News of Earth-Prime Hall earning over ten billion immortal stones from pill sales in just a few months had already spread throughout the surrounding halls, making every hall green with envy.
That's more than ten billion immortal stones—while for them, earning one or two billion stones per year was already considered impressive.
Just as they were planning to approach Earth-Prime Hall, Gale Division sent people to pluck the peaches, and ended up wrecking Earth-Prime Hall's business, causing the once-glorious hall to quickly collapse.
Naturally, they felt a bit of schadenfreude, but even more regret.
If Earth-Prime Hall's pill business was still running, since everyone was part of the Saint Alliance, even if Earth-Prime just threw out a few scraps, they could've made a decent profit.
So, just based on that, they had some lingering resentment.
On this day—
Earth-Fiend Hall's hall master, Jun Moxian, was informed by his subordinates that Earth-Prime Hall's vice hall master, Queenie Green, had come to see him.
Immediately, Jun Moxian frowned—what did Queenie Green want with him?
Could it be that Earth-Prime Hall was about to collapse, and she was here to defect to Earth-Fiend Hall?
After all, before Earth-Prime Hall was destroyed, Queenie and her two companions had already considered joining Earth-Fiend Hall.
"Greetings, Hall Master Jun!"
Queenie Green smiled as she gave Jun Moxian a polite bow.
Jun Moxian laughed heartily and returned the gesture, warmly saying, "Haha, Hall Master Queenie, no need to be so formal! Please, have a seat—someone, bring tea!"
After some brief small talk, Queenie picked up her tea, took a sip, set the cup down lightly, and then smiled, "Hall Master Jun, I have a fortune to deliver to Earth-Fiend Hall. I wonder—do you dare accept it?"
"Oh? I'm all ears!" Jun Moxian's eyes lit up, vaguely guessing her intent.
"I'm sure Hall Master Jun has heard about our Earth-Prime Hall's pill reselling business from a while back, right?"
"Of course I've heard." Jun Moxian nodded, his breathing growing a bit quicker as he thought to himself: Could Queenie Green be planning to...?
"Ian Song—Young Master Song—has returned and is planning to restart the pill business!" Queenie continued. At this, she paused, picked up her tea, and drank slowly.
Seeing this, Jun Moxian grew impatient and couldn't help but say, "Hall Master Queenie, just say whatever's on your mind! As long as it's within my power, I'll never refuse!"
Seeing Jun Moxian's eagerness, Queenie Green smiled: "As the saying goes, joy shared is joy doubled. So, we're planning to hand over part of our pills for Earth-Fiend Hall to resell!"
"That's fantastic!" Jun Moxian couldn't help but clap his hands. "What does your hall need us to do?"
After a round of confidential talks, Queenie Green left behind 3.3 million top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills, satisfied.
She believed that once Earth-Fiend Hall tasted the profits, they'd become Earth-Prime Hall's most loyal ally.
Ian Song sold them pills at ninety stones each, and they resold them to Earth-Fiend, Earth-Brave, and Earth-Elite Halls at one hundred stones apiece.
Although they lost some profit, it ensured the three halls stood firmly on their side. That made it a worthwhile deal.
At the same time, they set requirements for the three halls.
First, the seventy-plus cities Earth-Prime Hall had already developed were off-limits to the three halls. Second, the surrounding two hundred-plus undeveloped cities were assigned to Earth-Prime Hall. If the other three halls wanted to open new markets, they had to go elsewhere.
None of the three halls objected. At most, it meant traveling farther, but with huge profits at stake, that hardly mattered.
After all, Queenie Green and the others promised that for every new city market they opened, they'd receive an extra 100,000 top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills per month.
Each pill earned them at least twenty stones, so an extra 100,000 pills meant two million more stones per month. What’s more, Earth-Prime Hall guaranteed a base supply of three million pills monthly. Just the profit from those three million pills was forty million stones—a yearly total approaching five hundred million.
And that’s without opening new markets. If, over the course of a year, they could develop one hundred city markets, their profits would soar to over two billion stones.
With these numbers, all three halls were fired up. They mobilized every expert they had to open new city markets.
There’s no denying that profit can drive people crazy.
In just three months, each of the three halls had opened at least fifty new city markets, earning a fortune.
Earth-Prime Hall wasn’t slow either. After stabilizing their original seventy-plus cities, they opened another seventy-plus, and adopted a strategy of flinging immortal stones to recruit talent.
As a result, in just a few months, Earth-Prime Hall’s Golden Immortal count surged past two hundred.
Other halls soon learned of this and came to Earth-Prime Hall seeking cooperation.
Queenie Green and the others didn’t outright refuse, but the terms of cooperation had changed.
They’d supply these halls with only one million top-grade Immortal Yuan Pills per month, but at a price of 115 stones each. How much they could sell depended on their own ability.
This gave Earth-Fiend, Earth-Brave, and Earth-Elite Hall members a real sense of privilege. They worked even harder to open markets, even willing to share profits.
Meanwhile, Ian Song earned even more. As for pill refining, with his enhanced soul and the Divine Temple’s thousand-fold time acceleration, he could produce hundreds of millions of pills a day.
Gale Division.
Bang!
Victor Sima slammed his palm on the table, his face full of rage.
How dare Earth-Prime Hall do this—openly pulling in Earth-Fiend, Earth-Brave, and Earth-Elite Halls, even giving plenty of benefits to five other halls, but pointedly offering nothing to Gale Division.
He’d ordered Earth-Prime Hall to hand over eighty percent of their profits several times, but Queenie Green always refused with various excuses—basically meaning, “no immortal stones for you.”
She finally put it bluntly: if Earth-Fiend, Earth-Brave, and Earth-Elite Halls agreed to hand over profits, so would Earth-Prime Hall.
Victor Sima dared to demand eighty percent because Earth-Prime Hall lacked a Profound Immortal guardian. But the other three halls each had one, and while Gale Division nominally led nine halls, most of the time they acted independently.
After all, both Gale Division and the halls had independent finances.
Really, the main reason was that Gale Division couldn’t offer the halls any help. Why should they listen?
After venting, Victor Sima calmed down and started plotting how to get Earth-Prime Hall’s immortal stones for himself.
Remove Queenie Green as hall leader and appoint someone else?
Obviously not!
After all, Earth-Prime Hall’s ability to make money depended entirely on Ian Song.
Suddenly, an idea struck him.
Why not go directly to Ian Song?
Talk to him first. If negotiations fail, use force.
He didn’t believe that, as a late-stage Profound Immortal, he couldn’t suppress a Golden Immortal.
A cold glint flashed across his face at the thought.
With his plan set, Victor Sima immediately summoned Ethan Zhou and another Profound Immortal elder to head for Greenrock Town.