Chapter 142: The Tavern Owner's Secret News

"You are quite right, there is some truth to that. Anything else?" the middle-aged, burly innkeeper continued to ask.

Jier spread his hands: "No, are you the innkeeper or am I? Shouldn't these things be experiences you summarized yourself during your operations? Why come and ask me? But since you just said that what I said was very right and reasonable, then the price of this stay must be changed. Give me a reasonable price for the stay."

The person opposite leaned back, his expression turning fierce and sullen, but he had chosen the wrong target. Jier and Xueya Site were not cowardly fellows; this kind of trick that could only scare ordinary people could not scare those who had truly seen blood and fire.

Jier hummed in a low voice without speaking; at this moment, whoever spoke first would lose the upper hand. At the same time, the aura about him turned cold and sharp, and his eyes became dangerous.

The feeling Jier gave off was not that of a fierce Human, but more like a terrifying Magic Beast in the mountains and forests.

Only then did the innkeeper startle in shock, realizing that this might not be a wealthy young Young Master, but a young Knight.

It made sense; so many capable Warriors obeyed such an excessively young fellow, so it must be that only the strength and status of a Knight could suppress the entire team.

Realizing that he was confronting a young Knight Lord, the fellow suddenly lost his nerve. Although he maintained some of his free pride on the surface, in reality, he took out the price board, wiped off the outrageous prices with his sleeve, and silently wrote down a more appropriate price with a Charcoal Pencil.

The price dropped by at least eighty percent.

Jier smiled: "Wouldn't it have been better to do this earlier? You saved us so much trouble."

He stood up and left this place for Xueya Site to handle, while he himself went to the backyard to prepare to unload the weapons and equipment from the Tianxuecao.

After a while, seeing that no obvious conflict had broken out at the Siren Ganzi Inn, the tavern owner brought his Shop Assistant to deliver a large amount of food to the inn. Barrels of ale were rolled over and opened, and immediately, thirsty Warriors crowded over, picked up the long ladles, and poured the drink into their mouths.

The piping hot fish stew was placed on the ground, and the delicious aroma of fish soup immediately filled the entire inn lobby.

The Bread baked today was also brought over in baskets. The Warriors picked up the Bread and went to get a bowl of fish stew to eat.

Mr. Xueya Site repeatedly told the eating Warriors to be careful of fish bones and not to swallow the fish meat and salty, savory soup in large gulps, because there were definitely fish bones in them. Every year, one could hear interesting anecdotes about people getting fish bones stuck in their throats and having to go find a Church Priest to help solve it.

Such anecdotes were interesting news when they happened to others, but when they happened to one's own people, they became both painful and expensive pieces of bad luck.

Jier found a room at this time and took off some of his weapons and equipment to leave there, though he did not remove his armor and Sword. He took the Shapeshifting Monster, which had been dizzy from the sun recently, out from his carriage, fed it some fresh meat, and after whispering a few instructions, let it slip toward the inn before he finally came to the inn lobby to eat.

He stopped the busy tavern owner and struck up a conversation with him about the Bandit Group.

"You want to talk about this?" The tavern owner's expression changed, fearing that Jier would suddenly turn hostile and seize him.

Therefore, he said hesitantly: "My shop has never hosted those bad seeds, and besides, travelers come to my shop to drink and eat, so I don't need to ask about their identities, right?"

Jier put a piece of small fish into his mouth, chewed for a while, and then pulled out the remains of the food, which was nothing but fish bones.

"I have no intention of upholding justice; I am just consulting you. Consulting, do you understand? It's just politely asking about the surrounding situation. You can say what you think is safe, or even not answer my questions; it's all up to you."

That was what he said, but surrounded by sturdy and fully armed young Warriors, how could this actually rather cowardly fellow not answer Jier's questions?

He did not want to be beaten up for no reason, or even lose his life because of it.

Although Jier and his subordinate Warriors looked relatively formal, because the entire team had no obvious crests or badges belonging to rulers, the tavern owner, although he guessed Jier's identity, did not think that in such chaotic times, killing a person or two was a difficult thing.

For example, this Siren Ganzi Inn had 'accidentally' beaten a traveler to death due to a dispute over the traveler's refusal to pay for accommodation. Because surrounding shops and inns had such a plausible excuse, no one stood up to say anything or uphold justice.

The beaten traveler had his own family and companions to avenge him personally; others had no reason or standing to avenge him.

"Alright, alright. Then what do you want to ask? Still about those bad seeds in the area?" The tavern owner asked with a resigned, petulant air, spreading his hands.

"My team and I just came from Dorn Town, so naturally, we heard about the Wealth Fruit Merchant Guild caravan being robbed by Bandits. I heard many people were killed or injured, and only a small portion of the Merchant Guild Shop Assistants on horseback escaped back?" Jier asked curiously.

"There is such a thing as you said, it happened just over half a month ago. Originally, for those two days, everyone felt relieved because they had hosted such a large Merchant Guild caravan, always wondering if the situation had changed because the caravan was so large. But the day after the caravan set off, those Merchant Guild people who were lucky enough not to be caught by the Bandits escaped back, and they brought a terrible piece of news."

The tavern owner swallowed his saliva: "Bandits numbering in the hundreds unexpectedly attacked them during the day! First, they used a fallen large tree to block the road on a Shanglu near the Shulin, and then after the caravan slowed down and stopped, a large group of Bandits holding anti-cavalry stakes emerged from the end of the caravan, completely blocking the caravan on the Shanglu! Then came the terrible massacre. If it weren't for those few Merchant Guild Shop Assistants who saw the situation quickly and unhitched the horses pulling the carts to ride away, they would have been captured or killed like the others in the caravan."

Jier picked up a cup of ale, swirled the foam inside, and took a small sip: "You know it quite clearly. Who told you the situation on the scene? Was it those Merchant Guild Shop Assistants who luckily escaped? Or the 'strangers' who came to drink here afterward?"

Jier emphasized the word 'strangers', and the questioning and mockery in it made the tavern owner lower his head.

"It... it, it was the latter. I really don't know their identities; it was all things they said when they were drinking and bragging. My Shop Assistant and I were also carefully serving those people, and only after we sent those people away two days later when they had drunk their fill could we sleep soundly."

Jier asked suspiciously: "So, you and your tavern have nothing to do with those robbing Bandits?"

"Really, that is indeed the case, we really have nothing to do with them. We open for business, and we don't care who the guests are, as long as they can take out money to pay the bill."

Jier asked about other situations, and the tavern owner said everything he knew. This included several locations on the road east from this Meiqian Chakou where trouble was likely to occur, as well as the surrounding Village's views on and support for these Bandits.

Regarding the former, after Jier clarified the situation, he marked the dangerous areas given by the tavern owner on his newly drawn map of the surroundings, and also marked the surrounding Village, while additionally marking these Village with whether they supported the Bandits' actions.

Some Bandits came gradually from afar, but naturally, some Bandits were just poor youths from the surrounding Village who, seeing that there was no hope for farming due to the drought this year, spontaneously joined the Bandit Group, intending to get some money.

Being a Bandit is of course an immoral act that violates public security laws, but compared to hunger and poverty, immorality and violating laws were the most insignificant things.

After asking for the news, Jier secretly gave the tavern owner a Silver Coin as a tip. The tavern owner took the tip somewhat unexpectedly, complaining: "You should have said there was money to be had! If you had said so earlier, I would have told you all the news I knew long ago. I have some more news here, are you interested in hearing it?"

The tavern owner stared at the other Silver Coin Jier was holding, impatiently hoping to see Jier nod.

Jier smiled: "I will only give you money for valuable news. You speak first, I'm listening."

The tavern owner immediately said: "I know a lot of news, most of it is secret information that guests blurted out after drinking too much! The grocery store next to my tavern, the Shop Assistant of the grocery store complained that even though it was a lot of blood-stained stolen goods, their boss still turned a blind eye and bought the goods at a low price. Not only the goods of small caravans passing by, but even the goods of other Merchant Guilds in the Merchant Union, their boss has the guts to buy!"

Jier raised his eyebrows, not expecting that the grocery store under the seemingly reliable Treasure House Merchant Guild would actually buy stolen goods from Bandits. And it wasn't small-scale stolen goods; they even bought goods from other large Merchant Guilds in the Merchant Union at low prices.

It is hard to guarantee that this grocery store boss hasn't been mixed up with those Bandit groups in private. After all, besides robbing money, the biggest trouble for Bandits is actually not the robbery itself, but how to dispose of the stolen goods after the robbery.

Many goods cannot be eaten or drunk, and even reselling them requires specialized corresponding shops to accept them.

If the grocery store boss is responsible for disposing of the stolen goods for the Bandits, then he himself must be an indispensable link in the entire Bandit robbery system.

Jier's face darkened; he did not expect that the grocery store boss, whom he thought was reliable and who had introduced the situation here to him, was himself a member mixed up with the Bandits.

The other party must have made a fortune from the process of collecting stolen goods, but this person must also realize that this money is stained with blood, and even stained with the blood of many of their own people.

Jier handed the Silver Coin in his hand to the tavern owner, and then took out another Silver Coin: "Continue."

The tavern owner kissed the newly acquired Silver Coin with satisfaction. His eyes rolled, and he deliberately lowered his voice to say to Jier: "The inn we are staying in now, do you know what's going on with its boss?"

Jier did not answer, just kept turning the Silver Coin in his hand, the meaning self-evident.

The tavern owner stopped playing coy and immediately said: "This inn itself likes to extort some passing travelers. Since the chaos started this year, the security teams from the town and Suishi Cheng no longer come over, and this shop has become even more excessive. Besides extortion and blackmail, they have also beaten several travelers to death."

Jier rolled his eyes: "I'm not blind, and regarding this matter, the boss of this inn is very proud of showing it off. Although he claims that it was an 'accident' that he beat someone to death while fighting with a traveler who wouldn't pay."

"Heh, what accident, it's just that the traveler didn't want to pay the high price, and after they argued and started fighting, they had more people, so they beat the traveler to death. However, the traveler's companions also indicated they would take revenge before leaving, but this Siren Ganzi also looks like it's not afraid of trouble, telling those people to come for revenge at any time."

Jier waved his hand: "These things are not worth me paying for. I think a cup of ale could also make the Shop Assistant of this inn say these things himself, right?"

"Of course, of course. But I haven't reached the key point yet! You definitely don't know that this Siren Ganzi Inn was not managed by these people originally, and the boss was not the current person. Before, this was an ordinary but reasonably priced inn, but more than two years ago, that fellow who claimed to be a relative of the innkeeper brought people to occupy this inn."

"He seems to really be a relative of the original innkeeper, at least he has never denied this. But then the original innkeeper's Shop Assistant was dismissed, and within half a year, the original innkeeper also voluntarily left here, turning this huge inn over to this relative of his. Since then, this inn has become more and more excessive."

Jier spread his hands: "This is just an ordinary story of an inn transfer. Perhaps there was violent coercion or something behind it, but I am not interested in this news, so naturally, there will be no money."

The tavern owner smiled confidently: "Don't be in such a hurry to draw conclusions; I haven't finished speaking yet."

He cleared his throat and continued: "Everyone doesn't actually care whether the transfer of this inn is legal, or what outrageous name it has been changed to. It's the identities of this group of inn owners and Shop Assistants. Everyone here has their own guesses, but I heard from a 'stranger' who often comes here to drink that the owner of this inn and his subordinates, the Shop Assistants, are actually a Bandit Group from Ke'er Shan Jun. This 'stranger' spent some time in Ke'er Shan Jun before and recognized this guy and several of his trusted aides."

"How about it? Is this news worth your reward? You should know that when the Wealth Fruit Merchant Guild had that incident before, they also filled up several of our inns here because their caravan was so large. Just like you all are now."

Jier smiled: "I am not afraid of Bandits. It is best if they don't come; my men and I will save some effort. If they do come and are blind enough to target me, then that is their bad luck. According to the teachings of the Church of the God of the Dead, after a person's soul completes its great cycle after death, it had better not run into me again."

Although he said that, as Jier flicked the Silver Coin to the tavern owner, he was also wondering in his heart whether it was the owner of the grocery store or the owner of this inn who contacted the surrounding Bandit Groups and joined forces to pull off such a big job.

But Jier's thoughts were quickly interrupted, because the tavern owner's next piece of news made it truly difficult for him to keep a straight face.

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