Chapter 2258: Slaves Accounted For

The next day.

Xia Duo left the Floating City early and returned to the Magic Ship. After a night of effort, the commander of Zhanjite City had already quelled all the rebels. Finally, after the tallying by Tax Official Jiamu, a total of over two thousand six hundred sellable slaves were captured!

According to the price Xia Duo and Jiamu had initially agreed upon, each slave was one hundred Makala, totaling only two hundred and sixty thousand Makala, which was 260,000 Gold Coins.

For Xia Duo, who could settle payments using Arcane Crystals, this was truly not expensive. If there were no restrictions here in Yimaska, he could buy out all the surplus slaves in this region.

Although Xia Duo had previously said he had no extra Arcane Crystals, no one would consider hard currencies like Energy Gems to be easily obtained.

After the transaction, both sides were very satisfied with the result. Jiamu felt that exchanging just some slaves for precious Energy Gems was too good a deal.

And for Xia Duo, no matter what the item was, and no matter how high the asking price was, as long as he could settle it with Arcane Crystals, he would always make a profit.

Moreover, because this was Yimaska, far from Xilu, Xia Duo did not need to worry about any subsequent repercussions at all. Even if he only did this one-off deal, the trip was completely worth it.

Xia Duo temporarily placed the slaves acquired in the transaction into the Arcane Garden of the Floating City. He planned to deal with those people after he had fewer things on his plate.

Leaving them cold for a period of time could also allow those people to properly consider their situation and be better absorbed and assimilated by the Territory.

……

In the current Zhanjite City, most of the rebels had already become slaves and were in Xia Duo's pocket; the rest of the transactions had all been completed before the rebels started their uprising.

Next, Xia Duo and Pocheye did not stay long. They soon left Zhanjite City and sped toward the next trading location.

On the way, Xia Duo chatted with Jiamu about Yimaska's slaves intentionally or unintentionally, "I just noticed that those slaves are significantly different from orthodox Yimaska people. Is there any story behind this?"

"Those are Mulan, the natural slave race found for the Yimaska people by the great Master of Craftsmen, His Majesty the Grand Emperor Koutan, because they are dull-witted and can never become craftsmen."

When mentioning the Mulan, there was no special contempt in Jiamu's eyes, as if he were talking about an inanimate object. Or rather, how could a master despise his own property?

"In Yimaska, besides the Mulan, there are also some Kadi, Dupa Ren, and Uergasi people who have fallen into slavery due to crimes or other reasons. But because these ethnic groups all have the talent for craftsmanship, as long as they work hard to become craftsmen, those who did not become slaves due to crimes can shed their slave status."

This sounded like it had some reasonableness to it, but slavery itself was the greatest unreasonableness. Xia Duo just echoed the sentiment and did not reveal his inner thoughts.

"Then, Tax Official Jiamu, what exactly are Yimaska people?"

"If we only look at it from the perspective of bloodline, the earliest Yimaska people were actually Dupa Ren. But because of the rise of successive Masters of Craftsmen, the concept of Yimaska people is far from being limited by bloodline. As long as one can become a craftsman, one can be called a Yimaska person."

"Then do you think I can become a craftsman?"

"Of course you can. As long as you swear allegiance to the great Master of Craftsmen, even outsiders have the opportunity to become Yimaska people."

"Hehe."

Xia Duo certainly could not swear allegiance to the Yimaska Emperor, but from Jiamu's answer, it could also be seen that the level of secrecy Yimaska maintained regarding the Creation Magic System was actually far lower than he had imagined.

As long as one swore allegiance, one could gain the possibility of becoming a craftsman. This threshold was truly a bit excessive; after all, even if one swore an oath, it might be too harsh to force a Spellcaster to agree to such a restrictive personal dependency relationship.

The essence would not be much different from the agreements for joining Mage Tower organizations in Netheril.

Then, looking at it from the experience in Netheril, the path of the craftsman here could actually be bought with money, it was just that Xia Duo, as an outsider, had the purchasing channel controlled by Jiamu.

If he wanted to buy, he would have to bleed heavily!

But as long as he could buy it, what did a little money matter?

Thinking this way, Xia Duo already had a plan in his heart. During the subsequent voyage, he did not mention any topic related to Creation Magic to Jiamu again.

Until the Magic Ship arrived at the next city—

"That is the holy land in the hearts of all Yimaska people, the residence of the great Master of Craftsmen, His Majesty the Grand Emperor Omanode—Yinnupulasi."

When mentioning the Master of Craftsmen, no matter what environment Jiamu was in, he always displayed a look of reverence and love, which made Xia Duo feel curious.

Why would such a ruler who had brought the country to the brink of collapse still have such firm supporters? But on second thought, this Jiamu was originally a Tax Official brought over by Omanode to supervise transactions. If even he were disloyal to the boss, then this country could not be maintained at all.

Thinking about it this way, I am afraid that the trading locations Jiamu chose before were also deliberately selected; they should all be areas that were pro-Omanode and had relatively stable rule.

But even so, they encountered the farce of rebels attacking the city, so one could imagine how chaotic other regions would be.

Looking at the magnificent city lying quietly on the Surface plain in the distance, Xia Duo faintly smelled a hint of decay, but in front of Jiamu, he could not say so, but instead—

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"Tax Official Jiamu, do Yimaska people like the color purple very much?"

"Mage Asuosi, you must have thought so because you saw the color of the buildings inside Yinnupulasi City, but the fact might be just the opposite. The reason the buildings in the city are purple is simply because they chose purple stone materials from the southern mountains."

"Is there anything special about that material? To make Yimaska people insist on using it even if they don't like it?"

"That kind of stone material has a high affinity for space after special processing and is an important material for building the Teleportation Hub. The Yinnupulasi you see now is actually half-built inside the Ether Interlayer. The Purple Star in the sky is, to a certain extent, a Projection of Yinnupulasi."

"So that's how it is. Is such a secret something that can be told to outsiders so casually?"

"What kind of secret is this? Guests only need to go to Yinnupulasi in person, and what they see with their own eyes will only be more than what I said, not less."

Jiamu saying this made Xia Duo develop an even stronger interest in Yinnupulasi. As the Magic Ship approached bit by bit, this Capital City, which looked generally purple from afar, finally revealed more of its true face.

The first was that giant tower rising into the clouds, which surpassed almost any kind of building Xia Duo had seen so far, except for the Floating City.

And around the giant tower was a vast urban area also with purple as the main color tone. It was just a pity that looking down from the sky, one could clearly see that the commercial atmosphere in the city was not active, and not many pedestrians could be seen on the streets.