Chapter 499: Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety-Five: Interest

Master Ye left the grain store with a thrill of joy coursing through his veins and rushed back to his clan’s residence in a beast-pulled cart, eager to report the good news to Ye Qingcang, the clan leader.

The two stewards who remained at the grain store respectfully saluted Cui Dayou, asking, “Mr. Cui, where would you like us to start the inspection?” “Start from the middle batch,” he replied.

The two stewards exchanged glances and were about to lead everyone deeper into the store when they were struck on the back of their necks, rendering them unconscious.

Cui Dayou checked their breath and turned to Tang Luo, saying, “Minister Luo, there are tens of millions of bags of grain in this store. Please use your Void Stomach to collect them as quickly as possible!”

Tang Luo frowned at the two unconscious stewards on the ground and looked at Cui Dayou. Without saying much, he walked into the middle of the grain store.

A silver light flashed, and a gigantic figure, silver-grey in coor, appeared in the center of the warehouse. It swung its massive arms like a pendulum, catching a hundred-pound bag of grain with each swing and swallowed them up with every other swing at a rate of more than a hundred bags per second.

Watching the speed at which Tang Luo was gathering his loot, Cui Dayou estimated that even at this rate, it would take nine hours to collect six million bags. His heart was filled with anxiety, hoping fervently that Ye Qing would return as late as possible.

Du Ting glanced at the two unconscious stewards at Cui Dayou’s feet and then at the panicked storekeeper pacing back and forth. He stepped forward and asked, “Mr. Cui, we brought enough gold and silver to buy the grains, and you seemed to be on good terms with the store manager. Why did you need to take such risks?”

Honorable men wait patiently for their turn, while lesser men take risks in hopes of getting lucky. Cui Dayou’s behavior was something Du Ting could not understand. Du Sha was even more dissatisfied, looking sternly at Cui Dayou.

“Honored elders,” Cui Dayou began his reluctant explanation. “Do any of you understand the significance of the Endless Void Stomach to a merchant?” Du Ting and the Du clan warriors exchanged puzzled glances.

“After Yun Clan’s Black Market, the Endless Void Stomach was regarded as the number one divine ability in the business world. If Minister Luo’s divine gift was discovered by the Ye Family, we wouldn’t be able to escape Da Lin’s territory,” Cui Dayou explained with a bitter smile.

“Ha!” Du Ting scoffed. “Mr. Cui, do you think the arrogant people brought four of us here for fun? Anything you can think of, the lucky ones have already thought ahead. Or is Mr. Cui doubting the capabilities of the elders?”

“I wouldn’t dare question the cultivation of the elders,” Cui Dayou impressed, pleading, “But Da Lin is different from Xiling. Because of the presence of the business alliance, these noble families have mutual assistance agreements. Once Minister Luo’s Endless Void is discovered, the Ye Family will definitely try to retain him. A dragon isn’t as powerful as a local snake, and no matter how able the elders are, what effect can they have in protecting Minister Luo?”

With a furrowed brow, Du Ting still couldn’t understand. “Regardless of how advantageous a divine ability is to warriors, I don’t believe these Da Lin families would take such a risk.”

“Every family in Da Lin that has a name has blood on their hands,” Cui Dayou could only bitterly smile at Du Ting’s naivety. “Tang Clan’s distant merchants have been constantly attacked, and the culprits are bandits controlled by local nobles. For Da Lin houses, the only criterion for whether to attack or not is whether the profits are sufficient.”

In Xiehe, there are no business alliances that do not rely on brute force. Even Yun Clan from Chaochang, which once claimed that the merchant scholars were undefeatable, still had to control the four major affiliated clans and befriend various factions to stay safe.

Da Lin just does these things more blatantly. As the most important grain-producing town in Longzhou, the most ruthless family when it comes to making money is none other than the Da Lin family. As the hub of Longzhou’s grain supply, there is no place more sensitive than Da Lin to a natural disaster. Under normal circumstances, Da Lin might consider keeping their ambition to seize the Endless Void in check for the sake of Xiling’s stability. But right now, they will only become even more daring.

Cui Dayou, having been in the business world for more than twenty years, was willing to gamble on anything except human nature and greed. Because he knew that placing hope in the discovery of others’ consciences and moral luck would only push him into the abyss.

Du Sha frowned and asked, “So, Mr. Cui, do you think that the value of the Endless Void Stomach is enough for the Ye Family to ignore the existence of four Fierce Realm warriors and brazenly act out?”

“Yes,” Cui Dayou nodded. “Since Da Lin established the commercial alliance, many families have tasted the sweetness of the alliance. Under the mutual aid agreement, the courage of each family has expanded dramatically. Despite being a grain-producing town, bandits are becoming increasingly rampant. Trade merchants traveling to and from Da Lin have been attacked repeatedly. However, it’s strange that these bandits rarely kill. They usually only take part of the goods and money before leaving. Hence, there’s a widespread belief that Da Lin has a simple folk style, and mountain thieves are also righteous. It’s such an irony.”

Grains are the most important export products of Da Lin, and in other words, the grains of the entire Lin Chuan Plain region is overflowing.

The significance of robbery in this area is questionable. Gold, silver, jewelry, coral jade articles, and precious grass, which one is not worth more than grain? Any bandits with a target would never choose to rob around Da Lin.

And yet, Da Lin is still the realm where bandits are most rampant. However, due to the attraction of Da Lin’s extremely low grain prices, there are still a large number of merchants coming because they know that the bandits in Da Lin are different from other places.

Even if they are overpowered and robbed, their lives won’t be harmed. They could even take back a part of the goods.

One benevolent group of bandits is plausible, but for every group to be so benevolent, it’s hard to believe. Rather than saying they’re bound by a force they can’t resist, it’s better to say they’re controlled by a force.

Otherwise, how could one explain this weird sense of discipline? But because information was transmitted so slowly, Cui Dayou, who was particularly familiar with Da Lin, could draw such a conclusion from some vague rumors. Finally, Du Ting and the others managed to understand how dangerous Da Lin, known as the granary of Longzhou, was. However, this made them even more confused. “If Da Lin’s Ye Family is so dangerous, then why didn’t Mr. Cui take anyone else to buy grains elsewhere?”

“Although Chuanyuan is adjacent to Da Lin, it is on the other side of the Lin Chuan Plain, a full 20,000 miles away. We simply don’t have enough time. If we choose other small families in Da Lin, first, they wouldn’t be able to provide six million bags of grains at once, and secondly, once Minister Luo’s Endless Void is exposed, we would need to flee immediately. Only by choosing a large family with an outer city grain store would we stand a chance,” Cui Dayou explained, “Small families’ emergency granaries are all within the city. Once the Endless Void is discovered, they can gather a large number of Fierce Realm warriors in a short time. But for a big clan like Ye Family, even though they own the grain town outside the city, there’s at maximum only one Fierce Realm warrior in charge..”