Thunder Fortress.
There was a place in the Sixth Floor of Tong Tian Tower that could induce fear in a person just by hearing its name— the Thunder Fortress.
Despite its name, it was not a castle or fortress, but a kingdom.
More accurately speaking, it was a robbers’ den.
Rumor has it that in the whole of Tong Tian Tower, a unique type of ‘Thunder Ore’ could only be found there, hence, the adventurers who camped there in the early days named it the Thunder Fortress. Of course, there was another version saying that as the surname of the adventurers’ leader was Lei, he named the place the Thunder Fortress, and the ore indigenous to the Thunder Fortress as the ‘Thunder Ore’.
(want2eat: Lei is thunder in Chinese)
Whatever the truth was, people didn’t really care.
Also, as the Thunder Fortress had been dominated by the Dragon Hunters for thousands of years, it became a restricted ground for normal adventurers.
Those who could make it into the Thunder Fortress, other than malicious robbers or bandits, only merchants could pass through. Anything associated with friendliness, justice or kindness had long gone extinct over here. Combats, fights and death could occur any moment…
The king who reigned over the Thunder Fortress was Chong Ni, who was ranked eighth on the Bloody Villain List.
He was a Level Eight Innate with supreme powers that could move mountains, a force where nobody could match up their power to. He was also a serial killer who had killed over forty thousand Rankers in the past 600 years.
Forget about Chong Ni, his three followers—Demon Eye, Mountain Elf and Blood River, were all serial killers in top hundred of the Bloody Villain List.
(Shiro: Would you guys rather Demon Eye, Mountain Demon and Blood River or Yao Tong, Shan Xiao and Xue He? These were names, so it should be the latter, but a lot of readers said that Chinese names were confusing)
Due to the unique terrain of the Thunder Fortress and the powerful Chong Ni who ruled over the place, it was therefore no wonder that the Warrior Guild couldn’t do anything. Even the Innate Alliance turned a blind eye to them. In Tong Tian Tower, there were a lot of people who was just like Chong Ni. They couldn’t maintain their self-conscience after the possessing power, subsequently turning into a dictator. In the Sixth Floor of Tong Tian Tower, there were more than a thousand who were villains just like Chong Ni, but as the Thunder Fortress was the most infamous one, Chong Ni could be considered to be the leader of all villains.
How could there be a Ranker who didn’t have their own territory in the Tong Tian Tower?
Only the weaklings don’t have their own territories.
The Great Emperor of Zhi Wei, Shun Tian, for example, he possessed several palaces in the Sixth Floor of Tong Tian Tower. He even possessed a Sky Emperor Divine Palace in the Seventh Floor of Tong Tian Tower, where he ruled over the whole rich territory that seemed to be as vast as the Dragon Soaring Continent.
This was an embodiment of his power.
Yue Yang was heading towards the Thunder Fortress, the place where he could unleash his powers without any restrictions.
He first teleported to the Yellow Goat Hills, the only place that allowed access to public. Then, he subsequently made his way to the outpost station of the Thunder Fortress, the ancient town of Yellow Goat. Although this was a town, it was much bigger than White Stone City and was bustling with excitement and activity. Countless merchants traded here, trading various life supplies including food, water, meat and other products such as wine, salt, sugar, as well as gold, silver, copper, iron and other metals. There was even countless slaves from different tribes on sale, including humans. However, most slaves were Beastmen or Half Beastmen who were physically stronger.
The merchants here were generally weaker, almost everyone were either Level 4 Champions or even Level 3 Hero. At the most, they were Level 5 Grandmasters, and very few of them were Level 6 Elders.
Although they were weak, they were safe.
Apart from the unwritten rule that forbid the killing of merchants, they also carry badges from the different Merchant Guilds they belonged to, and this helped to keep them safe. For example, for merchants who represented Shun Tian’s Sky Emperor Divine Palace Merchant Guild, even if they looked as weak as a chick, no one would dare to touch Shun Tian’s property.
Power ruled over everything here. As long as one had enough power, he would be granted access to anywhere.
As Yue Yang strolled along the streets of the ancient town of Yellow Goat, he felt sentimental as he looked at the bustling trading zone.
As extreme as it may sound, immorality certainly nurture business faster.
Being profit maximizing, merchants did not care about justice. They used extreme tactics to earn more money. For example, slaves trading was an extremely profitable industry…
“Do you need a female slave? She’s a Half Elf with an exotic look and a hot body. A single taste of her would definitely drive you crazy!” More than one merchant attempted to promote their slaves to Yue Yang. In the ancient town of Yellow Goat, slaves were just normal trading goods which were a tad more expensive than the others. For example, the Half Elf that was offered to Yue Yang just now cost 3000 gold. As long as one was willing to pay 3000 gold and a tax of 500, one could have bought the female slave and do whatever they want with her. This included abusing and killing her. To put it bluntly, her whole life belongs to the person who paid for her.
If one thought that it was too expensive, they can opt for cheaper female slaves for a price ranging from ten gold to more than a hundred gold. With 100 gold, one could have bought more than ten slaves.
The cheapest slaves were the coolies, who were either Beastmen or Half Beastmen used for mine digging or manual labour.
These coolies were not sold separately but sold per cages.
One cage of 100 slaves, just for 500 gold.
“Are there any Golden Elves?” After walking a few rounds, Yue Yang finally stopped in front of the asked the fat frog merchant who attempted to promote his Half Elf to him.
“Shhh!” The fat frog merchant shushed him. ”You know the goods well, but Golden Elves were extremely hard to get. Maybe you didn’t know that they were very stubborn and would not leave the forest they were inhabiting in easily, hence, making hunting them extremely difficult. To make matter worse, when one Golden Elf was caught, all the other villagers will go after and kill the hunter. They would not stop until they die. The Golden Elves had always been a subject of interest to the VIPs, but demand had always been greater than supply. Who doesn’t want to earn that money? It’s just that it’s really too hard to get them! I’ve been a merchant for over hundred years and I was only involved in trafficking them twice. The last time I done it, I was kidnapping a young Golden Elf, but I was attacked by a Golden Elf that was thousands of years old. I almost die from fright, so I could only let that little prize go… Boy, it was a little prize worth more than 50,000 gold! If it’s grown up, people would even be willing to pay more than 100,000 gold for it! “
“Really?” Yue Yang replied disinterestedly as he prepared to leave.
“Wait, although I don’t have a Golden Elf, I still have other beauties from different races, including virgins. Do you want to take a look at some of my goods? I’m sure that you will find one that satisfies you. Our Golden Toad Guild was one of the largest Merchant Guild in the Sixth Floor of Tong Tian Tower, ranked 95 out of ten thousand other Merchant Guilds. I’m sure that you have heard of us.“ The fat frog persuaded, afraid that Yue Yang would run off. For him to be able to ask about the Golden Elf, he must be rich right ?
Moreover, he was wearing was a Gold-ranked equipment mask, and cladded in the Wyvern Armor. This was something a normal adventurer would not possess.
Yue Yang wasn’t interested in buying a slave nor was he interested in doing something so troublesome as upholding his sense of justice and free all the slaves here. That was a task for the next dimension traveller, he had no time for that .
These slaves had already been domesticated, they had already lost the ability to survive independently.
If they were to be freed, they might die of starvation without the support of their masters.
Actually Yue Yang’s real intention was to enter the Thunder Fortress, if not for it he wouldn’t have even spoke with the fat frog merchant.
“I want to enter the Thunder Fortress to get some stuff, if it’s within your ability then name me a price.“ Yue Yang’s tone was akin to those serial killers who wished to seek refuge with Chong Ni.
“Ahem, it’s not that I’m doubting your strength, but entering the Thunder Fortress is a little… if you don’t have a guarantor, it will be very hard… I click well with you and want to help you, but…” The fat frog merchant was a little hesitant because if Yue Yang were to get caught, it may implicate him. It would still be alright if Yue Yang just wanted to buy the banned Thunder Ore from the Thunder Fortress , but if he turned out to be a spy from the Warrior Guild, the fat frog merchant was afraid that he would get into trouble too.
“1000 gold.“ Yue Yang stated his price.
“What… What did you say? 1000… I want to help but my hands were tied, I…” The fat frog merchant gulped on his saliva. He wanted to earn the money, but was afraid that he would lose his life before he could even spend them.
“2000 gold.” Like a vicious devil, Yue Yang kept tempting the merchant with money.
“I really can’t…“ The fat frog merchant decided that if Yue Yang offered an additional 100 gold, he would relent.
“ If you can’t then never mind.“ Yue Yang turned and left.
“Hey, wait! “, the fat frog merchant almost wanted to slap himself. Why was he so stupid? He could only earn a profit of 200 gold from the sale of the Half Elf beauty, but now he could earn 2000 gold right away without any capital. How could he simply reject it? You silly, you must have employed Golems as your personal bodyguards for so long that your brains had turned into stone too, the fat frog merchant thought to himself.
When it was night time, the fat frog brought Yue Yang through the heavily guarded Teleportation Circle and headed towards the Thunder Fortress.
The Thunder Fortress was in an independent dimension, and the space it occupied was not very vast, approximately only the size of five White Stone City in the Da Xia Empire. Yue Yang guessed that it was even smaller than Hong Kong. The Thunder Fortress was surrounded in volcanoes, and the lava from the volcanoes accumulated to form a gigantic lake. In the middle of the lava lake laid a funnel shaped giant island which was wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, just like a spinning top (a.k.a beyblades) positioned in the centre of the boiling lava lake.
This was the Thunder Fortress.
Of course, only Chong Ni’s palace was situated at the top, normal Dragon Hunters, robbers and bandits could only live in caves.
As for merchants and slaves, they had to live underground.
Two to three kilometers underground, there was a underground city made from mines and pits. While the environment wasn’t comparable to that above the ground, it was good that they could expand the space endlessly. When the coolies dug the mine every year, they would add new pits.
“This is?“ At the entrance to the underground city, even after being bribed, an Elite Guard still cautiously asked for Yue Yang’s identity.
“My nephew! His face got disfigured during a battle so he had to wear a mask. I brought him here to broaden his horizon, he definitely won’t cause any trouble as we were all law-abiding merchants. “ The fat frog merchant said as he gave another 20 gold as entrance fee to the elite guard. The elite guard frowned as he pondered over how a frog would have a nephew of human descend. But what trouble could a timid merchant cause? He reckoned that the merchant brought Yue Yang in to buy the banned Thunder Ore from the black market!
“If anything happens, the Golden Toad Guild will have to bear all responsibility.” The elite guard warned.
“Yes, yes, of course.“ The fat frog nodded and bowed, appearing respectful on the surface, but he thought secretly, once we enter, who would know that I brought him in? Moreover there were so many others who sneaked in , how could they even manage the whole lot of us?
“Take off the mask and show it to me.” The elite guard wanted to let Yue Yang in, but seeing the Golden-ranked mask on his face made him greedy.
“Those who dared to touch my mask will become blind.“ Yue Yang said as he pointed his Silver-ranked Eye Destroyer Dagger on the eyelid of the elite guard. “Are you still insisting on taking a look at my face now?“ Yue Yang said coldly.
“…” The frog merchant’s mouth was so wide opened that he could have swallowed a Kodo Beast.