Published: March 12, 2025
Chapter 382: The Battle of the Five Sons
The church of light was clearly unprepared for the actions of the Roson Empire. They had become accustomed to smooth sailing over the years and never anticipated that the Roson Empire would strike back at this moment.
At first, they did not realize just how terrifying this counterattack was. By the time they understood, it was already too late. Their relationship with the Roson Empire had never been good, so even if they wanted to retaliate, it was already too late.
However, the church of light did make some counterattacks. They targeted other empires and those duchies they controlled outside of the Roson Empire. Of course, they were not foolish enough to retaliate against all mages; they specifically targeted dark mages.
This time, however, they were destined to be disappointed. The Karlqi Family had anticipated the church of light's counterattack, so when they were planning, they had already issued warnings to the dark mage alliance, urging all dark mages to relocate immediately, as the church of light might launch a frenzied hunt against them.
Although the church of light did conduct some hunts against dark mages this time, the results were far from ideal. They had already found traces of the dark mages they had been searching for, but now all of them had fled. By the time they intended to deal with them, it was too late.
Of course, none of this concerned Zhao Hai. The goods he brought into Tianshui City were valued at around 200,000 gold coins, a significant amount considering that even a regular five-masted ship would not bring in that much value, even when trading with orcs.
At this point, no one knew that Zhao Hai’s goods were worth so much, but some of the major nobles sensed something unusual. Just considering the 50,000 firefly fish alone, they estimated their value to be about 100,000 gold coins, which was definitely a fortune for them.
Naturally, the price Zhao Hai sold to the Karlqi Family and the Shelley Family was not that high, but that did not prevent speculation. In their view, even 50,000 gold coins was no trivial sum. Generally, a noble family’s annual income would not exceed 100,000 gold coins, and that was for a large noble family. A small noble family could never achieve such income, making the value of these firefly fish nearly equivalent to an entire year's earnings for them. It was no surprise they were astonished.
Not only were the great nobles surprised, but even those within the Karlqi Family were taken aback. The management within the Karlqi Family was typically very independent; events in Tianshui City were usually decided by Smith himself, and only important matters were reported to the family for a decision.
This time, regarding the firefly fish, although Smith reported to the family, the Karlqi Family did not believe it. A monthly catch of 40,000 firefly fish was almost inconceivable to them. There were no hot springs on the continent capable of breeding so many firefly fish. If they were to raise them using artificially heated water, the costs would be even more prohibitive.
Firefly fish typically took a long time to mature in ordinary hot springs, at least two to three years to truly mature. Without mature firefly fish, the taste would be significantly lacking.
It was precisely because of these reasons that the yield of firefly fish had remained low. Now, someone suddenly claimed they could produce 50,000 firefly fish in a month, which was hard to believe.
However, this situation posed no harm to them; payment for the firefly fish would only be made upon delivery, and the equipment used for packing the firefly fish could also be used for other types of fish, so they did not stop it.
But when Zhao Hai really delivered the firefly fish to Tianshui City, the members of the Karlqi Family could no longer sit still. They simply could not understand where Zhao Hai had obtained so many firefly fish; it was too strange.
Of course, Smith would not ask Zhao Hai this question; he knew Zhao Hai would not tell him. However, the family had already pressured him to extract information about where Zhao Hai was raising the firefly fish.