Chapter 1163
War Between Lords
“Robbery? Kidnapping?”
Eivass frowned slightly. “Was it accidental? Or deliberate?”
“That’s right.”
Ibn nodded, looking at the uneasy and extremely anxious guide, Anar.
Eivass followed his gaze and suddenly understood something.
A girl of about fourteen or fifteen years old, in Avalon or Iris, would still be in college. Yet now, she was speaking a half-baked Star Antimony Language fluently and engaging in a profession that carried a death sentence if caught. It was impossible that she lacked courage.
But after hearing the word “petrified,” she had become noticeably more anxious. Clearly, she seemed to know part of the truth.
“I guess… someone spread rumors in Rock Cell City, saying the city is unclean, that its people committed some great sin, and that the sinners of this sinful city would be petrified…”
Eivass said slowly, “Am I right?”
This kind of scenario was too easy to understand.
For people without culture, complex matters were incomprehensible. But they could understand “crime”—who was wrong and thus punished, and how a great sin could lead to collateral damage. This was not abstract but a very real situation for people in a slave society.
As the saying goes, people cannot be taught by people, but they can be taught by experience. In Anxi, this was a typical case of “learning by experience.”
“Half right… well, more than half.”
Ibn nodded. “There are indeed similar sayings among the common folk, that their use of rock slabs to block out the desert is a taboo. Because they did not offer sacrificial food to this desert—that is, water and blood—they caused the desert to become parched.
“When people are thirsty, they die, and when the desert is thirsty, people die. Eventually, sandstorms will engulf the entire city, turning everyone into stone statues devoid of water. This is the version Anar knows.”
Perhaps for this reason, Anar was startled the moment she heard the entire city had been petrified.
“But in fact, at the upper levels, there is another explanation—that someone extorted a huge sum of money from the Lord of Rock Cell City.”
Ibn said slowly, “This is a secret known to the priests. If he refused to pay, the other party declared they would petrify the entire city—including the Lord.”
“…City-state war?”
Eivass immediately grasped the essence of the matter. “How much?”
Ibn looked at Dong Ya, and Dong Ya immediately replied, “Two thousand slaves, eighty ka of gold, and three hu of pearls—ka is our unit of weight here, with ten ka being approximately eight kilograms in Star Antimony.”
Ten ka equals eight kilograms—that is, over sixty kilograms of gold.
“…It doesn’t sound like a lot.”
Eivass subconsciously quipped.
Although it wasn’t nice to say, Eivass’s first reaction was this.
He wasn’t sure what two thousand slaves represented, but at least for the gold amount, he felt it wasn’t much.
Even excluding the Lords who almost monopolized wealth, many nobles and merchants in Star Antimony or Iris could afford it. Not to mention the Lords who would sacrifice everything for themselves.
Was the entire city’s life, along with their own, buried for this little money?
Or was it because the Lord of Rock Cell City didn’t believe the other party could actually do it, so he didn’t take it seriously at all?
Guessing Eivass’s thoughts, Ibn explained directly, “The Lord of Rock Cell City would not treat this matter lightly. Because the one making the threat was the Lord of another, larger city. Even if he didn’t have the power to petrify Rock Cell City, he could still take it down with just thirty cavalrymen.
“—The real problem is that Rock Cell City simply couldn’t afford, and couldn’t possibly afford, this price.”
Hearing this, Eivass understood.
As Anar had said before, Rock Cell City was a very small city. Excluding slaves, its residents were only about eight hundred people. If each free person was allocated two to three slaves, plus the inventory of slave merchants and the Lord’s own slaves… the total would probably just be enough for two thousand.
—It was clear that this number was precisely calculated.
If the Lord of Rock Cell City agreed, it would mean that Rock Cell City could no longer be an Anxi city. All the slaves in the city would be bought… For the Anxi people, it would mean the free people of this city had become slaves to the Lord. People would naturally try their best to escape, even taking their slaves with them…
By selling just one or two slaves, one could buy a new free identity in a new city. That would be much better than suffering here.
So, it was obvious that these two thousand slaves could never be collected.
In other words, this was a number set at the limit of what the Lord of Rock Cell City could bear. It was like a kidnapper demanding a sum that would require selling all one’s property, emptying all savings, and borrowing as much as possible, only to barely scrape the amount together—that would essentially be impossible to raise.
Because once all one’s possessions were handed over, there would be no guarantee the kidnapper wouldn’t kill the hostage. They would have lost the power to prevent it.
“The other party specifically set this price precisely because they knew Rock Cell City could not afford it.”
Zhu Tang on the side gave a cold laugh and concluded, “This is just picking a fight. He’s… using someone as a test case.”
Zhu Tang understood this kind of situation too well—he had seen similar things in the Taichu Empire.
When someone gained power, they would want to prove their power. This was to satisfy themselves and also to intimidate others, as a demonstration of power, like saying, “Don’t mess with me, I’ll really do it.”
“Exactly.”
Eivass nodded and commented sharply, “Rock Cell City naturally couldn’t afford the price, and the Lord of Rock Cell City, clinging to hope, didn’t surrender—in fact, if he had personally surrendered and submitted, the other party might have found a different target for their display of power. But clearly, he still had a glimmer of hope… so he did nothing.
“He neither fled nor surrendered. Neither submitted nor resisted.”
This actually illustrated the necessity of such a “display of power” target.
When the other party revealed the power capable of destroying them, the Lord of Rock Cell City’s answer was, “I don’t believe it.”
“—And so, the calamity descended.”
Ibn described the disaster of that day. “Suddenly, a golden, transparent lotus flower bloomed in the center of the city, and a pillar of light shot upwards from its center.
“An orange-yellow radiance spread rapidly. Most people hadn’t realized what was happening before they were engulfed by the light, instantly turning into stone statues.
“Then, the pillar of light slowly expanded outwards. Those who witnessed ‘petrification’ firsthand would desperately flee. Initially, their escape speed was slightly faster than the light pillar’s expansion, but soon the light pillar’s expansion speed increased more and more.
“The continuous screams suddenly froze, and they too were engulfed by the radiance. Therefore, the expression on the stone statues was calmer in the city center, and more painful and struggling as one moved outwards. Even the inanimate buildings were covered in a layer of stone shell…”
“A power capable of wiping out a city from a great distance and changing the terrain.”
Even Eivass couldn’t help but gasp, “Quite interesting… an area-of-effect attack.”
This was a true area-of-effect attack.
However, as a Ritualist, he also realized something—
“—But, no ritual can pinpoint a location out of thin air from such a distance. There must be some ritual medium involved.”
Eivass pondered seriously in his mind. “And from the curse Dong Ya suffered, this petrification should be continuous. It’s like radiation, constantly emitting a curse that reinforces and refreshes the stone statues… so that before this power dissipates, it can be permanently sealed here and not be dispersed.
“So, if one can find the curse medium, purify or destroy it… perhaps this petrification curse can be lifted.”
He said this, and with some caution and curiosity, he asked, “What was the name of the Lord who sent the extortion letter? Which city’s Lord was it?”
For a moment, Eivass suspected it might have been the Lord of Holy Spring City, Aimel Nour—the one who had invited him here.
But Ibn soon gave a negative answer. “It was the ‘Generous Adler,’ the Lord of Heaven City.”
“Generous Adler…”
This name… sounded somewhat familiar.
Eivass fell into thought, but couldn’t recall it for a moment.
Let’s go to the scene and take a look, Eivass thought with a frown.
But before that…
“—Let me try first, to see how potent this curse is.”
Eivass said, reaching out and lightly touching Dong Ya’s waist.
(End of Chapter)
