Chapter 56: Arrival at Muma City

Long before the Orland Empire had perished, the Tieti Family had already existed. Although it was merely a small knightly fief during that period, it possessed no small reputation.

Subsequently, amidst two hundred years of war and chaos, it developed and grew step by step, becoming a follower of the Wushan Family.

After Lulansi Wushan was enfeoffed as a Marquis of the Kingdom, the Tieti Family also successfully ascended to a Viscount family, and its base of operations was in Muma City.

This city, which had never changed hands for hundreds of years, possessed very high stability, thus attracting chambers of commerce from all over to conduct trade here, making Muma City one of the cities with the most frequent flow of people in the Wushan Territory.

The Tieti Family's main business was horses of all kinds, from old horses, draft horses, and pack horses, up to ordinary warhorses, fine warhorses, and excellent warhorses; they had everything one could expect to find.

It is even said that there are warhorses with the bloodline of magical beasts in the Tieti Family's pastures; a single one of these precious mounts would likely cost thousands of gold coins!

However, having said that, when it comes to whose mount is the best, one still has to look at the Thunder Chasing Beast belonging to the master of the Wushan Territory, Lulansi.

This is no horse; it is a genuine magical beast, and a Level 5 magical beast that can rival a Silver Knight at that!

It is said that the Thunder Chasing Beast possesses the bloodline of the legendary dragon, so it looks like a dragon in appearance, and after being armed with armor, its look is incomparably domineering.

The predecessor had heard of his grandfather's battle achievements since birth; it is said that when the Thunder Chasing Beast gallops, it kicks up a powerful thunder-electric field, which, mixed with Lulansi's own surging Battle Qi, allows him to gallop across the battlefield, simply invincible!

It is just a pity that even as the eldest grandson, Luoning rarely had the opportunity to get close to this magical beast mount, and could only secretly watch it from afar.

Magical beast mounts are very rare, especially high-level magical beast mounts.

Generally speaking, people must first have the ability to subdue the mount, defeat it head-on, and then break through the opponent's mental defenses to sign a Master-Servant Contract.

Defeating a magical beast is relatively easy, but breaking through the opponent's mental defenses to make it willingly agree to sign a Master-Servant Contract is extremely difficult; some arrogant or wild, untamable fellows will not agree even if they die.

Besides these factors, Contract Scrolls are also very expensive and rare; theoretically, only a Level 7 Great Magus has the ability to craft this item.

Great Magi are already rarely seen, and Great Magi who can also craft Spell Scrolls are even fewer.

Therefore, people who do not know powerful magicians generally do not even have a channel to purchase them.

This has also resulted in it being very difficult for even nobles to obtain a powerful magical beast mount.

After Luoning and his party stayed for a night at an inn in a small manor outside the city, they set off to enter the city early the next morning.

Muma City is worthy of being a large city; in order to accommodate the horse trade, its roads were built very wide.

Along this Muma Avenue, there are scattered knight manors on both sides, which is quite similar to the environment around Wushan Avenue.

However, the manors here do not seem to grow much grain; Luoning saw more pastures, with many farmers grazing cattle, sheep, and horses.

This is also a matter of the Tieti Family's positioning; they specialize in the horse industry, with the side business of selling dairy cows and sheep flocks, while the allocation of wheat fields is not high.

Muma City has many caravans coming and going, so there is no lack of merchants selling grain; relying on the money earned from selling horses and other livestock is enough to buy plenty of grain.

Once Luoning finishes developing the land in Shanlin Town in the future, he can also consider bringing the surplus grain to Muma City to sell.

However, he did think of a question: if Muma City were to be besieged tightly, how long would the grain inside be enough to support them?

Soon, Luoning cast this thought to the back of his mind.

Everyone is a neighbor, and Muma City has not plundered Shanlin Town like the Sain Territory did; how could he have such a bad idea in his head?

What's more, the Viscount of Muma City, Mawen Tieti, is a Silver Grade knight; in order to maintain the order of caravans and the city, he has almost an entire Knight Order under his command. Who would dare to have designs on Muma City?

After entering Muma City, Luoning no longer moved in a concentrated group.

He let Tangmu accompany Jialun and the guards to purchase a batch of wrought iron; after returning to Shanlin Town, he needs to have Kalesi forge all kinds of tools.

Shanlin Town has no iron mines, so the demand for wrought iron is still very large; this time, Luoning plans to purchase two thousand jin first.

On the market, the price of wrought iron varies according to its quality, generally in the range of 30 to 55 copper coins per jin; the price is still acceptable.

However, if the wrought iron were forged into tools or weapons, the price would rise to who knows how much.

Luoning did not let Maiken follow Tangmu this time; in fact, it was also a test for this Professional Knight.

He cannot always keep Dawei or Maiken tied to Tangmu; that is too much of a waste of a Transcendental's value. Sooner or later, he would eventually have to assign a task for the other party to be responsible for alone.

During this period, Tangmu's performance has been dutiful and uncomplaining, and it has indeed been acceptable.

If, even so, the other party were feigning surrender to cause trouble, then Luoning could only lament that the other party's acting skills were too strong, even deceiving him.

What he did not know was that this release, in Tangmu's view, was a manifestation of the Lord's trust in him.

Ever since he surrendered, there had been either Maiken or Dawei by Tangmu's side; he knew why the Lord had made such arrangements.

But after all, he was a latecomer, and there could not be the slightest risk of Maiken's true combat strength being leaked, so it was normal for him to be monitored by the Lord.

But since the Lord let him, a professional, go to assist with matters today, this shows that the Lord's trust in him has moved up a level.

This is a good thing.

Tangmu secretly swore that this task of purchasing wrought iron must be guaranteed to be completed without any accidents.

On the other hand, Luoning took Maiken and Aierlong to start browsing the trading area of Muma City.

The trading area is very large, with miscellaneous stalls on the side of the road; some sell piglets, others sell cattle, sheep, and various livestock. It is very chaotic and noisy, and the sanitary environment is also very messy, much worse than the farmers' markets in his memory.

What Luoning wants to buy are Magic Crystals and magical beast furs; such things are hard to find in small stalls and can only be found in street-side shops and the detached buildings of large chambers of commerce.

Chambers of commerce, especially large ones, can be understood as a not-so-weak force drifting outside the nobility.

Of course, while it is said to be drifting, in reality, the masters of the chambers of commerce basically have relationships with nobles, and some are even retainers of nobles, or even nobles themselves.

For example, the Kingdom's Minister of Finance has more than one chamber of commerce under his command; they work for the King, and at the same time, they also work for the Minister of Finance.

The larger the chamber of commerce, the more prosperous their business, and their shops are spread across every city and town in the Kingdom.

There are several chambers of commerce in the trading area of Muma City, including both the Tieti Family's and those from outside.

Luoning walked into the Ironhoof Chamber of Commerce first and found that their main business was related to warhorses, including horse sales, matching saddles, horse armor, reins, etc., and there was no business related to Magic Crystals.

However, the other party pointed out a clear path for Luoning—in the northwest corner of the commercial district, there is a building belonging to the Silva Magic Energy Chamber of Commerce; generally, things like Magic Crystals can be purchased there.

The Silva Magic Energy Chamber of Commerce was founded by the Auduin Kingdom's Count Belaro Silva and is the largest chamber of commerce in the Kingdom dealing with magician-related business.

It is said that this Count's territory is very small, with an area even comparable to an ordinary Baron Territory.

However, this Count's business is very good; the reason for this is that Belaro's personal strength is very formidable.

Belaro Silva is not only a magician but also Along-renowned Level 8 Magus; whether in the Auduin Kingdom or the Tricia Kingdom, his strength is one of the best.

His disciples and apprentices are spread all over, and it is unknown exactly how many there are.

This has also led some to say that the Silva Magic Energy Chamber of Commerce is just wearing the skin of a chamber of commerce, and its inner essence can be seen as a Magician Association.

After obtaining this intelligence, Luoning took Maiken and Aierlong and headed toward the Silva Magic Energy Chamber of Commerce.

He had expected the Chamber of Commerce building to take some time to find, but upon arriving at the northwest corner of the trading district, he saw that eye-catching structure at a single glance.

This made Luoning think of one word immediately—Mage Tower.

Having listened to the readers' suggestions, and because I was also feeling a bit conflicted myself, I have modified some of the settings for Maiken, Aierlong, and three other characters, allowing them to increase their strength through their own cultivation until they reach the level corresponding to their aptitude (nothing else has changed, and it does not affect reading).

(End of this chapter)