When Zhao Hai heard what Laura said, he felt that there were words within her words. He looked at Laura in confusion and asked, âWhat do you mean?â
Laura glanced at Zhao Hai and then snickered, âIt means, those liars were not real merchants. They had background. Solid background.â
Zhao Hai looked agape and asked, âYou mean someone made the liars act this way? Who? For what?â
Laura let out a bitter smile and replied, âWho else could it be? The ones who are afraid of beastmen getting powerful. Among them are Fansile family, as well as Axu Empireâs royal members. There are many merchants on Beastmen Prairie right now, and they are their spotters. If they find out which tribe is very powerful, they will both think of a way to weaken that tribe. In order to weaken a tribe, thereâs no move more vicious than cheating. This move doesnât need manpower and too much wealth. Even less so for fighting, and it can let them fulfill their goal. Thatâs why a lot of people use this move.â
Zhao Hai seriously never thought that it was because of this. He did a double take and said, âNo wonder Yale just interrupted Wales. It seems like Yale treated us as those sort of liars as well. Blame me, for I just spoke too surely.â
Laura laughed, âWe canât blame you as well. What you said was the truth. Itâs just Yale doesnât believe you. Once we make more contact, they will believe it. Thatâs right, Hai-bro. Do you feel that Walesâ camp is a little strange?â
Zhao Hai nodded, âItâs a little strange, yes. This camp is full of combatants, and not a single woman. This is a little inexplicable.â
Laura nodded, âI can tell as well, but from the look of Wales, itâs not like he had anything important to do, so why would he come all the way here?â
Meg, who had never spoken just now, said, âCan be it be that Wales is here for a trial? Wales is the 7th son of the Herculean Bull Tribeâs chieftain, which is basically a prince. Human nobles usually let their own children go out to brush up, and Walesâ identity is also a noble one, so he might be here for a trial of combat, right?â
Laura and Zhao Hai both did a double take, and then Laura laughed softly, âIt seems like weâve thought things to be more complicated than they really are. Yes, I also heard that the great tribesâ princes would also come out for trials. It seems like Wales is part of it as well, but the matter of him being surrounded by jackals is also full of fishiness.â
Zhao Hai nodded, âThis matter is somewhat odd, but itâs not what we need to concern ourselves with. Weâve arrived at our destination and we dealt with the Jackal Tribe, right? I even stored the Jackal Tribeâs people, but none of them alive, unfortunately. Still, there are two mounts which are alive. Theyâre now in storage.â
After the battle, Zhao Hai put the jackal tribesmen corpses into the space. In order to avoid Yaleâs suspicions, Zhao Hai personally used the black mist spell to cloud the battleground, and then collected the corpses. He didnât turn the jackal tribesmen into undead creatures in a hurry. He still wanted to get some information from their mouths.
But he also couldnât let Wales and Yale know that, so he used the black mist spell to cloud the battleground. By the time it dissipated, the jackal tribesmenâs corpses had disappeared. This would make Yale and others think that Zhao Hai had turned the corpses into undead creatures which he put into his summoning space.
This was also the common method used by black mages on the continent. Usually after they killed their enemies, they would turn their enemies into undead creatures and then put them into their own summoning space. Not only would this deter enemies, it would also add to their own strength. That was why Zhao Hai did it earlier. Both Yale and Wales werenât the slightest bit suspicious.
Laura nodded and said, âLetâs wait until itâs night to sort out those jackal tribesmen. We donât know when Wales will come look for us, so letâs not enter the space.â Zhao Hai nodded as well. He didnât intend to enter the space at this time.
Zhao Hai and others didnât know that Wales and Yale were talking about them at the moment.
When they saw Zhao Hai and others leave the tent, Wales spoke to Yale in confusion, âTeacher, why didnât you let me and Zhao Hai continue on? If he has a lot of grains and theyâre very cheap, then itâs great news for our Herculean Bull Tribe.â
Yale glanced at Wales and shook his head, âI feel that Zhao Hai wasnât being truthful. Does he really have grains in his hands? Do not forget Black Bear Tribeâs lesson 5 years ago.â
The Black Bear Tribe lesson 5 years ago which Yale meant was that scamming incident, when a human merchant who had cooperated with Black Bear Tribe many times in the past promised to prepare the grains meant for lasting through winter. Because the Black Bear Tribe worked happily with the other party, they wouldnât expect that the other party would cheat them. As a result, the black bear tribesmen never bought any grains from other human merchants to pass the winter.
Yet that human merchant had disappeared in the end, and never appeared on the prairie. By the time the Black Bear Tribe fell for it, it was already too late. They didnât stockpile grains for that winter, and the snowing was fierce. It was hard to mobilize the forces, and the entire Black Bear Tribe faced the danger of food depletion.
Eventually, they had no choice but to eat argali and other magic beasts in order to overcome the danger. Even so, many of the Black Bear Tribeâs slaves had starved to death. The once powerful Black Bear Tribe had weakened. If it werenât for their powerful fighting abilities, they wouldâve already been terminated.
Afterwards, this matter had caused a huge backlash on the Beastmen Prairie. There was even a period of time when all the races on the prairie didnât do business with human merchants. Many of the merchants had unrecoupable losses because of this.
When Wales heard what Yale said, he was startled and said, âIt canât be. I donât think Zhao Hai is that sort of person, and heâs holding a friendship flag. Arenât you worrying too much?â
Yale shook his head, âItâs always better to be a little more cautious. We must always remember the Black Bear Tribeâs lesson. Regardless of whether or not Zhao Hai has the grains, we cannot put all the fortunes on him.â
Wales didnât object regarding this point. Putting all of oneâs fortunes on someone else is too risky. He wouldnât do it, so he didnât object to what Yale said.
Yale looked at Wales as he said, âDonât you think itâs very strange that we were under attack today, Wales? When did those mongrels get so gutsy and they dared to attack us?â
Wales was startled, âThen teacher, what you mean is?â
Yale replied, âThereâs something fishy about this. Even though the mongrels will rob anyone, when they do, their teams have elderly and women, and usually act in a whole group. But the ones who attacked us today were all strong and of age. No elderlies and women. Have you heard of any jackal tribes that mobilized 2000 strong adults to conduct robbery before? Furthermore, weâre just here to roam so we didnât bring a lot of valuables, and just 300 warrior guards. Weâre more powerful than the smaller tribes with this kind of strength by many measures, yet the mongrels still came for us. This isnât like their usual style of action, so Iâm saying that this matter is very strange.â
Walesâ facial expression kept changing as he heard Yaleâs words. He wasnât a fool. He knew what Yaleâs words meant.
Although Wales was the chieftainâs 7th son, he was his fatherâs most favorite son, and he was smart since he was little. This might not mean much to humans, but in beastmen tribes, it was an incredibly positive trait.
Beastmen had direct personalities. Normally when there were beastmen that werenât too clever, they appeared to be silly in othersâ eyes and easily deceived, so the beastmen placed great importance on smart children and assign a prophet teacher to them since little for education. This kind of children were often the ones to become the next chieftains.
Since little, Wales proved to be very smart, so his father assigned Yale to him when he was 5 years old. This was almost like a hint to everyone that he was ready raise Wales as a successor.
If Walesâ other brothers had ordinary strength, then it wouldnât be much. The Herculean Bull Tribe would complete the succession smoothly. But the problem was that his brothers were powerful as well. It would be problematic.
Walesâ eldest brother Gasol stayed at his fatherâs side since little and always fought for Herculean Bull Tribe. In the beastmen circles, he had a glorious nickname of âbull-headed war godâ. His strength was enough to match against a human level 8 expert. Among beastmen who admired strength, Gasolâs fame was quite large. His prestige was very great within Herculean Bull Tribe as well.
Even though Gasol wasnât as smart as Wales, he helped their father manage the tribeâs matters all these years, so his performance could be said to be commendable. That was why many people were supporting him in Herculean Bull Tribe and wanted him to be the next chieftain.
Walesâ second brother Paul wasnât too worth the attention. Because Paul had always been a very short tempered person, even though he was powerful and eager to battle, he was obviously not chieftain material. But Paul had a very good relationship with Gasol, and he always supported Gasol in becoming a chieftain.
Walesâ 3rd and 4th brothers were killed in action during their teenage years. The ones who could remember their names in the tribe were few.
Walesâ 5th brother Hales had a sickly body since little. He would get sick in half of every year, so he was a forgotten existence in the tribe who didnât pose any threat.
Walesâ 6th brother Mendez had a very good relationship with Wales. He took great care of Wales since little, but his current age wasnât very high so he couldnât be of much help.
Wales had 2 more younger brothers, but their age was still little. They didnât even have the right to engage in trials, not to mention helping out.
Wales had another 4 older sisters, but they were married to another bull headed race that wasnât weak: Fighting Bull Tribe. Wales had a good relationship with his 2nd and 3rd sisters, while the eldest and 4th sisters were in good relationships with Gasol.
To really count it up, Gasol had larger odds than Wales in becoming the chieftain of Herculean Bull Tribe.