Chapter 145: Exchange

“What? You’re sending me to the Ferocious Race’s territory? Why?” Night Demon yelled in outraged as she shot daggers with her wide eyes.

Shi Minfeng laughed. “Su 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 hasn’t left the Iron and Blood Country yet, their circumstances have drastically changed. Those Ferocious Race individuals are losing control of the situation.”

“So how does this concern me?”

“The 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?”

Night Demon shook her head dumbly.

Shi Mingfeng shook his head in exasperation. “Money! Lots of money! Origin Stones, spirit medicines, and all kinds of resources!”

“What does that have to do with the Heavenly Might Battalion?” Night Demon still didn’t understand.

Shi Mingfeng could only explain things as plainly as possible. “The Ferocious Race’s 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 can’t 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 — if we send them some food, spirit herbs, and pieces of scrap metal, we can get our hands on a few Origin Crystals!”

Night Demon finally understood. “Oh, those things are really cheap! Why don’t we just go buy those things then?”

“Buy them my ass!” Shi Mingfeng smacked Night Demon on the back of the head. “Do you know what we’ve been doing these past few years? We’ve been participating precisely in this kind of business!”

Night Demon rolled her eyes. “If we’re already doing it, then why are you still talking about it?”

“Dummy. We were doing it with the Resurrection Door before, but the profits were split evenly and the quantity was quite low…… 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 doesn’t.”

Night Demon scratched her forehead, as if she was carefully thinking over the matter. “So you’re saying that we should do business with the Heavenly Might Battalion?”

“Finally, you understand.” Shi Mingfeng let out a long sigh. “The Heavenly Might Army won’t be afraid of the Ferocious Race, so we don’t 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 difficult…… Even the Ferocious Race themselves don’t have enough food to feed everyone, so how could there be enough to feed anyone else? However, spirit herbs definitely grow there like wildflowers. We’ll just go and do business with them ourselves, right?”

Night Demon pouted. ”Hmph, the path has already been blocaded already. How can we do business?”

She finally seemed to become smarter.

Shi Mingfeng chuckled. “That’s why I called you silly. Think about it — how was Su Chen able to support the Heavenly Might Battalion?”

Night Demon was stunned. “It can’t be that he was the one who brought them all those rations single-handedly, right?”

“Why not?” Shi Mingfeng countered. “A plan that is impossible for most people to execute isn’t really too much for him.”

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 — 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.”

“But where am I going to get that many Origin Rings?”

Shi Mingfeng said, “Of course we won’t 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 can’t we easily find some from other countries? As long as we’re 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.”

“Then how will I get in? Su Chen can shapeshift and sneak in, but that doesn’t mean that I can.”

“You don’t need to worry about it. The people from the Resurrection Door will help us.”

“Weren’t we planning on skipping over them and doing business with Su Chen and the others directly? But they’re still doing business with us?” Night Demon asked with some surprise.

“It’s not the entire Resurrection Door, just a few specific people,” Shi Mingfeng replied.

The excuse that Astin had given Shi Mingfeng was that even though the Resurrection Door couldn’t do business with the Heavenly Might Battalion as that would be standing in brazen opposition to the Ferocious Race, he didn’t 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 didn’t 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 didn’t know Su Chen’s 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 — he was probably right below the commander of the battalion.

Funnily enough, they didn’t know that even the commander of the battalion himself was working under Su Chen — 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.

“So you want me to get in touch with Su Chen and discuss business with him?” Night Demon asked.

“Yes, that’s the plan. But you won’t be going alone; He Xu and I will also go.”

Night Demon was surprised. “He Xu can shapeshift, so I understand why he’s going. But why are you going?”

Shi Mingfeng harrumphed, “Of course it’s to protect a brat like you. Do you really think that the Ferocious Race’s territory is that easy to get in, and that with the Resurrection Door’s protection, you can do as you please without any worries? Also, don’t say anything about He Xu’s existence. Outwardly, it’ll seem like only you and I are there.”

Night Demon didn’t 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 Chen’s current relationship with Night Demon, if something bad were to happen to her, then Su Chen definitely wouldn’t 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 Xu’s job wasn’t to disguise himself as someone else, but rather to hide in the shadows and to take Night Demon’s place at a critical moment.

‘I sure hope that we never have to use this backup plan if at all possible,’ Shi Mingfeng thought to himself.