Immortal Kingdoms

"You want in on the black market business?" Frederick rubbed his chin, not replying immediately for a while.

Eventually, though, he shook his head while muttering, "It's not easy…"

Frederick's brows were knitted, a groan of indecisiveness bubbling in his throat as though to urge Leonardo on something.

"You misunderstood me, haha," Leonardo quickly leaned forward with a chuckle, pulling back his credentials into the storage ring before interlacing his fingers by joining his palms, saying, "I want you to open a black market branch in my territory. For now, I don't plan on opening Blackrain City to the general public; it can start off as a commercial hub— a social exchange between cultivators without any discrimination of race or background."

Leonardo then painted the picture of a city with low quantities of population but high-quality cultivators, a resting area for the solo adventurers who roam the uncharted wilderness.

He planned to use the provisions supplied by Greenheart City as a commodity to invite cultivators looking to restock their necessities as expeditions into the uncharted wilderness usually take weeks or even months if not years, and having sufficient rations is a must for all cultivators.

The constant depletion of energy as they ward off the erosion of raw ether in the environment is one of the main reasons why cultivators below the rebirth realm often return to cities or protected areas to filter out or refine the raw energy that seeped into their bodies while exploring, lest these heterogeneous energies contaminate their cultivation, negatively influencing the worldly essence that is circulated between themselves and their sub-dimensions.

"Didn't you say you wanted to start a country or something? What happened to all that?" Frederick was a little surprised and suspicious.

Leonardo rolled his eyes, sighing, "I would need more than population and economy to build a country, I need military strength. Without the military strength to consolidate my position, three years from now, everything else will disappear like fleeting clouds."

Leonardo was hinting that in three years, the Luan Dynasty intends to wash their hands clean from any relationship with him, explaining both the dangers and opportunities beneath the surface of this gracious gift.

Frederick wasn't stupid and he immediately understood— if Blackrain City became a general hub for wandering cultivators, targeting the city would be akin to targeting some people's livelihood.

Cities and hidden sects with protective formations usually had very strict diplomas and stringent security measures preventing a lot of criminals on the run or cultivators who met some opportunities and fortunes from returning to these public zones.

Since the Luan Dynasty went so far as to give Leonardo land, it only meant that he had the backing of a powerful organization, but these powerful organizations usually keep a tight lock on their rebirth realm cultivators and wouldn't dispatch them so easily, especially not to ward off little divinities from causing trouble.

Hence, allowing everyone to profit equally simply by offering a place of rest that doesn't bother with anyone's business or origins will provide Blackrain City with an intangible protective talisman under the guise of common benefit.

A protective formation isn't something you can take away by force, it has one person as the main administrator and a few below that person as vice administrators, but only the former can decide when or if the formation will be activated or deactivated.

Of course, such a place is like a godsend to factions operating in the black market business, and Leonardo was showing Frederick great favor by taking the initiative in proposing this business transaction that might very well propel Frederick to the peak of the industry in the region.

"Alright then, what do you want in exchange?" Frederick immediately calmed down and processed the situation, such a fatty meat pie definitely didn't come around easily.

Leonardo smiled brilliantly.

…

A few hours later, Leonardo left the Frederick Estate.

It was already nearing the break of dawn, silver rays of light lining the eastern sky.

As fascinating as it was to simply stand by the roadside and observe, Leonardo was in a hurry and thus could only suck in a breath of the fresh air for reminiscing, quickly turning around and fading into the foggy vapors of morning dew.

…

Zaylee and Victoria were already waiting outside the Shi Manor by the time Leonardo arrived, eliciting a chuckle from the young man.

"Quite impatient aren't you?"

Zaylee's expression had a tinge of embarrassment as she cleared her throat. No duh, she was obviously impatient to revitalize her clan that had been in silent slumber for way too long a period.

As for Victoria, she was simply dead bored from staying behind in this bleak manor for the past few months— she was dying for some action, quite fitting for her style of life as a close-range combatant.

Her fists were already clenched tight in anticipation, the tension apparent on her taut skin and firm muscles. Nonetheless, she quickly recalled what truly mattered and said, "I've stored everything that Blaire confessed to on this info chip, please take a look, Master."

She then handed a finger-sized crystal chip that resembled a USB drive, faint spiritual fluctuations pulsing on its surface.

Leonardo didn't immediately take a look but stored it away instead, too many things required his attention at the moment, and a mere secret of the Oliver Estate wasn't enough to warrant his immediate attention.

"Let us set off then, Zaylee can set the appropriate coordinates in the teleportation hall. Although that service would be much more expensive than a random teleportation, we don't have the luxury of time to waste exploring the uncharted wilderness like last time."

There was a flash of disappointment in Victoria's eyes, pursing her thin lips for a moment before collecting herself.

What was there to feel disappointed about? Master seems very anxious about something, I shouldn't feel discouraged over something so minor and inconsequential.

Victoria quickly shook her head and stepped out, following Leonardo and Zaylee who quickly disappeared into the clouds above the 7th district.

Very quickly, they landed in front of the main teleportation hall, not bothering with the fees of using the branch teleportation hall located in the 7th district as their individual speed rendered such detours redundant.

"You're leaving again yet so soon, Lord Shi?"

The personnel responsible for the teleportation was the same employee who received Leonardo upon his return a few days ago, clearly surprised by how frequent was Leonardo's departure from the city and into the wilderness.

"This time I had some loose ends to tie up, hence why I returned to the city in the first place," Leonardo casually said with a faint smile, though what he said wasn't particularly wrong.

The employee in the blue uniform seemed to have understood as he nodded with a smile, quickly transitioning the conversation to proper business and setting up the desired spatial coordinates as devised by Zaylee, but Leonardo was the one to input them into the teleportation apparatus.

With that matter dealt with, the three of them entered the teleportation circle and with a flash, their figures disappeared.

…

Leonardo, Victoria, and Zaylee stumbled out of thin air and landed in a crusty long canyon on the edge of a spacious land of absolute dystopia.

"Is this a natural formation too?"

Leonardo looked around, intrigued by the various negative thoughts trying to infringe upon his psyche.

Victoria frowned as a sharp aura swirled around her body, immediately feeling lighter and clea-headed.

Zaylee nodded, "There is a great formation hidden within a natural formation, I will need to find the correct nodes and trigger them in the correct sequence to enter the hidden dimension."

Zaylee didn't mention that the sequence of the nodes is ever-changing and only those with the vampire bloodline can retrace the correct sequence based on bloodline intuition.

Even if she said that, it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.