Chapter 378: Xuanyuan's Intentions

Baifeng looked at Xuanyuan, who was peering around, but found nothing unusual. He himself was perfectly healthy, and the people who had disembarked from the boat with him did not look like they were sick either; their postures were vigorous. This left Baifeng feeling puzzled. It was impossible that Xuanyuan had hand-crafted an atomic bomb and felt bold enough to think he could trigger a mutual destruction of Heaven and Earth.

However, when Baifeng cast his gaze toward the back, he discovered several boats where people were lying sprawled out, looking as if they were about to die. They couldn't possibly be seasick; how could so many people be seasick, and why were there such large amounts of bloodstains on their bodies?

Baifeng subconsciously took a step back. He wasn't sure if Xuanyuan had brought some kind of infectious disease they had no way to handle, and it was best to stay as far away as possible.

Seeing Baifeng's nervous appearance, Xuanyuan couldn't help but smile: "Baifeng, this is your territory. We only have this many people, what are you afraid of? Besides, I came here to trade with you."

Baifeng looked puzzled: "Trade? It shouldn't be time yet, and why did you run all the way here to trade? Don't we have a designated trading location?"

Xuanyuan pointed at the people on those boats: "Look at those people. They are slaves I captured in battle just now. Unfortunately, they are all injured. I have no way to guarantee they will survive, but I know you have a way, so I came to find you. I didn't dare to delay too long; otherwise, they might have died before you even arrived. Wouldn't that be too wasteful?"

Baifeng retorted: "How can you be sure I would want these half-dead people? If I don't want them, wouldn't you have made this trip for nothing?"

Xuanyuan wore an expression of absolute confidence: "Your Huaxia is definitely short of people; otherwise, you wouldn't have traded for population so crazily in the past. It's just that we were also afraid of making you too strong, which is why we stopped the population trade with you."

"But as you can see now, these people are truly of no use to us. We have no way to keep them all alive, and if they die, it's too wasteful. It would be better to let you have them cheaply and exchange them for some grain from us."

Baifeng was speechless. It seemed he was being treated as a sucker. But Xuanyuan wasn't wrong; the current Huaxia was very short of people. If the people on these boats hadn't died on the spot during the war and had survived such a long journey, it meant their injuries weren't too severe. The Xuanyuan Tribe didn't have the confidence to let them recover on their own, but that didn't mean he couldn't.

Furthermore, the fact that there were so many people captured in the war meant that Xuanyuan and his men had just fought a relatively large-scale battle. The only ones currently capable of such a feat should be the Lieshan Clan. Those who could participate in the war were all strong laborers.

Baifeng thought about it; this business could be done, but the price had to be squeezed hard.

They still had slaves, but the number was already quite small. The remaining slaves would never have the opportunity to become Citizens in the future, because after all these years, they were no longer willing to strive. They all felt that their current life was good enough, there was no need to struggle, and living out their lives like this was fine—anyway, they didn't have many years left to live.

Those were lazy people without ambition, so naturally, there was no need to give them opportunities. In the future, Baifeng would basically stop slaves from changing their fate and would solidify the slave class, only opening up sufficient promotion paths between ordinary people and officials.

This was also a strategy changed according to national development. In the past, they were short of everyone, but now they only lacked manual laborers who worked hard without complaint and didn't require good treatment. For heavy physical labor, slaves were the first choice.

However, Baifeng didn't have a clear standard for determining whether new additions to Huaxia were slaves or Citizens, but those bought in like this were undoubtedly slaves.

Xuanyuan had the Soldiers drag all the slaves off the boats and then asked Baifeng to inspect them. Baifeng just scanned them generally; they all had varying degrees of external injuries, and some might have internal injuries or fractures in certain parts.

Overall, it was acceptable. They had the ability to receive and treat them, and he didn't see any signs of infectious disease on them. However, these slaves were almost all listless due to seasickness; even what they vomited was only bile and clear saliva, indicating that Xuanyuan hadn't given these slaves food for a long time—perhaps just a bowl of clear water soup for the day.

Seeing that Baifeng had finished the inspection, Xuanyuan asked: "How is it? Can you take them?"

Baifeng nodded: "I can take them, but you also know that these people have all suffered varying degrees of injuries and cannot work. This means that after we buy them, not only do we have to save their lives, but we also have to provide food for a considerable period of time. It's all expenditure, so the price I can offer certainly won't be high. Let's calculate it at half the price of our previous trades."

Xuanyuan felt there was no problem at all. If he kept them and they died, they would get nothing. Now, even if the price was lower, they could still make up for some of the grain lost due to the war.

Seeing Xuanyuan agree so readily, Baifeng didn't dawdle and directly had people go into the city to fetch grain.

This was Huaxia territory, right at their city gate, so Baifeng naturally had to maintain a civilized appearance. If wandering savages came to deliver a message, they would still provide them with food; now that the Tribal Chief of one of the strongest tribes of the era had arrived, they naturally couldn't be negligent. Otherwise, a reputation for being barbaric might spread across this continent. Baifeng believed the Xuanyuan Tribe had the strength to spread this news to every tribe he had ever met.

While waiting for the grain, Xuanyuan asked curiously: "Tell me, what method do you use to make them get better? I think they definitely wouldn't have survived."

Baifeng showed his white teeth and smiled: "Want to know the answer? This requires a trade. I can't tell you directly, and this matter is very complicated. Even if you stayed here with us to learn for ten... for a very long time, you wouldn't be able to learn it, let alone me giving you the answer in one sentence."

Baifeng didn't dare tell Xuanyuan that he wouldn't be able to learn it in ten years; Xuanyuan was the founding master of his Medicine Phylum, and he didn't dare to brag like that.

Subsequently, Xuanyuan pressed: "Then I'll ask how to make people stop bleeding. For this, you can surely give me an answer, right? I can trade for it."

Baifeng thought about it; there were too many ways to stop bleeding, but the only thing he could teach was using medicine. However, this answer would probably be hard to satisfy Xuanyuan, because he had just noticed that there was ash used to stop bleeding on the slaves' wounds, which had already congealed into blood mud. He didn't know what kind of plant ash it was either.

Baifeng felt the trade could be done, but he couldn't ask for too much. So he pointed at the slaves and said: "I can tell you the answer, but this time, you don't need to use grass; just use these slaves to trade. For the question you asked, I want you to exchange one hundred slaves."