Chapter 482 - 233: Negotiation
Chapter 482: Chapter 233: Negotiation
A rift clearly formed within the military-industrial Alliance that had originally united to deal with Li Chang’an.
This came as no surprise.
After all, this group had only been a temporary coalition of convenience, and many of them had been mortal enemies in their respective fields in the past.
Now that Li Chang’an had shown a willingness to negotiate and dangled a few reasonably tempting lures, their internal interests began to diverge. The coalition was becoming difficult to hold together.
Su Ruobing and the faction willing to negotiate set a date. At the beginning of next month, their representatives would come in batches to negotiate with Li Chang’an. Until then, the major interest groups’ campaign to corner him was expected to weaken considerably.
Li Chang’an breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the news.
After all, with so many people fantasizing about killing him, even if most of it was just wishful thinking, it was enough to give anyone sleepless nights.
Li Chang’an considered himself pretty resilient to stress, but being in such a high-pressure environment for so long still left him feeling a bit suffocated.
...
Over the next month, Li Chang’an continued to focus his energy on cultivating high-end talent. In his spare time, he remained in the City Lord’s Mansion, training diligently.
He was now considered one of the wealthiest Reincarnators, so he bought a massive amount of High-tier Energy Crystals in an attempt to raise his Evolution Level from Tier Seven Peak to Tier Eight Early Stage.
But while the Energy Crystals could increase the amount of Energy in his body, they weren’t enough to trigger a direct breakthrough.
After absorbing dozens of High-grade Energy Crystals, Li Chang’an felt as if he was about to burst from the immense Energy, yet he still failed to break through to the Tier Eight Early Stage.
It seemed that once an Evolver reached a certain Realm, their evolution was no longer limited by Energy, but by some kind of indescribable feeling.
Li Chang’an was surprised at first but quickly accepted this outcome.
After all, if Energy Crystals could infinitely raise one’s Realm, the Main World would be overrun with Eighth-rank Evolutionists, and Ninth-rank ones would be a dime a dozen.
In reality, Reincarnators who managed to reach the Tier Seven Realm were as rare as a phoenix’s feather. Taking even one step further required paying an enormous price.
’Looks like if I want to keep raising my Realm, I’ll have to go through another reincarnation,’ Li Chang’an thought. In the seclusion chamber of the City Lord’s Mansion, he slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of foul air that shot out like an arrow loosed from a bow.
During this period, Cangxuan City’s development had not been peaceful.
He had already signaled his willingness to negotiate to the outside world through Su Ruobing and Su Ziyue. But for that very reason, in a bid to gain more leverage, the major military-industrial groups, while not daring to launch brazen attacks and assassinations as before, had repeatedly resorted to all sorts of insidious, hard-to-prevent schemes.
The factories in Cangxuan City suffered a series of incidents, including fires and explosions, which caused a significant decline in production output.
Li Chang’an was seething with anger, but it wasn’t the right time to act on it. He could only wait for the negotiations to vent his impotent fury.
But was Li Chang’an truly helpless against these people?
The answer, of course, was no.
He already had people secretly developing a holographic defense system for Cangxuan City. Once the system was deployed, anyone attempting to carry out a terrorist attack within the city would be unable to escape the eyes of its intelligent surveillance.
The only thing Li Chang’an lacked now was time. More time.
...
A month isn’t a long time, but it isn’t short, either.
Soon, the time for the scheduled negotiations between Li Chang’an and the Main World’s major military-industrial groups arrived.
Li Chang’an sat in the City Lord’s Mansion of Cangxuan City, awaiting his first "guests" for the peace talks: the two great Reincarnator Families from Shanghai, the Liu and Li Families.
These two Reincarnation Families specialized in selling munitions, specifically artillery shells. While there was a conflict of interest with Li Chang’an, it wasn’t a major one.
At least, not as great as his conflict with the Gu and Cao Families.
After all, while the mass production of his Energy Particle Beam Cannon and Super Electromagnetic Cannon would certainly encroach on their market share, the two sides were not entirely incompatible. There was significant room for negotiation and compromise.
In fact, if handled properly, this crisis might not be a crisis at all. It could even bring enormous profits to them and the families they represented!
And today, the primary goal of these two families was to secure the supply market for the Energy Cannon Shells used by Cangxuan City’s Energy Particle Beam Cannons and Super Electromagnetic Cannons.
To put it simply, they wanted to become Li Chang’an’s subordinate contractors.
They would specialize in producing various models of shells for him.
Their attitude toward Li Chang’an was extremely respectful. Liu Rongfa, the Patriarch of the Liu Family, was all smiles. Upon seeing Li Chang’an, he firmly grasped his hand and flattered, "They say heroes often emerge from the youth, and Boss Li, you are the most talented young man with the sharpest business mind I have seen in many years!"
Beside him, the Patriarch of the Li Family adopted an equally humble posture, chiming in, "Not just in recent years! Even if you scour the entire history of the Main World, a young genius like Boss Li is a once-in-a-century prodigy!"
One doesn’t hit a smiling man. Li Chang’an replied modestly, "You two seniors flatter me. Even if one achieves fame at a young age, one must still rely on the guidance of one’s elders, no?"
He led the two to the reception hall of the City Lord’s Mansion and had them take a seat.
A banquet had already been prepared.
After three rounds of drinks, they finally got to the main topic: the two great Shanghai families, Liu and Li, wanted to contract Li Chang’an’s shell production business.
To that end, they were willing to give Li Chang’an an annual rebate and invest twenty million Rebirth Points at this current stage, tying their fate to his.
Li Chang’an knew full well that you can’t monopolize all the profits, and since the two men were so sincere, he agreed to most of their requests, only adding a few restrictions.
For instance, their proposed "permanent supply contract" was changed to "renewable every twenty years," and their offer to "supply all shells" was limited to shells for the "Energy Particle Beam Cannon" and "Super Electromagnetic Cannon," among other things...
The two sides haggled over some of the details, but overall, the talks were pleasant.
Clearly, these two great families knew how to adapt to the times.
Seeing that Li Chang’an’s growth was too rapid to be stopped, they immediately chose to go with the flow and side with him directly.
Of course, the prerequisite for this was that their families’ primary businesses had no core conflict of interest with Li Chang’an; they were even mutually compatible.
It would be difficult for other families to adopt such an attitude.
Sure enough, over the next few days, Li Chang’an received several more families. Those with genuine intentions sent their patriarchs in person. Those with less sincerity, or with strong hostility toward Cangxuan City, sent only a junior member of their family to negotiate.
Most of these negotiations did not go smoothly.
Many made exorbitant demands. There was even a Reincarnator Family from Kyoto, with the surname Qian, who immediately asked for fifty percent of the shares in the Night City Military Technology Group.
Naturally, Li Chang’an could not agree to this.
Start with an exorbitant price, then haggle down from there. That’s the essence of so-called negotiation.
After a few rounds, just as the Qian Reincarnator Family was about to budge and change their terms, Li Chang’an had them removed from the venue, refusing to negotiate with them any further.
What a joke. Li Chang’an would rather let the Night City Group rot in his hands than trade away fifty percent of its shares.
That family’s demand had touched a nerve. To say even one more word to them would be an insult to himself.
Besides, Li Chang’an had seen right through their ploy.
If he had shown even the slightest willingness to negotiate over his shares in the Night City Military Technology Group...
...he would have immediately faced a feeding frenzy from all sides.
...