Chapter 41: Deception!
Reality is like this.
As an Evil God, Soren unhesitatingly betrayed the Gisz Yanki Leader, but as the leader of this Gisz Yanki tribe, he also ruthlessly betrayed his own kin. After Soren ordered the Iron Golems to gather the Gisz Yanki captives, a Gisz named Kano Strt immediately sold out all of his people. According to the contract he signed with Soren, he could no longer mention anything about the Ancient God’s corpse; otherwise, he would violate the contract and face Soren’s punishment.
So!
In the mouth of this cunning Gisz warlord named Kano Strt, he became the great hero who saved his people.
Because by unwittingly angering a terrible Evil God, the entire Gisz Yanki tribe turned into despicable captives. At this time, their brave leader stood up, not only daring to confront the terrifying Evil God Soren but also having the audacity to negotiate with him. Ultimately, through his persuasive skills, he convinced this fearsome Evil God to grant freedom to all Gisz Yankis in exchange for future offerings and ransoms to satisfy his endless greed.
After releasing these Gisz Yankis, Soren temporarily departed.
He left the entire scene to Kano Strt to perform; this guy’s performance skills were definitely of an Oscar-worthy level, and his ability to deceive and trick others was top-notch.
He twisted the entire process.
Transforming himself from a foolish leader whose poor judgment led the tribe to anger Soren into a wise, brave, and decisive leader who, in the face of imminent destruction, single-handedly persuaded the terrible Evil God. He negotiated for future ample rewards and ultimately convinced him to grant everyone freedom and even retrieved their Astral Fortress from the Evil God’s hands.
Of course.
As for the enormous debts the entire tribe accumulated, the clever Kano Strt only mentioned it briefly.
After all, it couldn’t get worse than this.
If necessary, there would be ten, twenty, thirty, or even fifty years to repay; the Gisz Yankis survived by plundering, and the Astral Realm had many astonishingly valuable mineral resources. With the strength of the tribe, they could always pay off the debt owed to this Evil God.
In any case.
Kano Strt, the leader of the Gisz Yankis, maintained his position through his cunning and, in such a situation, reversed the course of events, unintentionally enhancing his reputation.
Soren had no objections to this.
He only cared about visible benefits, and how Kano Strt deceived his people was not his concern.
Since the contract had been fulfilled.
Now it was time to carry it out.
Soren commanded the Iron Golems to enter the Gisz Yanki treasury and moved out all the valuable items inside. According to Kano Strt’s claims, this wealth was to be exchanged for their freedom, while the debts owed were the ransom for the Astral Fortress. Soren was a merciful guy, so he only took away gold, minerals, rare materials, and various things that Gloria and the Fallen Witch had their eyes on, not completely emptying the Gisz Yanki’s coffers, at least leaving them enough food and weapons.
“The preliminary valuation is around 8 million Gind.”
Gloria had an excellent valuation ability and quickly took stock, reporting to Soren, “The Gisz Yankis hoarded quite a lot of metal ores, which should be enough for us to create over five hundred Iron Golems.”
“The value of the Soul Crystals cannot be estimated, but there are over three hundred of them.”
“As for other items, I’m afraid we need to go back for identification to determine their specific value.”
Soren nodded to indicate he understood.
These were actually small sums; the real astonishing gain this time was the Gisz Yankis’ debt of up to 36 million Gind.
The Astral Fortress was essentially an independent demiplane.
Soren calculated its price as a small kingdom, and even after giving them a discount, the final debt still reached 36 million Gind.
This was neither too little nor too much.
If it were too much, the other party would feel it was impossible to repay, so some unexpected accidents could easily occur.
But this price, according to Gisz Yanki’s calculations, would at most stretch the tribe’s belt to hold on for ten or twenty years. If they found a diamond meteorite in the Astral Realm or robbed a wealthy individual, they could easily repay in five or ten years. With the endless wealth of the Astral Realm and the Gisz Yankis’ plundering capability, obtaining one to two million Gind worth of goods a year was no problem at all.
If not for the abundance of precious resources in the Astral Realm, the Arcane Empire wouldn’t be so devoted to exploring it.
The entire handover process went very smoothly.
Soren took everything he wanted, while the Gisz Yankis cleanly reclaimed their Astral Fortress.
In any case, the tribe managed to survive.
After temporarily escaping from Soren, Kano Strt immediately prepared to teleport his people away; he truly didn’t want to see this Evil God again.
At least not before the next “installment” as stipulated in the contract.
He now planned to lead his tribe to a lower plane, as to repay the enormous debt owed to Soren, he needed to make more no-cost trades.
As for not repaying the debt, that was impossible; Soren had already left a mark.
For an Evil God with Medium Divine Power, there had been no mortal capable of escaping his debts; as long as he wanted to find them, these Gisz Yankis would have no refuge, even if they fled to the ends of the earth.
………………
Watching the Gisz Yankis fleeing in panic from the fortress, Gloria could no longer hold back her laughter.
The Fallen Witch also smiled, seemingly in a very good mood, and said, “I didn’t expect such a big gain from this trip to the Astral Realm. It seems we’ll have to come here more often in the future.”
Soren also chuckled and said in a deep voice, “It’s unlikely that we’ll have such good luck every time.”
“This time the Gisz Yankis delivered themselves to us.”
“The chances of encountering other races in the vast Astral Realm are not high, and if we run into a drifting Astral Beast, we might only be able to fight one battle.”
A large amount of supplies filled the storage room of the Arcane Tower.
With such a huge haul this time, there was naturally no need to continue collecting Astral Sand; the Gisz Yankis also stored this silver-white substance, as the weapons they forged also incorporated Astral Sand.
Gloria began to activate the Arcane Tower to lock the coordinates, while the Fallen Witch activated the Elemental Furnace to prepare for teleportation.
With such a large batch of supplies, their upcoming research could be sustained for a long time. As for Soren’s attention, it turned to another aspect.
“The Mechanical Mirror of Temporal Nirvana?”
He couldn’t help but fall into contemplation, murmuring, “A dangerous area only accessible by High-Level Legends; I didn’t expect the Ancient God’s corpse to be in such a place.”
“This is a bit troublesome!”
Things had to be done step by step; exploring the Mechanical Mirror of Temporal Nirvana would probably require a lot of preparations.
After all.
This place is notoriously infested with legends!
……………… (To be continued ~^~)
