Chapter 614: Recruiting the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps
In the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, the Alchemy Guild has always been a hegemon in the alchemy marketplace, holding a large market share in sectors like potions, alchemy equipment, alchemy goods, alchemy munitions, and other products.
Zi Di used her outstanding business acumen to dig out an as yet uncontested sector in the potion market and with the help of Long Fu’s nationwide momentum to sell a lot of dragon rider potions. The potion business was very prosperous, and its influence extended through the entire kingdom, and it caused a commotion within the industry and its profits even provoked envy.
The Alchemy Guild hadn’t intervened, but not because they didn’t notice the survivors’ activity.
They were in charge of the final constructions of the ice lake formation, and it involved most of the guild’s manpower and resources, but not to the point where they didn’t have any labor to spare.
The real reason was that there was a lot of them.
The more people there were, the more opinions they had. The larger group, the more chaotic they were, and it would be hard to coordinate the interests of all parties involved.
If an organization was likened to a ship, it was always easier to turn a small ship.
The dragon rider potion’s lively sales made it known to all alchemists that it contained enormous benefits.
But who would act?
The Alchemy Guild had many capable people, and so long as one of them acted, they could challenge and trouble the survivors.
But these able people could not freely act as they wished.
Because the Alchemy Guild had both public and many more unspoken rules.
These rules bloated the organization, but at the same time, their existence guaranteed the organization’s internal friction would be lower.
According to these rules, the first choice was Hua Ni.
Hua Ni had many contributions in the potion sphere and was a great master and also head of the potion division in the Alchemy Guild. She was also responsible for dealing with the kingdom’s potion market.
If she didn’t act, then others would find it hard to justify their actions, even the president was like that.
In fact, this generation’s Alchemy Guild president was quite weak.
Jiu Jin was pleasantly surprised to be suddenly entrusted with this task.
He was happy because the mount potion market had immense benefits. If he could execute this mission, his gains would be many, and it was astonishing that it wasn’t the Great Master Hua Ni who decided to take on this task.
But in an instant, Jiu Jin understood, and on the spot, he stated to Hua Ni that he wouldn’t dare exceed things, and everything would be under Great Master Hua Ni’s purview.
This attitude pleased Hua Ni, and she replied, “Elder Jiu Jin, you don’t need to be mentally burdened by this. This is my request. I want to join the Warm Snow Cup Grand Contest.”
Jiu Jin was surprised, “Great master, you also want to join the Warm Snow Cup?”
Hua Ni already had success and recognition, and to Jiu Jin it seemed she didn’t need to take this risk.
The guild president explained, “This Warm Snow Cup is unusual, during the National Ceremony, other powers might send people in to strut about. Therefore, the guild has dispatched a powerful person to keep watch.”
Jiu Jin revealed a sudden clarity, “So that’s how it is.”
At the same time, he also realized that the other Alchemy Guild bigwigs who convinced Hua Ni to give up the mount potion contest must have had a hard time doing so and had to give up many benefits during it.
“Because of my low alchemy strength, I was chosen to tidy up the domestic market.”
Jiu Jin promptly expressed that since he was being entrusted with this task, he would live up to that trust!
The president coughed, “You must be attentive, your opponent this time is the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps. These people have a special background; they might be foreign arms merchants. Their branch in Snow Bird Harbor has been attacked, and because of Bu Quan, Shuang Lian was involved and has been unaccounted for since that day.”
“Therefore, you have another task too, that is to look for the whereabouts of Elder Shuang Lian from the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.”
Jiu Jin was just about to accept the order when Hua Ni interjected, “This mission is secondary, your main energy should be focused on rectifying the market.”
Jiu Jin suddenly hesitated.
He was sandwiched between the Alchemy Guild president and Great Master Hua Ni.
Hua Ni looked at the president, “Shuang Lian’s life ice sculpture hasn’t shattered yet, that proves she is still alive.”
“Previously, when we dispatched outstanding investigators, they found traces of spatial fluctuations. It is very clear she and her magician tower suffered a spatial banishment spell.”
“With the Honey Snow Tower protecting her, it is unnecessary to worry about her.”
“It is better to just wait patiently, and when she sends a distress call, we can deploy a space teleportation formation and usher her return directly. Doing this saves both time and effort!”
The Alchemy Guild president’s face sank.
Great Master Hua Ni and Magician Shuang Lian had conflicting views and were opposing factions within the guild.
Hua Ni sounded pompous, it was clear she wanted to push aside Shuang Lian so she would continue to wander about and wouldn’t have enough time to participate in the Warm Snow Cup.
If Hua Ni had success in the Warm Snow Cup, she could undoubtedly get more honor and benefits. By the time the National Ceremony finished, even if Magician Shuang Lian returned, because of her contributions, Great Master Hua Ni would be above them.
This was Hua Ni’s plan, and it was not what the Alchemy Guild president wanted to see.
On the one hand, as a weak head, he needed to keep the internal factions in balance.
On the other hand, he was worried that during this National Ceremony, all sorts of powers would dispatch experts to suppress the Ice Sculpture Kingdom during the Warm Snow Cup. If that happened, the royal family and every great noble would look into it, and as president, he would definitely be in trouble!
Therefore, from his point of view, he naturally hoped Magician Shuang Lian would return on time.
But at this time, Hua Ni gazed into his eyes, “Lord President, did you know? Magician Shuang Lian already knows the Ice Breaker spell.”
“With such magic, how is she afraid of getting caught in a spatial trap?”
The Alchemy Guild president and Jiu Jin both flashed with alarm.
The president was somewhat incredulous, “Wasn’t the Ice Breaker spell’s research stuck in a bottleneck? The designed magic model was massive, it didn’t seem possible for one magician to cast by themselves, it required too much spirit power, and its magic power expenditure hadn’t been optimized either.”
Jiu Jin also threw Hua Ni a look of deep concern.
Although the Alchemy Guild mainly focused on alchemy, and was not a magic guild, magic and alchemy were intrinsically connected with each other.
Jiu Jin knew about the Ice Breaker spell.
This spell’s research began several hundred years ago. It began with some Alchemy Guild elder using a Great Pyrolysis spell during some alchemy experiment. Although the experiment failed, he still gained inspiration and direction from it.
Based that direction, he took the Great Pyrolysis spell as the foundation of his research, with his goal being to research an ice type Great Pyrolysis spell.
The Great Pyrolysis spell was always a high end spell and was powerful to such a terrifying degree that it could even disintegrate divine artifacts!
The Ice Breaker spell was roughly an ice type Great Pyrolysis spell.
A magician who could wield this magic would see their fighting strength soar enormously. Not just that, the results of this magic design was certain to cause a sensation throughout the nation’s realms of magic, and even the entire Main Plain. It would also cause all powers and countless experts to raise their eyebrows at this astonishing achievement.
Hua Ni looked at the two and smiled, “What are you thinking about? Shuang Ni’s advantage lies with her resources; it would be impossible to cast the Ice Breaker spell by herself.”
“She indeed improved upon the initial research, but she geared it towards her magician tower.”
“Now, her magician tower has loaded in the Ice Breaker spell’s magic model and has no problem using it.”
Hua Ni was worthy of being Shuang Lian’s long time rival, she had a greater understanding of the situation than Jiu Jin, and even the president.
“So that’s how it is.” Jiu Jin coughed.
This kind of improvement was quite ordinary.
A single magician still couldn’t use Ice Breaker, but a magician tower had a greater magic power reservoir and also a tower spirit to assist, making it easier.
How many magicians could have their own tower?
Therefore, even if Shuang Lian had improved it somewhat, it was only minutely, and it was not enough to shock others with its development.
The president’s finger tapped the table, his expression somewhat indeterminate.
Shuang Lian’s magician tower was equipped with the Ice Breaker spell, this was something that both made him apprehensive and annoyed.
“I was actually completely ignorant to such significant information!”
“Magician Shuang Lian has hidden herself so deeply. I vainly wanted to help her wholeheartedly to balance out the factions.”
“The truth is that you were already the most forefront of the factions. It’s no wonder that when you went missing, the other factions were all similarly indifferent.”
When he thought that, the president’s mind had changed.
He looked at Jiu Jin, “Magician Shuang Lian is worthy of being my guild’s elder, her astonishing strength worries me too much.”
“Elder Jiu Jin, your objective this time is to wrest away market share in the mount potion sector.”
Jiu Jin promptly expressed his understanding and that he would make an all-out effort.
Hua Ni had another command.
She asked, “What do you plan to do?”
Jiu Jin replied at once, “Be at ease, Great Master Hua Ni, our force is substantial and is the kingdom’s sole hegemon.”
“Now that I have the Lord President’s and your appointment, I can immediately mobilize personnel and change some alchemy factory merchandise lines, then dump the goods nationwide.”
“How many alchemy facilities does the Li Jian Clan have? How many master alchemists? How can they compare to us?”
Jiu Jin was of the opinion that their side had a massive advantage in this war and had no chance of losing.
But Hua Ni’s face sank, “Idiot, why do you only consider using power to suppress people?”
“First try to recruit them.”
“I’ve researched the dragon rider potion. Its design is very ingenious and also very original.”
“Recruit the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, they might not just have a single magic potion recipe.”
Jiu Jin exposed confusion and admiration, “I understand, Great Master Hua Ni.”
“My horizons are too small.”
“Your plan is better! By recruiting them, not only will the mount potion market be ours, but their talents will also be ours too!”
“But at what price should we open this recruitment?”
Hua Ni coldly snorted, “Regarding such minor details, do you need me to tell you? You are responsible for this, not me.”
“Understood, understood.” Jiu Jin nodded his head and bowed, while in actuality, he was grumbling to himself.
Hadn’t he considered recruiting them?
Of course he did.
But recruitment came at a price, a difficult task.
It was easy to make mistakes.
But using overwhelming power to suppress people was never the wrong choice to win.
There is nothing that could be done.
Hua Ni’s opinion had been explicitly stated, and the president had no objections, so Elder Jiu Jin could only obey it.