Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
It was tense in port Tylon.
Soran’s arrival broke the previous order and made killing and chaos more frequent. There was no need to say more about what happened in port Tylon during this period. It was already pretty obvious from the surrounding sea. As many bodies were thrown into the sea, even sharks were attracted to the shallow waters.
The collapse of a powerful organization meant more benefits, thus more people came to compete; of course, that would mean more killings. Finally, only a few powerful organizations would end up benefiting from this situation.
It was evident that there were people behind this. The guards were controlled so that the chaotic killings continue to escalate and many small organizations would be destroyed in the turmoil.
The final beneficiaries from this chaos were of course.
The temple of Storm, the temple of Sea and the Amazons.
A lot had happened during this period.
The temple of Storm seemed to have compromised with the temple of Sea. The Rossad Chamber of Commerce had been abandoned. The temple of Storm had taken some territory as compensation while the temple of Sea controlled almost half the territory of port Tylon. Meanwhile, the Amazons emerged from the turf war with great fighting power; half the streets where Soran stayed at was their territory. The original owner had disappeared, so the Amazon women planned to make the street into a large trade transit area.
Oh, that’s right.
There was the appearance of a new storm lord.
Without her support, the Amazons probably couldn’t control this much territory.
Temple of Sea.
Soran’s figure appeared in the hall. The Naga Siren priest seemed to have been waiting for him for a long time. Her expression seemed to be a little excited. Immediately after seeing Soran’s figure, she murmured, “There’s a change of plans!”
“Those betrayers have made another move. Your mission now is to bring me their cargo.”
Soran frowned slightly when he heard it.
The change of plan after the target had surfaced disappointed him, but he still asked calmly, “What had happened? Why the sudden change of plan?”
There was a cruel smile on the priest’s face, and she said slowly, “These merchants went to trade in the Soros Islands in the name of the Storm temple. But they were traitors who did everything for their benefit. They used poison to slaughter the indigenous tribe and then took away the gold controlled by the indigenous people. The betrayers looted the aboriginal tribe and are shipping back all their wealth.”
“I have information that their ship is now carrying a large amount of gold and jewelry!”
The priest handed Soran a scroll and told him the details of these betrayers. It turned out that after changing their beliefs and joining the Storm temple, this group of betrayers opened up the opportunity in the Soros Islands. The Storm Lord’s faith was widespread in the Soros Islands, thus the flag of the Storm temple opened the way for them to trade with almost any coastal Aboriginal towns. It was supposed to be a simple trade in the beginning.
However, something unexpected happened. One of the Aborigines seemed to have trusted the betrayers too much and told them where a large gold mine was.
The Soros Islands were well known for their gold and silver deposits.
This tribe was one of the aboriginal clans that occupied an abundance of gold deposits. It was said that their chief even built a throne made from half a ton of pure gold; in order to show their wealth and strength, they also used a lot of pure gold utensils to entertain the betrayers. But it did not occur to them that this would also lead to disaster. There were worshippers of the God of plague and disease in the caravan of the betrayers. These fallen worshippers put secret poisons into the water source, and with the help of the power of plague and disease, destroyed the tire tribe.
The rest of the story was easy to guess.
The betrayers killed all the aborigines, took their gold and burnt their village.
How much had they taken?
The scroll on Soran’s hand did not say. But it was an amount that got the temple of Sea interested.
Thus the amount was probably in the tons!
The aboriginal tribes had accumulated gold for generations, as well as all kinds of gold, silver, and jewelry, all of which were now on a ship. The betrayers even had to toss away large amounts of Soros Island copper coins, because the ship simply could not hold these copper coins. Soran could not estimate exactly how much money they had earned, but he could guess roughly they had collected more than 500,000 gold Derahls.
These betrayers had literally struck gold.
Their plunder of wealth had even gotten the attention of the temple of Sea. Not knowing how this news came about, now not only the temple of Sea but also the pirates have all heard the amazing news. The convoy of the Rossad Chamber of Commerce had changed its course, but pirates everywhere seemed to have spread a large net and was watching every route from the Soros Islands.
Even the Amazon pirates were interested in them. The three pirate kings near the Soros Islands all came out to look for their tracks.
This was indeed a shocking amount of wealth!
Soran figured he would also get shocked if he calculated how much they had. If he could get his hands on this amount of wealth, he could probably get a set of legendary equipment.
The temples also needed money.
No matter which god’s temple, all of them needed a lot of wealth to maintain its operation. This temple of Sea had a history of at least hundreds of years, which was built over time with money. Even the divine blessings in the temple required money for materials. Thus the priests had the important job of making money and spreading the faith. The temples seldom hoarded wealth, but they also needed wealth, because wealth was very important in the secular world. Wealth could amplify the influence of the temple, and could even create a pool of believers.
That was how the Lord of Glory got his believers; his temples would aid the poor annually.
Even though wealth was not crucial, it still played a role.
Comparing a magnificent and solemn temple, to a dilapidated old temple; it was easy to see which temple would attract more believers.
Similarly, believing in a wealthy temple meant handouts monthly, while believing in a poor temple meant donations monthly.
This was an easy pick for the lowest in society.
They were just ordinary people, and what they could see was only the things in front of them. Even in the temple of evil gods, they could easily expand their influence with great wealth.
Whether to suppress other temples or secretly cultivate their own forces, all these things were inseparable from the support of wealth. However, temples also had their rules, which was not to meddle too much in the secular world. After all, gods needed faith and wealth was only a tool to maintain faith.
The Naga Siren priest wanted this wealth.
With all the money, she could expand the temple into a great temple. Whether it meant influence in the coastal areas, the reward of the sea goddess, or more divine power in the temple; all of them were appealing to the priest. After the expansion of the sea temple, she could completely suppress the temple of Storm. Even if they were in a war, they would have a more solid foundation.
Temples were somewhat like Wizard Towers.
Just that temples were not as powerful and were powered by divines powers. That was why when Amber City was destroyed, many of the temples were fine.
Soran became silent, thought for a while and said, “I don’t have enough men!”
“If the news has been spread among the pirates, it would be suicide if I went in with only a ghost ship! The betrayers have not been found up to now, thus there must be someone helping them. With this amount of wealth, the Dutchess might even lend them a hand. Moreover, none of the three pirate kings in the Soros Islands are easy to deal with, and almost all of them are no longer human. I’m also worried that the big octopus will appear too. Your Excellency should know who I’m talking about, right? That monster was such a threat to the temple that even the goddess of sea herself had to personally exile it!”
“That thing had a weird habit of collecting treasures, so it probably would appear.”
Soran then pulled out a map.
After a moment of thinking, he put his finger to a place that seemed to be the location of an island, and murmured, “According to the information I heard, there seems to be a black dragon in this place. It has been hiding as a human to maintain contact with Shipwreck Bay. If it knows that there are five large ships full of gold and silver on the seas, I can hardly believe that it will not make a move.
The priest became silent.
She looked up somewhat in surprise at Soran and seemed to be thinking about something. Then she said in an indisputable tone, “I will send more people to help you. If the enemy is very strong, I will call upon the Naga Siren tribes nearby. I would even fight if necessary! The goddess of the sea watches us, so we don’t have to fear the sea!”
“This wealth must not fall in the wrong hands!”
In the Evening.
Soran slowly walked out of the sea temple, his eyebrows locked and he seemed to be thinking about something. Murmuring in a voice that only he could hear, “Totem Spirit!… How did those merchants defeat the totem spirit? Why didn’t the priest mention it?… Does she think I don’t know about the aborigines worship of spirits?…”