Facing Lei Tianming’s imposing manner that was as distressing as a thunderstorm, Yun Feidian remained calm and composed as he laughed it off.

“I’m sorry, Seniors.”

Yun Feidian gently tapped on the e-book in his hand and spoke as if nothing had happened, “I just saw a very interesting story in the book and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. It’s my fault for disturbing everyone’s intense argument.”

Although he apologized, there was no hint of guilt on his face.

Lei Tianming was furious. He gritted his teeth so hard that cracking sounds could be heard. “Yun Feidian, this is a critical moment for the nine mega corporations. It will even decide the fate of the nine noble cultivation families. Do you think that Thundercloud Technology will be able to survive on its own just because we have fallen one after another? How can you still be in the mood to read storybooks at a time like this?

“We can often draw a lot of ancient wisdom from these old stories from Earth to solve our current problems,” Yun Feidian said with a smile.

“For example, during the Warring States period, a man in the state of Chu crossed a river on a boat. The boat reached the center of the river, and the man accidentally dropped a treasured sword into the river. He quickly reached out to grab it, but it was too late. The treasured sword had already fallen into the river, and the people on the boat cried out in alarm.

“But the man seemed to have a plan in mind. He immediately took out a small knife and carved a mark on the side of the boat. He also told everyone that the treasured sword had fallen into the water along that spot, so he carved a mark.

“Everyone looked at each other, not understanding why he did that.

“After the boat docked, the man immediately went into the water near the carved mark and tried to retrieve the lost treasured sword.

“The man searched for a long time, but there was still no sign of the treasured sword. He found it very strange and said to himself, ‘Didn’t my sword fall from here? I even carved a mark here, so why can’t I find it now?'”

“Hearing what he said, everyone burst into laughter. The boat had been moving forward, but his treasured sword had sunk to the bottom of the river, unable to move with the boat. How could he have found his sword?

“Seniors, don’t you think this story is funny?”

After Yun Feidian finished speaking, the meeting room was silent.

All the Deity Realm warriors exchanged looks, and their expressions gradually turned from confusion to anger.

It was not because the story contained some profound truth.

But…

“Yun Feidian, what are you trying to say?!”

Lei Tianming was furious. He slammed his fist on the table, leaving a print surrounded by white smoke. “Are you playing with us?”

“Why would I?”

Yun Feidian shook his head calmly. “I just don’t understand one thing. Perhaps it’s acceptable for the ancient people from thousands of years ago to make the mistake of doing something pointless in the face of changing circumstances. But now, thousands of years later, all you seniors here have crossed the sea of stars and crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. In the desperate battle with the monsters, you have broken through the limits of your physical strength and intelligence. You can even be regarded as gods on Earth. Yet, you’re going to make the same mistake as that ridiculous man from Chu?

“The sword that fell in the middle of the river and the mark carved on the side of the boat are different things.

“Therefore, is there a similarity between Dragon City’s ordinary citizens who are living in the Other World and the ordinary people who used to live on Earth?”

“This…”

Lei Tianming frowned deeply.

Although he had a deep conflict of interest with Yun Feidian, Lei Tianming never dared to look down on his competitor who was better than him.

He knew that Yun Feidian would never point something out without a reason.

“What do you mean?

“What does carving a boat to find a sword have to do with the problem we are discussing?” Lei Tianming asked in a deep voice.

“It’s simple. I just hope that everyone can understand one thing—times have changed. The ordinary people today are definitely not the same ordinary people on Earth. The big shots today and the big shots on Earth are also two completely different species.”

Yun Feidian said, “All of you just mentioned that you’re afraid a full-scale break with the ordinary people will lead to unpredictable consequences, but I really don’t understand—even if we take ten thousand steps back, what’s the worst consequence of the peerless fighters severing ties with the ordinary people?”

“Don’t you understand?”

Lei Tianming said, “Many of the nine mega corporations’ regular employees have ordinary people in their families. If we don’t consider their interests, how will they be loyal to us?”

“Aside from being loyal to us, what else can they do?” Yun Feidian responded.

“As superhumans, they need cultivation resources the most. As long as we keep most of the cultivation resources in our hands, why should we be worried that our subordinates will easily betray us?”

“However, cultivation resources also require a large number of people to excavate, refine, and protect.”

Lei Tianming said, “How many people do the nine great cultivation families have in total? It’s not like we can personally go out and guard a crystal vein. Do you think we have nothing else to do?”

“Of course.”

Yun Feidian said, “Anyway, our integrated rune technology, bionic neural network technology, virtual big data learning technology, unmanned collection, as well as smelting, and manufacturing technology, have been developed very well.

“As long as we have the runic machines that are connected to the monsters’ neural network, it doesn’t matter even if we don’t have ordinary frontline workers and basic managers who are mid-level and low-level superhumans. We can collect the training resources of the entire crystal mine by ourselves through the commands that we send from the remote terminal, which runs on the industrial intelligence network.

“With these cultivation resources, we will be able to maintain our undefeatable force.

“If you think that the automatic rune machines are not developed enough and you want carbon-based intelligent beings to be a cheap labor force, the citizens of Dragon City are not the best choice.

“Didn’t we just capture a large number of rat-like beasts outside Monster Mountain Range?

“Although these creatures are bizarre in shape, dirty, smelly, and not exactly humanoid, they are sentient. With a little modification, they will be perfectly capable of collecting crystals in the dark, radiation-filled mines and sending them to the construction sites to be dusted. They can make up for the lack of automated technology.

“Senior Lei, Let’s set aside other things for a moment. If you can replace half of the workers in Soaring Dragon Corporation’s construction teams with orcs, how much will you save in cost and how much will you increase in profit?

“I really don’t understand. There are hard-working and low-cost orcs available. Why are you still worried about offending ordinary people? And where did those ordinary people get the courage to believe that they still have a bargaining chip to play with us?”