"For buying this group of interstellar transports, we can offer two ways to purchase. The first is that we sell them to you at the preferential price of 20% off, but with one restriction: without our permission, you may not sell these interstellar transports outside. The second is that we use these interstellar transports to buy a stake in your interstellar trade. We can negotiate a proportion. Say you buy an interstellar transport; for the interstellar trade that transport takes part in over the next hundred years, we must take fifty percent of the earnings. On that basis, we can discuss giving you a larger discount on the price of that interstellar transport. Take this T5 Star-Kun-class Super-Heavy Interstellar Transport, originally priced at 2 trillion star coins; I can sell it to you for five hundred billion star coins."
A quarter of the price!
A hundred years' share of the earnings of a single interstellar transport.
It had to be said that this was a tempting price.
And Lilith's aim in saying it was very simple: though in name they would not interfere in the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's interstellar trade, the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had to have its share of the great cake the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group might grow into in future.
Not only would they make money selling the interstellar transports; they would make money on the universe-spanning orders filled with those interstellar transports as well!
That was Lilith's idea.
The Bailan Interstellar Trade Group would be built into a money tree in future, and naturally the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had to have its share.
The proposal set Huaya Lanlan thinking; she saw the purpose and the reasons in it clearly enough.
But it was not wholly beyond accepting; it was much the same as an ordinary investment.
Only they were investing with interstellar transports.
"Then about the production technology for the T2 and T3, and… T4-grade interstellar transports you mentioned before……" Huaya Nini asked impatiently.
She already had her eye on this.
Lilith smiled faintly, then said, "The production blueprints for the T2 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transport, the T3 Great White Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport and the T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport, these four interstellar transports: we can give them to you. But again, there are conditions. First, their core modules, up to a production run of ten thousand of any single class of your interstellar warship, must be bought from the factories on our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's side, then shipped to your factories for assembly. The rest can be produced by your own factories. And for every interstellar transport produced, likewise, half the earnings of those interstellar transports over the next hundred years must be ours. At the same time, for every interstellar transport produced, we charge a corresponding technology license fee. For instance, the T2 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transport carries a technology license fee of fifty thousand star coins a ship; the T3 Great White Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport, two million star coins a ship; the T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport, a hundred million star coins a ship."[1]
Lilith set it out item by item.
Zhao Chen, beside her, held back a laugh.
The sums Lilith was working meant taking a mouthful of the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's blood at every turn.
And yet they left the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group no reason at all to refuse.
After all, a T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport sold for 8 billion star coins, and now you needed to pay only a hundred-million-star-coin technology license fee.
It was simply a great bargain.
And for the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, in turn, without doing anything itself, it could get a hundred million star coins for nothing.
And once these interstellar transports were built and put into use, they would supply the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire with a steady flow of funds besides.
It was quite simply another living money tree.
Having heard Lilith's arrangements,
Huaya Nini too wore a thoughtful look; most likely she was calculating away in her head.
"Oh, right: considering your problems on the industrial side, there are other things we can supply that you'll need. For instance, the T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship, the T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship, the T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship and the T5 Stellar-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship. Interstellar industrial ships are more convenient, and easy to use. There's also the T5 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Base; its advantage is better value for money than an interstellar industrial ship, and its drawback is that it can't move: it's a fixed production plant. All of these we can open for sale to you. Of course, you can buy them at full price, or do as before: pay part of the fee, and after that pay a certain amount based on the price of the interstellar products made over a hundred years."
Lilith could be said to have taken every side of the matter into account.
From Owl Dragon-line interstellar goods to interstellar transports, and on to interstellar industrial ships,
everything was there.
Lilith said no more now; she had cast out all her hooks.
It was only a matter of time before these two Flower-Fairies took the bait.
For the bait on these hooks was simply too tempting.
Almost no one would turn this proposal down.
Zhao Chen spoke up now to add, "Beyond what Lilith just said, all we want is a certain proportion as our share. Beyond that, we won't interfere in anything else. As for the staff on those interstellar transports and interstellar industrial ships, unless you need it, we won't appoint anyone. Whoever you want to do business with, do business with; how much business you do a year and what those orders sell for are your own affair. We won't interfere in your internal management just because you've bought these interstellar transports. What we want is very simple: that each month's dividend money arrives."[2]
Zhao Chen rubbed his fingers together, making a gesture everyone understood.
Making money.
All they cared about was making money.
Hearing this, Huaya Nini looked eagerly at her sister.
By the look of it, she was wholly won over already.
Huaya Lanlan said with a show of calm, "What you've put forward… we… can negotiate over."
The fish had taken the hook.
All that remained was to fatten it.
Zhao Chen pointed straight at Lilith beside him and said, "What both of us lack most now is time. So if we can settle on a common idea of the general direction, then in the shortest time we'll draw up a plan both sides agree on, as the scheme for the start of our cooperation. In these matters, for Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire business you can talk with Lilith. Lilith is the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's Chief Secretary-Officer, and holds the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's economic power as well."
Huaya Lanlan looked at Lilith and nodded.
Next came the three women's time.
They began to discuss and negotiate the detailed plan.
At first, Huaya Lanlan and Huaya Nini may still have been somewhat stiff.
But then Lilith showed how widely she was read, and how efficiently she worked:
anything at all, even what she could not arrange herself,
she would at once have the people under her draw up a scheme for.
After all, this was the T6 Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship,
the brain of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, with think-tank experts in a great many fields here,
in economics and finance and in market trade.
Add the cooperation and calculation of artificial intelligence,
and a great many schemes could be settled in the shortest time.
It saved them a great deal of time.
That too pleased Huaya Lanlan and Huaya Nini very much.
For Flower-Fairy interstellar traders, time was always the most valuable thing of all.
So they were very used to working with efficient people,
like the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire now, and this Secretary-Officer Lilith before them.
Zhao Chen, as a layman, listened quietly beside them and offered no opinion at all.
This silence alone won the Owl Dragon Emperor no small credit in Huaya Lanlan's and Huaya Nini's hearts.
They had worked with some interstellar kingdoms and interstellar powers before.
And among them there had been no lack of leaders and kings who knew nothing whatever about interstellar trade, and yet when it came to negotiating cooperation insisted on putting forward what they thought were insights of their own.
In the end it not only hurt the efficiency of the cooperation badly; sometimes they were even conceited enough to think the schemes they put forward were the right ones.
That was what put them off most of all.
But here, with the Owl Dragon Emperor, there seemed to be nothing of the kind.
Huaya Lanlan looked at the Owl Dragon Emperor beside them, who had not said a word all along, and seized a pause to say, "These schemes and plans we've put forward: should His Majesty the Owl Dragon Emperor look them over and give some comment?"
At this, Zhao Chen shook his head at once and said, "In these matters you're the professionals; I'm only half a bucket of water. In front of you, it isn't my place to talk. Settle it among yourselves, and once there's a final detailed report, have Lilith let me know. There's no need to report everything else to me."
Zhao Chen set out his own position.
Huaya Lanlan was greatly surprised; she had not expected this Owl Dragon Emperor to delegate power so freely.
Across from her, Lilith spoke now to explain: "Miss Huaya Lanlan, there's no need for you to worry about some things. Our Owl Dragon Emperor has a principle: leave professional matters to professionals!"
Hearing Lilith's explanation, Huaya Lanlan was much moved inwardly.
Beside her, Huaya Nini even felt the Owl Dragon Emperor before her seemed to be glowing!
For a partner like this to come along was simply a great piece of luck for them.
A dream partner!
On his side, Zhao Chen paid no attention to what the two of them were thinking, but thought over some plans for the future himself.
For now, though they had succeeded in drawing the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group in,
raising the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group into a big money tree would still take a long time.
As things looked now, it would take a year or so at least to show marked results.
Until then, the only use it could serve was the intelligence network and the web of contacts the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group provided.
That too was why Lilith had chosen to win over the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group first.
But with the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group as a hidden piece here, once this money tree had grown strong in future,
the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire would truly have opened up an outside market, and a trade market that could connect it with other universes' civilizations at that; the potential was enormous.
Not only in interstellar trade; it could help the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire in every other respect too!
Several hours passed, with a short rest for both sides in the middle.
Very soon, the first step of the plan between the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire and the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group was settled.
Zhao Chen glanced over the whole plan's operating steps.
First, naturally, came getting the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group back to normal operation; what the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group lacked now was start-up capital.
For this, the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire would give the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group a first-phase loan investment, injected in installments, 100 trillion star coins in all.
Of course, there was interest on it.
The term ran from one year to ten at most.
The annual interest rate was 20%.
That meant that if it could not be repaid within a year, 120 trillion star coins would then have to be repaid in one sum, and so on.
So high an interest rate, at ordinary times, almost no one would accept.
But when Huaya Lanlan saw this clause, she chose to accept it without the least hesitation.
For she knew that, first of all, no power at all, not even the Flower-Fairy Interstellar Bank run by the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes, could give her 100-trillion-star-coin business loan in one go.
Only the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire was willing to; so this seemingly high interest was nothing at all in Huaya Lanlan's eyes.
And of these 100 trillion star coins, the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire would not in fact hand all of it over as money; the money it would truly give was likely under 10 trillion star coins.
For the rest would be made up in kind.
The first business order the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group placed with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, for instance, was the first thing the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire would deliver to the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group.
First, at a preferential price of 30 trillion star coins: ten T5 Stellar-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships, three hundred T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships, five thousand T3 Furnace-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships and a hundred thousand T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships.
Then, at a preferential price of 60 trillion star coins: a hundred T5 Star-Kun-class Super-Heavy Interstellar Transports, five thousand T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transports and three hundred thousand T3 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transports.[3]
The remaining 10 trillion star coins were the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's working capital going forward, and the license fees for producing T2 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transports, T3 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transports and T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transports itself.
Of these starships, apart from the T2 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transports the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group produced itself, which could be sold outside, no other class of starship at all was allowed to be sold outside.
These purchase orders were all, without exception, made at the price of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire taking 50% of these starships' profits over the next hundred years.
You could put it this way:
for the next hundred years, nearly 50% of the profits of the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group would belong to the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
These 100 trillion star coins now were a kind of investment by the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire in the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group, so that it could grow in the shortest time.
Someone might worry: after these hundred years, what if a Bailan Interstellar Trade Group grown strong broke away from the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire?
Leave aside that a hundred years was a very distant time to Zhao Chen, whose eyes were on the present.
Besides, this was only the first-phase cooperation plan.
Other cooperation plans would follow, and in those plans some conditions would naturally be attached; over time, the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group would have no way at all to break away from the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
"The goods in this first-phase cooperation order we can guarantee to deliver in full within three months," Lilith said.
"Three months? That fast?" Huaya Nini was greatly startled; an order of such enormous size!
Even if their Bailan Interstellar Trade Group bought from the various starship dealers, leaving aside the question of money, it would be hard to guarantee full delivery within three months.
Lilith smiled faintly and offered no further explanation, saying only, calmly, "On that point you may rest easy. When we say three months, we mean three months. On your side, you need only arrange people to take delivery, and arrange staff to go to the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's universe for the relevant training."
Huaya Lanlan noted these things down.
Up to now they had not yet realized how vast and how perfect the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's industrial system was.
"Since we've settled these matters, we ought to talk about other things." Zhao Chen spoke now with a smile.
Huaya Lanlan showed no alarm or worry; she knew of course that this Owl Dragon Emperor would surely not have made the trip just for a simple matter of cooperation like this.
There was bound to be something else.
"Your Majesty, if there's anything you need our Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's help with, we'll be very glad to do all we can!" Huaya Lanlan said.
Zhao Chen too came straight to the point: "I'd like to ask how your relations with the Stone Kingdom are."
The Stone Kingdom?
At the name, Huaya Lanlan's expression changed very slightly.
Slight as it was, Lilith still caught it.
Lilith said with a smile, "There's no need for Miss Huaya Lanlan to worry. We know your relations with the Stone Kingdom are good; we bear the Stone Kingdom no ill will either, and only want to open some mutually beneficial cooperation with them too! The Stone Kingdom has very rich mineral deposits. But as we understand it, their own use of them is very low. Their efficiency in mining those deposits is very low too. And we're willing to work with the Stone Kingdom and raise the output of their present deposits dozens of times over in a short time! For this, we can supply our interstellar mining ships, and other related technology! Of course, the condition in it is that our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire has priority purchasing rights to those deposits, at low prices. If all this can be done, it'll be of great benefit to your Bailan Interstellar Trade Group too; after all, those mineral products are excellent goods. As far as I know, in the known universe today, goods produced in the Stone Kingdom all sell well, and are of rather high quality among deposits of their kind."
Lilith went on setting out their ideas.
Huaya Lanlan and Huaya Nini very soon understood the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's intent clearly.
Huaya Nini wore a thoughtful look. "Working with the Stone Kingdom would be no small difficulty. Mind you, the Stone Kingdom has always been rather resistant to the outside. To this day the borders of their universe aren't open to outsiders; any outside interstellar fleet that enters their Stone Kingdom's universe without authorization is taken as declaring war on the Stone Kingdom. And the consequence is a ban on selling it any of the Stone Kingdom's mineral products at all. Add the Stone Kingdom universe's own armed forces, which are far from weak, and no one dares use force against this interstellar kingdom sitting on a treasure."
"The main reason no one is willing to use force isn't that the Stone Kingdom is strong. The Stone Kingdom's overall strength is at most T5, or quasi-T6. If a truly T6-grade interstellar civilization's fleets wanted to invade, the Stone Kingdom still couldn't hold them off. What really keeps outsiders from moving against them is the nature of the interstellar universe they live in," Huaya Lanlan put in beside her now.
She paused, then went on, "First of all, the magnetic field inside the Stone Kingdom's universe is very peculiar, and this magnetic environment has a great effect on intelligent creatures. According to several experiments we did before: living unprotected in the Stone Kingdom's universe, at first the head grows dizzy, then come vomiting and recurring high fevers, and the skin gradually begins to turn gray. If the person doesn't leave the Stone Kingdom's universe at this stage, every one of their organs begins to harden. Simply put, the person begins to turn into 'stone,' inside and out. We once experimented on prisoners. A humanoid creature, without any protection at all, lived on a habitable planet in the Stone Kingdom's universe for one month, and became a statue."
Petrification?
A stone statue?
Zhao Chen was somewhat startled; the intelligence the Holy Elf Empire had provided before had also said the Stone Kingdom was somewhat peculiar, but had not given the details.
He had not expected the reason to be this.
"Besides that, the environment of the habitable planets in the Stone Kingdom's universe is in fact extremely bad for most of us humanoid creatures, or carbon-based life. First there's oxygen: the oxygen they need is less than one percent of ours, so once we go there we all suffer from lack of oxygen. Then there's all kinds of food: eating the local food speeds up the whole process of petrification. This sickness we now call petrification sickness. If it were only for these things, they could still be dealt with by some means. The deadliest is another reason. Some of the mineral asteroids in the Stone Kingdom's universe are very peculiar: their matter can self-destruct! And the Stone Kingdom's scientists have already mastered its use effectively. They've even drawn up a wartime self-destruction plan for it. If an interstellar civilization truly invaded their universe by force, these special mineral asteroids could be made to self-destruct under their control. In that case, even if the Stone Kingdom were finally taken by force, the price in casualties would be very heavy. If a bone is a little hard, everyone can still gnaw at it; but this is a bone covered in thorns: bite into it, and you get a mouthful of thorns," Huaya Lanlan said, shaking her head helplessly.