Under the exploration, Zhang Ruochen indeed found dozens of human auras in the ship’s silo.
The auras of those humans were different in strength and weakness, some of them had strong blood qi and were like humanoid savage beasts, while some of them had weak blood qi and were no different from ordinary people.
Only when all those evil martial artists were cleared, this one Red Spider Giant Ship would be considered to belong to him in its entirety.
“The Red Spider Giant Ship is a good treasure, if it is sold, it will probably be a huge fortune.”
Zhang Ruochen was planning to travel towards the ship’s warehouse, and when he passed by Mu Qing’s skeleton, he saw the long golden thread whip, so he picked it up, squeezed it in his hand, pushed open the door of the ship’s warehouse, and walked in.
The Golden Thread Long Whip, a Seventh Order True Martial Treasure Artifact, was also a valuable treasure.
The Red Spider Giant Ship’s barn was very large, divided into the upper, middle and lower levels, even if it held a thousand people, it did not seem crowded.
Just as he walked into the ship’s warehouse, an Evil Dao Martial Artist, whose entire body was covered in black armour, swung his sword towards Zhang Ruochen. His martial arts cultivation surprisingly reached the early stage of the Earth Extreme Realm, and he was clearly a martial arts expert guarding the ship warehouse.
“Swish!”
With a wave of the long golden thread whip, a golden light flashed past the neck of that one Evil Dao martial artist.
The black armour, as if it was made of paper, was easily cut open by the golden thread long whip.
That one Evil Dao Martial Artist, who was all covered in black armour, instantly became motionless, still maintaining the posture of raising his hand to slash his sword, until after Zhang Ruochen had walked away, his head, along with his metal helmet, fell to the ground with a bang.
On the upper deck of the Red Spider Giant Ship, Zhang Ruochen killed twelve Evil Dao martial practitioners in a row, with the strongest cultivation reaching the early stage of the Earth Extremity Realm, and the weakest cultivation only at the early stage of the Xuan Extremity Realm.
All of them were Mu Qing’s servants, each with their own division of labour, including a refiner who was responsible for repairing the inscriptions of the Red Spider Giant Ship, a housekeeper who was responsible for arranging the account books, and a martial artist who was dedicated to guarding the Red Spider Giant Ship.
When Zhang Ruochen walked into the middle level of the Red Spider Giant Ship, the entire layout of the ship’s barn suddenly changed, it was almost as if he had entered the royal palace courtyard, which was quite gorgeously decorated. Twenty-four beautiful slave girls gathered in the middle of the ship’s barn, staring at Zhang Ruochen, who had barged in, in terror.
Sensing the powerful aura emanating from Zhang Ruochen’s body, they all knelt on the ground, trembling in fear, not daring to raise their heads at all.
The twenty-four slave girls, with top-notch looks and figures, were almost all ordinary people, and only a few three had opened their Divine Martial Seal, but their martial cultivation was very low.
“Mu Qing is quite good at enjoying life.” Zhang Ruochen gently shook his head and asked, “Are all of you from the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce?”
Twenty-four slave girls knelt in a row, and no one dared to speak.
Zhang Ruochen said, “If you don’t speak, then I can only execute all of you as people of the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce.”
One of the young girls whose martial arts cultivation had reached the late stage of the Yellow Extreme Realm, bravely raised her head and cried while saying in a low voice, “Back to …… Your Excellency, we …… we used to be the subjects of the Yunwu County Kingdom, and because the County Kingdom s army was defeated, we were captured by the soldiers of the four directions county country and sold to the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce.”
“Among them, the most beautiful women were all selected and sent to the Red Spider Giant Ship to serve those bigwigs of the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce.”
“There were a total of fifty-seven in the beginning, and now there are only twenty-four of us left. My lord, please, save us, we don’t want to die here ……”
Those other slave girls also cried and begged, “My lord, save us! This place is hell on earth, please!”
Zhang Ruochen’s heart sank as he looked at the twenty-four young girls in front of him who were precisely at their most beautiful age, all of them were once subjects of the Yunwu County Kingdom, and some of them were presumably still noble daughters, but because of their defeat in the war, they were turned into slaves of the Evil Dao Martial Artists.
Who could be blamed?
One could only blame the Yunwu County Kingdom for not being strong enough to protect them.
Of course, the Yunwu County King could not be blamed, after all, the Yunwu County Kingdom was only a lower class county kingdom, the Sifang County Kingdom was a middle class county kingdom, and the difference in the national strength of the two county kingdoms was more than ten times, so once they were engaged in a battle, there was almost no possibility of winning.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen’s eyes lit up as he said, “Are you guys saying that you were originally captured by the Four Square County Kingdom’s army and then sent to the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce?”
“That’s right.” That one rather bold slave girl said.
“Could it be that there is collusion between the court of the Four Directions County Kingdom and the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce?” Zhang Ruochen said as if he was talking to himself.
If what they were telling was the truth, it would no longer be a trivial matter.
One must know that both the Yunwu County State and the Sifang County State were actually just a county of the First Central Empire. It was only because of their remote location that the First Central Empire managed them very loosely, tacitly allowing the counties to set up independent court institutions and set aside land for kings.
However, none of the counties could go against the fundamental state policy of the First Central Empire.
For example, the First Central Empire and the Martial Market Money Bank were in a cooperative relationship. Empress Chi Yao fully supported the Martial Market Money Bank, and the official forces of the counties must also stand on the same front as the Martial Market Money Bank, making every effort to suppress the Black Market and the Moon Worshipping Demon Cult.
If it was discovered that any county actually dared to collude with the Black Market, it would not only be crushed by the Martial Market Money Bank, but would also be disallowed by the Imperial Hub of the First Central County.
To put it simply, if the imperial court of the four county states really colluded with the black market and secretly sought to benefit from it, they would be committing suicide. The surrounding major counties could rise up in a group and divide up the territories of the Four Directions County State, and even the Martial Market Money Bank would strongly support it.
One of the slave girls carefully said, “My lord, I have important information to report.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at her and said, “Speak!”
That one slave girl had tears in her eyes as she whispered, “I …… have a condition!”
“A condition with me?” Zhang Ruochen smiled faintly.
That one slave girl was instantly stunned, thinking that she had offended Zhang Ruochen, she immediately lowered her head and kept kowtowing.
Zhang Ruochen said, “You don’t need to be so afraid of me, what conditions do you have, just say it!”
That one slave girl said, “As long as Your Excellency agrees to let us go, I will tell Your Excellency that piece of information.”
They didn’t know Zhang Ruochen’s identity, but it was clear that Zhang Ruochen must be a supreme powerhouse, or else how could Mu Qing’s Golden Thread Long Whip fall into his hands?
They didn’t want to continue to be Zhang Ruochen’s playthings, so they planned to strive for their freedom. Even though, their power, in front of Zhang Ruochen, seemed insignificant.
Zhang Ruochen found a chair, sat down, and laughed, “You guys might not know my identity, I am the Ninth Prince of the Yunwu County Kingdom, and I am also an Inner Palace student of the Martial City Academy. Even if you guys don’t beg me, I will still let you guys go.”
After they heard Zhang Ruochen state his identity, their eyes all lit up, and their previous fear completely turned into admiration and devotion.
That was the prince of the Yunwu County Kingdom, what an honourable status?
Moreover, he was able to kill a mythical martial arts powerhouse like Mu Qing, he was simply a hero of the world, naturally making them revered beyond measure.
Being held as slaves in the Red Spider Giant Ship, how had they not fantasised about a handsome prince who could lead the army to save them from this hellish place?
Now the dream had come true!
Zhang Ruochen said, ”After I let you all leave, where can you go? You are all very beautiful looking, and the vast majority of you have not trained in martial arts, so you don’t even have the power to defend yourselves, and in such a situation, you will soon be captured once again, and become someone else’s slaves once again.”
The eyes of those slave girls darkened, knowing that Zhang Ruochen was telling the truth.
In this world where martial arts were honoured, those without strength could only become slaves, or even worse.
Zhang Ruochen said, ”Don’t worry, since I am here, I will naturally arrange you all properly. Now can you tell me the information you have?”
After receiving Zhang Ruochen’s promise, they were finally relieved. That one young girl who had cultivated the Martial Dao, said, “Your Excellency’s earlier guess was correct, the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce and the court of the Sifang County Kingdom do indeed collude, and the relationship is quite deep.”
“During the year that we were trapped here, at least ten high officials from the Four Directions County Kingdom came to visit Mu Qing, and all of them were us serving those high officials. So, there were also some major secrets heard.”
“It is said that the attack launched by the Four Directions County Kingdom towards the Yunwu County Kingdom a year ago was the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce planning together behind the scenes, wanting to take advantage of the war and capture a large amount of slave commodities.”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes stared, revealing a few cold colours as he said, “It’s really detestable, just because of them, I don’t know how many generals of the Yunwu County Kingdom died in the war, I don’t know how many of their subjects were slaughtered, and I don’t know how many of their families were broken up and their wives were separated.”
Zhang Ruochen felt the need to figure out the relationship between the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce and the court of the Four Directions County Kingdom, and it would be best if they could be wiped out, so as to prevent them from rising up again in the future and causing more tragedies.
“Among those high officials of the Sifang County Kingdom that you have met, who has the most honourable status?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
One of the slave girls pondered for a moment and said, “I’ve seen a big shot, it seems to be a Marquis of the Four Directions County Kingdom, with an extremely high status, he could sit on an equal footing with Mu Qing, and negotiated a lot of major business with Mu Qing.”
Zhang Ruochen’s heart stirred as he said, “What is the name of that one Marquis?”
That one slave girl shook her head and said, “I don’t know, I only heard Mu Qing call him ‘Marquis of Zhen Jun’.”
Zhang Ruochen nodded, with the title of ‘Marquis of Zhen Jun’, it would be as easy as a slap in the face to find that person out.
A trip must be made to the Sifang County Kingdom, and after checking the news, the Martial City Money Bank and the Martial City School Palace must be notified immediately, and the Poisonous Spider Chamber must be eliminated with thunderous means, sanctioning the Sifang County Kingdom.
“All of you get up! I will now take you all to Lin’an County City and instruct the sergeants in the county to escort you to the King’s City. I will write a handwritten epistle and give it to you all. Take my epistle with you and go to the Nine County Lord, she will naturally place you all properly.” Zhang Ruochen said.
“Many thanks, Your Highness the Ninth Prince.”
Those slave girls cried with joy as they all stood up and bowed respectfully to Zhang Ruochen.
A young girl who was only fifteen years old standing at the corner stared timidly at Zhang Ruochen, as if she had something to say, but she didn’t dare to say it.
Her actions, naturally, could not escape Zhang Ruochen’s eyes and asked, “What else do you have to say?”
That one slave girl whispered, “I have one more thing to report to His Highness the Ninth Prince, perhaps His Highness the Ninth Prince will be very interested.”
“What is it?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
That one slave girl said, “I have always served Mu Qing, and one time he drank a lot of wine and revealed some secrets. He said …… that he had a Half Saint Sacred Intent, and it was still genuine, it was found in a Half Saint relic, and it was his most precious treasure.”
…..
