Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The various types of people and events that Ren Baqian had seen in this world were limited.
The people he interacted with were basically the aboriginals.
Others whom he met were the foreign merchants in Lan City and those who attended the empress’s birthday celebration at the Honglu Bureau.
No matter how poor Lan City was, it was still under the control of the empress. Those merchants who went to Jingyuan Road were mostly from distinguished families, tended to be snobbish, and were not urbanized. As a result, he didn’t mingle much with them.
After arriving at Gu City, he didn’t venture too far away from his prearranged mansion and saw many shops and stalls of different hues and shades. They were mostly owned by foreign merchants and the remnant citizens of Hao Nation. There were hardly any aboriginals.
At the side of Ren Baqian was a typical young aboriginal named Feng Ting. He was bald, fierce looking, muscular, and had a body size that was twice the width of an ordinary guy.
This was a guide that Xi Wangu had arranged for Ren Baqian and his guards.
After all, they weren’t familiar with this place or its people.
“Most people live in the mountainous area and set out early in the morning so as to arrive here by around noontime. There are very little people now, but there will be more in the afternoon,” Feng Ting explained.
Ren Baqian knew he was referring to the aboriginals.
As for the people from other countries and the remnant citizens of Hao Nation, they weren’t considered as part of them.
Just as the foreigners rejected the aboriginals, they were in turn rejected by the aboriginals.
“Set out in the morning and arrive at noon? It isn’t that far,” Ren Baqian said as he looked at the few aboriginals around.
“There’s a big city called Nanhuang City, at the south of the Great Basin. It’s a bustling city and has many good products,” Feng Ting said.
The things being sold here were oil, salt, sauces, and cloth meant for daily use by the remnant citizens of Hao Nation. Other products traded were herbs and animal skins intended for the commoners. As a result, there weren’t many good products.
The products in Nanhuang City mainly catered to aboriginals who lived in the Sixty Thousand Mountains. Every day, many people from the strongholds would bring the things they found in the mountains to Nanhuang City to trade. Nanhuang City was extremely lively, had many good things to choose from, and was even busier than Lan City.
Methods of preservation were limited in this world and most goods couldn’t be kept for long. The distance to Lan City was far and easily needed 20 days of travel. The caravans would need more than one month as they were slower.
It was no problem for minerals like gemstones, but for some strange and precious fruits, they would be moldy and rotten by the time they arrived at Lan City.
Furthermore, some exotic animals weren’t used to the environment outside of the Sixty Thousand Mountains and most of them couldn’t survive the agony of the journey to Lan City.
Back when Ren Baqian participated in the Great Hunt for the first time, he saw some strange animals which were suitable for riding. Basically, they spent a heap load of effort to transport them back to Lan City alive.
The empress wasn’t impressed, but those second and third generation aboriginal officials were delighted and rode them proudly.
However, the numbers were very small.
Ren Baqian occasionally chatted with Feng Ting, but his attention was focused on the pedestrians and shops on both sides of the street.
After travelling for some time, Ren Baqian could gradually recognize the differences between the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation and the foreign merchants.
The Great Xia people were more likely to be confident and proud because they had the backing of the most powerful nation.
During the Great Xia invasion, not all of the merchants were captured, but they couldn’t return either. The war between the two countries had temporarily ended, so these merchants started to move freely again.
However, their spirits were much lower because they had just been defeated.
They were also different from the merchants from the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation.
The merchants from the Yun Nation were more flamboyant, better dressed, and used more delicate weapons. They greeted you with smiles, but cursed you behind your back. That was exactly what the aboriginal hated most, their two-faced behavior.
The special features of the merchants from the Chen Nation were that they were dark, skinny, and had small builds. They weren’t good looking.
Even after migrating from the Yun Nation to the Chen Nation, they were still small-minded, and it wasn’t known whether this was due to the previous environment they had lived in.
To put it simply, the characteristics of the people from these three countries were quite different.
As for the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation, they ought to be called the Shan Yang people as they allegedly came from a place called Shan Yang. With the growing population and the addition of people who couldn’t survive on their own land in Great Xia, they merged and strengthened to form a nation successfully.
Appearance wise, the people of the Hao Nation weren’t much different from those of Great Xia, but their foreheads protruded slightly more and their eyes were more deep set.
There were many differences in their clothing. These remnant citizens of the Hao Nation wore a small jacket on top and a long pleated skirt below. There were slits on both sides of the skirt and hairy legs could be inadvertently seen through the gaps.
Both men and women were dressed like this.
The most important thing was the hatred displayed in their eyes. Although they didn’t show it, it was buried in their hearts and couldn’t be hidden.
Their country had been destroyed, they were ruled by others, and tens of millions of them were fenced up and crammed into a basin.
After 71 years, this hatred had penetrated into their bone marrow.
When they saw Ren Baqian, they were initially amazed and surprised. After that, the hatred in their eyes became even more intense than when they looked at the aboriginals. This puzzled Ren Baqian greatly.
He had never even made contact with them.
In actual fact, it wasn’t hard to guess. They were caged up, but Ren Baqian sneaked into the aboriginal imperial court and even brought along aboriginal guards.
They were all outsiders, but he received different treatment.
Moreover, Ren Baqian was the husband of the empress and had contributed in the war against Great Xia.
Although the Hao Nation people didn’t know the specifics, they were able to obtain some information from the places where the people from different countries gathered.
They even dreamed about Great Xia chasing that bunch of barbarians back into the mountains. Even though Great Xia would then become their master, they could live free.
However, Great Xia not only lost, but was miserably defeated. They waited 71 years for Great Xia to send their army, but it was a fiasco.
Ren Baqian was one of those who greatly affected the war, so it was only natural to hate him. If he was an aboriginal, they would have added their hatred for him to all the aboriginals.
Yet, he wasn’t one and was still what the aboriginals considered an outsider.
“You, come here.” Ren Baqian waved to a man nearby. That man pretended not to hear and lowered his head to move away in a hurry.
“Grab him,” Ren Baqian ordered. When that guy looked at him just now, the hatred in his eyes could be seen even by a blind man. His hand touched his waist, hesitated for a moment, and then let go.
A guard went over, grabbed him by the back of his neck, and lifted him over.
“What do all of you want?” this man struggled and shouted.
“Search his waist to see what is there.” Ren Baqian put his fingers under his chin.
A knife made of bone was then handed over to Ren Baqian.
“Were you thinking of killing me?” Ren Baqian pinched the knife with two fingers as he calmly asked.
This 45 centimeters long bone knife was quite sharp. These remnant citizens of the Hao Nation strapped their knives on their thighs and concealed them inside their skirts, making them difficult to spot.
“No, Sir has misunderstood me,” the man replied with his head lowered. Ren Baqian was surrounded by aboriginal guards and even 100 of him wouldn’t be able to hurt one of Ren Baqian’s fingers. He was not a fool and knew what to say.
“What?” Ren Baqian wasn’t convinced. “I haven’t met you before and should have no enmity with you.”
“Sir, it is a misunderstanding. A small fry like me does not dare attack you.”
“Misunderstanding or not, what you say does not count. I have the final say. I feel that you wanted to kill me and that you are seeking death,” Ren Baqian ignored him and muttered to himself.
He felt he wasn’t wrong in accusing this guy. The hatred in his eyes and his hand’s position on his waist where the knife was hidden confirmed Ren Baqian’s suspicion.
The hatred displayed upon seeing Ren Baqian and the obvious movements indicated this man’s intention. Did he take Ren Baqian for a fool?
“In fact, I like it when people hate me to death, yet can’t do anything about it. However, I prefer to know why people who hate me to death couldn’t even resist touching their knife even with so many guards around,” Ren Baqian said softly.
“People do things for a reason. It couldn’t be that you got scared because you saw so many people here and touched your knife to seek security, right?”
The man instantly replied, “Sir, I was thinking of a matter and touched my waist to see whether I forgot to bring something. I didn’t find it and was thinking of going back to retrieve it.”
“Well, that sounds reasonable.” Ren Baqian nodded.
That man heaved a sigh of relief.
“But, I don’t believe it. We will bring you back and cruelly torture you for a few days before deciding whether or not to believe you.” Ren Baqian waved at the guards to come over.
The man’s expression drastically changed. Could he survive a few days of cruel torture? Was it meaningful only to decide at this stage?
Many people were crowding in this direction to watch, but quickly moved away with their heads lowered after hearing this and turned their heads away from the scene.
During this period, Xi Wanya was constantly killing people. Many people were trembling with fear and could only bury their hatred in their hearts.
Seeing the situation, the rest of the people were clear that this man wouldn’t live.
Ren Baqian could actually guess it, not completely, but a little.
He walked on the streets for a long time, and the hatred in their eyes told him that it wouldn’t be easy to get any information from them.
He might as well do it in a simple and direct way.
He was here to do good, which was to save these people. Their petty tricks, however, were making it unbearable for the empress, who would act sooner or later.
Now, you can be excluded. We will sacrifice you and perhaps a few more people in order to bring happiness to tens of millions of families.
A monument will be set up for you later.
Not everything was about human lives. He wasn’t a saint or a monk and didn’t stress equality for everyone.
Killing one, ten, 100, 1,000, or 10,000 innocent people to let 100,000 or a million honest and sincere people become Dayao citizens and help Dayao modernize would be considered reaching his goal.
To put it bluntly, Ren Baqian knew it was impossible not to kill anyone if he wanted to achieve his objective.
Sooner or later, he had to kill. Since he met someone who showed his intention so clearly, he might as well start with him.
