God of Illusions - Chapter 1036: Brand-New Illusion Demon!
As everyone got seated, they saw Bai Xiaofei’s aura change drastically. He rarely looked this serious!
“Let’s start with our side. Brother Fang, please,” said Bai Xiaofei.
Fang Lei stood up and felt all the eyes in the room converging on him. Despite being the leader of the Thunderstorm Bandits for so long, he still felt slightly nervous.
“We’ve investigated the surrounding area in the past few days. There are six cities around Yi Shuang. Calculating from an army’s average marching speed, to reach here from the nearest city takes three days and the farthest one takes about seven days. In addition to the cities, there are more than thirty villages and towns nearby, but since this area is quite far from the imperial city, the influence of the royal court is not strong, and what the Fourth Prince can do is limited.”
Fang Lei’s brief on the surrounding situation allowed everyone to relax. Although they had confidence in Bai Xiaofei and the Illusion Demon Merchant Group, trying to take on a powerful enemy right from the start might cause the situation to get out of control. After all, Illusion Demon was a business organization, not a mercenary one.
“Although the surrounding situation is simple, it doesn’t mean that our next action will go smoothly. Even easy enemies have their strengths, so don’t relax too much.” Guessing everyone’s thoughts, Bai Xiaofei quickly reminded them just as they heaved a sigh of relief.
Bai Xiaofei then turned to Fang Ye.
“Fang Ye, tell me about Illusion Demon. Be specific.”
Unlike Fang Lei, Fang Ye had been through countless similar experiences as the third-in-command of Illusion Demon.
“Then, allow me to occupy your time.” Fang Ye stood up with a smile.
“At present, the members of Illusion Demon are divided into two departments: Commerce and Security. The Commerce Department is responsible for our main business, and the Security Department for all external actions while also being the source of our combat power.”
“After several years of development, Illusion Demon has established branches in all the big kingdoms and dukedoms in the Northern Border. For the convenience of management, we have divided our management area into five regions, and these are the managers of five regions respectively.”
Upon their cue, five people stood up
“President of the Central Region, Xu Chen.”
“President of the Eastern Region, Wang Hang.”
“President of the Southern Region, Shen Yang.”
“President of the Western Region, Fang Lue.”
“President of the Northern Region, Chu Ye.”
Except for Xu Chen and Wang Hang, Bai Xiaofei was unfamiliar with the remaining three.
Shen Yang was a chubby man around the age of 30. He had the same aura and image as Vice-Principal Chu Qingtian.
Fang Lue was the youngest among the three people, with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and a slim body, but he gave off a ruthless vibe.
Chu Ye was the sunniest with a pair of smiling eyes that made him look very friendly.
“For the sake of this operation, all branches in the five regions were closed down, and a total of 137 commercial ships were dispatched. 210,000 members of the Commerce Department are ready to provide logistics support, and 120,000 members of the Security Department are in place as our main fighting force. In addition to the two major departments, we have a special combat team of only 6000, but their average strength is Grandmaster Rank and their puppets are all custom-made. Lastly, our 27 honorable elders are present, among whom Elder Zhang is the strongest at Exquisite Rank with six apertures.”
When Fang Ye finished speaking, an amiable-looking old man sitting at the back smiled at everyone.
Of course, his personality was not as friendly as he looked. In fact, at first, he had been repelled by the fact that he was arranged to sit at the back, but upon seeing the Shaman King trio, he became honest. He couldn’t determine their real strength, but he clearly felt that their energy fluctuations were stronger than his!
“Except for personnel, we’ve brought enough supplies for at least three years,” Fang Ye finished his report.
However, many people still had one doubt that remained unanswered. They could not understand why Illusion Demon, a merchant group, wanted to carry out this unprofitable operation. If this battle dragged on for a long time, the newly rising Illusion Demon would likely be beaten back to infancy!
After all, several major merchant groups had long been eyeing Illusion Demon. If it weren’t for Feng Wuhen and Lu Lingyun exploiting Bai Xiaofei’s resources to the extreme and treading every step with caution, it wouldn’t have developed to this state. But strangely enough, they could see that the two men had no objections at all!
Therefore, they looked to the only possible reason in the room – Bai Xiaofei, who was occupying the main seat.
“Is it possible that the other forces will take this opportunity to hinder us? As in, will they also come and muddy the waters, then fish in it,” Bai Xiaofei asked Fang Ye.
“From the information we’ve grasped, they have not made any large-scale actions. As for whether they will later, it’s not yet possible to predict.” Fang Ye had long prepared this answer. “However, except the Ethereal Merchant Group, the remaining big groups have started to make it difficult on our business after our branches closed down. Considering the particularity of Cloudveil, I don’t rule out the possibility that they will take measures later.”
“Have you published the mission and rewards as I requested?” Bai Xiaofei asked.
“Yes, but there have been no reports so far,” replied Fang Ye.
After this last question, Bai Xiaofei motioned Fang Ye to sit down.
“That is our current situation. Presumably, you have all heard it clearly, so next, I will talk about what we are going to do.”
As Bai Xiaofei took a deep breath, everyone perked their ears for fear of missing anything important.
“From a personal aspect, the Cloudveil civil strife resulted in the death of a dear friend of mine. This is a revenge that I must take. From our Illusion Demon’s perspective, Cloudveil is the heart of the origin stone industry in the Northern Border. So long as we achieve our goal, this empire will become our strongest support.”
As soon as Bai Xiaofei finished, those that were unfamiliar with him revealed a look of enlightenment, while the rest lightly shook their heads.
The former thought the first reason was an excuse and the second was Bai Xiaofei’s real motive, only those who were close to him knew that the second reason was only an excuse to reassure everyone and prevent any dissatisfaction.
In fact, the only one true reason why Bai Xiaofei was doing all this was to avenge Yun Jingshuang’s death!