Fernan had thrown all shame to the wind and sent someone begging.
*Spare a little, Mr. Ji, just a little!*
Yet how much could Ji Jue give?
Giving anything was pointless.
No matter how much he handed over, not a single grain of rice would ever touch the lips of the truly starving; it would only become a few more frothing bubbles in this carnival of grain speculation.
Ji Jue even wondered whether these vermin genuinely lacked stockpiles of supplies, were simply unwilling to part with them, or... were completely incapable of producing any at all?!
He had always felt he shouldn't overestimate the amateurishness of the Seven Cities or the competence of these useless parasites, yet reality never failed to slap him in the face again and again and again.
As it turned out, he truly could not fathom the sheer incompetence of these vermin!
Even somewhere like Luo Island, which was under Paradise's full oversight, had so much trash brazenly committing crimes in defiance of the storm—let alone the other city-states.
Thinking more grimly, by the time the esteemed lords remembered to check their inventories, the warehouses were probably already hollow enough to gallop horses through!
When he had first arrived, everyone had shrieked in horror that some unspeakable monster had come ashore from Xiangzhou. And now, you people actually have the nerve to send someone to stand before me and say: *Excuse me, Mr. Ji, could you please save the Seven Cities?*
Save your fucking ass!
Every last piece of garbage can go die!
Unfortunately, no matter how turbulent the storm, these utterly worthless pieces of trash would probably survive; those who died would only be the destitute poor and the bottom-tier laborers with nothing to their names.
Across the entire Seven Cities, aside from Luo Island, the place currently in the best shape was probably Xiangzhou.
When Ji Jue had stockpiled supplies back then, he had issued a warning. No matter how incompetent and nonchalant Minkler was, on an issue like this he didn't dare fall behind, copying Ji Jue step for step.
Blindly copying his homework couldn't be wrong anyway!
Even if following along barely scraped a passing grade in reality, it would definitely earn full marks in Ji Jue's book!
Now that the Pestilent Wind had arrived, Minkler had ridden that wave of foresight to win a massive amount of prestige within his own ranks. Not only was his position completely solidified, but he had also begun using this opportunity to gradually introduce the Paradise system!
Never mind the why—just copy, just follow along, and call it a day.
One could only say he had gradually grasped the true essence of Tianyuan: success or failure was never the standard; only attitude, attitude was key!
Show the right attitude, and even if you screwed everything up, Mr. Ji might give you two hard slaps across the face, but he would never abandon you to your fate.
If your attitude was wrong, even if you died right in front of him, he wouldn't bother sparing you a second glance!
Case in point: right now.
The envoy was groveling and pleading in a meek voice. Arriving at a distressing point, he even burst into tears, dabbing his eyes and choking up: "Things have reached this point, and I know anything I say will only annoy you... But the common folk are innocent, Mr. Ji! Even if you just treat it as charity, please save the innocent people. We cannot let the children starve to death."
"Did I ever say I came here to do charity?"
Ji Jue was amused. "Have you forgotten what I do for a living?"
This really was the Thousand Islands. Even an artisan—a demographic renowned as a moral abyss—could be subjected to moral kidnapping by these vermin. Truly impressive.
The envoy was about to speak again when he saw Ji Jue raise three fingers.
He froze.
"Three thousand tons of food."
Ji Jue said coldly, "Luo Island has its own mouths to feed, and our surplus grain is limited. Rice, flour, cooking oil, or vegetables—converted into grain equivalent, about three thousand tons. That's all I can offer."
"Th-three thousand?!"
Overjoyed, the envoy's eyes glittered like little stars. He almost began dancing for joy.
Three thousand tons?!
Holy shit, how much could they mark that up to—cough cough, how many innocent children and elderly could that save!
Boys, he had begged up another haul of free food!
Moral kidnapping really worked!
"Three thousand tons is fine! Three thousand tons is plenty! As long as it's arranged properly, it'll just barely be enough to see the working masses of the Seven Cities through this crisis..."
The envoy rubbed his hands unconsciously, practically drooling. "However, regarding that quantity of three thousand tons, m-may I ask, Mr. Ji, how will it be transported and delivered?"
"Transported? Delivered?"
Ji Jue shrugged. "I don't think that'll be necessary, will it?"
With that, he pressed a bell on his desk. Instantly, his newly appointed assistant pushed a cart rumbling in through the door.
Aboard the cart was a mountain of stacked banknotes, glowing with a vibrant, refreshing green.
Only, looking at the denominations and designs, something seemed utterly wrong.
Dazed, the envoy picked up a stack, only to realize that these weren't banknotes at all—they were booklets of freshly printed meal vouchers!
What kind of fucking meal voucher had anti-counterfeiting alchemical watermarks on it?!
Who made meal vouchers so absurdly complicated!
And you, surnamed Ji, what the hell do you mean by this?!
"What I mean is, hauling it over with immense effort incurs who knows how much transit loss and consumption along the way. I might as well shoulder the burden and take on the trouble myself," Ji Jue suggested with a smile. "Just send the people who are about to starve to death over here. Once they arrive, they can find work on the spot and eat on the spot. You won't have to worry about whether they live or die afterward. If the Seven Cities can't afford to keep them alive, I will. Rest assured, if anyone starves to death under my care, I offer a full reimbursement. How about it?"
*You motherfucking Ji...*
*You're playing me!*
The envoy's face twitched violently, his fists clenching hard.
Yet what could he say?
He couldn't say a thing; he didn't even dare utter a peep.
Even if this were brought before the Seven Cities Council, Luo Island had a justification: *What charity? We call this work-for-relief! It's not just for outsiders; that's how we run our own island!*
During this period of depression, Haian Industries was using precisely this method to recruit massive numbers of workers.
Based on the work completed by each individual, vouchers were issued that could be used within Haian Industries' own enterprises to purchase a wide variety of officially designated goods.
This included meat, vegetables, flour, medicine, drinking water, alcohol, and cigarettes...
They even sold RAM sticks and solid-state drives!
As for prices, they were discounted beyond discounted, the very bottom of cost price. Converted into labor, an adult driving screws for one hour earned enough to feed themselves; driving screws for a full day fed their entire family plus a dog, with enough left over for an extra dish and a drink in the evening!
Now, virtually everyone across Luo Island worked for Ji Jue. Even before this, the homeless had vanished completely from the streets.
Mr. Ji was kindhearted and couldn't bear to see such misery.
*Everyone into the factory!*
Those who could breathe kept working; those looking to reform could start anew; those incorrigibly wicked would receive their due retribution.
Even if you were disabled, it was no problem—you could take out a loan against your future work hours to get fitted with prosthetics. Broken arm? Install an arm. Broken leg? Install a leg.
*Get your asses onto the assembly lines!*
Even if you genuinely knew nothing and couldn't do a thing, spending the day folding cardboard boxes would still get you two free meals!
Aside from that, Ji Jue didn't care about individuals reselling vouchers on the black market.
You earned money with your own hands driving screws; what you did with it was your own business. Besides, even if someone strapped themselves to the assembly line twenty-four hours a day until they were foaming at the mouth, how much could they actually make?
Drop in the bucket.
Even under these terms, Ji Jue still turned a profit!
Weapons and components were sold to Mid-Continent, engines and chassis to Haizhou. Surplus productive capacity was used to meet Punabantu's demands, and the remaining construction equipment was stockpiled to target the post-disaster reconstruction market once the Pestilent Wind passed... The profits were delightfully substantial, and the outlook was brilliantly booming.
Now, across Luo Island and more than half of Xiangzhou, there was effectively only one company left: Haian Industries. The only distinction was whether you were a contracted employee or a temp worker.
If not for the Pestilent Wind, recruiting and expanding so effortlessly wouldn't have been so easy for Ji Jue.
As for how badly Old Gou, Yu Shu, and the others wished they were dead from overwork, that fell outside the factory director's scope of concern.
And what the Seven Cities Council thought...
None of my fucking business!
"Safe travels, Representative."
Ji Jue stood up, courteously escorting the stiff-faced envoy to the door, then slammed it shut with a sharp click.
Just these meal vouchers, just this much aid. Take it or get the hell out!
Regardless of whether they cooperated, plenty of people across the Seven Cities over the past two days had risked life and limb to smuggle themselves onto Luo Island just for a bite to eat, among whom were not a few highly educated technical specialists.
Considering how precious talent was, Ji Jue didn't even dare let them bring their own rations; he had Ling Shuo and Jinmao open an office directly at the Seven Cities' smuggling docks.
Sign the contract and board the ship immediately! Maxed-out wages, top-tier benefits, done deal.
Now he just couldn't understand: with such a winning hand, where even half-assing it could net a passing sixty percent, how had this bunch of vermin managed to utterly ruin everything?!
Why haven't you bastards dropped dead yet?
Soon, after confirming with his assistant that there was nothing else left to waste his time on, Ji Jue dusted his hands and left.
Talking to idiots for too long really reduced a man's stats.
If he didn't refresh and clear his mind soon, he might drag his own intellect down to the local bracket...
Taking a step forward, he vanished from the office.
A moment later, he reappeared in an enclosed subterranean space several hundred meters beneath the ground.
As far as the eye could see across the vast space, the ceiling, walls, and floor were all coated in a layer of dazzling, shifting crystals.
Massive crystalline structures hung suspended in midair, refracting faint light. Routed through numerous prisms, they formed an intricate, colossal system that enveloped the entire chamber.
And right at the center, surrounded by thousands of prisms and crystals, stood the reborn Prosperity—and before the ship, Lou Feng hovered in midair.
He floated weightlessly like a ghost.
Behind him, translucent limbs stretched outward like extended hands, plugging into the workshop's unimaginably complex spiritus matrix, manipulating the structure of the Star of Bethlehem, controlling everything.
With his movements, resentful hisses echoed ceaselessly from the void.
Focused beneath layers of prisms and crystals, the iron-and-stone hull of the Prosperity turned semi-transparent, revealing the ferocious silhouette sealed within.
It resembled an endless, boundless serpent, its head crowned with menacing horns, its face half-human and half-snake, thrashing violently with boundless fury and malice!
With every spasm, the hull shuddered faintly, agitating the spiritus in the void.
Unfortunately, no matter how it struggled, it could not shake off the shackles and fetters binding its spirit body.
Instead, like spinning a cocoon around itself, its thrashing only gave Little Niuma more openings to exploit as the erosion of dragon blood bit deeper and deeper...
Thus, the more enraged it grew, the more powerless it became; the more powerless it became, the more enraged it grew.
Trapped in a vicious cycle closing in from both sides, there was no way out.
After who knew how many times the great serpent had swallowed elephants, now it was the serpent's turn to be devoured by another monster.
For the Azure Jiao, this was nothing short of the ultimate humiliation!
A dignified Desolation-grade calamity beast's remnant spirit, trapped within the Juque by Solid Alchemy, was being digested bit by bit by Little Niuma—a creature that couldn't even be counted as an infant—slowly stripped and devoured alive, inch by inch.
Not a single scrap went to waste!
"Such rapid progress, Old Lou! You never disappoint!"
Ji Jue clapped his hands.
He had originally thought it would take at least half a month, but once the task landed in Lou Feng's hands, it had sped up so much that half the work was done in just two days!
Now, atop the iron-and-stone hull of the Prosperity, faint scale-like patterns were already emerging. Before long, the Azure Jiao's remnant spirit would merge completely into the Juque, finishing the transformation.
"Since you're so eager to court death, how could I not lend a hand?"
Lou Feng couldn't hold back a sneer. "Ji, you really have some nerve, casually dragging back an Azure Jiao's spirit... Those beasts hold grudges like nothing else. From now on, whenever the Prosperity takes to the sea, every merfolk within several thousand li will probably go mad."
"There's an upside like that?!"
Ji Jue blurted out in shock, sounding utterly incredulous.
Cruising out to sea, singing songs and eating hot pot while materials continuously delivered themselves right to his doorstep?
Getting fed and packing leftovers to go—wouldn't that be a bit too much?
Chapter 744