Big Data Cultivation

Chapter 258: Chapter 258 Who is Greedy (2nd Update)

Feng Jun’s question was truly incisive beyond compare.

However, since Lord Beiyuan had already placed Brother Bao under house arrest, he had already made himself ready to be shameless.

He admitted frankly, “Because I want to curry favor with the Princely Heir, I want to curry favor with the Imperial Family.”

Such shameful words, and yet he spoke them so blatantly, “Everyone has ambition, right?”

Feng Jun was not annoyed but simply looked at him deeply, “If you wish to curry favor with them, shouldn’t you just make the effort yourself? Why come and plot against me?”

“Because I don’t have any rare treasures at hand,” Lord Beiyuan answered righteously, then smiled faintly, “Fortunately, Brother Bao’s luck isn’t bad, to have actually encountered you… It’s like the heavens are helping me.”

Everyone else in the courtyard watched the Earl with their mouths agape—Are you really fine being so shameless?

However, Lord Beiyuan soon realized his lapse and looked deeply at Feng Jun, “Nevertheless, you brought this upon yourself. If it weren’t for your attempt to swindle Brother Bao’s possessions, I wouldn’t have taken action.”

Feng Jun’s expression turned strange, “So to speak… it was you who was wholeheartedly plotting against me alone, no one else?”

“Where would I have so much spare time?” Lord Beiyuan stated with disdain, “It was the Princely Heir who noticed the lamp was quite nice and wanted to take it to honor his mother. Casual inquiry only then revealed that you dared to call that monitoring device a Formation…”

In this realm, Immortals were high above, beyond the reach of ordinary people, but there were always those who could get wind of related news.

The Princely Heir was one such individual, his father being a Duke, his mother the late Emperor’s favorite youngest daughter, and his uncle the current CEO of Donghua Company – he was top of the second generation among the powerful elites.

With his superficial knowledge of Cultivation, he insisted that a Formation that wasn’t powered by Immortal Crystals couldn’t be called a Formation—what he referred to here as a Formation, in fact, should be an Immortal Array, but people were accustomed to using terms that avoided mentioning the Immortal Family.

There were also Formations among the commoners, but obviously, mortal Formations couldn’t possibly involve such exquisite devices, nor had anyone heard of anything like it, let alone “electric generator” before this.

After much consideration, he concluded that the person who created the electric generator indeed had some skill, but made the grave mistake of using the name of a Formation.

Therefore, his original intention was to acquire a lighting system, but upon Lord Beiyuan’s reminder, he suddenly realized: I could take over this lighting business.

After all, whoever was doing this was deceiving people under the guise of the Immortal Family. If the Formation was really powered by Immortal Crystals, how could the Princely Heir dare to plot like this? He would have hurried over to pay respects long ago.

At first, Lord Beiyuan even harbored the intention to counterfeit the entire system.

But his staff, after all, were not idlers, and they soon found that they couldn’t replicate it—there were too many parts that they didn’t even know how to make, let alone being unable to analyze the materials.

After the Princely Heir brought in two court craftsmen, they looked it over but could offer no help.

Since counterfeiting wasn’t possible, what they could do was monopolize sales.

However, Brother Bao strongly warned his brother: The Divine Doctor’s abilities are beyond your comprehension, you better be restrained.

Lord Beiyuan felt this was just his younger brother exaggerating, trying to cover up the fact he had been deceived.

Yet the Yongyi Duke Princely Heir also believed that a steady and cautious approach was better—with his status as Imperial Relative, he couldn’t discern the mystery of the electric generator and hadn’t even heard of it before, so it was best to be cautious.

Thus, their initial deal to buy Mount Zhige was a probing step—of course, if necessary, buying it wouldn’t really matter since it wasn’t much money.

The other party, however, insisted on not selling the land for the time being and even cited the Earth Laws to resist, which led Lord Beiyuan to come and probe personally.

Luckily, even though the other party was arrogant, he still had to give face to the county magistrate.

This meant the other side wasn’t unafraid of the Official Government but rather felt that both Lord Beiyuan and Yongyi Duke were too distant to affect them—frankly, it’s all because the founding emperor cherished the common people too much, spoiling them with bad habits.

Then, Lord Beiyuan employed another tactic, which was to openly use a Storage Bag.

To be strict, what his guards used was a Storage Talisman, which, compared to a Storage Bag, had very limited space and was usable only a limited number of times—the best Storage Talismans could only be used nine times.

But there was no choice, Lord Beiyuan really didn’t have a Storage Bag, and even if he did, he couldn’t open it without Immortal Spirit Qi—at the very least, it would require an Innate Expert to open it with True Yuan.

An Innate Expert, the Princely Heir could indeed invite, but… it seemed like the other party specialized in killing Innates?

Regardless, Lord Beiyuan didn’t hesitate to use up the durability of the Storage Talisman. It seemed like showing off, but the real purpose was to probe—if this young man really had a Storage Bag, he should not be able to resist such provocation, right?

So, why don’t you also show your Storage Bag for me to see?

Even if you don’t have a Storage Bag, you should at least be able to tell that I’m not using Immortal Spirit Qi, just a Storage Talisman, right?

If you can’t even see this, then it proves you’re nothing at all.

Once he was certain Feng Jun was indeed not an Immortal, he made his position very clear — his goods were to be purchased by the Princely Heir.

It’s not that Feng Jun appeared high-profile, in fact, it was quite the opposite; he was extremely cautious at heart, always fearing people might scheme against him.

This time, had he shown that he also possessed a Storage Bag, perhaps Lord Beiyuan would have knelt on the spot, and there wouldn’t have been so much trouble.

It goes to show that sometimes it’s a good choice to flex your muscles appropriately.

Feng Jun couldn’t possibly grasp the entire thought process of the other party, and so he was unaware that his lack of showing off had actually encouraged the other party’s wishful thinking.

But no matter what, he would never accept this kind of coercion.

So he simply smiled faintly, “Sorry, if I want to sell, I can do it myself; I don’t need help from anyone else.”

Lord Beiyuan’s expression turned grim, “It seems I’ll need to use some methods to make you sober up, Divine Doctor.”

Feng Jun turned his head to look at him carefully, then spoke very seriously, “If I were you, I’d think carefully before saying that. Once some things are done, regret comes too late.”

I’ve thought it through carefully, testing the waters step by step! Lord Beiyuan scoffed dismissively.

However, seeing the other party’s solemn demeanor, he couldn’t help but add, “Don’t assume that just because you have the ‘Earth Laws,’ you can rest easy. Believe it or not, the Official Government can directly confiscate your land? Young man, don’t be so impulsive.”

“Is that so?” Feng Jun’s eyebrows rose, he asked with interest, “I’m quite curious, on what grounds would you confiscate it?”

Truth be told, he didn’t care about the land at all. If he mined all the Spirit Stones, he would travel far and wide in search of new Spirit Stones and opportunities for Cultivation, even without being urged by others.

However, he was still very curious to know what kind of tactics the other party intended to use to trouble him.

Lord Beiyuan smiled, exuding confidence, “A reason can be found easily enough. Not to mention anything else… the silver used to purchase talc here, it’s all newly minted, isn’t it? Seems quite exquisite.”

Having inquired about Feng Jun, he obviously knew a lot and then heard people say the silver coins Divine Doctor brought out were astonishingly fine.

He also acquired a few coins and, after having someone analyze them, found that compared to the official minted silver, there seemed to be very slight differences, especially in purity, which appeared to be somewhat higher than the official ones.

Private minting of currency is a grave offense in Donghua Country — in fact, it’s a grave offense in any country. But silver is the standard currency, and what the Imperial Court primarily guards against is inferior goods passed off as good, mixing other substances into the silver coins.

If someone were to mint silver coins with a higher purity, the Imperial Court generally wouldn’t bother — if you have a lot of silver, feel free to do with it as you please.

Of course, if Lord Beiyuan and Yongyi Duke’s Princely Heir were to put forth effort and insist on investigating, it wouldn’t be impossible; the right to mint currency is not something just anyone can have.

Upon hearing this, Feng Jun simply laughed it off, “As long as it’s a silver coin, it’s fine to me. Does the Princely Heir want to forcibly buy my goods just because he likes the fineness of the silver?”

He was deliberately equivocating, but he wasn’t very worried about the silver coins because he knew very well that the silver from the large industrial era he brought had no issue in minting, nor in purity.

The only concern was that possessing so many new and exquisite coins was slightly unreasonable.

But that wasn’t much of an issue either; he could send the silver back and have someone age it a bit.

However, his nonchalance finally enraged Lord Beiyuan, and the Earl stood up furiously, “At this point, you still dare to attack the Princely Heir… It seems you really need to be taught a lesson.”

“In any case, I would advise you to think thrice before you act,” Feng Jun raised his hand, crushing a cigarette butt, then bared a grin, “Last time it was a horse that died, next time it might be a person.”

Lord Beiyuan walked toward the doorway, “I have been more than reasonable with you, it’s your own obstinacy that’s to blame.”

Feng Jun burst into laughter, “Haha, then just bring it on; I honestly wouldn’t mind teaching you a lesson!”

Seeing this, the guards hurriedly folded up the chairs, glanced at him cautiously, then also quickly left.

Lord Beiyuan seemed to storm out in a fury, but after walking four or five hundred meters, he asked in a deep voice, “When you used the Storage Talisman again, what was his reaction?”

The guard, having caught up by this time, pondered a moment before replying gravely, “It’s as if…he didn’t see it at all.”

“Tsk,” Lord Beiyuan snapped his teeth in annoyance, his brow slowly furrowing before he sighed softly after a long while, “If this fellow wasn’t so greedy, cooperation could have been possible.”

He did not reflect on his own greed but instead felt that the fault lay with Feng Jun.

Not for a moment did he think he had wronged the other party. To demand two thousand taels of Gold for a few items that could not even fill one room, and to refuse bargaining? Who gave you the courage to act this way with Lord Beiyuan Mansion? If this is not called greed, what is?