Chapter 2296: Leaving Alone

————Reserve Team~~

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However, before setting off to select slaves, Xia Duo still couldn't help but try to perform Scrying on that mysterious Prophet. As he expected, he failed to discover any useful information.

The result of the Scrying was as if covered by a thick layer of dense Mist. Although there was no intention to block his observation, all that "met his eyes" was Mist, and even after wandering for a long time, he could not obtain the slightest bit of information.

Xia Duo was not sure if this was the handiwork of the Cormanthor Elf or if the God-Making Project of the Mulan had already achieved results, but regardless, he was even more interested in that mysterious Prophet.

…………

Yinnupulasi, west of the city.

On a large expanse of open ground near the water, sparse and crude buildings formed the largest settlement of Mulan in Yinnupulasi. Besides this one, there was one each in the east and south of the city.

But now, the other two settlements and even the ownerless slaves within the city had been gathered here. When Xia Duo first arrived, he was startled by the sea of people.

Looking at the bald heads bobbing within his field of vision, to be honest, his feelings were extremely complex; he had not expected Yinnupulasi to have so many Mulan!

And this was just Yinnupulasi; how many were there in other places?

At this moment, Xia Duo was in no mood to use Spellcasting to investigate the specific number, but a rough estimate at a glance showed at least forty or fifty thousand people.

It was far more spectacular than the scenes of assemblies he attended when he was in school back home!

Just then, seeing that Xia Duo seemed to have stopped in his tracks, Jiamu, who had come along with Xia Duo, immediately stepped forward to explain:

"Mage Asuosi, these before you are the Mulan here in Yinnupulasi. If you feel it is not enough, the four nearby settlements also welcome you to go and select from them at any time."

"The number is enough, but why are these categorized by age?"

It was not just by age, but also by gender, arranged into square formations with aisles in between, allowing people to enter and select slowly. However, this practice of treating people entirely as cargo made Xia Duo feel very dissatisfied.

It was just that he did not show this dissatisfaction in front of Jiamu, and at this moment, his original thought of wanting to "compete" with that Mulan Prophet also faded.

The other party was seeking a way out for their ethnic group; if he were to treat this as a game, it would be a bit too petty.

At this time, Jiamu gave a very official answer to Xia Duo's inquiry about why the Mulan were arranged by age—selecting only the elderly or the young could be discounted, selecting only the able-bodied required an additional ten percent, and women also required an additional ten percent!

It was truly treating people as commodities to be sold, and a complete, relatively perfect set of standards had already been formed.

The more Xia Duo heard, the more uncomfortable he felt, not only feeling pity for the plight of the Mulan, but also, as a human, feeling a sense of empathy for the scene before him.

"Next, I will mark a batch of people, and I want all of them along with their families."

Previously, when he was in Meituo City, the batch of Mulan Xia Duo purchased were all-in because of the rebel army, and he had not specifically requested to find those people's families afterward.

But now, under normal circumstances, if he could take their families away together, it would be easier to win the hearts of these Mulan.

Regarding this request from Xia Duo, Jiamu gave an affirmative answer after briefly asking the Manager of the slave camp (Mulan settlement):

"No problem, Mage Asuosi, please mark them as you wish. Later, General Guleben will bring them out along with their families."

"Mm."

Xia Duo responded, then began Spellcasting. Although he had given up the thought of competing with the Mulan Prophet, he still could not be careless in selecting people. He could not deliberately do anything just to accommodate the other party; he only chose the people he took a fancy to.

As for who he took a fancy to, that was also very simple: he would first select those with skills. The Scrying spell was useless against the Prophet, but it was not a problem at all against these ordinary people.

Soon, a flickering glimmer appeared among the crowds gathered into square formations. It swept past every bald head from this side of the formation, and whenever there was a candidate Xia Duo liked, a small bit of that flickering glimmer would separate and stay on the bald head.

By the time he had swept through all the formations, nearly four thousand people had been marked.

"Tax Official Jiamu, these people along with their families, no problem, right?" Xia Duo looked at Jiamu and confirmed again.

During the process of Spellcasting, he had already noticed that the people responsible for managing the slaves here were whispering to each other, and in the end, it culminated in a tangled and unhappy sour face from the slave leader.

However, Xia Duo did not need to deal with those people; asking Jiamu was enough.

Just as Jiamu was about to answer, the slave leader on the side chattered on and on, as if arguing about something. Jiamu just nodded and shook his head with an expressionless face, completely ignoring the other party's argument.

Finally, he even waved his hand to dismiss the other party and continued to reply to Xia Duo's previous inquiry: "Mage Asuosi, please rest assured, there is absolutely no problem at all, except that this batch of people are all the most excellent craftsmen in the settlement.

"Although they do not have the talent for Creation Craftsmanship, they are perfectly qualified to assist real craftsmen. Some of these people were even booked by workshops in the city long ago. If you truly want them, you need to pay an additional price!"

"How much extra?"

"Not much, twenty percent is enough. If it were any higher, I would suggest you go to other cities to take a look."

"Fine, I will settle the payment with Arcane Crystal during the handover."

After speaking, Xia Duo walked to the side, signaling to Jiamu that he was ready for the handover.

Subsequently, Jiamu requested to borrow a batch of soldiers from Guleben and, in coordination with the garrison soldiers at the settlement, began to pick people within the formations. This was truly not a simple task.

Because these forty or fifty thousand people were arranged according to age and gender, and the three settlements here in Yinnupulasi were all mixed up, trying to find the families of nearly four thousand people now was comparable to a great battle.

Even though Xia Duo did not understand the Rushum Language, the commonalities of humanity allowed him to see that many Mulan on the field were falsely claiming relationships. Regarding this phenomenon, Jiamu's people not only did not stop it, but were even tacitly consenting to it.

Soon, in less than half an hour, a new square formation appeared next to Xia Duo, and people were constantly joining it. Looking at the other side, nearly half the people were gone.

Xia Duo actually didn't care about the money, as it was all settled with Arcane Crystal anyway, but this was only the first city. He didn't know how many cities he would have to visit to obtain all the craftsman heritage. Was he going to take all the Mulan into his possession?

Wouldn't that be shielding Yimaska from disaster for no reason?

Xia Duo hurriedly called a stop to the chaotic behavior of claiming relatives on the field, then, based on the expressions of those marked, removed the marks of those whose families had already gathered, and let those who had not gathered their families continue to do so, but this time he only gave three spots.

Just like that, another half hour passed, and the number of people in the square formation next to Xia Duo finally stabilized. The final number made him secretly smile bitterly; it actually exceeded twenty thousand!