Now that things were taking a turn for the worst, Alf did his best to bring everything to a peaceful resolution.
If the mercenaries or merchants that used the route to go between the north and central lands learned that the northern warlord sect were not keeping up their side of the deal and cutting off the trade routes to slate city and past there to the capital many people would be unhappy.
The main reason why the northern nobility were able to build up their influence was partly because of the cooperation between the divine ice sect and slate city and there had never been many problems besides when on occasion the tribes gathered to attack the divine ice sect because they were the wall that was blocking everyone from escaping from the north if they did not have a merchant pass or something similar.
No matter what, everything had to be held peacefully or everything would fall apart and fast.
Maybe even the ice Phoenix sect and the capital may take action and the infighting within the north would happen once again like many times in the past.
The man ignored his pleas and walked to the dogs and the sleds and was about to place his hands on the cover that hid away the many items.
All of a sudden a cold voice came from one of the sleds. "Stop."
Ki got off the sled and walked towards the man calmly. "I can pay the toll with some of my goods but they have been personally made by myself. Such goods… are unfit to be consumed by just anyone. If you wish to take them then I must have a guarantee that they will go to your higher ups where they can be properly appreciated. If your leaders like my gift and wish to do trading with us in the future for more then we can always discuss the trade later. Please pass on my words to the man up there as he seems to be the one in charge here."
The man listened for a while but his greed took ahold of himself once more. "No thanks, you just want to hide something of value from me."
Ki removed the thick gloves from her hands one at a time showing her slender and delicate hands.
She then reached to hold onto the hilt of her sword and the other hand of the sheath as if ready to draw her sword on him.
A wave of an evil and murderous aura was released from her body as if no longer held back by anything and was solely targeted upon the man, her cold voice contained her murderous intent and warning. "This is your last chance. Do not act out of line and go back to report what I have said."
As someone who had experienced many battles and violent battles he was quite sensitive to someone's murderous intent but the wave of murderous intent that was aimed at him was too heavy as if weighing him down and his back was beginning to be covered with a cold sweat. "Ri..right away."
He stood rooted to the ground for a little while to recover from the fear he experienced as if he was on the edge of the tip of Ki's blade even though she had yet to draw it.
It was like facing the battle hardened and bloodthirsty high rank members of the northern warlord sect when they aimed their intent to kill someone at them but even worse.
Even most of the elders in the sect would struggle to possess such an evil and frightening killing intent.
What they did not know was that Ki was once one of the most high ranked people within the blood sect and even overthrew their leader which was one of the most evil influences in the central lands or even the whole world just as bad or equal to the devil sect.
Many lives had been taken by her in her quest for vengeance, some were mercy killings, some were from defending herself, some were on the orders of those above, some were to gain something for herself to help boost her strength a little and finally her last kills were either acts of vengeance or just to spite those that wished to put an end to her life after she partly achieved her goals.
In her later years she learned how to restrain that urge to kill and control others to do her bidding because her body was getting worse with every year that passed by so gradually her evil killing aura was gradually restrained and hidden away as she began to master hiding her emotions and intentions from those around her that made her difficult to read.
After the rebirth while she kept this side of herself hidden from the family there may have been times when she unconsciously released her killing intent and evil aura when she was challenged or just angry.
Now she had somewhat incorporated it as a part of herself and accepted it over the years so it ended up influencing her somewhat mysterious and unapproachable vibe that she gave off when somewhat looked at her.
Hidden beneath what was seen on the surface was a very small amount of what actually existed and the moment it was unleashed onto someone they would feel intimidated no matter what kind of life they lead.
He regained his composure and then ran towards his boss at the wall breathing heavily.
He took a deep breath and spoke. "Boss. They have an additional couple of people this time, I tried to inspect the sleds for what they are transporting but I was stopped. That person was so cold and had such frightening killing intent that I had no choice but to listen to their orders or I fear I may be already dead. They said they can pay a fee or roll to pass as per the rules but their goods must only be given to the elders, the sect leader or someone else with a high enough rank within the sect because of their quality."
If Ki's goods were given out at the walls it would only serve to incite their greed further and act without orders to seize them all which may cause problems and cut off the future supply.
If the merchants stopped coming and passing through then their own supplies would be cut off and they would have to resort to plundering the central lands out of desperation once again and they could not be sure that they would come out as the victors no matter what their sects beliefs were or how brave they were.
After all the best warriors in history are not necessarily the ones that went out in the glory of battle that lived a short life but those who accumulated many achievements and knew how to bide their time and plan to be able to land a decisive blow to their enemies.
This was not good for anyone so the man let out another yawn before lazily standing up and climbed down the wall.
The walked towards Ki and asked. "Can I see your pass?"
Ki handed over the documents to his hands. "Mulberry Trading Group, we deal in many products from clothing, food, drinks, medicine and other tools. We hope to establish relations with Slate city and through them hopefully the capital. However it would not hurt to build up a relationship with the Northern warlord sect who has control of the trading route. In the future we may also be able to arrange trading livestock and other goods if there are things that can be traded of equal value."
While most of the businesses under the families name were under the Bombyx name itself the ones under Ki's name were under name Mulberry or a mulberry tree while they also had carried the insignia of the mulberry tree.
Ki wished to use her own business model to open up trade within the north and establish relations and this was a small part of it.
If she could establish friendly relations with the warlord sect who holds control of the trading route then she would be able to gain more freedom to act in the north in the future.
The man still looked a little tired as his eyes were half closed but he still listened to her and heard a hoarse and cold voice.
Looking at the body of the person he could not detect anything that gave away the opposite persons gender so when listening to the voice he expected to be able to detect anything that gave the other person away.
The other person was difficult to get a read on and find anything about whether it was their face which was hidden, their body shape or their true voice but when his eyes fell downward he noticed a pair of slender and delicate hands that were by the persons waist as if familiar with the movement.
Her hands were comfortably placed as if always ready to grab the sword from her waist and unsheathe it at a moments notice.
He took in a small breath and realised that the words spoken by his subordinate may have been true. "I will make sure that your toll goes directly to the higher ups so do not worry."
He had seen people like the person before him a couple of times in his life and most of them were hard to read but the moment they had the intent to kill the murderous intent would break forth from their body in an instant.
According to those in his memory, it was mostly found in assassins who had been trained to conceal themselves until the moment they strike.
It was like the person had wrapped themselves in a mysterious black veil to deceive his eyes from seeing what was hidden deep within them.