At this time, Xi continued:

"According to your description, Priest Du, the sword skills recorded on this Albert scroll were most likely left behind by Lord Xilan, one of the Four Sword Saints."

As soon as they heard the word "Xi Lan", everyone including Du Yuqi took a breath of cold air. Such a powerful man had left a illustrious reputation hundreds of years ago and should still be alive now. Hearing his name really gave people a feeling of being well-known.

There is no need to elaborate on Xilan's detailed life story. Du Yuqi has seen it in Baidu Encyclopedia on Earth. Simply put, this guy is to the continent of Arad as the five great masters of The East Evil, The West Poison, The South Emperor, The North Beggar and The Central God of War in The Legend of the Condor Heroes. He is extremely awesome.

Du Yuqi was undoubtedly very excited when he learned that he could obtain his swordsmanship scroll. However, he suddenly remembered something and immediately frowned and said:

"The abbreviation of Xilan should be XL, right? Why is the abbreviation left here XS?"

Xi's face rarely showed a smile. Because of the injury, her slightly pale face had a rare soft and beautiful look after she smiled.

"Um, didn't you just say that there was a typo in that line of writing, so you put a big cross on it and replaced it with the word '的', but you probably couldn't be sure that the word '的' was correct, so you put a question mark after it..."

Du Yuqi nodded and said:

"yes."

Xi said lightly:

"I think Lord Xilan must have been drunk when he wrote this scroll, so he made two mistakes. Unfortunately, he only found one mistake."

Du Yuqi and the people around him were speechless, but for some reason, they felt that what Sister Xi said made sense...

…

There is often a large river with abundant water next to any big city. This seems accidental, but is actually inevitable. In order to build a prosperous city, the daily cargo throughput is very astonishing. Water transportation is clean, labor-saving, simple, convenient and low-cost, which will always be a hundred times better than land transportation. Not to mention that the rolling water can directly wash away the large amount of garbage generated every day.

Therefore, as a large city, Shatli has abundant water resources nearby. In addition to the Volga River outside the city, there is also the Rosie River running through the north of the city.

At this time, Du Yuqi and his companions had already left the city of Xiatli and came to an area equivalent to a dock in the suburbs. Even in the dark, they could see the frozen Volga River by the starlight like a white ribbon, winding around from a distance. On both sides of the Volga River were endless fields, and the wind from the far north blew over the fields, swirling and making a mournful and desolate whimpering sound, giving people an especially desolate and lonely feeling.

Looking back at the city of Shatley, one could still see flames raging in the city and explosions could be heard from time to time, indicating that this devastated city was still in chaos. The only ones still fighting at this time should be the Imperial Army, but they had not received any assistance at this time and should be at the end of their strength.

At this time, the place where Du Yuqi and his companions were located was still quite complicated, similar to a slum. The three simple words "dirty, messy and poor" could describe the appearance of this place. It gets dark very early here, so even if Du Yuqi and his companions went around the city and arrived here, it was only around eight or nine o'clock in the evening. After fighting for so many days, there has been an obvious shortage of materials. It can be seen that under the cover of darkness, many residents have secretly gone out to barter for things.

This is the dock area, inhabited by porters, porters and other guys who mainly do physical work. They are united and tough, so a market of not too small size has formed here, with a lot of people. In this market, the most popular goods are two things: firewood for heating and food.

The necessities of life have completely become hard currency. The value of the banknotes issued by the empire has dropped dramatically, almost to the point of becoming worthless. Even the purchasing power of magic gold coins has dropped by at least half. Of course, for those who are well prepared, this is also full of business opportunities. The chaos in the city means that "windfalls" may appear frequently. Silver candlesticks and tapestries that are usually hung in the homes of nobles and wealthy people are everywhere, and they are all sold at surprisingly low prices.

Even Du Yuqi saw valuable goods being sold in a dark box. There was nothing wrong with the goods themselves, such as gold rings, pearl earrings and the like. The problem was that the gold rings were still worn on the severed fingers, and the pearl earrings were buy one get one free with a frozen ear attached...

Finally, Du Yuqi found what he wanted in this market - that was the fishmongers. He could see them selling the skewered fish directly against the wall. Because the temperature was too low, the skewered fish were frozen hard, so at first glance he looked like they were selling brooms.

Du Yuqi walked over, flicked a silver coin to the fishmonger, and then got straight to the point:

“Does Black Sturgeon have it?”

The fishmonger immediately shook his head and said:

"Sir, the habit of black sturgeons is to feed close to the river bottom, and they were fished very hard this fall, so they are very rare."

Du Yuqi sighed and said:

"So it's very difficult for me to get a fresh black sturgeon the size of a palm?"

The boss shrugged and said:

"Sir, in fact, I have only seen three fresh black sturgeons since the beginning of winter, and the largest one was only three fingers wide, so I think what you said about it being very difficult is not quite consistent with the current situation."

Du Yuqi said:

"If I really want it, do you have any good suggestions?"

The boss was stunned for a moment, then said:

"You might try praying and asking God to hear your request."

Du Yuqi smiled and said:

"Okay, let me be specific. I hope that anyone who knows how to fish around here will go and chisel ice to help me catch fish. Do you have any good suggestions?"

The boss was stunned and said:

"Sir, this is impossible unless you can bring enough firewood and food to fill up the Sowa Square. There is a shortage of these things everywhere now! Only these two things can make people take the risk of going ice fishing in the middle of the night, and you have to tell them that you will exchange all the fish you catch for firewood and food at a high price."

Du Yuqi nodded and said:

"Excellent advice. I'll be back in an hour with food and firewood."

After saying that, he turned around and left, leaving the fishmonger standing there, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

After he could no longer see the fishmonger, Mingxi said anxiously:

"There should be a shortage of firewood and food everywhere now. Where can we find so much of this stuff?"

Du Yuqi smiled:

"It's okay."

Every time he sighed:

"If it was before the unrest, it would be fine, but now that Xiatli is in chaos, it would be difficult to accomplish this. We might as well give it a try."

Du Yuqi shook his head and said:

"It's not that easy. Fishing is a technical job. Fishing by breaking ice in this kind of weather requires not only skills but also luck! Didn't you hear the fishmonger say that the catch of fresh black sturgeon was very fierce this fall, and even he didn't see many."

"Isn't this a dead end?" Mingxi also frowned, but she was obviously not a person who could only raise questions but not solve them. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she said:

"Oh, right. I saw some information last year. The power of the God of Contract has spread to a place called the Inuit Plane. There is an intelligent creature there called the Seal People. These guys can live in the ice sea. I can try to perform a restricted summoning. If I can summon such a guy and let it dive directly under the ice to catch fish, then the chances will be very high."

Having said this, she glanced at each other again:

"If the two of us summon together, then as long as the first summoning contract is reached, we can at least summon a dozen seals within a few hours without sparing any sacrifices."

Du Yuqi smiled:

"No need to bother."

There was an indescribable cruelty hidden in his smile:

“Why do I catch fresh black sturgeon?”

Mingxi hesitated for a moment and said:

"Isn't it used for blessing ceremonies?"

Du Yuqi smiled and said;

"Well, not entirely. In fact, if you think about it, in the final analysis, it is to ensure that Count Ratness is not threatened by the curse. Sometimes, there is more than one way to achieve your goal."

Having said this, Du Yuqi looked around and smiled:

"To be honest, I was surprised to see you all. I didn't expect to see so many old friends in the cold Chateli. If I couldn't think of it, then my enemies certainly couldn't think of it either."

"So, I believe that now I just need to spread the word that I am going to find people to go to the Volga River to fish by breaking ice at all costs. This will most likely reach the ears of my enemies who are plotting against me. After all, they have the upper hand now."

At this point, Du Yuqi sneered:

"In fact, although I am uncomfortable with the current situation, they are also having a hard time! After all, a holy place like the Minsk Cathedral can be said to be a perfect restraint against curses. Although it is surrounded by heavy siege, it is even more difficult for others to break in. Therefore, so far, their chances of winning are lower than mine."

“So, once they find out that I didn’t stay in the Minsk Cathedral and instead fled to the chaotic city of Shatli—which is equivalent to their home turf—then they will naturally come to trouble me! However, it can be seen that the mysterious organization’s plans are also very big. They even surrounded the Minsk Cathedral, so the strength in their hands should not be very sufficient.”

Having said this, Du Yuqi looked around, probably to see if anyone questioned his judgment, and then continued:

"In fact, to the entire mysterious organization, I am actually just an insignificant little person, and I come from another world. It can be said that I am not in their plan. Therefore, the guys who plotted against me must not have brought too many people! But they definitely did not expect that I, a guy from another world, could actually bring you guys as reinforcements!"

"It will be very simple then. I will attract firepower in the front, and you will hide in the dark, relying on the advantage of night vision goggles to wait for a good opportunity to suddenly charge out. There is only one goal, which is to focus fire on the sorcerer who can cast the blood curse. Once you succeed, retreat immediately!"

"Haha, that blood curse is so perverted, I guess not everyone can learn it, so as long as we kill him, all the problems will be solved from the root. Therefore, from the beginning to the end, my target has been on that curse master. The so-called black sturgeon is just a bait! If you put all your hopes on this thing, you are courting death!"

After hearing the plan Du Yuqi had arranged, everyone was speechless, almost unable to speak, and even had a feeling in their hearts that if they wanted to be Du Yuqi's enemy, they really had to be careful at all times, because they never knew when he would trick them. Maybe you think you have a sure win, but it turns out to be a trap that has been dug long ago waiting for you to jump into.

Next, Du Yuqi thought about it and started to make a big noise. He returned to Xiatli and randomly captured a few people for questioning. He then learned the basic situation of the vicinity. Although it can be said that most of the people here are poor, there are also many powerful people. After finding out who the most famous grain merchant is, he went straight to his residence.

Throughout the dynasties, merchants who were able to control salt, grain, and steel were all extremely powerful, without exception, because these materials were the lifeline of the national economy and people's livelihood. Salt and grain were both indispensable, and a shortage of even two or three days would cause major chaos. Steel was a very direct manifestation of a country's national strength.

Therefore, such big merchants often have great power. Salt merchants have salt guards, and grain merchants have grain protection teams. They have to escort and transport grain to various places, even on the continent of Arad.

Now, there is unrest everywhere in Xiatli, and food has become a scarce resource. Therefore, the grain merchants who have been able to survive until now and are still safe and sound must have very powerful forces under their command, and they must have a large number of ruthless private armed forces under their command.