Trash?

When Scorpio arrived before the cage, he saw Chen Cheng curled into a shivering, dying ball beneath the wet leather armor. Reaching out to touch his forehead, he immediately felt the scorching heat radiating from it.

After the forest chase three days ago and the heavy rain that followed, Chen Cheng—whose physique was only slightly stronger than that of an ordinary person—naturally could not compare to warriors like them who cultivated battle aura. The jolting journey over the past three days, the rain that fell from time to time, and the lack of food had finally overwhelmed his body, leaving him with a severe cold.

Not giving Chen Cheng food was also an unwritten rule in the slave-catching trade. They feared that if these savage slaves ate their fill and regained their strength, they might escape.

As for illness, warriors like them usually possessed exceptional constitutions and rarely fell sick. Even if they did, with Mage William around, they could easily be cured by William's low-level light Exorcism Spell.

But William had now been killed by Chen Cheng, and Scorpio had no idea how many days Chen Cheng had been burning with fever. Seeing him on the verge of death, Scorpio and the others' hearts ached terribly.

After all, Scorpio had suffered grievous losses in order to capture Chen Cheng alive and intact this time. He was counting on selling Chen Cheng for a good price to recoup those losses.

"Captain, let's set off quickly. We have to take him to the nearest town. Perhaps the priest in the church there can lend us a hand."

A team member beside Scorpio urged him in a low voice. None of them wanted Chen Cheng to die of illness and leave them empty-handed.

This was not merely a matter of their immediate interests; it also concerned whether Scorpio's slave-catching team could continue to exist in the future.

Chen Cheng's firearms had caused terrible casualties in the team this time. If they could not obtain the reward they wanted, these slave-catchers would go their separate ways after this.

Seeing that things had come to this, Scorpio could only heed his subordinate's suggestion and head for the nearest town, in hopes of selling the merchandise for a better price.

Scorpio took out his treasured map. In this world, maps were rare items. They not only marked towns and villages, but also roughly indicated dangerous regions. Only certain nobles possessed them.

The map clearly marked the various towns and noble territories near Nanmu Forest. Scorpio pointed to the nearest town, called Kekebor. This town was Baron Kekebor's territory, and perhaps they could obtain help from the church priest there.

After confirming the route, Scorpio led the team onward.

The prison cart rattled and swayed onward for most of the day before the group finally arrived at Kekebor Town.

Scorpio took out a silver coin as passage money, found Baron Kekebor's patrol guards in town, and asked them to lead him to Baron Kekebor's residence.

Kekebor Town covered nearly twenty thousand mu. Its terrain was mostly mountains and forests, with fertile fields making up only a small portion. Its tax income was naturally far less than that of an ordinary noble's domain, so Baron Kekebor's manor, as the lord of the territory, was naturally not particularly grand.

After the Baron's servant announced him, the Baron summoned Scorpio.

Entering the manor, Scorpio walked down a wooden corridor to a reception room, then pushed open the door and entered.

"Honorable Baron Kekebor, Scorpio of the Scorpio Slave-Catching Team pays his respects."

Scorpio wore a respectful smile as he addressed Baron Kekebor inside the room.

A potbellied middle-aged man dressed in somewhat ill-fitting silk garments said with a beaming smile, "No need for formalities, Captain Scorpio. May I ask why Captain Scorpio has come here? I have no spare wealth to purchase your slaves, hahaha."

Seeing how easygoing Baron Kekebor was, Scorpio finally relaxed somewhat, then voiced his request.

"I truly should not trouble you, my lord, but one of my very important slaves has fallen gravely ill. I ask that you permit me to seek out the priest in town to treat him."

Outside Kekebor Town, Baron Kekebor's eldest daughter, Finier Kekebor, was walking around with her hands behind her back, patrolling the town while putting on the airs of a little grown-up.

The townspeople all adored this young lady. When she had been born, the Baron had directly exempted half their taxes for three years. Then, when she reached her first month, the Baron added another three years to that exemption.

It could be said that Baron Kekebor's tax cuts had given many of them a path to survival. In the previous years, they had not needed to bear the crushing pressure of heavy taxes, and with the money they had saved before, the burden of life had now greatly lessened.

When little Finier reached the town entrance, she saw Scorpio's slave-catching team. These fellows who killed without batting an eye in the mountains now acted like lapdogs upon seeing Fini, a descendant of nobility, wearing flattering, ingratiating smiles.

There was no helping it. Though they appeared quite strong overall, their social status was still beneath that of nobles. If they dared offend a noble, even if Kekebor could not deal with them, the viscounts and other nobles who shared Kekebor's standing would dispatch troops to exterminate them in order to uphold the honor of the nobility.

Little Fini nodded solemnly, pretending to be profound, then walked through the entire team. Afterward, her gaze fell upon the cage holding Chen Cheng.

"What's inside?"

Fini pointed at the cage as she spoke.

"Reporting to Miss, there is a very formidable savage slave imprisoned inside. But he has fallen seriously ill, so for the sake of your health, please stay a little farther away from him."

Yet Finier did not care in the slightest about this so-called illness. Instead, she became interested in this supposedly formidable slave.

Although Baron Kekebor had no habit of buying slaves, Finier had spent one semester studying at Huidun Magic Academy and had seen slaves accompanying the children of other nobles.

That made her want to see what the formidable slave these slave-catchers spoke of actually looked like. Perhaps there was even an orc inside, Finier thought.

She walked up to the cage and ordered the people beside her to lift the animal hide covering it. She wanted to see what the slave inside looked like.

Though these men were extremely reluctant, on one hand fearing that Finier would catch Chen Cheng's cold by getting too close, and on the other fearing that Finier would take a liking to Chen Cheng.

They knew very well that Baron Kekebor's current financial means absolutely could not afford Chen Cheng.

But in the end, they still lifted the hide.

The commotion outside also startled Chen Cheng within. He knew that he had caught a severe cold, and in this era lacking medicine and treatment, he might very well die of illness just like this.

When he felt the animal hide over the cage being lifted and cold wind blowing in, Chen Cheng forced open his heavy eyelids to take a look, wanting to see whether those people outside were preparing to abandon him.

But the moment he opened his eyes, he saw a clean, pure, flawless little girl like a white porcelain doll, staring at him with large, beautiful, watery eyes.

When Fini saw Chen Cheng looking into her eyes, she shyly lowered her head as well.

"You..."

Before Chen Cheng could speak, the guard saw him staring so brazenly at Fini. He immediately grabbed a wooden stick and struck Chen Cheng, cursing as he beat him.

"You lowly slave, you dare stare at a noble young lady like that? I'll beat you to death!"

The others saw that they had already arrived in town. Chen Cheng's behavior just now might bring Baron Kekebor's retaliation if he was not punished, and a priest would soon be able to treat him anyway, so they did not stop the man from beating Chen Cheng.

Besides, so many of their people had died at Chen Cheng's hands. If not for the fact that Chen Cheng could fetch a good price, they had been holding in a bellyful of rage toward him and would have long since flayed him and pulled out his tendons.

When kind-hearted little Fini saw Chen Cheng being beaten, she immediately told that fellow to stop. Just then, Scorpio approached respectfully with Baron Kekebor and a priest dressed in priestly robes.

Seeing his captain respectfully leading people over, the man was not so blind as to lack tact, so he stopped beating Chen Cheng.

At that moment, Fini ran to Kekebor's side and called him Father. Then she pointed at Chen Cheng with her little hand and said:

"Father, I like that little slave. Can you buy him and give him to me as my tenth birthday present? What do you think, Father?"

Hearing this, both Scorpio and Kekebor felt rather awkward.

Scorpio did not want to sell him cheaply, while Kekebor understood from Scorpio bringing Chen Cheng here to seek a priest's help that Chen Cheng must be very expensive.

But seeing his daughter's large, sparkling eyes, Kekebor finally compromised.

"Priest Famal, then please assess this slave's potential and value for me."

Sigh, it was rare for Fini to take a liking to something. Even if the price was a little high, I'll grit my teeth and buy it for her.

Though Scorpio wanted to refuse, he also wanted to get the money as quickly as possible. Besides, Baron Kekebor had once been a merchant, so perhaps he still had some spare wealth.

Furthermore, he was no longer certain of Chen Cheng's potential. He was beginning to doubt whether Chen Cheng was truly as formidable as he had imagined, because he had never seen a powerful slave fall ill.

Once one's strength reached a certain level, ailments such as colds could simply be warded off by a powerful physique.

So he did not step forward to stop them.

As the priest within Baron Kekebor's territory, Famal naturally had to give the Baron face.

Holding the Holy Scripture of Light, he came before Chen Cheng and chanted the special incantation for a low-level appraisal spell. As he chanted, a white ring of light descended around Chen Cheng.

But no one noticed the crystal pendant around Chen Cheng's neck flash once. Then everyone watched as the white ring passed over Chen Cheng without changing in the slightest.

The moment Scorpio saw this, he completely lost his composure, because the unchanged ring meant that Chen Cheng's potential was even worse than that of an ordinary person. He was trash among trash.