Chapter 159: Qi–Han Grievances
Before returning to Qinghui Base, Zhou Ming disguised himself as an ordinary hunter and once again returned to the black market at Ant Dwelling Ridge.
This time, his purpose in coming to the black market was to purchase detailed information about the various forces within Qinghui Base.
Whether it was developing his own faction or reestablishing a camp, in the early stages he would certainly need to find suitable partners for cooperation.
On the second day, when the morning sun slowly rose, Zhou Ming finally rushed back from Ant Dwelling Ridge to Qinghui Base.
Winter was about to end. Under the sunlight, the vast white snow melted into clear snowmelt, nourishing the land.
The sound of trickling water echoed through the wilderness, and hunters had already gathered at the city gates, preparing to head out on hunts.
Just as Zhou Ming was about to enter the base, several combat vehicles charged out from within the base like enraged bulls breaking free.
Seeing the combat vehicles that nearly collided with him, Zhou Ming frowned and immediately cast his gaze toward them.
“Qi Family?”
After seeing the family emblem on the combat vehicles, Zhou Ming finally understood why they were acting so arrogantly.
It seemed that they had discovered that something had happened to Qi Shouwu, which was why they had sent people out to search.
“The traces inside the valley have basically been cleaned up by me, and with the heavy snow over the last two days, the Qi Family shouldn’t be able to find me.”
“However, Qi Shouwu found me because he received information passed from the camp about my advancement and class change. There’s a chance they might discover my trail through this lead.”
Watching the Qi Family’s combat vehicles disappear into the distance, Zhou Ming silently muttered to himself.
After pondering for a moment, Zhou Ming did not continue thinking too much about it. At the very least, before the Qi Family could confirm Qi Shouwu’s death, it would still take them a few days to go looking for the camp.
The Qi Family had five Professional Beast Tamers. With Qi Shouwu dead, if another one were killed, the Qi Family would no longer have the capacity to spare attention for him.
After all, there were so many forces within Qinghui Base, and naturally someone would restrain the Qi Family for the sake of利益.
After entering the base, Zhou Ming returned the apartment he had previously rented and then headed straight toward the inner city.
According to the intelligence Zhou Ming had purchased, aside from the Alliance’s City Defense Army, the Hunter Guild, and the Base Council, there were five top-tier forces.
The White Deer Qin Family. The family possessed methods to cultivate deer-type Ferocious Beasts into White Deer Phantasmal Beasts that could control light-element particles, along with the corresponding inheritance matched to the White Deer Phantasmal Beasts.
The family controlled the medical industry within the base and had dozens of Professional Beast Tamers. Both the family head and the elders were high-level Professional Beast Tamers.
The Shangguan Family. Their ancestors came from the military. The family possessed the Shepherd inheritance. Because the family’s Professional Beast Tamers often stayed in the wilderness, their main industries were mining, hunting Ferocious Beasts, and collecting medicinal materials.
The family also had dozens of Professional Beast Tamers, with the family head and elders all being high-level Professional Beast Tamers.
The He Clan Martial Hall. More than a hundred years ago, it had originally been an ordinary martial hall within Qinghui Base. Because the hall master at the time successfully advanced to become a Beast Knight, it gradually expanded using the martial hall as its foundation, eventually becoming a force that was half family, half sect.
Several well-known hunting corps within Qinghui Base were backed by the He Clan Martial Hall. In addition to providing security services, it was also involved in various other industries within the base.
The Golden Flower Group. At the beginning of Qinghui Base’s establishment, it was a small construction company. After more than three hundred years of development, it eventually evolved into a colossal entity involved in pharmaceutical development, arms research, biological cultivation, large-scale construction projects, and even secretly researching genetic potions.
The Star Radiance Group. A company established twenty years ago. Within just a few short years, it relied on various利益 to recruit a large number of Professional Beast Tamers without background, allowing its strength to rival the other four long-established top-tier forces.
There were rumors that the Star Radiance Group was supported by the Alliance behind the scenes, mainly to keep the other four forces in check. As for the specific reasons, there was no record in the intelligence Zhou Ming had purchased.
These five forces not only monopolized most of the civilian resources of Qinghui Base, but also had branch forces in several nearby medium-sized bases.
As a result, the strength of the second-tier forces was much weaker, with even the strongest having only seven or eight Professional Beast Tamers at most.
A family like the Qi Family, which possessed five Professional Beast Tamers, could only rank toward the front of the second tier.
Because the first-tier forces occupied most of the resources, competition among second-tier forces was extremely fierce, and the deaths of Professional Beast Tamers were considered normal.
Although the Alliance did not wish for casualties among Professional Beast Tamers, some things simply could not be prevented.
Just like crimes that were clearly illegal—there would still be people who committed them anyway. The Alliance could not use overly forceful measures to stop everything and could only step in to mediate when conflicts became intense.
Of course, if any force harmed innocents or damaged the Alliance’s interests, then the authorities would have sufficient reason to forcibly intervene.
Although it sounded contradictory, reality was exactly like this.
Just like how the Alliance hoped for an increase in the number of Beast Tamers, yet it would also tacitly allow resource monopolies, thereby forcing ordinary people with average talent to choose to join the military and follow Alliance orders to fight Ferocious Beasts and foreign races.
Regarding such matters, Zhou Ming could only评价 it as “a reality filled with contradictions between ideals and truth.”
After entering the inner city, a scene far more prosperous than the outer city appeared before Zhou Ming. High-rise buildings stood everywhere, traffic flowed endlessly, and tall trees lined both sides of the streets.
The entire Qinghui Base covered an area of more than ten kilometers in radius, roughly resembling a circle with a diameter of thirty kilometers. The inner city alone occupied half of that area.
All the major forces of Qinghui Base, except for the Hunter Guild, were basically stationed in the inner city.
There was a very obvious statistic: the housing prices in the outer city and the inner city differed by at least three times, and at most by ten times.
This time, the cooperative force Zhou Ming sought was the Han Family of Qinghui Base, whose family residence was located in the inner city.
The Han Family possessed three Professional Beast Tamers and controlled the textile and garment industry of Qinghui Base and its surrounding bases. They were also researching outdoor survival jackets and protective suits.
Although they were not involved in other industries, providing resources for a camp of several hundred people was not a problem at all.
The most important point was that the Qi and Han Families had irreconcilable, life-and-death grievances.
Decades ago, the Han Family had five professionals, while the Qi Family only had three.
However, once, when Han Family Professional Beast Tamers discovered a fourth-tier spiritual object in the wilderness—enough to further elevate the Han Family’s strength—they had not expected that an old ancestor of the Qi Family would also happen upon it.
The Han Family had two Professional Beast Tamers present, while the Qi Family had only one.
Faced with such a situation, the Qi Family actually used special methods to lure several high-tier Ferocious Beasts over.
After the high-tier Ferocious Beasts discovered the fourth-tier spiritual object, they naturally attacked the two Han Family Professional Beast Tamers guarding it.
The final result was that the Han Family’s strength suffered severe losses over the past several decades. All other interests were seized by the Qi Family and other forces, leaving only the textile and garment industry in their hands.
As for the Qi Family, their number of Professional Beast Tamers increased from three to five, which was enough to show how great the change had been.
Zhou Ming not only intended to rely on the Han Family to help provide him with resources, but also to use their strength to restrain the Qi Family.
After wandering around the inner city for a while and briefly familiarizing himself with the environment, Zhou Ming arrived at the Han Family’s residence as night fell.