Chapter 47: Contact (3)

As for how they had come by this skill and how it was used, Village Chief Chalei didn’t say, and Su Chen didn’t ask.

Both sides maintained a rare tacit understanding. After all, the trust between the two of them was based on their mutual hatred of the Bloodline Nobility Clans.

After understanding the situation between West River and the Bloodline Nobility Clans, Su Chen explained roughly his conflict with the Bloodline Nobility Clans as well.

It wasn’t very appropriate for him to toot his own horn, however, so he allowed Iron Cliff to tell it on his behalf.

When he heard that Su Chen had killed the Origin Bureau’s City Head, took over the Origin Bureau, and then washed the Clear River Docks with blood, the villagers’ gazes grew even more fervent, and they stared at Su Chen with immense respect.

Old Chalei said excitedly, “Knowledge Executor Su, since we both have enmity with the Bloodline Nobility Clans, we’re allies! If we can team up, we can definitely defeat those evil nobles!”

Su Chen laughed, “I think Village Chief may have misunderstood something.”

“What is it?”

Su Chen replied, “I never said that I had any enmity with the Bloodline Nobility Clans. All I ever said was that they want to kill me.”

Chalei was stunned. “Is there a difference?”

“Of course there’s a difference. As the Knowledge Executor of the Origin Bureau, everything I do is for the glory of heaven. My salary comes from the imperial family, so my loyalty is to them. However, the way I do things made the Bloodline Nobility Clans unhappy, inciting their attacks. I don’t like that, but I still don’t have a personal grudge with the Bloodline Nobility Clans; it’s just business. As such, if those Bloodline Nobility Clans stopped making trouble for me, I wouldn’t go to make trouble for them on my own.”

Everyone there was stunned by these words.

Su Chen had turned them down.

This wasn’t that surprising.

Even though the villagers were simple, they had their own brand of sneakiness. For Chalei to proclaim that he and Su Chen were united against a common enemy was basically just trying to get Su Chen to do free work for them. He would put his life on the line for them but wouldn’t be getting any benefit of his own.

If it were anyone else, perhaps they would have agreed.

If they were really so poor that they couldn’t afford to give him any benefits, Su Chen might have agreed to help them.

However, it just so happened that the person they had run into was Su Chen, and they weren’t penniless.

At the very least, in Su Chen’s eyes, they had riches that they were unaware of.

These riches weren’t West River Forest’s resources but their method to deal with the curse and the secret technique they used to control those beasts.

Su Chen valued those two things highly.

Even though the other party had something that Su Chen was interested in, there was no way he could possibly let it be known.

When Chalei heard Su Chen to turn him down, he grew a bit anxious. “Knowledge Executor Su, you killed one of our Guardian Angel Beasts......”

He didn’t mention a price, only asking for compensation; this kind of behavior made people extremely unhappy.

Iron Cliff harrumphed, and even Su Chen knitted his eyebrows slightly.

However, he continued to say with a smile, “Oh, since you mentioned it, I will need to make good on my promise from earlier. A top-tier Vicious Beast is still somewhat valuable no matter how you look at it. In the outside world, a top-tier Vicious Beast is worth at least two thousand Origin Stones, but because the one you had was tamed, its price will be much higher. Let’s just count it as ten times more expensive; that shouldn’t disadvantage you in any way.”

As he spoke, he pulled out twenty thousand Origin Stones from his Origin Ring and handed it to them.

Twenty thousand Origin Stones wasn’t a low price for them to pay. Under normal circumstances, he probably could’ve negotiated the price down to around eight thousand Origin Stones. No matter how you looked at it, there was nothing that you could say Su Chen had done wrong.

However, the Village Chief didn’t seem happy at all with the Origin Stones. Rather, he looked as if he were about to cry.

They were currently completely locked down by the Bloodline Nobility Clans; they couldn’t sell or buy anything, so money was completely useless to them.

While Origin Stones could help one recover one’s cultivation base, there weren’t many cultivators in the village, and the stones wouldn’t immediately be converted into true strength. In the end, it wasn’t nearly as useful as two powerful experts on their side.

Even so, Su Chen was very generous with his money so that he could clear up any misunderstandings on his side.

He said, “I don’t owe you anything more now, do I?”

As he spoke, he made a motion to leave.

When Chalei saw this, he grew agitated and grabbed Su Chen. “Knowledge Executor Su, we can forget about the money as long as you’re willing to help us out. To tell you the truth, the Bloodline Nobility Clan’s people have already come to West River Forest. These past few days, they’ve been constantly attacking us, and we’ve been fending them off with our Guardian Angel Beasts. However, they’ve already called for reinforcements; if this goes on, we won’t be able to defend ourselves. Knowledge Executor Su, the Bloodline Nobility Clans are your enemies. If you help defend us against them, it will be very beneficial to you as well! Weakening your enemies is the same as empowering yourself!”

The old man was indeed somewhat cultured. He knew how to say things like “weakening your enemies is the same as empowering yourself.”

Su Chen shook his head. “Sorry, my plan doesn’t include you. Whether or not you are present doesn’t affect me that much.”

As he said that, he turned around to leave again.

When he saw that Su Chen didn’t care in the slightest, the old man yelled, “Fine. If you stay and help us, I’ll give you the technique we use to resist the curse!”

Upon hearing this, Su Chen stopped and turned around, giving him a cold, disdainful stare. “Village Chief Chalei, I didn’t harm you. Why do you want to harm me?”

Chalei was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“I am interested in the technique you use to resist the curse, but if you think about it, there’s probably a bunch of serious restrictions on it. It’s likely that these restrictions are why you have no way of leaving the West River Forest for long periods of time and why those Bloodline Nobility Clans didn’t choose to use it. Otherwise, what need would there be to continue doing business with you? Why not just use that technique and then come to harvest those resources for themselves?”

Chalei froze. He clearly hadn’t expected Su Chen to see the situation so clearly.

Su Chen said, “Since the matter is now in the open, I’ll be open with you as well. Want me to help you knock back the Bloodline Nobility Clans? Fine. However, I want both techniques: the one to resist the curse and the one to control beasts. I won’t have one or the other.”

“Absolutely not! We cannot give him the technique to control our Guardian Angel Beasts!” the martial artist commander yelled.

Su Chen wasn’t angry.

After all, this was the foundation of their survival. It wasn’t surprising that they weren’t willing to hand it over easily.

Su Chen nodded. “Don’t worry. You can think it over. In any case, I’ll be staying in this forest for a few days. Whenever you agree to my conditions, just let me know.”

Chalei hurriedly said, “The West River Curse is abnormally frightening. Knowledge Executor Su, you might be able to resist it for a bit, but you won’t be able to last for a long time. It’s not a good idea for you to stay here for a long time unless you stay in our village......”

He suddenly shut his mouth.

Su Chen didn’t look into it too much. He laughed, “Everyone has their own destiny. If I can’t deal with the curse, then I can’t complain about dying. Of course, as long as I’m still alive, my earlier proposition still stands.”

The villagers were speechless.

Su Chen then said, “Of course, even if this transaction doesn’t come to fruition, I think that we can still do some other business. For instance, you can sell me some of the items you want to sell, and I can also bring back some of the necessities you need as long as the quantity required isn’t too large.”

When he heard this, Village Chief Chalei sighed. He knew that this was the best he would be able to get in this situation.

That evening, Su Chen and Chalei exchanged a few batches of commodities for a price five times higher than what those Bloodline Nobility Clans had been willing to pay.

Even so, Su Chen had still purchased this batch of goods at twenty times below market value.

If it weren’t for the fact that he needed to raise his cultivation base, Su Chen really wanted to make a few trips between Clear River City and West River Forest to ship these resources.