Within two days, the chaotic surroundings of Ying City suddenly fell silent. The teams that had been resisting either surrendered or fled.
This was because Cloud Peak’s main combat teams had fully intervened in the battle. With the accurate intelligence and frequent assassinations carried out by Chameleon, these small forces quickly crumbled.
Of course, the most important reason was a piece of news that spread rapidly throughout the region.
The King of Cloud Peak personally took action, annihilating the major forces of Guan City and killing three eight-star evolved.
This news was so explosive that even without verifying its authenticity, the psychological impact alone caused these forces to collapse.
The major powers closely watching this battle had initially estimated that it would take at least a month for Cloud Peak to complete this wave of expansion. However, no one expected it to end in such a manner.
Cloud Peak began stabilizing its jurisdiction with its territory expanded and control strengthened. Soon after, the exploration boom of the Secret Realm began.
The increase in Cloud Peak’s income also became evident around this time.
This was a complex process. On the surface, Cloud Peak’s accounts were consistently in a state of outflow, but this wasn’t a loss. Resources such as demon crystals, materials, potions, scrolls, and battle beasts were being stored in their warehouses. Meanwhile, equipment, vitamin supplements, ammunition, gene lifeforms, crystal weapons, and delicacies were being transported in large quantities and sold through various channels. Most of these were supplied to Deacon Water, but Cloud Peak’s merchant teams were also active, though Lu Yi no longer personally managed them. Instead, he handed them over to others, filling in the gaps left by the two commercial giants, Five Ring Money and Cannibal Chain.
Influenced by the pre-apocalypse concept of “channels being king,” this former corporate executive believed that relying solely on others’ channels in the post-apocalyptic world was unreliable.
While cooperation with Water Deacon was possible now, it might not be in the future. The same logic applied to Cannibal Chain and Five Ring Money. What would happen if cooperation ceased?
Thus, this person wrote a proposal and submitted it to Xia Lei, who was relatively easier to approach. Cloud Peak’s big sister was very satisfied with the plan and discussed it with Ye Zhongming. After making a few modifications, they began to implement it.
Of course, this implementation wasn’t done on a large scale to not affect their cooperation with Deacon Water, Five Ring Money, Thousand Beast Villa, and Cannibal Chain. However, it did mark the beginning of Cloud Peak establishing its own commercial network.
For example, they began opening markets in remote areas surrounded by dungeons or mutated lifeforms using low-end equipment, low-level evolution potions, and by-products from manufacturing jobs. They also introduced a series of items with different models to avoid direct competition with Deacon Water and others. Additionally, they established an agent system, allowing these agents to maintain their own trade routes and obtain regional distribution rights for Cloud Peak’s specialty products.
Ye Zhongming and the higher-ups listened to this person’s enthusiastic presentation for two hours and realized he had valuable insights. Having been with Cloud Peak for several years, he was considered a veteran and could be trusted. Thus, they handed over this aspect of the business to him, making him the deputy head of Cloud Peak’s newly renamed Commerce Department, which had evolved from the former merchant team. This change signified a more professional approach, with commercial operations gradually separating from the main combat teams, transitioning from the previous merchant team model to a dedicated commercial team.
This didn’t mean that those involved in the plan would abandon evolution. Rather, after more than four years of surviving the apocalypse, it had become clear that some evolved, whether due to temperament, physical limitations, or mental resilience, were simply not suited for combat. Some people were naturally timid and couldn’t be trained to overcome their fear, making them hesitant in battle. They could work in internal support roles if they were lucky enough to join Cloud Peak. Others had been disabled in combat and could no longer fight, so they had to stay within the mountain villa and contribute however they could. There were also those who, due to certain experiences, had developed an extreme aversion to combat, and forcing them to fight would drive them insane…
Many special circumstances made some people unsuitable for combat missions.
Many of these individuals had relatives who were serving Cloud Peak or had contributed to Cloud Peak in the past, so Cloud Peak felt a responsibility toward them.
Ye Zhongming naturally wouldn’t abandon them. As Cloud Peak continued to grow, the number of such people also increased.
The basic construction of the mountain villa had been completed, and Ye Zhongming planned to send these people to Ying City to work.
The limited area of the mountain villa had begun to restrict the team’s development. It was inevitable that some organizations would have to relocate to Ying City, where a large-scale construction project was about to begin. These individuals would be needed there.
The Commerce Department was also planned to be based in Ying City.
In the future, Cloud Peak Mountain Villa will gradually become the true core, while Ying City will serve as an extension of the base, guarding the mountain villa.
The person who proposed the commercial plan could select suitable candidates from these individuals to form the department.
In addition to the commercial plan, while crafting equipment, Ye Zhongming also visited various high-level wheel locations to spin for valuable items or exchange with other forces, focusing on obtaining level-eight demon crystals.
Aside from the superpowers, some second-tier major forces had already begun hunting level-eight mutated lifeforms, but it was a strenuous task with heavy casualties. After killing one level-eight monster, they might need several months of rest before attempting a second hunt.
Gathering enough magic crystals to spin a level-eight wheel once could take a long time for these forces.
Ye Zhongming targeted these forces, offering to exchange high-quality equipment for their level-eight demon crystals.
Cloud Peak’s approach was flexible. They could exchange for a large quantity of lower-level equipment to upgrade the entire team, or for a smaller number of higher-level elite equipment, or even a single high-level extraordinary piece of equipment.
Given Cloud Peak’s reputation for quality equipment, accurate targeting, and the mutually beneficial nature of the exchanges, these teams, though losing their hard-earned demon crystals, gained equipment that would make their next hunt easier and more efficient. Cloud Peak also got what it wanted, rapidly advancing in evolution. Thus, the transactions were easily concluded.
Meanwhile, Cloud Peak’s own teams were not idle, launching frenzied attacks to hunt high-level mutated lifeforms.
This state of affairs continued for a month. After a month, all the Cloud Peak teams that had been dispatched returned to the base as ordered. They would rest for a while.
The return of these teams brought back many resources. Combined with the frequent transactions of the past month, Ye Zhongming spun the eight-star wheel several times, obtaining three eight-star evolution potions, fifteen seven-star evolution potions, and over a hundred six-star potions.
In addition, Ye Zhongming exchanged a set of Earth equipment and Star equipment, along with two seven-star evolution potions, for one eight-star evolution potion from Cannibal Chain.
He also traded a piece of golden-tier equipment obtained from the wheel and a seven-star evolution potion for another eight-star potion from Five Ring Money.
Whether it was the two sets of equipment that required a large number of excellent materials and had a non-trivial failure rate or the gold-grade equipment obtained from spinning the eight-star wheel plus the seven-star potion, the price for an eight-star potion was undoubtedly high.
But there was no other way. Currently, eight-star was the pinnacle of human evolution, and potions of this level were bound to carry a high premium. This premium would only gradually disappear once someone became a nine-star evolved.
Park Xiuying, Liang Chuyin, Mo Ye, Xia Lei, and Little Tiger received the potions and began their journey toward becoming eight-star evolved.
Ye Zhongming personally ensured their safety. Once they awakened, Cloud Peak, after a period of silence, would embark on another major operation.