Once I enter the pass, great Confucian scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

Qiantang City was built along the Guanjiang River, and the area produced the most fresh river goods. Because of the abundance of fresh goods, the prices were very low, and many caravans would come to purchase fresh river goods in bulk. The purchases ranged from hundreds of thousands to millions, with very few, only one or two, purchasing more than ten million.

Although the fresh produce market in Qiantang City appears to be very developed, there is still a large amount of fresh produce that cannot be sold.

In the end, hundreds of millions of fresh river delicacies either rotted, were frozen and dumped at low prices, or were consumed by the producers themselves.

Zhou Qingfeng demanded a lump sum payment upon delivery, saying he'd take as much as he could get; his tone was far too arrogant.

Yes, Zhou Qingfeng is powerful. As the young master of the empire's hegemon, he is deeply favored by the first city lord. He is second only to the emperor and holds immense power. He is a peerless genius, ranked first on the Heavenly Ranking, and enjoys boundless glory. Cooperation between the two parties would be entirely beneficial and would not cause any harm. He is also qualified to discuss a fresh goods trade worth billions a year with him.

But Zhou Qingfeng's foundation is too weak. He has only been rising to prominence for a little over ten years. Where did he get so much money?

On second thought, Li Jiguang's heart stirred slightly, and he narrowed his eyes as he looked at the smiling Zhou Qingfeng.

He suddenly realized his mistake and cursed himself for being so narrow-minded, realizing he had underestimated the person in front of him.

With power in hand, wealth will come naturally.

How could Zhou Qingfeng, the young master of a powerful empire, be short of money?

Even if he had no money in his pocket, countless wealthy merchants would be willing to offer him their riches if he wanted to.

Billions of dollars is a lot of money, but if someone wants to take it, they can definitely do so.

With the First City Lord's backing, there's no way they'll lose out. Even if Zhou Qingfeng really can't come up with the money and violates the peace and trade alliance between Qiantang and Yong'an, the First City Lord will probably have to step in to clean up his own mess. At that time, signing a peace and trade alliance with Sword Tower will become very simple.

No matter how you look at it, there seems to be no reason to refuse, and a peace treaty with the Zhou family of Yong'an can be signed.

Li Jiguang wanted to integrate into the global economic and trade circle centered on Jianta.

The First City Lord is a woman. Since taking over as city lord, she has never initiated a war against foreign powers. She values ​​peace above all else, vigorously develops the economy, cultivates talent, and focuses on survival and development. With a mere 1,800 li of territory and a single Sword Tower city, she has been able to maintain the prosperity of the First Family, standing shoulder to shoulder with the other four hegemons of the empire and firmly holding her position as one of the five hegemons. This is all thanks to her abundant wealth, talented people, and strong army. Despite the relatively small size of the territory, she has created an economic legend.

Once goods enter the Sword Tower, they can be sold worldwide, reach the world stage, and participate in global trade.

Even though it changed hands a bit, it solved the problem of dumping large quantities of fresh goods and allowed them to become partners with Zhou Qingfeng.

The profits to be made in the future are promising.

Thinking of this, Li Jiguang made a decision immediately. He smiled, raised his wine glass, and said, "For the sake of my nephew, I will sign the peace and trade alliance with Yong'an City on behalf of Qiantang City. Let's consider our two families as friends and visit each other often in the future. May our Zhou and Li families be friends for generations to come."

"You're so generous! I'd like to offer you a toast." Zhou Qingfeng stood up, raised his glass, and respectfully clinked glasses with Zhou Qingfeng, then tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp.

Li Jiguang watched with a smile as Zhou Qingfeng finished his drink before picking up his own glass and finishing his own. He then gestured for Zhou to sit down, saying, "Please sit down, my dear nephew."

Zhou Qingfeng sat down in a good mood. Signing the peace and trade alliance was beneficial to Qiantang City, but it was also very beneficial to him, Zhou Qingfeng. Yong'an City was the Zhou family's stronghold. The city had been established for a short time and the fiefdom was very small. It had been able to develop rapidly by relying on Zhou Qingfeng's continuous financial support. There were very few profitable industries, and it was in urgent need of exploring new avenues for wealth. Otherwise, if it continued to rely on Zhou Qingfeng's financial support, its hundreds of billions of assets would be dragged down.

Fortunately, Zhou Qingfeng's investment has paid off. Now, there are many cultivators at the Devouring Fiend Realm within the Zhou Clan, and the number of talents is gradually increasing. This is almost entirely due to the fresh blood provided by Yong'an City. If this trend continues, Zhou Qingfeng will have more and more people and experts under his command, gradually giving back to Zhou Qingfeng.

Zhou Qingfeng has now opened up a new avenue of wealth for Yong'an City with minimal risk. Payment is made upon delivery, and the risk of transporting the goods is entirely borne by Qiantang City. Payment is not made until the goods arrive. Once the goods arrive, as long as Yong'an City absorbs the river and lake delicacies dumped by Qiantang City, it can easily resell them to Jianta City with Zhou Qingfeng's power, earning a considerable profit margin. Hundreds of millions of legal funds will easily flow into the city every year, making money almost effortlessly.

Moreover, these fresh river delicacies are all water spirits of different grades, which are cultivation resources.

The key point is that Zhou Qingfeng has gained Qiantang City as a trading partner, a trading partner exclusively for the Yong'an Zhou Clan. This can be considered as initially bringing the Qiantang Li Clan onto his pirate ship. As for the future, it depends on time and opportunity. With long-term interests intertwined, the cooperative relationship can be gradually deepened until a military alliance is formed. Then, when Zhou Qingfeng goes to war with the enemy city lord, Qiantang City will have to send troops to support him. Conversely, when Qiantang City goes to war with the enemy city lord, Zhou Qingfeng will also have to send troops to support him.

Military alliances are based on mutual benefit and shared loss; this is a crucial agreement between city lords of the same rank, and virtually no city lord would sign it lightly.

Zhou Qingfeng has grand ambitions; he no longer cares about money.

However, he is still happy to open up a new source of income on the side.

He wanted to form a military alliance with Qiantang City, but the prerequisite was to reach a peaceful trade agreement. Otherwise, the military alliance would be meaningless, because trusting interests is worse than trusting the agreement. Only with peaceful trade, mutual benefit, and integrated interests, where everyone prospers or suffers together, would the military alliance have real meaning.

Otherwise, tearing up a military alliance would only require some effort. You could nitpick the terms of the alliance and find fault with them. Even if you tried to create some problems, such as karma, curses, or oaths, it would be useless. If you're determined to break the alliance, why would you care about these things? You can just find a way to break it.

The meal was very enjoyable, and Li Jiguang and Zhou Qingfeng talked for a long time, discussing the terms of the peace trade alliance. The next day, Zhou Qingfeng burned incense and took a bath, changed into clean clothes, and had a long private talk with Li Jiguang in the study. Finally, they agreed on a package of mutually beneficial cooperation plans.

Li Jiguang opened up the trade route to the Sword Tower, while Zhou Qingfeng, backed by the Sword Tower, developed rapidly and reaped the benefits.

Neither side can be said to have suffered a loss or gained a benefit.

Because true cooperation is based on the principle that both parties must be equal in strength to be considered true cooperation.

Any form or informal cooperation between the strong and the weak is nothing more than exploiting the weak for all their value under the guise of cooperation. When the weak cooperate with the strong, the outcome is almost always the weak being completely devoured, without any suspense. Very few succeed, so few that they can be ignored.

Zhou Qingfeng was able to cooperate with Li Jiguang, the city lord of Qiantang City, on equal footing only because he was the young master of the Sword Tower and had the strength. Without the backing of the first city lord, what would he be? He would probably only be able to meet one of Li Jiguang's subordinates even if he tried his best, and he wouldn't even have the qualification to step into the city lord's study.

However, not everyone is qualified to have the First City Lord endorse them; a strong background is also part of their strength.

Just as he was about to leave, Zhou Qingfeng pretended to be scared and said, "Uncle, someone is chasing me."

Upon hearing this, Li Jiguang frowned immediately: "Who dares to hunt you down?"

Zhou Qingfeng said, "I don't know, but it's a gang of bad guys. They're numerous and strong, and they've been chasing me for so long that I'm on the run and almost died. I finally managed to shake off my pursuers, so I'm asking you to keep my whereabouts a secret, otherwise, I don't know how many more people will come after me."

Li Jiguang pondered for a moment, then reached out and patted Zhou Qingfeng's arm: "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you on my turf. I'll set a trap to wipe out the pursuers so they won't keep chasing you."

Zhou Qingfeng: "What does Uncle want to do?"

Li Jiguang said, "After you leave the country, I will spread your news to lure the pursuers to one place, and then send troops to annihilate them all in the wilderness. Don't worry, my good nephew, your business is my business. A bunch of cowardly rats, I will wipe them out for you. You can do your business with peace of mind."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Qingfeng felt reassured and bowed respectfully, saying, "Thank you, Uncle."

Li Jiguang raised his hand to support Zhou Qingfeng's arm and smiled slightly: "Nephew, may I tell you where you are going and what you are going to do? Of course, if you feel it is not appropriate to say, you can choose not to. This is neither an order nor a request, but simply out of concern for your safety."

Zhou Qingfeng hesitated for a moment, then chose to remain silent, not revealing the purpose of his trip.

Speak out to reveal your secrets and you will fail; keep your plans secret and you will succeed.

The words of the Demon Spirit concern matters of cultivation, so of course the fewer people who know about them, the better.

Seeing this, Li Jiguang did not press the matter, but he couldn't help but think about it. This young man's secret trip must have something big on his mind, and he must have the tacit approval of the First City Lord. Otherwise, he would never have brought only one follower. That would be too dangerous. If anything went wrong, the First Family would lose a leading figure of the new generation. This would be an unbearable loss for the First Family. So, there must be a protector secretly protecting him.

Thinking of this, Li Jiguang glanced around but found nothing. This meant that the person guarding him in the shadows must be a great cultivator at the sixth realm or above. Li Jiguang couldn't help but marvel. Only the First Family could afford to send a great cultivator at the sixth realm or above as a protector.

"Jinan," Li Jiguang called out.

After a short while, Li Jinnan entered the study, clasped his hands in a salute, and said, "Your subordinate is here."

Li Jiguang pointed at Zhou Qingfeng: "You will personally escort Young Master Tian out of the country, and there must be no mistakes."

Upon hearing this, Li Jinnan clasped his hands in obeisance and replied, "I will obey the City Lord's command. Young Master Tian, ​​please..."

Zhou Qingfeng faced Li Jiguang and bowed again, saying, "Lord Li, this junior takes his leave."

Led by naval commander Li Jinnan, Zhou Qingfeng left the city and went to the air transport area outside the city, where he purchased an airship ticket to Shancheng at the ticket office.

Shancheng is relatively close to Shituo City. Zhou Qingfeng led Jin Wei onto the airship and left Qiantang territory, heading towards Shancheng.

The airship was extremely fast; it only took twenty-two hours to travel tens of millions of miles.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and by the time Zhou Qingfeng landed, it was already completely dark.

Zhou Qingfeng led Jin Wei to a place called Zhishan Inn in the air transport area to stay. The inn was very ordinary, but the accommodation fee was shockingly high, costing 1,000 magic coins per night. And this was just for a regular room. A slightly better room would cost several thousand magic coins. It was no ordinary rip-off.

Moreover, the innkeeper had an attitude of "take it or leave it" which was off-putting: "Let me tell you, outsiders, I don't have time to talk nonsense with you. If you're not staying, get out of here. I don't need any more guests. Don't occupy the place without doing your business."

Upon hearing this, Jin Wei frowned immediately: "How can you talk like that? We're here to do business, how can you do this?"

The innkeeper of Zhishan Inn chuckled, crossed his legs, and sat behind the counter, cracking open a handful of melon seeds. "Let me tell you," he said, "this is how I do business. If you like staying here, stay here. If you don't, go wherever it's cool. And let me tell you, all the inns in this area are like this."

"Anyway, we don't lack customers. Nobody travels in the wilderness. If you want a place to stay, you have to accept it."

"And let me tell you, I'm going to screw you over, I'm going to screw you over clearly and thoroughly, what can you do about it?"

Upon hearing this, Jin Wei was truly enraged, but since they were not in the wilderness, he couldn't bring himself to kill anyone. So he glared at him and said, "I don't believe it! The city lord of Shancheng would really tolerate you rats doing all this? Is there no law or order in Shancheng? How dare you cheat our guests like this!"

The innkeeper of Zhishan Inn got excited and pointed outside the door: "Go and sue! Hurry up and go! If you don't know where it is, I'll give you directions. Let's see if you call the soldiers here and whether you're the one who suffers or I suffer. Do you really think your grandfather runs an inn here without any background or connections? Get out of here, you two poor bastards, you're wasting my time."

Upon hearing this, Jin Wei became enraged. He had never seen such an arrogant and domineering businessman. Damn it, the one who spends money is the boss, but how come in Shancheng, the one who spends money becomes the grandson? This is simply turning the world upside down! "Don't stop me, I'm going to kill him!"

Zhou Qingfeng was also quite annoyed. How come he kept encountering such disgusting people and things as soon as he left the Sword Tower? In fact, this was the kind of thing that ordinary people often encountered when they went out. The local bullies took advantage of outsiders who were unfamiliar with the place and cheated them out of the open, and they could only swallow their anger. Even the locals would be cheated.

"We'll stay, we'll pay!" Zhou Qingfeng stared coldly at the innkeeper of Zhishan Inn, narrowing his eyes.

Jin Wei turned to look at Zhou Qingfeng, finding it hard to believe that his young master could swallow this insult. However, when he saw the young master narrow his eyes, his heart tightened and his anger vanished. He knew that something big was about to happen; when the young master narrowed his eyes, it meant he was planning to kill someone.

Then Jin Wei changed his anger and looked at the innkeeper of Zhishan Inn with great pity. He took out two thousand coins and threw them over: "Innkeeper, take the money. Consider it our gift. Hurry up and choose a good burial plot so that you won't have nowhere to be buried when you die someday."

The innkeeper of Zhishan Inn, upon hearing the insults, didn't take them to heart. He counted out two thousand coins and casually tossed the room key to Jin Wei: "I thank you for your gifts. Just a reminder to you out-of-towners, if you have money, don't be stingy like a poor bastard. It's shameful, you know? Go on, go upstairs, turn left, and walk to the end."

P.S.: I didn't update yesterday because I ordered KFC and it smelled fishy and rancid. I complained and tried to get my rights back, which wasted a whole day. I went home feeling very frustrated. I've given up on getting my rights back. I just wanted to remind everyone to eat less or no KFC in the future. My personal dining experience was terrible, and I'm just reminding my followers.