[This is the Role of Making Money, Capital Distorts People's Hearts]

The river surface was filled with smoke.

Yue Sheng sensed the miserable state of his subordinates, looked at Lin Ze standing on the shore, and a strong murderous aura appeared on his face.

Without thinking, he knew why Lin Ze had attacked.

It must have been that his brainless, muscle-bound subordinates had been discussing how to deal with Lin Ze, and the other party had overheard them.

And in fact, that was the case. After watching the group leave, Lin Ze habitually used the Gates to Heavens to locate the coordinates of their ship, wanting to follow them to find the location of the Longevity Palace, and then find the Longevity Palace Master.

But before he could find the Longevity Palace's base, he heard Lu Lu and the others discussing how to deal with him, which immediately made Lin Ze frown.

From the moment they met, these three people had been ill-intentioned, wanting to capture him and use him for their own purposes. Later, at the Three Yang Sword Sect, Lu Lu tried to trick him into robbing other people's Heavenly Material Earthly Treasures, and the others cooperated with Yue Sheng to try to trick him into using the Longevity Seed.

Seeing that there were no innocent people on the boat the three were riding, and the opportunity was so good, Lin Ze didn't think twice before opening the Gates to Heavens and arriving at the riverbank very close to their vehicle, and firing a shot with the heavy firepower he carried.

This shot was incredibly refreshing.

The terrifying power instantly tore the entire ship apart, creating the current situation.

Lu Lu, who was targeted by Lin Ze's artillery fire, couldn't withstand it even with her Indestructible Body. Even though she had used her protective Celestial Dipper Qi to the fullest and tried her best to dodge, she was still blown to pieces on the spot by the heavy artillery.

Jiang Wen, who was closest to her, was slightly better off with Lu Lu as a shield, but he was also in a near-death state.

And Ning Heng, relying on his two fellow disciples as shields, was in a slightly better condition, but he was already seriously injured.

The power of heavy artillery was so terrifying that normal carbon-based lifeforms couldn't resist it with their physical bodies. The fact that these three Peerless Experts weren't wiped out in one blow was enough to show how powerful they were.

Yue Sheng looked at Lin Ze, who was indifferent and didn't care about his actions just now.

Without saying a word, his figure disappeared from the spot.

In the next instant, he had crossed hundreds of meters of river surface and arrived beside Lin Ze.

He thrust out a claw, attacking Lin Ze with the force of wind and thunder, wanting to take him down with one blow.

However, his attack encountered the same treatment as Jiang Wen, who had attacked Lin Ze first. It seemed that he was only a hair's breadth away from Lin Ze's figure, but it was like a chasm that he could not close no matter how hard he tried, let alone attack him.

Stopping his futile efforts, Yue Sheng stood in place and stomped heavily on the ground.

The hard soil and rocks were cracked by the huge force, and many pieces of soil and rock flew up from the ground, with vast Celestial Dipper Qi added to them, instantly enveloping Lin Ze like a rain of flowers.

The soil and rocks, enhanced by Celestial Dipper Qi, flew horizontally, and the airflow turned into visible shockwaves, and the sharp whistling sound of objects cutting through the air echoed on the riverbank.

Rumble!

The earth shook and the mountains swayed, as if heavy artillery was bombarding the ground.

In an instant, all the vegetation, bamboo, and rocks within a radius of tens of meters were shattered.

But Lin Ze, the target of the attack, was still standing unharmed in place. The Within Reach Horizon divine ability was activated, causing these attacks that couldn't turn to fall into empty space.

"Is this the Within Reach Horizon that Jiang Wen mentioned, similar to the divine abilities of the immortals and gods in myths and legends?"

After two unsuccessful attacks, Yue Sheng stood in place and stopped attacking, instead speaking.

"Yes."

Lin Ze nodded, but that was all.

He didn't say a word more about the details of his abilities.

Only when one doesn't care about the enemy, when one doesn't consider the other party to be on the same level as oneself, will one answer every question.

But clearly, Yue Sheng was not among them; he was an existence that Lin Ze needed to take seriously.

"Even poison is useless?"

Yue Sheng frowned as he looked at Lin Ze.

Just during their conversation, he had secretly scattered a colorless and odorless deadly poison, manipulating the airflow with the mystical realm of Heaven and Man to spread it across every inch of space on the riverbank, but Lin Ze showed no reaction, with absolutely no signs of poisoning.

Close-quarters surprise attacks couldn't get close to Lin Ze, ranged attacks couldn't hit him, poison gas area attacks were directly ignored, and attempts at mental attacks couldn't even lock onto him, as if he didn't exist in this space-time at all.

At this point, Yue Sheng was completely out of options.

"Aren't you going to save your subordinate?"

As the atmosphere was deadlocked, Lin Ze pointed to Ning Heng floating on the river.

Jiang Wen, at this point, had gone from near-death to death, while Ning Heng still had a chance of being rescued.

Yue Sheng had completely calmed down at this moment.

He thought of something: Lin Ze hadn't given the Longevity Seed to the Great Zhou Imperial Family, and he hadn't aimed at him when attacking the big ship earlier, otherwise, under a sudden attack, he might not have been able to retreat unscathed in a hurry.

When he suddenly encountered the attack and angrily retaliated, Lin Ze didn't attack him, but only defended.

Otherwise, if the other party had used that kind of artillery to attack him, he would have had to temporarily avoid the brunt.

Moreover, it was their Longevity Palace that needed Lin Ze for funding issues, not the other way around, at least until Lin Ze's lifespan was about to end in two hundred years.

In summary, Lin Ze's sincerity in cooperation was actually very strong; if it weren't for his subordinates seeking death, there wouldn't have been this conflict.

He stopped fighting and instead went to rescue Ning Heng, and also helped collect the bodies of Lu Lu, who had been shattered into pieces, and Jiang Wen, whose body was barely intact.

Then, Yue Sheng looked at Lin Ze and said indifferently, "You killed two Peerless Experts of my Longevity Palace who were cultivated with a lot of resources, and you need to give me and the Palace Master an explanation."

Lin Ze's lack of being killed by his angry attack meant that he had the qualifications to talk to him on an equal footing.

Although he didn't want to fall out with Lin Ze, he needed a way for both sides to step down.

Otherwise, even if they didn't want to, the two sides could only fight to the death.

"I wonder, how is this explanation?"

A smile appeared on Lin Ze's face, and he threw a stack of papers over.

Yue Sheng used Celestial Dipper Qi to grab the stack of papers and immediately discovered that these were exchange vouchers from Zhi Yuan Gold Bank.

One hundred million Copper Coins per voucher, a full four hundred vouchers, which was forty million taels.

This number seemed large, but converted into Main World currency, it was less than 10.7 billion, and Lin Ze's annual tax amount was more than that.

Just as Yue Sheng felt, Lin Ze didn't want to fall out with the Longevity Palace.

Firstly, there was no benefit to it, and it would prevent him from continuing to make money in this Other World.

And secondly, there's something he wants within the Longevity Palace. Giving away tens of millions of taels to appease them will allow him to quickly double his earnings.

Instantly, the coldness on Yue Sheng's face melted away, and he opened his mouth with a smile: "Little friend is thoughtful. It was my poor discipline of subordinates that led them to be so disrespectful to you."

As he spoke, he pointed directly, and a Celestial Dipper Qi pierced the brow of Ning Heng, whom he had just saved.

Peerless Experts are precious, and even within the Longevity Palace, their numbers aren't that high. Cultivating one takes a lot of resources and time.

However, even several Peerless Experts combined aren't worth forty million taels of silver.

Especially since a large portion of these forty million taels of silver will belong to Yue Sheng personally.

Moreover, the death of these Peerless Experts helps to win over another person of higher value, making these Peerless Experts even less valuable. Their deaths are inconsequential.

This is the effect of making money, capital twisting people's hearts.

Withdrawing his hand as if nothing had happened, Yue Sheng continued with a smile: "Please rest assured, little friend, after I return, I will clean up the loose ends. I will definitely not let you encounter any trouble, nor will it affect our subsequent cooperation."

This was a promise that after he returned, he would persuade the Longevity Palace Master not to dwell on the small conflict here, and would also deal with all of Ning Heng and the other two's confidants and relatives, to prevent them from causing trouble for Lin Ze later.

After all, these exchange vouchers are just credit notes, merely a way for Lin Ze to show his sincerity.

Whether or not they can be exchanged for money in the end still depends on Lin Ze's intentions.

Yue Sheng would resolve everything and show his sincerity before coming to Lin Ze to extract these funds.

"A misunderstanding, please forgive me, Great Elder."

"I have other matters to attend to, so I won't disturb the Great Elder any further. When the Great Elder comes to Fengping County next time, perhaps you can bring all the gold and silver of the Longevity Palace. I can exchange it all for Copper Coins for you, making it easier for you to use and quietly purchase the resources you need."

Lin Ze cupped his fist.

These words were indeed a show of goodwill towards the Longevity Palace. In this era, gold and silver are generally used for large-scale commodity transactions.

However, the Longevity Palace often needs to avoid such large-scale transactions, to hide their movements among the population. At this time, Copper Coins are more useful.

Lin Ze exchanging the corresponding value of gold and silver for Copper Coins would make it easier for the Longevity Palace to use Copper Coins to collect the materials they need in small amounts and hire manpower, reducing the possibility of being discovered by the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Of course, Lin Ze could also profit. Bringing the gold back to the Main World would be a huge profit, which is what Lin Ze meant by saying that he could quickly earn back all the forty million taels he gave away.

Previously, Lin Ze hadn't shown enough strength and hadn't attracted much attention from the Longevity Palace. After all, according to Lin Ze's record, he was just a physically weak individual with strong combat power against fixed targets, but easy to manipulate.

He barely qualified as a gatekeeper for Heaven and Man combat power.

But now, even Yue Sheng, a powerful Heaven and Man expert, was no match for Lin Ze, which showed Lin Ze's strength.

The Longevity Palace had only shown him three subordinate industries before, but after this, they should open up more industries to him and deepen cooperation between the two sides in order to earn more money.

"Easy to say."

Yue Sheng agreed, and then Lin Ze's figure flickered a few times and disappeared from the spot.

Lin Ze returned to the Two Realms Trade Base at Zihua Manor in the Main World, watching Yue Sheng's actions through the Gates to Heavens.

Yue Sheng began to clean up the battlefield.

He first collected the bodies of the three subordinates, packed them in a piece of cloth. If nothing unexpected happened, they would probably be taken back as nourishment for some Heavenly Material Earthly Treasure, just like the Bright Moon Pavilion's method of handling the bones of Peerless Experts that Lin Ze had seen before.

Afterwards, this Heaven and Man expert activated his domain, stirring up the river water to wash away the entire battlefield, even sending the remnants of the explosion on the river surface into the riverbed to bury them.

After doing all this, Yue Sheng stirred up a gale, blowing away all the gunpowder, bloodstains, and poisonous gas from the battlefield.

Then, imitating the strength of a Peerless Expert, he pretended to be a martial artist skilled in the essence of water flow, ensuring no obvious traces of battle remained on the battlefield.

Thus, the battlefield where Lin Ze had ambushed them with Firearms became a battlefield where several Peerless Experts had fought.

"Heh, see what professionalism looks like?"

Lin Ze smiled slightly at this scene.

If Yue Sheng hadn't cleaned up the battlefield, the White Robe Guard would have easily figured out that Lin Ze was behind it when they came to investigate based on the commotion. After all, Lin Ze was the only one in the world famous for Firearms, capable of even killing Peerless Experts.

They would then guess that Lin Ze was retaliating against those who had ambushed him a few days ago, and then deduce a connection to the Three Yang Sword Sect based on the sailing speed of past merchant ships.

In this way, this subordinate force would be exposed.

But now, Yue Sheng only needs to explain to the outside world that Ning Heng and the other two had an internal conflict and all perished together.

Seeing the battlefield quiet down, Yue Sheng left, and Lin Ze continued to focus his perspective on him, trying to find the Longevity Palace Master through him.

And this was destined to be a long process.

Next, Yue Sheng needed to escort the Copper Coins back, and then he might go to find the Longevity Palace Master. Of course, it was also possible that the Longevity Palace Master would take the initiative to find Yue Sheng, so Lin Ze needed to keep monitoring Yue Sheng.

Fortunately, Lin Ze's martial arts had improved somewhat, and he was full of energy, unlike when he followed Xu Sheng to find the Bright Moon Pavilion Mountain Gate, when he got tired easily.

Taking advantage of this time, Lin Ze began to sort out his confrontation with Yue Sheng.

"Actually, the best way is to pretend not to know that they are secretly plotting against me, secretly develop my own strength, and then take action when I am absolutely sure I can solve the Longevity Palace."

"After all, with Yue Sheng restraining them, it is likely that these people can only talk big and cannot really take action."

"If I hadn't been able to convince Yue Sheng just now, I would probably have tried to kill Yue Sheng, and then run away from World No. 2 with my family and wealth, to avoid being retaliated against by the Longevity Palace."

"But well, there's no need to be so cautious and compromising in everything in life."

"Working so hard to make money and increase my own strength is precisely so that I can have my revenge in such situations."

Lin Ze summarized.

Before he acted, he had thought about how to deal with the aftermath, which is why the current situation arose, allowing Yue Sheng to slap himself in the face.

But he can't do this every time.

What if he encounters a reckless man next time who cannot be reasoned with and whom he cannot kill?

"So, I still need to have my own main base world, where I can settle all my family and wealth, and be in an invincible position from the start."

Thinking of this, Lin Ze thought of his temporary base, that Grotto-heaven World.

In fact, he could now settle his family and friends in it, but this world is not a permanent world that can exist for a long time, and the current living conditions are also very simple, so it is not suitable to bring people in.