Chapter 233 – Big Bellied Pig-headed People

Multicolored flag, a sign of a beastfolk tribe. Any beastfolk tribe, regardless of whether they were great or small, would always hang up the multicolored flag of their tribe.

These multicolored flags, with regards to the beastfolk, meant stability, auspicious luck, and good fortune. Multicolored flags, in the eyes of the beastfolk, were rainbows.

Rainbows appeared after the rain, and rain was very important to the beastfolk. Rain could make rivers larger, so there would be more available water. Rain could make the prairie more lush, allowing their magic beasts to become stouter and stronger, increasing their wealth. As such, all beastfolk tribes hung a multicolored flag.

In the prairie, so long as someone sees a multicolored flag, they would know there was a tribe nearby. This was common knowledge in the prairie. Zhao Hai had read this miscellaneous information somewhere, which was how he knew of it.

Zhao Hai breathed out, sat down hastily, and turned to Laura and the others in the carriage and said, “I saw a multicolored flag.”

Laura understood clearly what Zhao Hai’s meant. She immediately left the carriage to check and see what Zhao Hai was looking at. A colorful multicolored flag appeared in her line of sight.

Laura breathed in. “Finally, we’ve found a beastfolk tribe. Alright, we may be able to drink milk wine tonight and eat roasted argali[1].”

Zhao Hai chuckled. To be honest, in this vast steppe they hadn’t thought they wouldn’t be able to find any inhabitants after searching for a full day. Now that they suddenly found a multicolored flag, it startled their hearts. It was like when people living in darkness suddenly saw a glimmer of light.

Before long, Zhao Hai and the others saw a tent. The tent exuded a lively feeling and a flag was set atop that tent. Painted on the flag was an adorable little pig.

Zhao Hai blinked his eyes to make sure he didn’t see it wrong. It really was an adorably little piggy on the flag. Turning to Laura, puzzled, he asked, “Laura, what tribe is this?”

Laura also saw the image of the little pig on the flag above the tent. She couldn’t help but smile as she said, “Do you see the little pig on the flag? The belly of the pig is a bit large, right? This beastfolk tribe is a branch of the beastfolk’s Pig ethnic race, the Big Bellied Pig tribe. They aren’t especially tall, only about two meters in height. Among the beastfolk, they are really small, but their bellies are really big and permanently exposed. Don’t underestimate their big bellies as it’s their most tenacious part.

“This tribe is part of an ethnic race whose combat abilities aren’t very strong, but they have a unique ability; the water they drink can be stored in their bellies. They could then use that water to spurt out a stream and use it as an arrow to attack others. The water they spurt out can generally reach thirty meters, and its strength is equal to a Terran’s brutal arrow[2]. With this unique ability, they haven’t become a slave tribe.”

Zhao Hai was very curious about this. He felt that this world was very large. Such a wonder could appear in a race was truly too interesting.

Turning to Laura, Zhao Hai said, “Then what about the tribe’s character? Will they suddenly turn into robbers?”

Laura shook her head and smiled. “Their disposition is affable. They belong to the Fragrant Pig ethnic race. So long as you don’t bully them, they won’t try to snatch your things. They are a very hospitable race and mainly herd argali to live.”

Zhao Hai knew that an argali was a Rank One magic beast and one of the many Rank One magic beasts the beastfolk raised. Argali skin could be used for clothing, its wool for blankets, the meat for consumption, and the bones for weapons. One could say that the life of the beastfolk couldn’t be separated from the argali.

For the Terrans, it was rare to see people raising argali. This was mainly due to the fact that the argali had adapted to living in the prairies. If they were to be raised in Terran territories, then they would become sick. As such, for the beastfolk the argali seemed like the greatest blessing of the Beast God.

Zhao Hai nodded. “That’s good then. We’ll rest here for today. If they need, we’ll also sell them food. Right, how does transactions work with the beastfolk?”

Laura smiled. “It isn’t difficult. So long as we pull out food, they’ll take the initiative and come to us. Generally, however, they would trade with magic beasts and won’t directly use money for transactions. Only those large war tribes can use money in transactions. Therefore, we’ll also need to trade in our magic beasts and turn it into money.”

Zhao Hai asked, “How much bamboo rice will we need to trade for an argali?”

Laura smiled, “Half a tonne[3].”

“Half a tonne? Are you cracking a joke?” Zhao Hai was surprised by what he heard. What Laura had stated the price was made him startled.

The reason for Zhao Hai’s surprise was that an individual mature argali could grow up to 1.5 meters and weighed around 400 kilograms. Even if they were carried on the back of an argali, it wouldn’t be a problem for them. Moreover, an argali could produce 100 kilograms of wool. If they were to transport it back to the Purcell Duchy, an argali would be priced at around 15 gold coins even if they didn’t raise it and just brought its corpse. For half a tonne of bamboo rice, however, it would honestly be sold of just a gold coin. This was fifteen times the profit. Wasn’t this a bit too high?

Laura understood Zhao Hai’s surprise. She smiled faintly and said, “It sounds quite high, but not as high as you think it is. You must remember that transporting commodities into the Beastfolk Prairie is done through smuggling. The process of smuggling means to bribe the military at the checkpoints and do this whenever you pass a checkpoint, which isn’t a small amount to be spending..

“Also, it’s easy to get robbed here in the Beastfolk Prairie. Transporting half a ton of bamboo rice into the prairie would cost about 3 gold coins. To transport the argali back would increase your income, but on the continent an argali costs 8 gold coins. This doesn’t include the chances of being robbed. You have to remember that merchants here in the Beastfolk Prairie usually cooperate with a large war tribe. If not, then they’d get robbed. With an estimate, an ordinary merchant would be robbed three or four out of ten times. Even without this, the profit they would make from argalis would only be around 4 to 5 gold coins. This is already very good.”

Zhao Hai nodded. He understood her points. Since the costs were high, the price would naturally go up. If the cost was too low, then people wouldn’t do this kind of business. In the end, the one who would suffer the most wouldn’t be the Terrans, but the beastfolk. They wouldn’t do well if this happened.[4]

Zhao Hai turned to Laura and asked, “How much do you think we should pay if we trade with them?”

Laura smiled faintly and said, “One tonne per argali.”

Zhao Hai nodded. He didn’t have to worry about the high costs that the other merchants experienced as he was producing the bamboo rice inside the Space. Furthermore, he could also place the argali within the Spatial Ranch or just store them inside the Spatial Warehouse. He didn’t need to arrange anything or bribe anyone. With this, he almost didn’t have any extra costs to pay. One tonne of bamboo rice per argali would still mean he’d earn money. Moreover, one tonne of bamboo rice in the Beastfolk Prairie wouldn’t have much of an impact on the prices since it was still a reasonable rate.

Nier and Meg stood back and listened to the two as they discussed. Meg didn’t feel bad about this so long as she could take care of Zhao Hai. The business matters from before were all done by Zhao Hai anyway. As such, she didn’t feel any jealousy.

For bystanders, she and Laura would be considered rivals. Meg’s view of this, however, wasn’t like that. She didn’t want to fight Laura over anything. Meg only wanted to be by Zhao Hai’s side. In addition, Laura’s strong point in business was an innate talent that Meg couldn’t compare with.

Meg had already resolved her issues about this long ago. Therefore, she wouldn’t be jealous of Laura. If Laura was competent, then she would be happy. After all, Laura now represented the Buda clan. If she were competent, then the Buda clan would become stronger. This was what Meg desired.

They chatted as they walked. Before long, they arrived before the tent. As soon as the people in the tent found them, twenty shadows rushed towards them. A dog accompanied each of the shadows.

As the shadows drew closer to Zhao Hai, it became noticeable that the twenty individuals were cavalry soldiers. What made Zhao Hai smile was the fact that their mounts were unexpectedly pigs.

Yep, these were pigs. With a body around two meters long and a weight of over half a tonne, those pigs had two long buck teeth growing in their mouths. Then the riders riding the pigs made Zhao Hai think of a man, Zhu Bajie[5].

They really did look too similar. Like Zhu Bajie, they wore prairie clothing; the individuals had fur hats on their heads and were dressed in leather clothes. They had large pig heads atop a rough, thick neck and their snow-white bellies were exposed to the outside. One could see a layer of black hair on their bellies. So long as they put on a robe and held a rake, they would look just like Zhu Bajie. They didn’t even need to wear makeup.

Zhao Hai wanted to smile, but then he thought it wouldn’t be polite. If he ridiculed the beastfolk and caused a conflict, it wouldn’t be nice to look at. He refrained from it and slowly calmed his mood.

Alongside those big bellied, pig-headed riders were several dogs. Those dogs were very special as they were about a meter tall and had long hair. They ran really fast and didn’t bark randomly. With two fangs exposed over their lip, they didn’t look like something one should mess with.

Zhao Hai and the others stopped immediately. They assumed a calm and friendly appearance. Sure enough, those pig riders slowed down. Zhao Hai now found out that the weapons of those pig riders could only be described as simple. It was a big sheep’s head fitted onto a wooden handle. And some of the weapons didn’t even use wood, but animal bones.

Zhao Hai, however, didn’t dare to underestimate this type of weapon as a sheep’s head was very large and looked very heavy. If one got pounded by such a thing, then it would definitely break one’s bones and crush one’s tendons.

Right now, the Big Bellied Pig tribe people stopped 50 meters in front of them. Both sides halted, but those riders let their dogs move about and surround the sides of Zhao Hai and the others. The dogs were staring at them, a warning hum sounding from deep within their throats.

Notes:

-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.

-Please support the author if you love this novel.

-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.

Footnotes:

[1] 盘羊 – Pán yáng. Argali… basically a mountain sheep. Simple google works. ↩

[2] I don’t know how this works. The power of an arrow but less range? Maybe cause it’s made of water? ↩

[3] Again, 1000 jin = 500 kilograms or half a tonne. Half a metric ton for whoever. About 1100 lbs. ↩

[4] I barely understand this marketing. The wording is either off, or the author used weird characters. Just because it’s expensive to do something, doesn’t mean people would accept the equivalent high price. And if the costs were low, how would no one participate in the business? This is like backwards economics. Are they masochistic businessmen who just like to put their hands in high cost problems? ↩

[5] 猪八戒 – Zhūbājiè. A character from Journey to the West. Also called Pigsy or Pig. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Bajie

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