Chapter 186: Selling Information

"Since your tribe has Heavenly Silkworm Silk, then you should have no need for this silk anymore. In that case, our Xuanyuan Tribe has nothing left to trade with you, only these few dead Tea Trees. If you want them, we can set another time, and I can find living Tea Trees to trade with you."

Xuanyuan was feeling somewhat dejected now, because they had only brought the most important silk, which was priced very highly in other tribes. He also had his eye on the good things of the Baifeng Tribe, such as the Small Knife and Wine.

Originally, this silk would have been enough for a trade, but once the Baifeng Tribe's Heavenly Worm Silk Fishing Line was brought out, it meant his silk no longer had any competitive edge, and the Baifeng Tribe had no need for this silk either.

Unexpectedly, Baifeng took the piece of silk and began to study it by touch: "I want it, why wouldn't I? Although our tribe has silkworms, no one knows how to weave silk; we can only use it as fishing line. If your tribe could trade us someone who knows how to weave silk, then I would be even happier."

Baifeng said he wanted to trade for silk, and Xuanyuan was of course very willing, but regarding his proposal to trade for someone who could weave silk, Xuanyuan only felt that Baifeng was indulging in wishful thinking. This matter was absolutely impossible to do, because if the Baifeng Tribe had someone who could weave silk, their silk would no longer be the only one of its kind in the world, and it would never again be sold for a high price among the entire human race.

Being rejected was within Baifeng's expectations. This was not like weaving Hemp Cloth; if Baifeng had wanted to trade for someone who could weave Hemp Cloth, Xuanyuan would certainly have agreed very readily.

Then, Baifeng used five jin of Wine to trade for enough silk to make himself a coat. In their view, this was a relatively reasonable price, but in truth, Baifeng still got the better end of the deal; after all, five jin of Wine did not take as much effort to make as such a large piece of silk, and the cost was much lower as well.

Once the silk trade was finished, all that remained were the Tea Trees Xuanyuan had brought. However, because of the long journey, the dug-up Tea Trees had long since died, and now only some withered Tea Leaves remained. Baifeng picked a Tea Leaf that hadn't completely dried out and tasted it; it was indeed the taste of tea.

Hearing Baifeng's affirmative statement, Baoxi was somewhat surprised. This kind of tree was relatively common in their territory; he just hadn't expected this thing to actually be the magical Tea Leaves. Baoxi immediately had the idea of doing another Tea Tree business deal with Baifeng, because he could completely provide fresh, living Tea Trees, and wouldn't need to travel as far as Xuanyuan.

In this era, there was nothing to avoid when it came to snatching business. The moment Baifeng confirmed that it was a Tea Tree, Baoxi said that their tribe's territory also had this thing. If Baifeng needed it, they could dig them up and bring them over in two days.

Of course he wanted them; Baifeng was still very eager to be able to drink tea. Moreover, there was not much difference between wild tea and what people planted themselves; in later generations, they even specifically used "wild" as a breakthrough point for promotion.

However, emotionally speaking, Baifeng was still more willing to trade with the Xuanyuan Tribe, because for one thing, Xuanyuan was his idol and ancestor, and for another, the Suiren Clan made him somewhat disgusted. Especially Baoxi—a small child with such a black heart. The incident where he had once hunted him down was still fresh in his memory, and he didn't really want to let Baoxi take advantage of him.

But besides emotions, he also needed to consider the overall interests of the tribe. Although he didn't like the Suiren Clan, trading with them was more cost-effective. Yet he was unwilling to cast aside the Xuanyuan Clan, so he would just have to engage in some friendly exchanges with the Xuanyuan Tribe.

In the end, Baifeng chose to trade for the whole Tea Trees from the Suiren Clan, and then let the Xuanyuan Tribe pick those fresh, tender Tea Leaf buds and trade them directly to him for the leaves.

Of course, Baifeng doing this could not be to lose money or squander his wealth. Although both of their tribes had Tea Trees, they did not know how to process tea, nor did they know how to use it to its greatest potential.

As long as the Baifeng Tribe had the Tea Trees, they would be able to process the tea later and then try to sell it back to them, along with matching Tea Sets. Just from this set alone, Baifeng felt he could recoup the costs.

They didn't know why Baifeng was doing this, but as long as there was something to profit from, it was fine. One could even say it was getting something for nothing. Thus, Baoxi hurriedly sent people to his own territory to dig up more Tea Trees and bring them back. These Tea Trees could also be used to trade for Wine; Baoxi now had an obsession with Wine.

Xuanyuan's mood was not very good, because this time he hadn't traded for many good things, only some silk, and hadn't sold it for a good price. But if he took the silk to other tribes to trade, he couldn't trade for the things he wanted. Other tribes would at most trade with grain and Slaves, and his tribe was not lacking in those.

A trade that had originally been the most promising was now intercepted by the Suiren Clan. Even though Baifeng said he was willing to trade for the Xuanyuan Clan's Tea Leaves instead of Tea Trees, doing so would waste too much time. This time, he already knew he wouldn't be able to trade for much, so he planned to leave directly to prepare supplies, and then the two of them discussed where they would meet.

Baifeng used a piece of Charcoal to draw the shape of the Dahe on a Wooden Table, a large "ji" character shape. However, Baifeng did not dare to be certain whether the shape of the Dahe basin in this era was the same as in later generations; historically, the Dahe had undergone many changes of course.

Speaking of this, Baifeng remembered another thing that could sell for a good price: information. People in this era were very lacking in information, but Baifeng knew roughly what places thousands of miles away were like. He believed this would be very tempting for the two Tribal Chiefs, because they both wanted to expand, and to do so, they had to know what was in the distance.

Once Baifeng mentioned things thousands of miles away, neither of them paid attention to anything else anymore. Instead, both of them leaned in to look at what Baifeng was drawing on the table. Regarding Baifeng selling information, they felt it was very strange, but also felt it was very reasonable. These things could not be traded for with supplies in other places; to know about things in the distance, one had to have a certain amount of luck.

Baoxi didn't know if it was luck or misfortune that led him to meet Wangzuo. Although in Baifeng's view Wangzuo didn't have any real ability, the man had been to many places, and might even know some things in more detail than Baifeng, after all, Baifeng was relying on the conditions of later generations.

All Baifeng could talk about were those high mountains, great Sichuan, and rivers that already existed, which generally would not have too many changes.