Chapter 1228
Chapter 1228 Building an Underground Power
Pow!
The person Long Chen slapped appeared to be a Confucian scholar in his thirties . He carried a folding fan in his hand and truly looked scholarly .
He was in the midst of walking down the road and admiring the scenery when Long Chen’s slap struck him across the face .
The scholar blasted into the distance, and a clear handprint appeared on his cheek . His face even deformed .
“Bastard, why would you hit me?!” roared the middle-aged scholar .
This caused quite a disturbance . Even some of the city guards came over .
Currently, Long Chen was not that far from the imperial city’s entrance . That was a restricted area, limited to the royal family . Normal people weren’t allowed to approach .
For them to cause a ruckus in front of the imperial city, the city guards were just about to scold them when they saw Long Chen’s face . They hastily shut their mouths .
Last time, Long Chen had cut off Li Wanji’s head in the imperial palace, and that had shaken all of Grand Xia City .
Within Grand Xia City, only a few people didn’t know who Long Chen was . Thus, seeing that it was him, those guards acted like they didn’t see anything .
“Did no one ever teach you it’s rude to curse at people?!” Long Chen also roared back at this person .
The scholar almost coughed up blood . “You’re the one who hit me out of nowhere!”
“I hit you so you think you can curse me? Completely unreasonable!” shouted Long Chen .
“You…!” The scholar didn’t even know how to retort to that . He had never seen anyone so unreasonable as to declare a person couldn’t curse back when someone hit them . His face was swollen like a pig’s .
“You’re a Confucian scholar, making you a disciple of Confucius, a model for etiquette, an embodiment of morality and virtue . Even if I hit you, you should have asked me why, to determine the truth of the matter rather than instantly cursing me . Understand?” sneered Long Chen .
In truth, this fellow was no Confucian scholar . His cultivation base was hidden, but he couldn’t hide his hostile aura from Long Chen’s senses .
For this person to have put on such a meticulous disguise, he was clearly here to spy on him . So Long Chen had directly slapped him to test it out .
As a result, Long Chen found that this person was a Soul Transformation expert, a person on the level of a Hall Master .
Although he had done his best to disguise himself, at that moment of life and death, he had reflexively defended .
The power of Long Chen’s slap could kill a King if they were caught off guard . But this person was only left with a handprint . His status was instantly exposed .
The scholar then roared back at Long Chen, quibbling over whether he had a right to curse him . He hadn’t even noticed that he had already revealed himself .
Long Chen was full of disdain . For such an idiot to still be alive was a miracle .
“Why did you hit me?!” demanded the scholar .
“Don’t try such useless things on me . Go back and tell your master that I’ll be busy for the next few days, and I’ll handle them when I have time! Scram!”
Long Chen once more slapped the scholar . He was still shocked over how he had been recognized when he was struck, and as a result, he was once more sent flying .
This slap was even more vicious, and the scholar shot out like a shooting star, crashing into a wall . That wall let out a light barrier, causing him to rebound .
The scholar vomited a mouthful of blood . Within it were also dozens of teeth .
Just at this moment, the scholar’s aura was fully released . Everyone was shocked to find that he was actually a Soul Transformation expert .
He had no choice but to unleash his aura, as that slap from Long Chen had almost killed him . If he continued to hide his cultivation base, he’d be killed .
He rapidly retreated, on guard for Long Chen’s next attack . A bright sword appeared in his hand, and Sword Qi wrapped around him .
His expression was solemn . This was his first time encountering such a powerful slap . He was preparing himself for a mighty battle when he suddenly realized Long Chen’s figure had vanished .
“There’s no need to look . He already left . You should hurry up and scram . Your little cultivation base isn’t worth a second glance in my Grand Xia,” said one of the city guards disdainfully . Thinking about it for a moment, he couldn’t help but add, “Soul Transformation experts as weak as you are truly rare . It’s my first time seeing such a thing . Can I ask, how did you possibly survive to this point through the cultivation world’s struggles?”
The scholar’s expression sank . He left without a word . With his status exposed, he had no choice but to leave .
Long Chen didn’t kill him, because he wasn’t even worth it . He was just a spy, with an ordinary cultivation base and weak combat power . He was clearly just an errand boy, and killing him had no meaning .
Most likely, such a person would only be able to suck up to others for the rest of their life . Their true power was pitifully weak, and Long Chen couldn’t be bothered to kill him .
Long Chen simply wanted to use him to pass on the word to the Pill Tower . It was unlikely he came from the ancient races, because the ancient races disdained to work together with other sects . Only those people who wanted to suck up to the Pill Tower would act as errand boys .
Long Chen was warning the Pill Tower . They wouldn’t dare to enter Grand Xia City because the Wine God Palace was there . When the Wine God Palace had expelled Pill Valley’s experts back then, they had said that Pill Valley’s subordinates were not permitted to set foot within the Grand Xia .
The Wine God Palace was a mysterious existence . No one knew their true power . But Pill Valley truly hadn’t dared to start any conflicts with them in the past few years .
So within Grand Xia City, Long Chen was definitely safe . As for why he was warning the Pill Tower, he was intentionally infuriating them to make this matter even bigger .
Long Chen continued forward . Suddenly, he felt someone pull on him . He was startled and he followed him into a winehouse .
“Seventh Elder, what is it?” whispered Long Chen after they found a table to sit at and ordered a few wines and refreshments .
“I heard you’re in trouble? Do you need my help?” asked the Seventh Elder .
The current Seventh Elder looked like a traveling wanderer . His face had been transformed . But Long Chen instantly recognized him through the specific aura of the original devil race .
“I’m fine . It’s just some insignificant trouble I can handle . Seventh Elder, let me offer you a cup!” Long Chen poured out two cups of wine and offered one to him .
The Seventh Elder smiled and drank the cup . But his expression quickly changed . “What fine wine!”
Of course it was fine wine . This was the wine made by the Wine God Palace’s disciples . The Seventh Elder had never drunk such wine before .
“I’ll give you a few jars . How is the development on your side?” asked Long Chen as he poured more wine for the Seventh Elder .
“Everything’s going smoothly . But the more we grow, the more we find that we don’t have enough money . Many of my Skyscraping World’s resources cannot be taken out and sold openly . We can only grow slowly,” said the Seventh Elder .
The original devil race had been gathering all kinds of resources . But as they expanded, their wealth was unable to keep up .
After all, developing a business required capital . That took time to accumulate, but they were all in a race against time . Time was pressing . The Martial Heaven Continent had countless resources, but the original devil race could only gain through their regular channels, as they didn’t have special connections . Hence, their progress was slow .
Furthermore, the original devil race had to be extremely careful . Any clue might expose them, and then it would be extremely troublesome .
“A horse only gets fat by eating at night, and only a person that adapts and goes beyond conventional means gets rich . As I see it, you should see if you can form a connection with the ancient races . One reason is that they have plenty of money and a huge amount of resources . And the other reason is that I have a ‘good’ relationship with them . In the future, I’ll be able to ‘cooperate’ with them many times . I’ll plunder them, and you sell the things back to them . Use their own money to make money,” said Long Chen .
“Do… do you really think that’s a good idea?” The Seventh Elder was shocked . Long Chen truly had guts . After taking what was theirs, he wanted to sell it back to them? That was too evil, as well as too dangerous . It would raise suspicions .
“Hehe, Seventh Elder, have you not heard of money laundering?” Long Chen smiled .
“What are you talking about?”
“Hehe, it’s something that can’t see the light of day . After reselling something several times, it’ll become true gold . To put it more simply, first, you have to shock the ancient races with your power, making them feel like you aren’t easy to provoke . You will buy a few treasures of the ancient races from a mysterious underground organization, and then you will sell them to the ancient races . They will definitely have suspicions, but that’s fine . The cultivation world has many black markets . Some people will obtain objects from the Corrupt path even from the Righteous path’s hands, and then they’ll stealthily sell those things to the Corrupt path . This is a common occurrence .
“The ancient races’ items are also sold on the black market, but for their face, the ancient races will always disguise themselves as another power when they buy them . That’s why you need to form another underground power, so you will be able to work on this from two angles . Furthermore, that underground organization must be vicious . It would be best to immediately snatch some of the property of some other underground powers to intimidate them . It’ll be difficult at the beginning, but if it succeeds, the profits will increase by tens of times . Only by making money from both the open market and the black market is it possible to quickly accumulate wealth,” said Long Chen .
Right now, this was the only way to accumulate wealth quickly . Long Chen’s target was the ancient races, because he had quite a few things from the ancient races in his hands . Those three spatial rings from the three ancient race geniuses were filled with treasures .
But those things were mostly only useful to the ancient races . Furthermore, many of them were marked, and selling them openly would be a slap in the ancient races’ face . In this case, any open sellers would be hunted down .
But it was also true that these were things that ancient races needed . They knew the black market had sellers of these things, so they always had people stealthily buying them in the black market . Things sold on the black market were all normally at least thirty percent cheaper than at the open market .
“Alright, since you think this is possible, I’ll go gather a few experts and establish an underground power . ” The Seventh Elder wasn’t able to resist this enticement in the end .
“Don’t worry, Seventh Elder . As long as this is done properly, it’ll definitely make a killing . After all, the things you’re selling came to you for free . ” Long Chen handed over three spatial rings .