Chapter 1354: Chapter 1338: Protection Fee
The Central Continent is a vast free territory on the Dwarf Star without a ruler.
The so-called freedom is relative; on the Central Continent, there is no unified ruler, and therefore no guard team to specifically maintain social order.
Cities here are independent kingdoms, each ruled by a faction of the strongest individuals.
Powerful individuals can control a city for a long time,
while those with insufficient strength may defeat an opponent today, only to be killed by someone else tomorrow.
Most people living on the Central Continent are refugees who escaped after committing crimes in other racial territories, seeking refuge here.
To survive, they rely on luck firstly, and ability secondly,
with ability being more important than luck.
Perhaps one moment you’re alive; the next, you’ll be killed.
The information Yang Xiao received was limited; he only understood the situation on the Dwarf Star from the limited information given by Gu Bo, with some information derived from the consciousness of Wu Dai in his mind.
However, Wu Dai was very cautious, and most information wasn’t accessible to Yang Xiao, leaving him with a very limited amount of information.
A few hundred kilometers is only about ten minutes for an Emperor Level Transcendent Realm Yang Xiao.
Seeing the outline of a castle from afar, Yang Xiao flew from mid-air to the ground and walked along a path towards Death Castle.
The Central Continent lacks a unified government agency, thus no roads are built outside cities,
The path Yang Xiao is walking is merely one created due to frequent travelers, leaving a barren trail in the wilderness.
Before preparing to come to the Dwarf Star, Yang Xiao prepared several sets of Dwarf Star people’s clothing.
Thousands of Dwarf Star people were killed on Witch Star, so finding some everyday Dwarf Star attire was easy.
Yang Xiao changed his clothes in a nearby forest and headed straight toward Death Castle.
Few people were outside the castle.
As Yang Xiao approached the castle, he saw a team of guards with weapons standing at the gate, all tall and muscular, clearly not ordinary men.
Yang Xiao didn’t hesitate at all and walked straight forward.
"Stop! Where are you from and what do you want?"
The opponent spoke in the language of the Dwarf Star, which had been fully translated and successfully integrated into the cultivation technique of the Universal Language System through decades of information collection by Witch Star spies.
Yang Xiao learned this set of cultivation techniques designed for deciphering languages of various races when he first came to the Purple Origin Star, so Witch Star people could always directly communicate and interact with Dwarf Star people.
For Witch Star people, languages do not need to be learned.
This made Yang Xiao quite emotional,
On Earth in Xuanming Country, learning foreign languages comprehensively consumed countless financial and material resources and wasted much of students’ youth.
Yang Xiao dared to assert that if students in Xuanming Country didn’t need to learn the wicked foreign languages from elementary school onwards, they would all have had more time to play and learn, with everyone’s intelligence significantly improved.
How many people have been ruined by wicked foreign languages?
Of course, this situation later began to improve, as Xuanming Country grew stronger, attracting more foreigners to learn Xuanming language.
Objectively speaking, Xuanming language is ten times harder than foreign languages.
Every time Yang Xiao saw foreigners tormented to death by learning Xuanming language, he felt pleased, as if he was reclaiming debts owed for hundreds of years, feeling a sense of comfort.
Yang Xiao looked at several fierce-looking guards in front of the castle gate and said lightly:
"I come from the Wuheng Clan, planning to stay in the city for a night."
The Wuheng Clan is one of the ten major families on the Dwarf Star, known by everyone on the Dwarf Star.
The guard glanced at Yang Xiao and extended his right hand, palm open.
"What?"
"Don’t understand any rules? Entrance fee, one hundred Crystal Disks."
Crystal Disks, refined from the crystal coins obtained from the bodies of dead Demon Beasts, are the only currency circulating on the Dwarf Star.
Regarding the Crystal Disk currency, Yang Xiao knew some information.
Gu Bo initially entrusted Liang Bao to find Yang Xiao on the Purple Origin Star and gave Yang Xiao a large package, filled with the common currency of Dwarf Star people—Crystal Disks.
These Crystal Disks were collected by Gu Bo from heaps of dead bodies on the battlefield, prepared for Yang Xiao’s infiltration and sustenance on the Dwarf Star.
Gu Bo collected about fifty to sixty thousand Crystal Disks.
Yang Xiao hesitated, took out one hundred small, transparent, nail-sized disks from his Space Ring, and handed them to the gate guard.
The guard chuckled and gestured for Yang Xiao to enter the city.
Just after entering Death Castle, five or six young people rushed up, directly blocking Yang Xiao’s path.
Yang Xiao was startled and asked,
"Is there something you need?"
A chubby leader sneered and said:
"Are you daft? Pay the protection fee, or do you expect to survive in this Death Castle?"
Yang Xiao thought, damn, that’s sinister; I just gave the gate guard a hundred Crystal Disks, and now, after merely walking a few dozen meters, someone is already demanding protection fees—this is way too shady!
"I just paid one hundred Crystal Disks to the gate guard!"
The chubby leader laughed:
"The money you paid to the gate guard is for city entry; here, it’s for protection, understand?"
A tall, two-meter youth glared fiercely at Yang Xiao and shouted:
"Where’s this blasted fool from, doesn’t understand the rules?"
Yang Xiao thought, just arriving at Death Castle, unfamiliar with the situation; better to avoid conflicts. Isn’t it just a hundred Crystal Disks?
I can afford it!
Yang Xiao smiled helplessly, took out one hundred Crystal Disks from his Space Ring, and handed them over.
The group grinned and moved aside to clear the path.
Yang Xiao slipped through.
Yang Xiao noticed that the streets of Death Castle were sparsely populated, appearing quite deserted.
He walked while carefully observing the local customs and practices.
After walking about fifty meters, a bald, scar-faced man, with three knife scars across his face and a longsword on his shoulder, flashed into Yang Xiao’s path.
Yang Xiao was startled, steadied himself, and looked at the man.
"Why have you blocked my path?"
The bald, scar-faced man chuckled:
"Passage fee, one hundred Crystal Coins, or you die!"
Yang Xiao froze, furious.
Damn it, I’ve only walked less than a hundred meters since entering the castle, and I’ve already encountered three groups demanding protection fees; who the hell is in charge here? Who’s protecting whom?
Yang Xiao decided not to pay anymore, knowing if he kept paying, he wouldn’t even reach the city center before all his money was gone.
"Protection fee? What protection fee? I just paid upon entering the city."
Yang Xiao said.
The scar-faced man chuckled:
"What you paid to others doesn’t count, I won’t acknowledge it."
"If I pay you, later someone else might demand protection fees; then what? Wouldn’t it be for nothing?"
The scar-faced man chuckled and pointed to the street ahead:
"If you pay the protection fee, I’ll ensure you’re safe for the next thirty meters!"
Damn!
Inside Yang Xiao, a thousand horses raced.
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