King of Creation

Chapter 1896: Chapter 1881: Take It Out and Compare

"This is the first batch. The rest will take time to gather, and we’ll also need a huge amount of funds," Ye Zhen said sincerely.

The foundations of North Sea County were far too weak; this was all the grain he could mobilize.

Besides, Ye Zhen had no shortage of enemies in the Great Zhou Dynasty. There might be no movement now, but that didn’t mean those people weren’t watching every stir in North Sea County.

Whether it was the Western Patrol’s Xio Qiangu, or Princess Ji Yuan, or Duke Tian and his ilk—once Ye Zhen made any move that overstepped the rules, those people would absolutely use the most appropriate means to launch the fiercest attack under Great Zhou’s regulations.

So Ye Zhen could only think of ways outside of North Sea County.

However, these words of Ye Zhen’s made the expression of Sand Sea Divine Priest Xiao Ze suddenly turn cold.

"Divine Envoy Ye, how long exactly do you need? One month, two months, three months, or half a year?"

"If we have to wait until most of our people are already dead before you bring in grain, then it won’t mean much," Xiao Ze said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Priest Xiao, what are you talking about? Ten billion shi of actual grain is something that even our Yizhi Sand Sea would need a great deal of time to fully gather in a bumper year, let alone when we have to purchase it from outside," Grand Priest Nahar said with some displeasure.

"Grand Priest, it’s not that I don’t trust Divine Envoy Ye. It’s just that this matter is too important; I have no choice but to bring it up. Otherwise, three months of grain procurement is still procurement, half a year or a year is still procurement—but after half a year or a year, if everyone’s already dead, what use is the grain then?"

Xiao Ze’s gaze once more fell on Ye Zhen. "Moreover, Divine Envoy Ye, I believe neither I, nor the Grand Priest, nor any of the other Sand Sea Divine Priests here are idiots.

Why do you think the Heavenly Temple mobilized the Avatar of the Innate Spiritual Treasure Heavenly Domain Ten Thousand Sky Divine Mirror to seal off the void around our Yizhi Sand Sea?"

"You, Divine Envoy Ye, are a堂堂—a dignified—Third-rank Earl of North Sea County of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Heavenly Patrol Department Western Patrol Second Road Wind Patrol Envoy. You inexplicably appeared in our Yizhi Sand Sea, shamelessly refused to leave, and even displayed means to act as a Divine Envoy.

After that, under the pretext of grain procurement, you incited us to act, drove off Xuan Sheng, destroyed that Avatar of the Innate Spiritual Treasure Heavenly Domain All-Sky Divine Mirror, and broke the Heavenly Temple’s spatial blockade over Yizhi Sand Sea."

"Divine Envoy Ye, dare you say there’s nothing fishy in all this?"

"In my view, either the Heavenly Temple’s void blockade of Yizhi Sand Sea is related to you, or your coming to the Sand Sea this time carries some special purpose."

At this point, a sharp light flashed in Xiao Ze’s eyes. "Our Yizhi Temple might be located in a remote place, but our information is anything but remote. Between the Heavenly Temple and the Great Zhou Dynasty, there are also heaps of covert contradictions!

If we’re unlucky, Divine Envoy Ye, you might very well be a spy sent by the Great Zhou Dynasty, here to use our hands to weaken the Heavenly Temple’s strength." Xiao Ze’s gaze swept around the others once more. "I believe all the Divine Priests present have long thought of this, it’s just that disaster relief took precedence and no one said it out loud."

Faced with Xiao Ze’s gaze, Grand Priest Nahar, Guii Gu, Huaa Xing’an, Weng Lide, Wuy Youu and the others all remained silent, clearly tacitly approving Xiao Ze’s words.

Thinking about it, this was only normal. Among these Sand Sea Divine Priests, Wuy Youu was the youngest, but even he was an old monster who had lived several thousand years—each of them sly and shrewd to the extreme.

They had thought of all this long ago; they’d just never torn the veil.

"As for the Heavenly Temple using an Avatar of an Innate Spiritual Treasure to seal off the void around Yizhi Sand Sea—yes, that indeed has to do with me." Since Xiao Ze had ripped it open, Ye Zhen simply admitted it bluntly.

"For what?" Xiao Ze stared fixedly at Ye Zhen.

"That’s my private affair. Because I ruined their plans, the Heavenly Temple wanted nothing more than to kill me, so I slipped in among the Sha Clan people, and everything that followed came after that." As for the matter of the Five Seed Pomegranate, Ye Zhen absolutely would not speak a word.

If even the slightest rumor leaked out, who knew whether the Heavenly Temple would send some God King and God Monarch to deal with Ye Zhen.

"And why can’t you say it?" Xiao Ze was unwilling to let Ye Zhen off so easily.

"Everyone has some secrets; you can’t demand otherwise," Grand Priest Nahar once again stood on Ye Zhen’s side.

Xiao Ze looked a bit helpless, but then he spoke again. "Fine, if you don’t want to talk, I won’t force you. But in order to clear yourself of the suspicion of being a spy, you’d better set a firm time limit and quantity for this grain procurement."

Faced with this demand from Xiao Ze, this time, whether it was Grand Priest Nahar, or Guii Gu, or Wuy Youu and the others, none of them spoke.

Ye Zhen also understood that this was the aftereffect of him joining Yizhi Temple and using Yizhi Temple’s hand to break the Heavenly Temple’s pursuit of him. It was a trust crisis.

Even now, it was only because of Grand Priest Nahar’s vigorous support.

If it were someone else, they might already have arrested Ye Zhen for interrogation by now.

After all, for a noble from a hostile faction to suddenly become a core member of their own side—if no one suspected anything, that would be truly strange.

"Allow me to contact some people first!" Before he made contact, Ye Zhen couldn’t be certain of anything.

Then Ye Zhen took out several small Communication Movement Formation Plates and actively began making contact.

The people Ye Zhen contacted were, first, Wen Fuguo, who was assisting Black Wolf to guard the Market of Dulong Island and the Three Great Water Palaces; and second, the Tianyun Hall Grand Deacon, Mountain God Yi Xun of Five Immortals Island.

To purchase grain on a truly massive scale, North Sea County couldn’t do it, but via legitimate commercial means, there was no problem.

Especially on Five Immortals Island, where trade caravans gathered—handling this matter couldn’t be more suitable.

On Wen Fuguo’s side, Ye Zhen got through on the first try.

As for Ye Zhen’s orders, Wen Fuguo would of course carry them out fully.

Starting today, the Market of Dulong Island would put up a public notice to purchase all kinds of grain, and at a high price twenty percent above market rate. This news would be explained to every caravan passing through the Market of Dulong Island.

Moreover, the caravans affiliated with Dulong Island and the Three Great Water Palaces would each dispatch fleets to hurry to the ports of Marquis Haiyuan Kingdom, and within Marquis Haiyuan Kingdom’s Maritime Shipping Office, directly purchase grain from within the Great Zhou territory.

It would be inappropriate for Ye Zhen’s North Sea County caravans to openly purchase large quantities of grain, but as Foreign Realm caravans from outside the Great Zhou, openly purchasing grain within Great Zhou’s borders would be no problem.

The flow of grain was a key target of Great Zhou’s monitoring, but the main focus was on abnormal hoarding by nobles and on smuggling transactions with the Demon Clan.

There were not many restrictions on purchases made by other Foreign Realm merchants.

After all, the Great Zhou’s people were born with strong Spirits, and the land occupied by the Great Zhou was the most fertile territory on the Primordial Continent, with extremely high yields and large surpluses.

Aside from that, the Market of Dulong Island would also purchase stored grain from the surrounding islands. Not only grain—any kind of sea goods that could fill the belly could be purchased.

For the first time, Ye Zhen truly understood the importance of grain through the living catastrophe in the Yizhi Sand Sea.

Grain was something Ye Zhen had basically never lacked, but once you really ran into a food shortage, its importance became starkly clear.

Sometimes, even if you were holding a huge pile of Spirit Stones, you still might not be able to buy grain.

In fact, that was exactly how the Yizhi Sand Sea had been in the past: they had quite a few Spirit Stones in hand, but it was extremely hard to buy grain.

Either it was rationed, or the price was sky‑high.

In Great Zhou, one piece of Low Grade Spirit Stone could be exchanged for ten thousand shi of grain, but on the Yizhi Sand Sea’s side, being able to buy one thousand shi of grain with one Low Grade Spirit Stone was already considered getting a bargain.

So, Ye Zhen gave an additional order to Wen Fuguo and Black Wolf: after gathering the two hundred million shi of grain he required, they were to continue collecting large amounts of grain to store as reserves, just in case.

Mountain God Yi Xun did not respond until an hour later.

After learning Ye Zhen’s request, Mountain God Yi Xun agreed in one breath.

"The grain problem shouldn’t be a big deal. Five Immortals Island already has large‑volume grain trade. Gathering two hundred million shi in one month is no problem. For eight hundred million shi, we’ll need three to four months.

However, with grain purchases on such a massive scale, prices will probably rise by a certain margin, at least thirty percent above market. And transporting it will be extremely troublesome.

Either you think of your own way to solve that, or you rent ultra‑high‑capacity storage rings and use small Teleportation Formations to transport it regardless of cost..."

....

Very soon, Ye Zhen came to an agreement on this matter with Mountain God Yi Xun.

"It’ll take about three months. One month from now, the first batch of two hundred million shi of grain will be shipped over. Basically, we can send two hundred million shi every month. Purchasing also takes time. For one billion shi of grain, we’ll need at most four months to send it over in batches." Ye Zhen gave a firm answer.

Hearing this, Grand Priest Nahar nodded. "Shipped over in batches over four months, two hundred million shi per month—this is already enough to resolve our Sand Sea’s burning emergency. Not bad! If it were us stepping forward to buy, never mind two hundred million shi, we might not even be able to buy two million shi."

Speaking up to this point, Grand Priest Nahar’s expression sank. "You have all seen what Divine Envoy Ye has done for the Yizhi Sand Sea.

From today on, if anyone still dares to spout that kind of bastard talk about Divine Envoy Ye being some sort of spy, don’t blame this old man for being rude. When the time comes, I’ll personally twist his head off."

The Killing Qi of Grand Priest Nahar made the Sand Sea Divine Priests present all tense up in spirit.

But Sand Sea Divine Priest Xiao Ze still spoke up.

"I support what Grand Priest says, but before the grain arrives, I suggest sending a few Temple Guardians to follow Divine Envoy Ye." Xiao Ze looked exactly like he suspected Ye Zhen was going to run away.

"No problem."

Ye Zhen’s face darkened. He had originally wanted to flare up, but on second thought, so what if a few Temple Guardians followed him?

He didn’t have any other intentions anyway. In the time to come, Ye Zhen would be rushing around the various tribes for disaster relief. Having a few Temple Guardians tagging along could just be treated as having bodyguards; accepting it was no big deal.

As long as a month later, when the large quantity of grain arrived, some people would have nothing left to say.

At that time, if anyone still dared to doubt Ye Zhen like this, things would not end peacefully.

Seeing Ye Zhen calmly accept it, Sand Sea Divine Priest Xiao Ze was instead somewhat surprised.

"Since the grain problem is solved, then the order in which Divine Envoy Ye will go to each Divine Priest’s territory for disaster relief can also be decided now, can’t it? After all, the earlier Divine Envoy Ye acts, the smaller the losses for each tribe will be. Perhaps a few more tribes can be saved, and a few more Sha Clan people can survive." Grand Priest Nahar spoke.

"That’s easy to arrange! I wonder if you all have brought what I asked for?" Ye Zhen said.

"Take them out. We’ll compare, and then we’ll know!"