Chapter 151: Black Wind Domain’s “Toll Fee”

“Alarm! Alarm! Large-scale high-energy spiritual power reactions detected ahead! Quantity exceeds three hundred! They are rapidly approaching our side!”

Ascension No. 1 entered the Black Wind Domain for the third hour when the shrill alarm sounded for the first time within the luxurious bridge.

Looking out through the enormous crystal viewport, the scenery of the Black Wind Domain was utterly different from the prosperity of the outside world.

The sky here was an eternal dark red, like a curtain soaked through with fresh blood.

Countless shattered continental fragments, abandoned remains of magic treasures, and the colossal skeletal corpses of starry behemoths slowly drifted within chaotic spatial storms, forming a bizarre and grotesque cosmic graveyard.

In the air, what permeated was not spiritual qi, but a kind of chaotic energy mixed with brutality, bloodshed, and resentment.

At the instant the alarm sounded, dozens of multicolored streaks of light shot out from the shadows of massive meteors in all directions, like a pack of sharks that had smelled blood, completely encircling the massive Ascension No. 1.

They were star pirate flying vessels of all kinds of shapes, each one looking ferocious and vicious.

Some resembled gigantic centipedes, some looked like skulls, and some were simply hollowed-out leg bones of enormous beasts.

On every flying vessel, a black flag painted with crossed bone swords fluttered.

“Hehehe… what a fat sheep!”

A wildly arrogant laugh echoed throughout the entire space through an amplification formation.

Immediately afterward, a huge light screen appeared directly in front of Ascension No. 1.

On the light screen was a burly one-eyed man with his chest bare, muscles bulging across his face, and a black eyepatch covering his left eye.

He carried a bloodstained ghost-head saber on his shoulder, and his cultivation was clearly at the Mid–Nascent Soul stage!

His greedy gaze swept across the Ascension No. 1 logo inlaid with top-grade spirit stones, saliva nearly dripping from his mouth.

“Listen up, you little chicks inside the ship! Your Black Wind Stronghold’s chief, Grandpa ‘One-Eyed Dragon’, is in a good mood today!”

“Leave behind the flying vessel, hand over ninety percent of the cargo aboard and all the women. As for the men… cut off one arm yourselves, and Grandpa might consider taking you in as mining slaves!”

“I’ll give you ten breaths to think it over! Otherwise, Grandpa’s ‘Soul-Devouring Cannon’ doesn’t have eyes!”

As soon as One-Eyed Dragon finished speaking, dozens of pitch-black cannon muzzles on the massive skull-shaped flying vessel behind him all aligned toward Ascension No. 1, emitting dangerous spiritual power fluctuations.

Inside the cabin, Zhang Daniu had already taken out his brick-type magic treasure and roared angrily:

“President! Let me go out! I’ll smash his one eye with a single brick!”

Zhao Wuji, on the other hand, had both eyes shining as he excitedly scribbled in his little notebook:

“Encountered a ‘market access barrier’!”

“‘Local tyrant’-type competitor has appeared!”

“Observing their ‘business model’… hmm, it belongs to the lowest-tier ‘violent monopoly’, lacking ‘sustainability’!”

Facing this drawn-swords tension, Chu Feng merely waved his hand, signaling everyone to remain calm.

He strolled unhurriedly to the bridge’s main seat and likewise activated the external light screen.

In the next second, Chu Feng’s face, carrying a warm smile, appeared before One-Eyed Dragon and the group of star pirates.

“This… Black Wind Stronghold Chief One-Eyed Dragon, right?”

Chu Feng smiled and nodded, as if he were not facing a band of ferocious bandits, but conducting a business meeting.

One-Eyed Dragon was stunned. He had seen people begging for mercy and people putting up a tough front, but he had never seen someone who could still smile so calmly and composedly under these circumstances.

“Brat, what are you smiling at? Death is at hand and you’re still pretending!”

He cursed viciously.

Chu Feng ignored him. His gaze passed over One-Eyed Dragon and swept across the several hundred messy star pirate flying vessels behind him, nodding seriously.

“Mm, the team scale is not bad. You’ve preliminarily formed the outline of a ‘regional leading enterprise’. But unfortunately…”

His tone shifted, and he shook his head, an expression of regret appearing on his face.

“Unfortunately, your business model is simply too outdated.”

“Business model?”

One-Eyed Dragon and the group of star pirates under him were all dumbfounded.

“That’s right.”

Chu Feng spoke eloquently, his voice filled with magnetism,

“Robbing and looting, we call it a ‘one-time plunder-type economy’.”

“This model carries high risk, unstable returns, a one hundred percent customer churn rate, and extremely poor brand image. There is absolutely no possibility of establishing a ‘moat’.”

“Simply put, it’s a red-ocean business that earns hard money and has no future.”

One-Eyed Dragon’s mind had completely crashed. He felt like he wasn’t robbing someone, but listening to some sect elder giving a sermon—and one he couldn’t understand at all.

“You… what kind of nonsense are you spouting?!”

He roared in fury and humiliation.

“I’m giving you an opportunity.”

Chu Feng’s smile gradually faded, replaced by the scrutinizing gaze of one in a superior position,

“An opportunity for your Black Wind Stronghold to transform from a rabble into a ‘standardized, group-oriented, profitable’ modern enterprise group.”

He raised two fingers.

“Right now, you have two choices before you.”

“Plan A: accept Ascension Group’s ‘Angel Round’ investment and merger.”

“Your Black Wind Stronghold will be immediately reorganized into ‘Ascension Group · Black Wind Domain Security and Logistics Co., Ltd.’, with you serving as the first ‘Regional President’.”

“We will provide you with the latest standardized flying vessels, unified ‘corporate culture training’, and the most advanced ‘KPI performance evaluation system’.”

“Your business will upgrade from robbery to charging all passing merchant convoys ‘route management and security service fees’.”

“I guarantee that your annual income will increase tenfold on its current basis. And it will be legal.”

One-Eyed Dragon’s eyelids twitched violently. Although he didn’t understand many of the terms, he clearly understood the words “annual income increased tenfold”!

“Th-then… what about Plan B?”

He asked, as if possessed.

Hearing this, Chu Feng smiled.

But this time, the smile was so cold that even One-Eyed Dragon, a Nascent Soul old devil, felt a chill rush straight from his tailbone to the crown of his head.

“Plan B?”

Chu Feng lightly snapped his fingers.

“Weng—”

At the bow of Ascension No. 1, the “Annihilation Soul Crystal Cannon” that had just demonstrated its might silently extended once more.

At the muzzle, a deathly silent gray vortex slowly began to rotate.

“Plan B is called a ‘hostile acquisition’.”

Chu Feng’s voice, transmitted through the light screen, clearly entered the ears of every star pirate—calm, yet carrying unquestionable authority.

“Your stronghold will be liquidated, your flying vessels will be dismantled, and your personal assets will be forcibly confiscated to compensate for… the precious one minute of my time that you just wasted.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep