"Everyone, Broad Cloud Ward's reply has arrived. This Grand Artisan Li really has no regard for our dignity!"
While Li Chen and Mei Xuan discussed their future plans, a group of cultivators was also holding a discussion in a land rich in spiritual essence named Chess Mountain, more than a million li away.
These men were the local powers of Chess Mountain. Most came from Puppet Master aristocratic clans, each backed by at least one Master Artisan-level expert.
Each had a Lower-Grade Blessed Land similar to Broad Cloud Peak as the foundation of his holdings. Together, they formed a powerful alliance.
Grand Artisan Puppet Masters and Core Formation experts took the lead, keeping a firm grip on the reins of power.
After hundreds, even thousands of years of intermarriage and cooperation, they had become a considerable force.
"Grand Artisan Meng, you are our mainstay, as well as the chief Attendant of the Hecheng Merchants' Association. What advice might you have for us?"
The middle-aged man seated at the head turned toward the man sitting beside him.
He was a middle-aged cultivator with a somewhat wooden expression, dressed in blue-gray cloth robes that made him look entirely out of place among the others. Yet his status was exceedingly high.
There was no other reason for this than that he was a Grand Artisan-level expert.
Though merely an Underworld Grand Artisan, he could already be called the pillar supporting a local power.
To a great extent, his abilities determined the potential of the entire organization.
Grand Artisan Meng smiled faintly. "What else can we do? He's a Grand Artisan in his own right, more than a million li away. Surely we can't raise an army to attack him and force him to submit?"
"Commercial matters should be settled through commercial means. We