Chapter 752: Xueya Site's Three Business Ventures and His Conscience

"The God of Agriculture wants me to focus on rescuing the believers and villagers of Changmai Village, and as for the matter in Borisfa City, well." Priest Bata'er sighed: "He told me not to intervene."

"Why? Compared to the dozens of believers and hundreds of villagers in Changmai Village, isn't a large city that serves as the local parish relatively more important? Isn't that the logic?"

Jier asked, puzzled.

"That is my thought as well, but the God of Agriculture has his own arrangements for this, and he said that place is like a swamp; it is easy to get stuck in and impossible to escape." When Priest Bata'er said this, his face was full of helplessness, and his hands clenched and relaxed, then relaxed and clenched again.

At this moment, Jier comforted Priest Bata'er: "Don't think too much. Since your deity has arranged it this way, then that is how we shall proceed. You know, sometimes people in the mountains cannot see the path ahead or the situation around them because of the height of their position, and because their line of sight is blocked by the forest and the mountain itself. Only by climbing to the peak can one see the situation clearly."

Shrugging, Jier said: "Needless to say, a deity naturally sees things more clearly than us mere mortals. Since you are his priest, you must unconditionally believe in your deity, don't you?"

Priest Bata'er was silent for a moment, whispering to himself: "Borisfa, my hometown, sigh..."

The priest covered his face with his palms and did not speak for a long time.

Seeing the priest fall silent, Jier stood up and said loudly: "The day after tomorrow morning, we will continue on our way. The direction, well, we will head toward Changmai Village and will not go near Borisfa City."

The priest did not react, and Xueya Site shrugged: "I listen to Jier."

By that evening, the camp grocery store had sent over more simple tents.

Jier was very curious about how the other party managed to produce so many new tents in such a short time. Although they were simple tents, omitting many necessary and unnecessary procedures and components, rushing to make enough tents for hundreds of people was still no easy task.

Also in the afternoon, rain gear was delivered in large quantities, which kept Mr. Bafute busy enough to fly; Jier had to step in to help, which kept the shop assistant who delivered the goods from waiting too long.

Afterward, Jier found the merchants who had been rescued, hoping they could help out.

The old merchant was willing to help, but he was old and his physical strength could not keep up, and the torture he suffered in the bandit's lair left him with insufficient energy, so he was unable to help. The other young or middle-aged merchants had no major physical problems, and some injuries from when they were abused had gradually healed in the days since they were rescued.

But the mental state of these people was completely ruined.

When Jier went to ask them for help, they agreed readily and nodded, but as soon as Jier left, these few people would still sit around the fire, staring blankly at the iron pot boiling wheat porridge.

This made Jier angry but unable to vent; the mental state of these few people was already finished. He asked Xueya Site to go over and chat to find out more, only to learn that these people were completely trapped in their personal business failures, unable to extricate themselves.

They muttered about the debts their families owed after this business failure, or the land, houses, and property destined to be seized, calculating the interest on every loan and the debts they were destined to be unable to repay during the days they were held captive by the bandits.

A few of them, somewhat neurotically, even calculated the interest on the interest of the loans for each other, and what their situation might have been if they hadn't been robbed and captured by the bandits at that time.

Sometimes they would even argue over whether they should pay compensation for the shop assistants and friends who died with them, because if this money was not counted, those who owed less might still have a glimmer of hope. But if they had to pay the compensation and pension for the shop assistants and friends who died under the bandits' cleavers and axes, then the money they owed would be even more.

Hearing Xueya Site tell him about these things he had inquired about in the evening, Jier was also quite speechless.

It seemed that until these people completely recognized their failure and pulled themselves together, these few merchants would be of no use at all.

It was also strange; despite being in similar situations, Mr. Bafute pulled himself together exceptionally quickly. Almost on the evening of the day he was rescued, he began to help Jier handle various affairs concerning the people, such as distributing supplies, the type and weight of items each person carried, or organizing people to do things Jier had instructed, and so on.

This man pulled himself together very quickly, as if the previous failure was just an accident and had nothing to do with his own ability. If he fell due to bad luck, he would just climb up and find another opportunity to move forward.

"If only everyone else were like this," Jier sighed.

"What are you thinking about, Jier? Not everyone can pull themselves together so quickly. Most people, oh, the vast majority of people, will completely lose their self-confidence and initiative after failing once, including myself."

Xueya Site sat by the fire with Jier, stirring several kinds of beans floating in a small iron pot; everyone had received a large batch of various beans sponsored by Ms. Feiniya yesterday, so they were boiling them with plump wheat grains into a fragrant bean porridge.

"In the first few years I worked as a caravan guard, I saved a sum of money and wanted to learn from the merchants to run business on a few trade routes I had become familiar with while working as a guard. You know, it's just calculating the common prices of goods in various places, and then transporting low-priced goods from one place to a place with higher prices."

Jier had monster meat jerky and didn't really need to eat extra things, especially since he had eaten several portions of meat steaks at noon. He poked the firewood in the fire to make the flames steadier and burn longer: "Sounds easy enough. So, how did you mess it up?"

Xueya Site stared at the various beans in the iron pot; some of the ones that were easy to cook had already burst their shells, revealing the bean bodies inside, while some tough guys were still just plump and full of water: "Things are always much harder to do than to say. When I was a guard, I watched the employer merchants just write and calculate simply, eating and drinking, and they could sell the goods in their hands locally. But when it was my turn, I found it was far from that easy."

"I tried a total of three times!"

He gestured with the number three and explained how he messed up all three times: "The first time, I knew of a relatively remote place where iron tools were always in short supply, and the price was higher than elsewhere, so there was money to be made. So I rented a carriage and spent money to buy several large boxes of iron nails."

Jier thought about it; this business should have been doable, right? How did it get messed up?

"Ran into bandits on the road? No, if it's the Western Province, is it horse bandits?"

Xueya Site shook his head: "The first time I ran a business, I was naturally extra cautious on the road. In fact, these few times, not once did it fail because of bandits or horse bandits."

"Then I don't understand? How did you mess it up?"

Seeing Jier's curious face, Xueya Site shrugged and said helplessly: "I didn't expect that there were others with the same idea as me. You know, I can find out, and other merchants can naturally find out about this. A merchant guild happened to have signed a deal with the locals beforehand to transport a batch of iron products there regularly every year."

He paused: "So when I detoured around some dangerous sections of the trade route and arrived at the place, I found that the price of local iron products had been slashed! My boxes of iron nails not only didn't make money, but the purchase price was even higher than the local selling price. Although the locals also welcomed me to transport a new batch of iron nails there."

He shook his head: "If I didn't want to lose more, like transporting the iron nails I had worked so hard to bring there back again, I had to sell them locally at a loss."

Jier smiled: "Calculating it inside and out, you still lost, right? But it's okay, just a small loss on the floating price; a small loss doesn't count as a loss. Consider it accumulating knowledge and experience."

Xueya Site muttered, then talked about the second failed business venture.

"A few months later, this time I learned my lesson and didn't do things that would clash with the merchant guild. After all, I was alone, my transport capacity was small, the quantity of goods was small, and the price had no advantage. So I spotted an opportunity: the church in a town in the northern part of the province needed to build a new batch of religious wall paintings around the walls. This required a lot of colored stone materials and pigments for the paintings. Because this matter could not be completed in a short time, there was no possibility of clashing with the merchant guild."

"So? What was the problem?"

Xueya Site had an ugly expression: "Several barrels of pigments that could be used on the walls were properly transported by me. But the problem was, the local church there wouldn't accept pigments of unknown origin and would only accept pigments sent by people dispatched from other churches."

"Then wouldn't these things be stuck in your hands? How did you solve it in the end?"

"I lingered in that place for many days, but no matter what, the church just wouldn't accept my pigments of unknown origin. There was no other way, so I had to drive the rented carriage again and run to an adjacent town to sell these pigments to the church in that town."

"And the people there accepted your goods?"

"They accepted them, and the price was fair, slightly higher than the market price."

"You made money then! Why was it a failure?" Jier asked, puzzled.

Xueya Site sighed: "It looked like I made money, but when I calculated the accounts at the end, I still lost. The extra days meant the rented carriage also had to be paid for, and there were the food expenses for myself and the horses pulling the carriage, and the expenses for parking the carriage and the inn I rented while I was pestering the church earlier—these were all extra expenditures. These days of delay that I hadn't anticipated led to the fact that when the things were finally sold, the money earned wasn't enough to cover the expenses."

Jier commented: "Your business is too small; a slight delay causes trouble. If you can't follow what you envisioned before running the business, the goods you handle won't have any profit. If everything goes smoothly, you might be able to make a small profit, but." He shrugged.

"Everyone knows that when a matter is not completely under your control, then as long as the situation can turn bad, it will definitely turn bad. The reason everyone likes good luck is because it is not common. Things that are neither good nor bad, and bad things, make up the majority of the possibilities of things."

"You're right, Jier, you're right."

"Then what about the third one? Tell me quickly."

Seeing Jier's look of listening to a story, Xueya Site curled his lips, recalled for a moment, and then said: "After the second failure, I lay low for half a year, mainly working as a caravan guard while, just like you said, looking for a business opportunity that could make big money."

"Then, in the spring of the second year, my opportunity came. Buddy, that was an opportunity with big profits. At the foot of the mountains in the eastern part of the province near the Central Province, magic beasts suddenly started causing trouble. I heard there were several very powerful magic beasts, and the local nobles leading the knights couldn't handle them, so they had to delay time to let the local people evacuate and wait for our Earl to send knights and troops to support."

"Such chaotic times are the opportunity to make a fortune! The merchant I was guarding directly gave up a deal he had on hand and invested a large sum of money to support the evacuation of the people. You know, when people are fleeing, the prices of their former things are different; valuable things become heavy and useless, while some daily necessities for fleeing change prices every day, rising constantly like climbing a mountain."

"So, what did you do?" Jier asked.

"I spotted the opportunity and terminated my work as a guard, even though the other party offered to pay more to keep me. Then I rode a horse alone to other places that hadn't had any incidents, took out all the money I had, and in addition to renting a carriage, I tried my best to purchase large loaves of bread that could be stored for a long time, blankets to keep out the cold, comfortable boots suitable for long-distance walking, and several sets of healing potions I was lucky enough to buy from an herb merchant."

"Healing potion?" Jier heard of this thing for the first time, so he asked in confusion.

"No, you don't know it?" Xueya Site was also very surprised to see that Jier did not know what a healing potion was.

Jier rolled his eyes and explained: "In our Kendall County, we are used to using Healing Ointment, and the church is quite well-established there, so the Divine Art used by Priests to heal is also very common among believers. This is the first time I've heard of a potion."

Xueya Site felt slightly surprised by this explanation: "It seems that one place is indeed different from another. In our Western Province, the people live very scattered, and the church's influence is not very strong. As for this healing potion, it is a kind of herbal water contained in a sealed bottle. There are many types, and they can treat anything. From cheap ones for treating mosquito bites to those that can quickly mend injuries when drunk, they are all called healing potions; it's just that they are often subdivided according to their effects."

"Then what subdivided healing potions did you buy at that time?"

"Let me think. I remember the herbalist recommended very expensive injury-healing potions to me at the time, but all my assets could only buy one or two bottles of that stuff, so of course, I didn't buy those. I bought several sets of healing potions for hypothermia and colds and fevers. A set is six bottles; these potions for treating common illnesses are not expensive."

"Afterward, I took all the various goods I had exchanged my entire net worth for and hurried to the place where the incident occurred. Fortunately, I had good luck this time and arrived ahead of time."

Jier squinted at Xueya Site and asked in a gloating tone: "So, how did you mess it up?"

Unexpectedly, Xueya Site took a deep breath and looked up at the pitch-black night sky.

High above in the firmament, the stars were dotted, and one of the two moons was just rising from behind the cover of the Mountains, while the other was preparing to sink below the horizon.

The peculiar celestial bodies representing the gods traveled across the sky in erratic trajectories, and the divine emblems on the surfaces of the celestial bodies scrutinized every mortal who looked up at the sky.

Neither of them spoke. Jier lay down on his new cloak, propped his head with his hand, and waited on his side for his companion's answer. The crackling sound of firewood rang out, bringing Xueya Site back. The middle-aged former caravan guard tapped his beard with his hand and said in a relaxed tone: "After I arrived at the place, I realized one thing."

"Oh? What did you realize?"

"Well, I saw every terrified person fleeing, and only then did I realize that I couldn't use the cheap things in my hands to exchange for the last of those poor people's entire net worth at a high price."

Jier was taken aback and began to re-examine his companion, with whom he had a life-and-death friendship: "Then what did you do?"

"I drove my carriage and patrolled back and forth on the road that the fleeing people had to take. I gave food to the hungry, gave blankets to keep warm to those shivering from the spring freezing rain, and gave comfortable boots for traveling to those walking barefoot and stumbling along. And, I personally fed the most valuable healing potions into the mouths of every sick person."

"You have nothing left, Mr. Siter."

Unexpectedly, Xueya Site laughed out loud, stretched out his left hand toward Jier, and gestured to a mottled copper ring on his finger as if showing it off: "No, Jier, no."

The copper ring was mottled and old, simple in style, and even had many scratches on it.

But it was Xueya Site's treasure.

"You see, I met my wife's family because of this, because I used a healing potion to cure her mother. That old woman had fallen ill because she was caught in the rain while traveling, and that became an important factor in why her family lagged behind the others in the village while fleeing."

Jier's mouth also curled up slightly, and he gave Xueya Site a thumbs-up with his right hand: "You are a person with a conscience, Mr. Siter, not someone with nothing."

"Ha, yes, yes. Although that was a great opportunity to make a big profit, sigh, I gave up trading for profit after that and instead used my carriage to carry my wife's family, leaving the battlefield where the Knights and the army were fighting several Magic Beasts early."

"I heard that the local area was completely destroyed later. The Knights and the heavily damaged army killed all the powerful Magic Beasts, but those who could not escape from the area in time, and those who were lucky and did not want to give up their property, all died there. Even now, my wife's hometown has not yet recovered from that battle."

Jier thought for a moment and said: "Dealing with Magic Beasts is not the more people, the better. At least where we are, dealing with Magic Beasts is always done by Knights leading a small number of Refining Qi Hunters, using methods of near-entanglement that do not give the Magic Beasts a chance to recover, gradually weakening the Magic Beasts, and finally erupting to kill them. The advantage of numbers is actually a good thing for Magic Beasts. Because they can quickly restore their physical strength and bodily injuries by preying on people with ordinary combat power who cannot resist or harm them."

Hearing Jier's words, Xueya Site sighed heavily: "It seems that the people where you are are better at dealing with Magic Beasts. Jier, have you fought against Magic Beasts?"

"Didn't I tell you? Ha, hurry and call Priest Bata'er over. I'll tell you both properly tonight about how I defeated two powerful Magic Beasts together with Knight Lanisha!"

Jier became excited and prepared to start bragging.

It was a pity that there was no wine, which made him feel a bit regretful.