Boiling Beast Bloodline
Chapter 243 - 40: The Grudges at the Ferry Point (Part 1)_2

Chapter 243: Chapter 40: The Grudges at the Ferry Point (Part 1)_2

A while later, she found her skin becoming much smoother. From then on, she openly drank the tonic together with Lady Helen.

I must share weal and woe with Lady Helen. The Gortani Knight found herself an excuse to continue consuming the ginseng root sap.

Now, all the subjects of the Fei Lengcui, including the slaves, had developed blind idolatry towards their Overlord.

This was also true of the three innkeepers and even tutor Cui Beixi. It seemed that everyone had the illusion that as long as the Overlord was there, anything impossible was possible.

By the bamboo grove there stood a line of hefty dumbbells made and polished from stone, bundles of log bars made from five thick vines each, the abrasion marks clearly visible on their surfaces. A group of militia gasped heavily, snot dribbling from their noses, their bared upper bodies glistening with sweat.

Liu Zhenhan lay in a bamboo woven recliner, his feet resting on Karu’s shoulders. Karu, with a fawning smile on his face, was attentively massaging his legs.

Liu Zhenhan squinted, staring into the distance.

Red hills blocked the falling shadows of the setting sun, and a yellowish haze hung between the sky and the earth in the distance where the vortices of air currents stirred up straws.

The Dorottian human nations had been frequently sending armed guards on tall horses from the south of the wilderness, heading north to Witherspoon, to usher the human traders back home. For, a significant human festival - the Yostelloy Festival - was upcoming, the importance of which was similar to the Beamon’s God’s Birthday, and most human traders would return home once a year during this time, bringing all their yearly earnings and preparing goods for the next year.

Since the first snowfall, there had been more and more traders passing by, and the Red Earth Highland welcomed or farewelled a convoy once every one or two days.

Even though there were no bridges over the wide Sanggan River, the Overlord’s Water Repelling Bead was extremely powerful. Once it touched the water, it could force a dry path within a radius of five rens, making it much more convenient and quicker than the cumbersome vine boats when crossing the river.

The flamboyance of the humans dazzled Liu Zhenhan. The chain mail and steel swords on those ordinary knights made him, the lord of the iron-scarce Beamon Kingdom, drool. These rich humans even had chain mail on their warhorses’ necks.

Liu Zhenhan originally thought that these were the famous human heavy cavalry, but upon listening to Vieri’s introduction, he realized that they were just ranger mercenaries. The mounts of the human heavy cavalry were completely covered in contiguous plate armor, and besides the four hooves, they were mobile iron fortresses.

How could Liu Zhenhan miss this opportunity to make a fortune?

The human traders and the ranger mercenaries protecting them expressed intense dissatisfaction towards the sudden appearance of a toll station on the south bank of the Sanggan river, especially as the prices were so exorbitant. Fei Lengcui was charging a floating toll - there was no fixed price, but it would be determined randomly based on the number of accompaniments of these humans and their extravagance.

As long as you pay, dissatisfaction and complaints are your rights. This was Liu Zhenhan’s principle.

The duties at the Fei Lengcui’s ferry point were distinct, the Overlord was in charge of negotiation, the two Fei Lengcui innkeepers, Ning Yu and Avril, were responsible for collecting fees, alongside some stalwart vassal clansmen and Mastiff Men from the militia who were hooting on the side.

Liu Zhenhan thought that except for the vassal clansmen and Mastiff Men, the militiamen, if set at the toll station, would directly transform this regular Beamon toll station into a bandit’s stall.

Militiamen generally looked too violent. This period of strenuous physical training had completely transformed them. The mammoth strongmen doing bench presses had progressed from the initial usage of four logs to ten logs; reaching a terrifying total weight of about five tons. Before, pudgy riverside hippo poets now had all their abdominal muscles prominently bulging, and they could break a half-hug log with a single kick. As for pandas, they had even dyed their black eyes white, and without any obstruction for their vicious glares dissipating out, plus they love biting bamboos wildly, making their faces look more ferocious.

The toll station by the Sanggan River was hidden by the dense bamboo groves. If something were to happen, they could immediately rush out, so Liu Zhenhan strictly forbade these large-headed militiamen from showing up randomly to avoid scaring anyone.

Liu now spent his free time rigorously training them - squats, weightlifting, stretching ligaments, boxing, long distance weight-bearing running, making sure they were exhausted to death, and then they’d bath, drink, sing, roll back to the cave and sleep.

Human merchants tend to be polite, but there are still some clueless morons out there, lecherously trying to flirt with these two peerless beauties. They often cooled off quickly when they were thrown into the chilling waters of the Sanggan River by the Mastiff People.

Within the territory of Bimon Kingdom, no one dares to fight with a group of exclusive warriors serving a bunch of noble overlords. It would be suicide.

Particularly due to Vieri, who always swung around a towering axe on his shoulder. He looked like an unofficial mascot of the Aegean Continent after having black eye circles, resembling a hale and hearty panda, only a bit wild-looking. And the Wheel Axe he wielded was more like a shield than an axe, considering the stature of humans.

Naturally, there was no shortage of protests. Human merchants would swear to complain to the Noble Inspection Court of Witherspoon next year.

Cui Beixi could never have dreamed that her own disciple would turn out to be so ruthless. She deeply regretted advising him to build a toll gate at the crossing.

Liu Zhenhan had been studying Bimon law very thoroughly recently, an attribute common in many criminals or individuals with a tendency towards serious crimes.

"Within my realm, I have the right to collect appropriate taxes. If you feel these taxes are unbearable, you can choose another route back to your homeland. Any place within a radius of 500 miles to the south of the Sanggan River is within the jurisdiction of Lady Feilengcui. You can also choose to land at a place 500 miles downstream of the Sanggan River and then return to your home land," the cunning smile of Lord Piegel left the human merchants feeling somewhat depressed.

There was no way they were going to go downstream to land; how long would they have to travel for 500 miles? Having finished grumbling, the merchants were yet forced to pay.

Liu Zhenhan’s old acquaintance, Boss Rogge, returned from there a few days ago. Rogge, full of himself, was ruthlessly skinned by Liu Zhenman, and the jade pendant he got from Ning Yu was dutifully handed over to buy off the road toll.

"Our Bimon road tolls are different from your human measures; sorry I forgot to mention this earlier," Liu Zhenman patted Rogge’s shoulder and said cheerfully, "It’s going to be more expensive next time, remember to bring enough gold coins."

At that moment, Rogge wanted to protest, his whole chubby body trembling with indignation.

But suddenly, a massive panda bear carrying a Wheel Axe appeared silently from behind the grinning Lord Piegel. Rogge instantly remembered the scene of a worker being squeezed till he fainted by a panda warrior. The panda man in front of him was even bigger, his giant paws super menacing.

Rogge quickly swallowed the profanity that he was about to blurt out.

Liu Zhenhan gazed at the entrancing, desolate beauty spread out in front of him, emptying his cup of wine in one go.

The Kunk sentinel atop the arrow tower on the Red Earth Highland blew into his military horn made out of a conch shell, its solemn sound pulling Liu Zhenhan back to the present.

Red Earth Highland was about forty blades high, and with the additional five blades of the arrow tower, even the short stature of the Kunk clan’s skunk-man was enough to guarantee a commanding view of a fifty miles range.

The militia members put down their wine cups and strained their necks to look at the distance. Each wore a grin full of anticipation.

"Hehe... looks like more fat lambs are coming our way!" Liu Zhenhan sprang up from his chair with glee.

******

Had a traffic accident while riding an electric tricycle today. If it weren’t for the canvas curtain, I would’ve been thrown out. My finger got hurt. The driver injured a woman, Geez.

It started snowing here today, the first snow of the season.