Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1518 - 1511: Each Holds Their Own Opinion

Chapter 1518: Chapter 1511: Each Holds Their Own Opinion

Watching the four people depart, Cheng Ziang very elegantly flipped a decorative knife before sheathing his long sword. However, the crowd of onlookers didn’t give the enthusiastic applause he had hoped for, but instead stared at them wide-eyed, then looked at each other in disbelief, emitting sounds of astonishment.

Although dissatisfied with such a result, Cheng Ziang could only helplessly shrug his shoulders, appearing indifferent.

The merchant who had been extorted carefully stood up, patted the dust off his body, and then cautiously approached Cheng Ziang, asking tentatively, "May I, may I ask who you are..."

"We come from the west and arrived in the town only yesterday," Cheng Ziang replied.

"Yesterday... Oh, you are the saints from the west," the merchant said, as if he had suddenly realized.

"There is but one saint, who is the eyes and ears of God, and we are the guardians from all four directions under the saint," Cheng Ziang said earnestly, without blinking an eye.

"Guardians from all... all four directions?" Not just the merchant, even the onlooking crowd had a look of bafflement.

"Mhm," Cheng Ziang nodded and continued, "The head of your town asked me to deal with Wuyun Sect’s issue. It just happened that we ran into them on the street."

"From your accent, you don’t seem to be from the west; you sound more like a person from Kyushu," the merchant said, frowning slightly and asking with a hint of skepticism.

"We are the guardians from all four directions under the saint," Cheng Ziang replied with a smile, not at all flustered, "You should know that our God is omnipotent; as long as you believe in Her, you can receive Her grace. Hence, language is not at all an obstacle for us."

The reason he could say these things so confidently was mainly because what he had said was indeed somewhat true; the Kyushu language with a Kyushu accent that he mastered was imparted to him by Liseya. In a certain sense, to say it was a gift from God was not entirely incorrect.

"God is omnipotent..." mumbled the merchant and then, with a sudden lift of his eyebrows, asked excitedly, "So, can God fulfill the wishes of us common folk?"

"What wishes do you have? Feel free to discuss them," Cheng Ziang asked.

"We don’t want to pay tribute to Wuyun Sect," said the merchant somewhat excitedly.

"And the Imperial Court?" Cheng Ziang asked.

"Don’t want to either!" the merchant replied instinctively.

Hearing his response, Cheng Ziang subtly shook his head with a bitter smile, but the merchant couldn’t see his expression, only his movement, so the merchant asked with some disappointment, "Is it not possible?"

"God fulfills wishes, not desires," Cheng Ziang said, patting his shoulder.

"Is there a difference?" the merchant asked, puzzled.

"Of course, there is," Cheng Ziang began, pointing at the ground, "This is the territory of the Fengyu Dynasty. Conducting business and trade here, it’s only right to pay Contributing Taxes to the Dynasty, don’t act as if you’ve been forced. Wuyun Sect’s demand for tributes several times over might be excessive, but is it really good for you to contribute nothing?"

"Every penny we earn comes from our own hard work," the merchant retorted unsatisfied.

"Everyone involved in the circulation of goods will claim their money comes from hard labor, but we all know that circulation doesn’t create wealth; you just profit from the process of wealth redistribution. Compared to the labor of the production phase, it’s hard to say who works harder," Cheng Ziang said somewhat to himself.

"What do you mean?" The merchant looked perplexed.

"It doesn’t mean much; we helped you drive them away, so theoretically, you should owe us a favor, right?" Cheng Ziang shook his head and countered.

"What do you mean you ’helped me drive them away’? As soon as you leave, they will come back to trouble me, even more so than before. So I’m at a loss and owe you a favor?" The merchant was quite stingy, appearing very miserly.

"We’ll handle the matter to the end, but as things stand, it’s an undeniable fact that we’ve extricated you from trouble, right?" Cheng Ziang said as he intentionally or unintentionally displayed his sheathed long sword.

"What do you want?" The merchant asked with an unsightly expression.

"Don’t be so tense, we’re not after your life, just a few answers to our questions," Cheng Ziang patted his shoulder again. "Relax, relax."

"Let me make it clear, I don’t have much savings, otherwise I wouldn’t be in such a mess," the merchant said warily.

"Ah..." Cheng Ziang sighed hopelessly, unsure of what to say. After a lengthy silence, he recovered and asked earnestly, "Tell me, before the Wuyun Sect took over, what was the tax rate given by the Imperial Court, ten percent or twenty percent?"

"The Imperial Court?" Upon hearing this, the merchant sneered, "The Imperial Court can’t manage this place at all. The Fengyu Dynasty is full of incompetent fools who can’t even handle the Capital City, let alone a border town like this."

"Really?" When Cheng Ziang heard this, he couldn’t help but smirk wryly.

The fact that this merchant dared to speak like this in public indicated that it was very likely true; at the very least, the Imperial Court’s influence couldn’t reach this small town, which is why people here dared to criticize the authorities.

Before asking questions, Cheng Ziang had already assumed that the ruling power of the Fengyu Dynasty was weak, but he didn’t expect it to be so feeble that even these cautious merchants could speak ill of it so freely.

This town was still a transportation hub. A hub means there would be traffic, traffic generates trade value, and trade value should capture the attention of the Imperial Court.

So, logically, the Fengyu Dynasty shouldn’t overlook such a place. Even with weak governance, establishing a protectorate here should be feasible. Yet, the Fengyu Dynasty really did nothing, and here, both order and governance relied solely on the self-management of the Demon Clan living here.

It really felt like gifting one’s territory away. If neighboring Linglan took an interest in this place, they wouldn’t even need to send troops; just by winning over the heads of the Demon Clan, they could take direct control of the town.

At this thought, Cheng Ziang curiously asked, "Without the control of the Imperial Court, aren’t you afraid that the neighboring Demon Clan will set their sights on this place?"

"The Demon Clan, heh..." When mentioned the Demon Clan, the merchant immediately showed a disdainful sneer, "Weak as Fengyu is, it’s protected by the Heavenly Army. Neighboring Abisien just got a spanking from the Heavenly Army, they wouldn’t dare to scheme on this place."

"The Heavenly Army’s protection, isn’t that just outsourcing national defense? So, the Fengyu Dynasty’s land still requires the Dongsheng Empire to send troops for protection..." Cheng Ziang couldn’t help but shake his head and lament.

Though the Fengyu Dynasty is a vassal state of the Dongsheng Empire, this self-defeating strategy seemed a bit too extreme. It’s like they couldn’t do anything right and would squander everything they got.

This made Cheng Ziang think of a joke about an incredibly lazy person whose parents, worried he would starve while they were away, tied a bun around his neck. The bun was meant to last until they returned.

Yet, he died of hunger anyway because after eating the bun in front, he was too lazy to turn his head for the back and starved to death.

To Cheng Ziang, the Fengyu Dynasty felt a bit like that lazy man; never mind not being able to secure their territory, they couldn’t even collect taxes efficiently.

"So if you had to choose, would you prefer to pay Contributing Taxes to the Imperial Court or to the Wuyun Sect?" Cheng Ziang asked out of curiosity.

"I wouldn’t want to pay either!" the merchant replied boldly.

"Why not? Isn’t paying Contributing Taxes an obligation?" Cheng Ziang asked, puzzled.

"Who told you it’s an obligation? If the Imperial Court has the capacity, let them come and Conquer. Entrusting it to the Wuyun Sect, what’s that all about? They’re nothing but a little Sect fallen to the outskirts, relying on their Cultivators to commit all kinds of outrages, hmph, just because they think we merchants have no one backing us up. If they really anger us, we’ll hire someone from the Nine Streams to deal with them," the merchant said with a sneer.

"Nine Streams, can you really hire people from the Nine Streams here?" Cheng Ziang seemed quite curious upon hearing that term.

"The Nine Streams are the commoners, and the commoners are the Nine Streams; as long as you wish to find them, you can always manage. These people are easy to negotiate with, as long as you pay they’ll do anything, much better than those lofty Sects with their Dual Dao," the merchant said with lingering resentment.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.