Chaotic World Book-Chapter 265 - 260 Peeling the Cocoon and Drawing the Silk

San Niang must have had her own purposes... or perhaps she was intentionally or unintentionally leaking information to guests from the Central Plains.

Otherwise, why would she look at him differently when he simply asked for Jiangnan cuisine upon his arrival? When he mentioned preferring lamb over Jiangnan cuisine, she lost interest.

It seemed that the drunkard who had squatted here for a month, Zhao Changhe guessed that Situ Xiao also must have extracted a good amount of information he wanted before leaving.

Zhao Changhe glanced at San Niang, who was still sipping her drink with a smile. She held out her hand straight, "What else do you want to ask? Add ten liang per question."

Zhao Changhe laughed and suddenly said, "Hey, I’m now suspecting you’re using the organization’s intelligence to make money for yourself."

"Don’t talk nonsense!" San Niang immediately sat up straight, her eyes darting around, "What organization do I have? This is all the intelligence I’ve gathered through hard work!"

She pretended to cry pitifully, "As a weak woman all alone in this barbarian land, do you know how hard life is..."

"Maybe you have to deal with people like Wu Balu who bully others with their power, and it’s quite a struggle, isn’t it?"

"Yes, yes."

"I get it, I get it, you pretend to be innocent to welcome guests, right?"

San Niang’s fake crying stopped abruptly, and she smiled, "Life is hard, life is hard... Anything else you want to buy?"

Zhao Changhe thought for a moment and asked, "Do you have information on the distribution of strong figures in the grassland?"

San Niang’s face fell, "No."

"Is there any peculiar Secret Realm? Like this lake in the desert, how was it formed, naturally or otherwise..."

Before he could finish, San Niang’s expression changed, "No. Why are you always asking such bizarre questions, looking for trouble, right? I’m not selling to you anymore."

Zhao Changhe turned to look at her and sighed, "Alright, alright, I, Wang Daozhong, just can’t read people’s faces, getting scolded everywhere I go."

San Niang: "..."

"One last question." Zhao Changhe handed over another ingot of broken silver.

San Niang quickly hugged the money to her chest, grinning, "Say it."

"Wasn’t Yue Hongling here in the grassland killing the Black Wolf King before? Is she still around?"

San Niang looked at him sideways, "Why? Want to capture her for the Great Khan’s reward, or are you trying to pursue the heroine?"

"I’m just here to buy information. What I do with it, isn’t that my business? People selling butcher knives don’t ask if it’s for slaughtering pigs or people."

"Fair point." San Niang propped her chin and thought for a moment, "However, if her whereabouts could be asked here, it would prove she’s indeed dangerous. If you’re here to pursue the heroine, you should pray that no one knows her whereabouts."

Zhao Changhe nodded, "Makes sense. So her whereabouts are still unknown?"

"No... you know, recently here, it doesn’t matter for men, but once women are involved, they are immediately surrounded by an army squadron."

"All because of Yue Hongling?"

"Correct." San Niang smiled slightly, "So Yue Hongling is in trouble now, she probably has nowhere to resupply. Even if she turns to robbing like the horse bandits, what she steals might not be useful. Money and silk can’t be eaten. She needs food, water, and horse feed. Going forward, she might risk coming to Yellow Sand Market again. If you wait here, you might really see her. Whether to play hero to save the beauty or to take advantage of the chaos, that’s your business. I didn’t say anything."

Zhao Changhe nodded, "Got it. San Niang, you’re not just selling information, but analyses as well, really worth it."

San Niang beamed, "Of course, anything else you need, just ask me!"

Zhao Changhe always felt that she was waiting for him to reply with "buying you" and then douse him with foot-washing water, but unfortunately, he wouldn’t play along, merely saying, "I want to go out for a bit, San Niang, any recommendations? Like seeing something unique... I don’t mean buying Western Regions’ jewelry and spices, but something characteristic of this place."

San Niang eagerly looked at his hands but saw no money coming forth.

She stifled a sniffle, "Alright, it’s a bit embarrassing to charge for just giving directions. Why don’t you check out the central market’s Beast Arena?"

"What is a Beast Arena?"

"Think of it as a bare-knuckle deathmatch, like some underworld forces in the Central Plains have. But here, slaves are what fight."

"I see, so it’s a Duel Arena then, why call it a Beast Arena? Because the opponents are fierce beasts?"

"The opponents are humans too. It’s called the Beast Arena because, besides fighting, they also sell... isn’t it like treating people as beasts?" San Niang smiled slightly, "Whether those being sold or those selling."

Zhao Changhe sipped his wine and glanced up at her.

San Niang said indifferently, "Among the slaves for sale, there are sturdy men, and maybe even Martial Arts experts, specifically for duels with beasts..."

Zhao Changhe nodded, "Understood, I’ll check it out."

As the two of them drank and talked, the wine pot at this moment was empty, and Zhao Changhe didn’t pour another pot, but staggered away from the counter, "San Niang, you’re stingy. I invited you for a drink, and you didn’t even offer a peanut."

San Niang jumped and cursed towards his back, "I’m the seller! Why don’t you call yourself stingy, inviting someone for a drink without even buying a plate of peanuts!"

Before her words ended, Zhao Changhe had already turned out of the house and headed straight to the street.

San Niang angrily cleaned up the empty wine pot, suddenly a waiter popped up next to her, "San Niang, about that man..."

"As long as he’s from Xia, that’s enough," San Niang gritted her teeth, "I don’t believe it, they’re all cunning foxes; trying to lure them to kill Wu Balu, from Yue Hongling to Situ Xiao then to Han Wubing, not a single one took the bait. That Mr. Wang is even more insidious, giving vague answers. I still don’t see his real purpose, and I believe he’s targeting us."

"He may not necessarily be surnamed Wang."

"Can’t it be a bastard then?"

The waiter looked at her grievously, "San Niang... I am also surnamed Wang."

San Niang: "..."

The waiter sighed, "Wu Ye never mentioned killing Wu Balu; it’s one thing if you took it upon yourself to kill him, but you’re charging money for information on your own initiative. It’s simply shameless..."

"Is this shameless? Pig-head," San Niang huffed, "Information if given for free will be questioned. They feel it’s genuine since they paid for it, having struggled to get it themselves; they wouldn’t suspect it’s fake, what do you know?"

"I think you just want to make money. Be careful, Wu Balu might come after you first, and Wu Ye won’t be able to reach you."

"I’ve been mingling here, when have I ever relied on Wu Ye?"

"Yes, yes, yes..."

San Niang was proud, "Anyway, if Mr. Wang has gone to the Duel Arena, there’ll be some drama to watch..."

"Wait." Another waiter rushed in, "San Niang, Mr. Wang didn’t go to the Duel Arena."

San Niang’s smile froze on her face, "Then where did he go?"

"He went outside, towards the direction leaving the market..."

San Niang was dumbfounded.

Meanwhile, Zhao Changhe left San Niang and slowly walked down the street of the Exotic Realm, heading towards the outskirts of the market.

The surrounding environment was actually quite exotically flavored, probably very interesting if one were traveling here, but now there was no desire to look, his mind filled with thoughts.

Communicating with San Niang couldn’t be too deep, using disjointed conversations to prevent her from seeing the real intentions was safe but lacked a direct entry point and was very taxing on the mind.

Sometimes Zhao Changhe got tired of dealing with this, ever since he rejected Tang Wanzhuang’s plaque, it had been like this. Hoping to live a carefree life of singing and drinking across the Worldly Society, but everywhere he went involved using his brain, was it tiring? But by now, he knew it wasn’t about the plaque of Demon Suppression Department, but a lack of sufficient strength.

With Xia Longyuan’s strength, one could ignore what others were doing. Without that strength, everywhere required careful thinking, otherwise, death would come unknowingly.

Regardless, the gains were actually substantial.

At least Zhao Changhe was now eighty percent sure where the missing squad, if still alive, might be.

If they were sold as slaves at the Duel Arena, would they have to confront Wu Balu? How would this operation proceed... connecting with San Niang’s attitude towards Wu Balu, she probably hoped he would go there to do something.

But unfortunately, there was no need to go, it made no sense since he couldn’t save all the slaves in the Battle Arena... The mission was only to find that squad.

The Qiao family’s caravan came here to sell goods—they passed by the tribe where the squad disappeared, traveling north with empty carriages.

There was a good chance that the "empty carriages" they were transporting carried "slaves." Entering the market required using this road, and he had been watching out the window the whole time to prevent the Qiao family from causing trouble; none of them entered, suggesting the "goods" were still outside not yet unloaded.

Thus, the task assigned by Cui Yuanyong, as long as the people weren’t dead, were eighty percent likely to be in that caravan; if they were dead, one could still find out something from this caravan. Going back and forth, the entry point was the Qiao family caravan encountered on the road, and he would need to make a night exploration regardless.

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PS: Sorry it’s late today, recently have been a bit stuck, starting the major storyline is not easy to write.

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