At this, Zhao Chen paused, then joked with good humor, "This time doesn't count, mind. I've brought some guard fleets along. I didn't mean to bring so many, but my people were worried about my safety, so I brought some."
Hearing the Owl Dragon Emperor's joking words, the three masters of Black Sand City exchanged smiles too.
A spoken promise counted for little, but they still chose to trust this Owl Dragon Emperor.
In truth they had no other choice.
For as things stood for them, if they did not work with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, some other interstellar civilization's power would.
And they, not joining this group, would be pushed gradually to the margins, even if the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire did not mean it.
As the market share of the interstellar warships they produced shrank further and further, their growth, and their people's livelihood, were bound to suffer greatly.
So in the end they still chose to work with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
It was the only bright road open to them now.
Besides, even the Holy Elf Empire was working with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
What choice did they have?
"Um… I hear that your T6 Purple-Gold Eden-class starships not only produce grain of good quality, but can keep 100 trillion people alive. Is that true?" Sha Ji, the third of Black Sand City, could not help asking.
"To be precise, if you don't go for quality and only grow ordinary crops, it can meet the needs of 2,000 trillion people. That's with three full meals a day, eating and drinking their fill. If it's only keeping people alive on one meal a day, the number can reach 8,000 trillion," Zhao Chen said.
8,000 trillion people…
One interstellar ship can feed that many.
Sha Ji, the third brother, was all excitement.
Minister Li Yaqi put in just then, "Gentlemen, all this in fact rests on one condition. That is, the party we cooperate with is not Black Sand City alone, but the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation as a whole. So whether this cooperation can really be reached still depends on whether you three can help us."
Hearing Minister Li Yaqi's words,
the three naturally understood what she meant.
She hoped they would act as go-betweens, contact the leaders of the other three capital-city powers, and persuade them to agree to this cooperation.
"No problem. Leave this to us. With terms this good, I refuse to believe they won't be willing!" Sha Meng, the Lord of Black Sand City, promised solemnly.
To look at him,
Zhao Chen did not doubt in the least that, if anyone really objected, Sha Meng, the Lord of Black Sand City, would fight that ungrateful fellow to the death.
Next, Zhao Chen stayed five days in Black Sand City.
It must be said that the three masters of Black Sand City worked very fast.
On the second day they got in touch with the leaders of the other three powers, and on the third day they had gathered them all in Black Sand City.
On the third day the formal negotiations began.
Because Minister Li Yaqi and the others had come prepared, with every kind of cooperation plan ready,
the negotiations went very smoothly too.
By the fourth day they had basically reached the final signing.
"The Owl Dragon Emperor is leaving tomorrow? In such a hurry! You've come in person to our Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation at last; why not come and be a guest at my Earth-Dragon Castle? I'll be sure to look after you all well."
"What's interesting about your Earth-Dragon Castle? If His Majesty the Owl Dragon Emperor goes anywhere, it'll be our Sandstorm City!"
"That's rubbish. Your Sandstorm City is the dullest of all; you have the biggest cosmic sandstorms of anyone. His Majesty the Owl Dragon Emperor's interstellar warships are so important; what if they got blown to bits? It's best he come to our Yarburg City; that's the star region where our Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation began. You can see a great many cultural relics there!"
Zhao Chen looked at these few gathered around him, the leaders of the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation's other three capital-city powers.
Under the assault of Zhao Chen's sugar-coated bullets, plus the persuasion of the three from Black Sand City, they basically had no objection at all to this cooperation.
In their eyes Zhao Chen was now their god of wealth, and their attitude toward Zhao Chen was naturally each better than the last.
They behaved like his own brothers.
One of them even wanted to introduce his own sister to Zhao Chen.
But Zhao Chen refused outright; after all, under the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation's natural conditions, the races here were all hairless, with skin all of rather rough keratinized layers.
That was not at all to Zhao Chen's taste; besides, he was a man with children himself,
still less one to go dallying with flowers and grasses abroad.
But to return to the matter.
The letters of intent and the related compacts were soon all signed.
Zhao Chen found an excuse to slip away, and went with Li Yaqi and Huaya Lanlan alone to a room.
"It went fairly smoothly, I take it?" Zhao Chen asked.
Minister Li Yaqi nodded with a smile and said, "It couldn't have gone more smoothly. With our technology set before them, and above all those Eden-class starships, they had no excuse at all to refuse. Our cooperation can basically begin now. It goes in three steps, mainly. First, we need to set up our base here in the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation; the four capital-city leaders have already agreed to this, and have even each offered up star systems of their own. We now have three star systems to choose from, basically all at the borders between these four capital-city powers, which counts as a fairly suitable location. As for which one we choose in the end, that has to wait till the building teams come and do their survey. That's not something I can take on. What's been agreed with them is that the star system will be treated as leased to us; we may station only one escort corps fleet of three thousand ships here, with no T6-grade interstellar warships, and no more than thirty T5-grade interstellar warships. Then we can build a universe star gate here, which both sides will administer jointly. After that, we'll send people to survey the state of every industrial base in the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation. By the figures they've reported to us so far, their industrial strength really isn't bad; their total industrial manufacturing capacity is even above ours. But they have no top-end manufacturing capacity, and can't make anything too precise. Taking the T4 Golden Eden-class starship as an example, the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation's industrial strength could produce about five million of this interstellar ship a year!"
Five million T4 Golden Eden-class starships a year!
That industrial capacity counted as quite frightening already.
Converted into combat interstellar warships,
it would be about as much as fifty million T4 Skeleton-King-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Destroyers!
That was, of course, on condition that raw materials were in ample supply,
and only for building low- and mid-range interstellar warships.
For T5-grade interstellar warships, they would have to work with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
But even so, for the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, to have such an "overseas industrial base" was simply giving wings to a tiger.
As for raw materials, with so many interstellar traders about, and the universe trading platform to be built after,
need one worry about the production tasks to come?
"As for how many combat interstellar warships they'll produce for us then, that depends on the army's needs. But the related orders have been signed. Leaving cost and raw materials out of account, we expect that over the coming year, relying on these industrial bases of the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation, they can produce for us in one year about the equivalent of twenty million T4 Skeleton-King-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Destroyers and a hundred thousand T5 Chaos-Knight-class Heavy Assault Interstellar Destroyers! It may even add to our production capacity for T6-grade interstellar warships; they'd only take on producing part of our parts, but all told it could let us produce about two hundred more T6 Lord-of-Thunder-class Heavy Interstellar Destroyers!" Minister Li Yaqi could hardly hide her excitement now.
Reckoned at this scale,
it would give the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire about twenty million more interstellar warships of legion fleets in a year.
Given the variety a fleet needed, building interstellar battleships, carrier starships and the like would use more of the output.
But reckoned up, it could still give the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire at least ten million interstellar warships a year of Owl Dragon legion fleets on this standard scale!
Ten million a year: then two years would be twenty million!
Add the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's own production capacity, and before the oath-duel the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire might even be able to build up fifty million interstellar warships!
At the thought of it, even Zhao Chen's face showed excitement.
Setting up a cooperative relationship with the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation was truly crucial for the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
It was wings for the tiger!
If in the oath-duel to come they could have fifty million interstellar warships of Owl Dragon legion fleets, the odds of winning the oath-duel would be greater still.
"Besides, we've found one more thing. That is, the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation's industrial bases are best suited to producing interstellar missiles. The industrial demands of interstellar missiles aren't actually high; leaving out T6-grade interstellar missiles, the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation's industrial bases can perfectly well take on the production process for T5-grade interstellar missiles!" Minister Li Yaqi said.
The production of interstellar missiles had always taken the largest share of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's industry.
The army had even set up production lines at several defense-industry bases especially for producing interstellar missiles year round.
After all, in the Owl Dragon legion fleets' style of fighting, the consumption of interstellar missiles was frightening.
That in turn took up a good deal of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's capacity.
But not producing them was not an option either.
And now, with the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation responsible for this work, it would truly be a great help to the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
"The main thing is that we've settled the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation; our work from here will be much easier," Huaya Lanlan said beside them, celebrating.
Zhao Chen nodded, satisfied.
"Then from here, let's not waste any time either. We've gnawed through both the hard bones. There's no need to run from one universe to the next anymore. Lanlan, have you any way of getting my words straight to the leader of every interstellar civilization's universe power?" Zhao Chen said.
What Zhao Chen lacked most now was time; treating the first two, the Holy Elf Empire and the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation, so seriously had taken nearly half a month.
That was because these two interstellar powers were rather special.
And now that both hard bones had been gnawed through, there was no need to waste any more time.
They could gather all the remaining interstellar civilizations' universes together at one stroke.
"That's no problem. Our Bailan Interstellar Trade Group has lately built good trading relations and networks of contacts with nearly every interstellar power in the known universe. We can carry your words to them," Huaya Lanlan said.
Zhao Chen nodded and said, satisfied, "In that case, pass on a message for me, and send them the introduction to our universe trade alliance cooperation plan and the letters of intent of the powers that have already joined it. Have them come to the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes within a week to discuss the matter."
Huaya Lanlan nodded in agreement. "That's no problem. Once they know the Holy Elf Empire and the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation have both agreed to this, I'm sure no one will refuse something this good. Add a push from our flower-fairy traders through our networks of contacts, and it's sure to come off. The place for the talks is in our Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe. With us flower-fairy interstellar traders standing behind it, and the convenience of the location, they'll come too. That way there's no need for you to go to all the trouble of running round to every one of them."
Zhao Chen nodded.
That was just what he had in mind.
If he were to run round to every one of them, then even if each later interstellar civilization's universe agreed in the shortest time,
finishing all the talks would take at least two or three months.
Done this way, it would take twenty days at most
to get the matter settled.
"Then, now that we've more or less finished here, we can set out for the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe. Come to think of it, it's been some time since I last went to the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe," Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
Because the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation was settled, Zhao Chen was in a much better mood himself now.
Huaya Nini said beside him, "Hee hee hee, Your Majesty. It's been a while since you came to our Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe, and our universe has changed a great deal. Above all our Bailan Interstellar Trade Group! When you come this time, we'll be sure to look after you well."
"Then I'll be waiting for it," Zhao Chen said with a laugh.
Amid laughter, their party brought the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation leg of the journey to an end.
Zhao Chen naturally declined the invitations to go on to the other capital-city powers; after all, Zhao Chen was still very pressed for time.
————
Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' Universe
Only a year or so had passed since Zhao Chen's last visit to the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe,
but Zhao Chen found that no small changes had taken place here.
The Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes, being all flower-fairy interstellar traders, naturally had a great many starships coming and going here,
and with the natural advantage of the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe's location, still more interstellar ships passed through here.
But compared with before, the number had plainly grown a great deal.
And this time Zhao Chen was going to the Bailan star system, which, as the name says, was the star system where the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group was based.
Zhao Chen had been to the Bailan star system before too.
The changes here were greater than anywhere else.
The Bailan star system had a great many more buildings, and some planets had even been reshaped into habitable planets.
And here one could even see a cross-universe star gate!
"Under our cooperation with the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group, in future the universe trade alliance is to have something like a hub trading base not only in our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, but in other places too. Of these, the uniquely favorable location of the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe naturally couldn't be passed up. And within it, choosing the Bailan star system as this hub was the best fit there could be. So we began building up the Bailan star system before this. For it, we even made several habitable planets, so the population this place can hold has gone up. And we built this universe star gate, so this place can connect directly with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire and other interstellar civilizations' universes," Minister Li Yaqi said beside him.
Huaya Lanlan spoke up too just then: "Thanks to the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's investment in us lately, and the related infrastructure, our Bailan Interstellar Trade Group has grown faster still. The Bailan star system has become the largest transit hub in the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe now; even other flower-fairy interstellar traders' interstellar deals pass through our Bailan star system, using this universe star gate to reach their destinations. Basically over ninety percent of the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' goods and deals involve the Bailan star system and the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group."
Huaya Nini put her hands on her hips proudly beside them and said, "That's right! Our Bailan Interstellar Trade Group is now one of a kind in the whole Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes; no one can order us about anymore. Those fellows who tripped us up and worked against us before can't fawn on us fast enough now."
Listening to them, Zhao Chen was very satisfied with how things had grown here too.
The Bailan Interstellar Trade Group was an important piece on Zhao Chen's board, and it had a crucial role in cross-universe trade!
Without the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group, it would have been basically impossible for the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire to set up an interstellar trade network for dealing with the outside in a short time.
It was the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's existence that had made it all possible.
And just then Zhao Chen saw a familiar city here.
"This is…" Zhao Chen looked at the city before him in some astonishment.
"This is a space city built by borrowing the T6 Divine Palace-class Interstellar Complex. But some changes have been made: all its combat functions have been dropped, and it's been made entirely into an interstellar trade starport. It's now the largest single interstellar trade and finance starport in the known universe. Its throughput is frightening. The starport alone can hold over a million interstellar transport ships. It even has as many as a thousand dock berths prepared for T6 interstellar transport ships! Its name is Bailan City." Huaya Lanlan looked at the space city before her, built in the shape of a white orchid, her heart full of pride.
At the same time her respect for the Owl Dragon Emperor grew a few degrees more.
Had it not been for the Owl Dragon Emperor's help and patronage before, they would never have come to where they were today.
As the saying went, without the Owl Dragon Emperor they would have none of what they had now.
It was something Huaya Lanlan often said to her sister Huaya Nini.
And she had stressed to her trusted subordinates again and again her relationship with the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire: anything that touched the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire was of the very highest importance, and was not to be slighted in the least.
"The negotiating conference to come will be held in Bailan City. I've already had people start preparing it all. I certainly won't let Your Majesty the Emperor down," Huaya Lanlan said gravely beside him.
Gathering the remaining interstellar civilizations' universe powers here for a conference was something Zhao Chen had put in Huaya Lanlan's hands.
And Huaya Lanlan had chosen Bailan City.
And it was no ordinary matter: it meant the universe trade alliance would in the end be signed in this Bailan City.
It would certainly be a historic day for Bailan City.
At the same time, such an arrangement was as good as a free advertisement for the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group.
"Mm, I'll leave it all to you," Zhao Chen said with a nod.
Next, all of Bailan City, high and low, began getting ready for so important a conference.
The networks of contacts the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group had placed in every interstellar civilization's universe went to work now, carrying the Owl Dragon Emperor's words and those cooperation plans to the leaders of all those interstellar civilizations' powers.
The leaders of those interstellar civilizations' powers, on learning of it, and above all on seeing the letters of intent from the Holy Elf Empire and the Searing Holy-Hammer Free Federation, both willing to join,
basically all agreed to come to the conference.
Some even signed letters of intent on the spot, as if afraid that a moment's delay would make them miss this chance.
Time passed bit by bit.
Starships from every interstellar civilization's universe arrived one after another at Bailan City, and Bailan City had everything ready for these guests.
Among them were guests from the Holy Elf Empire too:
the party of Marietis, the Bluewater Elf Queen.
"So this is Bailan City? I never imagined a flower-fairy interstellar trader could own a starport city like this. Technology on this level: even our Holy Elf Empire couldn't build it." The moment Marietis, the Bluewater Elf Queen, came down from her flagship, she was looking this Bailan City before her up and down.