Chapter 1916: Chapter 1909: Two Old Foxes
Vic clearly hadn’t expected Zhang Menglong to speak so bluntly.
Of course, this was exactly what he’d been thinking in his heart. In his eyes, aside from other Fortress Cities, no one had the qualification to rival his Luosai Fortress City. As for Zhang Menglong’s Illusion City, he saw it as a place that could change hands at any time.
But before that, he had to figure out how exactly Zhang Menglong got all that meat, how this city had been built overnight, and who had set up this Formation. Then the second step would be to get these resources under his own control.
Otherwise, if he attacked Illusion City right away, even if he took the city, if he ended up with an empty shell, all his efforts would have been for nothing. So he had to first put on a cooperative stance when dealing with Zhang Menglong.
He just hadn’t expected the other party to directly say out loud his inner intentions, not leaving him even a shred of face. If there were other people around right now, he’d already have no way to step down from the stage.
But even so, he still had to endure it. Tearing his face with Zhang Menglong at this moment would be an extremely unwise move; that would be equivalent to standing completely on the opposite side of Zhang Menglong before he even understood this city.
As for Zhang Menglong, the reason he dared to talk like this straight out of the gate was naturally because he was sure this Vic wouldn’t dare tear his face with him. If Vic wanted to take Illusion City, there was no way he could afford a direct break with him.
"Hahaha, Brother Gu Xiao really loves to joke," as expected, Vic burst out laughing, seemingly using his laughter to cover up his inner awkwardness. "We may have many Fortress Cities in this Endless Land, but we’ve always been non-aggressive toward each other, even supporting one another at critical times. How could something like what you said possibly happen?"
"City Lord Vic really doesn’t think that way?" Zhang Menglong put on a pitiful look. "You’ve seen it yourself, my Illusion City’s only been established for a few days, the population’s only a few dozen billion, and our entire defensive power is just over five thousand Dao Realm Martial Artists. If City Lord Vic wanted to mess around, I actually wouldn’t have much of a way to stop you."
"Brother Gu Xiao, you’re overthinking it," Vic explained. "I simply noticed the resources on both sides. Of course, I also have some selfish motives. You know, during this period of spatial chaos, our Luosai Fortress City suffered a devastating blow, the entire city’s construction was destroyed. My aide told me that just rebuilding the basic infrastructure alone will take dozens of years."
"That long?" Zhang Menglong said in an exaggerated tone on purpose.
"Yeah," Vic sighed, "and during that period, we might keep suffering damage from spatial dislocations, essentially rebuilding while being destroyed. For the residents of our Luosai Fortress City, this is definitely not good news."
Vic frowned, looking every bit like a good City Lord genuinely worrying about the future of Luosai Fortress City.
"But Brother Gu Xiao, your place here is several times the size of our Luosai Fortress City and can completely accommodate my people. Besides, we have a million Dao Realm Martial Artists in Luosai Fortress City. I know your Formation can at most deal with Phantom Profound Beasts below Third Grade Dao Realm, and my people just happen to be able to help you make up for these shortcomings."
"And one more thing!" Vic continued, "After our people from Luosai Fortress City move into Illusion City, that population represents a massive amount of resources and funds. By then, Illusion City’s daily Crystal Core income will absolutely be hundreds or even thousands of times what it is now. That’s a good thing for both of us!"
"That’s true," Zhang Menglong looked as if he really had started to hesitate. In reality, since Vic was eyeing his Illusion City, how could Zhang Menglong not have thought about the population resources of Luosai Fortress City?
No matter how many of those scattered survival teams there were, the problem of them being too dispersed still made things a pain. But what if he could just directly bring over the people from Luosai Fortress City?
These people actually didn’t care which city they lived in. There were no concepts of nations or ethnicities here; the only factor was survival. Those survivors couldn’t possibly have any real emotional attachment to Vic.
Once they experienced in Illusion City a kind of happiness they’d never felt in Luosai Fortress City, they would naturally treat this place as their home. Zhang Menglong had never worried about that. So if Vic brought his people into Illusion City, Zhang Menglong would absolutely be delighted.
As for the ordinary Dao Realm Martial Artists originally from Luosai Fortress City, Zhang Menglong had ways to make them immediately defect to his side. His Soul Dividing Pill was way more badass than Vic’s Soul Shard Suppressor. One only controlled, the other could heal. Anyone whose brain hadn’t been slammed by a door wouldn’t choose the former.
The only thing he had to worry about was Vic and his close confidants.
But that wasn’t something that couldn’t be dealt with.
All in all, everything of Vic’s could be brought under Zhang Menglong’s control!
Vic saw Zhang Menglong looking like he wanted to speak but was holding back, and immediately felt that there was hope!
"If Brother Gu Xiao has any concerns, just tell me directly!" Vic said. "Anything I can help you solve, I definitely will!"
"It’s like this," Zhang Menglong said, "City Lord Vic, when you bring the people of Luosai Fortress City to reside in our Illusion City, by then ninety-nine percent of the population will be the original residents of Luosai Fortress City. Are we going to split our future profits based on that ratio? As the saying goes, clear accounts make good brothers. Since you want to cooperate, we’d better discuss these things in advance."
"We’ll split fifty-fifty!" Although Vic felt a sharp pain in his heart, once it was fifty-fifty, it was equivalent to almost giving up half his income, because his population would bring huge consumption to Illusion City, an amount far surpassing the value Illusion City’s own residents could create.
"Isn’t that a bit unfair to you?" Zhang Menglong’s smile was so wide his karmic merits were about to be docked clean.
Don’t be fooled by Illusion City’s current hundred billion residents; that might still just be a fraction of Luosai Fortress City. Under these circumstances, a fifty-fifty split meant he was making a killing!
"But I have one condition," Vic said. "My share doesn’t include the production methods and profits of my Soul Shard Suppressor, and to keep things fair, I also won’t participate in Brother Gu Xiao’s profits from the meat product business!"
The fees for entering his city and so on were actually small change. The Soul Shard Suppressor was truly the largest part of Luosai Fortress City’s income. As long as he controlled that resource, he could minimize his losses!
"Of course!"
Zhang Menglong agreed without even thinking. Honestly, he really didn’t care about this stuff at all! Compared to the Soul Dividing Pill, these Suppressors were no different from trash.
Vic had not expected Zhang Menglong to agree so quickly. Logically, shouldn’t he be haggling with him?
"I just have one more request," Zhang Menglong actually added, "to be honest, I’m very interested in City Lord’s potion, so I want to study it myself. I don’t know if Mr. Vic could spare me a little when you’re purchasing Spectral Grass?"
"How much does Brother Gu Xiao want?" Vic wasn’t worried at all that Zhang Menglong could really figure anything out. Their researchers had spent tens of millions of years to develop this Soul Shard Suppressor. Even if Zhang Menglong had the potion to study, the complex formula and ratios were not something he could deduce. Vic simply wasn’t concerned.
Besides, he had no intention of "cooperating" with Zhang Menglong for too long!
"Not much, just give me a few tens of thousands of plants a day to play with?"
"Fine!" A few tens of thousands of plants might not even cover the natural loss during potion production!
"In that case, here’s to our happy cooperation!"
"Happy cooperation!"
The two old foxes each harbored their own schemes, but Vic never imagined that he himself had also become Zhang Menglong’s prey.
