Chapter Forty-Seven: Going North

  "Do you know what day August 15th is?" Su Dong suddenly asked with a smile.

  Kong Jing's old head was stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it, he said: "August 15th? It doesn't seem to be any special day."

  Su Dong pointed north and said, "Every autumn, on the 15th of August, it's the grand trading festival for the four northern countries. All merchants from the entire north will gather there. This year's festival is being held in Ye City, the imperial capital of Da Ye Country, which is only a ten-day journey from Han Xing City. We can take the Ling Valley goods there to sell."

  Kong Jing was taken aback and asked in confusion: "To Ye City!?"

  "Yes, to Ye City! This year is different from previous years. There's a rumor that the Ice Age is approaching, and the four northern countries are located at the northernmost part of the continent. If the Snow Demon appears, they will be the most severely affected. If my guess is correct, this year's Northern Four Countries Trade Fair will be even more lively than in previous years."

  "Faced with the threat of Snow Demon, various countries will surely scramble for all kinds of war materials. Linggu and Lingyao, as important strategic reserves, will definitely be sold at a better price than Hansheng City." Su Dong said calmly.

  Kong Jing's old head suddenly slapped his thigh, and he exclaimed: "Right! How could I not have thought of it? Hansheng City is too small after all, and the spiritual valley needed is not much. The four northern countries are the real big market! If Hansheng City's spiritual field is barren, the four northern countries are even more barren than us!"

  Su Dong shared his idea with the Ling Nong, and everyone agreed. Since Gu Chengzhang was in charge of the Linggu business in Hansheng City, they might as well cut ties with him and not trade with him, selling the Linggu and spiritual medicine to the even more distant Danye City instead.

  ……

  Zhou Xing's mansion.

  Su Dong suddenly came to visit, which really surprised Zhou Xing, and this was also Su Dong's first time taking the initiative to find him.

  In the study, Su Dong walked around the room, looking at the valuable antiques on the shelves and said with a smile: "Zhou Jiao Tou, you have two completely different lives at home and in the martial arts hall. Having money isn't a bad thing, why do you insist on wearing those coarse clothes, are you afraid of being robbed?"

  "Hey, the money belongs to our family's old master. I only get a little training fee and allowance every month, how can I be considered a rich man? Hurry up and tell me, what do you want from me?"

  Su Dong nodded, Zhou Xing this rich second generation is rare, there is no so much copper smell on his body, and he is more down-to-earth.

  "You also know that I have a bad relationship with the city lord's younger brother, so this time the spiritual grains and medicines harvested by Lingnong Society will not be sold in Hansheng City. Instead, they will be transported directly to Daye City for the Autumn Exchange of the Four Nations." Su Dong said calmly.

  Zhou Xing chuckled and patted Su Dong's shoulder, saying: "I thought it was something big, but it turned out to be this. Our Zhou family may not have any other skills, but we are experts in business. I'm also going to the Autumn Trade Fair in Dali City, so I can bring your goods over at the same time. The merchants there are also familiar with me, and when the time comes, I'll introduce you to them. You won't lose out!"

  Su Dong was taken aback, "You're also going to Daye City? What's this, is the Master planning on taking over the family business?"

  "This year, our little Yu fell from the tree and got a fright, which also scared my old father, who hasn't been feeling well lately. So I plan to accompany him to Danye City. Besides, the martial arts hall was going anyway, I just left two days early."

  "Are you going to the martial arts hall too?" Su Dong asked curiously.

  Zhou Xingdao said, "You don't usually go to the martial arts hall, so you don't know some things. Every year, the Northern Four Nations Trade Fair lasts for a month, and near the end, many celebration activities are held. One of the important events is the Martial Arts Competition, where each of the four nations' major martial arts halls sends out warriors to fight."

  "Our Hanshing City is not far from the Northern Four Nations, so we are often invited to attend. This time, we received an invitation letter again."

  Su Dong furrowed his brow and said: "Isn't it a good thing that we're meeting through martial arts? Why do you look so worried, Master?"

  Zhou Xing helplessly said, "The phrase 'martial arts bring friendship' is something you say to outsiders. Who doesn't want to win glory? There are several martial arts schools in the four northern countries that are not very reputable and often resort to underhanded tactics. In the past, some of our school's warriors have died there. If we don't go, it will be assumed that we're afraid of them."

  Su Dong nodded slightly, he is now a Ling Nong, and the martial arts competition in the Wu Guan has nothing to do with him, so he didn't pay attention.

  "By the way, how much spiritual medicine will Linggu produce this year? How many large carts are needed? Tell me so I can make arrangements early." Zhou Xing asked.

  Su Dongdao said, "Oh, as for the spiritual medicine, one large cart will be enough. The harvest in Linggu Valley was quite good, with 54,000 catties. I plan to keep 4,000 catties for myself and sell the remaining 50,000 catties at the trading fair."

  "How much!?" Zhou Xing rubbed his own ears, asking incredulously.

  "We need to transport 50,000 catties." Su Dong repeated.

  "There are only 70 mu of spiritual fields in total, and you've managed to harvest 54,000 jin of spiritual grains!?" Zhou Xing exclaimed loudly with wide eyes.

  Linggu is not an ordinary grain, requiring extremely strict spiritual power. Even the top-grade spiritual fields of Xingshe only produce no more than 200 kilograms per mu, but Su Dong made inferior spiritual fields produce nearly 800 kilograms of Linggu per mu!

  This is no miracle, it's simply divine!

  ……

  On August 8th, a very auspicious day, Su Dong and more than twenty members of Ling Nong Society set out on the mountain road to Da Ye City with the caravan of Da Zhou Business Firm.

  Su Qi Nian was acting strange again, early in the morning Su Dong wanted to bid him farewell, but unexpectedly Su Qi Nian had already gone to school, as if he wasn't worried about Su Dong's first trip to the North at all.

  They parted ways as soon as they left the city. Bai Xiaoya and Bai Qing followed another group of people from the Zhou family to head south and seek refuge with their relatives.

  Two little foxes cried and wailed, making Su Dong feel uncomfortable. He smiled and comforted them, saying: "It's just a temporary separation, why be like this? Who knows, maybe one day the Snow Demon will really come, and I'll have to go south to rely on you."

  "Really?"

  Su Dong was just joking, but Bai Xiao Ya actually took it seriously, carefully writing down the place she wanted to go and then personally putting it in Su Dong's pocket.

  "Remember, you must come find me." Bai Xiao Ya blinked her eyes and said softly.

  "I will."

  "Come find me!"

  "I will."

  "If you don't go, I'll hate you for the rest of my life!"

  "Uh..."

  One step three looks back, Bai Xiaoya and Bai Qing sat in the carriage, crying as they headed south.

  Su Dong's heart was also a bit uncomfortable, the mainland is so vast, one south and one north, one fox tribe and one human, who can say when they will meet again? When they meet again, it's really unknown what year or month it will be.

  Let Brother Su Ning return to the city, Su Dong and Zhou Xing rode horses, walking at the forefront of the team.

  Zhou Xing looked very pleased and smiled, saying: "You're going to the North for the first time, you don't know the situation there. The four countries of Beifang, Daliu, Qianpu, Dingwen, and Hansheng are all nice places with good scenery. Unfortunately, they are too close to the Extreme Northern Wasteland, so they often get attacked, which is why their development has been somewhat poor."

  "By the way, who were those two girls earlier? You've kept them hidden pretty well, I'd never seen them before. Now that I have, I can see why you wanted to personally arrange for them to go south."

  Su Dong said with a wave of his hand: "I'm telling you, we're just two old neighbors, if I can help, I'll naturally lend a hand."

  Zhou Xing shook his head and lowered his voice: "I'm not gossiping, but these two girls are a bit strange."

  Su Dong said lightly: "Just two little foxes, what's strange about that?"

  "So you know their identities!?" Zhou Xing exclaimed in surprise, as humans generally harbored hostility towards the Spiritual Beast Clan, yet Su Dong had become friends with two little foxes, which left Zhou Xing feeling astonished.

  "You think they're nothing, but in the Imperial City, they are goods that many people can't get, each of them can be sold for at least 100,000 taels of silver. But don't worry, I've arranged for our trusted men to escort them, there won't be any mistakes." Zhou Xing sighed.

  After the autumn harvest, it was the busiest trading season in the entire North. Not far from Hanshing City, Su Dong and his group ran into a team of people, each with five big three thick, carrying weapons, looking fierce and formidable.

  This group of people either had missing limbs or were blind, all carrying heavy injuries, and it was unclear how they were caused.

  Su Dong was very curious and asked Zhou Xing.

  Zhou Xing lowered his voice and said: "These are explorers, specializing in doing business in the northern wilderness. Now that autumn has arrived, the explorers have begun to withdraw southward."

  Su Dong was taken aback and curiously asked: "Business in the wasteland? Isn't that Snow Demon's lair? Are there still people making a living there? Don't they want to live?"

  Zhou Xing curled his lips and said, "Great risks bring great rewards. In ancient times, there were many divine wars where the gods led their warriors to attack the Snow Demon in the northern wilderness, and countless war gods died on that icy land."

  "Later, the gods found that the Snow Demon was completely unconquerable, so they retreated to the south and built the Wall of Gods, blocking out the cold and the Snow Demon in the north. And we are the people who were left behind in the north, this continent also became a forgotten continent."

  Zhou Xing said it was very sad, the Forgotten Continent is a euphemism, to put it bluntly, the northerners are just food left by the gods for the Snow Demon. Every time the Ice Age comes, the Snow Demon will come to the Forgotten Continent, harvest the lives of the northern people, and eat away the northern civilians. The Snow Demon won't bother the south again.

  The people behind the wall of gods were safe, and the gods themselves were also safe. Only these forgotten people in the north became wronged spirits.

  So the northern continent is so obsessed with force that it's perfectly justified for warriors to kill people.

  "Is that explorer a hunter who went to the northern wilderness to hunt Snow Demons?" Su Dong asked again.

  Zhou Xingdao said, "The northern wilderness has undergone many divine wars, and a large number of war gods have died there. Therefore, there are many ancient battlefields and ruins of the divine wars in that place. These explorers take advantage of the summer season when the snow demons do not come out to go to the extreme north wilderness to search for treasures."

  Su Dong suddenly realized that explorers were actually treasure hunters.

  "When we arrive at Ye City, there will be more explorers coming down from the north. Who knows, maybe we can even exchange a few treasures of the ancient war gods!" Zhou Xing said excitedly.