To be fair, Meng Chao believed that the members of the nine mega corporations did not deliberately want to block the passing of the Mandatory Training Act for School-aged Children.

After all, most superhumans, even the ones from the nine great families, were still willing to see Dragon City’s overall strength increase day by day, so as to conquer the entire Other World as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, the introduction of the Mandatory Training Act for School-aged Children would bring two problems.

First of all, the Azure Alliance, which proposed the act, would have a much greater say in the Survival Committee, and ordinary citizens’ trust, as well as support for them, would also continue to grow.

Besides, the biggest beneficiaries of this act, the middle and lower classes who could not afford high training fees, were also the foundation of the Azure Alliance.

In the Survival Committee’s next midterm election, they would definitely stand firmly on the Azure Alliance’s side and help them win more seats in the parliament, causing the seats of the nine mega corporations to shrink continuously. They would even go from being able to dominate Dragon City’s fate to being subordinate and vassals.

Second of all, where was the money coming from? That was the most unbearable and unsolvable issue.

Just like any seemingly beautiful plan, in order to successfully pass and implement the Mandatory Training Act for School-aged Children without any discount, an astronomical amount of money and training resources would have to be consumed.

The Survival Committee itself could not produce even half a copper coin.

Also after decades of the Monster War, the Dragon City civilization, which was still covered in injuries and silently licking its wounds, had a financial system that was also riddled with holes and about to collapse. It did not matter that they had won the war.

Which of those powerhouses, who seemed to be as numerous as the clouds and the rain of fierce generals, was not struggling and on the verge of bankruptcy?

Not to mention, for the purpose of expansion, all the powerhouses had used the banks and the financial market to borrow wantonly and spend ahead of time in the past year.

It was not an exaggeration to say that their grandchildren would not be able to repay the amount of money that they borrowed even after thirty to fifty years.

In recent years, when opening up a brand new market was still a long way, paying off the interest was considered a blessing, let alone the principal.

Under such circumstances, it was difficult for the Survival Committee to squeeze out the expenses needed to implement the Mandatory Training Act for School-aged Children from the Dragon City civilization’s financial budget.

The only solution was to consume the big shots, and they were the nine mega corporations.

When it came to the nine mega corporations and the nine noble cultivation families behind them, they would cancel the tax concessions set during the Monster War, recover the taxes and fees accumulated over the years, and then impose inheritance taxes and luxury taxes on the Deity Realm experts and the children of the wealthy families whose assets were too exaggerated. That seemed to be the only way to effectively promote the Mandatory Training Act for School-aged Children and alleviate Dragon City’s financial crisis.

According to Shen Yuanbao, it was not that the nine big families were unwilling to pay.

The leaders of the nine big families all had the awareness that a Deity Realm expert should have.

They had been through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, so they did not care much about some worldly possessions.

In view of Dragon City’s current financial situation, which made it seem like it was treading on thin ice, they were also racking their brains and thinking hard to prevent Dragon City from falling into an economic crisis. That would cause order to collapse again, ending up in a situation where everyone was doomed.

The problem was that, under the guise of promoting the Mandatory Training Act for School-aged Children, the Azure Alliance was trying to conduct a comprehensive audit of the nine mega corporations and explain the decades-long question of the occupation and consumption of cultivation resources by the nine mega corporations as well as the superhumans.

That would be the death of the gods.

As we all know, awakening extraordinary power and breaking the limit of life require certain criteria. The consumption and output ratio of cultivation resources were very difficult to quantify.

Perhaps, a peak Earth Realm expert only needed to consume a hundred gene reagents and a hundred mid-grade crystals to break through to the Heaven Realm, while another peak Earth Realm expert needed to consume three hundred to five hundred gene reagents and the equivalent number of crystals.

However, this did not mean that the latter was wantonly squandering or even deliberately wasting strategic resources.

Similarly, a Deity Realm expert occupying a crystal ore vein did not follow the Supernatural Tower’s relevant rules and report the true crystal output, as well as pay a full amount of resource tax according to the law. It was a secret that everyone knew and also an unspoken rule that the law did not punish the masses.

As the saying goes, “Clear water has no fish.” A Deity Realm expert would clearly occupy a crystal ore vein for the sake of his family and business.

Even when the Deity Realm experts became extremely powerful and needed to stand up and fight the monsters, the people had never been vague about it!

In the past, when the overwhelming beast horde constantly threatened the lives and property of Dragon City’s citizens, they turned a blind eye to the peerless experts occupying the crystal ore vein and consuming cultivation resources.

Now that the beast horde had retreated, the people were going to dig up the muddled accounts and cause a stink?

How could there be such logic in the world?!

Meng Chao had heard from Shen Yuanbao that the nine mega corporations were aware that the accounts of the past few decades were unclear, especially with regard to the whereabouts of the strategic resources. The size of the accounts was a hidden danger.

They wanted to take things step by step and quietly sort out the accounts too.

Originally, the North Advancement Plan had been the solution for the nine mega corporations.

Like they say, “The sound of a cannon is worth ten thousand taels of gold.”¹

If the nine mega corportions were in charge of the North Advancement Plan, the war funds they spent every day would be astronomical.

One side would spend ten thousand taels of gold, and the other would earn ten thousand taels of gold. If they did a little work in between, would all the holes left by the history of the nine mega corporations not be filled up?

Once the Northern Invasion War was completely won, they would then look at the accounts of the nine mega corporations to ensure that they were flawless and beautiful.

That way, Dragon City’s financial market would be able to maintain long-term stability, and the financial crisis would also disappear. Wouldn’t Dragon City’s future be bright?

Unfortunately, the Azure Alliance did not have the foresight to look at the big picture at all.

They had to stab the nine mega corporations in their weakest spot at the most difficult time.

With the current situation, it would be difficult to get the Survival Committee’s approval for the North Advancement Plan in the short term.

Even if the Dragon City civilization really wanted to march north and extend the brilliance of their civilization to the middle and lower reaches of the Raging Tiger River, the Red Dragon Army would definitely play the leading role instead of the nine mega corporations’ armed forces.

If most of the war funds and war bonuses were controlled by the Red Dragon Army, the nine mega corporations would have a hard time cleaning up the holes in history.

Those were the two reasons why the nine mega corporations could not sit idly and watch the Mandatory Training Act for School-aged Children pass.

Since they could not stop it directly, there was only one way left for the nine mega corporations.

Before the official vote, the Azure Alliance had to be caught in a scandal.

It had to be bigger, worse, and more shocking than the explosions of the Red Creek Project’s crystal warehouse and The Bright Light.