Chapter 1798 - 1674: Ranting
People all over the world were talking non-stop; at first they felt it was downright absurd, pure fantasy.
Only when the satellite images from various countries were sent back and they saw Nine Tribulations City really being built in proper form, and at an astonishing speed, did everyone suddenly become stunned.
Nine Tribulations City looked like it was for real.
"Ah, even Yanglong Pharmaceutical has joined Nine Tribulations City. What on earth is their background? Who is the leader—or rather, the City Lord—of Nine Tribulations City?"
"Yeah, what kind of lunatic does it take to build such a gigantic city like Nine Tribulations City, crazy enough to go against the whole world?"
...
Ye Qingfeng paid no attention to the outside criticism. He took out the Elemental Stones he had obtained from the Treasure Vault of the Dark Force—there were quite a lot of them—and began refining. Spiritual Fire rose up, slowly melting these Elemental Stones.
He planned to fuse Artifact Refining techniques with modern technology, creating high-tech products suitable for Earth.
Elemental Stones are actually ore used for refining Flying Artifacts.
For example, small flying warships.
But with Ye Qingfeng’s current strength, he had no way to refine true Flying Artifacts, so he could only resort to technological methods.
Meanwhile, within Huaxia, things were boiling over even more.
"Why haven’t we moved against Nine Tribulations City yet? Yanglong Pharmaceutical betrayed our Huaxia and defected to Nine Tribulations City. Once Nine Tribulations City is breached by Japan and Korea, they’ll regret it."
"Exactly, Yanglong Pharmaceutical has no conscience. They made so much money in our Huaxia, and now they’ve run off to some Nine Tribulations City, a city they built themselves—how is that even possible? It’s a joke!"
"Heh, that trash company Yanglong Pharmaceutical will regret it sooner or later!"
Quite a few people hated Nine Tribulations City purely because of Yanglong Pharmaceutical; after all, they’d been viciously cursing Yanglong Pharmaceutical before.
Even though Du Jing later fully exposed the truth, that Yanglong Pharmaceutical had been framed, the fact that Yanglong Pharmaceutical left Huaxia and made these netizens get slapped in the face only made them hate Huaxia’s pharmaceutical industry even more.
"Hmph, they cut our Huaxia share from ninety percent down to Intermediate, and gave the rest to foreign countries. Trash like that can perish together with Nine Tribulations City!"
The masses raged online.
These people were righteously furious on the internet, yet had completely forgotten that they were the ones who had been boycotting Yanglong Pharmaceutical from the start, calling on everyone not to buy Yanglong’s drugs.
Now they were complaining that Yanglong Pharmaceutical had reduced Huaxia’s share and had no conscience.
Online and even in real life, it’s the same: once someone starts to hate you, whatever you do is wrong.
And when they like someone, even picking their nose looks elegant.
Right now, Yanglong Pharmaceutical was clearly at the stage where these netizens hated it; especially with other countries expressing gratitude and mocking the people of Huaxia, these folks were furious.
"Enough, stop cursing already. It’s because of you lot that Yanglong Pharmaceutical was driven away. Have some shame, will you!"
"Yeah, we originally had a ninety-percent share in Huaxia, with only ten percent abroad. Yanglong Pharmaceutical was really conscientious. It was you trolls who cost Huaxia such an important company."
Someone finally couldn’t stand it anymore and loudly rebuked them online. And at that moment, Ye Qingfeng’s research was on the verge of success.
"Hmph, Yanglong Pharmaceutical was never a good company. Their CEO Ye Qingfeng is insanely domineering and arrogant—’buy it or don’t, if you don’t buy then get lost’—who treats consumers like that? What kind of boss is that, so damn cocky!"
"Yeah, customers are god, and he acts that arrogant? He’s just asking for trouble!"
Some netizens argued online that Yanglong Pharmaceutical shouldn’t be smeared, so they focused their attacks on Ye Qingfeng instead.
After all, Ye Qingfeng had plenty of "black marks" in the past. The guy was overbearing and arrogant, with none of that upper-class demeanor, utterly unlike those friendly bosses or celebrities.
This domineering man made a lot of people resent him deeply.
And at this moment—
Ye Qingfeng finally finished his research, which delighted him immensely. This was a fusion of Artifact Refining and technology, and it looked perfect, achieving exactly what Ye Qingfeng wanted.
Just then, however, an uninvited guest arrived.
Li Yanglong of the Li Family!
Li Yanglong was the heir of the Hanxing Li Family, and the Li Family controlled Hanxing Group, that super conglomerate which occupied one-tenth of Korea’s economy.
"Li Yanglong, why is he here?"
Wang Siyu and the others were all stunned and a bit surprised. Korea was currently in frequent contact with Japan.
The Nine Tribulations City headquarters had been built right beside Ye Qingfeng’s First Peak, on a mountain whose top half Ye Qingfeng had sheared off when extracting waste spirit stone.
"At a time like this, you still dare come to me."
Ye Qingfeng sat in the main seat and chuckled softly.
"Senior Ye, I came specifically to pay my respects to you, and also to discuss some matters with you." Li Yanglong said, extremely respectful.
"Oh?"
Ye Qingfeng raised an eyebrow.
Li Yanglong cupped his fists and said, "Senior Ye, you should know that Dragon Island has been our Korean island since ancient times. It’s just that Japan has always been ambitious and wants to steal it from us..."
Ye Qingfeng frowned as he listened. Was Li Yanglong here to declare sovereignty?
If so, Korea was about to bring annihilation down on itself!
Wang Siyu and the others also looked grim.
"Of course, our Korea has decided to give Dragon Island to Senior Ye!"
Li Yanglong continued.
Heh!
Everyone laughed. So Li Yanglong was here to defect.
Dragon Island was a disputed island between Korea and Japan. Each side had its own "historical evidence," and now Li Yanglong’s words clearly meant Korea was withdrawing from the contest.
"Can you represent Korea’s decision?" Wang Siyu stood up and asked.
"To tell the truth, this time I came with official instructions from Korea, representing our national stance."
Li Yanglong said respectfully.
Hiss!
Wang Siyu and Shen Yingluo both shuddered, utterly shocked. They hadn’t expected Korea to be so generous as to give away an entire island.
Facing Japan, they had never been willing to let go.
"Good. You’re very smart." Ye Qingfeng said calmly.
"We unanimously believe that if giving up Dragon Island can earn Senior Ye’s favor, then it’s more than worth it."
Those words shocked Wang Siyu and Shen Yingluo even more. Using an island to buy one man’s goodwill—this kind of move was downright insane.
But they had to admit, Li Yanglong and his people really had sharp eyes. This was absolutely the wisest decision they’d ever made.
"Actually, Japan did contact us, hoping we’d join forces and send troops to attack Nine Tribulations City. But faced with an old friend like Senior Ye, our Li Family immediately resolutely opposed it!"
Li Yanglong declared righteously.