"Tch~"
"All that talk and he's just a middleman."
Watching Ye Cheng's retreating back, the young man with a scar on his eye corner casually pulled a foxtail grass from the ground, stuck it in his mouth, and muttered to himself.
"Young Master Su."
Just then, a hurried-looking beastman figure rushed in from outside the simple shed.
"What is it, rushing around like that?" The young man glanced at the newcomer and said, "I taught you all not to panic, no matter what happens. Do you know why your Beastman Empire always loses to the Human Empire on the opposite side? It's because you're too rash."
"You're right, you're right..."
"Go on, what is it?"
The young man leaned back in his chair with a 'thump,' crossing his legs.
"Which blind little encampment is trying to attack our city-state again? If I'm in a good mood, I can lead troops to chop all those little punks for you."
"No, no, no, it's not..."
The beastman nodded and bowed with a fawning smile. The young man frowned upon hearing this.
"Then what is it?"
"Didn't you ask me to help you investigate some people a while ago? The traveling merchants we sent out recently have sent back word." The beastman smiled and grinned. The young man frowned, "Did you find anyone?"
"Did you find anyone?"
"Chen Yu."
The young man, who had just sat down and hadn't even gotten his backside warm, jolted up.
"Who did you say?"
"It's your close friend, Chen Yu, Young Master Chen." The beastman replied truthfully. "According to our traveling merchants, this Chen Yu seems to be looking for you too."
"Is this information accurate?"
"Accurate!"
The beastman nodded his head like a pecking chicken.
"Our traveling merchants met people under Chen Yu's command, and they said they were looking for someone named Su Zhan. They also clearly described the person's features: a scar on the eye corner and a birthmark on the buttocks. Our merchants then conducted an investigation and found out that the person investigating you is the Chen Yu you are looking for."
"Good, good, good!!!"
Su Zhan, with the scar on his eye corner, broke into a wide grin, tightly gripping the wooden pole of the shed.
"I knew it, kid, there's no way you could have died so easily in this underground world." Muttering to himself, Su Zhan was overjoyed, his arm veins bulging with excitement. "You've done a great service this time. I'll credit you. Go to the accounting office to claim your reward."
"Hey~"
Upon hearing the word 'reward,' the beastman's eyes gleamed. Grinning, he was about to run out, but Su Zhan raised his hand and stopped him before he could take a few steps.
"Wait, where is Chen Yu now?"
"He's in a city-state on the outskirts of our enemy nation, the Tato Kingdom," the beastman said. "According to our merchants, he seems to be doing quite well."
"Have that traveling merchant come see me."
"Understood."
The beastman's figure disappeared into the yellow sand. Su Zhan sat back down in his chair, pondering the beastman's words.
The Tato Kingdom!
Before entering the underground world, we slept in the same dorm. How did we end up in two different kingdoms after entering? And it just had to be the Tato Kingdom.
Is that place even habitable?
With the "recommended by the imperial examination" policy,
The Tato Kingdom is probably in chaos.
I need to get him out of there quickly.
Otherwise, with the beastmen of the Batu Kingdom making their move, the Tato Kingdom will surely be defeated. If the country falls into turmoil, he might die on the road.
"Looks like I need to make a trip to the Tato Kingdom."
Su Zhan murmured.
Gazing at the land of billowing yellow sand before him, his expression was deep and unreadable.
Compared to Su Zhan's harsh living environment, Chen Yu's situation was much better. He was comfortably staying in a high-class inn in the main city, leaning by the window and looking out.
It was a scene of urban prosperity.
Chen Yu had no idea that Su Zhan, whom he longed to see, was also doing well in a city-state of the Batu Kingdom and was even planning to bring him over from the Tato Kingdom.
What he was thinking about now was the announcement!
"Ice Snow Emperor, there really are capable people among the survivors of the underground world," Chen Yu murmured softly, gazing at the announcement that still hung in the air.
He did wonder if this matter could have any connection to Jiang Yaqing.
He had even suggested she play the Ice Snow Queen before.
Unfortunately, she refused.
According to Jiang Yaqing's words, she was unwilling to stay in such a desolate place forever. Once she had extracted most of the ice crystal ore there, she would leave directly.
Jiang Yaqing's position on the leaderboard remained unchanged.
Clearly, it wasn't her.
Chen Yu didn't want to agitate Jiang Yaqing too much. Although Jiang Yaqing hadn't told him about her situation, Chen Yu could clearly see the worry in the depths of her eyes during their video calls.
If nothing unexpected happened, she was probably very troubled right now.
So he shouldn't make things more difficult for her.
After sorting through the resources in the trading channel, Chen Yu also listed some miscellaneous equipment there, selling them to the survivors in the underground region.
His mindset had changed.
From initially seeing survivors as his main source of income, to now, the resource points provided by survivors daily were negligible compared to his total income.
No matter how much he squeezed them, he couldn't squeeze more than an entire city-state behind him.
He no longer had the desire to exploit other survivors. What he wanted to do was to gather as many survivors as possible into his city-state, allowing them to build the city-state in a relatively stable environment and fulfill their life's value.
For those who didn't want to join the city-state, he would provide them with resources to develop freely.
In the future, these survivors and the native inhabitants of the underground world might clash.
The attitude of the natives towards the survivors was evident.
In their eyes, outsiders like Chen Yu were invaders. Although the conflict hadn't escalated now, if it ever came to that, these fellow countrymen from abroad would be the ones on the same boat.
Allowing them to explore and develop freely.
It would also be beneficial for the overall strength of the foreigners in future conflicts against the native inhabitants of the underground world.
Sell equipment if possible.
It's just that compared to the prices for Jiang Yaqing and the others, the retail prices for other survivors were a bit higher. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for the retail price to be lower while the bulk purchase price was cheaper.
What would those who purchased in bulk think then?
What,
Are they stupid enough to be willing to make a losing deal?
After handling most of the matters at hand, Chen Yu also began to craft equipment sets. Whenever he had free time, he would almost always craft some equipment.
There was no shortage of buyers for the equipment, and crafting any amount was not a loss.
"I really need to figure out how to automate equipment crafting." Chen Yu murmured, his gaze focused as his fingers continuously tapped on the crafting interface.
It was alright in the early stages, crafting only a few pieces of equipment.
But in the later stages, equipment was produced in batches. Continuously doing one thing would become very tedious.
Just like the Magic Chef and the others, automating equipment production.
Forming an industrial chain.
This was a more sound development method.
If everyone relied on him to craft equipment manually, and in the later stages, millions or tens of millions of sets of equipment were needed, Chen Yu, let alone with a Kylin arm, would have his mechanical arm smoking.
Silver-grade sets of equipment were made one by one by Chen Yu. Just as he was crafting, a figure ran into his room.
"Boss, something's wrong!"
The one who came was none other than Heiqiu. His eyes were wide with panic.
"People from the City Lord's Mansion have arrested Luo Ni!"