Chapter 168: The Spirit Valley Trap (Votes Requested)

"City Lord, if we give City Lord Min a helping hand this time, will he bite the hand that feeds us in the future and stir up trouble again?" Chang Fei asked, showing some concern.

"He has been beaten into submission and will definitely not dare to harbor any crooked thoughts again. It will take him at least a year or two to recover his vitality."

"That is true. It is just a pity we didn't get another chance to capture him and demand a ransom."

"Heh, with the Min Immortal Village in its current state, where would there be any grease left to squeeze?" Ye Mo shook his head.

After City Lord Min returned, the city lords of the Nine-Village Alliance—who had previously been heavily beaten by Ye Mo—also got wind of the news and rushed to the Ye Immortal Village.

Although they had bad blood with Ye Mo, they held no grudge against spirit stones. Since the Ye Immortal Village opened its doors to purchase spirit grain, they naturally were unwilling to miss such an opportunity to earn spirit stones, and successively signed spirit grain orders with Ye Mo, ranging from one to two hundred mu each.

"City Lord, we have signed spirit grain acquisition agreements with a total of fifteen immortal villages, acquiring over three thousand mu of spirit grain for the year. We will need to pay one hundred thousand spirit stones for this. That amount is simply too colossal."

Chang Fei flipped through the ledger, totaling up all the spirit grain orders, and looked somewhat worried.

This was a massive financial liability. Once unable to pay this huge sum of spirit stones, the Ye Immortal Village would fall into a bottomless pit.

"Roughly how much will the village's income be this year?"

Ye Mo remained silent for a long time before asking.

Chang Fei flipped through the booklet a few more pages, looked at it carefully, and said, "With the outer village put into use, and the weapon-smithing operations in other areas also starting up, purchasing raw materials such as dark iron ore and scarlet fire ore, the village's income has increased significantly. Counting a small amount of shop profits, the current monthly income is only one to two thousand spirit stones, and our financial growth each month is slow.

The total annual income will only be twenty to thirty thousand spirit stones, leaving a huge gap from the one-hundred-thousand-spirit-stone mark. Fortunately, we still have a reserve of one hundred thousand spirit stones. Coupled with the immortal village's income, we should be able to weather the initial year..."

Upon hearing this, Ye Mo's expression remained completely unchanged.

He stood before the study window for a long time before finally saying, "Release the word that the Ye Immortal Village will continue to acquire spirit grain planting orders. Furthermore, led by our Ye Immortal Village, establish a Spirit Grain Alliance. This will be a pure trading alliance. Anyone who joins the Spirit Grain Alliance will be able to buy, sell, and trade these orders within the alliance; trading these orders outside the alliance is strictly prohibited. Set up a trading floor within our immortal village to exclusively handle these order transactions."

"Continue acquiring planting orders? Establish a Spirit Grain Alliance?"

Chang Fei was taken aback, finding it hard to understand what Ye Mo intended to do.

It was already difficult enough to digest these three thousand mu. If they continued to place large orders, would the Ye Immortal Village actually be able to swallow them?

After listening to Ye Mo's idea, Chang Fei wore an incredulous expression. "City Lord, are you planning to trade these spirit grain planting orders?"

Ye Mo nodded. "Yes, mutual buying and selling will be permitted. We will first acquire a large volume of spirit grain planting orders at the lowest price of seventy-five spirit stones per hundred catties of spirit grain, and then resell them at a higher price."

Chang Fei shook his head repeatedly. "But the problem is, right now only our Ye Immortal Village is purchasing in large quantities. No one else among the other immortal villages is willing to buy."

"That's not necessarily true."

Ye Mo chuckled. "The orders can only be fulfilled after a year, rather than paid for immediately. Who knows what things will be like a year from now? Perhaps everyone will be scrambling to grab spirit grain orders. Moreover, we can split the large orders into small ones—for instance, Kong Zhonghai's planting order of five hundred mu can be split into individual one-mu shares, allowing them to be freely bought and traded in the trading market. In the end, whoever holds the order comes to collect that one mu of spirit grain during the settlement period."

"This..."

Chang Fei hesitated for a moment, but still shook his head and said, "However, this subordinate still feels it is far too risky. What if no one is willing to take these spirit grain orders? We won't be able to consume this much spirit grain ourselves."

"Rest assured. When our massive aerial cavalry of spirit eagles reigns supreme over the skies of the entire Aolai Archipelago, the other immortal villages will have no choice but to buy. If the other major immortal villages want to resist, they will have to build their own aerial cavalry to counter me, or else await their doom sitting ducks.

Once they have a large number of aerial cavalry, they will need a massive amount of spirit grain to feed them. Yet the largest batch of spirit grain orders in the Aolai seas will be in the hands of my Spirit Grain Alliance. How high a price do you think we should charge when we sell to them?"

A smile appeared on Ye Mo's face as he looked meaningfully at Chang Fei.

"Ah!"

Chang Fei's expression instantly turned brilliant, his eyes lighting up brightly. He finally began to understand just how formidable Ye Mo's two-pronged strategy—one overt, one covert—truly was.

The overt move was for the Ye Village to assemble a massive spirit-eagle aerial cavalry to frantically suppress and squeeze the other immortal villages, forcing them to build their own aerial cavalry in self-defense. Even among the other immortal villages themselves, battles would have to rely on aerial cavalry.

Once that happened, Ye Mo's covert move would exert its power: the largest volume of spirit grain planting orders in the Aolai Archipelago would be tightly controlled in the hands of Ye Mo's Spirit Grain Alliance. Whoever developed aerial cavalry would see the order prices jacked up, walking right into the trap.

Not developing aerial cavalry meant getting beaten. Developing aerial cavalry meant getting fleeced just the same.

This was a colossal trap, a bottomless pit on both sides.

Having figured out this crucial point, Chang Fei hurriedly exited the study, gradually refined this plan along the lines of Ye Mo's train of thought, and set out to execute the orders.

The news that the Ye Immortal Village was purchasing spirit grain in large quantities gradually spread outward.

Even messengers from many immortal villages thousands of miles away were dispatched to inquire and gather details.

Before long, a striking red notice was posted outside the City Lord's Mansion of the Ye Immortal Village, officially announcing the establishment of the Spirit Grain Alliance—a pure trade partnership—along with a specialized order trading market.

At the same time, the notice stipulated the date for the physical delivery of the annual spirit grain orders, on which day the spirit grain acquisition orders for the following year would also be issued.

After posting the notice, the Ye Immortal Village also dispatched more than a dozen small fishing boats to spread the word to the major immortal villages.

Upon receiving the news, Kong Zhonghai studied it with his trusted aides for nearly an hour before finally speaking with a look of admiration, "Brother Ye is truly a genius. He could even come up with an idea like the Spirit Grain Alliance."

He quickly understood that this spirit grain trading market could serve to buy low and sell high.

Cai Hao also said with great interest, "In that way, city lords from far away will be attracted here. City Lord, since we hold the largest order, should we also split it into smaller-denomination orders?"

Kong Zhonghai nodded without hesitation. "Split it, of course we must split it. As an ally of the Ye Immortal Village, we must show our support. The Ye Immortal Village wants to elevate its influence and build the Spirit Grain Alliance so it can contend with powerful immortal villages like the Lou Immortal Village in the future. We are allies with the Ye Immortal Village; the stronger he is, the better our days ahead will be. Otherwise, given Lou Junjie's aggressive nature, our future prospects would look grim."

At the mention of this, a trace of bitterness arose in Kong Zhonghai's heart.

Ever since learning about the strength of immortal villages like the Lou family, Kong Zhonghai and his trusted aides had spent these past few days racking their brains for countermeasures.

The conclusion they finally reached was disheartening.

Kong Zhonghai realized that if his Kong Immortal Village wanted to contend with these powerful immortal villages, it was practically impossible on his own. The only glimmer of hope was to follow Ye Mo and grow strong under the shelter of the Ye Immortal Village; only then could he develop steadily.

"City Lord Ye is a man of honor. We are allies, so he won't deliberately suppress us. With him covering us, our Kong Immortal Village can develop in peace."

On the second day, Kong Zhonghai arrived at the Ye Immortal Village and exchanged his previous five hundred mu order agreement for small-denomination orders of one mu per certificate.

As time went on, city lords of many small immortal villages within a radius of thousands of miles were drawn in. Since their incomes were meager to begin with, they were naturally willing to have an extra avenue of revenue.

The Spirit Grain Alliance was merely a pure trade alliance rather than a military alliance of offense and defense, carrying no other burdens. Almost every visiting city lord of a small immortal village was willing to join the Spirit Grain Alliance, and most signed some small-denomination planting orders.

Naturally, almost all of them were sold to the Ye Immortal Village at the lowest possible prices. Aside from the Ye Immortal Village buying up orders on a massive scale, no other immortal village wanted these items.

The spirit grain planting order trading market of the Ye Immortal Village gradually grew lively.

A few days later, intelligence regarding the establishment of the Spirit Grain Alliance and the trading market by the Ye Immortal Village even spread to various regions of the Aolai seas.

This included the Lou Immortal Village in the central region, inside its City Lord's Mansion.

In the study of the City Lord's Mansion, Lou Junjie was dressed in luxurious robes, possessing sword-like eyebrows and eagle-like eyes, sitting upright on the city lord's throne.

Since founding the immortal village, as he governed the foremost immortal village of the Aolai seas, his demeanor had undergone a dramatic transformation, and the aura of someone in a position of authority grew increasingly palpable.

Below him, an old man in green robes was reading out, one by one, the latest intelligence gathered from various parts of the Aolai Archipelago:

"The Ye Immortal Village in the Eastern District has established a Spirit Grain Alliance and a trading market, attracting dozens of small village city lords from immortal villages one to two thousand miles around to join. Preliminary judgment indicates that the Ye Immortal Village is forming a small sphere of influence."

"Which Ye Immortal Village?"

"Reporting to the City Lord, it is one of the ten new city lords of Ye Mo's Qingyun Immortal City, ranked tenth."

Upon hearing this, Lou Junjie's half-closed eyes instantly opened, carrying a trace of cold mockery as he dismissed it nonchalantly, "Oh, so it's him. It's rare to hear news of him, yet he goes and sets up some sort of Spirit Grain Alliance. What kind of future does a pure trade alliance like that have?"

"This subordinate is also puzzled—what use is this Spirit Grain Alliance? Spirit grain is extremely cheap, its cultivation cost is high, and it doesn't fetch many spirit stones. Putting effort into this aspect is somewhat a waste of time," the green-robed old man said doubtfully.

"I suppose that group of small immortal villages has no income, so they're pinning all their hopes on growing some spirit grain to earn petty cash. Back at the academy, I thought this Ye Mo had some potential and even considered recruiting him. But now it seems I overestimated him; he can only rely on farming a few spiritual fields to feed the villagers of his immortal village."

A look of contempt appeared on Lou Junjie's face.

As a direct descendant of the Lou family, he looked down upon such trifling sums earned from growing spirit grain. The Lou Immortal Village hadn't even deployed manpower to reclaim spiritual fields; instead, they poured all their efforts into developing high-tech industries and building a massive fleet of Wolf-class warships to garrison troops and plunder the island resources of other immortal villages.

"Indeed, the City Lord's strategy is brilliant. Building a formidable military alliance of Lou family warships—that is the righteous path. Once the fleet finishes training and the time is ripe, our Lou family will be able to dominate the central region of the entire Aolai Archipelago, and even sweep across the entire Aolai Archipelago, gathering vast resources into our pockets. Small-scale antics like growing spirit grain can never make waves."

The green-robed old man smiled humbly, picked up another piece of intelligence, and continued reading to Lou Junjie.