Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme-Chapter 975 - 600: Great Peace_2
Chapter 975: Chapter 600: Great Peace_2
Conquest Order (Alliance)
Item Order: First-Order (Top Quality)
Item Effect: Alliance (Use it to form a military alliance, up to ten First-Order Lords can join, alliance lords can freely enter each other’s territories and receive notifications when an ally’s territory is under attack)
Item Introduction: Strength in numbers!
Conquest Order (Business Alliance)
Item Order: First-Order (Top Quality)
Item Effect: Business Alliance (Use it to form a commercial alliance, up to ten First-Order Lords can join, trade lords can freely enter each other’s territories to engage in commercial trade, and trade taxation is reduced by 30%)
Item Introduction: More people, more money!
…
Military alliances are indispensable for establishing power, without them, any verbal agreement is just as good as pie in the sky.
Trade alliances are also very crucial because Heaven-Connecting Academy collects taxes on all trade activities between lords, and the higher the Item Order of the troops, heroes, items, and equipment traded, the higher the taxation.
What, gifting?
Don’t even think about it. This is reality, not a game. Sky-reaching Tower is like the supreme deity of existence; its designated rules have no loopholes to exploit, except those it allows.
Hence, there simply isn’t any concept of gifting between lords. You can give troop types, heroes, items, and equipment to others for free, but Sky-reaching Tower will still tax you based on the Item Order of the traded goods, regardless of your trading price.
This is why major forces go all in to cultivate newcomers but still have Xu Yang come out of nowhere and break into the top ten of the Newcomer List.
You are a major force; You can give your nurtured newcomer seed plenty of troops, Legendary Equipment, even Mythical Equipment, provided you can bear the cost. After all, you pay tax once when giving, and again when reclaiming it, which is enough to make anyone wince.
Although major forces can afford it, they must consider cost-effectiveness. It’s not rational to seek the Newcomer King award at a cost tens or hundreds of times more than its worth, not to mention the risks of sparking an arms race or malicious competition, which in the end could leave everyone significantly worse off.
Therefore, business alliances are just as important as military ones. They can effectively reduce trade taxation. Zhang Yan, as Xu Yang’s chief steward and broker, leverages her high Charm Attribute and trading skills to sell spoils of war. Without forming a business alliance, the loss would be tremendous.
In fact, the most cost-effective approach is to cultivate your trading-type heroes, but Xu Yang currently does not have such heroes. In over three months, Wu Da Restaurant only attracted a few common heroes of the military type, with no intelligent or charming ones suitable for trading.
As for Hua Mulan, she is Xu Yang’s commanding general. How could he possibly invest her important attribute points and Skill Points into commercial trading? Losing the big picture for minor gains is not something Xu Yang would do.
Anyway, with the business alliance reducing taxes, rely on Zhang Yan for now, and after recruiting a trading-type hero, make the switch.
“Xu Yang!”
Zhang Yan hurried over, her expression slightly anxious, “A senior from the student council has come to discuss the matter of the Newcomer King with you. Would you like to…”
“Not seeing them!”
Xu Yang interrupted her before she could finish.
“…”
Such words, such a stance, left Zhang Yan silent for a long while before she cautiously said, “You should see her; after all, we’re both from the same school, cultivated by the academy. It really wouldn’t be good to fall out with them.”
Xu Yang glanced at her, his expression calm and smooth, “There’s no point to a meaningless endeavor.”
His words silenced Zhang Yan again, who wanted to persuade but found no words to start.
Xu Yang ignored her and kept his eyes on the progress of the Taiping Temple, waiting for this Civilization Wonder to be completed.
It wasn’t that he was unsociable or worldly naive; rather, he’d seen too much. To phrase it bluntly, he could tell what kind of shit some people wanted to take just by the way they squatted down.
What negotiation? To put it plainly, it’s all about threats and temptations, trying to get him to drop out of the Newcomer King competition.
As mentioned before, contesting for the list is a vastly costly affair, especially for major forces battling for their core seeds. One wrong move could trigger an arms race with mutual sabotage taken to extremes, leading to a pyrrhic victory.
If this happens often enough, even major forces can’t bear it, so it gradually evolved into a “peaceful” form of competition. Major forces take turns with the rankings; this year it’s me, next year it’s you. Everyone gets a turn without competition, avoiding massive investments and bloodshed.
These are the ranking battle rules established by the Heaven-Connecting Academy and the various major powers.
But Xu Yang had no intention of abiding by them.
If this were a regular world, he, who had just started, would have chosen to feign compliance and scheme for development before taking over, instead of challenging the underlying rules set by the major powers, overturning the table, and breaking the game.
But this was not a regular world, this was the data-altered Lord World, governed by the supreme presences of the Sky-reaching Tower and the Ten Thousand Demon Abyss.
They had long established the rules, and the actions of the major powers were merely additional rules layered upon those.
So, Xu Yang couldn’t be bothered to feign compliance because Lord battles were restricted by the Sky-reaching Tower and the Ten Thousand Demon Abyss, and a high-level Lord could only wage war against those one tier lower than themselves.
Xu Yang was now a First-Order Lord, so even if the Heaven-Connecting Academy wanted to break ties with him, they could only send a Second Order Lord to subdue him.
And even this subjugation had its limits, not to mention the number of troops one could lead: a High-Order Lord’s subjugation of a Low-Order Lord was limited by the Sky-reaching Tower, incurring a tenfold penalty in Commander and Morale.
Take Xu Yang, for instance. Due to the effects of the “King’s Way,” he could now lead over two thousand men into battle, but these troops could only be First-Order Soldiers. If they were Second-Order Soldiers, he would suffer a tenfold penalty in Commander and Morale, and in the end, he would be able to take only two hundred men into battle, and the morale would deplete ten times faster.
The principle was the same for a High-Order Lord subjugating a Low-Order Lord, with a tenfold penalty in Commander and Morale. Coupled with the advantage of home territory’s workshops and defensive combat, Xu Yang wasn’t afraid of any Second Rank Lord’s conquest.
So, why should he give a damn?
If you have the guts, then come attack. He just needed to increase his strength through war. Attacking the territory of a Second Order Lord might be challenging for him, but if a Second Order Lord came knocking on his door, that would be a different story.
This was the rule of the Sky-reaching Tower; it had already built an environment and competition rules suitable for growth. There was really no need to further comply with the meta-rules and conditions imposed by the major powers.
If the major powers wanted to suppress him and retain their seats as the Newcomer King and Dual Crown King, they could only revert to the original ranking battle mode, increase their investments, protect their rankings, suppress him with their potentiality, and rely on their financial power.
War?
He was longing for it!
Seeing Xu Yang like this, Zhang Yan had little to say, and could only reply with a wry smile, “Then that’s what I’ll tell them.”
“Mm!”
Xu Yang nodded, his expression unchanged, his posture unaltered.
Zhang Yan, with no other choice, turned to leave.
However, as she took a step away, she saw…
“Whoosh!”
A burst of yellow light shone, and everyone stepped back. Zhang Yan turned to look and saw a Taoist Temple rising from the ground.
The Taoist Temple wasn’t large, just three floors, but it was divine and majestic, bathed in a gentle yellow glow, with the fragrance of incense drifting in the air.
“You have successfully constructed a Civilization Wonder—Taiping Temple!”
“The Morale of the Yellow Turban troops within your territory has greatly increased!”
“The effectiveness of buildings related to the Yellow Turban Civilization in your territory has slightly increased!”
“You can now recruit/train special troops of the Yellow Turban Civilization in the Taiping Temple!”
“Because you have built a Civilization Wonder of the Yellow Turbans, the Eastern Han Court has called upon the Heroic Spirit Army to conquer you.”
“General of the Eastern Han Dynasty, ‘Gongsun Yang’ will lead his forces to attack your territory in three days!”
“The Eastern Han Court has issued a bounty, allowing all Lords of the Han Dynasty Civilization (of the same tier) to attack your territory.”
“…”
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The prompts from the Sky-reaching Tower came one after another, but Xu Yang was unconcerned and strode towards the Taiping Temple before him.
