Chapter 1183
The Goblin Plantation Uprising
“If you plan to use Dawn City as a water transfer point to supply multiple city-states, you can actually parallel multiple water stations.
“There is a large waterfall north of the Moro district. A Count once wanted to build a dam there, but it was shelved at the time due to insufficient funds and other reasons. Later, the Moro district was divided into East and West Moro, each owning a section of the waterfall, and thus the matter was dropped.
“If you truly have this need, my suggestion is to restart the Moro Dam project. With current technology, it can be turned into a power station, providing power support to the eastern parts of Daffodil Territory, which lacks electricity.
“If so, you may as well make the entire Moro district an electricity pilot zone… With enough residents, its prosperity will also increase. And as the water pressure increases, the standard water channels can meet the flow rate, or be expanded—as for the expansion of the water channels themselves, that technology is actually simpler. If multiple water channels are paralleled, safety and road freedom can also be improved. However, if you are determined to do it now, I can even give you an extra discount.
“But compared to this, the dam and power station are truly beneficial projects for the people. They are good for the Anxi people, good for Daffodil Territory, and even for the entire Hrasal people.
“When it’s completed, it won’t just be water flow… all kinds of personnel and materials will circulate along the trestle you build.
“And after the underground sewers are built, my suggestion is that we can provide overhead trestles for maintenance—underground sewers are very easy to tap, pollute, or damage privately.
“Can you imagine? It only takes one Extraordinary… a Ritualist, a Curse Master, or a Witch, to find the general location of the water channels—and if there’s a Ritualist or a Mage, it certainly won’t be too difficult—they can cause damage above the water channels without touching them.
“For example, poisoning, or using water as a medium to curse the entire city—this is something other Lords could definitely do! On my way here, I also heard about the petrification tragedy of Rock Cell City… Don’t you think the Lord of Heaven City was too ruthless towards Rock Cell City? I think this might be because he considered the consequences if such water channels were popularized.
“Just like the beneficial projects we are discussing now, Your Excellency—if water can be stably introduced from abroad, what use are the Lords then? If the necessity of the Lords disappears, Anxi will truly fall into chaos!
“That’s why the Lord of Rock Cell City had to die, because he encroached on the cake of all the Lords… even though he didn’t realize it himself. And for this reason, if you undertake such a great project that benefits the country, the people, and the world, you will inevitably encounter obstacles.
“Therefore, I believe it is necessary to add a maintenance facility above to conduct real-time inspections and maintenance of the underground sewers. Such a safety trestle can also be easily expanded to shield against wind and sand, becoming a safe passage for a small number of people to move freely.
“Do you have any ideas? If you think it’s alright, why not sign this supplementary contract?”
As Grandet spoke, he pointed in the air and wrote quickly with his finger.
As his words fell, dozens of contracts materialized out of thin air and flew onto the table, dividing into five piles—corresponding to the supplementary contracts for “Additional Expansion of the Main Waterway,” “Moro Dam,” “Moro Hydroelectric Power Station,” “Overhead Safety Trestle,” and “Overhead Personnel Passageway.”
“…You certainly know how to do business, Grandet.”
Eivass marveled.
He had originally just wanted to order a stone sewer reinforced with alchemical stone slabs from Grandet…
But as they talked, the order grew larger and larger—more and more items were added, but the key was that each one seemed necessary.
Even looking back, Eivass felt that his previous thoughts were too simplistic… and Grandet was right, these added items were indeed necessary.
Now Eivass realized—only now did Grandet truly treat him as an equal client. And Avalon before was just “Angel Round Investment.”
“…I won’t sign the contract for the additional expansion of the main waterway yet, but I’ll sign the others.”
Eivass was also a straightforward person, signing his name with a flourish: “Use the best materials and finish as quickly as possible. Consider the extra cost as an expedited fee.”
He did not haggle—because for an order of this magnitude, there was no need for bargaining.
He believed that Grandet would surely offer him the best price. Such a merchant who could control the fate of small countries would not be as petty as a small vendor pursuing meager profits. And Eivass was not a professional in this area and did not know how to bargain, making him prone to revealing his inexperience.
As long as Eivass was alive, and his relationship with the Church was not severed, and he remained one of the top Extraordinary, the goblins would always offer him the best prices.
Of course, another reason was that he truly had no concept of money.
His family’s liquid assets should be enough to cover it.
If he really couldn’t afford it, he could always take out two gold bars from the Hrasal treasury; it would surely be enough.
“The main business is concluded, Grandet. It was fast…”
Eivass smiled with satisfaction: “It’s just that I dislike all that red tape.”
“I know you dislike it,” Grandet smiled humbly and gently, his ugly face, which could scare children, appearing serene. “So, as you can see, I haven’t said any unnecessary words. Every sentence is about what you care about.”
“I know, Grandet. That’s why you are the president of the merchant association.”
Eivass nodded, and then casually asked, “By the way, that matter I mentioned to you last time… about those three rioting plantations on the Southern Continent. How are they being handled now?”
Those troll plantations were where the goblin merchant association manufactured troll slaves and made them produce various Southern Continent specialties through labor.
Eivass actually found this behavior somewhat distasteful. But trolls were man-eaters, and goblins were relatively civilized… although their civilization was limited, and they were despicable and cunning. But this was, after all, mutual harm between foreign races, just as Eivass had no intention of saving the dwarves who always courted death, or the giants abandoned by Supreme Heaven…
Even the act of devotion had priorities, and the heart of devotion had to be controllable, not betraying—this was a lesson Eivass learned after splitting and merging, that he would not be controlled by Path Power in return.
Regardless, the Anxi people were at least human. Since Eivass himself, and his family, friends, and wife were all human, it was better for him to prioritize helping humans and races close to humans.
He would also deal with the trolls when he had time—although it was unlikely to be necessary. Those trolls who were proficient in rituals would probably soon reach the Sixth Tier.
And according to Eivass’s knowledge, the armed riots in Grandet’s three directly managed plantations were actually instigated by the Lords in secret—
The principle behind this was simple.
Trolls, as a race prone to producing Extraordinarys, could produce a large number of valuable specialties. They were like hens that laid golden eggs.
If the hens were obedient and healthy, there was naturally no need to sell them off cheaply.
So the goblins’ strategy was to keep the obedient and capable trolls, and “exile” the disobedient and clumsy ones by selling them to humans as slaves, thus extracting the last bit of profit. Unless absolutely necessary, goblins would not kill trolls, no matter what mistakes they made.
Because that would be too “wasteful.”
As long as it could make money, they could even endure their own losses and humiliation.
Before selling the trolls to the Lords, these trolls were actually sold to the Hrasal Empire. It was because the Hrasal Empire disintegrated, and the various Hrasal states were constantly at war, so the goblins bypassed them—during such times, selling slaves was not as profitable as selling food and arms.
It was after that that they began selling trolls to the Anxi people. After all, transporting trolls from the Southern Continent to the desert center was inherently risky. And the profits were diluted by the risks, so the total return was not very high. This was because the Lords were not that desperate for troll slaves.
For this reason, the Lords secretly sponsored the troll organizations to incite riots—
They had a group of trolls, described as having “escaped from a laboratory and thus become enlightened,” and who were relatively intelligent, attempt to save their foolish compatriots.
But in reality, this group of trolls, seemingly pursuing freedom, was a force sponsored and manipulated by the “Lords” of the Ancient Kingdom of Anxi. The leading troll was himself a slave who had been brainwashed and modified by the Lords.
They were not trying to save their compatriots—perhaps some trolls thought so, but at least the leader did not.
The leading troll was merely trying to complete his master’s mission—to inflict considerable losses on the goblin merchant association. The other trolls were merely expendables. After completing this task, he would then take the opportunity to seek personal revenge and cause trouble for those goblins.
For the goblin merchant association, this level of chaotic riot could ultimately be suppressed. However, the losses would certainly not be small.
These trolls who participated in the riot would continue to be destabilizing factors if kept in the plantations. The culprits were not caught, so they could trigger another wave of riots at any time.
How the goblins would deal with this large number of rebellious trolls became a thorny issue. But executing them would be more unbearable to the extremely profit-driven goblins than being thoroughly humiliated—they would never accept such a loss.
And ultimately, they would only have one way to deal with them.
That was to sell them to the Anxi people.
Even if sold at a reduced price, discounted, or bundled, they could only be sold this way—now that the elves were strictly controlling cross-border slave trade, other places might be caught and executed by the elves. Only selling to Anxi could be justified with “respecting the living traditions of the Anxi people.” If they didn’t want to lose money, this was the only way.
But obviously, the Lords of Anxi were too arrogant.
They had long held dictatorial positions where no one dared to question their decisions, so much so that they overlooked the intelligence of the goblin merchants.
Hearing Eivass’s words, Grandet’s face instantly turned grim—just doing so made his extremely ugly face appear ferocious and terrifying.
“Those fools thought I couldn’t catch them.”
Grandet sneered. “They just want to buy cheap troll slaves, right? It’s easy to guess that it has something to do with the petrification ritual developed by the Lord of Heaven City. They probably need troll mages as disposable mediums.
“–In a sense, they succeeded. I can indeed only sell those unruly troll mages to them. But they shouldn’t expect to take advantage of me.
“Since they secretly supported a troll riot, I will retaliate in kind—
“Speaking of which, Your Excellency… have you heard the story of Fiery Fist Hassan?”
