Count Marfa's domain was not the only one thrown into chaos.
Thirteen noble lords had rejected the Xinfei Merchant Guild's proposal to erect Mana Signal Towers, then refused again when the guild renewed its offer. Like Count Marfa, all of them had been informed that the Xinfei Merchant Guild was severing all cooperation with them.
The consequences were exactly the same as those Count Marfa faced, though their severity varied.
But regardless of how severe the effects were, these noble lords understood just as clearly as Count Marfa did that they had no hope of standing against the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
They had only one choice: obediently do as the Xinfei Merchant Guild told them.
Of course, some people were still trying hard to salvage this chaotic situation.
Angklu was among the most anxious of them.
"President Xu, why did you do this?" Angklu looked at Xu Yi gravely, a hint of reproach in his eyes and anguish filling his voice. "Do you realize that because your Xinfei Merchant Guild unilaterally chose to terminate its cooperation with Count Marfa and those other lords, all their domains have now fallen into chaos?"
Xu Yi smiled faintly and shrugged. "Of course I do."
"You know! Then why did you do it?" Angklu's tone grew sharper. "Countless commoners in their domains gained entirely new lives through cooperation with your Xinfei Merchant Guild, but now you've destroyed all that. Can you... really bear to do this?"
"Instead of asking whether I can bear it, you should ask those lords whether they can. All they had to do was agree to continue cooperating with our guild, and everything could have stayed as it was. Their subjects could even have benefited further. Instead, their selfishness destroyed all of it. I think you should question them before