Chapter 75: The Ransom Collected

…

Lei Qing’s words instantly changed the morale of the hundreds of Iron-Armored Personal Guards. A cold and oppressive aura surged forward in an instant. Fire burned fiercely in everyone’s chest, as if they wanted to tear that shameless boy, who had the guts to kidnap the Young Miss and extort the Li Chamber of Commerce, into pieces.

“Lei Qing, you have quite the nerve.” Sikong Wei, wearing a green-faced, fanged ghost mask, roared loudly, “You have committed a capital offense and yet you dare to be so arrogant here? My Guild Master, out of consideration for your Lei Family as a renowned clan, agrees to spare your dog’s life if you honestly hand over the Young Miss. We will only break your legs and send you back to the Lei Family. Why do you not hurry down the city walls and submit to capture? Otherwise, my hundreds of brothers, filled with righteous anger, will swarm you and chop you into minced meat.”

“Lei Qing, hurry down and surrender!” The hundreds of Iron-Armored Personal Guards shouted in unison. The weakest among them were Black Iron-rank, and there were no lack of strong Bronze-rank experts. Ghost’s Sorrow Sikong Wei, the commander of the Second Corps, was a mighty expert at the Silver-rank level.

The wave of voices amplified by Fighting Qi from the hundreds of people crashed against the city walls like a tsunami. Those with weaker wills would likely be terrified into rolling off the walls.

However, Lei Qing seemed completely unaffected. He took another sip of wine, looking calm and collected. He laughed wildly, “Fear? I am so afraid, so afraid of death. Haha. Sikong Wei, at a time like this, are you still not giving up? My life, Lei Qing’s, is worthless. What if you chop me into minced meat? You know clearly what will happen to your Young Miss Li Baobao in the end.”

With a graceful flip, Lei Qing fell from the several-zhang-high city wall. He landed lightly and elegantly. Facing the hundreds of strong soldiers and generals, he showed no fear. He walked forward casually and sneered at Sikong Wei, whom everyone feared due to his fierce reputation, “Sikong Wei, if you want to continue playing dumb to delay time, I am willing to accompany you until the end. But if you delay the time for me to reunite with my brothers, and my hot-tempered brothers misunderstand the situation and do something bad to your Young Miss, don’t blame me, Lei Jiu.”

“Hmph. Your Tianlan Lei Family, how could a generation of generals and a hero family with iron bones produce such an unworthy descendant who turned to banditry, kidnapped a weak woman, and extorted money?” Ghost’s Sorrow Sikong Wei pressed down on Lei Qing with a powerful and cold aura, speaking in a tone of disdain, “You have shamed your ancestors, the Heavenly Thunder Sword Saint and the Lei Ji Sword Saint.”

The hundreds of Iron Guards also threw contemptuous glances at Lei Qing.

“So, the famous Ghost’s Sorrow is actually an unreasonable chatterbox.” Seeing Lei Qing try to defame his family’s ancestors, his expression also turned cold, “Your Young Miss led an Iron Guard regiment to crush me, Lei Qing, due to her own misunderstanding, without reason. She even threatened to hang my head on the gate of Qingshi Town. I fought back vigorously, defeated your Young Miss and the Iron Guards on the battlefield, and captured her. Now that I ask you to pay money to redeem the captive, do you call this kidnapping? Even if my two Sword Saint ancestors resurrected and stood before me, ‘Young General’ Lei Qing, I have a clear conscience.”

Lei Qing’s words were spoken with righteous passion and powerful force. He looked down upon the hundreds of strong soldiers and fierce generals, showing not a trace of fear.

“Hmph, your tongue is sharp.” Ghost’s Sorrow Sikong Wei snorted coldly, actually wanting to order this bastard boy to be chopped into minced meat. But he knew very well that killing this boy was easy, but the Young Miss’s life would surely be lost. Forced to bow under the eaves, Sikong Wei took out two Spatial Rings and threw them to Lei Qing, “These two Spatial Rings contain one hundred thousand gold coins, two hundred Bronze-rank Demon Beast Crystal Cores of various attributes, ten Silver-rank Demon Beast Crystal Cores, and one Gold-rank Demon Beast Crystal Core. Check them first.”

Lei Qing reached out to catch them, activated the Spatial Rings, and dumped all the items out. The gold coins were too many to count exactly, piled up in a large heap, so he estimated them roughly. The rest of the items matched the quantity well. Especially the ten Silver-rank cores and the one Gold-rank core made Lei Qing’s mouth water and treat them as treasures. These items were hard to obtain even with money; only the Li Chamber of Commerce could gather so much in a short time.

After putting the items away, Lei Qing strung the two precious Spatial Rings together and hung them around his neck. His expression softened significantly, “What about the other things I asked for?”

“One hundred and fifty sets of full-body iron armor and war swords, one hundred and fifty fine iron-armored warhorses, two hundred strong crossbows, and ten thousand crossbow bolts.” Sikong Wei waved his hand, and a large group of Iron Guards dismounted, separating one hundred and fifty warhorses. Each of those horses was equipped with iron armor, war swords, strong crossbows, and large bundles of crossbow bolts.

Lei Qing casually picked up a strong crossbow, loaded it with sharp bolts, and fired a test shot. With a ‘chi’ sound, the bolt pierced two or three inches into a tree. Although its power could not compare to the Thousand-Mechanism Crossbow made of special materials in the Tianlan Empire, it was still a decent quality strong crossbow.

After another random check and verifying the approximate quantity, Lei Qing laughed heartily, “Doing business with your Li Chamber of Commerce is pretty good. At least, you didn’t use cheap goods to fool me. Since you are so straightforward, I, ‘Young General’ Lei Qing, will guarantee that your Young Miss remains unharmed. According to the agreed trading rules, I will release your Young Miss within one month. As for the other captives as a bonus, I have kept them in the dungeon at Fierce Tiger Ridge. You can go rescue them anytime.” Frequently using his bandit title, “Young General,” was Li Baobao’s suggestion. She said that doing so would subconsciously strengthen people’s recognition of his bandit title. Through word of mouth, people would unconsciously accept this title.

“Young General, I hope you can keep your promise.” Ghost’s Sorrow Sikong Wei stared deeply at Lei Qing, “If my Young Miss suffers any loss, our Li Chamber of Commerce will petition the Alliance Leader and present a diplomatic note to your country’s emperor. If the Alliance and your country become hostile because of this, I assume your Emperor would not easily let you and your family off.”

“The Chamber of Commerce can rest assured about this as well. I, Lei Qing, am straightforward in my actions and clear about grudges and rights.” Lei Qing spoke calmly without any fear, “But within one month, I also want to see the Alliance Notice issued by your Chamber according to my requirements. Promising not to actively target the Lei Family for three years.”

“Hmph, rest assured. Our Li Chamber of Commerce started as a business, so we value reputation the most.” Sikong Wei sneered, “We will not touch you within three years. But after three years, I, Ghost’s Sorrow Sikong Wei, will personally lead my men to take your head to avenge the Young Miss and mourn my fallen brothers.”

“Roar! Vow to take revenge!” The hundreds of Iron Guards roared fiercely.

Lei Qing was certainly not foolish enough to believe that the Li Chamber of Commerce would really not target him for three years. The meaning of making them issue an Alliance Notice was to put a tight band on the Li Chamber of Commerce. At least, for the sake of reputation, they could not openly cause trouble for Lei Qing for three years.

As for after three years, if his development was not ideal, there was plenty of space in the world for him to go.

Actually, it was not that every noble Young Master or Miss was worth the Li Chamber of Commerce paying such a heavy price to save. The Li Family had many branches, and there were plenty of Young Masters and Misses in the family.

But Li Baobao was different. She was the only daughter of Li Qianlong, the current Guild Master of the Li Chamber of Commerce, and the apple of his eye. She showed strong business talents since childhood. Starting from her early teens, she helped the Li Chamber of Commerce make money. In the past seven or eight years, she had achieved remarkable results and had been internally designated by the Chamber as the first successor to the next Guild Master.

If anything happened to Li Baobao, it would likely be a very heavy and painful blow to the Li Chamber of Commerce. In the short term, multiple business projects would stagnate, and income would drop significantly. In the long term, the Li Chamber of Commerce would lose a rare talent Guild Master who might not appear for hundreds of years.

Most importantly, the current Guild Master and also the head of the Li Family, Li Qianlong, loved this daughter dearly and would never allow her to come to harm.

Otherwise, with Lei Qing’s exorbitant ransom demand, the only thing the opponent could do would likely be to chop the Young Miss and that Lei Qing to death together.

…