The weather was very good today, and the sky above Pukhov Village was clear blue. On the not-so-big dock near the lake, a group of workers with bare upper bodies were busy moving goods in the warm spring breeze. A bloated southern merchant was talking to an old man dressed as a butler in broken Draerion. The complaints of the sailors while cleaning the deck and the idle chatter of the fishermen while drying their nets made the scene quite vivid.
The scale of this dock is certainly not comparable to the dock area of Coldwater Harbor City on the west coast, but it is large enough for an inland river or lake. Shade even saw a few travelers playing Rhodes cards around a wooden box at the dock. He resisted his curiosity and walked over to the Carsenrick merchant who did not speak the same language as him and the man dressed as an old butler:
"Sir, do you need an interpreter?"
He asked the merchant in fluent Kasenric, who wiped his sweat with a handkerchief:
"That's great. I'll pay you 10 pennies."
1 crown is equal to 7 ols, and 1 crown is also equal to 95 pfennigs. Although these three currencies are the main currencies of Carsenrick, due to the chaotic monetary relations before the establishment of the United Kingdom, there are other currencies besides the three mainstream currencies. Among them, the value of "copper pfennig" is one-thirtieth of the pfennig. This currency has no paper money but copper coins.
According to the exchange rate, 1 copper pfennig is about 1.4 pence, and 10 copper pfennigs are about 1 shilling. According to the translated price, it is neither high nor low. Of course, if Shad is not dressed decently, he may only get one copper coin.
The southern merchant tried to communicate with the steward about the beer shipped from Carsenrick. Due to the high tariffs imposed by Delarion during customs clearance, the price per barrel would be increased by a quarter this time. The steward of the local viscount of Green Lake City tried to make the merchant understand that they had been doing business for so long and had never raised the price for such a reason.
The butler did not doubt the merchant's integrity. They were all acquaintances. He just could not accept the sudden price increase. But while the merchant apologized through Xia De, he also helplessly said that this was not something he could control:
"This is the second trip I've taken since the beginning of spring this year. Clearly at the end of the windy month, the tariffs on alcohol were still normal."
"That's because at that time, we hadn't decided to negotiate in the Green Lake area, and we hadn't decided what to use as our hand."
This was what Xia De added after the translation. The businessman and the old housekeeper both agreed with it and used not very civilized sentences to scold the politician in two languages respectively. Then, with Xia De's mediation, they reluctantly reached the deal of raising the price.
The old butler left in a hurry to arrange a carriage. While the fat businessman happily paid the bill, Xia De also curiously asked the question he wanted to ask:
"Sir, I saw some church members in the village just now. Are there so many clergymen in this small village?"
In fact, he didn't see it at all.
"Originally there was only one elderly priest in the village. I heard from the villagers that a group of clergymen came from the city the evening before yesterday to preach in the countryside. They seemed to be from the Peace Church. They are temporarily staying in the east of the village. They will take a boat to the Central Island of Green Lake every day in the past two days. When my boat came this morning, I happened to see them taking a boat to the Central Island of Green Lake. Isn't there no one on that island?"
The businessman didn't think too much about it and told Xia De these things.
"The church has indeed landed on the island. I wonder what they will find."
Xia De thought in his heart, and after accepting his reward, he asked with some doubts:
"Since you are going to take the trade route between Carsenrick and Dlarion, why don't you prepare a translator for yourself? Language barriers can delay many things."
"I know that too. I had an interpreter when I boarded the ship, but when I was randomly checked at the Carsenrick Wharf on the other side of the lake, contraband was found on that guy, and then I didn't have an interpreter."
With a bitter face, he told Shade what the contraband was:
"A collection of poems complaining about the Angevin royal family's extravagance and debauchery, the House of Lords' exploitation of the people, the nobles sucking blood from the people, and the civil servants being fat and stupid. I really don't know why he wants to cause trouble for himself like this. I don't think he usually behaves abnormally... I heard that someone deliberately distributed this kind of book in the city of Mikaela Blast Furnace. It's getting more and more chaotic... I won't say anymore. I have to go and arrange the unloading. Thank you for your help, and I wish you a happy life."
He waved goodbye to Xia De, leaving the sentimental stranger standing alone at the dock looking at the spring lakeside scenery.
Shade did not stay at the dock for too long. After confirming the church's dynamics, he left the dock along the lakeshore. After reaching a secluded place with no one around, he first put away his shoes and coat, and then walked into the lake.
“It’s so cold!”
Shivering, he dove into the water. With the spell of "underwater breathing", Shade didn't even need to occasionally expose his head to breathe. He swam towards the depths of Green Lake like a big fish. While observing the biological community in the lake under the water, he also kept an eye on whether there were any fish that Mr. Edmund wanted.
Sure enough, since there were no rotten-tail fish in the local black market, it was too difficult for Xia De to find them with his own eyes. Fortunately, Grandma Natalie gave him bait that could lure rotten-tail fish. After making sure that he was far away from the shore and there were no boats nearby, Xia De took the bait out of the sealed small bottle.
The pill-like bait slowly released its flavor in the water, and Shade kept moving towards the center of the lake. He waited patiently for a while, and then there was a sound from the deep bottom of the lake. Shade closed his eyes and listened, but what he heard was not the heartbeat of a fish—the rotten-tail fish was half-undead, so it also had a heartbeat:
"What's coming? The heartbeat is very strong, but the heartbeat rate is only ten times a minute, right? What is this?"
In the water, the vision is severely obstructed, so it was not until the human-shaped object came closer that Shade could see its full appearance.
It was a monster with a fish head and a human body. Its body was covered with dark blue-gray scales, its limbs had sharp claws, and its open mouth contained extremely sharp teeth. Between the upper and lower rows of teeth, there was a long gray tongue that could stretch outward.
"Mercemen?"
Xia De thought subconsciously, and then realized that this was not the fishman he had seen before. After just a moment of reaction, he immediately realized what he had encountered:
"Water ghost?"
Water ghosts are common undead creatures, born from the bodies of drowned people, and have some fish characteristics due to the influence of water. Apart from the fact that they like to live in water, they are not much different from the common resurrected ghouls on land.
This monster is very agile in the water, and is almost indistinguishable from a fish when swimming quickly. They usually like to lurk in the water, waiting for their prey to arrive. Attacking lone fishing boats is also a way for these monsters to hunt.
Of course, Kelpies can also walk on land, but this greatly reduces their speed and power, so this is rare.
Among the "Three Evil Gods of Coldwater Harbor" that Shade had heard of in Coldwater Harbor, the followers of the "God of the Drowned" liked to manipulate these undead creatures. The water ghosts and the fishmen protected by the "Lord of the Scarlet Spiral" were enemies.
Seeing the water ghost attracted by the bait, Xia De was not surprised at all. Instead, he smiled and quickly closed his mouth to prevent sucking in water.
Green Lake is the main habitat of the semi-undead creature "rotten tail fish", so of course real undead such as water ghosts will be born. Although the church will clean it up regularly, it is not uncommon to encounter one or two.
Since you have encountered a water ghost, it means that there must be a "rotten tail fish" nearby. This kind of fish likes to chase around water ghosts and nibble on the leftovers of their food.
Xia De was thinking that he was lucky, and the water ghost was getting closer and closer to him. He didn't prepare silver-plated crossbows and hand crossbows for himself, so he waved his arms in the water, and four silver rings illuminating the lake flew out and then smoothly wrapped around the limbs of the water ghost.
"Moonlight Slash!"
Then, an arc of moonlight passed under the water. After the light disappeared, the body of the water ghost, which was split in two, sank. A large amount of green liquid flowed out of the body of the water ghost and mixed into the water. This was a liquid mixed with the body fluids of the "water ghost" and other undead spirits. If Xia Deken collected it, it could actually be an alchemical material that could be sold at a good price, just like the "water ghost brain" that he destroyed.
"No, I will never touch this kind of thing, otherwise Mia will definitely not approach me again after I go home."
Although he thought so, he did not swim away, but continued to dive after the corpse from a distance. The water ghost's corpse stopped moving after it hit the bottom of the lake. Xia De threw the bait to the corpse and waited for a few minutes. Sure enough, he saw five or six "sneaky" fish swimming over, taking advantage of the uneven terrain at the bottom of the lake.
It's not quite appropriate to describe fish as "sneaky", but those fish are indeed hiding themselves deliberately. They didn't notice Shade higher up, but quickly swam around the corpse of the ghoul and started eating. Although the rotten tail fish like to follow the water ghost and eat the food scraps of the water ghost, they will also feed on the water ghost itself.
This is also a very wonderful ecological chain.
Even under the water, there would be no surprises in dealing with a few fish. Shade waited until they started eating before catching them, and amused himself by wondering if Mia, who now had a slight supernatural power, would like to eat this kind of fish.
However, this time he did not use the "Light of Confinement", but the non-aggressive Chain of Sin, which pierced through the abdomen of the fish one by one, stringing them all together, so that Shade did not have to reach out to catch them.