34: Chapter 34 Persuading Gu Yizhou

"You are all Prodigies listed on the prodigy ranking, possessing extremely high investment value."

"Therefore, those factions will find ways to invest in you and sign contracts with you. Of course, those contracts are not free; they require you to pay a corresponding price."

"You may take a look first."

Hearing President Gu Yizhou's words, Qin Guanshan and the others immediately began browsing their personal terminals.

"Is this considered a subsidy for underprivileged students?"

Lin Xiao muttered to himself before starting to read as well.

After looking at just a few investment offers, he couldn't help but shake his head inwardly.

They were generous enough; the investments offered were quite good, with even opportunities to obtain Epic-grade items. The problem was their conditions, which he could not accept.

These factions and Families were not running charities. Since they were investing, they certainly expected a return. Once Lin Xiao accepted their investment, he would have to join a specific guild or Alliance, or complete their tasks, with durations starting at three years.

While there was no forced requirement for Lin Xiao to stay in the First Source Sea during the contract period,

the guilds and Alliances to join, and tasks to complete, were all within the First Source Sea, so it was effectively the same as a forced requirement.

Lin Xiao obviously could not accept this.

"Negotiate terms?"

Just like the contract negotiated with Jin Ruxuan, changing the terms of these factions' contracts into content most favorable to himself?

This thought flashed through his mind, but was immediately dismissed by Lin Xiao.

He was able to reach an agreement with Jin Ruxuan because the Jinshi Chamber of Commerce in the First Source Sea had been destroyed, and the latter was in urgent need of powerful War Lord support, which was why he agreed to his proposal.

The situations of other factions were not that dire.

It was impossible for them to make such large concessions to Lin Xiao. After all, he was currently just a Prodigy who had not yet fully grown.

Lin Xiao remained unmoved, but Qin Guanshan and the others were reading with eyes shining, clearly very satisfied.

President Gu Yizhou took in the expressions of everyone, then clapped his hands to draw their attention.

"Our Lord Association also has an investment offer for you. The terms are better than any investment offer you have received. The price is that you must follow the Lord Association's arrangements to rebuild the Tianwu Alliance. The contract lasts for five years."

Rebuild the Tianwu Alliance!

Qin Guanshan and the others were deeply shocked.

"You can think it over carefully." President Gu Yizhou did not rush them.

Hearing this, the expressions of Qin Guanshan and the others immediately became conflicted.

Undeniably, the Lord Association's terms were absolutely the best, but the task was also the hardest.

Was the Tianwu Alliance really that easy to rebuild?

Even if their weight in the Lord Association's reconstruction plan wasn't heavy, it still wasn't something any random Prodigy could handle.

They knew full well how much weight they truly carried.

Lin Xiao ignored the conflicted Qin Guanshan and the others. He walked up to President Gu Yizhou: "President Gu, could we speak in private?"

President Gu Yizhou looked at Lin Xiao with great interest.

Among the six, he valued Lin Xiao the most, and it was Lin Xiao he truly wanted to sign.

The gold content of being seventh on the prodigy ranking was too high.

"Come with me."

President Gu Yizhou took Lin Xiao to an adjacent room.

"I am willing to sign a contract with the Lord Association, but the price I need to pay must be changed."

"Five years is too long. How about changing it to me clearing away a portion of the obstacles for the Lord Association to rebuild the Tianwu Alliance?"

"Of course, to prevent you from thinking I am trying to get something for nothing, you don't need to provide the investment all at once. You can observe my actual performance and then invest bit by bit."

Lin Xiao didn't waste words and stated his thoughts directly.

It was the same tactic used when negotiating with Jin Ruxuan.

Such rhetoric wouldn't work on other factions, but the Lord Association was different; they were also urgently in need of rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance, perhaps even more urgently than the Jinshi Chamber of Commerce.

Lin Xiao believed President Gu Yizhou would consider it.

"Did you just say you would help us clear away a portion of the obstacles for rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance?"

President Gu Yizhou blinked, suspecting that there might be something wrong with his ears.

Lin Xiao gave an affirmative look.

"Do you know what you are saying?"

Seeing this, the expression on President Gu Yizhou's face could no longer remain composed.

He considered himself knowledgeable and experienced, having seen all sorts of grand situations, but he had truly never seen a situation like this.

A little guy who had just passed the Seven-Day Assessment had actually run up to him and shamelessly claimed that he would clear away a portion of the obstacles to rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance.

President Gu Yizhou laughed in anger: "Fine, let me properly list out for you what the obstacles to rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance are."

"Our Human Race's main opponents in the First Source Sea are the Purgatory Race and the Sin Race, as well as two vassal races under the Purgatory Race. The total number of their Lords in the First Source Sea adds up to hundreds of millions."

"Of course, our Human Race is not weak either, otherwise we couldn't have contended with them for two thousand years."

"The greatest resistance to rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance is not the ordinary Lords, but those veteran Third-Tier Lords who have entrenched themselves in the First Source Sea for ten, or even several decades. Their numbers are no less than tens of thousands. Originally, there was the Tianwu Alliance and other Human Race factions to keep them in check, but now that the Tianwu Alliance has been destroyed, the top-tier power on both sides is unbalanced."

"They will not let this opportunity pass; they will absolutely spare no effort to cannibalize our Lords in the First Source Sea."

"Therefore, the difficulty of rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance will be unimaginably great."

"Even if you are stubborn and say it's only a portion of the obstacles, that would still be no less than several hundred veteran Third-Tier Lords. Each of them has an incredibly deep foundation, holding large quantities of high-quality Hero Tokens and Troop Talismans, and their territory defenses are solid as a rock. Even in normal warfare, they could last for years or even longer against opponents of the same Rank."

"Let alone those veteran Third-Tier Lords, even the weaker Third-Tier Lords are not something you little guys who just became Lords can deal with."

"Do you know now how ridiculous your words are?"

Honestly speaking, although President Gu Yizhou wanted to sign Lin Xiao and the others, he had no expectation that they could play much of a role in rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance.

Rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance was not a task that a few Prodigies could complete in a few years; one could only imagine how much manpower and resources would need to be invested during that time.

He did not have high expectations for Lin Xiao and the others; just surviving and making some contributions, if possible, would be enough.

President Gu Yizhou had originally thought that after he analyzed the difficulty of rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance, Lin Xiao would realize just how ignorant he truly was.

However, he didn't expect that there was no fear or retreat on Lin Xiao's face.

"President Gu, why not give it a try?"

"The worst outcome is just disappointment; you won't have lost much in substance."

Lin Xiao looked at President Gu Yizhou and said with a smile.

Undeniably, the difficulty of rebuilding the Tianwu Alliance was far greater than the Jinshi Chamber of Commerce.

But Lin Xiao was fearless.

The strength of Lords in the First Source Sea had a cap, but he did not.

At most, they just had thick health bars and strong stamina, but in the face of absolute strength disparity, that meant very little.