A palace hall naturally couldn’t block the road; in actuality, the Star Brilliance Palace Hall was situated inside a gorge. This gorge was the path that had to be taken from the Nine Nations of the Desolate North to the north region.
This gorge was called the Fallen Moon Gorge. According to legends, this was originally a tall mountain, and the north region ended here. There was no way of crossing it because on top of the mountain a terrifying presence circulated, and even Spiritual Infant Tier cultivators would fall victim to it.
However, an unknown number of years ago, the night sky’s moon suddenly fell, chopping the mountaintop into a gorge, and thus it received the name of the Fallen Moon Gorge.
It was precisely this gorge that opened up a road. Some courageous martial artists pa.s.sed through the gorge to enter the primitive areas. Through continuous battles with beasts, the Nine Nations of the Desolate North were established at last, expanding the north region’s territory.
Now, the tall mountain was still insurmountable, so one could only walk through the Fallen Moon Gorge. Therefore, this place was extremely lively. Every day, there were large amounts of martial artists that came from the Nine Nations, wanting to widen their horizons, and some martial artists that returned from the north region, going back to their homes.
Moreover, there were large amounts of merchants that brought specialty products of Nine Nations of the Desolate North to the north region or vice versa; the profits were great, but their endeavor was extremely dangerous because the land outside of the Nine Nations of the Desolate North was a lawless area, where robberies and killings happened at every moment.
From here to the Star Brilliance Palace Hall was only half a day’s travel, but this part of the road was also the most dangerous.
Fortunately, the two carriages belonged to ‘Storm Mercenaries,’ an extremely strong force in the Fallen Moon Gorge region. Normally speaking, no one would dare get any ideas about a cart with the Storm Mercenaries’ flag.
Ling Han carried Hu Niu and sat on top of the carriage. In his previous life, he spent most of his time in the pill refining room, studying; only in his “late years” did he walk outside to into venture historic sites, increasing his knowledge.
In this lifetime, he didn’t plan on missing out on various extraordinary sights.
At this moment, they already entered the Fallen Moon Gorge. The two sides had steep cliffs that towered like clouds. Ling Han activated the Eye of Truth, but he still couldn’t see the mountaintop, yet he could see the vicious Qi that was emitted on the mountain walls.
This presence made even him feel somewhat nervous. In other words, even if he’d come here with the Heaven Tier’s strength, he also would have to be very careful; it looked like the legend was not just a legend, having a certain degree of truth to it.
However, what surprised Ling Han was that underneath the gorge were fields of medicinal ingredients, growing very well.
“These medicinal ingredients planted here won’t be stolen?” Ling Han asked, feeling it strange.
Guang Yuan stepped up having heard that. “No one dares. These medicinal fields are allotted by the Star Brilliance Palace Hall to farmers to plant. If anyone dared steal medicine, they’d be arrested by the Star Brilliance Palace Hall’s order. Bandits don’t dare steal, either, because they need medicinal pills too and if those with money won’t sell it, what can they do?”
Ling Han couldn’t help but laugh; alchemists were certainly a group that exceeded the norms. It was no wonder alchemists were all proud—no matter how strong a martial artist was, they couldn’t do without medicinal pills, naturally feeding the arrogance of alchemy masters.
The carriage advanced slowly, and after a while, suddenly the sound of dispute was heard ahead.
Though Ling Han didn’t like meddling in other people’s business, he could do nothing about his increased cultivation that strengthened his hearing. Even if he didn’t want to hear it, he still did as the voices of dispute drifted here.
“This price is really too low. Not only can we not make money, but also we’ll sustain losses!”
“Young Master Fu, show some compa.s.sion, and take it as following last year’s price.”
“Hmph, we want to see Chief Luo. How come the price is lower year after year, how do you expect us farmers to live?”
Ling Han focused his gaze. The Eye of Truth easily penetrated the layers of leaves, only to see a group of roughly one hundred farmers that burned with rage, surrounding three people. These three people were obviously the important and the less important. The former was a twenty-year-old youngster who wore an embroidered gown, looking extremely haughty. The other two were probably errand men that were thirty or so years old, guarding the side of the youngster.
“What does whether you live or not have to do with this young master?” The youngster snorted. “Immediately send the medicinal herbs to the Star Brilliance Palace Hall at this price. In three days, if the medicinal field still has a stalk of medicinal herb left, this master will cut off whomever’s dog head!”
“Too unjust!”
“With such a low price, not to mention how busy we’ll be this year, we’ll have to sell our sons and daughters to maintain our living!”
“How could you do this, are you trying to hound us to death?”
The farmers cried out successively, each one waving a medicinal hoe, appearing extremely worked up.
The youngster in embroidered clothes sneered, and said, “Oh, you guys have the nerve to actually dare act impudently in front of this young master! Could you want this young master to sortie Star Defense Force, arresting all of you?”
There were many farmers, but each one was a normal person. This youngster was a surprisingly in the fifth layer of the Gus.h.i.+ng Spring Tier; it was equivalent to a group of ants surrounding an elephant, completely ineffective.
Yet, this youngster used some Star Defense Force to scare them. It was not a superfluous action, it was intended to scare these farmers into giving their lives to make money for him; otherwise, how could he have such great patience instead of just resorting to murder.
As expected, after the farmers heard the three words ‘Star Defense Force’, they all involuntarily s.h.i.+vered. Some of them knelt down at once and said, “Young Master Fu, we beg of you, give us a way out!”
“With just this purchase money, we’ll really starve to death!”
“Young Master Fu, please!”
Even more people knelt down, kowtowing towards the youngster; amongst them, there was no lack of old and gray-haired men.
“Get lost!” The youngster threw a kick, turning over the person who blocked in front. “Harvest the herbs for this young master, and if these medicinal herbs still haven’t been sent to the Star Brilliance Palace Hall three days later, this young master will dispatch the Star Defense Force, arresting all of you despicable people.”
“Young Master Fu, you’re really hounding us to death?” There were still several people who hadn’t knelt; their eyes were red through and through, staring fiercely at the youngster in embroidered clothes.
The youngster in embroidered clothes wiped his nose and said coldly, “What the h.e.l.l does it have to do with this young master whether you guys die or not? If you don’t take care of business for me, hmph, then this young master will make you wish for death!”
“Remember, three days, just three day’s time,” he added with an expression full of disgust. In his eyes, these normal people who weren’t even in the Body Refining Tier were tools used to make money for him.
If a group died, then jut change to another one; making money—him making lots of money—was the most important thing.
Ling Han immediately understood that the Star Brilliance Palace Hall hired these farmers to plant the medicinal herbs. This youngster was in charge of collecting it, but he lowered the purchase price to a point lower than the production costs, naturally making these farmers quit.
This person was truly tyrannical, lowering the price to the point of hounding people to death. To kill the goose that laid the golden egg, wasn’t this forcing people to rebel?
“What an unbridled youngster!” Guang Yuan snorted. Based on his Spiritual Ocean Tier’s hearing, he naturally heard clearly. He might not pity the farmers, but the feeling of contempt for the youngster’s methods still arose within him. After all, someone in the Gus.h.i.+ng Spring Tier bullying some normal people only to make a little more money was disgraceful no matter how one looked at it.
“This lord shall see just how amazing he is!” He jumped off the carriage.
Ling Han crossed his hands behind his back and followed behind, while Liu Yu Tong and Li Si Chan stayed on the carriage. Since Ling Han came forward personally, what incident couldn’t be solved?