Chapter 158: War Merchant

Hearing Jia Sha knew the island master’s identity, Zhen Jin consulted him at once.

For a long time, the mysterious island master was an immense shadow that shrouded Zhen Jin’s and the others’ hearts.

Jia Sha: “He is someone you should know about. He is one of the ten most wanted criminals, War Merchant.”

Zhen Jin’s heart immediately shook.

Every organization, nation, and even continent had countless arrest warrant lists. In the last century, bounty guilds have been collaborating closer, gathering and collating arrest warrants to form one large list.

On this list, the top ten most wanted criminals almost never changed, their status was extremely firm. Because every large empire, every big sect, and even every major guild was helpless against these ten major criminals.

These ten not only had astonishing strength, but also era-startling specialties.

“War Merchant……goblin race, legend rank magician, a grandmaster alchemist, and the seventh most wanted……”

Some information about War Merchant immediately appeared in Zhen Jin’s mind.

Bronze, iron, silver, gold, saint, legend, god……War Merchant’s cultivation was at the world’s peak, second only to the gods. A legend rank magician had a magician tower, prohibition magic spells, and magical equipment. After calculating them all in, a legend rank magician had the military strength to massacre a god!

War Merchant was simply his nickname, for few knew his true name.

But as his nickname stated, he relied on war to be prosperous. The many continents’ justification for his arrest is that he had provoked wars in every large continent, allowing him to profit off arms sales.

Seeing Zhen Jin’s expression slightly change, Jia Sha continued: “It seems you remember; this place should be War Merchant’s Mystifying Monster Island.”

“Mystifying Monster Island……” Zhen Jin’s mouth muttered.

He thought of the rumors pertaining to Mystifying Monster Island; War Merchant’s headquarters was Mystifying Monster Island, according to legend, it was in a demi-plane, he didn’t expect it would be located in the main world.

Zhen Jin slightly frowned, his heart had two suspicions: “If Mystifying Monster Island isn’t in a demi-plane, why hasn’t it been found after being wanted for so many years?”

“Furthermore, Lord Priest. War Merchant is an alchemy grandmaster, I know he is an expert at refining munitions. Arrows, warheads, and more, as well as his signature product: explosive flasks. But I never heard he was an expert at life alchemy.

Jia Sha nodded: “Actually, in more recent years, War Merchant seems to have adjusted the direction of his alchemy development, he has gradually shifted from alchemy goods to the field of life alchemy.”

Zhen Jin frowned, he suddenly understood somewhat: “Don’t tell me, beastified people have appeared on battlefields?”

Jia Sha smiled and deliberately asked: “What are you speculating?”

Zhen Jin faintly lowered his head: “Lord priest, you said you were very interested in beastification. After I repeated my information, you said you almost certainly knew the island master’s identity.”

Jia Sha couldn’t help but look at Zhen Jin with admiration: “Child, your creativeness is very shrewd. It is certainly like that, since you don’t have access to a lot of intelligence, you were unable to guess the island master’s true identity. In fact, you have done enough by judging the island master’s situation from the omens and also having the valor to carry out a final fight.”

Continuing, Jia Sha narrated his own experience: “After the shipwreck, I and six guardian templar knights arrived on this island.”

“The island’s artificial landforms and magic beasts amazed me.”

“Although the island prohibited low level magic and battle qi, it could not block the power of god, thus my strength did not decrease in the slightest.”

“Relying on all kinds of divine spells, we explored the island. As we attempted to walk toward the island center, we were teleported.”

“Every time we approached the central volcanic area, we were forcibly teleported out.”

“After many months of this, the situation changed. The forcible teleportation no longer occurred; it was replaced with magic beast corps obstructing us. The deeper we went into the center, the greater the resistance.”

“Just as you guessed, I also thought: did War Merchant have a problem? Perhaps he suffered a backlash during meditation, or a newly refined alchemy article exploded. If he didn’t have a problem, why hasn’t he disposed of us? Why would he allow this island to sink into the abyss of destruction?

“Just yesterday, when I used the extreme eye spell, I foresaw the outcome of battle and discovered your arrival.”

“I wanted to converge with you first, but the magic beast corps launched an attack.”

“Templar knight Zhen Jin, I know you are the Bai Zhen Clan’s sole heir, I also know you want to compete in the White Sands City lord competition. However, the things before us are a greater and more difficult opportunity than the lordship of White Sands City!”

“For the last century, although the top ten most wanted is occasionally revised, the top ten most wanted almost never change.”

“If we can eradicate War Merchant, the seventh most wanted, do you know how much contribution we would gain? You can be immediately promoted to a great operations officer, you can become at least the lord of ten cities, and even be promoted to an earl. If you don’t want territory in the Wilderness Continent, you can directly apply to the Imperial family to exchange territory, by exchanging for territory in the Sheng Ming Continent, you can restore the Bai Zhen Clan’s past splendor!”

Zhen Jin muttered to himself.

Jia Sha laughed and continued: “Of course, we are fully aware of the immense risks. But what can we do? We are at the end of our rope, only this fight remains.”

Zhen Jin inquired: “Lord Priest, since this place cannot stop you from using divine spells, can you not rely on prayers to ask the Sheng Ming Empire for help?”

Jia Sha’s complexion sank: “My master has not clearly responded to my prayers. According to my conjecture, War Merchant has a method that protects him from the gods’ perception. Because of this, Mystifying Monster Island can hide in the world and from the gods’ sight.”

“This island used to prohibit divine spells, but because of some damage, I have some leeway to use divine spells.”

“Now Zhen Jin, tell me your decision.”

Zhen Jin bitterly laughed, extended both hands, and said to Jia Sha: “What other choice do I have? From the bottom of my heart, I am uncertain of what shall happen in this final fight. But I am honored to fight side by side with your Lordship!”

“Very good templar knight Zhen Jin.” Jia Sha revealed his happiness, “You haven’t disappointed me. I have observed your performance. If we fail but survive by a fluke, I will make you the lord of White Sands City!”

Fate really was hard for people to ponder.

The White Sands City lordship was no longer prospective, because too much time had passed. But he did not expect he would gain a fine opportunity.

Who would have thought Jia Sha, the main examiner, would also be stranded on this island?

After returning, Zhen Jin informed Zi Di, putting her in a cheerful mood.

From their point of view, converging with Jia Sha and the others greatly assisted them in the final fight.

Divine spell: water.

Jia Sha prayed with the holy insignia and caused holy light to descend. Foundationless drinking water appeared in every cup, water canteen, and pot.

Divine spell: food.

Holy light descended again, causing a great amount of rations to appear on a sailcloth.

Divine spell: restoration.

Holy light swept through everyone’s armor and equipment, instantly restoring them.

Divine spell: elemental protection.

Holy light dropped in succession, after everyone bathed in the light, they received its protection. Even when everyone left the shelter, they no longer felt the torrid heat.

The gods were omnipotent, thus divine spells naturally covered many aspects.

As long as divine spells were not prohibited, Jia Sha was a well-rounded logistics master.

“Don’t eat the magic beasts or drink the island’s water for the time being. I will supply food and water.” Jia Sha smiled.

Everyone promptly expressed their gratitude.

: :

Because of their beastified comrades, these people were wary of the magic beast meat and the water collected on this island. Jia Sha’s offer was immediately approved and welcomed.

After leaving the shelter, everyone quickly suffered a magic beast corps attack.

According to Jia Sha: he fears all of the blue dog fox wolves, beasts, and magic beasts have assembled here to protect War Merchant and block all outsiders.

However, regardless of how many magic beasts there were, none of them could stop Jia Sha, Zhen Jin, and their group.

Divine spell: blessings.

Divine spell: frighten.

Divine spell: stable mind.

Divine spell: tenacious.

Divine spell: flash.

Divine spell: root

Divine spell: invisibility.

Divine spell: extreme eye.

The divine spell blessings greatly increased the attack power of Zhen Jin and the others, the frightened spell made the magic beast corps panic, stable mind steadied morale, flash blinded the magic beasts, and root trapped them in place, forcing them to helplessly watch as the humans easily slaughtered them.

Jia Sha’s existence changed the entire war situation!

Those at the silver level were normally city lords and the leaders of small organizations. Tripleblade was a mercenary commander, as his cultivation level was only at the iron level.

After the battle, Jia Sha also used the therapy spell and the detoxify spell.

The five templar guardian knights were also in charge of a section, each of them was at the iron level.

Templar guardian knights were different from templar knights. Templar knights exclusively belonged to Emperor Sheng Ming and his legions while templar guardian knights were put together from the best of every large sect.

The five templar guardian knights had strong martial skill and deep battle attainment. Originally there were six of them, but while they were on the island, one of them sacrificed their life.

Jia Sha also presided over daily prayer and confession, with him, morale would never crumble.

A week later.

After overcoming all the obstacles in the way, everyone finally arrived at the foot of the largest volcano.

Divine spell: detect mechanisms.

Divine spell: detect magic.

“As expected, this is the place!” Jia Sha looked pleased.

Divine spell: teleportation gate.

Everyone entered the teleportation gate and arrived in an underground area.

They found themselves in an immense plaza.

“It seems, this place is War Merchant's underground alchemy factory!” 

Notes

You know, I was wondering how they would walk into a volcano, but it looks like magic teleportation is around to save them the trouble. With magic, it is now easier to cheese battles because magic gives an army more options. Since teleportation is now officially possible in this world, it makes me wonder, why hasn’t anyone made a massive teleportation gate between continents? Then I realized, it's probably like in RI, where the higher level cultivation a person has, the fatter they are in terms of teleportation, and of course, teleporting plebeians isn’t something the hierarchical society of IB tends to do.