Chapter 698

Chapter 698: Sowing Discord

Fangzhang Continent, Tianya Mountain Base

Chen Jinfa was chatting with a few team members when their leader walked in angrily. The group immediately approached and asked.

"That darn platform! They raised the prices of the Dan treasures five times! Curse it! A Five Elements Golden Fruit Pill was sold for five million spirit stones! It’s insane."

"How much?"

"Five million, or spirit stone?"

"Wow."

Chen Jinfa and the others were instantly dumbfounded. Cultivators are wealthy people. If it was five million Huaxia coins, they could easily afford it. But five million spirit stones, tying them all together wouldn’t be worth that much money.

"Boss, what is the official trying to do with five million spirit stones? Isn’t this just sealing the ball? Who can afford that?"

"Yeah, Boss, wasn’t it just a few hundred thousand spirit stones before?"

"The official said that the price of the elixir treasures has always been like this. Love it or leave it."

"Boss, isn’t this clearly treating us as fools? No, we must protest."

"Protest for what? There are three Soul Changing Period experts guarding Huaxia. With just a sweep of their divine sense, I wouldn’t be able to move. How do you plan to protest?"

The leader said bitterly that he wanted to protest too, and even sought out other team leaders. But when the guardian spirit of the Soul Changing Period scanned them, it crushed all their confidence and they ran away ashamed and disappointed.

"Leader, how much money do we have now?"

"Maybe tens of thousands, I haven’t counted."

The leader said that they kept going on missions, risking their lives, and earned a lot of money. But their expenses were huge, and they were exploited by the platform several times. So they only had tens of thousands of wealth, which was the entire team’s money.

When everyone heard that they only had tens of thousands, they fell silent immediately. The gap with the goal was too big. The leader realized this was disheartening and quickly said, "Don’t panic, everyone. We can’t afford it, and others can’t either. The goods are still there, and we have the advantage. I’ve successfully refined a second-grade intermediate pill. When my Alchemy skills improve a bit more, we can earn more. One pill can earn hundreds of spirit stones, and I’m still young, just over eighty years old, with a lifespan of two hundred in the Building Foundation Period. When I reach the Core Formation stage, I will not forget all of you brothers…"

The leader kept reassuring everyone. After speaking, everyone felt a bit calmer. The main reason they followed the leader was his exceptional Alchemy skills, which had made him popular in the hunter organization. Wealthy Alchemists could afford good equipment that made it easier to survive on the battlefield.

After the reassurance, the group dispersed in twos and threes. Chen Jinfa returned to his residence but didn’t rest. He closed his eyes and pondered.

After leaving the prosperous city of Jiabang Empire, he joined a team heading south to Fangzhang Continent to hunt demons. He was weak at that time, but his character was gradually changing. The once honest person dared to fight desperately on the battlefield.

Besides hunting demons, he had also hunted down solitary cultivators on the battlefield. He was clever and very cautious in his actions. Once he killed a target, he made sure to erase all traces carefully.

So, he made money on the battlefield, caught the eye of the current team, joined the team, and stopped hunting cultivators after joining because he had protection in the team. It was much more comfortable than fighting alone, and he earned a lot.

But now the platform has increased the number of Foundation Establishment treasures by several times, making Chen Jinfa eager to try. Even their boss is struggling with Foundation Establishment, so what about him?

"Cultivation is like rowing upstream. If you don’t move forward, you will fall behind. Since I, Chen Jinfa, have embarked on the path of cultivation, I must create a successful career. I want to live for hundreds or thousands of years."

Suddenly, Chen Jinfa opened his eyes, his eyes shining coldly. It seemed like he had to return to his old ways. How could he rise up with his humble background?

·····

"Liars, rogues, bastards…"

In the North Immortal Kingdom, Muse smashed his office to pieces. He was planning to exchange for a Foundation Establishment treasure, but the platform suddenly raised the prices several times, making it impossible for Muse to afford it. He was furious.

"Boss, what do we do now? Foundation Establishment treasures are now going for five million. We can’t gather that much money no matter how hard we work."

A few trusted aides walked in and said to Muse that they had heard the news too. Although they were not yet at the Building Foundation Period, they were getting close and were also worried about this issue.

"Boss, how about asking the higher-ups again?"

"Haha, do you think the higher-ups are your dad, just asking for money whenever you want?"

"Um…"

"Let me calm down for a moment."

Muse rubbed his head, feeling worried now. Asking the monster clan for things was impossible without significant achievements. They wouldn’t give them so much for nothing.

But saving up slowly was also impossible. Five million spirit stones would take him several decades to earn even if he didn’t eat or drink. Getting rich through hard work was out of the question.

His external business couldn’t help either. The profits from that only came in Huaxia coins, which couldn’t be easily exchanged for spirit stones. It was controlled.

Muse thought about their operational funds. The Heavenly Fox Demon King provided him with a large sum of operational funds every year. But he quickly dismissed the idea. Embezzling some funds was risky. He wasn’t afraid of the Demon King finding out, knowing they didn’t have the ability. But he feared that if the funds were embezzled, they wouldn’t be able to carry out their plans. That would be disastrous, as the Demon King wouldn’t care about excuses; he’d simply have them killed.

"Boss"

"We have to take a risk, how are the big shots from the Jiabang Empire doing in their conversation?"

"The ones in the north of Jiabang?"

"Yes."

"It should be almost done."

"Then let’s take action against them."

Muse said that they have been active in the Jiabang Empire for many years and have participated in many activities. During these activities, they met a group of old nobles from the Jiabang Empire. These nobles were the main war faction during World War II and suffered heavy sanctions after the war. However, despite their downfall, they still hold significant influence in the local area.

These old nobles still fantasize about the past glory of the Jiabang Empire and are dissatisfied with everything about the current Jiabang Empire. This made Muse realize there was an opportunity to exploit, and he had been strategizing with them for many years.

"Boss, if we go now, we’ll have to reveal our identities. Those old folks are very clever, we can’t take them down without exposing who we are."

"You know they are very clever too. Do you think they are unaware of our identities? With so many spiritual resources that we are not qualified to use, they could easily buy us off with a little money."

Muse smirked, revealing that he used to do business with these rebellious old nobles when they were setting up, selling some cultivation resources and special items at very low prices to them, which included spoils of war obtained by the demon clan on the battlefield.

The reason back then was that these items had unknown origins, so they needed the nobles as backers, hence investing in them, selling to them, basically giving away free money.

But this was also a leverage; if their dealings with the demon clan were exposed, they wouldn’t get away with it.

Initially, these were all long-term matters, but now Muse couldn’t hold back anymore. He needed to confront them because he required the mineral resources within their territory. He knew these guys had a lot of mineral resources in their territory, but they were hoarding them for themselves.

Without this sudden wealth, he simply couldn’t afford to buy Foundation Establishment treasures. He was willing to risk it all for the Foundation Establishment.