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Chapter 1898: One Thousandth

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

“Hiss…”

Fang Chengzhi felt as if a cold wind had blown from the bottom of his heart and flowed around his body in the blink of an eye. He could not help but shudder hard.

In terms of ferocity, nobody in the entire Ancient Sages Sector could be more ferocious than Han Baling, who commanded a billion iron riders of Ghost Qin and had once charged on the Central Plateau to approach the capital city.

In terms of sordidness, who could ever best Eunuch Wang Xi, who had manipulated the emperor in the past easily, killed the ministers as if they were hens, and founded Ghost Character to raise a storm of blood in the entire world of Cultivators?

However, even Han Baling and Eunuch Wang Xi had to address Vulture Li Yao as ‘Monster Li’. How dreadful and terrifying the guy must be!

Fang Chengzhi could not help but recall the ‘Monster Li’ in the red vest that he had happened to see a few days ago. Both appalled and suspicious, he said, “I once saw Vulture Li Yao from a long distance away. He seemed rather plain and did not have the demeanor of an unparalleled monster.”

“All the monsters are temperamental and unpredictable. Do you expect them to engrave their identity on their forehead?” Fang Shiyi snorted. “I was lucky enough to meet Vulture Li Yao in person several times. Indeed, I failed to notice anything extraordinary about the man, but don’t forget how Elder Scorching Sun was killed!”

Fang Chengzhi’s pupils constricted violently. The black Cloud Qin Gold Statue whose overwhelming aura suppressed a hundred thousand Cultivators seemed to be condensing inside his eyes again. He felt all his anger and courage leak away from him as cold sweat through his pores. He opened his mouth three times, only to find nothing appropriate to say. In the end, he sighed gloomily. “Are we really submitting our family’s enterprise that we have worked on for a hundred years just like that? We will have nothing left! Hehe. All their talk about peace and friendliness and a better tomorrow is just bullsh*t. The so-called Star Glory Federation is just another bunch of hypocritical bandits. Is there any difference between their actions and Elder Scorching Sun’s? In fact, they are even more contemptible in my eyes!”

“You’re wrong again. Who says that I have submitted our family’s enterprise for nothing? Who says we have nothing left right now?” Fang Shiyi laughed. “As you heard earlier, the federal government believes that I set a good example for other people, which means that other people will be prompted to follow me. Why would the federation make us suffer losses?

“Let me tell you, dummy, while I have sold the properties, mines, and ranches of the Green Cloud Sword Sect to the federal government, it was a fair deal. I have got something in return. Or to be more exact, I received shares of the Ancient Sages Shipping Group.”

Fang Chengzhi was greatly surprised again.

Having spent more than a month in a prison cell, he was already more exhausted than ever. When he first met his father, he had only felt that the world was swirling. He had been too eager to tell his father about his miserable experience to observe his father’s appearance right now.

It was not until this moment that he finally recognized the delight and ambition in his father’s tone. His father’s face was also glowing and in high spirits. The man did not look like a victim whose property had been confiscated but like a star that was rising into the sky!

Fang Chengzhi was even more surprised when he noticed his father’s attire.

His father was still wearing the deep blue robe, with three long swords on his back, exactly the same as he had been a month earlier.

However, right above the two words ‘Green Cloud’ on his chest, a weird emblem was clipped in the most formal way. It was the enormous dragon and the nine starry pearls that had consumed Elder Scorching Sun’s fiery fiend and occupied the entire sky that day.

Fang Chengzhi now knew that it was the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars emblem of the Star Glory Federation, which represented great honor and authority of the ‘divine country’. At the very least, in the chaos right now, not everybody was qualified to wear one.

It was especially so when it came to the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag with gold stars as the background. He had only seen it on the chest of some major officials of the Star Glory Federation in the past.

However, what surprised him most was not the emblem but a red band on his father’s left arm. A two-letter abbreviation had been painted on the red band. Like what he had once seen on the uncanny ‘crystal camera’, some of the strokes were missing, but it further added to the coldness of the symbol. What was written on the red band was ‘A.?C.’¹!

Fang Chengzhi was not sure what kind of department the so-called A. C. was, but looking at the satisfaction on his father’s face, he knew that it could not be bad.

That explained a lot. By devoting all the family’s possessions, they had earned themselves a place in the new regime. If the job was a well-paid one, it was not a bad outcome.

Fang Chengzhi was not a stupid man in the first place. Thousands of thoughts rolled through his mind again, and he realized what his father wanted immediately.

He was no stranger to ‘shares’. To feed so many high and mighty sword Cultivators who did not work, the Green Cloud Sword Sect naturally had a lot of businesses under its name, of which many other people had shares.

However, there were a lot of tricks about the operation in a shared business. Some of them were even the meanest ways of exploitation that could suffocate the victims.

For example, if a sect took interest in a wealthy family’s business, it could establish an empty business, claiming that it would develop a mountain that was frequented by wild animals and evil creatures. Then, it would lure and coerce the wealthy family into buying the shares.

After the investment, it would be a fortunate outcome if the money was lost and the development of the mountain came to a natural end. In the worst cases, the sect would claim that its disciples were heavily wounded while slaying the monsters on the mountain and demand that the ‘shareholder’ present another sum of money, until the wealthy family was drained.

However, his father had always been a meticulous man, and now that his father had been regarded as a good example, the federal government certainly knew better than to kill the goose that laid golden eggs.

Thinking for a moment, Fang Chengzhi asked, “What kind of business is this… so-called Ancient Sages Shipping Group?”

Leader Fang waved his hands and explained, “The Ancient Sages Sector today has two superpowers, namely the Great Qian Dynasty and Ghost Qin, and six major sects. As for the middle and small sects, there are simply too many to count.

“Has it ever occurred to you what it would be like if all the sects united and the millions of Cultivators of the Ancient Sages Sector merged into the same super sect?

“The Green Cloud Sword Sect has farmlands and mines. We are involved in many restaurants, docks, and transportation businesses. Those businesses are all run by different branches of the sect respectively. It is the same for the ‘super sect’ that combines all the forces in the Ancient Sages Sector. It will participate in the operation and expansion in the sea of stars. It will develop the farmlands and mines on other planets and tame alien animals that you cannot even begin to imagine. Naturally, it will engage in the ‘transportation business’ of a higher level in space!

“The ‘Ancient Sages Shipping Group’, as a newly-founded business, is backed by the authorities and will be responsible for the shipping business of this super sect in space.

“You should know how profitable the shipping business is. How many sects have risen through the shipping business by controlling a few rivers? Also, considering the vastness of space, the returns of the shipping business there will be thousands of times greater than the returns from a few rivers. Trading the minor enterprise of the Green Cloud Sword Sect for shares in the shipping business of the super sect is not a bad bargain at all!”

All the sects and Cultivators of the Ancient Sages Sector were to be united into one force to establish a super sect?

Fang Chengzhi was completely dumbfounded by the splendid if not insane idea. He could not even fathom how magnificent it would be.

His mind greatly disturbed, he lost his cool and asked, “Then, how many shares has our family’s enterprise been exchanged for?”

Smiling, Leader Fang did not reply but raised one of his fingers.

Fang Chengzhi was overjoyed. “One tenth?”

Leader Fang shook his head.

Thinking for a moment, Fang Chengzhi asked again, “One percent?”

Leader Fang shook his head again. “Even the entire Purple Pole Sword Sect wouldn’t have been exchanged for one percent of the shares. But because I was the first to accept the new regime, we were offered one thousandth of the shares.”

“One—one thousandth?” Fang Chengzhi had high expectations in the beginning and thought that it was truly a great deal. It had never occurred to him that they would only be given one thousandth of the shares. That seemed too little!

Seeing the disdain on his son’s face, Leader Fang smiled bitterly and said, “You truly don’t know the first thing about the deities’ realm and the deities’ country. You have no idea how terrifying their real strength is. Let me tell you, even though we only have one thousandth of the shares, if we can operate well, the revenue will be greater than the many businesses that the Green Cloud Sword Sect had in the past. It is even safe to say that whether or not the Green Cloud Sword Sect can get rid of the influence of the Purple Pole Sword Sect and truly grow independent will depend on my wild gamble this time!”

Seeing his father’s glittering eyes, noticing the untraditional attire that his father had with the emblem and the red band, and hearing his father mentioning new terms nonstop, Fang Chengzhi suddenly thought of a new term himself. He blurted out, “Father, you—you haven’t been ‘brainwashed’ by the Star Glory Federation, have you?”

“Brainwashed?” Leader Fang was slightly dazed. His hands in his back, he laughed aloud and said, “Yes, yes. I have indeed been brainwashed by the Star Glory Federation over the past month. After witnessing the boundlessness of the universe, I feel that I’ve been entirely reshaped and that half of my life has been for nothing! Come here and follow me. Let me give you some brainwashing today!”

While talking, Leader Fang took out a silver card from his pocket. On one side of the card had the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars emblem, but on the other side, it was crowded skyscrapers that made up a splendid metropolis that exceeded Fang Chengzhi’s imagination. There were also several words on it, with some of the strokes missing—VIP Ticket.

Pointing toward an enormous starship that was floating at the end of the valley above the debris of the Red Sun Sect, Leader Fang said, “The federal government has established an Exhibition Center of the Star Glory Federation’s Hundred-Year Glory for Cultivators of the Ancient Sages Sector to learn about the new regime. The latest debugging has just been completed, but it is not officially open yet. Today, a small batch of tickets were released so that Cultivators who actively approached the new regime can visit it in advance. I have visited it already. There’s no need to tell you how shocked I was. After you visit it yourself, you will know if our ‘one thousandth of the shares’ is little and what a glorious future they will bring to the Green Cloud Sword Sect!”