Homo Sapiens

Thonburi.

Inside the Xie Clan’s private estate.

The key decision-makers within the clan had now received feedback from their proxies.

Xie Bin, who had earned the clan a significant profit through his cooperation with Qingye Medical, had now gained the right to enter the family’s inner circle. He sighed with emotion.

”She’s incredible! To think she’d dare to touch their piece of the pie.”

”They’ve likely just moved their operations from the open into the shadows. Otherwise, would those guys really give in so easily? Bin, you’re still a bit young,” another elder, well past seventy, said, shaking his head.

The Patriarch, Xie Hua, said with a smile, ”Second Uncle, your insight is as sharp as ever. Still, for her to have gotten this far is already quite impressive. Let’s just hope this doesn’t lead to any unexpected trouble down the line!”

”What’s the reaction from that side?” another, a portly old man, asked cryptically.

Xie Hua shook his head. ”What else can they do? They’re keeping very quiet now. After all, the family line must continue. Perhaps this is fate. That legend really is true!”

”What are your thoughts on that major infrastructure plan?” the portly elder continued.

”It’s just a way to win over the people. Besides, the Shinawatra Clan isn’t the one footing the bill. We can forget about getting involved in the construction projects themselves, but we can definitely get a piece of the action when it comes to importing equipment and raw materials.” Xie Hua saw the situation with perfect clarity.

As the leading Huashang Clan, they had always known where to draw the line. Some money could be earned, but other money couldn’t be touched. Insatiable greed would only turn them into a fat sheep, ready for slaughter, and make them the target of other clans’ hostility.

Although the Xie Clan hadn’t aligned themselves with the Shinawatra Clan, they had no intention of offending them either.

Meanwhile, the other Huashang Clans all voiced their verbal support for the Shinawatra Clan.

However, there were a few unlucky Huashang Clans.

The Xu Clan, for example, had tried to seize the opportunity earlier. In a recent firefight, a dozen of their core members were eliminated, including Xu Xuexi, the new Patriarch, who was taken out.

The Xu Clan, already severely weakened, had now suffered another devastating blow. They would likely be reduced to a third-rate family from now on.

...

Xing Island.

The Black Ship’s recent, intense struggle with Torch Fire left the new Governor, Joshua, and Victor, who was temporarily staying on as his deputy, completely overwhelmed.

Victor, who was already fuming, received another piece of news. ”That damn Du Jianxin, he’s vanished in Britain? Could he have been taken care of by Torch Fire’s people?”

”Either way, we’ve taken a huge loss this time.” Joshua’s expression was also grim.

Although Victor shouldered most of the blame for this conflict, Joshua, as the new Governor, felt disgraced as well.

He had just about completed the handover of duties and was only now realizing just how severe the situation in Southeast Asia had become.

The Luzon Black Ship had suffered heavy losses, and not long ago, they’d also lost two hundred members of the Seal Team.

The Hongsawaddy Black Ship had also lost soldiers and commanders, and now they couldn’t even find a decent proxy.

And the recent shadow war with Torch Fire had cost him another portion of the forces under his command.

Headquarters had said they would send reinforcements to Southeast Asia, but all the manpower ended up being diverted to South and Central America. The Three-leaf Oak Organization over there has been growing more rampant lately, even extending its reach into America proper.

Joshua knew he couldn’t expect much support anytime soon.

Victor offered some consolation. ”There was nothing we could do about what happened in Siam. We’re short-staffed everywhere, plus we’re still in the middle of internal personnel rotations.”

”Headquarters probably won’t blame us for what happened there. After all, it happened so fast. Before we could even react, that woman had already succeeded. It seems we’ll have to be careful of her from now on.” Joshua rubbed his temples.

Victor’s eyes narrowed slightly. ”This sudden change in Siam... she couldn’t have pulled it off alone, nor could the Shinawatra Clan have done it by themselves. For example, someone in Luzon must have been coordinating with them. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so easy for her to use a body double to fool our people and then suddenly appear in Siam.”

”Could it have been Torch Fire?” Joshua frowned.

But Victor shook his head. ”It’s not their style. They rarely use such aggressive tactics anymore.”

”Then who could it be? Is there another power that strong in Southeast Asia?” This was giving Joshua a major headache.

If it were a known faction, they wouldn’t be in such a passive position. The problem was that their opponent was slippery, and to this day, the Black Ship had yet to uncover this faction’s true identity.

This kind of unknown adversary was the most troublesome.

You don’t know their objective, and you don’t know where their main body is located. It’s difficult to even find a suitable target for retaliation.

On top of that, the Southeast Asian Black Ship had lost too much manpower recently, and some areas were on the verge of becoming power vacuums.

This was what frustrated Joshua the most. He wanted to probe the enemy but didn’t even have enough people to do it.

And now this whole mess in Siam had been added to the pile.

The feeling was deeply unsettling for Joshua. It was as if an invisible net was slowly tightening around him, and like a small fish caught within, the more he struggled, the more entangled he became.

All he could do was report his grievances to Headquarters and urge them to squeeze out some manpower for him.

But what he didn’t know yet was...

Siam wasn’t the only place in Southeast Asia that had undergone a sudden transformation. Another location had also experienced some clandestine changes.

That place was Northern Borneo.

But unlike the overt and intense situation in Siam, the changes in Northern Borneo were of the silent, subtle kind.

The person orchestrating this silent, covert change was Chen Jianxiong, the head of the Security Business Department. He wasn’t as aggressive as Domino, mainly because the situations in the two places were different.

Siam’s business environment required a complete overhaul.

Northern Borneo, however, was different. The various subsidiaries and shell companies could use covert means to pull out the ”nails” one by one.

In any case, Chen Jianxiong used various shell companies, under the guise of making investments, to conduct ”inspections” all over Northern Borneo. He would then lure local figures from both the criminal underworld and legitimate society into prepared traps and wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

Those who cooperated were given a chance, receiving the status of a New Human or even the identity of a Spider Web Manager.

Those who were unwilling to cooperate, or who had committed numerous evil deeds themselves, were sent by Chen Jianxiong to be ”reforged,” turned one by one into Soldiers.

Around the same time that Domino and Qiu Yingle completed their restructuring of Siam’s business environment,

Chen Jianxiong had also basically finished consolidating the Borneo Branch, even turning a dozen of the Black Ship’s Converts and Lookouts into ”his own people.”

In other words, not only were Joshua and Victor being monitored by the Security Business Department, but some of their chess pieces in Southeast Asia were now secretly under the department’s control as well.

If the Black Ship tried to stir up trouble in Southeast Asia, they couldn’t possibly escape the eyes of the Security Business Department.

In fact, during the recent shadow war between the Black Ship and Torch Fire, the Security Business Department had secretly fanned the flames several times to ensure the Black Ship’s power in Southeast Asia would be crippled.

Homo Sapiens Company had established two fully authorized regional branches at once. Although it was done in secret, the significance was enormous.

After all, the establishment of the Siam Branch and the Borneo Branch meant that the Hongsawaddy Branch and the Luzon Branch were no longer isolated from each other, but were now completely linked.

The fully operational territories of these four major branches covered a land area of 1.82 million square kilometers, with a total population of 254 million.

Their agricultural resources were sufficient to support a population of 300 million, and the potential for growth was still immense.

Aside from a relative scarcity of iron ore, resources like oil, natural gas, non-ferrous metals, precious metals, gems, and potash were all abundant—enough to support a large, self-sustaining internal market.

After securing the resources and markets of these four regions, the first phase of Homo Sapiens Company’s plan was now preliminarily complete.

Only after a year or two of digestion and integration would they initiate the second phase of their expansion strategy.