Chapter 339.3. The Curtain Opens
Huo Yuhao had heard from Chen An that this lady was very powerful. Many strong individuals had fallen to her before. While she still seemed very alluring, she had in fact been the Common Alliance Master for forty years! No one knew her actual age. Her cultivation was above An Litong’s. The backers of the Common Alliance even included some of the nobility in Radiant City...
As for the Duskwater Alliance, Nangong Wan represented the imperial family of the Sun Moon Empire. Because of this, the Duskwater Alliance was able to exert their dominance over the other two organizations. However, the other two organizations also represented people that hailed from the higher strata of society. Even the imperial family couldn’t completely suppress these people. Although the Common Alliance and Alto Chamber of Commerce knew that the Duskwater Alliance was composed of evil soul masters, they weren’t afraid, as they knew they had strong backers behind them.
It was under such a premise that this tournament was organized. On the surface, it seemed as if the tournament was a ruse by the three organizations to earn profits from tourists, but in fact, this tournament was very critical for each organization’s authority. The Duskwater Alliance wanted to gain more control, while the Alto Chamber of Commerce and Common Alliance wanted to gang up on the Duskwater Alliance.
After all three parties negotiated and reached an agreement, this ‘fair’ tournament was held. Just like what Huo Yuhao felt, this underground tournament was even fairer than the Continental Elite Youth Soul Master Tournament. There were too many eyes watching.
What was the greatest profit for all three underground organizations? Only the senior members of these organizations knew. They were given the opportunity to control the smuggling of rare metals!
The Sun Moon Empire had banned the sale and purchase of rare metals. Because of this intervention, the rare metals had become very expensive. Under such circumstances, smuggling rare metals was a surefire way to earn massive profits. However, they couldn’t earn this money openly, and the amount of rare metals they smuggled couldn’t be too much, either! Even so, this was a business they had to have.
Between the imperial family, the military, and the nobility, who didn’t want to have a piece of the pie? This was what they were doing earlier, too!
However, Xu Tianran had discovered all this as he slowly rose to power. The three-way smuggling operation caused the loss of rare metals to exceed what the Sun Moon Empire wanted to happen. Xu Tianran was furious, and made up his mind.
He couldn’t completely stop everything. The more he tried to restrain such smuggling operations, the greater the backlash he would receive. Moreover, he hadn’t actually taken the throne yet, and didn’t dare to completely offend the military and nobility. After pondering on the matter, he was the one who supported the underground tournament as a means of dealing with the authority held by the three underground organizations.