Heavenly Dragon's recruitment!!

Lu Fang looked at Uncle Jiang.

"Uncle Jiang."

Uncle Jiang hurried forward.

"Young master."

Lu Fang said,

"From now on, you'll oversee the chamber's day-to-day management."

Uncle Jiang froze.

"Me?"

Lu Fang nodded.

"You spent years working alongside my parents. You know how the chamber operates."

"I trust you."

Uncle Jiang opened his mouth.

"But young master, the chamber is so large..."

Lu Fang said calmly,

"The department heads will still handle the actual business."

"Your job is to keep an eye on them for me."

Uncle Jiang fell silent for a few seconds, then nodded firmly.

"Yes."

"Rest assured, young master."

"I'll look after the chamber for you."

Chen Guangmao and the others also bowed their heads.

"We will all cooperate with Butler Jiang."

Lu Fang looked at everyone.

"The chamber is important."

"But in this world, strength is what matters most."

"If my parents were still here, you wouldn't have entertained the thoughts you did today."

"If I weren't strong enough, I wouldn't be sitting here today, either."

The hall fell silent.

His words were blunt, but no one could refute them.

Lu Fang continued,

"So I won't spend all my time on chamber affairs."

"I need to keep growing stronger."

"The chamber will handle resources, distribution channels, and intelligence."

"Uncle Jiang will handle day-to-day management."

"You will make sure the work gets done properly."

"Any objections?"

Everyone answered in unison,

"No."

This time, their voices were unified and firm.

They all understood what Lu Fang meant.

Lu Fang wasn't abandoning the chamber.

He wanted the chamber to support him rather than hold him back.

For a peerless SSS-rank genius at his first class advancement, wasting time on daily accounts and squabbles over distribution channels would be true foolishness.

The stronger he became, the more secure the Fangfang Chamber of Commerce would be.

Just then.

Lu Fang suddenly sensed something wrong.

Everyone in the hall had stopped moving.

Uncle Jiang was frozen in place with his head lowered.

The expressions of Chen Guangmao and the others had frozen, too.

Even the dust in the air seemed to have been paused.

Lu Fang's gaze abruptly sharpened.

Ten Money Ghosts instantly appeared behind him.

But a moment later, a calm voice rang out.

"No need to be nervous."

"We've only stopped them temporarily."

"Some things aren't suitable for too many ears."

Lu Fang turned around.

Two figures had appeared in the center of the hall without him noticing.

The man in black looked calm, his aura unfathomable.

The middle-aged man in gray robes wore a faint smile, undisguised admiration in his eyes as he looked at Lu Fang.

Lu Fang didn't lower his guard.

"Who are you?"

The middle-aged man in gray robes said with a smile,

"Let me introduce myself."

"My name is Fu Yun."

"A member of Heavenly Dragon."

The man in black also spoke.

"Lu Chen."

"A member of Heavenly Dragon."

Lu Fang's gaze shifted slightly.

He had never heard that name before.

But these two men had appeared silently inside the Fangfang Chamber of Commerce headquarters and even brought everyone in the entire hall to a standstill. Their strength was undoubtedly far beyond anyone he had met so far.

Seeing his confusion, Fu Yun smiled.

"It's normal not to know."

"Heavenly Dragon was never a place ordinary class holders were qualified to have contact with."

Lu Chen said calmly,

"Heavenly Dragon is the Dragon Nation's special defense force."

"We answer directly to the Dragon Nation's highest leadership, operate outside local jurisdiction, don't recruit publicly, and don't accept ordinary recommendations."

"It brings together the very finest geniuses in the entire Dragon Nation."

Lu Fang's pupils contracted slightly.

The entire Dragon Nation.

Its very finest geniuses?

Fu Yun picked up the explanation, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"The so-called geniuses in your Jiang City, like that classmate of yours, Wang Yixing."

"In Jiang City, he's fairly good."

"In the provincial capital, he'd still receive special training."

"But in Heavenly Dragon, he wouldn't even qualify to take the assessment."

Lu Chen continued,

"Normally, only the outstanding graduates of the Five Great Academies qualify to take Heavenly Dragon's assessment."

"You've at least heard of the Five Great Academies, haven't you?"

Lu Fang nodded.

The Dragon Nation's Five Great Academies.

They were the places every young class holder dreamed of attending, himself included.

In nearly ten years, Jiang City had produced only three students who attended the Five Great Academies.

Each one had been publicized throughout the city.

Yet the Five Great Academies were merely one of the prerequisites for entering Heavenly Dragon?

Fu Yun looked at Lu Fang with a broad smile.

"Have you suddenly realized why no one from the Five Great Academies came looking for you, despite all the commotion you've caused?"

Lu Fang was taken aback.

He had indeed wondered about that.

He had awakened a hidden class.

Earned an SSS rating in the beginner dungeon.

And killed a powerful member of the Blood Wolf Association at school.

Logically, however slowly the Five Great Academies reacted, they shouldn't have remained completely silent.

Now it seemed.

It wasn't that no one knew. Someone had intercepted them beforehand.

Lu Chen said evenly,

"Because the Five Great Academies aren't qualified to compete for anyone Heavenly Dragon has its eye on."

The statement was calm, but quite a flex.

Of course, it also made Lu Fang truly realize the weight the name Heavenly Dragon carried.

Lu Fang took a breath and asked,

"So you've been watching me from the start?"

Lu Chen nodded.

"Yes, ever since you killed that Blood Wolf Association member."

Lu Fang's gaze sharpened slightly.

Lu Chen looked at Lu Fang, his voice steady.

"We can tell you the result now."

"Lu Fang, you've passed Heavenly Dragon's assessment."

"On behalf of Heavenly Dragon, I formally extend an invitation to you."

Lu Fang didn't immediately agree.

Lu Chen looked at him.

"You're unwilling?"

Fu Yun was somewhat surprised, too.

"Kid, do you know how many people dream of joining Heavenly Dragon?"

"Never mind someone like you who's only just completed his first class advancement."

"Even those third-advancement prodigies from the Five Great Academies would be too excited to sleep after hearing those words."

Lu Fang said slowly,

"It's not that I'm unwilling."

"I just have things of my own to do."

Lu Chen nodded, having guessed what was on Lu Fang's mind.

"Your parents encountered a spatial storm during a mission in the Abyssal Rift."

"But you don't believe they died."

"So you've been leveling like mad these past few days because you want to level up as quickly as possible, reach the front lines, and search for clues about them."

Lu Chen looked at Lu Fang.

"So you're worried that joining Heavenly Dragon will restrict your freedom."

"That it'll slow down your leveling."

"And, more importantly, delay your search for your parents on the front lines."

Lu Fang didn't deny it.

If joining Heavenly Dragon meant being bound by all sorts of rules instead, then even the most powerful backing would mean nothing to him.

Lu Chen said evenly,

"Then you've got it wrong."

"Heavenly Dragon is the fastest place to level up in the entire Dragon Nation."

Something stirred in Lu Fang's heart.

Fu Yun said with a smile,

"You should have already noticed that not all dungeons are equal."

Lu Fang nodded.

For dungeons of the same level, the differences in experience and drops between normal, hard, nightmare, and hell difficulties were enormous.

And the dungeons themselves varied in quality.

Some dungeons had dense monster populations, plenty of experience, and good drops.

Others were tedious and long, yet offered pitifully little in return.

Lu Chen said.

"In a place like Jiang City, there are only a handful of high-level dungeons."

"You'll soon find that leveling through Jiang City's dungeons gets less and less efficient."

Lu Fang fell silent.

Lu Chen was right.

Jiang City was only a peripheral city.

Low-level class holders could still get by.

Once they truly reached the high-level stage, the resources here simply couldn't support rapid growth.