Ye Ming slowly raised his hand, and the furious Shi Gu immediately fell silent.
That showed the standing Ye Ming held in his heart.
To Ye Ming, A Lan's request was just as laughable.
Without plundering, where would the resources needed for development come from?
But he wanted to hear what the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce member had in mind.
"A reason." Ye Ming's voice remained calm.
"Give me a reason not to plunder the Azure Star Sea."
A Lan calmly took a homemade map of the Azure Star Sea out of his Spatial Inventory and spread it on the ground.
The map provided a fairly complete picture of the sea's resource distribution, with every location labeled in Earth Script.
It included island resources, the races occupying them, resources on the surrounding seabed, and so on.
A Lan slid his finger across the map, then pointed at it and looked at Ye Ming.
"I can't deny that plundering is the most efficient way to acquire resources. Wealth and resources other races have stockpiled for ten years, twenty years, or even longer can be yours through a single war, including the flesh-and-blood energy contained within the creatures plundered and slaughtered. But from a development perspective, there may be a gentler, better solution."
As he spoke, A Lan pointed to a blue dot on the map.
"This is Pearl Island, occupied by the Sea Demon Race. They built a farm there that produces eight hundred thousand Water Spirit Clams a year. A single act of plundering could take away twenty years of wealth, but it would also mean this island would never produce any farmed resources again."
A Lan then slid his finger to another island marked "Green Scale Island."
"This island is occupied by the Scale Race. Its Tidal Spirit