One could only say that this was what people meant by wealth moving hearts.
Faced with enormous profits, even the three factions that ordinarily clashed at the mere thought of one another, itching to beat each other's brains out, could sit down and discuss business amicably.
The Xishui Alliance's preliminary rounds were being held at an upscale hotel in the city center.
The Youthful Hotel-a hotel whose name alone made it clear that it was anything but innocent, openly playing hard to get-was only a kilometer from the Mingyue Hotel, less than a ten-minute stroll away.
From the outside, the Youthful Hotel did not look particularly large, with only five floors aboveground.
But only those familiar with it understood that its true strength lay underground.
Four burly men over two meters tall stood at the hotel's main entrance, dressed in close-fitting black outfits, their cold eyes scrutinizing the passing crowds.
Before Chen Ping and his companion could approach, one of the burly men in black came forward and raised a hand to block their path.
"The hotel isn't open to the public today. Please leave."
"If it were, I wouldn't have come. However comfortable your hotel might be, could it possibly compare to the top-floor suite at the Mingyue next door?"
Chen Ping lifted his head slightly, the center-parted hair above his brow trembling a little. "We're here to compete."
At that moment, Chen Ping carried himself like a young nobleman, regarding the man in black before him with a superior's disdain for an inferior.
Yet the more Chen Ping behaved this way, the more deferential the burly man became, his expression visibly softening.
Soul engineers enjoyed a far higher status in the Sun Moon Empire than in other countries, and offending one, even a low-ranking one, was never a