Chapter 2576: Collapse of Confidence

　　“Something terrible has happened, Brother Yao!”

　　Li Jialing said anxiously, “Another internal conflict has broken out in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Jin Yuyan has been—”

　　“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

　　Li Yao stood up straight immediately. His eyes popping out, he asked, “Please don’t tell me that Jin Yuyan has been assassinated again.”

　　“I didn’t say that.”

　　Pausing for a moment to catch his breath, Li Jialing went on, “However, it may be even worse than him being assassinated. In my opinion, it would’ve been better if the accident was that he was shot! But in fact, it-it is the trade data in the central database of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that have been cleared, disrupted, and covered!”

　　“What?!”

　　As if falling into an ice cave, Li Yao felt a chill from the bottom of his heart.

　　The core trade data of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was concerned with the interests of countless Immortal Cultivators. It was the biggest reason why thousands of experts were willing to fight for the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and the only reason why the free coin was valuable.

　　It was exactly because the free coin could be exchanged for almost all the resources and magical equipment through the trade network of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that it was acknowledged by all the Immortal Cultivators, making it even more reliable than the legal tender of the Imperium.

　　If the trade network of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors collapsed, and all the core trade data were gone or messed up, it would mean the total collapse of the free coin as well as the collapse of all the Immortal Cultivators’ confidence in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Who would ever fight for the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors?

　　Of course, even if all the data collapsed, they could always be gradually recovered given a couple of days.

　　However, at this critical moment, when the coalition fleet of the four families almost marched to the nose of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, it was certainly a catastrophe.

　　As long as twenty to thirty percent Immortal Cultivators, if not all of them, lost confidence, a calamitous chain reaction would be triggered.

　　“How did it happen?”

　　His face pale, Li Yao demanded, “Shouldn’t the core trade data of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors be the top secrets? The dozens of defense measures were a great headache even for me. How could they have been sabotaged easily?”

　　“Nobody knew what exactly happened.”

　　Li Jialing said quickly, “The grand explosions at the beginning were just a disguise to distract everybody’s attention. When everybody, including Jin Yuyan, went to search the culprits of the explosions, the central database of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was uncannily compromised. Also, the enemy had Jin Yuyan’s highest clearances, allowing them to import a hundred crystal processor viruses of the latest model. All the data were ruined unstoppably. By the time the specialists of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors discovered it, the damage was already irreversible. It was estimated that it would take at least 48 hours before the data could be recovered!

　　“To-to make things worse, after clearing the core trade data of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, the enemy also implanted abundant other information, mostly the clandestine scandals and deals of the leaders of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, including a lot of scandals of Jin Yuyan himself. Everybody is panicked and wary of each other now!”

　　Survival of the fittest was the basic law that all the Immortal Cultivators abided by. Both the Immortal Cultivators from the four families and those of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors were the same. None of them was close to being kind or generous.

　　Having rise all the way up to be the director of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors from an unknown guy a hundred years ago, Jin Yuyan certainly had done plenty of betraying, conspiring, and backstabbing.

　　As for hoarding, gang fighting, or even hiring assassins to annihilate his business competitors, such things were not rare either. Many of them were in violation of the rules of the business world and the rules of the Immortal Cultivators.

　　All the senior managers, managers, shareholders, and business partners of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors were more or less the same. Hanging around in the upper class in fancy clothes, which of them had clean hands? The unspoken tradition was that as long as the things were cleaned up, leaving no evidence behind, nobody would care about them.

　　After all, the victors enjoyed impunity!

　　However, it would be a whole different matter when somebody presented such things in public with solid evidence.

　　Now, not just the crime evidence of Jin Yuyan, but also the crime evidence of the four senior managers and many other common managers had been exposed to the public and sent to the highly-influential shareholders and business partners through the network of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

　　It was not until then that many people realized that their certain batches of goods were actually swallowed by a certain scumbag who was smiling at them on the other side of the table and that a certain astonishing assassination that shocked all the Immortal Cultivators was actually directed by Jin Yuyan. Besides, Jin Yuyan had resorted to too many shameless, despicable approaches and misappropriated the interests of too many shareholders and business partners, before he made it to the bloodstained throne.

　　The stone raised a huge splash. Although a great enemy was up ahead, nobody could hold it back anymore. They demanded an explanation from Jin Yuyan. Somebody even started fighting each other.

　　“It was Wuying Qinxin—no, it was Wuying Qi, who remotely controlled her brain!”

　　Li Yao looked so awful that he was like a poisoned frog. He gnashed his teeth and said, “Wuying Qinxin and Jin Yuyan were a couple for a hundred years. A lot of Jin Yuyan’s clandestine deals were conducted by Wuying Qinxin. Naturally, she had plenty of evidence in her hands.

　　“As for Jin Yuyan’s highest clearances to modify the central database, hehe, when Wuying Qinxin helped Jin Yuyan with the Soul Transfer Technique, she could naturally scan Jin Yuyan’s brain and soul to analyze and copy his soul signature.

　　“I wonder how long she—he had been planning for this. However, the problem remains. What is it that he wants? Just like what we discussed before, smudging Jin Yuyan, or even collapsing the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, will bring him absolutely no returns. It’s not like he is going to take the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors down with him and let the four families claim the fruit?”

　　“Brother Yao, what do you mean?”

　　Li Jialing replied in surprise, “I don’t understand. How is this related to Wuying Qi? Shouldn’t Wuying Qi be utterly ignorant of everything that happened in the Seven Seas Grand Market? If he had known it, how could he have allowed the Seven Seas Grand Market to fall into chaos? The more chaotic this place is, the more unfavorable the situation will be for him!”

　　“Exactly. I thought so too.”

　　Li Yao said with a bitter smile, “This is the greatest problem and the key to solve the dilemma. However, let’s not rush into anything yet. Tell me, has Jin Yuyan got everything under control?”

　　“On the ground, yes.”

　　Li Jialing said worriedly, “However, the situation in the space battlefield couldn’t have been worse!”

　　Li Jialing told Li Yao that Jin Yuyan had been the director for decades after all. He had a lot of trusted subordinates and supporters in the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Despite the disadvantageous circumstances, he did not lose his calmness but resorted to all the methods possible, winning the forgiveness and support of many big shots by giving away tremendous interests without batting an eye. He then punished the people who fought each other and who intended to flee heavily and ensured the order of the Seven Seas Grand Market on the surface.

　　The gunshots and explosions they heard were exactly from the troops loyal to Jin Yuyan when they were suppressing the people who were trying to flee through the spaceports.

　　However, while Jin Yuyan could control the order of the Seven Seas Grand Market on the surface, he could not control people’s trust and confidence, particularly not the trust of the warlords and local magnates who were vacillating and observing the situation at the edge of the Seven Seas Space Zone with their armies.

　　In the battle of Seven Seas, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was outnumbered. They were fighting with their morale and confidence, and they had to crush the enemy unstoppably.

　　Should anything go wrong in the process, preventing the wavering warlords and local magnates from taking their side, they would be absolutely no match for the coalition fleet of the four families with only the forces in their headquarters.

　　Right now, it was not just that something had gone wrong; half of the sky had essentially collapsed.

　　The nature of the limp, compromising, and vacillation of the business class couldn’t have been better revealed.

　　The moment they heard the news that a civil war broke out within the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and abundant core trade data had been changed or cleared, many warlords and local magnates changed their attitudes and threw away all the agreements they had reached with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, starting to fight the fleets of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors for real.

　　The fleets cruising at the edge of the Seven Seas Space Zone lazily seemed to have been injected with excitants too. Refreshed, they all approached Yun Xuefeng’s flagship-in-general, eager to pledge their loyalty to the commander.

　　As long as somebody started it, there would certainly be a lot of followers. Even the Immortal Cultivators who did not intend to abandon their agreements with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, seeing that other people were returning to the four families’ side and the scales of victory were more and more inclined, certainly had no reason to die together with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

　　Li Jialing said helplessly, “The whole Seven Seas Grand Market was a mess just now. Since we couldn’t find you, many people said that even ‘Black Wind King’ had slipped away when the situation did not look promising. Some even say that Brother Yao was a fake Black Wind King that Jin Yuyan fabricated as a bluff because not even one ship of the Black Wind Fleet could be seen. The rumors are spreading on every street. It is even less possible to stop the collapse of confidence!”

　　“Understood. What about Boss Bai?”

　　Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao said calmly, “Has Boss Bai sent any message? Is he exposed?”

　　“Not yet. Seeing that it was not good, Boss Bai chose to be Yun Xuefeng’s ‘loyal subordinate’ at the earliest time. So, he is not exposed yet.”

　　Li Jialing said, “But more and more fleets are gathered next to Yun Xuefeng now. Boss Bai is caught in an awkward situation now that he is surrounded, and it’s hard for him to do anything. It must be noted that we intended to watch the tigers fight, but one of the tigers has collapsed before fighting. Are we going to charge forward and fight the tiger on our own?”