"Of course, we will shop around. Our tribe will naturally trade with whichever merchant association offers the best terms and value. Go back and consider this carefully, and make your preparations. Reply within a day; we will compare offers over three days. Ideally, we would support this island's economy. But if nothing suitable is available, our tribe can only head elsewhere or trade through other means!"
Seeing the Black Tower High Priest react this way, everyone present froze for a moment. They were now seventy or eighty percent convinced that the Black Tower Tribe could produce wealth worth several million immortal crystals.
Thinking it over carefully, the Black Tower Tribe really had no reason to deceive them. That would bring only harm, not benefit. After all, any one of these merchant factions had the strength to wipe out the Black Tower Tribe. Defaulting on a payment or making fools of them was simply not an option!
Some of the shrewder people gazed thoughtfully at the "foolish High Priest" who had recently become rather famous. So the Black Tower High Priest had not been foolishly flaunting his wealth in public; he had another purpose. Put simply, he was shopping around and choosing the best offer.
After all, the oppression and exploitation of the Barbarian Tribe by the hundred races was no secret. These merchants already shared a tacit understanding: they drove down the prices of goods purchased from barbarians and charged exorbitant prices for goods sold to them. The Black Tower High Priest wanted to break that understanding, sowing discord among these merchants and tempting them away!
As for whether he could hold on to his wealth after flaunting it, once he bought an immortal ship and put it on display, everyone would know anyway. What difference did flaunting his wealth