The World Online

After dealing with the matters regarding the Four Seas Bank, this Shanhai Alliance gathering could be called half-completed.

Following which, they needed to discuss the cooperations between the various guilds and territories.

The main person Ouyang Shuo wanted to discuss matters with was Bai Hua. Since their territories were connected, they needed to honestly share their plans for the Gaia 3rd year.

Ouyang Shuo’s end goal was to pull Consonance City into the Shanhai City system in a logical and rational way.

On Bai Hua’s part, there was actually not much of a decision to make.

Mulan Yue becoming the Zhen An Prefecture Governor was already the strongest signal Ouyang Shuo had sent out. If she merged into Shanhai City, she would only be put to bigger use; there was no chance of getting buried.

In terms of power and status, the current Mulan Yue was comparable to Gong Chengshi and the others, and not a bit weaker.

Of course, all of this would have to wait till the latter half of the year before they could settle it.

During the alliance gathering, Ouyang Shuo had already announced the resting plan of Shanhai City and the voyaging expedition.

This also meant that during the 1st half of the 3rd year, Ouyang Shuo might not have the time to deal with alliance matters. On this point, Feng Qiuhuang and the others had to correctly evaluate their situations.

Ouyang Shuo meant that if they wanted to do anything, they had to prepare themselves for Shanhai City not having their backs. They must be confident of handling the issues themselves. If not, there might not be anyone there to save them.

The next day, good news arrived successively.

Both Streamer and Laojun Temple gave eager replies toward the invitations from Bai Hua and Xie Siyun.

Both of them were invited over to Tianya Villa as guests.

That afternoon, they completed the shareholder matter regarding the Four Seas Bank.

Streamer and Laogun Temple each invested six hundred thousand gold for 3% of the Four Seas Bank. Both guilds would also take up the role of protectors of the banks in Quanzhou and Chengdou.

Ouyang Shuo decided to strike when the iron was hot. Since there was a bit of time, he purposely made a visit to Xianyang.

The headquarters of the Blood Evil Mercenary Group was in Xianyang.

Since Ouyang Shuo was personally visiting, even if they were the best guild in China, they would not dare to treat him lightly. Strangely, Ouyang Shuo only spent less than two hours there before taking his leave.

When he left, he had already obtained one million gold in investments.

Blood Romance was expectedly generous when he took action and also incredibly decisive. The moment he decided on a matter, he would not drag things on.

The secret that Ouyang Shuo used to persuade Blood Romance was actually really simple.

During the system auction, the War Blood Set that Blood Romance had purchased only included the armor and the boots. As such, to gather the full set would be an extremely difficult matter.

Coincidentally, the person who obtained the most core equipment of the set - the weapon Red Blood Sword, had posted his quest on the forums.

The return that Ouyang Shuo gave Blood Romance was the quest clues regarding the Red Blood Sword.

This clue was invaluable to Blood Romance, and it was the same as Ouyang Shuo doing him a massive favour. Although he was a person with a weird personality, he was still a righteous warrior.

He agreed to the demands of Ouyang Shuo without any hesitation.

However, the Blood Evil Mercenary guild would remain neutral.

Ouyang Shuo was not one to force him.

He believed that with this as a starting point, both sides could have more chances of working together.

Once again, he returned to the Tianya Villa. At this time, Ouyang Shuo allowed Bai Xiaosheng to use the Quick Daily News platform to release a portion of the plan regarding the Four Seas Bank.

After obtaining such breaking news, Bai Xiaosheng was naturally delighted, and he felt that this trip was completely worth it.

The following part of the alliance gathering was a completel holiday.

People who had something on could leave early.

Those who did not could stay until the eve of the chinese new year.

Xie Siyun even had the intention to just spend the chinese new year in the villa. After all, guild leaders like her did not need to hold any worship ceremonies.

Bai Xiaosheng knew his place, so he left after obtaining the news.

The next day, 1st month, 29th day, a piece of news was posted on the front page, front line of the Quick Daily News.

Snow-War Rose, Qingfeng Pavillion, Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, and other guilds, for a total of nine guilds; Consonance City, Fallen Phoenix City, and five other territories; all of these parties had invested into the Four Seas Bank. The bank was now officially open to the public.

The reserves at the starting stage had reached a total of six million gold.

The moment this news spread out, it shook the world.

Three points together allowed the players to relax and trust this bank: the Shanhai Alliance, especially the reputation of Shanhai City, and nine elite guilds coming together to raise such a massive sum.

All of a sudden, people started to relentlessly search for and ask about news regarding the opening hours of the Four Seas Bank.

Ouyang Shuo did not make them wait for long.

In truth, the branches of the Four Seas Bank in the nine imperial cities had already been prepared under the management of Meng Zhida. Once the reserves reached the required amount, they could start business.

Xie Siyun and the other guild leaders knew what to do.

On the 28th day, the six million gold was all in position, stored in the headquarters of the Four Seas Bank.

Ouyang Shuo had also purposely taken a photo of the vault and sent it to Bai Xiaosheng. On the news article, a mountain of gold blinded the eyes of the players.

Ouyang Shuo had also specifically instructed the city protection division to increase the surveillance of the vault. He had no way to ensure that people would not grow greedy because of the massiv sum of gold.

29th day, afternoon, the branches in the nine imperial cities opened up one by one. Jianqi Leiyin, Blood Romance, and the others all appeared in their local imperial cities to help cut the ribbons.

Players in a rush to store their money in the bank lined up all over the streets.

As the Jinwu Guards were still in the process of construction, Ouyang Shuo could only send the Guards Legion. He arranged for one thousand guards to each imperial city to maintain order.

The local scene formed a people mountain, people sea, a truly joyous atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the Divine Martial Guards directly defended the vaults of the banks.

What about Ouyang Shuo?

He stayed in Tianya Villa, but he still paid attention to the proceedings from far away.

That night, the first batch of savings was tabulated.

Upon looking at the simple summary, Ouyang Shuo’s mouth gaped open.

In just one afternoon, the nine branches had sucked in six million gold.

When Bai Hua and the others received the news, they were delighted and cheered out.

This start opened up for the rise of the Four Seas Bank.

The successive good news made Bai Hua and the others feel restless, and they all left. They had two missions. Firstly, they needed to check how much their territory had loaned and could loan.

The low-interest loans of the Four Seas Bank was not more the merrier.

If the territory could not use the loans to create profits and instead just paid interest, it would result in a massive financial burden to the territory.

Hence, even directors of the committee like Bai Hua and the others needed to go through a strict vetting process before they could obtain a large loan.

Firstly, they needed to submit a report of the territory finances.

The managing team with Meng Zhida at the helm would audit. After an evaluation, they would confirm which territory had the ability to take more loans.

As for the use of the loans, the bank also set strict restrictions.

Only then could it prevent the various territories from messing up.

Ouyang Shuo truly did not want to see a territory go bankrupt because they were unable to pay for loans.

With the position of the Shanhai Alliance in the China region, they would not need to worry of people who ate the heart of bears and had the courage of leopards to not pay up.

However, every loan needed collateral.

Moreover, the contracts were Gaia verified and had legal implications.

Hence, even if Di Chen and the others tried to use a third party to obtain loans, they could not use any underhanded methods.

Of course, at the current stage, they also did not have such a chance.

Their second mission was to evaluate all their branch alliance allies. Only the trustable ones could obtain loans.

Normal allies temporarily could not take loans.

With these precautions, it would be impossible for Di Chen and the others to mess things up.

……

Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 30th day, 28th day of the lunar calendar.

There were two more days left till the most important new years eve.

Weirdly, a large number of adventure gamemode players did not think about buying new year goodies on this day. Instead, they surged to the Four Seas Bank.

They quickly stored their funds that they had bore the pain to exchange for. This was the most important matter at hand. If not, if they just placed the gold in their storage bags, it would only depreciate every day.

The smart chinese naturally could understand this.

Compared to last afternoon, thanks to the power of word of mouth, the number of players that went to the banks doubled.

When he received the news, Ouyang Shuo felt both delighted and worried.

Helplessly, he could only instruct the recently appointed Huo Qubing to increase the number of men in the various imperial cities.

This Guards Legion major general definitely did not expect his first mission would be to maintain order.

If one said that out loud, no one would believe it.

However, it was an order from the Lord, so Huo Qubing did not dare to not follow it.

After a day, the Four Seas Bank had once again swept up a large sum of gold, this time fifteen million.

Such a result made Chun Shenjun and the others look on in envy. They had never expected the Shanhai City to actually pull such a stunt a day before the new years eve.

The other Lords in the wilderness had a completely different attitude, especially the commoner Lords. Now, these Lords had started to try and get closer to the members of the Shanhai Alliance.

Their motive was naturally to obtain a loan.

Ouyang Shuo had an ambiguous reaction to this.

He did not agree, but he did not reject them either. He gave the same reply to all who asked - wait till after the chinese new year to discuss.

Ouyang Shuo did this to whet their appetites.

As they said, one would only cherish the things that were difficult to obtain.

People would not cherish things that were easily obtainable.

If he did not let these Lords see the preciousness of the loans, how could he make them willingly agree to the terms of the Four Seas Bank?

Ouyang Shuo had let out the word that for one to apply for a loan, they needed to open their territories to the Four Seas Bank, allowing them to open up branches and invest in the local specialties.

These terms were far more stringent than those for the allied territories.

The Four Seas Bank had become an important tool for Ouyang Shuo to expand his influence in the wilderness.