As a transmigrator without any cheats, Anbaixiu had always maintained the habit of daily self-reflection:
Have I been swindled today? Who am I going to swindle today? And how do I maximize my profits?
Right now, what Anbaixiu needed to consider was how to maximize his profits.
He had seen the Dragon Tomb with his own eyes; aside from a heap of bones and peculiar magical creations, it was thoroughly impoverished. In all likelihood, the other dragons were no better off.
Why had the mighty dragons fallen on such hard times? Simply because the islands here were barren. The truly resource-rich area was the seabed, yet most dragons were not particularly adept swimmers.
Not that touching water would drown them, but they simply lacked the knack for it.
On land, no matter how many fishmen came to fight a dragon, it was nothing more than suicide.
Once submerged underwater, however, if a dragon dived into the ocean depths, a small squad of fishman warriors could easily toy with it until it perished.
They could only catch fish in the shallows; venture into the deep sea, and the dragon would become the fishmen's prey.
Bone dragons, on the other hand, made the finest divers. Thus, during the early days when dragonkind first established a foothold overseas, Sefris had been the busiest of them all.
He required neither rest nor breath, able to hunt tirelessly day and night on the seafloor to feed those squawking, famished hatchlings—including his own daughter, a newly hatched little prismatic dragon.
Years later, dragonkind had painstakingly adapted to this fish-eating existence, but even so, they merely scraped by.
Reproduction was a major problem. Their population had struggled to grow; instead, many dragons had perished from various causes.
Because of this, the dragons were dirt-poor. With few islands scattered across these waters, suitable territory to roost was minuscule, and there were barely any slaves to dominate. Consequently, these dragons were so flat broke that a shout inside their lairs returned nothing but hollow echoes.
As such, the notion of hauling away tens of billions of gold coins from their lairs was a pipe dream. Anbaixiu had to find another angle to maximize his profits.
Aside from treasure, what else of value did dragons possess?
Undoubtedly, their very bodies.
Dragon bones, dragon scales, dragon blood, dragon hearts, dragon marrow... every single piece was priceless treasure.
These things could not be extracted through violence; Anbaixiu alone could hardly take on over a hundred dragons.
Moreover, while Gareth had just helped pull a fast one on his father-in-law, he wouldn't stand by and let Anbaixiu slaughter dragonkind—he would never hear the end of it from the Bone Dragon Eldest Miss.
At the end of the day, dealing with the overseas dragons meant relying on commerce to reap profits.
That made things simple. The dragons lacked everything; if he shipped in goods they needed from the continent, dragons would naturally volunteer to strip their scales to buy what they wanted.
One should never consider peeling scales for goods unreasonable; in his previous life, Anbaixiu had seen people sell a kidney for a phone that went obsolete within a year.
As long as he held an iron grip on this trade route, Anbaixiu would become the sole middleman. Countless predecessors had already proven just how lucrative a monopoly could be.
Yet pulling off this scheme would not be easy.
First, he had to convince the dragons to trade with him rather than simply resort to outright robbery.
Another thing: the dragons must never return to the continent. Otherwise, how could he maintain a monopoly?
All this dictated that Anbaixiu had to sabotage the dragons' plan to return, and right now, he was already halfway there.
Perhaps the talk of dragonkind's total extinction had hooked Sefris hook, line, and sinker; what the old dragon could least accept was the obliteration of his race. That was precisely why he continued guarding dragonkind even after turning into a bone dragon; despite the discrimination from his living kin, Sefris still thought only of protecting them.
In that sense, he stood at the polar opposite of the Rose of Decay, who, as the former queen of Ryan, constantly schemed to destroy her own kind.
Anbaixiu had indeed given Sefris a wake-up call: with dragonkind's current strength, returning to the continent would certainly end in racial extinction. Having been swayed by the Githyanki's sweet talk, Sefris had initially believed there was real hope for a homecoming; then, consumed by the friction between the living and the undead, he had never truly examined the matter.
Now, he was determined to stop the other dragons from throwing their lives away.
By any means necessary, he could not allow the dragons to return to the continent to die, nor let dragonkind face the threat of extinction.
"Please wait here at the Dragon Tomb. I will go contact my kin."
Sefris hurried off, leaving Anbaixiu and his companions behind.
Only after the old dragon departed did Melina lower the notebook in her hands. With utter seriousness, she asked Anbaixiu, "Father, what just happened? Why did he obey you after you gave him such a tongue-lashing? I wasn't spacing out, but it feels like I missed something."
Before Anbaixiu could explain, Aige nodded in agreement. "Indeed, even I couldn't follow what happened. At first, Sefris was clearly targeting you. After just a few minutes of talking, you somehow talked him into gladly doing your bidding?"
Aige was genuinely amazed. She had only worked with Anbaixiu once before; although his methods back then were formidable, watching the master of the Dragon Tomb get smoothly duped into foolishness with mere words made her head spin.
Had the President invited Anbaixiu to join simply because of this knack of his?
Anbaixiu had nothing special to explain, only remarking casually to Melina, "When conversing with someone, you must genuinely desire what's best for them, and they will naturally sense it. Put yourself in their shoes and think from their perspective; that way, it's easier to uncover the root of the conflict. One look at Sefris tells you he values dragonkind above himself, so taking dragonkind as the entry point was obvious. As long as you make him realize what poisons dragons and what serves as their antidote, he will naturally take action. Thus, sincerity is the ultimate trump card. Do you understand, Melina?"
Melina pondered for a long while before replying, "I will remember that."
Anbaixiu: ...
'Remember it' instead of 'understand it'—is this silly child planning to memorize it by rote? Forget it; she's better off as a carefree princess. No need to force it if she lacks the talent.
Anbaixiu decided that once they returned, he would talk with the Rose of Decay to stop making things hard on the kid; it was a waste of time with nothing to show for it.
Taking advantage of Sefris's absence, Anbaixiu began harvesting heavily throughout the Dragon Tomb.
He wasn't greedy: where three Dragonbone Vines grew together, he took only two. He applied the same rule to other materials, always leaving some behind to ensure he never uprooted them completely.
Gareth followed by Anbaixiu's side, pointing out where the Dragon Tomb harbored the densest patches of rare materials.
Being able to fleece his father-in-law was enough to make Gareth wake up laughing in his dreams.
The two worked in collusion to sweep through the Dragon Tomb, then carefully touched up the surroundings to make the harvested spots look less conspicuous.
After gathering several million gold coins' worth of materials, someone returned to the Dragon Tomb.
This time, however, it was not Sefris, but the long-unseen Bone Dragon Eldest Miss.
Canggu manifested before everyone in the form of a dragon soul. The moment she spotted Anbaixiu, she demanded, "What did you say to my father? I saw him rushing away on my way back."
Earlier, Canggu had led other bone dragons to hunt in the deep sea while searching for undersea treasures.
Such was life for bone dragons: no worries about food, and the off chance of digging up something valuable from the ocean floor.
Today, however, she had found nothing. On her return, she had bumped into Sefris, who dashed off without even explaining himself clearly.
"Why blame me right off the bat?" Anbaixiu said innocently. "I didn't do anything, just had a chat with him."
Canggu warned with utmost gravity, "That mouth of yours is more terrifying than a ninth-tier spell! If you dare deceive my father, I will never let you off!"
Anbaixiu glanced at Gareth. No wonder the man stashed away private savings.
The Bone Dragon Eldest Miss was usually pleasant enough, but whenever her father was involved, she turned somewhat unreasonable and rude.
Then again, it made sense. Canggu had likely watched her father toil tirelessly for dragonkind since her youth, painstakingly raising her and guarding her until she turned into a bone dragon.
Such deep-seated affection made her agitation understandable.
Still, Anbaixiu had already prepared his response. He addressed Canggu, "Don't be nervous. I assure you, it is for the good of dragonkind. I merely persuaded him to halt the dragons' plan to return to their homeland. For dragons to return to the continent now would only provoke everyone's fury. Once that war concludes, dragonkind will go extinct. Besides, do you truly believe that plan could succeed?"
Canggu furrowed her brow, pondering for a moment before asking, "What do you mean? Are you saying those dragons from the Astral Plane are lying to us?"
Anbaixiu nodded with absolute certainty. "Without question. I told you before, didn't I? Tiamat sent them here from the Astral Plane. What good could ever come from a hell lord's scheme? I'd bet good money that plenty of dragons have already been duped into signing devil contracts, selling off their very souls."
Hearing this, Canggu exclaimed in shock, "How could that be? Tiamat is a dragon too!"
Anbaixiu was dumbfounded by the remark. What was with dragonkind? Did their obsession with kinship make them forfeit their brains entirely?
"Eldest Miss, first and foremost, the Evil Dragon Goddess is not just a dragon—she is a hell lord, an archdevil. Isn't talking about racial solidarity with an archdevil a bit too fanciful?"
"No, that's merely your speculation," Canggu said stubbornly, yet her ghostly dragon form trembled.
Gareth stepped up beside Canggu, wrapping his imposing frame around her to hold her close. He comforted her, "Don't panic. Your father won't be in any real danger; you know what he's capable of. Besides, whatever that Evil Dragon Goddess is scheming, leave the muscle to me and the brains to my brother here. Rest easy, everything will be fine."
Anbaixiu felt utter disdain at Gareth dragging him into this public display of affection. Still, considering all the materials they had just gathered, Anbaixiu decided to let it slide.
Yet matters seemed to be taking a turn for the worse.
Sefris had been gone for a long time. From daytime into night, he neither returned to the Dragon Tomb nor sent back any word.
"Are the other dragons located so far away? Does it require such a long flight? Is there no teleportation array?" Anbaixiu asked.
Canggu explained rather nervously, "It is somewhat far, but after this long, he should have returned. Could Father have..."
Before Canggu could finish, Gareth abruptly stood up, a saber wreathed in black flames already in his grip.
"Someone is approaching the Dragon Tomb," Gareth said. "It's those toads!"
Chapter 376