The Eight Directions Pavilion was very good, but in the end, it belonged to someone else. If he allowed the Wanlong Merchant Association to be beaten down, a monopoly would form, and that was not a good thing for the borderlands.
Supporting the Wanlong Merchant Association was not only meant to keep the Eight Directions Pavilion in check; it was also a window for exporting outward and a channel for importing inward.
Now that Kongsang Lifeng had been defeated and perished, and the Sea Race had fled far into the Distant Sea, before the Merfolk Race's new feudal lord arrived, they would meet almost no resistance. This was the perfect opportunity for outward expansion.
Added to that was the destruction of powers such as the Vast Sea Merchant Association and Thousand Blades City. The original power structure along the coast had been broken, and it was now the crucial moment for a reshuffle. Song Changsheng intended to lead the Southwest Alliance into the East Sea together.
The poverty of resources in the borderlands was an indisputable fact. If they could not expand into the Demon Domain, then they could only plunder the East Sea's resources to make up for their shortfall.
Expansion could also be divided into immediate returns and lasting returns. This operation was vast in scale, and all the coastal worlds would act together, striking on multiple fronts.
The spirit islands of the Distant Sea were rarely visited by human traces. The immediate gains from this operation would be extremely great, just right for letting the Wanlong Merchant Association test the waters and dispose of them together with those demon beast materials.
"A mighty dragon does not crush a local snake. Since the Eight Directions Pavilion is in the borderlands, it must also act according to the rules