Chapter 284: Splitting the Spoils

Shang Chuan spoke from the sidelines in a low voice, yet loud enough for everyone to hear.

After all, with such a massive prize on the table, Shang Chuan knew everyone would be tempted.

Sure enough.

When Shang Chuan said this, everyone looked at Chu Yuan.

"Alright, alright, now is not the time to discuss this. Let's focus on dividing up this Jörmungandr's Blood first," Chu Yuan said.

Facing everyone's eager gazes, Chu Yuan clapped his hands and laughed, avoiding a direct answer.

He then smoothly shifted everyone's attention entirely to Jörmungandr's Blood.

Needless to say, the temptation this held for everyone was immense.

Therefore, their focus was instantly drawn to it.

"Wow, that looks like a lot."

Hearing there was a full 20,000 milliliters, Gu Xiaobei could not help but exclaim. She wore a look of sheer impatience, her fingers twitching restlessly.

She looked as greedy and wretched as could be.

"Are we dividing it based on how much effort everyone contributed?"

"Of course."

"In that case, let's exclude the three who arrived last."

"Yes, yes, yes, I know we did not contribute, so we won't take a share. Someone can just trade a little with me later."

Vivian, who had never intended to freeload anyway, curled her lips.

To be honest, though, she was feeling a bit regretful right now.

After all, this was over 20,000 milliliters! That could create over 400,000 Evolution Items!

That meant over 400,000 Evolvers!

Fortunately, she had a massive safety net. She had already exchanged for 500 milliliters of Star Dragon King's Blood Essence from Lan Qingyou.

This time, she did not plan to dilute it. She was going to use an entire uncut drop of blood for the crafting process.

She wanted to see if there would be any difference between vampires created this way and those made from diluted blood.

In Vivian's eyes, the reason the Witch race was currently so powerful was highly likely because they used whole drops of blood essence.

Or, to put it more accurately, it was about 'completeness.'

Not a single one of her Phantom Mist Vampires had managed to directly evolve to the Duke tier upon their initial evolution, and it was probably related to this exact issue.

"So, how do we split it?"

Everyone had been quite excited and thrilled at first, but now that they actually had to face the division, they were a bit at a loss.

After all, to a certain extent, they were all their own versions of Lan Qingyou.

Asking them to weigh the pros and cons or make absolute decisions was one thing.

But putting several people with the exact same attributes and personalities together, well, that was truly...

"I suggest we divide the blood into 41 portions, with each portion being 500 milliliters,"

Shang Chuan raised his hand and proposed.

"Agreed, that makes things more convenient."

"Sounds good to me too."

No one objected to Shang Chuan's proposal. After all, everyone was busy, and it was simply impossible to divide it milliliter by milliliter.

Thus, as the founder of the villa, Chu Yuan stepped forward.

"Since nobody has any objections to Shang Chuan's idea, I will handle the distribution."

"Sure."

"That works."

The crowd nodded once again.

After all, aside from being the villa's founder, Chu Yuan was also a councilman of the Supreme Council.

For someone to reach the position of councilman, no matter how much luck was involved, they would definitely think more comprehensively about distribution issues than the rest of them.

To put it bluntly, this was his bread and butter.

He excelled purely through 'professionalism'.

"Let's talk about Empress and Lovers first. Although we came here to help them, we accidentally uncovered intelligence regarding the 505 Formation. So, allocating one portion to each of them to start with should be fine, right?"

Chu Yuan picked up a portion of the blood with one hand and glanced around the room as he spoke.

"Acceptable."

Everyone nodded.

Although the two women had not fought this time, they had indeed made a contribution.

"Secondly, everyone who fought this time gets one portion first. No problem with that?"

"No problem."

After all, the keyword was 'first,' meaning there would be more distributions later. This was simply an initial acknowledgment of everyone's contribution to the battle.

Because of this, nobody objected.

"The intelligence Tower brought this time regarding Jörmungandr's Blood was absolutely crucial. Giving her three portions to start is not too much, is it?"

"Not at all."

"And Chariot single-handedly challenged the 505 Formation, bringing back over 15,000 milliliters of Jörmungandr's Blood. Taking five portions is only natural, right?"

"It's only natural."

"Good. That takes care of 23 portions, leaving 18. So, everyone gets one more portion each, which leaves exactly 5 portions. Now, let's discuss how to allocate these final five."

After the initial round of distribution, Chu Yuan noticed there was still a significant amount left, so he handed everyone an additional portion.

This method was completely fair, leaving no room for anyone to complain.

The core issue was the remaining 5 portions.

It was not a massive amount, but it was not small either. It was enough to create roughly fifty thousand Evolvers.

"My personal suggestion is that Shang Chuan and I will pool our funds to purchase them."

"What a joke. We aren't lacking in supplies, so why would we sell them?"

"Exactly. Besides, even if we were willing to sell, whatever materials you can offer wouldn't be of much use to us right now."

Seeing Chu Yuan and Shang Chuan attempting to buy the extra portions, someone immediately scoffed.

Seeing Chu Yuan and Shang Chuan attempting to buy the extra portions, someone immediately scoffed.

And indeed, it was the truth.

Everyone present was a prominent and influential figure. Who among them would actually care about a few meager supplies?

Of course, if those supplies were actually useful, it would be a different story.

But the crux of the problem was that whatever those two could currently offer would likely be utterly useless to the rest of the group.

Or rather, the materials they offered would be too easily replaceable, nowhere near valuable enough to make them part with Ancient Blood.

"Hmm... You guys make a fair point."

Seeing everyone's opposition, Chu Yuan stroked his chin in thought for a moment before lifting his head again.

"Then how about this? We treat these five portions as the collective asset of the entire group. I will use them to conduct trades with other councilmen—for example, trading for intelligence. This way, we can expand our information network."

"Intelligence?"

"I think that works."

"Since it is precious Ancient Blood, it should be able to fetch quite a bit of valuable intelligence."

"We can use Tower's old method—trading it in ten-milliliter test tubes."

"Whoa! If we do that, wouldn't we be able to buy intelligence many times over?"

"Of course. And if some bastard takes our goods and feeds us fake intel, we'll have a perfectly valid excuse to kick down their doors and confront them."

"Makes sense. I support this proposal."

As soon as intelligence was mentioned, everyone grew even more excited than they had been during the initial 'spoils division'.

After all, this meeting to split the spoils was just a one-off deal. But as long as Chu Yuan could provide a steady stream of intelligence, they would gladly endure the extra hard work and busyness, even if it meant heading out every single day to hunt for Ancient Blood.

And so, amidst a chorus of praise, the matter was happily settled.

"Clan Head, I will leave my share of the blood in your hands. Just remember to give me the Forest Elf's Breath once you craft it, or you could just move over here."