Swallowing the Stars: 100x Return for Teaching Apprentices

Chapter 89 Flame Blade Merchant Guild
The Flameblade Merchant Guild is a large merchant guild located within the Eternal Empire.

Although it is called a merchant group, the Flameblade Merchant Group actually operates a very simple business: the slave trade!
The 'slaves' they sell come from various sources, including transactions with lords and private individuals, as well as a significant portion of their 'slave planets' under their own control.

A so-called slave planet is a planet specifically used for raising and training slaves.

These planets were either native planets like Leiyuan Star, which happened to be discovered and occupied by the Yanren Merchant Guild's slave-hunting teams, or acquired through purchase or other means.

As a result, the large number of native inhabitants on the planet who did not have citizenship in the universe became the 'private property' of the Flameblade Merchant Guild.

As an organization primarily engaged in the slave trade, the Flameblade Merchant Guild naturally exploited these natives to the extreme.

Apart from a few with special talents who could perform tasks such as planting herbs and mining for slave organizations, most were treated as 'slave leeks' to be harvested one after another.

After acquiring a large amount of wealth by harvesting slaves, the Flameblade Merchant Guild can use it to further expand its power, purchase more territory, and create more slave planets!

The entire Flameblade Merchant Guild has grown larger and larger like a snowball. In recent years, some of their trade channels have even broken through the Eternal Starfield and extended to other adjacent starfields!

Giant Shark Star is one of the most important planets among the countless slave planets under the Flame Blade Merchant Guild.

And the reason why the Giant Shark Star is so important is quite simple—

The soul of the entire Flame Blade Merchant Guild, the powerful leader 'Barent', whose strength has reached the second level of World Lord, lives on this planet!

At this moment, in a magnificent golden palace on the planet Giant Shark, an extremely luxurious banquet is underway.

Fine wine, gourmet food, women, all sorts of rare and exotic fruits, lavish and bloody performances, and even some extremely twisted and perverse dark rituals, etc.
The participants in the banquet can experience almost any kind of ultimate enjoyment they can imagine.

This is a 'traditional' event of the Flameblade Merchant Guild, the 'Flameblade Sacred Feast' held once every hundred years by its leader, Barent.

Those qualified to enter this sacred banquet are at least core members of the Flameblade Merchant Guild, holding significant real power at the cosmic or domain lord level.

As for Barent's original intention in hosting this banquet, in addition to giving the core members who had been busy for a century a chance to enjoy and relax, it was also an opportunity to distribute benefits to the core members and to discuss the development plan of the business group for the next century.

At this point, the main event of the banquet had not yet begun.

The small leaders of the Flameblade Merchant Guild, who had gathered from all over the Eternal Starfield, were all huddled together with their close friends, enjoying the various delicacies and performances of the banquet while chatting casually.

"Haha, Brother Jia Lun, your Wulong Star branch has developed quite well in the last hundred years. You've almost monopolized the slave trade in more than a dozen star systems around here!"

A middle-aged man with a single horn, dressed in a luxurious black robe, was holding a wine glass and chatting in hushed tones with an old man with messy green hair like wild grass. "Tsk tsk, Brother Jia Lun must be making a fortune from this dividend distribution. I'm really envious!"

"Brother Uduka, you flatter me. Your branch on Qianhu Star is quite good too."

The green-haired old man chuckled, "I heard that you recently gave the Monsa Merchant Guild quite a loss. I'm sure the leader will reward you handsomely this time!"

"Haha, it's also luck."

The middle-aged man with the unicorn chuckled smugly upon hearing this, "That young master of the Monsa Merchant Guild is really naive. He even said he wanted to compete with us fairly and squarely. Humph, I just used a little trick and caused an accident to one of their important shipments!"

"The ridiculous thing is, that young master died believing it was his fault and constantly blaming himself."

"It was also a clever plan by the Uduka brothers."

"Haha, my friend, you flatter me! Come, let's drink!"

At this moment, the entire golden palace was already bustling with activity.

Basically, all the key members of the Flameblade Merchant Guild had arrived. They were all whispering to each other, taking the opportunity to strengthen their bonds.

After all, there is great competition within the Flameblade Merchant Guild, and only by recruiting several teammates of similar strength can one still thrive under immense competitive pressure.

……

Outside of Giant Shark Star.

Wow!
Ripples seemed to spread across the starry sky as a deep blue, ancient, sword-shaped spaceship suddenly appeared, traversing the dark universe.

On the surface of this sword-shaped spaceship, faint, colorful threads intertwined and spread, making it impossible for the planetary defense system of Giant Shark Star to detect the existence of the sword-shaped spaceship for a time.

"Giant Shark Star was originally a very beautiful and prosperous planet inhabited by life, but unfortunately, it was occupied and transformed into a slave planet by the Flame Blade Merchant Guild."

Through the spaceship's exterior simulation, Qi Yuan easily saw the pale green planet that seemed to be shrouded in a hazy mist, and couldn't help but sigh slightly.

However, this sigh only lasted for a moment, after all, the fate of Leiyuan Star was much more tragic than that of Giant Shark Star.

Thinking of this, the anger that had been suppressed in his heart rose up again.

The Flame Blade Merchant Guild was the very same slave organization that occupied Thunder Origin Star and carried out the cruel 'Gu Breeding Plan' there.

Qi Yuanyuan was not a tolerant or magnanimous person.

The Flameblade Merchant Guild inflicted such immense damage on the Thunder Origin Clan, reducing their population by over 90%, and even his original form was injured and perished due to the Flameblade Merchant Guild's slave-hunting invasion. How could merely killing a dozen or so clearly used scapegoats possibly satisfy him!

The reason he wanted to seek help from the intelligence department of the Eternal Branch of the Virtual Universe Company was to use their powerful intelligence capabilities to find out if the Flame Blade Merchant Group had violated any laws of the Universe Nation.

After all, he was just a minor division chief in a star region. Without concrete evidence and justification, he could not openly attack a powerful commercial organization that held sway over a region.

However, an organization like the Flameblade Merchant Guild, which engages in the slave trade, has a mixed bag of people inside. How could it possibly be as 'law-abiding' as it pretends to be on the surface?

Kidnapping and selling slaves, secretly suppressing and assassinating competitors are all child's play.

In order to curry favor with powerful and influential people with perverse tastes, they also provided them with all sorts of special services, such as providing various slaves for the other party to torture inhumanely.

They might even abduct specific targets at the request of the other party, and these targets may include many cosmic citizens.

Not only that. Judging from the large amount of information collected with the help of the Eternal Branch's intelligence organization, given the various heinous crimes committed by the Flame Blade Merchant Guild, if it continues, even if Qi Yuan doesn't take action, sooner or later the armies of the Cosmic Kingdom or the Eternal Empire will come to conquer it.

However, since Qi Yuan has arrived at the opportune moment, there is no need to trouble the entire army of the Space Kingdom to mobilize.
"Hehe, Barrent, I really have to thank you. If it weren't for you hosting this banquet, I really wouldn't have had a good way to catch you all in one fell swoop!"

Qi Yuan looked at the extremely prominent and majestic palace on the pale green planet below, his gaze gradually turning icy cold.

Whether it was out of a desire to avenge the countless dead Lei Yuanxing people, or out of disgust and hatred for these scumbags after reading about the various evil deeds of the Yanren Merchant Guild, Qi Yuan had already silently sentenced them to death in his heart!
In the magnificent banquet hall of Giant Shark Star.

As key members arrived one by one, the soul and leader of the Flame Blade Merchant Guild, the World Lord-level powerhouse 'Barent', finally appeared, accompanied by a large group of his subordinates.

Barent's appearance was that of a bald old man with a special diamond-shaped crystal between his eyebrows and a very kind-looking face.

Few people know that beneath his kind face lies a cruel and ruthless nature.

"Everyone!"

As soon as Barent spoke, the banquet hall, which had been filled with noise and discussion, fell completely silent.

The elite executives of the Flameblade Merchant Guild, who were usually leaders in various star systems, listened with utmost respect to their leader's speech.

"Haha, everyone from the Flameblade Merchant Guild."

Barent laughed heartily, his voice echoing throughout the hall, "Over the past century, thanks to everyone's hard work, the Flameblade Merchant Guild has become increasingly prosperous and powerful! All of this is thanks to everyone present!"

"Today is our once-in-a-century Flameblade Sacred Banquet. Besides allowing everyone to rest and relax, the most important thing is that I want to take this opportunity to distribute profits to all the hardworking members of the merchant guild! It is you who have made the Flameblade Merchant Guild what it is today, so the profits of the Flameblade Merchant Guild should also be shared by everyone!"

As Barrent's voice fell, the entire hall erupted in thunderous cheers!
"Thank you, Lord Barent!"

"We swear to serve the Flameblade Merchant Guild to the death! We swear to serve Lord Barent!"

It must be said that Barrent is very good at winning people's hearts when it comes to the distribution of benefits.

In addition to the basic income and commissions on a regular basis, he would also set aside a portion of the merchant guild's profits as bonuses for key members during the annual Flame Blade Sacred Banquet every hundred years.

In fact, if this portion of the dividends were distributed over a hundred years, it wouldn't amount to much. However, on such an occasion, the fact that it was personally distributed by a merchant guild leader at the realm lord level makes it exceptionally significant!
"Haha, thank you all for your trust and support, so next..."

Barent was about to continue speaking when the sound in his throat abruptly stopped.

Not only him, but even the core members of the Flame Blade Merchant Guild, who were originally cheering in the hall, instantly fell silent.

Everyone looked up in shock and anger!
Above, an incredibly hot and terrifying energy fluctuation appeared in everyone's senses!

"Who's asking for death!"

Barent, a World Lord-level being, reacted the fastest!
Streams of crimson flames spread rapidly from his body outwards, instantly transforming into a crimson flame curtain that enveloped the entire hall!
The next second—

"laugh--"

A beam of blazing white light, nearly 50 meters in diameter, descended from the sky and instantly struck the crimson flame light curtain!
"Boom~~~"

Terrifying explosions continued to rang out—

Despite the crimson flame barrier, everyone still felt the floor of the entire hall trembling violently.

They had no doubt that if they appeared outside that light barrier, they would be instantly melted by that terrifying, scorching energy!

A moment later, the blazing white beam of light that had descended from the sky finally dissipated.

Meanwhile, Balent, the leader of the Flame Blade Merchant Guild, appeared instantly above the entire golden palace.

"Hmph, who dares to run wild in the territory of my Flameblade Merchant Guild!"

However, the only response he received was a dazzling bolt of lightning, burning intensely.

There's one more chapter, it might be a little late. Those of you who go to bed early can read it tomorrow morning.


(End of this chapter)