The Might of the Five Elements Cultivation Art, the Old Devil's Name First Spreads; A Key Material for Replicating an Ancient Treasure, the Profound Underworld Essence Acquired

The top floor of the [Moon-Exploring Tower], in the Mountain Waist District of Origin Immortal City.

All five major merchant associations had gathered, but this was, in truth, a banquet with daggers hidden beneath the table, aimed at the [Great Shun Merchant Association].

True Person Dong felt the pressure in the room, and his presence had already weakened against theirs.

The negotiations that followed became almost entirely an exercise in one-sided coercion.

President Chen of the [Nine Rivers Merchant Association] first revisited the "fine traditions" of the Yuanshan Kingdom's five major merchant associations-"branches sharing the same roots" and "developing together"-before abruptly shifting to specific proposals for "optimization" and "cooperation" along several important trade routes over the next decade.

At the heart of his proposal, under the pretext of "improving overall efficiency" and "avoiding destructive competition," was a demand that the Great Shun Merchant Association drastically scale back or even withdraw from several of the most profitable routes, "yielding" control to the [Nine Rivers Merchant Association] and the [Four Seas Merchant Association], all prettily dressed up as being "for the development of the Yuanshan Kingdom."

President Jin of the [Four Seas Merchant Association] occasionally chimed in with her agreement.

Her words sounded fair, but every sentence drove another knife into the wound left by President Chen's proposal, portraying the Great Shun Merchant Association as an upstart that "violated industry rules" and "disrupted the market," and therefore ought to "consider the greater good."

"That is utterly mistaken-"

His face flushed, True Person Dong argued his case, pointing out that the [Great Shun Merchant Association] had violated no agreements in expanding its business and had contributed to the prosperity of the trade routes in question.

But with Chen and Jin singing the same tune, and the three true core True Persons-True Person Wangshi,