Legend of the chosen ones: Beyond Destiny

Chapter 1507 767: Good Advice Is Hard to Heed, Compassion Cannot Save All

In just a few short days, the fervent frenzy had swept through the Seven Cities.

The cruel and brutal Endless Sea seemed to have transformed into a luxurious all-you-can-eat buffet; in this feast mixed with the stench of the sea and bloody water, everyone was gorging themselves, their eyes gleaming.

Just like the Federation's past Kunwu gold rush.

Go! Go! Go!

Do you want money? Do you want a future? Do you want to live a life of extravagant luxury?

Then go!

To the sea!

The sea has everything!

Not only the knife-sharpening Chosen Ones, but many ordinary people, their eyes red from the lure of profits, gritted their teeth and plunged into the hunt, racing against each other, eager and impatient. So much so that every vacancy on the boats became hotly-contested, requiring payments and bribes to secure.

Every day, colossal beasts were brought back to the docks in pieces, prompting waves of cheers and shouts.

As for the bones buried beneath the beasts, the bloody water merged with the sea, the tenfold sacrifice after each harvest—all were covered by the rewards more than a hundred times over, and no one cared.

Some even defied the bans, launching their own rickety fishing boats, rushing into the sea under the cover of night...

No one cared how many people made it back.

Ji Jue looked expressionlessly at the bounties offered by various cities, unable to help but let out a cold laugh.

The bones, flesh, and tissues of Disaster Beasts, priced by the gram—even a single scale could surpass a month's labor from past years, and if lucky enough to find an unknown species, overnight wealth was within reach!

But how could the true value of these things be so little?

How could the real price be so meager?

Compared to the prices set in the Taiyi Ring, the bounties from each city shrunk by more than tenfold, and they even demanded large tax payments, long billing cycles, local currency acceptance, all while bearing risks alone.

The rates announced by the cities now, those seemingly generous bounties, were nothing more than the scraps regurgitated by the overstuffed upper class, which were further subjected to layer upon layer of exploitation and deduction. So how much actually ended up in their hands?

In all the propaganda, tales of overnight riches were common, but rarely mentioned were the many ruined ships and lost lives, casually dismissed as self-assumed risk.

With trivial advantages, they urged the lowly masses to risk their lives, collecting wealth for them...

Disaster Beast remains?

Remains that are so easy to come by!

Even carrion-eating hyenas have to wait for lions to finish before showing up. Why would the giant beasts care about the life or death of insignificant insects?

Moreover, even a dead Disaster Beast posed dangers aplenty for ordinary people.

The pollution on wounds, the hidden dangers carried, the toxic flesh and cursed resentment, even the mutant parasites inside, were enough to easily take a person's life, be they unarmed or fully equipped.

Now, almost all of the Thousand Islands in the Endless Sea were caught up in this extremely perilous hunt.

Yet places like the Seven Cities, where there's no bottom line and human lives are not valued, were rare.

The main forces elsewhere were from Desert Markets, a new generation of Chosen Ones born under the many influences of the White Deer.

Desert Markets did it because they truly needed that much prey to offer to the White Deer!

But the mad rush in the Seven Cities now was simply because they couldn't survive...

First, there were blockades due to harmful winds, then earthquakes struck, sea locusts ravaged, disaster after disaster came relentlessly, easily pushing the already struggling poor to the edge of the cliff.

To make money, to stand out, to climb the social ladder, or just to earn a bag of skyrocketing rice or medicine, their eyes were filled with desperation, willing to pay any price.

After all, there was already no way out.

Aside from this life, what else is there?

When people are crazy poor, starved, and terrified of suffering, to escape the predicament, there's nothing they wouldn't do.

Moreover, such lucrative returns lie ahead.

But the problem lies right here...

"They're going to die if they can't survive, they're going mad from poverty, and if they don't earn money, they'll starve to death, so they're going to the sea to find a way to survive. What's it got to do with you?"

At this moment, in the administrative center on Luo Island, in the office.

Ji Jue looked at the dense row of 'petitioners' standing behind the desk, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

After a while, he opened his eyes and asked solemnly, "Is it that the salary I give is insufficient for living?"

Immediately, everyone in the office shook their heads in unison.

Ji Jue asked again, "Is the food and medicine on the coast too expensive?"

In the silence, everyone shook their heads once more.

Ji Jue finally asked, "Is the coast's benefits too poor, with low wages and insufficient welfare, leaving you hopeless?"

The same silence, the same nods, the same shaking of heads.

So, Ji Jue laughed in anger.

"Then you came to tell me now—what does it mean to hope Luo Island opens bounties and lifts the maritime ban?"

He asked curiously, "Do you think you can't live a good life, are you tired of living?"

In the awkward silence, the petitioners exchanged glances, until a cough broke the silence, and the leading advocate stepped forward, bowed his head, and said, "It's just that, the market is so good, after all, everyone is accustomed to living on the ships, thinking, why not also..."

"Why not also go to die?" Ji Jue indifferently countered.