The Yingtai cultivators had far-reaching considerations behind this journey. No business came about without a reason. After one or two thousand years without trade, they had suddenly begun exchanges now; commercial interests alone could not have been the reason.
Isolated overseas, wealth was nothing more than a pile of numbers if it could not circulate or be exchanged for resources. Since they could cultivate and live normally overseas, and even achieve enough to make the continent's cultivation circles regard them highly, that showed they did not actually care too much about such things.
Changes were coming to the Brocade Continent, and not just to the continent, but to the oceans as well. They could not simply stand apart, watching those changes unfold without taking part themselves.
They had not participated before because this world had been stable enough that joining in would not have changed anything. But things were different now. The history of cultivation had taught everyone a lesson: those who did not participate would be discarded, crushed, reduced to scenery, and become part of history.
Thus, Yingtai had begun its first tentative step, strengthening its exchanges with the continent.
Such exchanges could only begin with mutual benefit. Without benefits, who would make friends with you? Opening a trade route was therefore the obvious choice. The Lihai Military Governor's Office welcomed this with both hands raised; it was in their nature.
Besides, once open and aboveboard exchanges began, it would also become easier to bring more outstanding talent back to Yingtai. In troubled times, nothing mattered more than talented people.
After an awkward silence, a grinning cultivator stepped forward, bent low, and bowed with clasped hands. "I am Ye Tian, the young proprietor of Haifuhao. I would like to try my hand-throw out a brick to draw forth jade.