I Can See Your Combat Power
Chapter 1182 - Chapter 1182 Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-six Different

Chapter 1182: Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-six: Different Chapter 1182: Chapter Four Hundred and Seventy-six: Different “Buy an agency?” Tang Luo was even more puzzled, “Chaochang has already become the biggest human trafficking market in the endless South Sea, such a lucrative business, would anyone sell it?”

“If it were a healthy industry, of course no one would be willing to give it up, but Chaochang’s agency is different.”

When it came to business, Yun Xiu was like a general sitting atop the city walls, dissecting the current state of Chaochang’s agency in just a few words: “The slave trade has developed so quickly these past few years, all because of incessant natural disasters and man-made calamities. The floods in Chengzhou, the river course change in Longjiang, the severe frictions among various families, all of which allow the Slave Hunter Teams to bring back a large number of people at little cost.”

“Chaochang’s agency only started to thrive these past two years, with clientele mainly from Zhongzhou and families in the south. These people trafficked mostly ended up as slave labor. The families chose Chaochang’s agency for two reasons, one is because the business was clean, and two is because it was cheap enough to form a unique competitive edge for Chaochang’s agency, allowing it to grow substantially in just a few years.”

“But the refugee bonus will run out.” Yun Xiu paused, then said seriously, “No one is born wanting to be servants; given even the slightest chance to survive, they would not sell their children or mortgage themselves into servitude.”

“According to the original plans of a few of the wealthy merchants in Chaochang, the population bonus from Longzhou’s natural disaster could last for fifteen to twenty years, which would be enough for them to carve open trade routes to Zhongzhou and the south with cheap labor and to cultivate the first batch of high-quality slaves. However, the situation has changed unexpectedly.”

“Because of the Longxi Alliance’s policy of comforting the people, all refugees from the west are heading towards the Lingjiang Seven Cities, and the Alliance’s generous conditions have made those refugees willing to call that place their hometown. Just that alone has reduced six to seven tenths of the population bonus.”

“Moreover, Chengzhou, which was affected by disasters in the previous years, is gradually recovering. It’s foreseeable that Slave Hunter Teams will no longer be able to buy slaves at low cost.”

“The increasing cost of acquiring slaves will directly undermine the core competitiveness of Chaochang’s agency, and the most direct impact is that nearly half of the agencies in the booming Renya Marketplace will lose their orders and be unable to sustain themselves.”

“When they cease to turn a profit, they will start exploiting the Slave Hunter Teams further, driving down the cost of capturing slaves. At the same time, the popularity of the human market will decline to a reasonable level, automatically weeding out some agencies that cannot continue. This number is roughly sixty percent of Chaochang’s growth over the past few years.”

“No one wants to be part of that sixty percent, but nobody wants to give up the current profits either, so they can only take it one step at a time. Today’s bustle is the last hurrah before the agency’s winter hits.”

Human trafficking can’t be eradicated, but in good times, the human market will slump, while in bad times, it indeed flourishes.

The impending winter for Chaochang’s agency means that Longzhou has come out of the aftermath of the great disaster and is beginning to recover, which is undoubtedly a good thing.

Tang Luo seemed to catch up with the thought and asked with a smack of his lips, “In that case, if we intervene during the market changes, could we integrate resources?”

“That’s too slow.” Yun Xiu shook her head, her small fist swung energetically, “Waiting for variables is too uncertain, it’s better to create opportunities ourselves!”

“How to create them?”

Tang Luo, who had been listening intently, asked this, anticipating Yun Xiu’s next words, only to find that she suddenly stopped talking, “You can’t do that, why stop talking halfway through?”

“If you became Chaochang’s biggest agency, would you be different from the current traders?”

Without directly answering Tang Luo’s question, Yun Xiu threw the question back at him.

“Um…” Tang Luo frowned and pondered for a moment, then shook his head saying, “I don’t know.”

That was an extremely honest answer, as Tang Luo entered the agency business, only intending to select talents for the Marshal Star Pavilion and the Four Imperial Spirit Realms.

And not all those slave children were talents, and Tang Luo also did not have a way to grant them back their freedom, because to test the children’s qualifications, he first had to train them until they completed the Foundation Building stage, which itself was a considerable expense.

And this expenditure must be offset by the agency’s income; how the agency’s income is made, that goes without saying.

Yun Xiu’s gaze darkened, although she had long understood that the agency business was all too similar, she always harbored a different set of expectations for this remarkable man before her.

Yet, hearing his answer now, rather than being upset, it was more like a feeling of disappointment…

She sighed, ready to share the method, yet saw Tang Luo raise his head again, saying earnestly, “Although I want to be the biggest agency, actually I don’t have the energy to manage this business; I’d thank my lucky stars if I could trust someone else to do it and keep it up to standard.”

Pointing towards Yun Xiu, he said, “Instead of throwing such profound problems to me, why not ask you, if you became the biggest agency owner in Chaochang, could you bring about some changes to this business?”

“Of course, I could.” Yun Xiu replied instinctively, but remembering her situation, she became sorrowful and shrank back, “But I…”

“What ‘but’? If you think this is something truly meaningful, why not give it a try? I’d also like to know, how different an agency can become when it ends up in the hands of a descendant of the Yun family.”

——————–

Zhongzhou, Longyuan

The space, which had collapsed due to the division of the Minor Spiritual Realm, was healing slowly, but this quiet realm became even more lively than before.

As the Wind Media of the sacred domain, the Dutian Heavenly King often mingled with people from all walks of life and naturally got along with everyone.

And as the uncrowned king alongside the Dutian Heavenly King, Commander Cao wielded an influence akin to that of a patriarch of the sacred domain. When he requested a Boundary Master from the Wang Clan in the south, it was taken very seriously.

The Boundary Masters of the sacred domain, naturally, were not on a par with those self-taught talents who only knew the basics.

The martial arts prospered for a thousand years, and not just in the art of killing.

“The collapse affected about a ten-mile radius, confirming that it was a minor spiritual realm. Judging by the style of the protections, this should have been the home of a Demon King, dating back three thousand years.”

“Before the protections disintegrated and drifted into the void, there were clear signs of suspension, suggesting that there were quite a few people in the Minor Spiritual Realm. The entry into the void was hasty. If we could find the anchoring magical artifact, we might track down the coordinates where the realm was anchored.”

“I’ve found a broken Realm Heart, likely left behind when the protections collapsed. We could try to reactivate it; it might resonate with the Minor Spiritual Realm adrift in the void.”

“Unfortunately, the piece is too small. If it were bigger, we could blend it into another spiritual realm. That would lock onto the drifted Minor Spiritual Realm, attracting it here and sparing us the search!”

” ”