Chapter 563 - Dwarven Ironware
Kristen frowned, and finally made up her mind, "Mister shouldn't rush to leave. I ask you to go with me to our Hurricane Family. Maybe we can help you with your trade with the Dwarves."
Zhao Hai looked at Kristen and smiled, "Alright, then I'll have to bother sister. Right, my ship is very spacious, does sister want to get on board?"
Kristen shook her head and said, "I'll have to decline mister's invitation. We just passed through a big fight. I still have a lot of matter to take care of." Zhao Hai nodded, and then returned with Laura and the others to their own ship.
After arriving at his ship, Zhao Hai ordered the six battleships to head towards Golden Island. At the same time, he also informed Kun about their arrival so that he can take them in.
After completing these, Zhao Hai and the others entered the Space. When they had settled down, Zhao Hai looked at Laura and said, "It seems like going through the trouble of lending a hand was worth it. If the Hurricane Family would really help us in our matter with the Dwarves, then our travel would be much easier."
Laura nodded and said, "That's true, Buddha Empire is very strict regarding Dwarf Mountain. If someone of our status gets in touch with the dwarves, then it would definitely get their attention. Those Buddha Empire fellows seem to think that the Dwarves are their personal blacksmiths. If we directly go to the Dwarves, we might get into huge trouble."
Zhao Hai frowned, "Do the Great Nobles of the continent really don't have anything to say about this? How can they just let the Buddha Empire monopolize the Dwarf Race's business?"
Laura smiled and said, "How could they not have an opinion? It's just that even if the Dwarf business is very profitable, those families don't want to offend the Buddha Empire. The Buddha Empire also has methods to deal with those who wanted to come in contact with the Dwarves. In fact, it is very simple, they would just suppress that family's business in the Buddha Empire, causing that family huge losses."
Zhao Hai stared, he didn't think that the Buddha Empire would do this. However, he has to recognize that with how much importance the Buddha Empire has placed on the Dwarf goods, there would be no way for the other Nobles to get their hands on it. Exchanging their existing business in the Buddha Empire for a one-time transaction with the Dwarves is not worth it.
Lizzy smiled and said, "Not only that, the Buddha Empire might have also been talking to the Dwarves about how malicious the merchants of the other nations were. At this point, the Dwarves would have already been convinced that aside from the Buddha Empire, the others were simply swindlers. Therefore, making it much more difficult for the other empires to trade with them."
Zhao Hai smiled and said, "This will make the travel to Buddha Empire much more interesting. It seems like Dwarven Ironware is really fantastic, otherwise the Empire wouldn't be this critical about controlling it."
Laura nodded and said, "It really is. With the same type of weapon and the same iron, Human blacksmiths just couldn't compare to the Dwarves. Human swords might break after one war while the Dwarven swords can last five, not to mention how much sharper the Dwarven swords were. By relying on Dwarf made goods, the Buddha Empire has managed to reach its current status."
Megan nodded as well, "I used to see a Dwarven made steel dagger in my father's study in the past. The dagger wasn't very gorgeous, nor was it eye catching, but it was very sharp, better than those made by a senior Human blacksmith. If you take a Human-made dagger and sliced it with a Dwarven-made one, the Human dagger would surely break into two."
Zhao Hai nodded, "So that's how good Dwarven daggers are. But I want to know how it would compare to something that the Processing Machine makes."
Laura shook her head and said, "I'm afraid Dwarven daggers are stronger. They are handcrafted, repeatedly tempered, so they should be special."
Zhao Hai agreed, then he looked at Laura and said, "I'll go write a letter to Grandpa Kun later. Telling him all about what just happened. I think it would be best for father-in-law and the others to know about this, so that they can make proper preparations."
Meggan nodded, "Right, but wouldn't the Church be evading the Rosen Empire by now? They would be courting death if they do. The hatred for the Church has now reached its peak. Even the commoners were in opposition to them. It would be very difficult for the church to return to the Empire."
Zhao Hai smiled and said, "No matter what, being prepared is always good. At the same time, I also want to see how the Hurricane Family reacts to this incident. If the Hurricane Family doesn't spread this out, then we would be the ones doing it. We'll drag the Ocean Waves Dynasty along as well. Let those people from the Radiant Church withdraw even more."
Laura nodded and said, "That's also good. The Radiant Church had always been up to no good, it's too annoying. Even if they are strong, we should just rid of them."
Zhao Hai shook his head and said, "That won't be a good idea. If we remove the Church, the targets of the continent would be switched to us. That would make things much more troublesome. The strength that we have been showing is just the same as Great Nobles, which is still acceptable for them. But if we show strength beyond their expectations, then I'm afraid they would unite and deal with us."
Lizzy sighed, "That's true. I don't understand how the people of the continent think, but for me, our current situation is quite good. At least nobody comes to bully us."
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, "What I'd like is to upgrade the Space even sooner so that we won't be afraid of anyone. Moreover, we can also use a lot of backgrounds, when we get bored, we can just explore a new background. That would be very good."
One could clearly see the look of anticipation on the faces of Lizzy and the others. Zhao Hai had shown them the different backgrounds in the Space's shop, and those backgrounds were indeed very beautiful.
The group continued to chat in the Space for while before they left Cai'er to pay attention to the situation outside. If Kristen were to go see them, Cai'er would immediately send word. But for now, they secretly returned to Iron Mountain Fort.
When Zhao Hai went to the Prairie before, he was actually also planning to get his 100 thousand slaves. However, he didn't expect how much damage the Herculean Bulls had suffered. Now that they needed to recover their strength, having those slaves were indispensable. Therefore, Zhao Hai chose to just leave them there for the time being. After all, he still had his 100 thousand slaves, so it wasn't really a big deal. Moreover, he also decided to get another 100 thousand slaves from Lin, Zhao Hai believed that those would be delivered soon.
The situation in Iron Mountain Fort was very normal. Although it was impossible for the slaves to have a commoner culture, but one day they will, so they were very obedient. If these 100 thousand slaves were to disobey, Zhao Hai's management would have so much problems. But fortunately, the slaves behaved themselves.
Karen was still buzzing around the machines everyday, to the point where Laura was now complaining about it to Zhao Hai.
This time, Zhao Hai went to see how the slaves were doing, and they were doing very good. Majority of the allocated lands were already planted. But Zhao Hai told them that this will be the only year where he would provide seeds to plant. The next year, they would be free to plant whatever they want. Zhao Hai was also planning on buying some seeds in the Space and selling them over to the slaves, using grain as trade.
They stayed for one day in Iron Mountain Fort. The next morning, Kristen sent someone to notify Zhao Hai. After some simple repairs, their ship was now ready to go.
Their travel then on was very smooth. They didn't run into any enemies along the way. The merchants that they passed all shouted in greetings.
One has to recognize how well received the people from the Hurricane Family were. There were several instances where ships from other Families discovered how battered the Hurricane Family ship was and thought that it was attacked. So they stopped by and visited Kristen, they wanted to know who attacked the Hurricane Family.
At the same time, these people were also very enthusiastic regarding Zhao Hai. Zhao Hai wasn't expecting them to be this accommodating, but after thinking about it for a while, he finally understood. All these people were kind to him because of Golden Island.
Golden Island was now the continent's most famous trade harbor. People who go there because of the safety of their transactions, the low taxes, as well as the cheap goods in comparison to other places.
Most importantly, there were a lot of Merchants who were chased by pirates and went to Golden Island to hide, but those pirates didn't dare to move against them. This made the Merchants prefer to involve themselves with the Buda Clan.
Zhao Hai naturally returned the enthusiasm of these people. He exchanged gifts with them and chatted with them for a bit, giving Zhao Hai some special understanding about these nobles from other countries.
Zhao Hai was now in the Lyon Empire's seas. Merchants coming and going here were mostly from the Ocean Waves Dynasty and Buddha Empire, Aksu Empire ships were rarely spotted, the same was true for Rosen Empire ships.
This was normal. Now that the Aksu Empire was still under recovery, there were few Merchants who travelled from there. On the other hand, the relationship between the Rosen Empire and the Lyon Empire wasn't very good. Therefore, it was normal for Rosen Empire ships to avoid this region of the sea.
But Zhao Hai still didn't meet any obstructions in the Lyon Empire. Whether it be the Hurricane Family or the Buda Clan, both of them were powerful families in the continent. Even if the relationship between the Rosen Empire and the Lyon Empire wasn't good, the Lyon Empire's relationship with Zhao Hai was still normal. At the same time, nobody wanted to needlessly offend both the Buda Clan and the Hurricane Family.
After about a month of navigation, Zhao Hai and the others finally entered the Buddha Empire's seas. But they were still very far from the Hurricane Family's territory, they would still need to sail for five days before they arrive.
Chapter 564 - Strange Hurricane Family
Inside the Buddha Empire's sea region, the travel with the Hurricane Family people came smoothly as well. In the Buddha Empire, there was almost no reason to offend the Hurricane Family.
The people of the Hurricane Family were not interested in influence. The people from the Buddha Empire were very friendly with them because they weren't striving for power nor profit. The Royal Family also liked to intermarry to their family, which made the other nobles treat them very well. One could say that the Hurricane Family was the most accepted people in the entire Buddha Empire.
However, Kristen wasn't in the mood to think about all of this right now. The group was currently entering the Buddha Empire's largest river, Iron Warhorse River.
According to legend, the founding Emperor of the Buddha Empire has managed to obtain the approval of a unique Magic Beast, an Iron Warhorse, in this river. With the horse as his mount, he managed to make a lot of achievements and finally established the Buddha Empire. After taking his seat as Emperor, he immediately changed the name of the River into Iron Warhorse River.
The territory of the Hurricane Family was along a branch of this river, inside a mountainous area. The mountain didn't have any ores, and its land wasn't fertile. It can be said that this territory was the worst in the Buddha Empire.
However, even after holding this territory for millennia, the Hurricane Family didn't even attempt to expand it one step, nor did they seek help from others. The Family only relied on their family members to excavate the mountainous area and make terraced fields of which Bamboo Rice, oil trees, and green vegetables were planted. They were living in something like a mundane paradise.
In the eyes of other Nobles, this might be an example of not making progress. However, the Hurricane Family seems to like living like this. They were selling a lot of Bamboo Rice, oil products as well as vegetables, but not Magic Vegetables. This made their yearly profits much lesser than the other nobles, but this could still satisfy the family.
But as many years passed by, the Hurricane Family were still a Great Clan. Other clans rose to the top, others fell into depravity, but the Hurricane Family still stayed the same. They just lived their day-to-day lives peacefully, as they did from the very beginning. This made people quite speechless when discussing them.
However, if you think that the Hurricane family was weak, then you couldn't be any more wrong. Because of their innate Wind attribute, the Family had a lot of experts within their members.
The other families might have 7th or 8th rank experts as their Foreign elders, eliciting respect and resources in order to make their strength grow. But it was different with the Hurricane Family. One might see a farmer on the fields, tending to his crops, only to know that the person was an 8th rank expert. You might even see someone peacefully chopping wood, but actually had the strength of 7th rank. There were no other family in the Buddha Empire that was just like the Hurricane Family.
The Hurricane Family's core values is based on being good to others. They had helped a lot of families in the Buddha Empire before, making the entire Buddha Empire nobility grateful to them. One could say that in the Buddha Empire, the Hurricane Family was the most detached family in terms of political agenda.
When the Radiant Church was at its strongest, they wanted to suppress the Hurricane Family because of its non-compliance. But when they came to doing it, they found out that they weren't able to do anything. The Hurricane Family didn't have any businesses aside from their rice, oil, and vegetables. And these things were daily supplies, so they really cannot be suppressed. And when the Radiant Church wanted to use other avenues to deal with them, the Nobles of the Buddha Empire disagreed. In the end, the Radiant Church can only take a step back.
Although Zhao Hai had some understanding of the Hurricane Family, in the end, he was not a person of the Buddha Empire. His understanding of the Hurricane Family was only based on some writings on paper. As to the actual prestige of the Hurricane Family, Zhao Hai has close to no clue.
After travelling for three days in Iron Warhorse River, they finally sailed on a branching body of water known as Blooming Flower River and stopped at a place called the Blooming Flower Lake.
On the east of Blooming Flower Lake, a stone pier can be seen. This pier was Hurricane Family's personal pier. At the same time, this Blooming Flower Lake was also part of the Hurricane Family's territory.
After the two ships stopped on the pier. Zhao Hai discovered that there were a lot of people present. The one leading them was an old man wearing an azure Robe. This old man's robes was neither magnificent nor luxurious. The robe looked just like the robes that low-level Mages used to wear. It didn't have any special qualities in it.
The hair of the old person was white, he had a wrinkled face that made him look like an old Mage that had zero accomplishments in his life. However, Zhao Hai didn't dare look down on this person. Although the old man looked weak, Zhao Hai's intuition was telling him that he was an expert.
After lowering the springboard, Zhao Hai, along with Laura and the others, walked down from their ship. Kristen also disembarked from her own ship. Naturally, Kristen had already sent a message towards the old man, informing him about what happened as well as Zhao Hai's presence.
Kristen went to the old man and gave him a salute. The old man smiled kindly towards her and said, "Good. It's nice that you've come back safely. I told you to not go, but you insisted to. Right, let's not neglect the guests."
Then the old man turned to look at Zhao Hai. Zhao Hai didn't neglect his manners as he bowed and said, "Buda Clan's Patriarch, Zhao Hai, has seen the Elder."
The old man smiled faintly and returned the bow before saying, "Juno Hurricane has met Patriarch Zhao Hai."
Zhao Hai quickly replied and said, "Elder shouldn't be too polite. You're old enough to be my grandfather. No need to give me a bow, I don't deserve it."
Old Juno looked at Zhao Hai and smiled faintly, "Patriarch Zhao Hai has rescued my granddaughter. That's a great service to my Hurricane Family, that's enough to merit a bow."
Zhao Hai smiled, "Elder is too polite. I just did it because of the coincidence, so I helped a little. Not really a big deal."
Juno smiled a little, he didn't want to dwell too much on this topic. So he said, "Since mister has come to my Hurricane Family, then we would of course show you our hospitality." Juno changed how he addressed Zhao Hai from Patriarch to mister. It seems like their relationship has gone one step closer.
Zhao Hai also noted the change to how he was addressed. He smiled and said, "I'll have to trouble the elder." Then the group went to leave the pier and approached some carriages. The carriages were very ordinary, something even merchants wouldn't ride on. But from the looks of the Hurricane Family members, it seems like they were already used to it.
Zhao Hai was now very curious about the people of the Hurricane Family. He wasn't expecting that there would a millennium-old family like this to exist. It made Zhao Hai think about how great it would be if he were to be born into such a family. However, his fate was on the opposite direction.
After the group rode the carriage, it immediately headed towards the depths of the Hurricane Family's territory. This showed Zhao Hai that the Hurricane Family's territory was a mountainous region, no flat lands can be seen. The road that they were going through were all mountain paths paved with stones.
Zhao Hai looked at the lush, Bamboo Rice and oil trees in the mountains. Then he turned to Laura and said, "This place is really good. It's much better than our Black Wasteland."
Laura smiled and said, "Their lifestyle is really astonishing. I didn't think that there would be a millennium-old clan that is like this. I used to hear how the Hurricane Family lived, but I really didn't expect it to be like this."
After crossing two mountains, their carriage stopped. Zhao Hai didn't immediately get down from the carriage, he was busy gawking at the scene.
This village wasn't different than the villages that they had seen in the past two mountains. Stone houses with a stone walled courtyards, of which several fruit trees were grown. Dogs can be seen running around the vegetation and pigs' squeals can be heard. It's a typical mountain village that one can see everywhere.
However, this typical mountain village was actually the Patriarch's residence of one of the most famous Great Families in the continent. This scene made Zhao Hai stare blankly.
At this time, people can be heard walking towards the carriage. This made Zhao Hai recover as he led Laura and the others down. Juno had also reached Zhao Hai's carriage as he smiled, "Mister Zhao Hai, this is where I live. It's quite crude, I hope you don't get offended."
Zhao Hai quickly replied, "This is actually a very good place. I like it very much. I'd have to trouble the Elder to take care of me." Juno smiled faintly and led Zhao Hai to enter the courtyard. Kristen was also following them from behind, while the others went back to their own households.
Upon entering the courtyard, Zhao Hai can see another old person there as well as two children running around like crazy.
Kristen entered the courtyard and immediately ran towards the old person as she held her up, "Grandma, I've missed you." The old woman looked at Zhao Hai and then back to Kristen as she said, "Good girl. Right, go invite the guests over inside."
Zhao Hai looked at this old woman and immediately knew that she was an expert as well, at least 7th rank. Zhao Hai hadn't seen an 7th rank Mage like this old woman before. Moreover, she was a millennium-old Patriarch's wife.
At this time, Zhao Hai also entered the room with Juno. The living room was quite big, when he entered, he can see wooden chairs and tables inside, looking like they were already antiques. The items inside gave off a serene and deep aura.
After the group sat down, Kristen got them something to drink. Then Juno looked at Zhao Hai and smiled, "Is Patriarch Zhao Hai not too familiar with a crude place such as this?"
Zhao Hai shook his head and said, "Not at all, I'm quite used to it. A year ago, I lived in a similar condition. It's even much worse than here. Hahaha. Even the place that I'm living in right now is not much better than this."
Juno smiled and said, "Our Hurricane Family had been living like this for as long as I can remember, so we're already quite used to it. Right, I heard that Patriarch Zhao Hai's purpose this time was to contact the dwarves, am I correct?"
Zhao Hai nodded and said, "I did come to do some trades with the Dwarves. But I'm quite unfamiliar with the place as well as the people here. I'll have to ask the Elder for help."
Juno smiled and said, "Patriarch doesn't need to be polite. You've rescued Kristen, such great kindness needed to be repaid. If I can help you even for a little bit, then I would be very happy."
Zhao Hai smiled and said, "Elder is really too polite. I feel quite uncomfortable receiving such remarks from a respectable person like you."
Juno just smiled and said, "Alright, no need to talk about this. I'll have to ask Patriarch Zhao Hai to stay here for a few days since I'll need to arrange this matter. After I take care of it, I will personally accompany you to Dwarf Mountain. I believe that those old Dwarves would still give me some face."
Zhao Hai stared blankly before he immediately said, "I've dared to cause the Patriarch too much trouble, I'll have to deeply apologize."
The Old man waved his hand and said, "It isn't a big deal. I happen to have several good friends among the Dwarves. Patriarch Zhao Hai doesn't need to be too polite. Right, I'll have to ask Patriarch Zhao Hai to rest in his room first. In a while, I'll be inviting you over for dinner." Zhao Hai complied, and then he led Laura and the others out.
After walking out of the house, they saw that Kristen was already there waiting for them. However, Kristen was very different compared to the first time that they've met. In the past, Kristen was wearing a long skirt, with her hair fairly unkempt. But the present Kristen was now wearing ordinary clothes, she also had her hair into a braid, she looked just like an adorable neighbor.
Kristen gave a small bow and said to Zhao Hai, "Patriarch Zhao Hai, please come with me." Then she led Zhao Hai towards a nearby building.
After arriving at the building, Kristen turned her head to Zhao Hai and said, "Patriarch, this is the place that Grandfather has arranged for you. It looks quite simple, we hope that Patriarch doesn't get too offended."
Zhao Hai entered the room. It wasn't that big, the inside was divided into two; the living room and the bedroom. If one carefully looked at it, one could see that the room was spotlessly clean.
Zhao Hai turned his head to Kristen and then said, "Sister Kristen is too polite. This place is very good, it's very much to my liking. Thank you very much."
Kristen smiled and said, "Patriarch is too polite. Then I'll leave patriarch here so that you can take a rest. If Patriarch needs anything, don't hesitate to tell me."
Zhao Hai nodded, then Kristen turned around and left. Meg and the others also came inside as they evaluated the house.
Laura smiled and turned to Zhao Hai, "Brother Hai, I didn't think that the Hurricane Family would be living this humbly. It's really too strange."
Zhao Hai smiled and said, "I also didn't think that the famous Hurricane Family would have this kind of lifestyle, it's completely out of my expectations. With how strong they are, they still chose to live such lives, they have my utmost admiration."
Laura smiled and said, "They really do make people admire them. But I feel like our situation is quite similar to the Hurricane Family. We have the strength to rule a nation, but we chose to live our current lives. Maybe we are pursuing the same life as them."