Chapter 66: You Monster, You

Wang Lan had also heard of this before; some monsters block passing caravans on the road to do business, and some even pay to buy goods.

But it was only hearsay, never encountered. Yet she didn't expect that she would have a day when she actually meets this.

The Great Zhou court's attitude toward monsters is actually quite lax; after all monsters pose little threat to the dynasty, so they generally don't deliberately hunt them.

Monsters without cultivation techniques, relying only on their modest powers, cannot contend with human cultivators of the same level; as for armies, even less so, and monsters have poor social nature and weak organization.

Even if some deep mountain forests have monster towns, that's all there is. Not only are they few, but the vast majority are only at the level of ordinary human counties; some don't even meet county standards, at most a large village.

As for monsters occasionally ambushing passing caravans, honestly, if you have time to deal with that, you'd be better off dealing with bandits who rob and claim mountains as their own. After all, when a monster intercepts a caravan, if you can communicate with it, you can indeed let it release you by paying the loss of a batch of food.

Those bandits are different; a little food won't make them leave.

Some caravans carry large amounts of food on hand to cope with monster encounters; Wang Lan used to do the same, though she never met one. But this time, stubbornly, her cargo ring was filled to make space, leaving no room for food.

Moreover, the route between He Dong Xian and He Xi Xian hasn't seen a monster in almost a hundred years, so when departing they never imagined such a situation.

But now, just like a heavy object that will inevitably strike your foot when you're not wearing steel‑toed work boots, there are usually no problems, yet on the one day you aren't wearing them you get smashed.

"Do you want to do business?"

Watching her gape dumbfounded for a long time without uttering a word, Wang Wu, hands on hips, asked.

"Uh, I'll do it! I'll do it!!"

Hearing a hint of displeasure in the other's tone, Wang Lan hurriedly replied, thinking that if she didn't answer now, she'd have to answer from inside the other's belly later.

This hard‑won chance to save her life she must grasp tightly, never let go even a fraction.

"I want to buy ten thousand jin, never mind, I want five thousand jin of food." Seeing the other agree, Wang Wu said, "All meat, no rice—pickled or dried meat that can be stored long‑term. Freshly slaughtered beef, lamb, pork are also fine; give me two or three hundred jin."

"That's all." After saying that, Wang Wu began pulling out money; he had only just discovered in the past few days that even in his transformed state the ring still works. But he was also curious: when he's in that state wearing nothing, where does the ring go?

But on second thought, since he can restore ruined clothes after the transformation ends, this seems trivial.

A gold ingot appeared in Wang Wu's hand, not a tiny one‑tael piece, but a bright white ingot about as heavy as a regular gold ingot.

Its denomination is two taels; although it doesn't look much like gold, Zhao Xingyue told him it is gold and warned him not to be foolish enough to use it as silver.

Wang Wu felt angry, thinking the woman was insulting his intelligence; even if he lacks common sense here, he's not that stupid.

According to the conversion, ten wen of purchasing power equals one local cash coin, three thousand wen equals one tael of silver, one thousand wen equals a standard cash coin. Fifty taels of silver equals one gold.

By that calculation, the two‑tael gold is thirty thousand cash coins.

Thirty thousand cash coins for five thousand jin of meat sounds wildly unrealistic, though Wang Wu could indeed do it, since he could simply not pay.

If the officials report that the goods were robbed by mountain monsters, the government won't intervene at all, just telling you to consider yourself unlucky—unless the goods are truly valuable and important to the court.

Spatial equipment is expensive; a single piece can cost several gold pieces. In this world, such gear is equivalent to a truck, with cheap trucks costing tens of thousands, and heavy‑duty ones over a million.

This gear, like a truck, can carry cargo; merchants basically all have one. Although a cultivator's Qi‑space sleeve could be used, if the cultivator isn't from one's own family, sometimes a ring is a better choice.

Of course, a horse‑drawn carriage is clearly a cheaper option; hiring a few ordinary bodyguards brings the cost of a trip down to a few thousand cash coins, with the profit still staying with the guards.

A carriage is worth barely any money; per kilometer it earns only a few hundred wen, about seven or eight cash coins, and dangerous sections double that.

Not all goods need to be transported with a spatial ring; it's completely unnecessary.

The Wang Clan and Li Yuan each gave Wang Wu a ring, one larger spatial ring and one smaller. At market price, Li Yuan's ring is about six gold, while the Wang Clan's is slightly more, around twelve gold.

The Wang Clan truly is a generous family, as they say. So Wang Wu didn't intend to shortchange them.

"This is just a deposit, take it." Wang Wu said, then tossed the platinum ingot in his hand toward Wang Lan, looking at the crowd that had gathered behind her.

"Where are your carriages? Where is your cargo?"

He glanced, but Wang Wu saw no scattered goods or carriages on the road they came from; it couldn't be that the monster swallowed them all, could it?

Speaking of the monster, Wang Wu immediately sprang up, walked onto the monster's corpse, retrieved a demon pill from its skeleton and stored it in his ring. He then returned to Wang Lan.

"Why didn't I see your carriages?" Wang Wu asked. Before Wang Lan could answer, Wang Wu noticed the ring on her finger and said, "Inside your ring? What goods are there now?"

"Uh, this, this…" Wang Lan, holding the gold ingot Wang Wu gave her, was at a loss for words when asked the most critical question.

After all, this was her first time dealing with a monster.

"Food is no problem, of course." Wang Lan, quick‑witted as always, responded promptly, a businessman's enthusiastic smile on her face, "but…"

"You're not transporting something other than food, are you?" Wang Wu didn't even have to think, cutting in, "Anything you can move with a spatial ring obviously isn't food; that can be hauled by carriage."

In the past few months he hadn't failed to spy on passing caravans; everything pulled by carriage was either leather goods or large sacks of dry grain. This world even has refrigerated transport carriages for fresh meat.

"No problem." Wang Lan, about to say something else with cold sweat breaking out, was cut off as Wang Wu said:

"The reason I gave you a deposit is this: rest assured, I'm a friendly monster and won't harm you. I can even escort you all the way to the destination; of course, I won't get too close to you or the county, both to protect you and myself."

"If you trust me, we can set off now. All I need is that when you return to the city, you deliver a batch of food to me, and I'll settle the remaining payment myself."

(End of Chapter)