Chapter 21 Black Tiger City_1

However, after eating such a big Black Bear, Qin Niu's cultivation level was very likely to reach over 45.

Without a Cultivation Technique, to rely solely on the nourishment from blood food and ordinary training, reaching the Twofold realm for a mortal was incredibly difficult.

This time, if he could sell the bear hide for a good price, he should be able to buy a Cultivation Technique.

Then, his cultivation level would change drastically day by day.

The efficiency of absorbing blood food would also greatly increase.

As he continued walking forward, although the sky was still somewhat dark, the number of pedestrians on the main road gradually increased.

Some carried loads on their shoulders, some, like Qin Niu, with a large basket on their back, all heading into the city.

Selling their home-grown cash crops, they generally didn't enter the city but set up stalls to sell outside the city walls.

Because entering the city required a city entrance fee; regardless of gender age or youth, everyone was charged 5 Wen Money per person. This fee was quite high, and small vendors didn't earn much.

To save on this city entrance fee, those items that weren't very valuable would be sold outside the city.

For those who owned property in the city or had stable jobs, entering and exiting the city was free of charge.

Therefore, people from the city would go outside the city gates to the morning markets to buy vegetables.

The prices were cheap, and the produce was fresh.

Not paying the city entrance fee, selling goods outside the city had one downside. If someone got robbed, the officials wouldn't get involved.

Even if the Black Armored Soldiers were standing right at the city gate, and even if the robbery happened right under their noses, they would still not interfere.

But if someone dared to forcefully break through the city gate, they would be apprehended immediately.

They could even possibly be executed.

These soldiers guarding the city gates are the weakest members of the Black Tiger Gang. Even so, whenever Qin Niu faced them, his spirit would tremble, and his knees would weaken.

He couldn't muster even the slightest thought of resistance.

It was just about dawn when Qin Niu had already arrived outside Black Tiger City.

Before, it would take him at least three and a half hours, around seven hours.

Today, he had cut down an entire hour, thanks to the substantial increase in his cultivation level.

The area outside the city gates was bustling, with stall vendors spread everywhere, and city folks coming out to shop.

Mainly to buy vegetables.

Firewood and charcoal entering the city required a city entrance fee. City residents generally wouldn't buy from woodcutters but from merchants specializing in wood and charcoal business within the city.

They had ways to greatly reduce the cost of bringing wood and charcoal into the city, after all, it was brought in bulk, and by tipping the military heads guarding the gates, they naturally received a significant discount.

Calculated this way, the price offered by the charcoal merchants was cheaper than the total cost of buying firewood directly from woodcutters.

This is also why woodcutters would obediently deliver the wood they chopped to merchants specialized in buying wood and charcoal rather than selling to individuals.

There wasn't just one charcoal business merchant; competition meant that they wouldn't drive down prices too harshly.

Overall, everyone offered more or less the same price.

A load of a hundred jin (roughly 50 kg) of dry firewood sold for around twenty Wen Money. The merchant's purchase price was about fifteen Wen Money.

Good quality firewood could fetch up to seventeen or eighteen Wen per load, while the poorer quality might only bring in twelve or thirteen Wen per load.

A woodcutter chopping a load of two hundred jin (roughly 100 kg) of wet firewood and transporting it home would take about half a day.

Only after it dried out could it become sellable firewood.

Before selling to a charcoal merchant, the large pieces of wood had to be split into halves or quarters. The most popular length was around one chi (roughly one-third of a meter).

One hundred jin of wet timber, once dried, would roughly weigh thirty-something jin.

It would take three hundred jin of wet timber to dry and become one hundred jin of dry firewood.

It might seem like a woodcutter earning fifteen Wen per load was a lot, but in reality, they didn't earn much, perhaps even less than the long-term workers in a landlord's household.

Because even on rainy days and snowy winter days when the long-term workers didn't go out to work for the landlord, they still got paid.

If a woodcutter didn't go up the mountain to chop wood for a day, they had no income.

Long-term workers in a landlord's house often got food and lodging included, while woodcutters had to provide for themselves.

This is why working as a long-term worker for a large landlord's family like the Yan Family was such a sought-after job.

Compared with woodcutters or temporary workers, serving as a long-term worker for a landlord provided stable income and was relatively less arduous. Plus, performing well and gaining the landlord's favor could lead to promotion opportunities.

Becoming a foreman or a manager was equivalent to becoming a high executive in a company.

At this moment, a long line formed outside the city gate for entrance.

Provided there was no suspicious behavior, the soldiers rarely checked personal items.

In this world, there were no such things as prohibited items. Weapons like knives and spears could be freely carried into the city.

Nor did anyone dare to fight or cause trouble in the city lightly.

Not to mention murder.

Unless they were tired of living.

The Black Tiger Gang had numerous formidable experts, and Black Tiger City was a city they had built painstakingly. It was an important source of income, and they would never allow anyone to disrupt it.

Top-level powerhouses were stationed in the city every hour of the day.

Anyone causing trouble would be apprehended within minutes or directly executed.

Outside the city, the law of the jungle prevailed, survival of the fittest. While there were codes of conduct, they were mostly superficial.

For instance, local bullies like Wang Haikun would rob any ordinary villager they wished.

Such events rarely occurred in the city.

Unless the treasure owned piqued the interest of the Black Tiger Gang's upper echelon, and they felt confident in handling the situation, then there might be an underhanded move.

Under normal circumstances, however, everyone would abide by the rules.

The Black Bear hide in the basket on Qin Niu's back was a fortune that could make countless people in the countryside envious, but in the city, it was quite a common item, and there was almost no need to worry about it being snatched away.

The only thing to worry about was being tricked.

The schemes in the city were deep, really deep, traps everywhere.

Qin Niu honestly joined the queuing crowd with his basket on his back.

Any carriage, ox cart, or beast-pulled carts were all charged a city entrance fee of 20 wen, while common pedestrians paid 5 wen.

Those who could afford a carriage were mostly nobility.

They owned properties in the city, or held positions in the government, or had family members in government roles. Carriages entering the city seldom had to pay the entrance fee.

Even when faced with the carriages of top-tier influential figures, the city guards dared not inspect them.

The army corporals would let them pass with an extremely obsequious attitude.

Ox carts were mostly used by common folk to transport goods, and they were almost always charged the fee upon entering the city.

Even if one had a house in the city, as long as they were bringing goods in, they had to pay.

Real dignitaries wouldn't be caught dead in an ox cart, as it was considered beneath them.

Ox carts were also much slower compared to carriages.

Then there were the beast-pulled carts, which were actually rarely seen.

Only formidable beasts like wolves, bears, or tigers were suitable for pulling carts. Those who could tame these beasts and afford to keep them were generally Beast Tamers, the nobility of the nobles, as well as children of rich and government officials and the like.

A common person didn't own one.

Compared to the high profile of Beast Tamers, Insect Masters seemed much more low-key.

If they didn't wear the long robes of an Insect Master, outsiders wouldn't even know they were one.

In terms of actual status, Insect Masters were in fact equal to Beast Tamers.

Don't be fooled by the fierce and intimidating beasts tamed by Beast Tamers, with their explosive combat power. A truly formidable Insect Master could release just one insect to take down a fierce tiger.

Qin Niu had already mastered two Insect Taming skills and possessed a nest of Termites, so he was definitely a prospective Insect Master.

He wasn't much inferior to Hu Lazi, the prospective Beast Tamer from the village.

Considering Fourth and the evolutionary abilities of the Worker Ants and Soldier Ants, his potential was far greater than Hu Lazi's.

This actually indirectly showed that the Ant Queen was no ordinary creature.

If it weren't exceptional, its offspring wouldn't possibly have such strong evolutionary capabilities.

"Line up properly, everyone pays five wen money to enter the city, children and adults alike,"

Someone at the front, dressed in a black robe, was shouting continuously.

These people were not soldiers but idlers hired by the army.

Collecting the city entrance fee was a menial task, beneath the soldiers. They were only responsible for standing at the city gates to keep the city safe, fulfilling tasks such as apprehending criminals, arrests, and defense as ordered by their superiors.

Qin Niu had prepared his five wen money and handed it directly to the idlers in charge of collecting the fees.

The other party glanced at the bear skin in his basket without saying anything and let him into the city.

From that look, Qin Niu could sense a tinge of greed.

But outright hassling Qin Niu in front of everyone generally wouldn't happen.

After paying, Qin Niu headed straight into the city.

Passing through the towering city gate, the terrifying aura emanating from the eight city guard soldiers made his soul tremble once more. However, this time, perhaps because his cultivation had improved substantially, the desire to drop to his knees was much less overwhelming.

How formidable exactly were these people's cultivation levels?

They were surely much more formidable than the Yan Family's Protector.

Qin Niu didn't even dare to look up at these Black Armored Soldiers, but only dared to sneak a quick glance with the corner of his eye before quickly moving on.

They were clad in black iron armor, with black iron helmets on their heads, and they wielded long spears that stood taller than a man. Judging by their shine, they might have been forged from Hundred-Tempering Fine Steel.

A fearsome, chilling killing intent emanated from the tips of their spears.

Combined with the formidable cultivation emanating from their bodies, it created an oppressive and awe-inspiring presence.

Any one of these men, if taken out to Shuangfeng Village, could probably massacre it without a single chicken or dog left alive.

And those stationed at the city gates were merely the weakest group within the Black Tiger Gang, how much stronger were those higher up? Nobody knew.

Perhaps just a glance from them could petrify Qin Niu to the ground.

Having glimpsed just the tip of the iceberg regarding Black Tiger Gang's strength, Qin Niu felt even more reverence for this colossal entity.

He had no idea how long it would take to stand at the head of this behemoth, perhaps a lifetime would not be enough. Or maybe it could happen within three to five years.

What he needed to do now was to accumulate strength bit by bit, like a Termite continuously 'molting' in order to ultimately transform.

"Young fellow, young fellow, are you selling the bear skin you're carrying in that basket?"

Not long after Qin Niu had walked away, someone came chasing after him from behind.

It wasn't the black-robed idler whose eyes flashed with greed, but a middle-aged man with slightly drooping eyebrows. He looked to be around forty years old, somewhat plump, and his clothes were rather decent.

At least, they were much more decent compared to a poor country kid like him.

Compared to the wealthy folks in the city, however, his attire was of poor quality.

How did this person know he was carrying bear skin?

Qin Niu quickly speculated that this man was likely an underling maintained by that idler.

If he spotted suitable goods with an owner easy to manipulate, he would instruct the underling to follow and seek the opportunity for underhanded dealings.

They definitely wouldn't resort to robbery.

Lure Qin Niu to a place and force a low-price purchase, or even use tricks like switching the goods, pulling a fast one.

Qin Niu glanced at the man indifferently, didn't respond, and continued walking straight ahead.

Not willing to give up, the middle-aged man chased after him again.