Chapter 161: Cooperation Requirements
“How do you want to cooperate?”
Outside the study, a hoarse and deep voice sounded.
“Third Uncle.”
“Third Granduncle.”
An elderly man with completely white hair and a slightly stooped figure walked in, leaning on a dragon-head cane.
When Zhou Ming saw him at first glance, his expression immediately became solemn, and he instantly raised his guard inwardly.
Han Yanshuo, the senior-most member of the Han Family in terms of generation, the strongest existence in the Han Family, and also the only mid-tier Professional Beast Tamer in the Han Family.
Once Beast Tamers advanced to the Professional Rank, their strength was no longer as chaotic as at the Apprentice Rank, where there were no clear distinctions in power.
Above the Professional Rank, the gap between the three minor levels—low, mid, and high—was not an insurmountable chasm like that between Apprentice and Professional, but the difference in strength between each level was still at least double.
Facing Han Yanshuo, if Zhou Ming focused solely on escaping, he might still have a chance to preserve his life.
But if he chose to fight Han Yanshuo head-on, then unless a miracle occurred, his outcome would be certain death.
Of course, this was also because Zhou Ming had just broken through to the Professional Rank, and in addition lacked matching spells and combat techniques, naturally affecting his combat strength.
“I will help your Han Family kill Qi Lingxuan. You will help me restrain the Qi Family so they do not trouble me, and additionally provide three hundred million worth of resources for me to build a camp.”
“For subsequent cooperation, the medicinal herbs and Ferocious Beast materials collected by the camp in the Wilderness will be traded with your Han Family at ninety percent of the market price.”
Han Yanshuo slowly walked to Zhou Ming’s front. After hearing the cooperation proposal put forward by Zhou Ming, he slowly shook his head to indicate rejection.
“The cooperation method you proposed is acceptable to our Han Family, but I do not want you to kill Qi Lingxuan. I want you to kill Qi Kaiyuan.”
“Old Master Han, are you joking? Or are you saying that your Han Family is willing to help with assassinating Qi Kaiyuan?”
“Moreover, Qi Kaiyuan does not have many years left to live. Qi Lingxuan is the main threat that will endanger the survival of your Han Family in the future.”
At this moment, toward the requirement proposed by Han Yanshuo, a faint trace of anger arose in Zhou Ming’s heart.
After all, helping the Han Family assassinate Qi Lingxuan already involved enormous risk on his part. It could be said he had shown considerable sincerity.
“I am not joking. There are three reasons.”
“First, Qi Kaiyuan once used despicable methods to secretly harm two Professional Beast Tamers of my Han Family and seized a fourth-tier spiritual object, the Dragon Scale Fruit, causing my Han Family to fall into decline. His life must repay this debt.”
“Second, Qi Lingxuan was able to advance to a Professional Beast Tamer at the age of thirty-two a year ago because the Qi Family forcibly used special resources to help him break through. For several years, his strength will find it difficult to advance even an inch.”
“The reason they spared no cost to nurture Qi Lingxuan was fundamentally to completely crush my Han Family.”
“Third, if you assassinate Qi Lingxuan within the base, you would be violating the Alliance’s rules. Although you do not need to care about the Alliance’s suppression, the Alliance will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly. Any future cooperation with you would inevitably be noticed by the Alliance.”
“Although the Alliance would not punish my Han Family for this, suppression would be inevitable.”
After hearing the reasons given by Han Yanshuo, Zhou Ming immediately countered with a question.
“Then why is your Han Family not worried that assassinating Qi Kaiyuan would also result in Alliance suppression?”
The so-called suppression by the Alliance referred to special resources such as Source Crystals.
These were all monopolized by the Alliance or by forces that possessed Transcendent Beast Tamers. For forces that had Professional Beast Tamers, the Alliance sold Source Crystals at a price of ten thousand Alliance Coins per gram.
This was also why the official price of ten thousand per gram for Source Crystals was set.
However, such purchases were not without restrictions. The Alliance would allocate quotas based on the number of Professional Beast Tamers a force possessed, whether they obeyed Alliance rules, and the contributions they made to the Alliance.
If the quota was one hundred million, then even with one billion, it would still be impossible to purchase more.
It was precisely through such a combination of soft and hard measures that the Alliance’s upper echelons were able to make most forces obey the Alliance’s rules.
At the same time, this method also served as backing for the issued Alliance Coins.
As for why the Han Family did not have him assassinate Qi Lingxuan, Zhou Ming had already guessed part of the reason.
The Qi Family relied on special resources to forcibly promote the fairly talented Qi Lingxuan. Apart from increasing the Qi Family’s strength, their main goal was to completely suppress the Han Family.
At the same time, it was also to create the image of a genius emerging from the Qi Family.
For an Apprentice to advance and change professions to become a Professional, one only needed their Spiritual Power to meet the standard, their Beast Taming strength to reach the limit of low-tier Ferocious Beasts, and to obtain a Class Advancement Ritual to qualify for promotion.
However, this did not mean success was guaranteed. Ultimately, the reason came down to three words: compatibility.
The reason Zhou Ming was able to smoothly advance to the Ruler profession was mainly because this profession was opened up by him based on his own situation. Whether in terms of compatibility or understanding of the profession, he was far superior to other Beast Tamers who rigidly followed established paths.
Although the Qi Family had created a genius persona for Qi Lingxuan, they had also invisibly consumed his potential. It was a trade-off of gain and loss, so Han Yanshuo did not place much importance on Qi Lingxuan as a threat.
“Because Qi Kaiyuan is not in the Qinghui Base.”
When Han Yanshuo slowly revealed this piece of intelligence in his hoarse voice, Zhou Ming was instantly shocked.
He had not expected that after being suppressed by the Qi Family for so long, the Han Family could still grasp such confidential intelligence about the Qi Family.
“Since Qi Kaiyuan is not in the Qinghui Base, why doesn’t your Han Family take action personally?”
“Because we are also being watched by the Qi Family at all times, and once the Alliance obtains evidence, even if the assassination does not take place within the base, our Han Family will still be affected.”
In response to Zhou Ming’s doubts, Han Yanshuo directly explained the reason.
At present, the Han Family’s resources had been greatly reduced. If the Alliance cut off the Han Family’s right to purchase special resources, it would be difficult for them to maintain a foothold in the Qinghui Base even without the Qi Family taking action.
“I understand what you mean. If Qi Kaiyuan dies outside the base, the intensity of the Alliance’s investigation will be greatly reduced, and since you did not act, the Alliance would have no reason to suppress your Han Family.”
“But how can you guarantee that I can kill Qi Kaiyuan?”
“That is your matter. Since you wish to cooperate with my Han Family, you must at least display some strength.”
“If you truly complete the requirement proposed by this old man, then in the future, whenever my Han Family obtains Source Crystals from the Alliance, I will give you twenty percent at the original price.”
“Thirty percent. In addition, I also need the most detailed intelligence on Qi Kaiyuan.”
Without much hesitation, Zhou Ming directly put forward his own demands. As for whether he could complete it, that was another matter.
Moreover, having discovered the existence of Sapphire Fish, it was impossible for him to give up easily.
If forced, he would only have one option: kill the chicken to get the eggs, take all the Sapphire Fish, and leave the Qinghui Base.
As Zhou Ming’s words fell, Han Yanshuo directly took out a dossier from his spatial equipment and tossed it to Zhou Ming.
“This is the intelligence you want. As for the requirement of thirty percent of the Source Crystal quota, I agree.”
“It seems Old Master Han has long intended to take action against Qi Kaiyuan.”
“If I complete your Han Family’s request, I hope you will honor the agreement. I do not want anyone disturbing me when I establish my camp.”
Zhou Ming reminded the Han Family once. His figure immediately became somewhat blurred, like a giant python sliding along the shadow by the windowsill and slowly disappearing.