Chapter 472 - 469: Slaughter Them First
Chapter 472: Chapter 469: Slaughter Them First
Inside the main hall, the atmosphere suddenly fell silent. All eyes focused on Feng Hao as he slowly approached.
Feng Hao noticed this, of course, but he wasn’t nervous. With light, unhurried steps, he walked to the center of the hall, bowed slightly, and asked with a smile, "Oh? Quite a crowd we have here."
"Haha... Xiaofeng, your timing is perfect. Come, take a seat," Jing Lou said with a hearty laugh, patting the seat beside him.
Feng Hao didn’t stand on ceremony. He strode forward and sat in the seat of honor next to Jing Lou. In the past, he certainly wouldn’t have been qualified to sit here, but now he was a "Thief," so his place was perfectly justified.
When the crowd saw Feng Hao take his seat, their eyes lit up with excitement, and they looked eager to begin. Only West Moon Ridge remained composed, watching Feng Hao with a faint smile.
"You must be the new Fifth Thief, Feng Hao," the representative from the Academic Alliance was the first to speak, immediately trying to ingratiate himself. "To have such strength at your age... truly an outstanding young talent."
"Indeed. Young Feng Hao is a true standout among the youth of this generation. Even our own Dugu Xiao has sung his praises," the representative from Thousand Blades Valley quickly added, making a point of mentioning Dugu Xiao.
The Ghost Realm representative didn’t miss his chance, speaking with a sincere tone, "Ahem, I’ve heard that the Wind Thief had some friction with our Hu Xun. The City Lord has already punished him with three years of wall-gazing. Please, Wind Thief, don’t take it to heart."
This left the War and Magic Alliance in a rather awkward position. Neither Cruise nor Beixing Ran seemed to have any connection to Feng Hao.
Faced with the flattery from the various factions’ representatives, Feng Hao remained unmoved, his expression as placid as ever. This greatly satisfied West Moon Ridge, who was watching from the side.
"I see your sincerity, seniors," Feng Hao said, sweeping his gaze across the crowd with a faint smile. "But let’s cut to the chase."
Seeing their flattery so directly cut through by Feng Hao, the representatives couldn’t help but feel a little awkward, but they were mostly excited. After all, the purpose of their trip was the Life Creation Pill, and this saved them from having to beat around the bush.
"I presume everyone here has come for the Life Creation Pill, and it wouldn’t be right to let you all go back empty-handed." Feng Hao said as he sized up the representatives, the corners of his mouth curling into a smile. "However, the Life Creation Pill is expensive to produce and difficult to refine, so I can’t just give them away for free."
"Haha, now that’s more like it! You can rest assured, our War and Magic Alliance is sincere. Just state your requirements."
"The same goes for our Ghost Realm. The price is negotiable."
...
Seeing how desperate the representatives were, Jing Lou couldn’t help but frown at Feng Hao. "Xiaofeng, are you really going to refine Life Creation Pills for them? That doesn’t seem right."
"There’s no need to worry, Palace Master." Feng Hao smiled faintly and sent a message via his Divine Sense, "It’s going to happen sooner or later anyway. We might as well use this opportunity to fleece them."
"True enough." Jing Lou nodded in resignation before another thought made him ask worriedly, "But these guys are all sly old foxes. Will they fall for it?"
"So what if they’re old foxes? We’re the ones holding all the cards now."
Feng Hao smirked and looked at the crowd with a grin. "It seems you’ve all come with great sincerity. In that case, let’s skip the idle chatter. The aid your factions provided during the Five States City disaster was witnessed by all, so I certainly won’t let any of you take a loss."
"But I must make one thing clear beforehand: the supply of Life Creation Pills is limited, so don’t even bring up any orders in the triple digits."
Hearing this, the faction representatives couldn’t help but frown in thought. To be honest, they had all come with vast sums of money. A few dozen Life Creation Pills might seem like a lot, but for a major faction, it was just a drop in the bucket.
Yet Feng Hao’s words sounded sincere, and he held all the cards. They had nothing to argue.
West Moon Ridge smiled silently from the side. Among all the representatives present, only she understood Feng Hao the best.
Just as the faction delegations were quietly discussing amongst themselves, Feng Hao suddenly spoke again.
"Furthermore, for a pill of the Life Creation Pill’s caliber, it’s too crass to measure its worth in Magic Crystals. I think it would be better to trade with rare materials. Materials for both Alchemy and Artifact Refining will do. Oh, and if you have any high-grade dark-attribute materials, their value can be doubled."
The major factions had no objections to this requirement. After all, for factions like theirs with a heritage spanning hundreds of millions of years, rare materials were no issue. The thing that truly made them hesitate was the order quantity.
"A maximum of ninety-nine pills... that’s really too few. What do you guys think, should we make the trade?" the Ghost Realm delegation whispered.
"We definitely have to make the trade," the elder leading them analyzed with a frown. "The key issue is that the quantity is too small."
"Don’t trouble yourself over it, Elder. Our Alchemy Department has already made ample preparations. As long as we get the pills, we can definitely crack the formula for the Life Creation Pill in a short amount of time," a Ghost Realm Alchemist beside him said, brimming with confidence.
The Ghost Realm Elder’s eyes lit up. "Are you serious?"
"Of course," the Ghost Realm Alchemist said with an arrogant sneer. "Our Wanglao City alone has numerous Ninth-level Alchemists. Reverse-engineering a single pill formula should be child’s play, wouldn’t you say?"
...
Meanwhile, after a series of their own discussions, the representatives from the other factions had all arrived at the same scheme.
In their view, as long as they obtained a few Life Creation Pills, they could decipher the formula. Once they had that, wouldn’t they be able to produce as many as they wanted?
And so, the group no longer hesitated. They began taking out large quantities of rare materials to trade, each afraid their offering would be deemed unworthy by Feng Hao.
The Holy Hall delegation, however, remained impassive, watching everything unfold with a faint smile.
On Feng Hao’s side, though his face remained calm as he watched the waves of rare materials being brought out, he was practically drooling on the inside.
The only thing that displeased Feng Hao was that for some of the top factions in the Ancient Cang Realm, they didn’t even produce a single piece of high-grade dark-attribute material. This was something he had not anticipated at all.
Logically speaking, with the deep reserves of the five great factions, they should have had some in their stockpiles, but the group had stubbornly held them back.
’Are high-grade dark-attribute materials really so rare that even the five great factions can’t produce any?’
’Oh well. This haul is already a huge profit,’ Feng Hao thought with a playful smile, gleefully gathering up the large pile of rare materials. ’When they come back next time, I estimate they’ll be willing to bring them out.’
By observing the reactions of the major factions, he had already more or less figured out their little scheme.
It wasn’t that he looked down on the Alchemists of the Ancient Cang Realm, but that their respective Alchemy Techniques belonged to completely different systems. Therefore, it was practically impossible for an Alchemist from the Ancient Cang Realm to reverse-engineer the Life Creation Pill. The only one with even a sliver of a chance might be that perennial Eighth-level Alchemist, Sun Yaowen.
Therefore, Feng Hao wasn’t worried about the Life Creation Pill’s formula being cracked. When they were tortured by it to the point of wishing for death, they would naturally come back to offer him more wealth.
"Since we have the pills, we won’t delay any further. Palace Master Jing, young brother Feng Hao, farewell!"
After receiving the Life Creation Pills, the group couldn’t wait to take their leave and report back to their superiors. Only West Moon Ridge and the people from the Holy Hall remained.
"Take care, now! You’re welcome back anytime~!"
Feng Hao saw them off with a wicked grin, already picturing the expressions they would have on their faces the next time they returned.