Chapter 10 - Antique City
Two Days later, Tiger Cage Pass
The Tiger Cage Pass was an immense city gate tower, wedged between two precipitous mountain cliffs. It was absolutely a place that was easy to guard but difficult to attack. Moreover, the Chen Kingdom's most important protective screen was precisely the Tiger Cage Pass. If the Tiger Cage Pass were to fall, then it would equate to the Chen Kingdom being nearly wiped out!
After a course of two days, the Autumn Leaf Caravan safely reached the Tiger Cage Pass. Aside from that time when the group of snakes blocked the path, the Autumn Leaf Caravan didn't bump into any other danger over these two days except for some common wild animals that were easily taken care of. After all, this was an official road, and its safety was still guaranteed to some extent. The incident earlier with the group of seven-colored snakes was only an accident; a matter of chance.
Although the group of seven-colored snakes brought about a great many thrills, it also brought many pleasant surprises. First of all, don't even mention the corpse of that Seven-Colored Snake King, just based on the several hundred seven-colored snakes that they killed, that would net them quite a huge amount.
However, all of this should be credited to Gu Hai. The attention of the other members of the caravan was only focused on the corpse of the Seven-Colored Snake King. After all, this Seven-Colored Snake King was of such high value that it exceeded their imagination.
If not for being reminded by Gu Hai, they would have even forgotten an equivalently high value of the corpses of the several hundred seven-colored snakes.
seven-colored snakes were not ordinary snakes. Every part of its body had a certain value. The poison sac, snake gall, snake scales, snake fangs, etc. all could be sold for a good price, especially the poison sac. Ordinary snakes weren't poisonous, thereby they were devoid of any poisonous sac, but the acute poison stored by the seven-colored snakes in their bodies was something unique to them. Moreover, these poison sacs were very much welcomed by some people, and it carried a high value.
The values of several hundred seven-colored snakes added together was not a small number for the Autumn Leaf Caravan. Everyone was very much grateful to Gu Hai. Furthermore, if they thought carefully, their survival also had a very big relation to that Gu Hai's reminder.
The five captains and the people discussed and decided that half of this time's profit would go to Gu Hai. This was already considered quite big. Even if it was the five captains, each would only receive ten percent share with the remaining being divided equally amongst everyone. Moreover, the harvest of the caravan this time was not small. Even fifty percent share wouldn't be a small number. However, Gu Hai after hearing this only showed a faint smile. Money didn't carry too big of an attraction towards him.
At this moment, the Autumn Leaf Caravan was stopped under the Tiger Cage Pass. The soldiers guarding the pass were closely inspecting the caravans as well as the travelers. After all, upon entering through the Tiger Cage Pass, they would end up within the scope of Chen Kingdom's Royal Capital which was also Chen Kingdom's center of power. Naturally, its security needed to be guaranteed.
The people on the carriages got down. Gu Hai, standing beside the carriage, raised his head to look at the approximately hundred meters tall city gate tower. Even Gu Hai whose mood always remained calm also started to fluctuate slightly.
It had already been several days since he arrived in this world. He already knew that this world didn't have any of Earth's Science and technology or machinery, there was only the powerful human strength. Therefore, this giant city gate tower was completely constructed through human labor.
If it was put on earth, Gu Hai believed that without depending on science, technology, and machinery, it would have been absolutely impossible to make such a giant city gate tower. This was the great strength of this world's cultivators. Moreover, this was in the Chen Kingdom, where there were only some Houtian realm cultivators.
The Autumn Leaf Caravan passed through Tiger Cage Pass very smoothly. After all, they had a certain degree of reputation here. Moreover, they had already made arrangements at an earlier time from top to bottom. These soldiers guarding the pass would unlikely make things difficult for them. However, Gu Hai also noticed one of the Autumn Leaf Caravan Captains squeezing a purse containing sizable amount into the hands of Soldier's Captain. After that, the attitudes of the soldiers towards the Autumn Leaf Caravan became even better.
Gu Hai let out a faint smile. It seemed like no matter which world, this kind of thing still existed!
Tiger Cage Pass, Antiquity Town!
The Antiquity Town was a small town near to the Tiger Cage Pass. Since the Tiger Cage Pass was the only link that connected the Royal Capital to the other cities, a lot of people had to come and go through the Tiger Cage Pass daily. Therefore, Antiquity Town, being located at an advantageous location, was an extremely lively town.
When it came to population and area, the Antiquity Town could actually be considered as a small town. All kinds and varieties of stores and inns could be seen everywhere within it. The streets of the Antiquity Town would always be congested, along with the hawking and clamoring that rose and fell repeatedly, making it very lively!
Walking down the main road of the Antiquity Town, the Autumn Leaf Caravan had to slow down due to the numerous and dense crowd on the road. Gu Hai opened up the window of the carriage and attentively sized up his surroundings in this Antiquity Town.
"Ladies and gentlemen, come take a look, this store has the best in all of Antiquity Town, swords, spears, sticks available in all varieties. If everyone likes, then this store can even make a weapon on custom order for you….."
"Everyone please come inside, want to have a meal or perhaps rest here at the inn?"
"Hurry up. Get lost for this young master. This young master is a person of the Cloud Feather Trading Guild. You unexpectedly dare to block this young master's path. Do you know that this young master's every minute is worth several hundred silvers, do you dare to keep me waiting?"
After watching for a while, Gu Hai revealed a faint smile and closed the carriage window without saying a word and just closed his eyes to rest.
As for the Antiquity Town, Gu Hai's first impression was that it was chaotic. There was an assortment of people here. The fish and the dragons were mixed in together. However, this kind of a place was actually very much suited for the development of commerce. Businessmen were not afraid of too many people, but of not having people at all. Regarding this, he even had some ideas in his heart…...
The Antiquity Town was also actually a very large commercial market. The travelling merchants were all quite fond of gathering here. Some traders who didn't have the ability to ship cargo to the Royal City rather liked to sell to those traders in the Antiquity Town who had the qualifications and the ability to have a base in Royal City. In this manner, everybody profited.
The destination of the Autumn Leaf Caravan was indeed Antiquity Town. The Autumn Leaf Caravan had very limited capabilities. Royal City was a very remote place and they didn't have permission to go inside there. However, at Antiquity Town, the medicinal ingredients that they had brought from afar could be sold for a good price. Therefore, the Autumn Leaf Caravan sold the raw medicinal ingredients in Antiquity Town and bought some supplies that were scarce in Autumn Leaf Town, so that they could return home.
However, the dealings would take more than two days to finish every time they come here. Even though Autumn leaf Caravan was not a big caravan, it still had a certain level of ability. In this Antiquity Town, the Autumn Leaf Caravan had a medium sized manor.
After passing through the dense crowd, when the people of Autumn Leaf Caravan arrived at this Autumn Leaf Manor, they discovered that Gu Hai didn't have any place to stay. The captains of Autumn Leaf Caravan immediately ordered the servants to tidy up a room for Gu Hai to stay.
Gu Hai entered the tidied up room. The room was not too big, it also didn't have any fancy decorations, but it was very neat and clean. Gu Hai was extremely satisfied with this. After traveling for two days, Gu Hai was also somewhat tired. After all, there was no such appropriate place that could enable him to rest nicely. However, Gu Hai could now finally take some rest.
Soon after, Gu Hai fell asleep atop the bed in this room...
Gu Hai slept but the other people of Autumn Leaf Caravan didn't sleep. Some people were unloading the medicinal ingredients and snake corpses from the vehicle into the warehouse in the Autumn Leaf Manor. Regardless of whether it was the delicate medicinal ingredients or the seven-colored snake's poison sacs, they all needed to be dealt with carefully. If a problem happened, then it wouldn't be a simple matter.
Some people went out to look for clients. The people who left were all those who had some connections within Antiquity Town. Originally, they didn't have any need for doing as they had fixed business guilds for the medicinal ingredients and they didn't have to worry about there being any demand for it!
However, this time it was different. The cargo they were transporting contained a Seven-Colored Snake King corpse. Even though it was lacking the most important poison sac and the snake's gallbladder, it didn't make this Seven-Colored Snake King any less valuable. Even if the values of all the raw medicinal materials were to be added together, it wouldn't equate to even one percent of the value of this Seven-Colored Snake King. On top of it, there were also several hundred corpses of seven-colored snakes. There were very few business guilds that had the ability to buy these commodities. Moreover, the small business guilds that the Autumn Leaf Caravan were familiar with absolutely didn't have the capability to buy these many snake corpses.
If only it were a matter of few purchases then there wouldn't be any problem. However, the issue was that even if the Seven-Colored Snake King were to be broken down, these small business guilds wouldn't even be able to pay the starting price. After all, these business guilds also needed to maintain sufficient reserves for operation. It would be impossible for them to stake everything on a single throw of the dice!
Moreover, earlier the Autumn Leaf Caravan didn't have the qualifications to have any business transactions with these big business guilds. The merchants attached utmost importance on their own interest. Earning the most profit by spending the least amount of money was considered to be an inherent quality of a merchant. Therefore, they couldn't expect that these people would give them a good price!
However, since they had no other means as only these big business guilds were capable of paying the starting price. Even if it is less a bit, those in the Autumn Leaf Caravan would still not refuse. After all, this was a windfall, even a little gain was also some profit!