"Those Sarkaz still refuse to cooperate?"
Xia Yu looked at Chen Huijie, somewhat speechless.
"They... sigh," Chen Huijie shrugged, frowning. "Even after seeing those cured Infected with their own eyes, they aren't very moved."
"I've been observing them these past few days. Their core group is a bunch of Sarkaz Mercenaries. Perhaps they are the ones secretly instigating things. After all, besides the Sarkaz gathering place in the slums, there are still quite a few other Sarkaz in Lungmen."
"And those solitary Sarkaz have mostly been treated by now."
"So I'm very curious," Xia Yu caressed the Vision in her hand. "There are only about a thousand Sarkaz... Where do they get the courage to directly confront Graytail Hall and the Lungmen Guard Department?"
"A thousand or so Sarkaz sounds like a lot, but the ones with actual combat power are probably just those Sarkaz Mercenaries, numbering less than sixty," Chen Huijie was also puzzled. "The rest are all old, weak, sick, or disabled. Putting everything else aside, if they even tried to cause trouble, I'm afraid they wouldn't even be able to walk out of the slums..."
It wasn't as if they were all warriors. If it really were over a thousand Sarkaz warriors, Wei Yenwu would have to have brain damage to let them in. Most of them were basically the old and weak.
Yes, the Sarkaz weren't an entire race of battle maniacs. Among Kazdel's population of tens of millions, the old, weak, sick, and disabled still made up the majority. It was just that, proportionally speaking, no other country in the world had a higher soldier-to-civilian ratio than the Sarkaz.
But that was just because they couldn't survive; they were forced by their environment.
The ordinary mercenaries usually seen in the story were basically already stronger than many Sarkaz. At the very least, they could come out and take jobs themselves.
If they really had tens of millions of battle maniacs, the Sarkaz wouldn't have been chased around like dogs by various countries. At least during the period before the Crystal Age and after the decline of the overlords, they genuinely had a chance to rise up.
"How about this: you go take another look this morning and communicate with them," Xia Yu touched the Painting Scroll in her hand upon hearing this. "I'm going to look for someone, and I'll find you in the afternoon."
"Look for someone? Look for who?" Chen Huijie asked subconsciously.
But changing it to Bailu... a tiny Draconic Girl paired with a massive Painting Scroll behind her was actually inexplicably quite harmonious.
How tragic. Bailu, look at Dan Heng. If you really calculate it, he is younger than you, yet he's already a grown young man now. And you? So tiny, always being gluttonous and running away from home. With this height, sitting on the doctor's chair at the clinic, your feet can't even reach the ground. People could nag you about it for a lifetime.
What? This is the masterpiece of the Vidyadhara Dragon Preceptors?
Hmph, I'll remember you lot. Dragon Preceptors, right? Just wait until I go to the Luofu, I'll smack your mouths crooked!
Just like that, carrying the Painting Scroll on her back, Xia Yu went out with a pit-a-pat of her steps.
The moment this Painting Scroll was taken out, she could feel that the power which had been trying to connect with it constantly these past few days was drilling its way over again. These days, whenever she was moving goods around, someone would always come, scratch at it, and run away.
Now she was going to head over and see exactly who was ruining her good business!
Although she said that, in her view, it could only be those few people.
Who else could it be? The only ones who could sense Xi's Painting Scroll and try to connect to it would be her brothers and sisters.
She just didn't know which one it was.
Hmm, the eldest brother Chongyue had to watch over Yumen, so it probably wasn't him.
The second brother Wang had already shattered into pieces, so probably... Eh, it really couldn't be said for sure. What if a fragment was right here in Lungmen, sensed the youngest sister's Painting Scroll, and came to take a look?
The eldest sister Ling was probably still being a drunkard in Shangshu.
She hadn't met the second sister, but she was likely mixed up in the imperial court, so there was no reason for her to appear in Lungmen.
Jie was already gone.
Mama Shu was probably still farming in Dahuang City. Oh right, she needed to find someone to send her those crop seeds from the seed bank she had inexplicably gotten from Anti-Entropy. Maybe there would be a miracle.
Ji was a merchant, running all over the place from north to south, so it was also normal for him to appear in a trading port like Lungmen.
She didn't know about the eighth in line.
Next was Nian. Her appearing in Lungmen... wasn't anything surprising.
The civil engineer brother who built gardens basically never went out.
The same went for Xi. She didn't go out, and it wouldn't be her. If it were her, she wouldn't need to communicate at all; she would just go straight inside.
Yu basically wouldn't leave Baizao.
These twelve brothers and sisters... Hmm, Xia Yu was actually quite interested. If time hadn't been so tight last time, she would have liked to interact more with Xi.
Just like that, Xia Yu followed that occasional teasing sensation and arrived in front of a storefront.
She glanced back and, sure enough, the Shadow Guards were still following behind. Miserable wage earners; she wondered if they got tired jumping around on the rooftops all day or not.
Looking at the completely red hotpot restaurant in front of her, Xia Yu was speechless.
There was no longer any need to say exactly who it was.
"Customer, how many are... Eh, little girl, what are you..."
The receptionist was a bit bewildered. Was such a small child coming to eat at a hotpot restaurant so early in the morning?
Where were her parents?
"I have an appointment," Xia Yu sighed. The appearance of a loli was just like this.
"An appointment... Ah, there is a customer of the same race as you," the receptionist hesitated a bit. The main issue was that this child was too small, and there was no adult watching her.
If something were to happen...
"You're here," just at that moment, a smiling face popped out from a private room. "Come in quickly since you're here. I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Hearing this, Xia Yu walked straight over, while the receptionist was still conflicted.
If she remembered correctly... that customer ordered the explosively spicy pot, right? Theirs was an authentic Shangshu flavor. Was this really suitable for such an adorable little girl to eat?
What, you ask how she remembered so clearly?
Heh, if someone came in and ordered the signature explosively spicy pot right when you opened the doors early in the morning, you would remember it this clearly too.
Up until now, there was only this one table of customers in the restaurant. At the end of the day, who came to eat this early in the morning? Even though she was running the shop, she had never seen anything like it.
It would be somewhat normal even if they came during lunchtime, but at this hour... This was the time to eat breakfast, wasn't it?
Ignoring her internal conflict, Xia Yu walked into the private room.
"Oh my, whose child is this?" Nian looked at the tiny Bailu in front of her, winking playfully, and reached out a hand wanting to pet her head. "So cute."
Xia Yu reached out to block her restless little hand. "Be serious!"
She put on a stern face. "Let me ask you, have you been the one teasing my treasure these past few days?"
"Treasure? Your treasure?" Hearing this, Nian still hadn't given up, reaching out her hands wanting to pick her up. "You kid, why does that picture scroll look so familiar to me?"
Xia Yu blocked her hands once again. Wow, this person had no sense of boundaries.
"Oh, I remember now," facing her stern gaze, Nian stopped slightly, but the mischievous smile on her face didn't lessen in the slightest. "Isn't this the treasured collection of my good little sister who paints?"
"Little girl, how did you get your hands on it? I begged her for a long time, but she never gave it to me. Sigh, I'm just too lacking in majesty as an older sister."
"So you hit it off with the one who does business," hearing this, Xia Yu sat down opposite her, preventing those restless little hands from reaching over again, "and went around forging her paintings to sell?"
"Eh? How did you know?" Hearing this, Nian blinked. "Did she tell you?"
"Suspicious, very suspicious," Nian rested her chin on her hand and sized up the tiny Draconic Girl across from her, revealing a thoughtful expression. "I don't remember having a sister like you. After Little Twelve came out, there shouldn't have been anyone else."
"And to be able to get her treasure from the hands of our reclusive little sister, look like this, and be so young... Furthermore, knowing about this kind of thing..."
She clapped her hands exaggeratedly. "Could it be... that Xi actually..."
"Who would have thought! With her reclusive appearance, she actually had a child behind our backs!"
Nian said with bitter heartache, "My goodness, just which audacious fellow actually did such a thing! And Xi too! This is too bold, actually getting pregnant out of wedlock!"
"She didn't even invite her older sister to a sip of the wedding wine! Outrageous, this is truly too outrageous!"
"Little niece, you've suffered all these years. You must have had a lot of hard times following that bitter face, having to come out and brave society at such a young age. Sigh, Xi really is too outrageous!" She looked at Xia Yu with a face full of heartache and reached out her hands. "Come, let Auntie Nian give you a hug. Be a good girl, don't cry."
Xia Yu expressionlessly blocked her hands.
Then, she pulled out her phone.
"I've recorded everything you just said," she stated in all seriousness. "I'll show it to her the next time we meet!"
"Great," Nian said with a grin. "I was just worrying that my reclusive sister wouldn't be willing to leave the house."
"I'll also show it to the others while I'm at it," Xia Yu added once more. "As for your farming sister, someone even entrusted me with a batch of seeds to deliver to her. I can give this to her right then, letting her see how you're spreading dirty rumors about Xi."
Nian's expression froze instantly.
Sister Shu was a very serious person. If she let her find out... Hiss!
"Your eldest brother is probably already on his way to Lungmen right now," Xia Yu continued to add. "I'll show it to him too while I'm at it."
"We can talk this over!"