Chapter 151 - Tax collection
Ji Hao looked curiously at those men from the Shepherd Star Clan.
Only tens of people, herding such a large group of beautiful magical creatures in this boundless void. Ji Hao was strongly attracted by the mysteriousness of these men, how could he possibly have gotten the chance to see this magical scene if he had stayed in the Southern Wasteland?
Those Shepherd Star Clan men leaped onto the turtle’s shell, happily hugged Gui Three and the other administrators of the caravan.
The translucent gigantic whale opened its jaws, then a few Shepherd Star Clan men walked into its mouth. A while later, the little group of men dragged out a couple of huge bags, which were made from transparent leather. They generously threw these bags on the turtle’s shell; a few stones and gemstones that were shining with magical light, rolled out from the opening of those bags, which were not bundled up so well.
A Shepherd Star Clan man slapped his own chest hard. He seemed unable to wait any longer to taste the booze, let out a grin, and said, “These stuff were all collected by us during the past years, how much booze can we trade with them? Just take them all! Ah, it’s too difficult for us to brew our own booze.”
Gui Three and the few other administrators narrowed their eyes, while grinning from ear to ear. They picked up those few large bags and sent them to the deepest area of the bottom storage floor, at their fastest speed. After which, large vats of booze were sent continuously out of the city by the caravan guards, after which the vats were being carried into the mouth of the gigantic whale by those men of the Shepherd Star Clan, one after another, while they were swallowing their saliva ceaselessly.
The trade lasted two hours. Tens of thousands of delicious boozes had been carried out of the city, and Gui Three had also given them a free batch of fresh wild fruits. When the trade had been completed, Gui Tree and those Shepherd Star Clan men said goodbye to each other.
Si Wen Ming and Man Man stood on the city wall, while watching this trade with a smile.
Man Man popped her eyes wide open, and looked curiously at those beautiful magical creatures with their perfectly-built body curvature. Seeing those Shepherd Star Clan’s men about to leave, Man Man couldn’t help but sigh, and said, “Ah, these big guys are so beautiful, just wondering if they taste good or not.”
Swallowing her saliva, Man Man then continued with her eyes narrowed, “I have only tasted rainbow fiery fishes, which lives in the springs located at volcano vents, have different colours, are very pretty, and taste delicious. I assume the more beautiful a creature, the better the taste of it!”
All the men of the Shepherd Star Clan turned their heads, saw Man Man, then all laughed out loud. One sturdy man passionately waved his hand at Man Man, laughed, and said, “Little girl, these star dolphins don’t taste good, their meat is dry and flavorless. Ah, such a cute little girl; you remind me of my daughter! Here, take this small gift!”
The man rummaged in the huge leather bag that was tied around his waist for a while, then waved his hand towards Man Man; along with his move, a palm-sized sparkling gemstone fell into Man Man’s hands, and left a multicolored trail of light behind it. Those men of the Shepherd Star Clan then hopped onto the back of the gigantic whale while talking and laughing, then drove the gigantic whale, and flew away. Later, they began singing an old and peaceful song.
Countless dolphin-shaped star fishes let out long and silver calls. Their beautiful, smoothly curved bodies leaped high from the stardust cloud, sending up large spheres of dust light, and went quickly after their owners. Even when they had gone over thousand miles away, the beautiful song, which was being sung by the men of the Shepherd Star Clan, still was transmitting back into Ji Hao’s ears.
Ji Hao listened carefully to their song. Although these men were all happy and smiling, and seemed to be in the best mood ever, the story that was being told in their song was about an ancient clan, which had lost its territory that had been passed down by their ancestors, and had nowhere to live but wander around in this world.
“The Shepherd Star Clan, such an interesting clan!” said Ji Hao while slightly patting Mr Crow’s claw, who had been standing on his shoulder.
On the city wall, Man Man was holding the egg-shaped, hazily sparkling gemstone in her hands, and asked Si Wen Ming with a grin on her face, “Uncle Wen Ming, what’s this?”
Si Wen Ming took a look at that gemstone, smilingly nodded, and said, “It’s a good piece! Hide it, when we get into Pu Ban City, ask your Abba to make a nice treasure with it, by himself.”
Gui Three put his face near Man Man’s hands, then patted his own face hard, yelled in a fuss, “Ah, those jerks from the Shepherd Star Clan! I have some valuable, cherished friendship with them, more or less, but, it seems my old face is not as cute as this little girl’s face! Why can’t I get a gift?!”
Exclaiming a few times, Gui Three grinned, and continued, “Such a nice piece of Starry Light Essence Crystal; if it’s melted into a flying magic treasure, it would increase the magic treasure’s flying speed by ten times! Such a nice piece, little girl, I can trade it with...”
Gui Three then shook his head, turned around and left without finishing his speech, only murmured, “Hmmm, can’t afford it. Such a big piece of Starry Light Essence Crystal, you can’t buy it with jade coins. I have to feed my wife and kids, can’t afford it.”
All those caravan guards standing on the city wall laughed out, and began criticizing Gui Three’s old face, saying that, how could he compare his wrinkled old face with Man Man’s petal-like young face? All of the other caravan members began laughing and yelling, none of them took another glance at Man Man’s Starry Light Essence Crystal.
However, amongst those passengers, who had come out of their rooms to see what was happening outside, there were a few people who were dressed in an oddly fashion, taking a rude calculating look at Man Man.
But Si Wen Ming turned silently around, his pupils suddenly changed into a khaki color, and threw a threatening glance at the few people. The body of these people instantly quivered, as if they had walked onto a mountain, and even staggered a few steps back. They then panicked, hurriedly turned around and left, none of them dared to give Man Man another look.
Ji Hao had clearly seen this, smilingly waved his hands to Si Wen Ming, and yelled, “Uncle Wen Ming, cool!”
Si Wen Ming let out a few waves of laughter, gently patted the head of Man Man, who had absolutely no idea what just had happened.
A trade that had brought an unspeakably great profit to the Spirit Turtle Caravan had been completed. The gigantic turtle continued to move towards the North. Ji Hao didn't want to go back to his room, stayed on the turtle’s neck all day long, while looking curiously at the surrounding areas.
All kinds of magical scenes could been seen in the void, just those different sized mountains and floating islands, which flew passed the gigantic turtle from time to time, were interesting enough for Ji Hao. Especially when he discovered that some tiny-scale clans were living on some of the floating islands, which had radiuses of hundreds to thousands of miles!
Every time the gigantic turtle flew past a floating island that had a small-scale clan living on it, it would be tirelessly pulled over. They would say hi to those clansmen, and trade for some of their unique products, with weapons, food and booze from the caravan’s storage. Gui Three had been laughing so happily all the way to the point that he couldn’t even close his mouth; obviously, he had made a fortune.
The gigantic turtle traveled like this in the void for over half a month, then it stopped abruptly.
From right in front of it and from both sides of the gigantic turtle, a few spots of lights had emerged from the dark void, and were quickly coming straight over towards the gigantic turtle.
Gui Three stood on the tower, and cursed resentfully in a very low voice, “These greedy monsters again! Why do we meet them everywhere we go? Good, they’re going to skin us out of our profit again! We have made hundred percent of profit as of now, but after we have dealt with them, and get back to the Midland, it should be considered lucky if we have thirty percent of it left!”
Ji Hao stood up, and looked at those spots of light. Those spots of light were flying fleetingly. Gradually, Ji Hao clearly could see that all eighteen spots of light were actually metal ships with lengths of three miles.
All these metal ships were exquisitely crafted, and were long and smoothly shaped. Tens of pairs of wings thrust out from both sides of each ship, which were slightly flapping, and driving these metal ships to dart in the void like shooting stars.
These metal ships were getting closer and closer. A short while later, these eighteen ships encircled the gigantic turtle, in a lunar-shaped manner.
From a bronze colored metal ship in the middle of the half circle, a five-meter tall, fully armed Jia Clan warrior slowly walked out, and began yelling with a weird voice.
“Ah, the Spirit Turtle Caravan. Let me do the math for you, this time you went to the Southern Wasteland and stayed for an entire seven years; I bet you have collected quite a lot of good stuff. Well, you all know the rule.”
Clapping his own hands, the Jia Clan warrior proudly laughed out aloud and said, “Alright, open your storage room, we are going to collect the tax!”