Chapter 2689: Trade and Advancement (27)

As a merchant, Xu Qinglian's ability to read faces and observe moods was also one of her professional skills.

She could read Zhao Chi's emotions.

So in the end she didn't fully spell out the situation in the werewolf-occupied zones.

After all, the Ruby Commerce Guild also cooperated with the werewolves, and she worried it would affect her cooperation with Zhao Chi.

But Zhao Chi could guess.

Some things didn't need to be said too clearly.

Besides, Zhao Chi was only curious.

Zhao Chi nodded: "It's fine, I just wanted to get a sense of it. Just tell me the truth."

Xu Qinglian said: "Mm, I understand. Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Mm, yes. What's the situation with the exchange in District 3? Are there many supplies?"

"It's alright, pretty normal, but the military supplies were confiscated long ago. What's left is basically auxiliary supplies and items."

"What do military supplies include?"

"Bloodlines, divine artifact shards, high-grade elixirs, functional elixirs, functional items, all kinds of production blueprints, all kinds of treasure chests, and so on. Basically anything useful was taken by the werewolves."

"Huh!?"

Zhao Chi said in shock: "So you're saying the District 3 exchange doesn't really have anything good?"

Shopkeeper Wanyan cut in: "Exactly. Luckily what you need are Quick-Craft Talismans and Quick-Growth Talismans — those two are very common, so the quantities are relatively higher, which is why we could buy them for you in a single day. If it were divine artifact shards, the Menkending Society would definitely have to search everywhere."

Zhao Chi was a little disappointed.

He had originally thought that since the werewolves occupied such a large area and had plundered plenty of supplies from human lords and noble lords, their supplies should be very abundant.

But he might have been wrong.

The werewolves did have large territory, but the pressure they faced was also great.

Especially the nobles in the central District 1 and District 9 who were still resisting — they had been holding the werewolves up for a long time and had drained them for a long time.

Besides the nobles, the werewolves' enemies also included various resistance armies, and local militias also revolted from time to time.

So the larger the werewolves' territory, the more it dragged them down.

The werewolves had to suppress every area desperately, and all kinds of supplies and items were consumed in massive quantities. They would definitely confiscate on a large scale, even forcibly confiscate — there simply couldn't be much circulating on the market.

Even if there were any, they'd be in the werewolves' military supply depots.

How could there be any on the market?

Even Shubei Town had to confiscate supplies; the werewolves would squeeze supplies even harder.

Here in Shubei Town, heavy bounties might still net some good items, but in the werewolf-occupied zones… they'd probably long since been drained dry by the werewolves.

Probably even more thoroughly than Zhao Chi had drained them.

Although Zhao Chi didn't like the Xuanwu Corps, the Xuanwu Corps was, after all, part of the World-Breaking Army, so they couldn't be too harsh on the residents of their territory.

But the werewolves were different.

They weren't even the same species — when they squeezed humans, they did so without any restraint.

Humans had all been classified as fifth-class citizens, so there simply couldn't be anything good left among the common folk.

If that's the case…

Then the nobles who were barely holding on and continuously being attacked by the werewolves probably didn't have much supplies left either, right?

The nobles' situation was even more miserable than the werewolves' — they had to be in an even more wretched state.

Damn…

Having thought this through, Zhao Chi couldn't help frowning.

He had originally held high expectations for the werewolf market and the noble market, but now…

What a huge disappointment.

Xu Qinglian hurriedly said: "What's wrong, Zhao Chi? Did something we said offend you?"

Zhao Chi shook his head: "No. Then if I want to collect divine artifact shards, would it be even harder on your end?"

"Yes… we'd need to search everywhere."

"Can we buy from the werewolves' military supply depot? Money is no object."

Shopkeeper Wanyan and Xu Qinglian exchanged a glance, then both shook their heads.

Zhao Chi asked: "Is it not possible? Are the werewolves hard to bribe?"

Xu Qinglian shook her head: "It's not that the method doesn't work — it's that we can't do it."

"You can't?"

"Right." Xu Qinglian nodded: "Our identities won't work. We're human. If humans wanted to buy from the werewolves' military supply depot — even willing to bribe to do it — what do you think the werewolves would think?"

Shopkeeper Wanyan added: "The werewolves would definitely think something fishy was going on, and they'd identify us as spies from the nobles or the resistance army sent to sabotage werewolf supplies. That's why we can't do it."

Zhao Chi asked: "Then where do you find supplies? Other towns of the resistance army?"

Xu Qinglian nodded: "Right, including places like the Heavenly King Army and so on. But some resistance army towns won't even let us in, so finding things takes time. But don't worry — we'll definitely do our best to search."