Chapter 339: Negotiation Second Half

The President gestured toward the old man last as he introduced him.

"This is Mr. Edmund Rothenberg, the owner of this estate, a very successful businessman and a philanthropist."

The old man laughed.

"Hahaha, Mr. President is joking! I’m just a simple, retired, wealthy old man who admires our President’s policies. Nothing more."

Wei Chen looked at the old man with a smile. From what he could discern, this old man must be one of the President’s political supporters, or perhaps even the owner of the President’s political wallet.

And judging by his appearance, this old man must have a great deal of influence. Perhaps he was even the most influential person in the room, judging by the deferential look the President gave him.

Dream Butterfly also came to the same conclusion as her husband, despite the fact that she knew very little about this side’s affairs and had learned almost everything through hurriedly reading information on the internet.

From her experience, this old man must be the real decision-maker here.

"Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Rothenberg." Wei Chen greeted the old man before gesturing toward his wives.

"These two ladies are my wives. On my left, her name is Dream Butterfly, and on my right, she’s Mo Xingyao. She is also the founder and CEO of the Thousand Treasure Pavilion, one of the most reputable and extensive conglomerates in our world."

He introduced the two women to the people in the room before gesturing toward Lian Cheng.

"This is Lian Cheng, the Director of Artifact Development."

Lian Cheng nodded toward the group in acknowledgment. This was about the best he could do, as he still had his cultivator’s pride and could not bring himself to lower himself too much before mortals.

The group looked at both Mo Xingyao and Lian Cheng.

As people from modern society, they understood the importance of a CEO from a major conglomerate. According to the reports from the other side, information about the Thousand Treasure Pavilion was not a secret, and they also knew that this particular conglomerate was the real deal on the other side.

Most of the people in the room paid attention to Mo Xingyao, as if they wanted to scrutinize her. Meanwhile, the minority, namely the advisors who worked in the fields of science and machinery, were paying more attention to Lian Cheng.

To them, the word "Artifact" was particularly interesting. According to the information provided by the expedition team, artifacts were essentially a form of technology. This kind of technology had no circuits and did not rely on electricity. It was an entirely new field of technology that they might be able to make use of, if they were able to decipher it.

After a few more pleasantries were exchanged, the negotiation finally began. The President and the people around him took out handbooks and papers containing the list of resources that the expedition team had discovered on the other side.

"Mr. Wei, we would like to purchase Spiritvein Grass. How much can you procure for us?" the President asked.

Hearing this, Wei Chen smiled and looked at Mo Xingyao, who nodded at him. He did not need to translate the question for Mo Xingyao because the translator hired by the US side was already doing that for him.

To Mo Xingyao, this was a good deal.

Spiritvein Grass was a common grass and a basic medicinal herb widely used in many products, both for mortals and cultivators. It was one of the foundational spirit herbs that every medicine hall or alchemist needed in their daily work.

It was also very easy to cultivate. The Thousand Treasure Pavilion had a large surplus of this kind of grass in stock, mostly in the form of dried Spiritvein Grass, which retained up to 90% of its potency after the drying process for long-term storage.

Mo Xingyao looked at her husband, then toward the President.

"We only have about 100 tons of fresh Spiritvein Grass in surplus, but we have about 100,000 tons of the dried variety in surplus. Which one would you like?"

"What’s the difference?" This time, one of the President’s advisors asked. He looked like a scientist.

The translator relayed the question to Mo Xingyao, who nodded in understanding before explaining.

"The fresh variety has 100% potency, while the dried variety has 90% potency. This is the best you can get from a non-alchemist faction. Even some alchemists aren’t as good as us when it comes to preserving potency during the drying process."

Mo Xingyao could not help but brag a little to add more value to her goods.

The advisors then spoke with one another. Wei Chen noticed them whispering among themselves and could roughly discern what they were discussing. It seemed they only needed the grass for some experiments related to new medicines they were developing.

They shouldn’t need much.

And as expected, they only required one ton of the fresh variety and five tons of the dried variety.

This time, Wei Chen remained silent and let Mo Xingyao handle the negotiation, since this was directly related to her business.

The negotiation continued as Mo Xingyao started closing the loopholes in the negotiations. The price was quoted through barter, with both sides exchanging goods of equivalent value.

And of course, Mo Xingyao wanted women’s underwear and cosmetics. She really wanted to import all those women’s goods, didn’t she?

Of course, the US side tried to exaggerate the value of the cosmetics, emphasizing how great they were and how difficult they were to produce. However, Wei Chen immediately saw through it and stated the facts.

One had to wonder if the negotiators from the US side would ever stop hating the internet after today, because every piece of information Wei Chen brought up, he claimed to have found on the internet.

Worst of all, Wei Chen even took out his phone and searched through an online shopping app, showing the negotiators the prices listed online. The prices were much lower than what the negotiators had quoted, which embarrassed the President greatly.

This was an oversight on their part, born from greed. They had assumed that although Wei Chen could speak English, he should not be able to understand written English.

That was because the report they had received from the observation team on site had never mentioned Wei Chen visiting any websites related to cosmetics or other consumer goods. Instead, they had only observed him visiting websites filled with pictures and historical information, which had led them to make this misconception.

After a short period of negotiation over relatively minor matters, they finally moved on to the real agenda.

"Mr. Wei..." the President began. "We would like to know, can spirit qi, or spirit stones, be used to generate electricity?"

This time, the one who answered was Lian Cheng.

"It depends on what you need them for. If you want to create weapons, a single spirit stone should be enough to generate enough lightning to kill around 200 mortals, depending on the situation. But if you need it for something else, you need to tell me."

Hearing this, Wei Chen added,

"I think they mean they just want to generate enough electricity to be used in households or industry as a whole. Like when we use them to fuel the flying ark."

The additional information from Wei Chen made Lian Cheng’s expression widen as he finally understood what the President meant.

"I see... You mean they need an artifact or formation to generate lightning!"

Wei Chen held out his hand as if trying to stop Lian Cheng from misunderstanding.

"No... not lightning. It’s electricity. People in this world use electricity to power their machinery and for their everyday lives. Like this phone."

Wei Chen took out his phone and showed it to Lian Cheng.

"It runs on electricity. Even the heater over there and the lights in this room run on electricity. None of them use spiritual qi as their power source."

As Wei Chen finished his explanation, Lian Cheng looked up at the lights and the heater Wei Chen had pointed at. He closed his eyes as if trying to sense something. After a brief moment, he opened them again.

"Ah! I see! Now I know what you mean. If that’s the case, it could be done. With the right artifact or formation, I think ten spirit stones could easily generate enough electricity to power a thousand estates like this one for a year."

"What!?" the advisor and the President exclaimed in disbelief.

One had to understand that this estate was enormous, large enough that a normal household electrical supply could not cover its needs. It required the electricity output of a small industrial factory to power the entire estate.

And if only ten spirit stones could generate enough electricity to power a thousand estates like this for an entire year, then this discovery would be enough to crash the energy market across the planet.

Anyone who relied on oil as their main source of income would definitely try to target them if they learned about this.

And spirit stones were considered a form of clean energy as well, since they left no waste behind, unlike nuclear fuel, which had to be carefully managed.

The old man, Edmund Rothenberg, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

This could be a breakthrough, or it could become another source of conflict.

He quickly calculated the risks and benefits.

This new resource called spirit stones was too dangerous. As someone with ties to numerous conglomerates and significant stakes in the international energy sector, he was not a saint. He would rather let people continue consuming fossil fuels until they were nearly depleted before introducing a new energy source.

That was why he had nudged them to ask about this. He simply wanted to prepare for the possibility.

But wait...

If he were the one who discovered this technology and took advantage of it, he could potentially seize a huge portion of the energy market for himself.

The question was...

Could he fend off all the people who would lose their interests if he did?