"A set of data on the mechanical weapons, and a price quotation," Fu Qingyang said.
"That's it?" Zhang Yuanqing asked, surprised.
Propping his elbows on the desk, Fu Qingyang gave a dry chuckle.
"Of course it wasn't that simple. In Xiahou Aotian's name, I sent headquarters a partnership proposal offering to supply the Five Elements Alliance with mechanical weapons. I promised that within six months, four types of mechanical weapons would become standard equipment for official garrison squads, and I gave them a fifty percent discount.
"Once mechanical weapons are widely adopted, they will substantially bolster the strength of grassroots official members, reduce casualties in combat, and enhance the Five Elements Alliance's authority. The Ten Old Fogies at headquarters had no reason to refuse.
"I also told them that these four mechanical weapons are just the beginning, and there will be more functions and a wider variety of mechanical weapons in the future. Do you know what that means?"
"Equipment iteration—a glorious revolution," Zhang Yuanqing said, spreading his arms.
"It hardly qualifies as a revolution, but the equipment iteration is very real," Fu Qingyang looked at him and explained. "You probably don't know this, but back then, the officials partnered with the three Scholar families to establish a research fund called 'Promoting Ancient Arts.' The objective was to trigger an equipment iteration through mechanism craft, boosting the combat power of low-to-mid-tier spirit realm walkers so the Five Elements Alliance could quickly close the gap with Heaven's Punishment, or even draw level.
"It was a visionary strategy. Although those Ten Old Fogies at headquarters are obnoxious, they do possess real capability. Unfortunately, mechanism craft relies on technological accumulation, which isn't something money alone can solve.
"Just like advanced engines or high-performance chips: if you can't manufacture them, you simply can't. When others have spent over a century accumulating technology, why would you think you can overtake them in ten or twenty years? Ancient cultivators accumulated thousands of years of mechanism technology; on what grounds could spirit realm walkers, with barely a century of history, expect to surpass that?"
Fu Qingyang spoke with composed assurance: "Naturally, the main reason headquarters agreed so swiftly was because I informed them that Xiahou Aotian would send that exact same quotation to Heaven's Punishment overseas ten minutes later."
With that, he gazed placidly at Zhang Yuanqing, an expression all over his face that said, *I'm done speaking; go ahead with your usual routine.*
Zhang Yuanqing bowed without hesitation. "Boss, you are truly brilliant!"
Fu Qingyang nodded in satisfaction.
"Still, Boss, isn't a half-price discount a huge loss?" As a college student, Zhang Yuanqing was reasonably good at mental math. Songhai alone had forty to fifty squads and several hundred Transcendent walkers.
One could only imagine how many squads the entire Five Elements Alliance possessed.
Offering all those mechanical weapons at half price meant losing a massive fortune. Moreover, Fu Qingyang was fronting the material costs; for such astronomical capital, even two tycoons named Ma would have to sell off everything they owned to scrape it together.
"Half price is not an issue; we can make it back on maintenance fees. All we need to do is appropriately reduce the service life of the mechanical weapons and implant a self-destruct mechanism that triggers upon unauthorized disassembly. When the officials need to repair them, they will have no choice but to come to us," Fu Qingyang said. "I could even provide them for free, because 'free' is always the most expensive. We can rake in exorbitant profits just as well by marking up the maintenance fees several times over."
*What kind of Tencent move is this...?* Zhang Yuanqing grumbled inwardly.
"When you badmouth me in your head, you'd better bow your head," Fu Qingyang said, his gaze turning chilly.
"Ahem!" Zhang Yuanqing cleared his throat hurriedly. "Then do you have enough funds? That's no small sum... Oh, right, I forgot—you still have the Fu family behind you."
Unexpectedly, Fu Qingyang shook his head slightly. "I don't intend to let the Fu family intervene. If I did, the decision-maker of our company would become the Fu Family Council of Elders."
"Then... do you have that much cash?" Zhang Yuanqing asked in surprise.
If the Fu family wasn't allowed to step in, Fu Qingyang's personal assets alone likely couldn't shoulder such enormous expenses.
"I don't!" Fu Qingyang shook his head as expected. "That's why I had you bring Fu Xue on board. Though her business hasn't been flourishing in recent years, she has accumulated eight to ten billion in family fortune. Wouldn't the money be solved then?"
Pausing, Fu Qingyang curled the corner of his lips. "Once she sinks her entire net worth into our company, she will have no retreat left. She will even rack her brains to raise money to sustain the company's cash flow. Fu Xue has served as a professional manager for the Fu family for over a decade. Her network is vast, and she knows countless wealthy elites. People will be willing to lend her money out of respect for the Fu family, so we won't need to worry about capital.
"However, I will not grant her decision-making power, meaning she will have to defer to us. When that time comes, let alone the Fu family opposing your marriage to Guan Ya, even if Guan Ya has a change of heart and refuses to marry you, Fu Xue will tie her daughter up herself and deliver her straight into your bridal chamber."
"You're so damn underhanded... Ah, I mean, Boss, you're so damn brilliant." Zhang Yuanqing was utterly stunned, feeling acutely that his experience in society was far too shallow to fathom the treachery of human hearts.
Since the conversation had reached this point, Zhang Yuanqing, as one of the company's shareholders, voiced some of his thoughts:
"The mechanism manual is so vital; will anyone within the official ranks stir up trouble, like stealing the blueprints or planting spy Scholars in our company to steal the technology? For our company to expand, we'll definitely need a lot of Scholars."
"That is why the White Tiger Guards I maintain will come in handy. They will make the best security guards for the company," Fu Qingyang had clearly already considered these concerns. "As for Scholars, I have two contingency plans. First, have Li Chunfeng recruit people; he is a Scholar from Wanbao House, which has no shortage of Scholars. Second, have Xiahou Aotian select trustworthy clansmen from the Xiahou family."
"The Xiahou family probably wants to purge him from their ranks right now. Why would they give us Scholars?" Zhang Yuanqing retorted drily.
"That is Xiahou Aotian's own business. As long as he can withstand the pressure from the Xiahou family, they will naturally cooperate with us," Fu Qingyang said.
"Can Xiahou Aotian withstand it?" Zhang Yuanqing frowned.
"It's difficult, so I set up three layers of insurance." Fu Qingyang was meticulous in everything he did. "First, I signed a contract with Xiahou Aotian. If he chooses to defect to his family, the power of the contract will kill him.
"Second, not only did I have him empty his savings to front the material costs, but I also loaned him two hundred million in debt.
"Third, I have already reassigned five Saints from the White Tiger Guards over here. These Saints and Scholars will all report to him and call him 'Leader.' Xiahou Aotian is ostentatious and flamboyant, longing to show off before the whole world. Back in the Xiahou family, he was a loner and nobody paid him any mind, leaving his inner cravings perpetually unfulfilled. Now that he is here, it feels just like home to him."
"Boss, you are so damn brilliant." Zhang Yuanqing bowed again.
***
"Who do you think you're talking to?"
In the adjacent workshop, Xiahou Aotian leaned lazily against a high-backed chair with his legs crossed. Behind him stood five Saints, making him look like the head of a syndicate.
Opposite him was a middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses, carrying the aura of a university professor.
The normally refined and cultured professor was now overwhelmed with fury, his face flushed red as he pointed at Xiahou Aotian and berated him:
"Xiahou Aotian, do you realize what you've done?! You have the secret manual for mechanism craft, yet instead of sharing it with the family, you let outsiders profit from it?! The family raised you for over twenty years—is this how you repay the family?!"
Xiahou Aotian remained completely unperturbed.
"Sixth Uncle, it was my parents who raised me. What does that have to do with the family? Once I make money, I will naturally repay my parents. Stop spouting nonsense here. You may be my Sixth Uncle, but you should know that standing before you is the future richest man in the country."
"You... you..."
"Sixth Uncle, you're no longer worthy of sitting as my equal. Only if Granduncle comes will I say a few words to him, and if the Old Ancestor comes, he would merely warrant me saying, 'Bring a seat.'"
The middle-aged man pointed at him, trembling all over, too enraged to speak. After a long moment, he lamented in deep anguish:
"We haven't seen each other for just a few days, and your ego has already inflated to this degree?!"
Xiahou Aotian raised his chin high.
The middle-aged man took a deep breath. "As long as you share the mechanism craft with the family, shares can be negotiated."
"I've already signed a contract."
"The family will pay the penalty for breach of contract."
"I signed a binding oath."
"We will ask the Old Ancestor to step in and break it."
Xiahou Aotian thought for a moment and said, "The family's attitude is quite good, but I refuse!"
"Why?!" the middle-aged professor demanded angrily.
Xiahou Aotian tilted his chin up. "Tell him!"
The five Saints behind him bowed in unison and bellowed at the top of their lungs, "Greetings, Leader!!"
"Did you see that? This is something the Xiahou family could never give me! You bunch of old fogies are all my elders and do nothing but flaunt your seniority in front of me. This place—this is my paradise!" Xiahou Aotian spread his arms wide, like a devout believer embracing the divine radiance of the Lord.
"Just... just for this?!" Clutching his chest, the middle-aged professor stumbled backward, utterly incapable of accepting such a reason.
He glared furiously at Xiahou Aotian for several seconds, then turned and stormed off.
There was no way he could persuade this eccentric nephew of his; he would leave it to the old clan head to handle. Compared to those playboy juniors who loved pursuing money and chasing women, Xiahou Aotian's awful personality was what gave the family elders the biggest headache.
What did being a playboy matter? Who hadn't been a little reckless and pampered when they were young? They would gradually mature and settle down.
When dealing with playboys, elders only needed to scold and discipline them at most. But when dealing with Xiahou Aotian, the elders had to keep a bottle of fast-acting heart-rescue pills in their pockets.
"Sixth Uncle, wait!" Xiahou Aotian called out suddenly.
The middle-aged man looked back coldly.
Xiahou Aotian pulled a document from a drawer. "This is a partnership agreement I drafted. The lion's share naturally can't go to the family, but since my surname is Xiahou after all, I'm willing to yield some profits to the family. As long as the Xiahou family provides Transcendent-stage Scholars for our company, I can give the Xiahou family a five percent stake—half provided by me, and half by Fu Qingyang."
The middle-aged man's eyes lit up. He strode over, took the document from Xiahou Aotian's hand, and his tone softened considerably:
"Now that's more like it. I will report this to the family; wait for the news."
A newly founded mechanical weapon manufacturing company would inevitably require immense capital. If the family were required to provide both funding and Scholars, a five percent stake would obviously not be worth it.
However, if they only had to provide Scholars, then a five percent stake was essentially free profit.
Having sent Sixth Uncle away, Xiahou Aotian went happily off to tighten screws.
***
Free Federation, State of Forske.
A freshly waxed red sports car sped through the countryside. On both sides lay vast swathes of wheat fields, beneath a washed-clean blue sky and drifting white clouds; the scenery was picturesque as a fairy tale.
The woman driving was equally picturesque, with a hint of devilish allure.
Her exact age was impossible to tell, though she had certainly reached the ripeness of a mature peach. Her delicately curled hair fluttered in the wind. She wore black sunglasses, perched over a tall nose and a sharp chin, her makeup immaculately applied.
A black skirt suit paired with a white blouse accentuated the curvaceous, well-defined figure of a mature woman.
Soon, the red sports car stopped outside a grand estate.
The woman in the car took off her sunglasses and glanced at the surveillance camera before the wrought-iron gate shaped like black thorns.
Seconds later, the wrought-iron gate slowly swung open.
The red sports car drove into the estate. The grounds spanned an enormous area, complete with its own shopping mall, bars, and even a school.
The Fu family's direct line, collateral branches, and maternal relatives numbered fifty to sixty thousand in total, all residing within this sprawling, city-like estate.
The red sports car arrived outside a building resembling a spired ancient castle. Most structures in the estate were exquisite villas and high-rises, leaving only this castle looking as ancient as though it belonged to the previous century.
The people living inside were also old relics from the previous century.
—The clan elders of the Fu family.
The Council of Elders consisted of the first, second, and third batches of spirit realm walkers from the Fu family, the youngest of whom was already over eighty years old.
These people formed the core of the Fu family's power.
As a renowned, prominent clan among spirit realm walkers, the Fu family possessed hundreds of billions in assets (in Federal dollars). The clan boasted a large number of spirit realm walkers, including two Peak Dominators.
There was also a considerable number of Dominators below level 9.
Yet prior to Fu Qingxuan's rise, the Fu family had always harbored a regret: they had never produced a single demigod.
Now, the Fu family's new regret was that they had not produced a second demigod.
Fu Xue parked her car and slammed the door shut. Amid the loud bang, she took off her sunglasses and, with a frosty face, barged briskly into the castle.
She went straight to the head butler's office and glared at her distant cousin. "Fu Long, why did you sell the three publicly listed companies under my management? You owe me a reasonable explanation!"
Her distant cousin was dressed in formal attire, his expression stern and grim like a battle-hardened officer.
Facing his younger cousin's interrogation, he replied in a cool tone:
"Since when does a decision made by the Council of Elders require an explanation to you?"
Fu Xue's fair, delicate face twitched, then she suddenly broke into a chuckle. "Fine. I'm practically unemployed anyway, so I have plenty of free time."
With that, she dragged a chair over, insolently slumped down across from the head butler, and retrieved a lighter and slim cigarettes from her designer handbag. Her luscious red lips clamped the cigarette filter, and she began puffing away.
A beautiful woman is a feast for the eyes no matter what she does; even smoking was imbued with charm.
However, Fu Long, who never touched alcohol or tobacco, frowned.
After a few seconds of standoff, Fu Long let out a resigned breath. "You're still as unreasonably demanding as you were as a child."
"Speak!" Fu Xue glared at him. "Is the family planning to liquidate assets and shift its operational focus back to the country?"
She had come here today with two purposes: first, to confirm the family's development focus and verify what Fu Qingyang had told her; second, to cause a scene.
She had no say in the family's development plans and could only submit, but why sell only the companies under her management?
Fu Xue had inquired around: the only assets liquidated recently were the three listed companies managed by her, while the businesses run by her other clan brothers and cousins continued to thrive.
Over the years, because Guan Ya hadn't lived up to expectations and Fu Xue had divorced her husband, she had struggled on her own yet was still gradually pushed out of the inner circle of power.
As the daughter of the previous clan head and the directest of direct descendants, her current situation could only be described as pathetic.
The clan elders were bullying her far too much.
Fu Xue was a proud, unyielding woman. At times, she wished she had someone to confide in about her grievances and bitterness, but after being single for over a decade, there was no one to listen even if she wanted to.
So all she could do was throw a fit.
"How did you know about this..." Fu Long frowned and said, "The family indeed wants to transfer assets back to the homeland, but selling your companies wasn't because of that."
Fu Xue knitted her delicate brows. "Then the clan elders are targeting me deliberately?"
Fu Long gave her a look. "You're not even worthy of that!"
He said in a deep voice:
"It's Fu Qingyang. He recently signed a massive contract with the Five Elements Alliance, which showed the clan elders an opportunity and hope to expand territories back home. So they sold the three companies you manage to raise funds. But Fu Qingyang rejected the family's investment because he made a demand the Council of Elders could never agree to."
"What demand?"
"Fu Qingyang said his father should get lost—he wants to be the clan head." Fu Long warned, "The clan elders flew into a rage over this. You'd better stop making a scene, lest they redirect their fury onto you."
Fu Xue gritted her teeth. "All of you just bully me."
She took a deep breath. "What kind of contract did Fu Qingyang sign with the Five Elements Alliance that made the clan elders attach such importance to it?"
Chapter 556