Chapter 725: The Enemy Crumbles from Within
The Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s Alchemy Guild’s Warm Snow Cup’s second exam site was set up in a dueling arena.
“I didn’t expect to have so many people participating in the second exam.” The dragonman youngster slightly swept his eyes around, apart from the spectators who bought tickets, there were a thousand alchemists competing.
That was a lot!
One must know that to advance to the Warm Snow Cup’s second round, iron level and bronze levels vanished, one at minimum had to be a silver level. There were also no lack of gold levels, who were currently sitting on the sidelines, almost all of them surrounded by crowds.
This was the world of the strong, alchemists and magicians were no exception.
The vast majority of alchemy proposals requested transcendent levels. If the transcendent level was too low, sometimes even test observation was impossible.
“This includes the contestants that got through the first round, there are still so many left. That there are so many left is a testament to this being a top quality alchemy kingdom on the Main Plane.”
Sitting next to the dragonman youngster was Cang Xu, who was secretly transmitting this to him.
“In terms of territory size, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is a tiny pellet compared to most kingdoms on the continents. But its alchemy strength is extraordinary, and adding on its culture of ferocity, it has always maintained a large scale army, worthy of the reputation of a great militaristic powerhouse.”
“This country’s shortcoming is poor resources. They only have one super-resource point, and many of their resource points are concentrated in ice and water elements, a severe overemphasis in these areas. They also rely on flourishing export trades to sell large amounts of excellent quality alchemy products, allowing the Ice Sculpture Kingdom to obtain an astonishing amount of foreign money. By utilizing foreign trade to support and repay their domestic activities, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom has maintained their high development costs and military spending.”
He was seldom together with the dragonman youngster, and he wouldn’t let by any chance to proactively teach the latter as much as possible to raise his cognition level and develop his international perspective.
The young man earnestly listened, actively absorbing it and itching to write it all down.
He was constantly growing and wouldn’t let off any opportunity to learn.
Through Cang Xu’s recent admonishment, the dragonman youngster noticed many of his inadequacies.
Previously, he planned against Snow Bird Harbor City Lord, Tan Mo, Cong Mang, and the others. He had captured the gold level pirate alive, then gave a large scale sermon to Da Dou, Cong Mang, Hun Tong, and the others, filling him with a sense of achievement.
However, after communicating with Cang Xu, the dragonman youngster could see clearly that these accomplishments was mere ignorance and fearlessness, he was blindly charging ahead, while the hidden dangers were enormous, it just didn’t collapse on him on the spot.
Cang Xu’s admonishment allowed him to deeply familiarize himself with what was called scholarly knowledge and wisdom.
Emulating the virtuous, the young man also longed to use a talent like Cang Xu, therefore he made up his mind, conscientiously studied, and actively got closer to Cang Xu.
Despite obtaining lots of experience from divine blessings, those experiences were focused on cultivation.
His lifetime wisdom was barely increased.
Under the Alchemy Guild’s management, the second exam calmly began.
According to the arena’s arrangement, every ten groups of alchemists would get onto the wide dueling arena and publicly do alchemy.
The dragonman youngster watched, noticing that each group had three people. There were no pairs. The second exam had a massive alchemy workload, and each group was filled to the maximum limit.
The first round finished, with only three groups left. Just the first step – refining a complete alchemy puppet, eliminated 70% of the contestants.
And of the three groups left, although they had a complete alchemy puppet, after they fought the ice sculpture guardian, each of them was defeated. The most outstanding of them only lasted three rounds.
The dragonman youngster’s brows creased, making out clues.
The refined alchemy puppets had decent battle prowess and was not too different from the ice sculpture guardian. The real disparity was intelligence.
Those hastily refined puppets looked like dementia patients. The ice sculpture guardian was quite quick witted, as if it were a normal person, and this disparity in intelligence led to a distinct contrast in performance.
The best of the next five rounds was the third round, where four groups refined a battle puppet. Among them, one group’s puppet lasted ten rounds, then suddenly, it began to fume with smoke and stopped moving, allowing the ice sculpture guardian to effortlessly take the win.
From this, it could be seen that this year’s Warm Snow Cup exam was extremely difficult.
The dragoman youngster, in the audience seating, was observing and listening in all directions, hearing the surrounding people discuss and ridicule how difficult this year’s Warm Snow Cup was.
The young man sighed, “To some degree, these people were burdened by us.”
He looked towards the judging panel seating, noticing that Hua Ni was sitting in the middle, looking very gloomy.
She was the most obvious enemy in the Alchemy Guild!
The dragonman youngster couldn’t help but recall what Cang Xu had said beforehand.
Cang Xu, “Before this, we need to save someone first.”
Zi Di: “Shi Liu?”
Cang Xu shook his head, and said the answer, “It is Jiu Jin.”
The Alchemy Guild’s Elder Jiu Jin had become the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ saboteur after Zi Di gained leverage over him.
Cang Xu’s answer was surprising.
The dragonman youngster thought of Zong Ge, Shuang Lian, and Bu Quan.
To the youngster it seemed that Jiu Jin was a valued elder, he had no safety issues, why did they need to rescue him?
But Cang Xu stated why, “At present, we know the Li Jian Clan has extraordinary monitoring capabilities. When Zong Ge was playing the role of the commander, they saw two Long Fus, and from that point of view, they unraveled Deceptive Disguise and the Anti-investigation and Prophecy spell.”
“At the time, Miss Zi Di grabbed hold of Jiu Jin’s weak point and blackmailed him, and the Li Jian knew about that. However, they didn’t have feasible evidence in hand like we do.”
“Even so, the Li Jian Clan can deal with Jiu Jin with this information already.”
Zi Di frowned, still puzzled.
She calculated this situation but felt it was no big deal. Jiu Jin’s undead aura had already dissipated, and the real evidence was in her hands. Even if the Li Jian Clan raised difficult questions, it wouldn’t endanger Elder Ju Jin’s life or affect the Wisteria Cache.
Of course, Jiu Jin would be suspected, pushed aside, suppressed, and at most, sacked from office. Zi Di planned that if this situation occurred, she could take advantage of it to recruit Elder Jiu Jin.
But Cang Xu shook his head, declaring, “We must save Jiu Jin! Or to be more accurate, we must save his current position within the Alchemy Guild.”
“Only in the Alchemy Guild, only in the capital, can Jiu Jin have much more of an impact. As an insider elder, Jiu Jin really helped us a lot. Correct?”
Zi Di nodded, without Jiu Jin leaking the exam questions to her, she would be unable to get through the first exam.
Cang Xu then said, “The Li Jian Clan might denounce him. If that happens, Elder Jiu Jin’s position and power will be in serious danger. Currently, we really need external support. We are outsiders and must take root as soon as possible and assimilate with the Ice Sculpture Kingdom. We are climbing a mountain, and Jiu Jin is one of our few leverage points. If he loses his position, then we will suffer immense losses.”
“Jiu Jin is actually an outstandingly helpful partner.”
“First, he once worked with the Wisteria Merchant Alliance and experienced receiving its financial aid. Second, we have significant blackmail on him, and if we toss it out, he is bound to lose his standing and at best he’ll be imprisoned for life, and at worst he’ll be executed for being the accomplice of an undead. Finally, he has already yielded to us. Even if he is unwilling, he already leaked questions to us and accepted that he’ll only be falling deeper and deeper.”
After pausing for a moment, Cang Xu gazed at the two, “Passing the Warm Snow Cup’s second question is that the main event. We want to pass the first round of exams to enter the next stage of the Warn Snow Cup: displaying our alchemy products.”
“In that stage, we will finally utilize War Merchant’s legacy and have a good chance of taking first place. As a reward for being first, we can receive financial aid in the construction of a magician tower. If we build a magician tower, we will have taken root in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom. Apart from sufficient combat strength, a magician tower is also a production base that will safeguard our alchemy business.”
“If the Alchemy Guild doesn’t resolve and eliminate us right now, I can’t say for sure Hua Ni will give up. The greatest possibility is that she will continue to organize more elimination questions, and if we compete according to the rules, then we will be too passive!”
Cang Xu’s views drew the young man’s and lady’s fervent nods.
Cang Xu took a deep breath, “We need to establish ourselves, to take root in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom!”
“The Ice Sculpture Kingdom and the Sheng Ming Empire are secretly setting themselves against each other, and possess natural contractions, along with intense, surreptitious contests. Although the empire is strong, it is apprehensive about the implications. Even though the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is weaker, it has a legendary foundation and is the local ruler.”
“Thes two colossuses pitting themselves against each other is bound to create upheaval, it is precisely this opportunity and place we can grasp and exploit.”
“Snake Rat Island, Two Eyes Island, those places were too small, and already under the Sheng Ming Empire’s control. Even if they weren’t islands, they don’t have enough space for us to use.”
“The Ice Sculpture Kingdom people are tough as nails and have a strong dueling ambience. We enjoy the convenience of duels, and your name, Lord Commander, is propagated nationwide, you have gained the populace’s widespread support, and if this was anywhere else, those things would be extremely difficult to accomplish in so short a time span.”
“The resources here are also relatively rich. Despite it being considered a small pellet-sized country, to us, it is big enough.”
“The Ice Sculpture Kingdom also has an adequate alchemy environment. Our alchemy products here will be enormously competitive, we’ll be able to sell then for profits that we can reinvest into ourselves, improving our strength and using the surplus to expand production, forming a positive cycle.”
As he said that, Cang Xu looked towards Zi Di, throwing a look of admiration, “Thanks to Miss Zi Di, our business plan succeeded immensely, we have abundant capital, and most crucially, we can establish ourselves and accelerate our expansion.”
In the field of business, Cang Xu really admired Zi Di’s methods. If it were him, he definitely couldn’t have achieved what she did. This was far more than outstanding, Zi Di developed the unexplored market of mount potions, and stirred up the magic medicine market in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom with a massive surge of waves. The huge profits caused a colossus like the Alchemy Guild to become threatening, and personally participated in a bet with her, it was clear Zi Di was an absolute genius at this.
“In view of Miss Zi Di’s hatred for the empire’s Seventh Prince and a good deal of nobles, we need to look for appropriate imperial higherups. But building up a network usually takes a lot of time.”
“The redemption plan still needs to continue.”
“In this time period, we need to energetically grow, strive to absorb every resource and opportunity near us, and do our utmost to expand and grow. If we can become an influential power in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, this will definitely raise our bargaining weight.”
“If the redemption plan is successful, our extraordinary quality, comprehensive battle strength, and influence can be fully displayed on stage through the Ice Sculpture Kingdom. Our value were be determined, and our bargaining chips in negotiations will grow, we’ll need to hand over fewer spoils of war and keep more of them.”
“If the redemption plan fails, we will help the Ice Sculpture Kingdom! Using them as a temporary protective umbrella that can hold back external wind and frost for the time being, delaying for crucial time. Of course, being forced into such a terrible situation is something I don’t want to end up in.”
Cang Xu fully integrated the present circumstances together, declaring the survivors’ grand strategy henceforth.
When Zi Di heard this, her eyes shined, approving at once, “Sure, we should do that.”
She looked at the Commander, “If the redemption plan succeeds, we can contact the Imperial Secret Spy Agency and deal with the Ice Sculpture Kingdom together.”
“If the redemption plan fails, we can give the Ice Sculpture Kingdom information and expose the Imperial Secret Spy Agency to display our sincerity for cooperation to them.”
The main focus was on being a flexible faction.
The dragonman youngster didn’t retort. Cang Xu’s strategy continued their redemption plan, combined it with the latest situation, considered success or failure, advancing or retreating in accordance to it, and was very reliable.
Cang Xu then said, “To take root in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, we cannot act like how we are right now. Hogging the magic medicine benefits is not desirable, forming alliances of benefits will produce many more hidden profits.”
“Of course, it is imperative we cut ties with the Li Jian Clan!”
“They were utterly defeated by Da Han on the sea; their deliberate conservation of their strength was a political blunder and caused the entire clan to stink to high heaven and be in quite the vile political environment within the kingdom currently. If we continue to work with them, they will encumber and hinder our plan of taking root.”
“Accounts haven’t been settled with the Li Jian Clan yet because of the National Ceremony Grand Duel, the imminent forming of the Dueling Godhead, and the external threat of Da Han and the empire, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is unable to pull any resources to deal with them, that’s all.”
Cang Xu raised a finger, “First we resolve the Alchemy Guild problem, then we cut ties with the Li Jian Clan.”
“By getting involved with the Alchemy Guild, we must help our agents, crumbling the enemy from within.”
“With regards to Elder Jiu Jin, we have to save him. We cannot allow him to collapse and must do everything we can to stabilize his current position.”
“The current danger is that the Li Jian Clan is likely to leak his real relationship with us. The reason why Hua Ni hasn’t acted yet might be to lull us into a false sense of security. The list of names we obtained was stolen by Jiu Jin copying the database.”
“This is perhaps the enemy’s trap.”
“Therefore, accepting anyone on the list is a hazard. For the next exam, excluding me, the third person will be quite crucial.”
“Here, I shall recommend someone…”
“Cai Jing!”