Alliance of Interests

Zhen Jin's retained common knowledge included information about the Purple Vine Merchant Guild.

On the human Saint Brilliance Continent, there were the Six Great Merchant Guilds. They had long histories, and each was a colossal entity backed by powerful great nobles, their trade spanning mountains, forests, lakes, seas, and deserts.

Yet beneath these Six Great Merchant Guilds, one guild had risen rapidly over the past century, swiftly becoming a commercial miracle second only to them and leaving all other merchant guilds far behind.

That guild was the Purple Vine Merchant Guild.

The Purple Vine Merchant Guild absorbed vast numbers of small and mid-sized merchant guilds. It even generously accepted independent shops and lone traveling merchants, gaining enormous scale and influence in the lower and middle markets.

However, lacking protection from the upper ranks, it drew the covetous eyes of the Saint Brilliance Empire's great nobles, who chose to make their move.

The Purple Vine Merchant Guild was suppressed. Its guildmaster fell from his horse and died in an "accident," and the guild had now been torn apart and divided among the great nobles.

"After Father met with disaster, I was his only daughter. I refused to give up! If Father's, Grandfather's, and generations of ancestors' life's work were destroyed in an instant, I would be utterly unfilial. Many Elders of the merchant caravans were also unwilling to submit, so they gathered around me."

"But no matter how much wealth one had, it was no match for power. Father's death made me realize that we had to enter the Empire's power structure. If the merchant guild continued developing as it had before, the more money it had and the larger it grew, the closer it would come to ruin."

"I carefully selected a partner for the merchant guild, and in the end, I found that you and I were perfectly matched, my lord."

It was as though lightning flashed through Zhen Jin's mind. He immediately understood the chain of events.

Though he possessed only a few fragments of memory, Zhen Jin knew that the Hundred Needles Family had once been southern nobles.

The Saint Brilliance Great Emperor had been a man of exceptional talent and grand ambition. He had unified the entire human continent and named it Saint Brilliance Continent. The final step in conquering the continent had been annexing its far south.

The decisive battle had been the annihilation of the Cold Cedar Knights.

The Saint Brilliance Empire's conquering army had been trapped by the rugged mountain terrain, and its campaign in the south had reached a stalemate.

The southern nobles who had submitted early saw hope in that deadlock. They secretly contacted the resisting southern nobles and formed an alliance.

When the Temple Knight Order's Fifth Legion withdrew from the front lines to rest and reorganize, the southern nobles who had submitted sent the Cold Cedar Knights to ambush them.

The Cold Cedar Knights were the Southern Noble Alliance's finest legion. They wiped out the Temple Knight Order's Fifth Legion, but were defeated by the Temple Knights who later arrived as reinforcements.

After the Cold Cedar Knights collapsed, the southern nobles hurriedly sent reinforcements, creating a massive breach in what had once been an impregnable defensive line.

The Empire reacted with astonishing speed. Its front-line legions moved out together and launched an all-out assault, utterly crushing the southern nobles' defenses.

The southern nobles suffered a disastrous defeat. No longer able to stop the Saint Brilliance Empire's army, they either died in battle or surrendered.

Those southern nobles who had first submitted and then rebelled also suffered a brutal purge.

The Hundred Needles Family had been among them. At the time, a considerable number of the Cold Cedar Knights had been members of the Hundred Needles Family.

Although the Hundred Needles Family survived the purge, its territory, wealth, and army were all drastically reduced. In the years that followed, it suffered suppression and exclusion from every direction at the hands of Imperial nobles.

Naturally, the Hundred Needles Family refused to decline. On one hand, it gathered other families in similar circumstances and formed an alliance. On the other, it actively sought connections among the Empire's upper ranks. Sending Zhen Jin into the Temple Knight Order had been one result of these efforts.

The Temple Knight Order was the Saint Brilliance Empire's trump-card legion. It answered directly to the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor and was his most trusted military force. Every Temple Knight believed in the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor. Once a person offered up even his faith, his loyalty was naturally absolute. Thus, the Temple Knight Order was the force most trusted by the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor.

Generally speaking, the Empire's ruling great nobles rarely, if ever, sent their family's younger generation into the Temple Knight Order. To offer one's faith was equivalent to raising an ungrateful wolf within the family. Nobles believed that interests came first, and for the vast majority of the time, family interests outweighed everything else.

The small and mid-sized nobles attached to the Great Emperor's faction, court nobles, and a few great nobles, however, would selectively send members of their families into the Temple Knight Order.

Zhen Jin, the Hundred Needles Family's sole heir, joining the Temple Knight Order was the family's most sincere demonstration of loyalty to the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor.

This diplomatic move successfully eased the external pressure on the Hundred Needles Family. But Zhen Jin suffering suppression and exclusion within the Temple Knight Order had been unavoidable, natural, and only to be expected.

After all, the Cold Cedar Knights had nearly slaughtered the Temple Knight Order's Fifth Legion back then. Among nobles, who was not connected by blood or marriage? Zhen Jin, having become a Temple Knight, already shared a deep blood feud with the comrades around him.

"Sending their heir into the Temple Knight Order was indeed a wise move. Completely aligning with the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor's political faction was in the family's greatest interests." Zhen Jin recalled his father. Clearly, that middle-aged nobleman with two thin, long mustaches possessed the wisdom and decisiveness of a family head.

"And as the Hundred Needles Family's sole heir, I would have expected to suffer exclusion and suppression after joining the Temple Knight Order. I must have chosen to endure it then as well."

Zhen Jin recalled the second memory fragment.

In that memory, Qing Kui had clearly been the one to provoke him and deliberately make things difficult.

His motives were understandable. Perhaps one of his relatives had perished in the Fifth Legion.

As for Zhen Jin's own actions, they could now be judged as well.

Though he possessed extraordinary talent, he had not sought the spotlight. Instead, he hid his gifts and cultivated in silence. He kept a low profile to prevent political enemies from suppressing him—or even eliminating him before he could mature.

By becoming a Temple Knight, he had come to seek allies within the Great Emperor's faction, not make enemies everywhere. As the future head of his family, he had come with diplomatic purposes.

The army never lacked opportunities to forge friendships.

When facing immense outside pressure, Temple Knights would force themselves to trust and rely on one another. Experiences of living and dying together like that would greatly dissolve old hatreds.

Through such means, the Hundred Needles Family could escape its political predicament and become part of the Imperial faction.

However, even after reaching this point, the Hundred Needles Family could only be said to have barely gained a foothold. This noble family was still quite impoverished.

How could it expand its territory, increase its wealth, and strengthen the family?

The human continent had already been unified by the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor. Peace reigned across the land, leaving few opportunities.

But humanity's large-scale invasion of the Beastman Continent had become the finest opportunity for many nobles to expand their family territories and establish great military achievements.

White Sand City was the Hundred Needles Family's opportunity. That was why Zhen Jin had come this time to compete for the position of City Lord.

From Zi Di's perspective,

the Purple Vine Merchant Guild had been divided up by great nobles, and its guildmaster had died as a result. Any Elders of the merchant guild who could lower their heads had long since joined those great nobles.

The merchant guild Elders gathered around Zi Di were naturally hostile to those great nobles.

Therefore, Zi Di could only seek support from members of the Imperial political faction.

Among those members, the powerful ones had no interest in the remnants of Zi Di's merchant guild.

Perhaps the complete Purple Vine Merchant Guild might have moved them, but the guild was already fragmented beyond repair.

Those of moderate strength also had concerns.

Zi Di's group could be said to contain the Purple Vine Merchant Guild's essence. Rashly accepting them would mean becoming enemies with the Empire's powerful great nobles.

The gains, losses, and risks involved required careful consideration.

The weak members, such as some court nobles, did not even possess territories where they could settle the merchant guild's members.

At the same time, as the merchant guild's new leader, Zi Di had concerns of her own.

She would avoid seeking refuge with overly powerful nobles whenever possible. After all, she was merely a Black Iron mage. An excessively powerful noble might very well swallow the remnants of the Purple Vine Merchant Guild in their future cooperation.

After careful selection, Zi Di set her sights on the Hundred Needles Family.

The Hundred Needles Family's current head was a Gold-ranked powerhouse, but he had suffered severe injuries and lost his right arm.

The Hundred Needles Family had once been a great southern noble house with a long history. After being forced to submit to the Empire, it suffered exclusion and suppression. Now it had barely established itself and desperately needed expansion and development.

The Hundred Needles Family had been stripped of territory. Its remaining lands produced little and were squeezed by the surrounding territories. Thus, the Hundred Needles Family needed the Purple Vine Merchant Guild's trade channels far more than other families did, and valued the guild much more highly.

Most crucially, the Hundred Needles Family was willing to pay a price. It did not hesitate to promise the merchant guild the future heir's marriage. After the agreement was made, they immediately held an engagement ceremony and spread the news far and wide.

All these factors had strangely brought together Zhen Jin and Zi Di, this engaged young couple.

They each had their own difficulties, and they desperately needed one another. This was not merely their own wish, but the wish of the forces behind them as well.

Otherwise, how could a noble like Zhen Jin possibly become engaged to a woman of low bloodline?

"The Hundred Needles Family first sent its only heir into the Temple Knight Order, and now sent him to the front-line battlefield at White Sand City, bearing the enormous risk that its heir might die. This is a gamble!"

"The Purple Vine Merchant Guild is the same. Neither side has any way back."

"No wonder Zi Di has never abandoned me!"

Zhen Jin's thoughts surged. At last, he understood the complicated truth behind it all.

When he looked again at the girl before him, Zhen Jin felt even closer to her.

Zhen Jin did not dislike an alliance of interests. On the contrary, he approved of it.

An alliance of interests was usually more reliable than one based on sentiment. Besides, affection could be cultivated.

Coupled with the bond of marriage, Zhen Jin understood that Zi Di would surely be his most reliable ally in the future.

Zi Di continued, "We traveled by sea, originally intending to enter the Beastman Continent and compete for the position of White Sand City Lord. Yet during the voyage, we inexplicably encountered a shipwreck and eventually arrived on this island."

Zhen Jin pondered. "So what we need to do now is not only preserve our lives and leave this place, but also gather more subordinates. Zi Di, how many troops did I bring? How many reliable retainers were there?"

Faced with this question, Zi Di hesitated unusually. After considering her words, she said, "My lord, you were qualified to compete for the position of White Sand City Lord, and you also possessed talent and strength beyond ordinary people. This time, we mainly brought the Purple Vine Merchant Guild's armed core, and hired two well-known Mercenary Groups."

Zhen Jin was slightly stunned.

He had understood.

His side had no retainers and no troops. He was a commander without an army. Left with no alternative, he could only rely on the Purple Vine Merchant Guild's side and hire two Mercenary Groups.

This was far too pathetic!

As the sole heir of a landed noble, he had to risk his life on the war front to fight for a future, yet he had no direct army at his side!

Compared with Mercenary Groups that worked for money, the Purple Vine merchant caravan's armed forces had instead become Zhen Jin's most direct force.

"Has the Hundred Needles Family fallen this far? But surely there should have been at least someone." This abnormal situation made Zhen Jin frown.

Zi Di explained, "There was indeed a group of men sent by your family. But they were attacked by bandits on the road and wiped out to the last man. At the same time, signs of frequent Goblin and Ogre activity appeared around the Hundred Needles Family's territory."

"We feared that the other candidates might arrive at White Sand City first and establish an early advantage. So we created the appearance that we remained where we were, while in truth we disguised our identities, departed secretly, and set sail aboard the Pig Kiss."

Zhen Jin's pupils contracted slightly, and he snorted coldly. "It seems the competition for the position of White Sand City Lord is fierce indeed."

An elite troop from a noble family had actually been wiped out halfway through the journey by so-called bandits.

And the border of the Hundred Needles Family's current territory had long been part of the interior. How could there possibly be room for Goblins and Ogres to survive there?

Thinking of something, Zhen Jin asked again, "Who else is competing with me for the position of City Lord? Were they aboard the same ship as us?"

Zi Di shook her head. "There are two others in total, both your colleagues. They were not aboard the same ship as us."

Zhen Jin said nothing.

He was thinking.

This answer meant they did not need to face powerful competitors harboring ill intentions on this island. But at the same time, it was highly possible that those competitors had caused the shipwreck.

Zi Di immediately added, "However, my lord, there was a Temple Priest traveling with us, named Jia Sha. He is the evaluator for this City Lord competition. He may very well still be alive. If we can find him and help him, that would be for the best."

"Jia Sha?" Zhen Jin raised his brows slightly, thoughtful.