Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When they spoke of poaching, they meant that they were hunting in the woods that belonged to the nobles. According to the traditions in the world, the feudal lord noble possessed the ownership of the entire manor, including the land and the things that grew on the land.
As for man-made items, or other things, like crops, that required manpower during growth, the labor would be able to shared, with parts of the profit being given back to the workers. However, the majority of all profits still belonged to the feudal lord.
In the woods, regardless of whether it be a plant or animal, since these things were not man-made, nor was anyone contributing manpower to their growth, they belonged to the feudal lord entirely. Thus, no one could attempt to invade such areas.
In other words, besides a hunter, who must first have received permission from the feudal lord and have paid a hunting tax, any other hunting activities would be considered as robbing the feudal lord’s wealth. This sort of hunting was a crime, accompanied by severe punishment.
In fact, the very lightest punishment would be the chopping off of one’s hand or the digging out an eyeball! The most commonly seen punishment was death by hanging.
It was heard that there were some powerful feudal lords, who would even hire mages to cast magic on the farmers that hunted illegally in their lands. All in all, hunting was considered as being something very dangerous, something that courts death. Hence, people that didn’t have a death wish better not get involved!
Sui Xiong, of course, didn’t want to die, but he still just couldn’t watch the others starve to death before him. The famine victims were severely lacking food, and he knew that there was a wealth of food sources in the mountain. Moreover, he just so happened to be able to borrow a crossbow that was not too shabby…
What else should I do? Isn’t the answer quite clear?
Having grown up in a democratic society since his birth, he never thought that it was right and proper for the noble to possess everything on his manor. On the contrary, the ideal of “serving the people above all” was infused into his blood. You could say that it basically had become that patch of redness in his inner marrow.
So, he convinced the pub boss to join him, bringing along the crossbow, as well as a few other men, each of whom would give their lives to feed their families. This small ragtag group then entered the mountain together.
The poor harvest didn’t seem to have affected the numerous wild animals in the mountain.Thus, they were able to shoot several deer dead.
“Look, even the deer has fat on its body, while the humans here are skin and bones from starvation…” Sui Xiong complained, while he carried the deer back with the others, who were all quietly sneaking away from the woods.
It was quite a strong buck (male deer), which was most likely seven to eight hundred catties (one catty equals to 0.5 kilograms). From its body, they got about four hundred and fifty to sixty catties of edible resources, including skin, flesh, bones and some inlets.
These things go well, when added with some edible wild herbs! As such, this haul should be able to feed the few families of the men for about half a month’s time!
Although antlers and some other items might be able to be sold for a high price, Sui Xiong was very careful with everything, choosing to bury such things deep underground, not daring to yet bring them out in the light. He knew that, if the news spread and the feudal lord found out about their recent hunting expedition, they might die!
But, there isn’t a wall in the world which hasn’t a crack in it. Two to three days later, the other famine victims found out about their little adventure, and the spoils it profited them. As these people were suffering from extreme cold and hunger, they couldn’t be bothered by the feudal lord’s law. Hence, they came to look for Sui Xiong for help.
Sui Xiong helped them all to hunt for deer in the mountain woods. The news of this, of course, travelled very quickly.
During noon, after about ten days of this, the feudal lord’s head of guards brought ten soldiers to the pub. Sui Xiong, of course, tried to escape. Relying on his quick response and decent stamina, he dashed out from the pub, then ran towards the entrance of the town.
As he ran, a feather arrow flew across the sky, hitting him in the back. He staggered, but continued to flee. Then, he took a second arrow, and a third arrow…
After a while, Sui Xiong was caught, and his body was hung on a tree at the entrance of the town. He had six arrows shot into his body, and his blood soaked straight through his clothes.
After a while, before the sky grew dark, the other few people that were involved in the poaching, were captured and hung alongside him. Some died after being hung up alive, while some were killed and hung up later, making an example to the public of what punishment awaited any who disobeyed the laws of the land.
The sky grew dark, and the winter night was cold. During the night, lightning struck the tree that was being used as the gallows. The entire tree was burnt to ashes, along with the dead bodies that were hung on it.
The commoners couldn’t see that there was a huge jellyfish floating in the air, while all this was happening. The jellyfish was deep in thought, sighing with emotions.
“As a God, I really don’t pay enough attention to the commoners’ world!”
The jellyfish mumbled to himself. “Back then, when I heard about the church of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest having conflict with the church of the God of Wealth, and of its suffering a loss, I found it interesting. I didn’t know that, behind the interesting bits, there was such a heavy-hearted tragedy!”
Then, he returned to the theme park and commanded the Void Mask church to help the famine victims, utilizing all of their efforts and resources.
“Food will be a big issue.” Rhodes immediately raised up the problem. “We are not able to take out an adequate amount of food that would be sufficient to aid the victims of a whole country!”
“I will figure out a way,” Sui Xiong replied in a low voice.
“Also to consider, are the logistics,” Rhodes said. “To transport food to each corner of the Gold Coin Federation, is far beyond our capability. As for aiding the victims of the Dhaka Commercial Association, it is totally impossible!”
“Let’s do our best,” Sui Xiong said. ” If there is any actual difficulty that can’t be solved, then come and look for me. I will figure out a way.”
Everyone exchanged glances, as they didn’t understand why he suddenly would send out such a ridiculous order. However, regardless if it was out of kindness or loyalty, they couldn’t refuse.
Thus, the order was carried out very quickly. The food that the entire church stored was sent towards the south continuously. It was going straight to the Gold Coin Federation for the victims.
At the same time, Sui Xiong opened the transportation portal of the Gold Coins Federation and the Dhaka Commercial Association, so that more food could be sent quicker.
“Going at this rate, our stored food will most likely be sufficient for a few more days,” Morani said. “Where are you going to look for more food?”
“The Beast Realm,” Sui Xiong said.
“I guessed as much.” Morani smiled. “Let me help you with that.”
In actual fact, there were many others, besides Morani, who were willing to help him. This number went even beyond those within the Void Mask church as well.
In the chaotic world, with countless magic beasts reproducing, Sui Xiong saw many Gods that were there to hunt. These Gods were mainly guardian deities from various places.
Their clergies had decided that they needed to prevent their areas from suffering a large scale calamity and famine. So, even though they knew that what they were doing was basically daylight robbery, they couldn’t be bothered too much about it.
Of course, he also saw the dominator of the world, the strong God that was known as the Beast King…
The Beast Realm was a barren world. It was about a third of the size of the main dimension. There were countless varieties of beasts living there, ranging from wild beasts to magic beasts. The world itself was ruled by a powerful God, who was the invincible ruler of the world.
To obtain his approval to hunt for sufficient food, various Gods had to pay a hefty price. But, they had no other really viable alternatives.
They could, of course, borrow food from the nature God system. In the holy kingdom of the nature God system, there were numerous pieces of golden wheat land, as well as trees that were covered with fruits, all of which would totally be sufficient to feed the victims.
But, the nature God system never liked humans. Most of them felt that including humans, due to the excessive expansion of the wise tribe, would ruin the balance of nature. Thus, if there could be a few large scale natural or man-made calamities, which would cause a loss of half of the human population, they would be cheering for it.
So, basically, if you’re asking to borrow food to throw a party, that wouldn’t be a problem. But, borrowing food to aid a human victim? Forget about it!
As for the other worlds that produced food, they were either too small, and thus unable to provide such a large amount of food, or they required too much time in order to raise up an adequate supply. The final scenario was that some worlds were already forcibly occupied by ferocious and powerful magic beasts, so even various Gods dared not set foot within them recklessly, much less to request aid!
After all, the guardian deities of these places were mostly among the lowest level of the Gods. Hence, they only had weak divine power. Such inferior power was insufficient for them to hunt in such dangerous worlds.
Also, since it was the Beast Realm, Sui Xiong had to get the Beast King’s permission to hunt there safely. In order to obtain the right to hunt there, Sui Xiong paid the Beast King a huge price. He bartered his divinity, which was as important as fresh blood to many other Gods. But, when all was said and done, he successfully hunted, securing sufficient food and finding quite a number of valuable breeds in the process.
Winter then passed, followed by spring. Then came summer, followed by autumn.
After the long famine passed, the entire Void Mask church was exhausted, including their God. But their contribution had received a generous payback. The influence of their church increased tremendously, and the number of believers also increased significantly. There was even an emergence of smaller scale churches of its same branch, which spread throughout the Gold Coin Federation and the Dhaka Commercial Association.
There were only a few dozen of these churches, but their belief was extremely pious though. Towards the God that lent them a helping hand unconditionally during their toughest time, even if it was a huge jellyfish, they repaid Him with great appreciation and devotion.
Sui Xiong’s reward didn’t stop there, as during the aid, he had gotten to know many Gods. Hence, he had received recognition from many of these kind and benevolent Gods.
The title of Void Mask became not only synonymous with a “huge jellyfish that was good at fighting, but bad at thinking,” but became a “huge jellyfish that was good at fighting, bad at thinking, and yet kind!”
Actually, there was more than one powerful and kind God that looked for the Master of Mystery in secret, and who wished to play the role of neutralizer to mediate their dispute. These Gods, when visited personally, might not be much to look at, but after they turned up in a multitude, there was a sway in the Master of Mystery’s attitude.
“There seems to be a favorable turn happening!” Morani told Sui Xiong happily. “I think we might not need to fight this war!”
Sui Xiong was very happy, too. So, when he created Traverser Sui Xiong MK5, he added some extra ability in for the clone.
“Living is his first mission,” he said. “No matter if he makes a mistake or upholds justice, he must be able to live on. So, a traverser must possess the power to escape, even if there is danger.”
“He doesn’t need to be very strong, but he has to be very sensitive. He also must be able to feel danger and be able to respond accordingly to such danger in a timely manner. And, if there is a need to escape, he must be able to run very fast.”
Hence, the traverser became an athlete that was good at running short and long distances. Siu Xiong felt that such a person would be able to live in this world well enough, and would have a very long life!
