âWhat? Youâre sending me to the Ferocious Raceâs territory? Why?â Night Demon yelled in outraged as she shot daggers with her wide eyes.
Shi Minfeng laughed. âSu Chen is currently in the Iron and Blood Country and just found the Heavenly Might Battalion, and is in the process of dragging them out of the mud. Right now, even though the Heavenly Might Battalion hasnât left the Iron and Blood Country yet, their circumstances have drastically changed. Those Ferocious Race individuals are losing control of the situation.â
âSo how does this concern me?â
âThe borders between the Ferocious Race and the human race are still locked down, and even though the Heavenly Might Battalion is still alive, it is still difficult a feat for them to leave. As such, they will probably be engaged in a long-term battle. Do you know what this means?â
Night Demon shook her head dumbly.
Shi Mingfeng shook his head in exasperation. âMoney! Lots of money! Origin Stones, spirit medicines, and all kinds of resources!â
âWhat does that have to do with the Heavenly Might Battalion?â Night Demon still didnât understand.
Shi Mingfeng could only explain things as plainly as possible. âThe Ferocious Raceâs territory is lacking in resources, rations, ore, and many other things. However, they are located far to the north, which has some special medicines that canât be found anywhere else. The western regions, on the other hand, mostly belong to the Spirit Race and the Beast Race, and they also have their own special products. Because the Ferocious Race is always lacking in resources and are barely surviving by aggressively hunting beasts, so there are definitely a lot of Origin Crystals there as well. Let me put it this way â if we send them some food, spirit herbs, and pieces of scrap metal, we can get our hands on a few Origin Crystals!â
Night Demon finally understood. âOh, those things are really cheap! Why donât we just go buy those things then?â
âBuy them my ass!â Shi Mingfeng smacked Night Demon on the back of the head. âDo you know what weâve been doing these past few years? Weâve been participating precisely in this kind of business!â
Night Demon rolled her eyes. âIf weâre already doing it, then why are you still talking about it?â
âDummy. We were doing it with the Resurrection Door before, but the profits were split evenly and the quantity was quite lowâŠâŠ The Resurrection Door cannot do it for free, as they must take a cut of the profits. Now, however, the situation is different; the Resurrection Door fears the Ferocious Race, while the Heavenly Might Battalion doesnât.â
Night Demon scratched her forehead, as if she was carefully thinking over the matter. âSo youâre saying that we should do business with the Heavenly Might Battalion?â
âFinally, you understand.â Shi Mingfeng let out a long sigh. âThe Heavenly Might Army wonât be afraid of the Ferocious Race, so we donât need to consider them either. They need rations, while we need spirit herbs and Origin Crystals. They are in the Iron and Blood Country, so harvesting food must be very difficultâŠâŠ Even the Ferocious Race themselves donât have enough food to feed everyone, so how could there be enough to feed anyone else? However, spirit herbs definitely grow there like wildflowers. Weâll just go and do business with them ourselves, right?â
Night Demon pouted. âHmph, the path has already been blocaded already. How can we do business?â
She finally seemed to become smarter.
Shi Mingfeng chuckled. âThatâs why I called you silly. Think about it â how was Su Chen able to support the Heavenly Might Battalion?â
Night Demon was stunned. âIt canât be that he was the one who brought them all those rations single-handedly, right?â
âWhy not?â Shi Mingfeng countered. âA plan that is impossible for most people to execute isnât really too much for him.â
No one was clearer than him about how rich Su Chen was. If there was a single person who could bring a large pile of Origin Rings that purely stored a ton of rations inside, and as a side-effect cause the prices of rations, Origin Rings, and other living essentials to surge back at home, it could only be Su Chen.
Shi Mingfeng had only realized this because of the changes in the market â this guy had bought all the for-sale Origin Rings within a short period of time, causing the price of Origin Rings to skyrocket. These spatial-type Origin Tools, which were already quite pricey, had suddenly became rare commodities.â
âBut where am I going to get that many Origin Rings?â
Shi Mingfeng said, âOf course we wonât be able to find that many Origin Rings from outside, but we can source them internally. Long Sang Country might not have any more, but canât we easily find some from other countries? As long as weâre willing to think, there will always be ways to procureOrigin Rings. Unfortunately, this probably means that the price of Origin Rings is only going to continue rising.â
âThen how will I get in? Su Chen can shapeshift and sneak in, but that doesnât mean that I can.â
âYou donât need to worry about it. The people from the Resurrection Door will help us.â
âWerenât we planning on skipping over them and doing business with Su Chen and the others directly? But theyâre still doing business with us?â Night Demon asked with some surprise.
âItâs not the entire Resurrection Door, just a few specific people,â Shi Mingfeng replied.
The excuse that Astin had given Shi Mingfeng was that even though the Resurrection Door couldnât do business with the Heavenly Might Battalion as that would be standing in brazen opposition to the Ferocious Race, he didnât want to let go of this opportunity, so he had secretly gotten in touch with the Immortal Temple so that they could carry out this business deal.
That was a pretty good excuse. In this world, noone would call you a hero if you didnât have any intentions of lining your own pockets at the price of sacrificing some public good.
Neither Shi Mingfeng nor anyone else would have found this excuse strange.
Since they were going to meet up with the Heavenly Might Battalion, then they obviously needed to send someone reputable. The Immortal Temple was a group that was publicly considered to be a terrorist organization, so how would they be able to converse with the Heavenly Might Battalion? They needed to go through Su Chen.
Even though he didnât know Su Chenâs exact position, based on his personality and the supplies he had brought, it was quite easy to guess what status Su Chen had amongst the Heavenly Might Battalion â he was probably right below the commander of the battalion.
Funnily enough, they didnât know that even the commander of the battalion himself was working under Su Chen â there were only a few people who could create Soul Armaments, so why not put Li Chongshan to work?
Since the battalion had to rely on Su Chen, Shi Mingfeng, Night Demon, and the others became useful.
This was also why Shi Mingfeng had gone to find Night Demon. No one else was quite as effective at speaking to Su Chen as she was.
Currying favor with Night Demon was the same as currying favor with Su Chen. This might not be the way the entire Immortal Temple saw the situation, but at the very least least, Shi Mingfeng and the people under him agreed on this. As such, this girl had been treated extremely well in recent times.
âSo you want me to get in touch with Su Chen and discuss business with him?â Night Demon asked.
âYes, thatâs the plan. But you wonât be going alone; He Xu and I will also go.â
Night Demon was surprised. âHe Xu can shapeshift, so I understand why heâs going. But why are you going?â
Shi Mingfeng harrumphed, âOf course itâs to protect a brat like you. Do you really think that the Ferocious Raceâs territory is that easy to get in, and that with the Resurrection Doorâs protection, you can do as you please without any worries? Also, donât say anything about He Xuâs existence. Outwardly, itâll seem like only you and I are there.â
Night Demon didnât understand that both He Xu and Shi Mingfeng were coming along to protect her.
Shi Mingfeng was openly protecting her while He Xu was supporting from the shadows.
This was all because of Su Chen.
No matter what, Night Demon could not be lost. Given Su Chenâs current relationship with Night Demon, if something bad were to happen to her, then Su Chen definitely wouldnât give the Immortal Temple an easy way out.
Under these kinds of circumstances, Shi Mingfeng had wisely chosen to also secretly bring He Xu along. However, He Xuâs job wasnât to disguise himself as someone else, but rather to hide in the shadows and to take Night Demonâs place at a critical moment.
âI sure hope that we never have to use this backup plan if at all possible,â Shi Mingfeng thought to himself.