"Do you like Zheng Yaxin and want to pursue her?"
Yuan Yanan suddenly thought of something and asked with a peculiar look on her face.
"I’m not interested in her; I know her only because she owes me money. I’m going to Xiang Island this time to collect the debt."
Lin Beichen closed his eyes again, too lazy to look at Yuan Yanan’s expression.
Upon hearing this, Yuan Yanan was stunned for a moment, lowered her head to look at the cover girl, and then looked at Lin Beichen, her face full of disbelief.
"Are you talking in your sleep? Zheng Yaxin is the youngest daughter of the Zheng Clan. Her father may have assets of only several billion, but the true wealth of their family cannot be measured by mere numbers.
Who knows how much the Zheng Clan’s actual wealth is? Are you sure they owe you money?"
Yuan Yanan said, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Bai Yunfei is indeed very wealthy, especially after the Zhang clan turmoil, the Bai family broke the north-south barriers and became one of the prominent families in Dragon Country.
But even the Bai Family probably doesn’t have the qualification to let the Zheng Clan owe them money.
After all, the Zheng Clan’s resources are not limited to one location; they are a truly international super family.
The Zheng Clan controls channels of multiple industries worldwide. If they need money, major institutions are eager to lend to them interest-free.
The reason is simple.
Money only has value when it flows; otherwise, it’s just a pile of waste paper.
The Zheng Clan can’t even spend their own money, so why would they owe someone else money?
There’s another point.
Zheng Yaxin’s own fashion brand has yearly sales exceeding 2 billion, and with her influence, she could easily draw hundreds of billions.
A trace of a smile crossed Lin Beichen’s lips; he was too lazy to respond to Zheng Yaxin.
This matter is indeed perplexing.
According to the numbers, the Zheng Clan doesn’t lack money. But having money doesn’t mean you’re willing to spend it.
Spending 10 billion might take an ordinary person ten lifetimes to spend, if not more.
But using this amount to buy Celestial Gate Elixirs would only be enough for around ten bottles.
Even the Zheng Clan would be reluctant to buy an elixir worth over a billion per pill.
Lin Beichen remained silent, continuing to play dead, infuriating Yuan Yanan.
However, she didn’t know that it wasn’t that Lin Beichen didn’t want to explain. In fact, he was also quite surprised.
He could come up with numerous reasons for the Zheng Clan but still couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t pay.
Given the Zheng Clan’s reputation and status, they should be a trustworthy family. Even if they were unwilling, they would at least negotiate or find a way to settle the deal instead of ignoring it.
Lin Beichen chose to come to Xiang Island partly to collect the debt and partly to see if there was something unusual about this matter.
If the problem was within the Zheng Clan itself, Lin Beichen would demand the money back even if he had to force them. But if there was a good reason, he was open to negotiation.
Since the Celestial Gate Era began, not just cultivators but all major families have been affected.
The benefits of the Celestial Gate Era are too great, tempting many to take risks.
After several hours, the plane finally landed at Xiang Island International Airport.
The hotel that Liu Yunxi booked was a five-star international luxury hotel. Before the plane landed, the hotel had already sent two luxury cars to pick them up.
As soon as Lin Beichen and the others got off the plane, they immediately felt the luxury and wealth of Xiang Island.
Undoubtedly, this international city, honed over a hundred years, was a place of opulence and grandeur.
The crowds were filled with people of diverse cultures, and the languages heard were varied and abundant.
Lin Beichen was filled with emotions; even though he had seen a lot, the kinds of people he had seen in these few minutes surpassed those he had seen over the decades.
Xiang Island is not just a shopper’s paradise but also one of the international transit hubs.
Many people stay in Xiang Island to spend the transit hours shopping before catching another flight.
Therefore, the area near the airport is filled with luxury shops.
After looking around for a while, Lin Beichen noticed something strange.
Previously, he often heard that most visitors to Xiang Island were Chinese, as domestic purchasing involved high taxes and fewer stores with slower updates, making it more cost-effective to shop directly in Xiang Island.
But this time, he found that wasn’t the case.
From what he saw, the majority of shoppers were white and black people.
"Huh?"
Lin Beichen released his perception, scanning the skies above the international airport, his expression slightly changing.
Within his perception, there were dozens of people with Spiritual Qi in Xiang Island International Airport.
Since the Celestial Gate opened, it’s been half a year, but even in the mainland, Lin Beichen hadn’t seen this many people with Spiritual Qi.
This was just a transfer point; Xiang Island has many airports, and even if we consider all the airports, it’s just one place in Xiang Island.
If we expand this to the entire Xiang Island, how many Celestial Gate Cultivators are there?
"Wait, these people’s Spiritual Qi doesn’t seem common; they aren’t part of the domestic cultivation line, are they?"
Lin Beichen’s expression changed suddenly.
The experts he had met recently were primarily from the domestic cultivation line.
Lin Beichen had seen some international practitioners, but not many, and they weren’t established systems, mostly scattered assassins.
Compared to Dragon Country’s traditions, foreign cultivation is more inclined towards taking risks.
The way of walking a narrow path, without emphasizing comprehensive development, without prioritizing safety and inheritances, just maximizing benefits with minimal risks.
But how is this even possible?
Cultivation is a long and arduous path.
To reach a certain realm, there’s no shortcut; sooner or later, you’d have to repay what you owe.
That’s why cultivation emphasizes comprehensive development.
This is something verified through thousands of years of cultivation in Dragon Country.
Other countries’ cultivators haven’t accumulated as much and lack this realization, always trying to gamble big with little.
Dragon Country has hundreds of Death Gate Realm cultivators, which is an advantage of its long history, but even excluding that, you could find a dozen or so in the last 300 years.
But the Death Gate Realm cultivators in other countries are few and far between. Based on what Lin Beichen knew, most countries don’t have even one, and famous Death Gate Realm cultivators known worldwide are just two or three at most.
"As an international economic center, Xiang Island gathers and exchanges cultures from all over the world, attracting talent.
I always heard there were various traditions in Feng Shui, Geomancy, and Southeast Gu techniques here, even Barbarian Evil Techniques occasionally appeared. Turns out, it’s no rumor but true."
Lin Beichen felt emotional.
In the past few decades, Xiang Island has consistently been the cultural hub of the Chinese world.
Various experts gathered here contributed to its booming film industry.
For many older mainlanders, Xiang Island movies were their guides to understanding the world.
Even many urban myths trace their origins back to specific Xiang Island movies of those days.
Behind this cultural influence is the hidden presence of various high-level practitioners.
There is nothing new under the sun; someone must have seen certain things before creating myths; Evil Techniques and Gu techniques emerged this way.
But even if the legends are true, it seems exaggerated.
Just at this international airport, the number of cultivators has already surpassed that of many small nations with heritage.
The gathering of these people is not a good thing and may lead to all sorts of problems due to the Celestial Gate’s stimulation."