Chapter 57: Competition

Today, Su Chen returned from his training as per usual. On his back, he carried a Giant Bucktoothed Bear. His body exuded a hazy killing aura, and he held a blood-stained Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf Blade. Because it didn’t have the issue of draining one’s physical energy, the Heavenly Wolf Blade had already replaced the Black Streak Battle Blade had become Su Chen’s most commonly used weapon.

“Boss, you’ve returned,” Li Shu warmly came forwards to greet him.

“Yes.” Su Chen slung the giant bear off his back, tossing it onto the ground. The ground trembled for a moment.

“Everything has been going well, apart from......” Li Shu hesitated for a moment.

“What is it?”

“Someone didn’t pay for their wine and meat again,” Li Shu replied.

Su Chen raised his eyebrows, “Another Wolf Blade?”

“No, that’s not it,” Li Shu hurriedly replied. “He truly doesn’t have money."

As he spoke, he pointed towards the corner.

Su Chen followed Li Shu’s pointing to find a person hugging his head nestled up in the corner, curled into a ball.

Li Shu ran over, kicking that person’s butt. “Why haven’t you gotten up yet!”

That person slowly stood up.

When that person stood up, Su Chen received quite the shock.

This person was extremely tall.

Wolf Blade had already been tall, but compared to this burly man in front of him Wolf Blade would only reach his shoulders. As for Su Chen, he only came up to the person’s chest.

He was just like a small mountain standing in front of Su Chen, filling Su Chen’s entire vision. Su Chen felt a sense of pressure from him.

But such a large person stood respectfully in place in front of him, his neck shrunk in. His body was as tough as granite, and Li Shu’s fists and feet only felt ticklish. He did not dare to fight back at all; fear, hurt, and pleading were written all over his face.

Upon looking at the man’s rough skin, his sturdy chest and his guileless face, Su Chen finally understood.

“So he is of the Cliff Race.”

——————————

The Cliff Race.

An Intelligent Race similar to humankind.

The Cliff Race had a very tragic history. From the beginning of their existence, they had always been stepped on. Although they had very powerful physiques, their ability to sense Origin Energy was extremely poor. It was difficult for them to absorb and release Origin Energy effectively. Of course, this wasn’t to say that had absolutely no way of using it. However, cultivating Origin Energy more difficult for them than for any other intelligent race. On average, Humankind only needed five years of Body Tempering to enter Qi Drawing, but the Cliff Race needed fifteen. Humankind only needed ten years of Qi Drawing to enter Blood Boiling, but the Cliff Race needed thirty. Human Origin Qi Scholars had seven cultivation realms, implying that the highest cultivation base could only reach seven realms. However, the Cliff Race had never even seen cultivators of the fourth realm, the Light-Shaking Realm, before. Yang Opening was their limit.

Their intelligence was not high, and they could not learn things very quickly.

Because they were not intelligent and were not sensitive to Origin Energy, no strong expert had ever appeared in their race, leaving them with no protective figure, despite their physically strong bodies.

This was the tragedy of the Cliff Race.

Because of this, the Cliff Race had never risen to glory since their existence.

The Five Great Races of the Primordial Continent - Human Race, Feathered Race, Ocean Race, Spirit Race, and Ferocious Race - all had their own moments of glory in history. Even now, they all had a territory that belonged to them. Even the races that had declined in power such as the Green Race or the Mysterious Race had once been great and powerful, and had left their mark of glory in history.

However, the Cliff Race did not.

They did not have any moments of glory in history, nor did they have a territory to call their own.

Their only history was that of slavery.

They had been enslaved by the beasts, enslaved by the Arcanas, and enslaved by humankind.

The Cliff Race served as slaves of humankind.

Although they did not have any great protectors, they were great cannon fodder because of their powerful physiques. Ignoring powerful Origin Qi Scholars, one individual from the Cliff Race could sweep the floor with even a large group of the human masses.

There were many other races like the Cliff Race whose intelligence was low. Most of them attached themselves to one of the Five Great Races to survive. However, because survival conditions were quite harsh, many of these “attached races” began to decline, and it had become harder and harder to find them.

According to rumors, there were already people in Long Sang Country that were calling out for the monitoring and protection of the Cliff Race and the Moon Race. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the army to reform its infantry, so they needed to add more Cliff Race people into their ranks. In addition, the suicide squad's required large amounts of Moon Race supplements.Things had been positive and easy in recent years: there was favorable weather for crops, the Beast Waves had decreased, and everyone’s lives were good. Not many dared to go face to face with death anymore......

Su Chen had not expected that he would run into someone from the Cliff Race.

The man even looked like a hard mountain rock. He stood there like a protrusion, gazing directly at Su Chen.

He said timidly with some fear, “Sorry...... I do not have money......”

“If you don’t have money, why eat?”

He weakly replied, “I was hungry.”

Su Chen sized up the big man in front of him.

His appearance was very similar to that of humans. However, his forehead was particularly wide, and he did not have any eyebrows or facial hair, and his skin was a greyish-white. He was very representative of what a Cliff Race individual looked like, and that was what distinguished them from mankind.

“Since that’s the case, why didn’t you find a place to work?”

The Cliff man’s face revealed a trace of sorrow and anger. “They...... don’t let me work.”

“Don’t let you work?” Su Chen was quite surprised.

The Cliff Race were particular good at enduring hardships, and their strength was also great. They made extremely good slaves. Although they were slightly stupid, as long as one was patient they could still be taught. They ate more than most people, but that wasn’t a problem. No matter how much they ate, it was better than three Origin Qi Scholars who ate similar amounts, wasn’t it?

Because of this, the Cliff Race was still admired for their ability to do physical labor. Occasionally, one wouldn’t be able to find one even if one wanted to.

Off to the side, Li Shu told him, “His name is Iron Cliff. Earlier, he was Black Hand’s slave. Three days ago, he lost a shipment of goods, which infuriated Black Hand. Black Hand chased him away and even said that no one was allowed to use him for work, and that he was not allowed to leave the Halcyon Gorge.”

Su Chen was surprised. “So he basically said that he wanted to starve Iron Cliff to death?”

“Pretty much.”

“What did he lose that made this guy so angry?”

A strange expression appeared on Li Shu’s face. “A few foodstuffs, wine, and vegetables.”

“Foodstuffs, wine, and vegetables?” Su Chen squinted his eyes.

Li Shu nodded his head. “That’s right. They should be planning on opening another wine shop.”

So, in the end, they still came.

Su Chen was not surprised

If business was good, there would definitely be those who tried to copy it.

There was no rule that only Demon Face could set up a store here. Others can do it too.

But this way, business would be difficult to do in the future.

Even though more people had arrived in the past month, there was still no more than six or seven hundred people. Of these people, a third either didn’t have money or were unwilling to spend it, and a fourth of them were not dependent on Su Chen’s shop as they had brought adequate supplies. Only a little less than half spent money here. And of these people who spent money, the majority of them were frugal with their spending - not everyone was like Wolf Blade, who ate and drank like a glutton..

Such a low number of people meant that there was already not much business. The only thing keeping Su Chen afloat was his monopoly and sudden profits.

However, having been open for close to a month, Su Chen’s business was already beginning to decline. Many of the items he sold only needed to be bought once. Because he was lacking new customers, his decline in business was something that was inevitable. Now that he had a new competitor, he could no longer take advantage of his monopoly, and his profits would once again take a hit.

One could imagine that the following days would not be as good as they used to be.

“Boss.” Li Shu saw that Su Chen was anxious through his fidgeting.

In reality, Su Chen was not too worried about this. He was not someone who pursued riches in the first place. His main reason for opening a store and doing business here was because this was one way to avoid interfering with his cultivation too much. Sending shipments every day was a good opportunity for his cultivation.

If the opportunity to make more money disappeared, then so be it.

In any case, windfalls were not things that lasted for a long time anyways.

However, when he looked at Li Shu’s expectant expression, Su Chen hesitated for a moment.

No matter what, he still had to spend another month in the Scarlet Mountain Range. Wasn’t it too early just to give up like that? Su Chen thought.

He thought for a moment, then said, “I need to go discuss something with Black Hand.”

In the end, business was always done through conversation. As someone who was from a clan that did lots of business, Su Chen was very familiar with these things.

“What will you discuss?” Li Shu asked. “Black Hand is not someone who is easy to deal with. If you go there, perhaps they will think that we are there to plead with him, and they will definitely become greedy to the point of daylight robbery.”

“Then let them come to us.” Su Chen glanced at Iron Cliff, who was still standing there mutely. “Doesn’t this Iron Cliff lack the money to pay me back? Then let him work here to pay back his debt.”

“Yes,” Li Shu respectfully replied.