How Many Heavenly Soldiers and Generals?

With this affordable, high-volume heavy armor offered as a perk, the atmosphere throughout the venue was thoroughly ignited.

Su Yuan struck while the iron was hot and immediately began promoting the second product.

With a flip of his palm, a leaf emitting a gentle glow appeared in his hand, and a strange fragrance instantly spread through the air.

"The next perk for our family is the flagship product of this session: a three-thousand-year-old Spirit-Nourishing Leaf, an indispensable core ingredient for the Infant-Transforming Pill!"

Su Yuan introduced it with practiced ease.

"Many of our family have been troubled, saying that while their demon generals at the Golden Core Peak have plenty of descendants, few manage to shatter their cores and form Nascent Souls. Why is that? Is it because Infant-Transforming Pills are in short supply?"

"So the perk I'm bringing everyone today, the Spirit-Nourishing Leaf, can effectively solve that problem for our family."

"With it, what does that mean? It means you can cultivate Nascent Soul Stage elites in batches!"

For the demon kings of the lower realm, who were desperately short of high-end alchemy resources, this was even more alluring than the armor!

Even Great Sage Driving Away Gods, who had always remained calm and composed, rose to his feet and examined it closely.

Su Yuan pressed on, displaying and explaining each of the various Heavenly Court banned goods and controlled supplies he had brought on the flying vessel.

Every item he brought out sparked a wave of astonished cries.

These were hard currency in the lower realm, things with a price but no market.

The Great Sages might not see even one or two of them when celebrating their birthdays.

Yet now, Su Yuan was hauling them out by the boxful and selling them.

Just as the demons' emotions reached their peak, before the "shills" even had to speak,

someone among the Six Great Sages asked excitedly.

"Honored envoy! Honored envoy! With so many incredible perks, what exactly must we do to buy them? Please, just give us a straight answer!"

Su Yuan swept his gaze across the demon sages before him, whose eyes had gone red and whose necks had swollen with excitement. He knew the timing was right.

"It's simple! Every perk in this session is an exclusive discount prepared for our family! As long as you are family, none of you will leave empty-handed!"

Someone else asked,

"Then how do we become family?"

Su Yuan's voice suddenly rose.

"To become family, all you need to do is sign this <Heavenly Court Recruitment and Bilateral Trade Cooperation Framework Agreement>. Once you return, revoke your Great Sage titles, disband most of your gathered demon troops, and maintain regional stability... Then you will become part of the Heavenly Court's family. Not only will you enjoy priority purchasing rights for every product in this session, but you will also receive a steady supply of specially provided Heavenly Court resources in the future!"

This time, the Great Sages fell silent.

If it were merely paying for goods, that would have been negotiable. It was only a transaction, after all.

Even if they had to pay a little more, at worst their subordinates would tighten their belts and go hungry for a few years, or the costs could be passed on and redistributed. There would always be someone to fleece.

But actually signing the agreement, voluntarily giving up the Great Sage title that shook the world, and disbanding their demon troops...

What would the other demon sages think of them?

What would the Bull think of them? What would the Bird think of them?

If word got out, forget about staying in the Great Sage circle—they might as well quit the food chain altogether.

This was also why Su Yuan had gone to such pains, hiring shills and using banned goods to build up the atmosphere.

Without all that buildup, if he had simply handed each of the Six Great Sages an official document and told them to revoke their titles,

Su Yuan would have been chopped into mincemeat the next second.

Now, although the Great Sages looked dark and ugly, none stormed off in anger or immediately turned hostile. Instead, their eyes struggled, and they fidgeted as though sitting on pins and needles. Clearly, a fierce battle was raging within them.

To Su Yuan, that was already an excellent start.

Just as Su Yuan was about to add more fuel to the fire, a true Great Sage in the valley became enraged.

The Bull Demon King suddenly tore off his hood and slowly rose to his feet, his voice rumbling like muffled thunder.

"I! Bull Demon King, Great Sage Pacifying Heaven! Refuse!"

His huge bovine eyes fixed on Su Yuan.

"Thirty-five thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals from the Heavenly Court could not do a thing to us brothers! Why should we let a glib, treacherous little man like you trick us into abolishing our own titles with this pile of junk? Do you think my treasured blade isn't sharp enough?"

Before he had even finished—

Outside the valley, Venus Star Lord, who had been watching the show, staggered and nearly failed to maintain the formation.

He urgently sent a voice transmission.

"Wait! Little Su! Did this old man hear wrongly? How many Heavenly Soldiers and Generals did that Bull Demon King say?"

Master Xu Jingyang beside him looked equally dumbfounded and replied instinctively,

"Thir... thirty-five thousand! This old man heard it perfectly clearly! That damned Li Jing! He actually dared to swallow sixty-five percent of the ghost payroll?"

"Before I descended to the lower realm, that bastard was still kneeling in the Hall of Soaring Heavens, crying so miserably that snot and tears ran down his face. He kept saying, 'Sixty-five thousand soldiers bathed in blood, suffering grievous casualties.' He said that if he wasn't given compensation, he would smash his head to death in the great hall."

"I was wondering why that bastard kept hiding during the battle, even putting up a layer of golden clouds to block our view..."

Su Yuan replied faintly through voice transmission.

"Maybe there weren't even that many. I previously drew up construction plans for a recruit camp for the Heavenly Soldier Camp Training Corps. Judging by the scale of their barracks and logistical facilities, there were fewer than ten thousand men even at full capacity. Of those thirty-five thousand, quite a few were probably propped up by illusion techniques."

Disregarding all scholarly decorum, Venus Star Lord cursed angrily through voice transmission.

"Li Jing, you bastard! You deserve to be cut into a thousand pieces! No wonder he was always so eager to request an imperial decree to descend and campaign in the lower realm! He profits once by skimming military pay, then profits again from compensation funds! It's a business with nothing but profit!"

Su Yuan quietly added another blow.

"If the armor and weapons were then 'lost' on the battlefield, he could profit from that too."

Venus Star Lord grew even angrier.

"What does he need so many spirit stones for?! He's already a Heavenly King!"

Su Yuan's tone remained calm.

"Master, do you think one could climb to that position through ability and seniority alone?"

"He lost more battles than he won in the War of the Gods and was chased down and beaten by Luo Xuan, yet his entire family of four became saints in the flesh, and all three of his sons hold high positions. Which of those positions was not piled up with real gold and silver?"

"Even I know he has been drinking his soldiers' blood for years, yet has the Thunder Bureau ever caused even the slightest trouble for Heavenly King Li?"

The other end of the voice transmission fell silent for a long time.

Meanwhile, inside the valley.

After the Bull Demon King flipped the table, the atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing point.

The other Great Sages' eyes flickered, and their hearts struggled even more fiercely.

They did not want to completely tear their faces off like the Bull Demon King and lose the benefits within reach,

but since their eldest brother had spoken, they truly could not bring themselves to agree to such an unequal treaty.

Su Yuan lowered his head and unhurriedly sorted through the jade-slip documents on the table, not responding for the moment.

He was rapidly considering a countermeasure.

The Bull Demon King snorted coldly and looked around at his other brothers.

Yet all he received was silence.

The Roc Demon King, having pulled his black robe back on, even turned his head slightly away.

Before such enormous benefits, the so-called bond of brotherhood suddenly seemed somewhat burdensome.