Cthulhu Gonfalon

Hailaer was not a businessman, but he had lived for 300 years and had dealt with countless businessmen. He had long picked up the tricks of the trade.

When at work, businessmen did not practice a straightforward approach. They generally liked beating about the bush, playing some tricks or using some other methods. The most commonly seen method was this: Imagine you had something with a purchase price of 50 gold coins, then your quoted price should not simply be set with a direct 10 percent profit to become 55 gold coins. The quote should depend on both the customers' and stores' situations to be adjusted accordingly.

For example, let's say you had a relatively stable roadside stall and had been doing business by the street for a long time. You should quote 80 coins, then let your customers make you a counteroffer. After a round of nonsensical negotiation, at last, the item will generally be sold for a price ranging from 53 to 58 gold coins.

If you opened a high-end shop with luxurious interior decorations on the most prosperous street in a big city like the Highest Tower, then you must never degrade yourself. Right away, you could mark up the price directly to 200 or 300 gold coins, and even bargaining would not be necessary. You just needed to bear your stance of "small things are not worth talking about; let's talk business."

Hailaer's current situation was almost the kind where "the goods are good, but the customers can still choose whether to buy or not, so I have to sell." So he had to toss out some shocking news to first trigger the higher-ups of Mill City. Then he threw in the second piece of shocking news again to trigger them further. When they started to waver and began to consider agreeing to his suggestion, only then would he tell them his true demands.

This way, everything would naturally unfold.

To put it bluntly, this was, in fact, the same as haggling with a street vendor.

"Hey, miss, what do you think of this fish? Fresh and tender, it's good!"

"Well… it's not bad, how much is it?"

"Five silver coins."

"That's too expensive. The number of chickens I could buy instead!"

"Just listen to yourself. Chickens are not rare; this is very rare! This is a seawater fish, so you can't find it in rivers. Just to bring it over here alive, I had to use seawater along the way, and that took a lot of effort! Just this work alone is enough to make this price worth it!

"That's truly laborious, but still, you can't sell it at such a steep price! Anyway, if you're making a trip to the seaside, you should bring something back. So whatever it is, aren't you still bringing something back?"

"You can't speak of it like that. Bringing this over was exceptionally tiring. If I were to bring back some miscellaneous groceries, that would be so much more convenient."

"But if you brought in some small groceries, you wouldn't be able to sell it at a good price."

"Yes, so look at this fish, look how good it is! To tell you the truth, this fish is in fact a little different from the average fish."

"Eh? Different in what sense?"

"Think about it, the common fish, even if you take good care of it, after a journey of a few hundred miles through a period of a dozen days on the road, no matter what, it would still die, right?"

"That's for sure. Fish are delicate things."

"But look at this fish of mine. It's not dead, on the contrary, it's still full of vigor."

"Didn't you say that it's because you raised it well?"

"You think too highly of me. If I truly had the ability to keep a fish alive and well for so long, would I still be setting up a stall by the street? I would have long joined the management team of some trading company!"

"That sounds about right."

"So the key, in fact, lies in this fish—this fish ah, it has the blood of a demon beast!"

"Ah?! Demon beast?!"

"Don't get so nervous! It does carry a little blood of a demon beast, just like those horses with long scales that the knights rode, but it is not really a demon beast."

"You scared me! So what is your reason for selling this?"

"Don't you know? Eating things that carry the blood of demon beasts stimulates the power of the blood inside your body."

"Indeed, there seems to be such a saying."

"Of course, there is. Don't the adventurers frequently eat demon beast meat? Demon beast meat is, in fact, not delicious at all. But to become stronger, they can only resent that they don't have big enough stomachs, so they can never eat enough. Think about, if your own children eat this, thus slightly stimulating that bit of power in their blood…"

"Indeed, this is something good!"

"Yes, so although the price is a little steep, it is still worth it!"

"But it's still expensive. I'm going to go buy a few chickens for my children to eat. That is also good and nourishing."

"You can't put it across like that. You may find this expensive, but you can just walk into an adventurer's shop to take a look, how much does demon beast meat cost? The prices there are all paid with gold coins. Just a piece as big as your palm will cost you one gold coin! You look at this fish of mine, at least three pounds, but it's only five silver coins."

"But that is demon beast meat."

"All of those are made into dried meat! All the vendors in our line of business will know that only by eating it fresh and alive will the effects be good! Here, just like my fish, you can buy it and bring it home, kill it or eat it alive. That's the best!"

"But it's still expensive ah…"

"Alright! You are my loyal customer. I will give in further and sell it to you for three silver coins. But with one whole fish, if it really stimulated the power of blood for your children, then you better shower me with more care in the future."

"Deal! There's nothing more I can say!"

The conversation above was a scene that Hailaer had chanced upon while on the street as he was making his way back from the Highest Tower earlier on. At that time, he was hit with a bright idea and inspiration.

In fact, it was just something typical. This scene was nothing more than someone selling a seawater fish that "gave hope to people about stimulating one's power after eating it." What he sold was merely a "hope for longevity or to enter the Legendary Realm."

Frankly speaking, what everyone bought was the same thing—hope.

Hope, to some people, was worthless, but to others, it was something so valuable that no amount was enough to trade for it. Similarly, for a person, there were certain things one would not spare a glance for, but there were also some other things that one would spare no effort in pursuing.

It was the same for Hailaer himself. To continue living, he had spent god-knew how much effort all these years, enduring through so much suffering and going through countless risks.

Just recently, if it was not to extend his life, would he, a city lord who was perfectly alright, go all the way to the northwest border just because he had plans for a divine master?

That would simply be looking for trouble!

Generally speaking, a person who sought death was bound to die. If he got lucky, then not only would he not die, he would even have gained benefits. But the benefits always came with a price, because His Majesty, the Void Mask, was no longer so kind and gentle, and he would not be forgiving to a mortal who had deceived him. If he did not produce any results, the outcome… he did not even want to think about that.

So throughout the entire journey, he pondered and deliberated on how he could perfect his plan.

Finally, he came up with a plan, which was none other than this.

Judging from the effect after the actual implementation, this plan should be considered a success. The higher-ups of Mill City had a brief discussion and decided on several strategies like the "invitation to the Church of the Void Mask to come and preach," the "establishment of a temple for the Void God System," the "strengthening of communication with the Republic of Northwest," and the "effort to promote a mutual friendship."

Although this was a little inferior to the ideal result, such an outcome was more than enough for him to report to the Void Mask on his mission.

And… in fact, such a result might be for the best, as it was something everyone could accept. He also did not need to worry about triggering the Federation's higher-ups, and in particular, he did not need to worry that his teacher would suddenly fly into a great rage and make an appearance to expel him from his school of disciples. His Majesty, the Void Mask could also smoothly pave a way for his church to enter Mill City and the surrounding area.

As for what would happen in the future to the gods who had eternal life, so long as there was a good beginning, what remained to be done would be nothing more than a meticulous job.

Time was something the gods never lacked.

In fact, Sui Xiong also thought so. When he first received Hailaer's report and knew about the result of the meeting among the higher-ups of Mill City, he sang high praises of Hailaer.

"Very well, this is a beginning that I'm satisfied with," said a voice that seemed to be spoken with a smile, as the shadow of a jellyfish floated before Hailaer. "Don't worry, we'll just let it slowly develop like that. So long as the end result is something good, I'm not bothered about how much time is spent."

This was exactly in line with Hailaer's speculation, so he was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief and put his heart to rest.

And after Sui Xiong ended contact with Hailaer, Hailaer started to think about something else.

With his ability, he could totally strive for the development of his church by helping those aged lords to continue living. He believed that when faced with the temptation of being able to live another few more years, such a thing as preaching was insignificant. It should probably be considered as nothing much at all.

At least for a majority of the lords, it was nothing much to them.

There were also people in this world, of course, who attached immeasurable importance to belief and who would rather die than make any compromise in this aspect. But among the aristocrats, such a group of people should be relatively few. Among the aged aristocrats, the number would be even smaller.

On one hand, the moral standards of the aristocratic community were generally a little low. But on the other hand, it was often not easy for such honest and stubborn people to live long…

Such a situation where bad money forced good money out of circulation was by no means a good thing for territorial land. It was harmful to the entire aristocratic community. But to Sui Xiong, who wanted to carry out his preaching on a massive scale, this situation was certainly beneficial.

So long as he lowered his expectation on the terms of exchange by a slight degree, most of the aristocrats would presumably be willing to make this deal.

The only problem was… was helping these aristocrats to extend their lives on such a massive scale really a good thing?

This was the problem Sui Xiong was most worried about.

This problem was neither big nor small. Though he would not easily help people to enter the Legendary Realm, helping so many people to continue living for a long time was something that would affect the order of the entire society.

It would also affect the attitude of the gods.

Among them all, the one most likely to show a violent reaction was of course the Grim Reaper.

The teachings of the Grim Reaper said that death was nothing scary; just like birth, it was an inevitable destination afterlife. From birth to death, this would be a complete cycle. So the Grim Reaper and his followers found spells like "Raising the Dead" and "Creating Soul-Binding Corpses" extremely revolting. They had always been trying hard to fight the necromancers.

Previously, when Sui Xiong had trusted Tu Ya'an with an important position on dealing with the matter of skeleton labor, the Grim Reaper showed the most aggressive objection.

At that time, he was very worried about whether the Grim Reaper would wage a war of gods against him—that master of the underworld might not strike frequently, but he was extremely powerful. He was himself a great Divine Power, and though he had no god followers under his command, he had a large number of dead souls at the demigod level. Especially when the underworld was connected to countless worlds, how many masters had been bred? What kind of profound inside information was there? No one really knew.

Don't you see? Even the God of Glory, who had led the humans in defeating several races, had never gotten into any conflicts with the Grim Reaper.

Also, even back when the Master of War, who had a belligerent nature and relished in combats, wanted to recruit followers of god with the priesthood of death, he had hesitated repeatedly. He had even made a trip to the underworld personally and made that decision only after he had a detailed discussion with the Grim Reaper.

Therefore, it was apparent that the Grim Reaper was a strong deterrent force with strong power!

Sui Xiong truly did not want to have any conflict with the Grim Reaper. They already had a huge one before. If there was a next time, he was afraid they would really go to battle!

And… previously when he had a conflict with the Master of Mystery, it had already led to his spellcasting ability being locked. If it was not for the Master of Mystery who softened his attitude later, up till now, he might still be a primitive who was incapable of casting spells.

If both were to get into a conflict with the absolute control over "death," what would the Grim Reaper do to him?

Sui Xiong could not recall for the time being, but he also did not want to delve into this problem. He truly and absolutely, no matter what, was determined not to ever stir up unnecessary trouble again!

Now that his place was getting bigger and bigger, every move he made concerned the lives of countless people. If he created trouble and brought in devilish demons, even if he was able to win every single battle, he would not be able to guarantee that the people under his command would be safe.

For instance, in a certain war of gods, a god's casual strike on a certain village or town in the Republic of Northwest…

Especially when the Grim Reaper was no ordinary god. In this world, the souls of the vast majority of people who have died would head for the underworld. Even with all the gods put together, the number of souls they could salvage was only two-thirds of the total, the remaining 30 to 20 percent of souls would eventually have to enter the Grim Reaper's sphere of influence.

If Sui Xiong made the Grim Reaper angry, the Grim Reaper might not even need to come fight him. Any slight tweak to the treatment the civilians of the Republic of Northwest would be subjected to after death was more than enough to make Sui Xiong grimace in pain with a splitting headache.

This was what it meant to not be afraid of the county magistrate, but to be fearful of the current official-in-charge!

He, the mighty Xiong, would never grow old and die, but the civilians of the Republic of Northwest eventually would!

This was just like the famous saying, "I'd rather offend the one who kills, but I'll never offending the one who saves." The one who killed people might not necessarily succeed in killing you, but the one who saved people who most probably be able to save your life.

Before traversing worlds, Sui Xiong had actually witnessed such an incident: One of his secondary school classmates went up to a technical secondary school after graduating from junior high school and then majored in nursing. Five years later, he graduated and became a nurse. He worked in a small hospital that was near Sui Xiong's house. On a certain day, there was medical trouble in that hospital that stirred up the entire hospital and threw everyone off their feet. It was unknown how many people had suffered from the trouble that bastard caused. At that time, everyone merely put up with the situation, but they were all secretly muttering, "You disdainful prick, you better not fall at the mercy of my hands."

Later on, that crackpot really fell at the mercy of their hands when he himself also fell sick. It was quite a troublesome illness too.

Talking about the follow-up events of that incident truly made no difference at all. In short, Sui Xiong learned two very profound lessons:

Firstly, never offend a doctor, not even a nurse should be offended. Secondly, if one really offended a doctor or nurse, it was best to move to another place.

But in this world, if he really offended the Grim Reaper, it would be useless regardless of where he moved to! So after repeated deliberation, he finally made up his mind and set off for the underworld.

He might possibly make the Grim Reaper angry, or he might even have to suffer a loss, but if he wanted to say anything, he should just directly do so without thinking too much. To help such a big group of people extend their life was something so massive, if he did not even mention a word about it…

Haha, it was still better to go and ask to be certain.