Chapter 316

General Ye Ming slowly raised his hand, and the enraged Bone-Eroder immediately fell silent.

This showed General Ye Ming's status in its heart.

The request proposed by Ah Lan seemed equally ridiculous to General Ye Ming.

Without plundering, where would the resources needed for development come from?

But it wanted to hear what the members of the Gold Coin Guild had to say.

"Reason." General Ye Ming's voice remained calm:

"Give me a reason not to plunder the Cang Star Sea Region."

Ah Lan calmly took out a self-made map of the Cang Star Sea Region from his spatial bag and spread it on the ground.

The map featured a relatively complete distribution of sea region resources, with every location marked in Earth script.

Including island resources, which race occupied them, and the underwater resources around the islands, and so on.

Ah Lan's finger swept across the map, pointing at it as he looked at General Ye Ming and said:

"I cannot deny that plundering is the most efficient way to acquire resources; other races hoard resources and wealth accumulated over ten, twenty, or even longer years, which can be taken in a single war, including the flesh and blood energy contained within the living beings slaughtered during the plunder. But from a development perspective, perhaps there is a more moderate and superior solution."

Speaking thus, Ah Lan pointed to a blue light dot on the map:

"This is Pearl Island, occupied by the Sea Demon Clan, which has a farm built by the Sea Demon Clan itself. It produces eight hundred thousand Water Spirit Clams annually. Your one-time plunder can take away twenty years of wealth, but it also means that this island will no longer produce any farming-type resources in the future."

Afterwards, Ah Lan slid his finger to another island marked "Green Scale Island":

"This island is occupied by the Scale Clan. The 'Tidal Spirit Fields' on the island plant a special spiritual herb called 'Moon Pattern Algae', which can be harvested once every half year. If the Mist Fog Clan forcibly attacks and occupies it, they can indeed plunder their accumulated stockpiles in one go, but the cultivation of Moon Pattern Algae requires the Scale Clan's unique 'Tidal Blessing' secret technique. Once the Scale Clan is exterminated, these spirit fields will degrade into ordinary seaweed and will no longer produce any spiritual resources."

Next, his fingertip moved to another sea region:

"This area I have circled is the 'Abyssal Whale Ranch', managed by the Howling Spirit Clan. They tame thousands of deep-sea Abyssal Whales that produce Whale Spirit Marrow. The breeding technology is very complex; even if taught to your Mist Fog Clan, it would be difficult to master. It requires a great deal of energy to care for them during the process. If the Mist Fog Clan slaughters the Howling Spirit Clan, this type of resource will no longer be produced."

Listening to Ah Lan's narration, General Ye Ming gazed silently at the map, seemingly calculating the gains and losses.

"I imagine General Ye Ming already understands what I mean. Decades of time are too short for the Mist Fog Clan. Rather than draining the pond to catch the fish, it is better to make this sea region the Mist Fog Clan's long-term granary."

"Let them live, and they can continuously create value for the Mist Fog Clan. The Gold Coin Guild can establish a supervision mechanism for you, allowing various races to pay a certain proportion of their resource revenue in exchange for safety, enabling the Mist Fog Clan to have stable and abundant continuous returns near their territory while waging external plundering wars."

Speaking to this point, Ah Lan seemed to think of something, fell silent for a long while, and then continued:

"I understand what plundering means: converting resources into strength, and with greater strength, one can plunder other forces more quickly, growing like a rolling snowball. The development model I provide might still seem less substantial to you than plundering."

"But the development of the Mist Fog Clan has also hit bottlenecks. For example, when the Death-Speaking Clan descended back then, when external development could not proceed and internal resource production was difficult, the result of a protracted war was a gradual decline. However, establishing a logistical support base centered on the Cang Star Sea Region would give the Mist Fog Clan stronger war sustainability when trapped in a quagmire of war, bringing a higher margin of error for the Mist Fog Clan."

Ah Lan's words moved General Ye Ming.

It naturally knew the series of shortcomings in the Mist Fog Clan's development, so every word Ah Lan spoke struck its heart.

In fact, it had similar ideas long ago.

Establish a logistical support mechanism, but the providers of logistical services could not be outsiders, but reliable members of its own clan.

The initial idea was to allocate a group of clansmen from the Home World to establish various resource development projects in the Monster World, including mining, farming, breeding, and so on.

However, before the plan could be launched, the invasion of the Death-Speaking Clan arrived.

Now, after listening to Ah Lan's narration, he felt that having other races continuously produce resources might not be unfeasible.

The innate abilities of many races and forces in the Cang Star Sea Region were things the clansmen of the Home World could not learn at all; keeping them could continuously generate revenue for the Mist Fog Clan.

But whether this model is feasible still needs verification.

General Ye Ming's fingertips lightly tapped the armrest of Wang Zuo, his voice carrying a hint of amusement:

"Asking the Mist Fog Clan to give up plundering is like asking a Sea Dragon not to eat meat; this is simply unrealistic."

Ah Lan said nothing, waiting for General Ye Ming to continue.

"But what you say makes sense. An overly aggressive development model leaves little room for maneuver when encountering difficulties. Perhaps establishing resource supply bases is a good choice, but the plundering of the Cang Star Sea Region cannot end here... Very well, list a roster, specifying which races possess what value. For the races on this list, I can spare them."

Hearing this, the corner of Ah Lan's mouth twitched slightly.

What a cunning old ghost.

This list seemed like a concession by General Ye Ming, but was actually a layout to maximize General Ye Ming's interests.

Once the value of each race was listed, it was equivalent to handing the entire resource lifeline of the Cang Star Sea Region into the hands of the Mist Fog Clan.

More insidiously, this completely cut off any possibility of him secretly adding other races.

After all, each race had a specified type of resource output; adding races to the list was easy, but without corresponding output resources, it was obviously impossible to fool anyone.

"A list is fine, but some races' output resource types might overlap. Anyway, I will give you a satisfactory answer."

"Good. Henceforth, the Gold Coin Guild will have free passage in the Cang Star Sea Region, and your safety will be protected by our Mist Fog Clan." General Ye Ming finally chose to agree.

"By the way, there is one more thing." Ah Lan continued.

General Ye Ming nodded, signaling Ah Lan to continue.

"The name of the clan I belong to is the Player Clan. Our clan is also divided into multiple factions, some of which will also be active near the Cang Star Sea Region. They are not under the supervision of the Gold Coin Guild and might launch attacks on the Mist Fog Clan."

"What are you trying to say? If your clan attacks ours, are we not allowed to fight back?"

"If you are attacked by my Player Clan, you can handle it however you wish, but do not extend the hatred to the Gold Coin Guild."

"This is not a big deal; no problem."

"Pleasant cooperation. I will deliver the list in three days."

Just as Ah Lan was putting away the map and preparing to leave, General Ye Ming suddenly spoke up to ask:

"Friend of the Gold Coin Guild, what is your name?"

"Shou Shou Jili."

"Lord Shou Shou Jili, as our Mist Fog Clan returns to the Cang Star Sea Region, we are currently unfamiliar with the nearby forces. Where do you think the Mist Fog Clan should expand and develop next?"

Facing the question, Ah Lan actually did not want to reply.

The cooperation had already been settled; no matter where they developed, the Cang Star Sea Region was destined to return to the players' hands in the future.

The Mist Fog Clan was merely temporarily managing this area.

But thinking that the Mist Fog Clan would be a major client for the Gold Coin Guild in the coming days, and that a portion of the resources plundered from outside would be handed over to the Gold Coin Guild for handling,

This is indeed a major matter concerning the development of the Gold Coin Guild; providing some intelligence is no great loss.

After a brief moment of thought, Ah Lan retrieved another map from his spatial bag.

He then pointed his finger toward the Ascension Sea:

"According to the Gold Coin Guild's intelligence, the Death Sea to the north of the Cang Star Sea is ruled by the Ancient God Clan. Their strength is unknown, but it can be confirmed that they possess a war power no weaker than that of the Mist Fog Clan. As for the Ascension Sea to the southeast, there are two factions there; they have been in constant warfare for years and are already mired in a quagmire of war..."

As Ah Lan spoke, General Ye Ming nodded repeatedly, a restless thought already stirring in his heart.

However, he would not believe Ah Lan's one-sided account; next, he would dispatch forces to conduct a detailed investigation into the factions of the Ascension Sea.

Returning to the Emperor's Tomb Village, Ah Lan opened the Group Chat Realm interface of the Gold Coin Guild.

He began to compile information on resource production for each race based on the data within the plugin.

Only races producing special resources would survive; this clearly did not align with the interests of the Gold Coin Guild.

But as General Ye Ming had said, the Mist Fog Clan had just welcomed its resurgence and required vast amounts of resources to restore its damaged bodies; it was impossible for them to protect all races in the Cang Star Sea.

Those races unable to produce high-value resources could only serve as blood and nourishment for the Mist Fog Clan.

Yet Ah Lan still decided to add certain trade-friendly races to the list.

Some terms could be negotiated.

The Gold Coin Guild develops by leveraging the power of the Mist Fog Clan; how could the Mist Fog Clan not need the Gold Coin Guild to convert resources?

Both sides were equals in this negotiation; the Mist Fog Clan would have to show some face.

As long as the additions to the list were not excessive, given General Ye Ming's understanding, he certainly would not choose to tear off the mask of civility.

Subsequently, Ah Lan ordered the guild members in the Group Chat Realm to set out collectively, heading to their respective trade races to negotiate protection agreements.

The specific plan was that for those races willing to remain in the Cang Star Sea, the Gold Coin Guild could provide protection, guaranteeing they would not be invaded by the Mist Fog Clan.

However, they would need to hand over 60% of their annual resource output to the Mist Fog Clan; the annual output would be supervised by Gold Coin Guild members, even involving on-site investigations.

Although this plan would be difficult for the various races to accept.

But fleeing to other seas meant surrendering their resource lands, and they might even be plundered by the Mist Fog Clan during their escape.

Going to the Outer Sea did not guarantee finding a suitable habitat.

Compared to the extermination of their race, scraping by was clearly the optimal choice.

The future layout of the Mist Fog Clan in the Cang Star Sea would also shift from direct plundering to a colonial model.

Letting all alien races aid in their development.

In a stable environment, the development of the Gold Coin Guild would be secured, and they could also profit from the development of the Mist Fog Clan.

Including the resources paid by the various races to the Mist Fog Clan, the Gold Coin Guild would also extract 10% profit from them.

There was no room for negotiation on this matter; whether General Ye Ming agreed or not, this was the bottom line.

Providing manpower and effort, and even establishing a resource management team; these expenses could not be borne by the Gold Coin Guild.

The Gold Coin Guild could offer various welfare conditions to its own players, even paying to provide various services for free, but there was absolutely no need to deliberately curry favor with alien races.

The Mist Fog Clan was not qualified enough.

With his thoughts clarified, Ah Lan began to hurriedly arrange his layout.

Over the next few days, the Mist Fog Legion under General Ye Ming's command would also halt its expansion, giving him ample time to compile and arrange his layout.

As for the races on the list, priority would be given to those capable of bringing high profits to the Gold Coin Guild.

They were mainly divided into three categories.

Namely, races mastering unique technologies, races possessing special geographical resources, and races with high resource output.

After explaining the situation in detail within the Group Chat Realm, the members of the Gold Coin Guild set out to sea to launch their operations.

They would negotiate with the various races on behalf of the Mist Fog Clan. Whether to choose to leave or to compromise and submit tribute was left for these races to decide for themselves.

If they chose to leave, the Gold Coin Guild already had knowledge of the resources controlled by these races.

He would make these resource lands public on the forum; players with Ji De Xiang Fa could go and mine them themselves.

Or even, like the Arms Dealer Guild, establish external resource mining channels.

Just as the Gold Coin Guild launched its operations.

Players active near the Cang Star Sea had already engaged Mist Fog Clan warriors in multiple battles.

As players, they had absolutely no intention of indulging the Mist Fog Clan's wanton expansion.

This was also the reason Ah Lan had laid the groundwork in advance, stating that the player races he belonged to were divided into different factions.

The Gold Coin Guild was merely a platform; it could not supervise all players, nor did it have the authority to force other players to act according to his thoughts.

It was inevitable that some players would clash with the Mist Fog Clan during their exploration of the Cang Star Sea.

After laying the groundwork in advance, if players had any friction with the Mist Fog Clan in the future, Ah Lan would have an excuse to extricate the Gold Coin Guild from the situation.

At this moment, on the shores of the Colorful Mist Coast, a large number of players had gathered.

Besides the fishing faction players, there were also many veteran players who had rushed over from other regions.

Although the current difficulty of the Cang Star Sea was higher than that of the Emperor's Tomb Village, players only cared about profit.

The backlash of the Land-Devouring Bully, the Disaster Wall, and a series of other tactics meant that returns never went up, making them the poorest monsters on the entire map.

Their only advantages were quantity and stability.

But the Cang Star Sea was different; the Mist Fog Clan clearly lacked the Bully's methods.

The profit from farming a single Mist Fog Clan warrior far exceeded that of any evil soldier type in the Emperor's Tomb Mountain region.

As long as a region could produce profit, players would breed in that region.

Squads, teams, guild armies... the already bustling Colorful Mist Coast returned to its peak, attracting a massive influx of players.

During this period, many players from novice regions also came to the Colorful Mist Coast, wanting to join veteran teams to piggyback on Evolution Points and Shou Shou Jili.

Beneath the night sky, the Colorful Mist Coast was lit up by countless Painful Painful Minghun traits.

Dense crowds of players spread like migrating sardine schools, stretching from the shoreline all the way into the sea.

Veteran players commonly rode flashy vehicles—Flame War Horses, Mechanical Wyverns, even collective transport Immortal Vessels—darting through the air above the throng.

Many guilds' homemade banners flapped loudly in the sea wind.

Any guild with even a modicum of strength now makes its own banner.

They unfurl them during every group event, like mobile advertisements, boosting their guild's visibility within the player faction.

The regional voice channel was in complete chaos.

"Need a prayer healer! Use the God-King's stat plugin to distribute loot and other gains."

"Veteran guild recruiting—provides potions for newbies. Join if you ranked in the top ten thousand of the last two newbie event leaderboards. Private message a screenshot of your rank."

"Does any veteran team need a decoration? This newbie can sing, dance, and do xiangsheng—guaranteeing your journey will be joyful."

"Does anyone have a kind heart to donate 100 Shou Shou Jili? Don't ask why—I'm a newbie, I ask, I get, not giving is discrimination against new players."

"Get out of my way, you blocking me because I don't have a flying vehicle? I'm going to challenge General Ye Ming to a duel—don't stand in my way."

……

The bustle on the Colorful Mist Coast far exceeded previous levels.

The massive number of players had jammed the shoreline completely solid.

At this moment, flying vehicles became utterly essential, allowing passage above the congested crowds.

But for veteran players, flight wasn't limited to vehicles—it could also be achieved through personal ability.

Melee players could ignite their blood qi, release gang qi to propel their bodies into the air, adjusting their position mid-flight with agility.

Releasing gang qi to the left allowed flight to the right.

Releasing gang qi to the right allowed flight to the left…

The gang qi enveloping the body moved like arms, helping melee players fight effortlessly at high altitudes.

This flight method had long been proposed by players on forums, modeled after the Champion Fighter's flight technique.

But back then, players' combat levels were generally low, their blood qi too weak to sustain prolonged aerial flight.

But now, veteran players could easily accomplish it.

Magic users had even more varied flight methods.

The most popular was activating the Painful Painful Minghun trait "Void Grasp," then manipulating the Void Hand to carry oneself through the air.

Second was the telekinesis method shared by "Returned Again, Still Can't Win" on the forums.

One could convert spiritual energy into telekinesis—useful for both combat and lifting one's body to fly.

Melee flight and magic flight each had their advantages.

Melee excelled in speed—flight resembled a detonating engine, compressing gang qi and releasing it in specific bursts, each explosion accompanied by a piercing shriek of ruptured air.

Flight speed even surpassed most vehicles.

In stark contrast, magic users' telekinesis flight was serene—long endurance, with a telekinetic shield generated ahead, preserving their hairstyle perfectly mid-flight.

Yet to veteran players, the importance of vehicles had not diminished.

Players now explored wider areas of the Monster World, often requiring vehicles for long-distance travel.

Before mastering spatial teleportation, armed vehicles remained the top-choice functional aid for most players.

As time passed, more and more players began venturing out to sea.

They engaged in fierce battles with the Mingwu Clan across all directions of the Azure Star Sea, harvesting profit from hunting gains taken from the Mingwu Clan.

Three days later.

A Lan reappeared on Mist Veil Island.

Through location teleportation, he materialized directly before General Ye Ming.

This genuinely startled General Ye Ming, and gave it new insight into the Gold Coin Guild's power.

"As agreed."

Bai Guang faded; A Lan smiled and nodded at General Ye Ming, then pulled from his spatial satchel a handmade-paper "Exemption from Plunder List" and handed it over.

The races listed here had all agreed to the Gold Coin Guild's terms, offering tribute in exchange for Mingwu protection.

Compiling this list was no easy task.

This list was essentially a map, marking the islands where tribes willing to pay tribute resided, along with relevant details about each tribe.

All translation and writing was done by consulting texts in the library.

Otherwise, marking the map with Earth script would leave General Ye Ming unable to comprehend it.

These past days had been nonstop labor—only now was the map list fully completed.

General Ye Ming took the map list and studied it intently.

After a long while, General Ye Ming looked up, brows slightly furrowed:

"Many of the resource points on your list are similar—for example, mining operations. The Dong Clan and Tian Chuan Clan have nearly identical traits; you could assign mining at both sites to just one tribe. Given the size of either tribe, either could easily handle mining resources from two islands. Why keep both?"

Facing General Ye Ming's doubt, A Lan, who had already prepared his reply, immediately explained:

"In terms of resource output, these two tribes have no specialized strengths—their mining methods overlap. But in other areas, they may still aid the Mingwu Clan's development."

"First, the Dong Clan—they may lack combat prowess, but generations spent underground give them an instinct for ore vein patterns far surpassing other tribes. They can sense rare special ores within layers, often yielding unexpected discoveries during mining."

"And the Tian Chuan Clan… their war capability is weak, but they excel at constructing all kinds of structures. They can assist the Mingwu Clan's future tribal settlement development—even if you don't need them, the Gold Coin Guild does. This tribe holds value in our eyes, so they must be kept."

With that, A Lan fell silent.

General Ye Ming remained silent for a moment, then slowly nodded:

"The Gold Coin Guild is now our ally. If you need them, let them live."

At that moment, General Ye Ming changed tone:

"What does the 10% resource cut marked on the map list mean?"

"All aspects—collection, supervision, and transportation of all tribute items—are handled by our Coin Guild. Shouldn't we claim this 10% profit? The essence of the Coin Guild's cooperation with Mingwu is profit-seeking, not merely seeking protection; the Coin Guild needs no protection from any force."

General Ye Ming did not press this point, and smiled as he nodded:

"You're right—the Coin Guild and my Mingwu Clan are in partnership, and naturally deserve resource returns. But you mentioned transportation: my clan can handle that ourselves. For supervision, we only need to station a few Mingwu warriors on each island. What you call 'handling' is merely final accounting of resource profits. That doesn't seem difficult. Should you really take 10% of the profit for just that?"

A Lan's lips curled slightly, his fingertips tapping lightly on the table, producing a crisp rhythm, yet a sharp glint flashed in his eyes:

"General, you seem to underestimate the weight of the word 'transportation.' The Mingwu Clan can indeed handle transportation and supervision themselves, but your clan is about to go to war with the Ascension Sea. Your main combat forces will inevitably be shifted to the front lines. Do you assume the two factions of the Ascension Sea will only react passively from now on? Don't they dare launch preemptive strikes to raid the resources of the Cangxing Sea Domain?"

"Once war begins, both the Ascension Clan and the Within Shu Yan Domain will investigate the Cangxing Sea Domain. And both these factions possess Space Jumping technology—they can bypass frontline defenses and directly descend upon the Cangxing Sea Domain to plunder Mingwu's transport resources."

General Ye Ming's expression stiffened slightly, clearly weighing the pros and cons.

Seeing this, A Lan felt even more certain:

"The 10% profit buys more than just transportation—it buys the absolute security provided by the Coin Guild."

"How secure?"

"I said before: even if the entire Cangxing Sea Domain is destroyed by external force in the next second, the resources your Mingwu Clan has stored with the Coin Guild will still exist. When your people from your homeland return to the Monster World, they can still inherit those resources from the Coin Guild. That is the Coin Guild's integrity."

"Fine, I accept." This time, General Ye Ming did not press further—he decisively agreed to the terms.

"A pleasant cooperation."

With all terms settled, A Lan extended an invitation to General Ye Ming:

"In ten days, the Coin Guild will hold an auction on Dream Island. Many rare resources will be up for bid. General, you might wish to attend—you may find something that satisfies you."

Upon hearing this, General Ye Ming's surrounding mist rippled, instantly sparking his interest.

(End of Chapter)