Chapter 559

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Earth Dragons were originally the standard mounts of Knights; their importance was no less than that of land property or plow oxen to farmers. Large clans such as the Yin Sen Family would systematically breed these mounts for use by Knights within the clan.

However, no matter how hard they tried to breed them, mounts were never enough.

Battlefield losses, mount lifespans, illness, and breeding difficulties — all these problems increased as the mount's rank rose. The saying "shoot the horse before the shooter" had its equivalent on the West Continent as well.

An ordinary Divine Art Knight might manage to obtain a sturdy Earth Dragon to ride, but relatively weaker Combat Knights often had to choose between Dragon Beasts and Elephant Beasts.

For these Quartermasters, buying back metal or long-spear-type weapons was a routine, conservative daily task — failing to buy them was a mistake; but buying back mounts was a complete innovation — succeeding was a merit. Any Knight who obtained a mount, or sought to obtain one, would show a completely different level of respect.

The Fire Dragon Temple had always been the wealthiest temple. Its Envoy, relying on his deep pockets, asked with eager, pitch-black eye corners: "How many young dragons do you have? We'll take them all."

Earth Dragon mounts must be raised from a young age; with sufficient food, their growth speed is also very fast. He guessed Chen Yi possessed no small number of Earth Dragon mounts; otherwise he wouldn't have brought it up in front of several temple Envoys.

But the quantity Chen Yi stated still far exceeded his expectations. He opened with: "Young-stage Earth Dragons, 100 head per unit. For the first month, I can supply each family one unit. The price — you name it."

"One hundred per family?" The Fire Dragon Temple's Envoy glanced at those beside him. Present were his own Fire Dragon, as well as representatives of the Water Dragon, Wood Dragon, and the Allied Forces' Second Elite Legion — four parties dividing 400 young dragons.

The few who calculated this number all went mad. The Water Dragon Temple's Envoy scrambled to shout: "My Lord, Lord Chen Yi, we'll take all the young dragons."

"One hundred per family, let's leave it at that." Chen Yi repeated once more.

The Envoys were unwilling at heart, but none spoke further.

Since Chen Yi, as a Divine Art Knight, held the faith of "Honoring Oaths," his spoken word could not be changed. The second inquiry was merely their instinctive reaction.

One hundred young dragons per family were quickly distributed.

These "small things" weighing around 100 kilograms each looked almost identical — blocky heads, adorably cute. The Wood Dragon Temple's Envoy laughed cheerfully as he tossed a Brown Tiger into a cage; the blocky-headed Earth Dragon instantly revealed a ferocious visage, sinking its molars deep into the Brown Tiger's thigh with a crisp "Crack!"

The Brown Tiger shook its head and wagged its tail in pain, its mane wild like a rock musician — if it had hands. The Brown Tiger bit back with sharp teeth, but only a "Crunch" of rebound sounded.

Even young Earth Dragons know to tighten their skin; when their wrinkle-filled skin tightens, the thickness becomes the height of the wrinkles, thereby resisting stronger bite force.

The Brown Tiger was swallowed alive into the Earth Dragon's belly.

Companions in other cages, seeing this bloody scene, drooled with greed. The Envoys, meanwhile, were overjoyed — everyone likes a strong mount, the more "lively" the better.

"How much gold should we pay you?"

"Just as I said — whatever you want to pay is fine."

"Is the price determined by the highest payment offered?" The Fire Dragon Temple's Envoy not only counted his own money, he was also calculating the money the other Envoys brought — if a price could be set that he could afford but the others couldn't, that would be perfect.

101 young dragons is better than 100 young dragons.

The Envoy was very certain: even if he spent every last coin, as long as he could bring back 10 more young dragons, he would absolutely win everyone's praise.

As for later — during wartime, temples spare no expense for Divine Art Knights and High-grade Combat Knights. Taking it a step further, he even suspected how many Earth Dragon hatchlings Chen Yi could actually provide; these weren't stupid, clumsy animals like Dragon Beasts and Elephant Beasts.

Chen Yi watched the Fire Dragon Envoy's performance with great interest, but ultimately shook his head and said: "You can take the Earth Dragons back to use first. Next time you come, bring the corresponding payment — whatever amount works."

He said that last sentence three times; even the dullest person knew not to ask again.

Several hundred sailboats took five days to haul away all the supplies the two cargo ships brought, along with the cargo ships themselves broken down into scrap iron.

Chen Yi, the shipwrights, and the Knights returned to West River City-State on the next ship; the following ships inevitably faced disassembly as well.

On Earth there are plenty of aged, worn-out ships — old fishing boats of thirty or fifty years are a dime a dozen. The Martial Arts Hall's Port Department is willing to handle acquisition — almost however many there are, they'll take them. After a round of dismantling in Jiangning, they're exercised to West River City-State for another dismantling, then the remaining parts are sailed to a simple dock 300 kilometers away for a final round of abuse, ultimately extracting maximum value.

The benefit of this method is reduced transport pressure; a Divine Art Knight pulling a 3,000-ton ship is obviously more convenient than hundreds or thousands of train carriages.

Needless to say, the number of Divine Art Knights required is even greater.

After returning to West River City-State, Chen Yi held another Faith Grand Ceremony. This time it took the form of a concert — several stars sang and danced on stage, mountains and seas of fans screamed and cheered below, and a dozen-plus Divine Art Knights who signed autographs until their hands went soft stood dumbfounded, filled with yearning for this world.

A frenzied crowd is forever the dream of religious figures.

"Their sacrificial priests sure can shout." The newly arrived Combat Knights naturally assumed those on stage were sacrificial priests.

Others said admiringly: "Their faithful are truly devout — able to roar for so long, and always coordinating with the priest."

For the gentlemen of the West Continent, educated faithful who can coordinate with the priest are extremely rare.

"They're called fans." Yin Sen Zhu sat in a chair below the stage, drinking light beer. He ranked near the top in the points system the Martial Arts Hall created, doing many things Divine Art Knights were unwilling to do, finally earning first-priority qualification to attend the ceremony — thereby gaining a chance to raise his Divine Art rank or increase his number of Divine Arts. Right now was precisely the time he should celebrate.

"Wah-wah" uproar came from above again; several Knights closed their eyes, wearing expressions of enjoyment, not minding the thousands of pages of documents they once signed.

"Pop-pop" fireworks, like a celebration of Source Energy's arrival.

This was the largest-scale concert of the year.

Besides the 80,000 at the concert site, hundreds of thousands more waited outside the Gymnasium. The giant screen specially built by the Jiangning Municipal Government replicated the live scene to the best of its ability.

"At least five Divine Art Knights can be born from this." Yin Senyong stood before the floor-to-ceiling window on the top floor of Golden Scale Building, gazing at the lively crowd below.

"Just enough to fill some gaps." Chen Yi licked his lips, still unsatisfied.

Yin Senyong had stayed on Earth a long time; he was quite used to responding with a sigh: "Industry is truly formidable — the labor of thirty or forty Divine Art Knights still isn't enough."

"Being laborers is still better than going to the battlefield, right?"

"If you ask the Divine Art Knights, they'd definitely choose the battlefield."

Chen Yi thought carefully — it really was that logic. He spread his hands helplessly and laughed: "If they want to go to the battlefield later, there'll be plenty of opportunities."

Yin Senyong laughed heartily. Though he too had signed a severely unequal contract, compared to the current bunch, his mood was actually great.

In truth, it was because Chen Yi controlled too many resources. He kept a few dozen Divine Art Knights free-range, easy and pleasant; but ordinary Combat Knights who refused to sign contracts would struggle to advance to Divine Art Knight in a lifetime.

Three consecutive days of concerts was extremely rare; critics were ecstatic, evaluations pouring in endlessly. Among the interesting ones: singers "voice-hoarse and strength-exhausted," fans "gasping their last breaths"… The scornful said directly: an unprecedented gold-absorbing frenzy — as if they'd really heard of many such things.

There were quite a few media outlets under the control of the Jiangning Chen Clan, but they had little interest in entertainment news. Chen Yi couldn't be bothered to manipulate them, instantly giving reporters from all sides an opening — they swarmed in like dung beetles smelling fresh feces.

There were even self-clever gentlemen who thought the vigorous Chen Yi intended to promote a certain star to fame; for a moment they jumped up and down, so excited they practically wanted to produce a film empress on the spot.

People with the same idea were not few. Fang Yu and Mo Shaoqiu were two among them. The latter even specially brought the Orange G Group girls, heading straight for the suburban training ground.

Chen Yi had bought two adjacent golf courses here and rebuilt them into a pasture; tall wooden fences stood all around, full of the meaning "idlers keep out."

After Mo Shaoqiu gave his name, he was approved to enter; the one who came to receive him was precisely Liang Yu's uncle, Liang Shi, formerly the manager of the Flying Rainbow Golf Club, yet he had willingly come to work at the new pasture. After all, the creatures grazed here were not only unexpected, but also highly profitable.

Once everyone got in the car, Mo Shaoqiu asked as they followed the road, "I was wondering why Chen Yi was hiding out here enjoying the cool; turns out he bought a golf course and turned it into a manor?"

Liang Shi smiled without speaking; he couldn't bring himself to lie, but he also couldn't reveal the secret.

Mo Shaoqiu saw through it at a glance, let out a "Hey," and asked, "There's an inside story?"

"It's not a pure manor, so that's all I can say."

"Could it be that raising animals really doesn't work?" Although Mo Shaoqiu had been to the West Continent, sitting in a modern Cadillac sedan, it was still hard to associate it with the native culture of the Other Continent.

As they spoke, the car stopped in front of a wooden work shed.

An earth dragon over three meters high playfully poked its head out, curiously gazed at the exhaust pipe, and sprayed thick mist from its nose, as if making a comparison.

"It really is raising animals." Mo Shaoqiu tilted his head up, then hurriedly lowered it again — not afraid of ten thousand, just afraid of the one in ten thousand; there were satellites up in the sky.

The crude primitive construction before him, ten out of ten, likely served only the basic function of blocking wind and rain and avoiding satellites. (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast recommendation tickets and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)