Star Odyssey-Chapter 3543: Buyi City

Yi Shang had been one of the Seven Seraphs, while also being the president of the Chamber of Commerce. To understand the man, it was necessary to consider the motivations of a businessman. Qiong Xi'er excelled in this, but Lu Yin had no interest in such things.

"I don't have 100 million spirit seeds. Are other resources of equivalent value accepted?" Lu Yin asked.

Ye Laogui replied, "If other resources are used, their value must exceed that of 100 million spirit seeds. Equivalent exchange is not accepted."

Lu Yin chuckled. He really doesn’t take any losses. In the Tianyuan Megaverse, there had been times when Lu Yin had taken advantage of similar opportunities. This time, while he would give Yi Shang something, Lu Yin would get it back later on.

He had already taken the former Seraph’s Impression Realm, and it was almost entirely dissolved. That had been the fifth ranked sequence base, so Yi Shang had clearly suffered badly from that loss.

...

The Daquan Domain was the busiest domain in the Spirit Nidus, seeing as how it was the trading hub of the entire megaverse. It was the place where all goods were gathered. No matter what a person wished to find, they could find it in the Daquan Domain, provided that they had enough funds.

Spirit seeds were the most popular resource in the Spirit Nidus.

Lu Yin and his group arrived in the Daquan Domain. The closer they drew to their destination, the more people they saw.

The Daquan Domain was like a vortex in the sea, and people were constantly being drawn in.

This time, Lu Yin maintained a low profile and made it a point to not draw any attention. The group quietly passed through the Daquan Domain and arrived outside of Buyi City.

"It isn’t easy to gain entrance to Buyi City. Everyone is required to submit to an interrogation. While it seems useless, the answers provide data. It might be useless to us, but it might be of great value to others. Everyone lives their own life and has their own circle of influence. The answers to these interrogations are sold to the Phantom Reach at a steep price," Old Tao said while staring at Buyi City.

Qing Xiao was surprised. "Even these things can be sold for money?"

Old Tao laughed. "Child, everything in existence can be sold for money. It simply depends on whether you can find a way to make a profit from it."

Soon, Lu Yin and his group were being questioned.

"Name?"

"Ah San."

The person asking the questions did not even look up. "Age?"

"121."

"Homeland?"

"Destroyed."

"Destination?"

"Just here."

"Purpose?"

"Shopping."

"For what...?"

Lu Yin casually answered the various questions, and the person asking the questions seemed to be just as unconcerned. From the surface, such questions seemed to hold no value whatsoever, but when enough answers were gathered and analyzed, certain information could be deduced. Even if people lied, it was impossible for someone to sever all connections to their true selves.

As long as anyone was interested in learning about Lu Yin’s answers, a group of analysts would pick through them.

It did not take long for Lu Yin and the others to enter Buyi City.

It was a vast place. Everywhere they looked, there were people and shops lined with goods. Lu Yin had not experienced such an atmosphere in a very long time.

He had once transformed the capital of the Great Yu Empire into an economic powerhouse, with the highest land value of anywhere in the Outerverse. However, such money no longer held any appeal to him.

As a person’s horizons expanded, they would come to see an entirely different perspective from before.

Ye Laogui sighed. "Buyi City is still the same as ever. Nothing’s changed."

"I didn’t think I’d live to return to Buyi City again."

Ye Yan’er’s eyes lit up. "Grandfather, this place is so lively!"

Ye Laogui chuckled. "It certainly is, but it’s also not cheap. If not for Yi Shang’s presence, this city would be nothing like this.

"Let's go and submit the application fee."

At the very center of the city was the office that took in application fees. It was a massive building that loomed over all others. People from various companies and corporations were constantly coming and going from the place; others were gathered nearby, observing each and every person who entered or exited. Lu Yin even heard the Hundred Leaf Trade Association being mentioned.

Even before Ye Laogui or anyone else with Lu Yin had entered the building or submitted the application fee, there were already people who were aware of their identities, likely due to the questions asked before entering the city.

Ye Laogui reported the name of the Hundred Leaf Trade Association, as well as their intention to apply to be selected as one of the five official trade associations. It was shocking how quickly others learned of the matter.

"The Hundred Leaf Trade Association? I’ve never heard of it. Must be some one-domain affair. If they can’t even expand beyond their own domain, why are they trying to kick up a fuss?" Discussions were already breaking out.

"Don't underestimate them. After all, they are willing to submit the 100 million spirit seed fee, which means that they have some means."

"Look into them. I want to know what industries they have their hands in, which domain they’re from..."

Lu Yin and the others were quickly escorted to a huge inn that the Chamber of Commerce had arranged for them after receiving the application and fees.

Ye Yan’er muttered, "I didn’t think they’d even do this much."

Qing Xiao rolled his eyes. "100 million spirit seeds is enough to buy this entire place. What a rip-off!"

Ru Mu smiled faintly. "It doesn’t matter to Boss."

Ye Laogui gave Lu Yin an odd look. The application fee that had been submitted had indeed been worth more than 100 million spirit seeds, but Ye Laogui had recognized the goods that had been submitted. It was clear that the Third Boss had taken such things by force.

Lu Yin did not care about the application fee at all. He had many treasures in his cosmic ring, any one of which was valuable enough to substitute for the application fee.

"Things should start soon," Old Tao announced.

Ye Yan’er asked curiously, "What should start?"

Old Tao chuckled. "Ask your grandfather."

Ye Yan’er turned her questioning stare to Ye Laogui.

The old man walked over to the window. "The Chamber of Commerce didn’t provide us these accommodations out of goodwill. In order to compete for an official status, it’s necessary to outright take it. For the actual selection, we will need to offer resources to obtain the qualification, but before the offers are submitted, everything is about strength."

The moment he finished speaking, a loud boom echoed nearby.

Ye Yan'er jumped in surprise.

Lu Yin glanced over at the fight that had broken out. However, the inn was clearly well protected. As long as the conflict did not become too violent, the building and those in it would be fine. If not for that, just a pair of Spirit Warriors could destroy the inn.

Old Tao sighed. "Before the selection process even begins, at least one-fifth of the trade associations will disappear—either through mergers or outright destruction. This is completely normal. In the worst selection ever recorded, nearly two-thirds of the associations were wiped out. I've even heard of times when only seven or eight competitors remained."

Ye Laogui said in a low voice, "Many of these so-called trade associations aren’t even real businesses. Instead, they are powerful families or factions that enter the competition to secure priority access to resources. To them, paying an annual tribute to the Chamber of Commerce is a small price to pay for such an advantage."

"The Chamber of Commerce doesn’t intervene?" Qing Xiao asked in confusion.

Ye Laogui replied, "As long as the different groups don’t cause too much trouble, the Chamber of Commerce won’t do anything."

Old Tao laughed. "If the Third Boss wanted, he could make all of these different companies disappear with the flip of his hand, haha!"

Ru Mu responded with a small smile, "If the Third Boss wanted, the Chamber of Commerce would disappear, let alone this selection process."

Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. This was indeed true. Also, the easier it was for the Spirit Nidus to develop further, the worse things would be for the Tianyuan Megaverse. The Chamber of Commerce’s model with it at the center of the various trade associations saved a tremendous amount of time and effort for the Spirit Nidus, which was not good for Lu Yin’s people.

The model could be taken to the Tianyuan Megaverse and implemented there, and it would be best to simultaneously dismantle the Spirit Nidus’s system.

They remained in the inn for several days. Every day, brawls would break out, and Lu Yin just watched the shows.

However, one day, trouble found them. Someone harassed Qing Yun, and Qing Xiao leaped into action. Before long, even Old Tao joined the fray.

Several sequence powerhouses intervened, and the Chamber of Commerce even sent people to mediate, at which point both sides stopped fighting.

Old Tao reported, "Third Boss, those people aren’t part of a company. There’s no doubt that they represent a powerful organization from some domain."

Lu Yin already knew that as well. Sequence powerhouses were not common. Old Tao was one, which had qualified him to serve as the vice city lord of Beacon City. If a company was able to hire sequence powerhouses, it would mean that such experts were common plebians in the Spirit Nidus, which was completely impossible.

It was important to note that even Sage Qian, who ruled over the Vast Qian Domain, was only a sequence powerhouse.

Even the Cai family only had three such experts.

Ye Laogui said, "They shouldn’t have been paying any attention to us, but they must have noticed that Old Tao is a sequence powerhouse. With that, they decided to test us and find our limits. They have no fear of going up against a company, as no matter how powerful a company might become, they can never compare to the ruler of a domain. What they're afraid of is another like them."

Qing Xiao then returned, still furious. "Those bastards actually used my sister as an excuse! One day, I'll destroy them."

Qing Yun frowned. "Stop talking about it. They just needed an excuse."

Lu Yin spoke up, "Even if they just needed an excuse, they can’t bring such things to my doorstep."

He turned to Qing Xiao. "Get them and bring them here. We’re going to talk."

Qing Xiao's eyes lit up. "Got it!"

"Hand," Lu Yin ordered as he sat back down.

Qing Yun glanced at Lu Yin before helplessly stretching out her hand. She had long since become accustomed to this.

Old Tao and Ru Mu remained standing nearby, while Ye Laogui and Ye Yan'er stayed in a corner.

Qing Xiao soon returned with several people following him. Each of them strode into the room with an arrogant swagger, looking down on everything.

There was one young man in particular who entered and immediately and openly stared at Qing Yun.

While she had hidden her features, she remained quite lovely to look at and many were captivated by her.

"Beautiful lady, we meet again. You couldn’t stop thinking about me, huh? Haha!" The young man laughed loudly.

Qing Xiao stepped behind Qing Yun and then calmly stared at the people who had followed him. They were about to be visited by terrible misfortune.

One middle-aged man barked, "Shut up!"

He was tall and muscular, and had huge hands, unnaturally so.

The young man pouted, but he did stop speaking.

The middle-aged man observed both Old Tao and Ye Laogui before turning his attention to Lu Yin. "It appears that I was right. You are not a company."

Lu Yin replied, "And neither are you."

"Allow me to introduce ourse-," the middle-aged man began, but before he could finish speaking, Lu Yin’s focused sharply, and a terrifying pressure flooded the room, pinning all of the people who had followed Qing Xiao to the floor.

The pressure affected them alone. Despite their close proximity, Qing Yun, Old Tao, and the others felt nothing at all.

The group felt as though the universe itself was collapsing down upon them. Their vision turned gray, and reality seemed to crumble down around them. It felt like a hammer was striking their minds, and each blow delivered a new bout of vertigo. They could hear their bones being crushed, as well as the beating of their hearts and the flow of their blood. At that moment, the universe was no longer the same as before. It felt as though the entire universe had been inverted.

The young man instantly lost consciousness.

The middle-aged man was horrified, as he understood just how deep the trouble that he had gotten into was. He was a sequence powerhouse who had fought against experts ranked on the White Spirit List. He had even felt the pressure of Ortusers, but this pressure was the most terrifying one that he had ever encountered. This pressure was so intense that the man struggled to believe that it was real. Not even his ancestor could compare to this.

What level had this expert reached? Could he be an ancient Dukkhan monster?

Why would such a powerhouse visit Buyi City?

Actually, if such a person was visiting, why had Yi Shang not stepped out yet?

The man felt as though his bones were being crushed. He fought to stay conscious, biting his tongue hard enough that he spat out a mouthful of blood. Suddenly, the pressure vanished, though the middle-aged man alone remained conscious. Everyone who had accompanied him had fainted, and they were lying motionless on the floor.

Lu Yin was still holding Qing Yun’s hand. The burning that took place within her body was much more pronounced at this moment. While she appeared to be quite calm, it was nothing more than a facade. She had been genuinely upset by the incident, and she was likely venting some frustration through Lu Yin’s actions.

Cough, cough. The middle-aged man coughed up more and more blood. He trembled as he struggled to sit up, his breathing heavy. He slowly lifted his head to look at Lu Yin with fear-filled eyes.