Chapter 44: Slave Market (Part 2)

  The boss said with a smile: "Old man has good eyesight, the woman in this painting is indeed Feng Lanchu, the sacred and inviolable queen of Irina. She was on the list of the most beautiful women on the mainland last time. This is the hottest topic among men in the noble social circle on the Yilan continent recently. Just thinking about Feng Lanchu's peerless beauty, her cold eyes and proud demeanor, yet having to submit to Bailing's lustful power, taking off all her clothes for people to appreciate... The story behind this alone is enough to make one's blood boil."

  Yang Jirui said with a mixture of regret and indignation: "It's really pitiful for her, I didn't expect the high and mighty empress to end up in such a state. It seems that Baili's power has already reached the point where he can cover the sky in Irina, and he was actually able to force Fengshan Wu to publicly undress, his audacity is not small at all. This is even more difficult than directly forcing himself on Fengshan Wu."

  The boss smiled and said, "If it weren't for him, who among us could have seen the beautiful women on the Jiangshan Absolute Beauty List? Now this painting is in high demand, if you buy a single piece, it's at least 300 gold coins, and if you buy a whole set, it's 5,000 gold coins, but it's also priceless."

  Yang Ji Rui was very interested and said repeatedly: "How is there still a whole set?"

  The boss said mysteriously: "I also heard from others, I haven't seen it myself. It's said to be a complete set, with a total of twelve paintings. It's said that Feng Lian danced naked for a whole day and had people paint her, each painting has a different pose and charm, it's really enough to make men's eyes turn red, their blood boil, and they can't sleep at night."

  Yang Ji Rui said with anticipation: "Is there anything else? Can we get it? Get two more and take a look."

  The boss shook his head and said helplessly, "It's gone. I bought this painting from a merchant in Irina, but he wouldn't sell it to me separately. He sold me his military slaves, and then gave me the painting as a gift. If you buy my military slaves, I'll give you the painting too."

  Yang Ji Rui sighed and said: "Alas, that's really a pity. If there was a complete set, even if it cost 5,000 gold coins, I would buy it immediately."

  Mr. Guo could only shrug his shoulders regretfully and smiled helplessly.

  Yang Ji Rui suddenly felt that Yang Shuang Feng was not quite right, his eyes staring deeply at the full-body naked portrait of Queen Irina on the painting "Phoenix Dance", motionless, but his face gradually turning crimson as if blood was about to seep out, and in his eyes, a hint of extremely strange bloodshot appeared.

  "Maple, how do you feel?" Yang Ji Rui asked repeatedly, and patted his shoulder several times. Yang Suo Feng didn't react at all until Yang Ji Rui had to roll up the painting, then he slowly came back to his senses, but his expression was still a bit strange, as if he was still immersed in a dream and hadn't woken up yet.

  At this moment, a fellow rushed back quickly and said repeatedly: "Found it, found it, it's at Boss Fang's place. He was frowning and said that the government had killed him and that no one wanted a disabled military slave anymore. I told him to buy one for 20 gold coins, he agreed without hesitation, and immediately sent someone over."

  Yang Shuang's heart felt a huge weight lifted, his whole body relaxed a lot, and his expression seemed to return to normal. Seeing the boss's somewhat embarrassed face, he said calmly: "Don't worry, we agreed on a price of 100 gold coins each, that's 100 gold coins each, no matter what your purchase price is. Hmm, this is the payment for you. I have something else to do and can't meet those military slaves directly. He helped me send them to the Good Luck Inn, where I'll be waiting for them."

  The boss took the heavy gold coins, and his face lit up with a smile. He thanked them profusely and sent them off. Turning around, he distributed five gold coins to each of his employees and loudly instructed: "Close the door and stop doing business for today! Everyone go to Lucky Building to have lunch, I'm treating!"

  Yang Ji Rui finally couldn't help but say, "Feng, for those disabled military slaves, you spent such a large sum of money, is it worth it? Shouldn't you reconsider?"

  Yang Shuang said without hesitation: "Of course it's worth it, no need to consider."

  Yang Ji's eyebrows were tightly locked as he said, "But I just can't understand, what reason do you have to buy them? They've already lost their right hands and are completely unable to work. Even if you're planning to cultivate them into the Blue Feather Army's first generation of artillery officers, how will they operate the cannons in the future?"

  Yang Shuangfeng, however, looked very pleased and walked with a light step. He said calmly: "I don't need them to operate the artillery personally, I just need them to teach others. However, this is not the most important thing, what I need is a kind of spirit, a kind of unyielding and indomitable fighting spirit. An army, no matter how good its equipment is, if it lacks an unyielding and indomitable fighting spirit, can only intimidate ordinary people and cannot defeat the enemy on the battlefield. I want to introduce the Huolie Bird Division's unyielding and indomitable spirit into the Blue Feather Army, and inject it into the blood of every soldier in the Blue Feather Army. Only then can we win victories in future battles."

  Yang Ji Rui still said with half-doubt: "Even if it's like that, is their role really that big?"

  Yang Shuang said firmly: "For every army, the most important thing is the foundation, which is the spirit. When our Blue Feather Army was first established, we must have encountered many difficulties and enemies. We may win victories, but it's more likely that we'll fail. If we don't have this unyielding spirit to support us, then in case of failure, we might become a scattered sand, unable to reunite. Such an army cannot bear the heavy responsibility of recovering the Minas Tirith region. The Blue Feather Army must be able to win victories and also bear failures."

  Yang Ji sighed slightly and said weakly: "Feng, sometimes I really feel that what you think and say is far from what we think. I can't make a judgment, I don't know if what you're saying is right or wrong, but I will resolutely carry out your instructions. I'll arrange for the ships to send them back to Menis as soon as possible. However, I think Ah Xiao might have some opinions on this."

  Yang Shuang nodded and said, "This is the best way to go about it. However, we must load some lemons or oranges onto the ship. In case of an outbreak of deep-sea devil's disease, they can eat one or two oranges or lemons, which should help a lot."

  Yang Ji Rui said half-believingly: "Really?"

  Yang Shuang nodded firmly: "Believe me, it's right."

  "Alright, I'll arrange for someone to buy lemons and oranges right away. Hopefully it's really effective."

  Yang Shuangfeng smiled slightly, thinking that this was common knowledge for preventing leukemia in the 21st century, of course it would be effective. If it didn't work, then that would be a major discovery by scientists. Either the knowledge of the 21st century was wrong, or that wasn't leukemia at all. As he was lost in thought, suddenly he felt a weak and boneless warm hand on his shoulder, he quickly turned around to see Yu Huanxuan standing beside him with a smile as bright as flowers.

  "Ah, it's you..." Yang Suofeng didn't know how to greet the other person, but suddenly saw Yu Huanwen's black leather jacket open at the chest, revealing a pale and tender bosom. Her face suddenly turned bright red, and her body became unnatural, as if there was an uncontrollable surge of desire rising from the bottom of her heart. Suddenly, the painting scroll that had been tucked under her waist fell to the ground, coincidentally landing on Yu Huanwen's foot. Yu Huanwen bent down and picked it up, casually unrolling it, causing Yang Suofeng to become extremely flustered, hastily saying: "Don't look, don't look, you can't see this!"

  Yu Huan-yu casually unrolled the painting, took a closer look, and her deep blue eyes sparkled with bright light, but her face remained unchanged, still calm as ever. Yang Shuang-feng wished she could dig a hole in the ground to hide, thinking that having her own portrait painted was such an embarrassing thing! Unintentionally glancing sideways, she saw that even Yang Ji-rui, who had a thick skin like a city wall, had already quietly slipped away, making her feel even more ashamed. Fortunately, Tang Bing-na was not around, otherwise, she would really have no face to show anyone in the future.

  Who would have thought that Yu Huan-yu looked at it and didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but casually handed it back to him, lightly saying: "If the price of this painting when you bought it is higher than 300 gold coins, then you've been cheated. This isn't the original, it's someone else's imitation, and the imitator's skills aren't very good either. Feng Luan-wu's eyes have already become blurry, in fact, her eyes should be extremely humiliated and angry, but this painting can't express that...

  Yang Shuang took over the painting and muttered: "This was given to me by someone else..."

  Yu Huan looked at him strangely and said, "Your face is so weird, like a red crab? Oh, you feel embarrassed, but there's no need to be. The painting of Feng Shanwu in the Huicang Palace isn't something to be ashamed of. As one of the most beautiful women on the Jiangshan Absolute Beauty List, who knows how many men dream of seeing her beauty? You're just one of them, why be so embarrassed? Maybe this can even prove that you're a normal man!"

  Yang Shuang said softly: "I didn't mean to look at it, it was really given to me by someone else..."

  Yu Huan-yu suddenly spoke seriously: "What did you see in this painting? Or, what caught your attention the most?"

  Yang Shuangfeng's face turned bright red, and she didn't dare respond.

  Yu Huan's smile suddenly froze, and she said lightly: "You misunderstood me. I wasn't referring to any part of Feng Lian's body in the painting. Of course, most men would only notice a woman's private parts - that's human nature. If you're like that too, it's not a big deal. But if you want to retake the Meini region, you can't be like most men who only see her chest and legs. You should look beyond this painting and see what's behind it..."

  Yang Shuangfen's face turned bright red, her eyes fixed on her toes, and she didn't dare to lift her head.

  Yu Huan-yu let out a sigh and slowly said: "Perhaps I didn't express myself well, so you didn't understand. What I meant to say is that you should see two key points from this painting. The first is that Bailing has already completely controlled the situation in Irina, even getting help from others, his power expanding very quickly, so he wants to offend the authority of the Tangchuan Empire a bit, testing how the Tangchuan Empire will react. Because the Fenglin Dance family and the Tangchuan Empire have a very close relationship, he doesn't have complete confidence and dares not completely turn against the Tangchuan Empire, he hopes to use this painting to test the Tangchuan Empire's tolerance, then according to the Tangchuan Empire's reaction, take his next step. The second is that Bailing has not yet made all the forces within Irina submit..."

  Yang Shuangfeng suddenly raised his head and said: "Isn't this a contradiction in terms?"