The merchants of Port Vias went mad. Like lunatics, they charged toward the docks, waving high-denomination gold notes in their hands. They smashed through the guards' blockade, their fists raining down on the servants of high officials and nobles, beating the governors and councilors black and blue, all for the chance to get close to Lin Qi.
Such incomparably exquisite white porcelain—and it was even a royal tribute item from the Blood Qin Empire! Porcelain of such supreme quality had never been seen or heard of on the Western Continent.
The merchants of the Vias Commercial Federation knew that the tea, porcelain, silk, spices, and other goods they purchased from the Eastern Continent were all exceedingly cheap, low-grade goods over there. Yet once these inferior goods reached the Western Continent, they became luxury items coveted by the nobility, bringing them profits of at least twentyfold.
But the atmosphere on the Western Continent was growing ever more extravagant. There had been no wars for decades, and the economies of all nations had developed tremendously. The nobles were no longer satisfied with that sort of low-grade indulgence. This white porcelain—its color, its quality, its miraculous light-transmitting carved patterns—such quality would drive those nobles mad!
They would even be willing to sell their estates for these peerless porcelain wares, all for the sake of obtaining such precious luxuries.
So what were guards? Knock every last one of them down!
So what were councilors? Trample every last one of them underfoot.
And what were governors, for that matter? In the Vias Commercial Federation, governors were merely born into merchant families. Just like themselves, they were merchants through and through; they merely wore the skin of a governor. So shove the governors aside too and make them keep well away from Lin Qi. If those