Chapter 586: Showdown, Confirming the Transaction

Jier then said: "At first, I didn't know why we had to concern ourselves with the affairs of the Southern Province, given how far away it is. But later, while on the road, I heard my teacher mention that our county has a dedicated Craftsman district, and our handicraft industry is quite well-developed; it's considered a famous industry throughout the surrounding region."

"However, our land is mountainous and rarely has mineral veins; iron ore and other metal raw materials have always relied on transport via the Shanglu. This is not good for the industrial development of the county. So, when we heard that war had broken out in the Southern Province over the struggle for newly discovered large mineral veins, my teacher and the Baron got involved. Regardless of the outcome this time, the nobles of the Southern Province will support the metal raw materials of our county, whether by providing physical goods or by allowing us to purchase them from the Southern Province at a discounted price."

Yamila gave a disdainful snort: "That sounds like a truly noble reason for joining a war. But you still haven't said why you came here, to this remote forest area on the edge of the Southern Mountains, far from any population centers. Getting involved in a transaction that no one was supposed to know about."

Jier was silent for a moment, and Yamila also watched Jier in silence, waiting for Jier to answer.

She even waved her hand, causing the small hands of the Magic Tool house—which were meant to intimidate but couldn't intimidate Jier—to retract.

"I want to know, Jier. This will affect whether I will conduct a transaction with you; I am certain of this."

Jier let out a breath, feeling that it was unlikely for a Magic Apprentice like Yamila, who used magic power, to care about those farming Villagers, rude Soldiers, or even feel any curiosity about a severely wounded Knight; after all, she had arrived here before Jier but had not appeared to seek out anyone for a transaction.

She was lingering, waiting, judging, and scrutinizing.

Considering her personality and other factors, Jier even felt that perhaps the reason Yamila hadn't conducted the transaction directly was because she felt the transaction partner lacked the ability to provide her with a kickback?

This thought was somewhat absurd, but the more Jier thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

But Jier did not know that the reason for Yamila's hesitation was that she didn't want a kickback, but rather intended to get her hands on the Metal Ingots for the mission, and even pocket the 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】 meant for the trade to exchange for money herself.

Which was even wilder than the trade kickback Jier had imagined.

After thinking for a long time, Jier finally spoke: "You've been lingering around the camp of those Soldiers for a while, haven't you?"

"Mm-hmm, that's right." After Yamila answered, she took a small sip of her Lemon Flower Tea.

"Then you must also know that the Metal Ingots used for the transaction were actually excavated by some Villagers in the Mine and smelted in a Furnace, right?" Jier continued.

"Yes, I tried to enter the Mine to take a look, but the smell inside was truly too suffocating, so I only wandered around the upper levels of the Mine. Those alien Beast were quite sharp-nosed; they almost discovered me several times."

Speaking of this, Yamila curled her lip; those long-haired lynx Beast were very troublesome. Although they were weak as death, their flexible and small bodies made them a difficult opponent to deal with in the mountain forest.

One of her senior brothers liked dealing with these aliens; she heard that the mission to contact and communicate with the aliens this time was handled by that senior brother of hers. He had contacted several alien Beast tribes and sent personnel to protect the few teams they designated to go and restart the secret Mine in the mountain forest.

As for her own mission, it was to take various trade items after a certain period and go to the secret Mines located in various places to conduct transactions.

At this moment, in the storage space item located at the core of the lower level of the Magic Tool house, there were many Metal Ingots of various materials. After these items were refined, they could be used to forge metal protective equipment to arm an army of thousands.

This could make a portion of the Ophirine Kingdom's smaller army of tens of thousands more Refining Qi, thereby countering the more than one hundred thousand troops of the Southern Province Noble Coalition of the Saint Hors Kingdom, who held an absolute numerical advantage.

This was a key link concerning the success or failure of the entire war, at least that was what the high-level figures on the Ophirine Kingdom side believed.

That was why Yamila's teacher had equipped Yamila, who was executing this mission, with four powerful Magic Tools at once, and even handed over the Magic Tool house he used when traveling for Yamila to use alone. This was not only to let the space item inside the Magic Tool house carry those large quantities of metal materials, but also to give Yamila superb mobility to traverse mountains and ridges, as well as sufficient armed protection to complete this mission.

"Then, what do you think of those Villagers who are doing the work?"

Jier asked softly.

Yamila raised her eyebrows, sat up straight on the fur recliner, and said with a serious tone: "You came for those Villagers? Villagers, Villagers, I once heard those Villagers kneeling and praying to the Agricultural God, so are you a person from the Agricultural God Church?"

Jier looked straight into Yamila's eyes: "You could say that."

"If you say it like that, then you aren't actually a Knight of the Agricultural God Church?" Yamila's eyes darted, and she asked another question. After all, Jier had just said before that he had a Knight teacher, and his superior was a Noble Lord from the Northwest Province, so his relationship with the Church shouldn't be that close.

Jier said awkwardly: "I can't exactly say that either..."

Yamila's eyes widened: "Jier, are you playing with me? Tell me the situation honestly!"

Jier quickly said: "Actually, it's like this: those Defeated Soldier in the Jiedian to the north cruelly attacked the Agricultural God Church's autonomous village, Changmai Village, further north, captured the Villagers there, and brought them here to make them mine. But the Agricultural God Priest in the Village escaped this disaster and, under the guidance of the Agricultural God, found our army heading south. *Cough cough*, to put it clearly, they actually found me."

"Found you? What do you mean?"

"I personally have a good relationship with the Agricultural God Church, and I even received the Sixth-Rank Defense Medal awarded by the Agricultural God Church before! Believers also call me the Warrior of the Agricultural God." Jier puffed out his chest and said proudly.

Yamila, however, was not very interested in this; she even retorted sarcastically: "Oh, look at that, here is a proud, young, wealthy Knight with the title of Warrior of the Agricultural God."

She then waved her hand: "Alright, you don't need to say any more; I can guess the rest of the situation. You came for those Villagers, right? Ha, what a truly stupid bunch of Soldiers, and what a useless, foolish Knight who gets sidelined by others. Between suffering and mining themselves and hiring others to mine, they chose to enslave others to mine. As a result, they provoked a guy they couldn't deal with."

"Are you talking about me?" Jier pointed at himself, feigning ignorance and asking.

Yamila rolled her eyes at him: "Of course. So, our little Knight, the Warrior of the Agricultural God, has already decided that those Soldiers who attacked the Village and enslaved the Villagers are all dead, right? And the Metal Ingots in their hands can also be counted as resources in your hands, right?"

Unexpectedly, Jier shook his finger: "Not counted as, but already in my hands. If you go to the Jiedian camp to check now, you will find that there aren't many Metal Ingots left in the room where they were originally stored. They are already in my hands!"

Jier looked at Yamila, staring into her eyes: "If you want them, it's no use looking for others; you have to look for me. Only I know where the items are. Now, your only transaction partner is me, and it can only be me!"

Hearing Jier's words, Yamila let out a breath and muttered to herself: "If I had known, I wouldn't have dragged it out..."

If she failed to complete the mission, she would be miserable; not only would she be punished by her teacher, but she would also have to pay out of her own pocket to make up for the large amount of missing resources from those Metal Ingots. That would be a painful result that would bankrupt her.

Don't look at the fact that the Metal Ingots only cost one 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】, with a price of over a hundred Ogle Gold Coin. In reality, the market price of these Metal Ingots has long been several times the price of the potion, and even in the current situation where war is about to break out again, these items are strategic military resources that cannot be bought even with money.

They can arm anywhere from hundreds to thousands of people. These Refining Qi Soldiers wrapped in Metal Armor can often turn the tide of a battle, thereby affecting the outcome of a war, and subsequently causing more ripple effects.

That is not something that can be simply measured by a little bit of money.

Yamila looked down at the potion bottle fixed to her belt and touched it with some reluctance; this thing was a hot commodity worth over a hundred Ogle Gold Coin.

Originally, she had wanted to rely on some method to pocket this bottle of potion meant for the trade, but now it seemed she had to say goodbye to this valuable item.

But just as she was thinking this, Yamila had a flash of inspiration and suddenly said: "Wait, Jier. You said before that you came to rescue those enslaved Villagers, right?"

"Yes, that's right. I can clearly state that in the matter of rescuing the Villagers, whoever blocks me must die!"

Yamila immediately waved her hand: "I have no intention of blocking you, and besides, when we made the agreement with that Knight Hate, we didn't say to let them attack the Villagers and enslave the Villagers to mine. I remember when my teacher gave me the mission, he said that Knight Hate was originally supposed to let his two hundred Soldiers excavate ore and restart the Mine."

She curled her lip: "Who knew he was so useless that he got severely wounded, couldn't control his subordinates, and actually got placed under house arrest. What a waste of space."

Yamila's inspiration exploded, and she quickly said: "So Jier, you can go rescue those Villagers, and I can even help you! Do you need a wise, charming, powerful Magic Apprentice with a Magic Tool house to assist in battle to fight side-by-side with you? To go together and drive away or kill those abominable, damn, rude Soldiers? Of course, the price is just a little bit of Metal Ingots, not much, just fifty or sixty tons, just a small amount of Metal Ingots, less than half a room!"

Yamila smiled, put her hands together beside her shoulder to act cute, and even lifted one leg and swayed her body, looking as if everything was simple and everything was negotiable.

Jier was so angry he laughed. The whole situation was caused by you people from the enemy country, and now, for the sake of those Metal Ingots, you can easily cast aside the people you cooperated with, and even help Jier kill them all yourself—what is this?

"I'm actually a bit curious now: what exactly is the trade item that makes you do this? It's actually comparable to so many metal supplies." Jier asked loudly.

Seeing that Jier wasn't so easily swayed by her, Yamila returned to her normal appearance. She put her hands on her hips, pouted, took off a pouch from her waist, and threw it onto the table.

"There, this is the trade item you're curious about: a bottle of 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】."

Jier shifted his gaze over, moved his feet lightly, and seeing that Yamila didn't stop him, he stepped forward and opened the lightweight leather pouch, revealing a bottle of potion inside.

It was a thick glass vial; there was no excessive decoration on the bottle, but the glass bottle was very thick and not easily broken, obviously designed for the possibility of being carried in battle. Inside the bottle was a turbid, pinkish liquid, with some fine flesh tissue floating in it, looking very disgusting.

"You carry this thing around with you? It looks really disgusting! And, 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】? What does that Knight Hate want this for?" Jier glanced at the disgusting thing, closed the leather pouch, had no intention of snatching it, and pushed it directly back to Yamila.

Yamila was even angrier when she heard Jier's comment: "What do you mean disgusting! This is a good thing that everyone would fight over if it were taken out!"

"Good stuff? Then tell me, what use does it have?" Jier asked in a tone intentionally meant to provoke Yamila.

Yamila spoke while gesturing: "After drinking this Potion, the user will transform into a tall, large Lizardman for a short period of time."

Jier narrowed his eyes: "So? Is the Lizardman a very powerful race? Can one fight a hundred?"

"Of course not. Lizardmen are dull-witted; although their physical constitution is indeed quite formidable, their level of civilization is very low. In the southern Kingdoms, one can often see slave-catching parties going in groups to capture them. People don't transform into Lizardmen for any particular reason, but rather because Lizardmen are born with an extremely strong self-healing ability. They can even regrow severed limbs, tails, and even heads relying on their own self-healing ability. Jier, do you understand? This is an alternative means of treatment!"

Put that way, Jier understood. To others, this thing was certainly not worth a room full of Metal Ingots, but for the severely injured Knight Hartna, even considering the situation where he was badly burned before crossing the Southern Mountains, it was very much needed.

It was even essential; without other powerful treatment methods, it seemed only this thing could quickly and simply treat the heavy injuries on his body.

But Jier looked at this thing with disdain. He had the help of the Treatment Mushroom from his dreams and had no use for something that required transforming into a different race. Perhaps this thing could help him regrow a new heart, but perhaps not, because now the position of his heart was replaced by the Lady's ring. The healing effect of the Treatment Mushroom could heal all other injuries on his body, but it had no way to deal with the missing heart alone.

This bottle of 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】 might have an effect on his missing heart, but Jier's intuition told him that it was highly likely to be useless as well.

But this thing might save someone's life in the future, so Jier spoke directly: "I'll take this Potion."

"You'll take it?" Yamila gritted her teeth and continued: "Fine, then you must trade it for the Metal Ingots you were originally going to give me. If there are no Metal Ingots, I will smash this thing and, together with Mimi, chase after those Villagers in the Mine. As for how many people die then, that's not my concern."

Jier frowned: "You can rest assured about that; I moved the Metal Ingots away precisely to prevent such a situation from happening."

Having reached this point, the two looked at each other and confirmed the deal in the tense, hostile atmosphere.