made these horses, which were not even soul beasts, seriously frightened. Their bodies, which were running madly, suddenly stopped, and the huge inertia caused the bandits to roll on the ground.

Hundreds of people rushed out of the post station and saw such a chaotic and smelly scene.

Mark it down, as of now, the protagonist is 19 years and 6 months old, so you don’t forget.