Chapter Ninety-Two: Terms of Negotiation [Please Subscribe]

“I really did not expect you to be the Black Sorcerer.”

Since the moment he stepped through the door, Battlefish had been studying Ethan intently.

He had considered many possibilities. Perhaps the Black Sorcerer was connected to someone like Charles Zhao or Ethan Quinn; perhaps he was one of a guild’s hidden trump cards; or perhaps he was an elite explorer who had recently come from another safe zone.

But to say that this Black Sorcerer was actually Ethan Quinn’s son was far beyond anything he had imagined.

Yet with Ethan’s face and the aura he gave off standing vividly before him, Battlefish had no choice but to accept reality.

“I’m friends with your father,” Battlefish said after a pause, forcing out the words.

According to Leo’s plan, Battlefish had originally come to speak with the Black Sorcerer, hoping to keep him from becoming a threat to the Jiemen Safe Zone, or at least to draw him over if possible, so that the defensive line could be built more smoothly later on. Above all, they did not want the Black Sorcerer to fall into open opposition with the authorities, and they certainly did not want another incident like the public killing of a high-ranking guild leader such as Anqing, which had a huge impact on public opinion.

But if the Black Sorcerer was Ethan Quinn’s son, then everything seemed to make sense. Even his earlier attacks on the other members of Peach Blossom Valley suddenly felt as though all the scattered clues had snapped into place.

“Uh.”

Ethan also noticed how awkward the mood had become.

“If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”

Battlefish was much older than he was, a man of his father’s generation, and he had genuinely contributed on the battlefield these past few days, so Ethan’s tone remained respectful.

“Mm.” Battlefish nodded.

“I’m here on behalf of the Jiemen Safe Zone’s chief commander. Mainly, we hope that you won’t continue affecting the safety of the Jiemen war zone, and that you’ll also avoid taking action in broad daylight in the city. You’re Ethan Quinn’s son, and your father was a decent man. I don’t want to have to lay hands on you someday.”

After he said this, Battlefish recalled how Ethan had just taken down an explorer the moment he entered, and fell silent with a wry sense of helplessness.

“I never intended to affect the Jiemen Safe Zone. Isn’t the problem caused by you people?”

Ethan asked with a hint of sarcasm.

“Even I can find out that Anqing was involved in the downfall of the Peach Blossom Valley main force, yet I don’t see you doing much about it.”

“And the situation in the Jiemen Safe Zone right now—I don’t believe you don’t know about it. So many people are holding the line at the front, while a bunch of others in the rear are making war profits. Especially some of the people from Jibei Industries. Does that count as affecting the safety of the Jiemen war zone?”

“And those messes on the forums—some things can’t be covered up just because you want to cover them up, right? If you keep silencing people like this, who will still believe a word you say in the long run?”

There were some things Ethan had wanted to ask for a long time.

He had never known whom to ask, and in the end it had simply come down to practical reality.

Now that Battlefish had come to him, it gave Ethan the chance to speak directly.

“...” Battlefish was silent for two seconds before slowly saying, “It’s not as simple as you think.”

“Then how complicated can it be? If something goes wrong, why not handle it according to the rules? Or is it that the rules were already set, but no one is actually enforcing them?” Ethan asked.

Battlefish paused.

“The range you’re talking about isn’t my responsibility, but I can give you an example.”

“Take the man with glasses you dealt with today. He was an important member of some guild. If you took him out, you could very well be provoking the hostility of an entire guild.”

“Or suppose he had an older brother who is now a senior combat member of Jibei Industries’ main force. Their whole family has bled for the Jiemen Safe Zone. You kill his younger brother—do you think he would still sit down and talk to you according to the rules at a time like that?”

“Or else, by the current rules, you’ve already violated the regulations, yet I’m still standing here talking to you. I could eliminate you, but that would inevitably cause damage to the surrounding buildings and innocent people.”

Battlefish rarely spoke at such length.

He also understood very well the mess within Jibei Industries, and even within the entire Jiemen Safe Zone. But standing in a different place meant seeing different things; those things could not be changed by one or two sentences.

“I get what you mean.”

“But can you really just ignore everything? You still need to show some backbone. If this goes on, the lower-ranked explorers in the Jiemen Safe Zone will see almost no hope at all. They’ll all end up as appendages to the major guild systems.”

Ethan nodded. He understood what Battlefish was trying to say. He was only angry that so many things lying in plain sight were left unresolved. If things continued along the current path, chaos in the Jiemen Safe Zone was almost inevitable. The public sentiment revealed in the last round of unrest had made that plain enough; there were already far too many people growing dissatisfied.

“For that, you’ll have to speak to Leo yourself. All I can say is that the waters of the Jiemen Safe Zone are deeper than you imagine,” Battlefish said, returning to a normal tone.

Leo had been injured for years and found it inconvenient to appear in person. With only remote command, he really could not manage every affair of the Jiemen Safe Zone.

The woman in the yellow shirt beside him did not say a word, listening quietly the whole time.

“The task I came for this time was only to confirm your intentions. You should already have touched the threshold of the Field, and you can also sense that ordinary people are utterly unable to endure your power. So I still hope you’ll think about the Jiemen Safe Zone’s affairs. After all, your father was also someone who once worked for the Jiemen Safe Zone.”

Battlefish steered the conversation back to the main point.

Ethan could hear that Battlefish was trying to win him over.

Truthfully, he did not especially want to become Battlefish’s enemy either.

Although he had unlimited cooldown reduction and extremely high output, he was not so arrogant as to believe he could absolutely defeat Battlefish. The other man had also surpassed the Field; who knew what methods he might have to counter him.

“I can guarantee I won’t go off the rails,” Ethan said after some thought, nodding. “But I have my own conditions.”

Since Battlefish had come to discuss cooperation, that meant he already considered Ethan to have bargaining power.

Ethan liked negotiations like this. He was a lone wolf anyway, and as long as he could tie himself to Battlefish’s side, it was bound to do him more good than harm.

“First, I want Peach Blossom Valley. It’s fine if Zhao Nanxing is the guild leader, but you need to step in and stand with my mother so that no one else keeps scheming behind the scenes. Otherwise, I’ll deal with those people myself.”

Ethan laid his cards on the table without hesitation.

Although Anqing was dead, no one could say whether any crooked schemes would emerge later.

If Battlefish were willing to show up, with his influence, he could make the matters of Peach Blossom Valley absolutely set in stone. The guild leader’s miscellaneous affairs were too many anyway; his mother probably was not suited for them. And with the shares his family held in the Peach Blossom Valley Merchant Guild, Ethan already had enough to accomplish most of what he wanted.

The End