Chapter 2823: Forced to Compromise

“Three days? Only three days? That’s nowhere near enough time.” The hearts of the prodigies in the Pantheon Divine Hall all tightened as soon as they heard the fifth hall master’s deadline.

This was several billion supreme grade divine crystals, not a few hundred thousand or a few million. Only the clans behind them could mobilise such a tremendous sum of divine crystals, but this was the Darkstar World, not the Saints’ World. Once they left here, they would only be in the ruins of the Spirits’ World. There was still a tremendous distance between the ruins of the Spirits’ World and the Saints’ World.

Three days was truly far too short.

“Quick, quick, quick! Send people to take this news to the great elder waiting outside immediately!” In the next moment, a prodigy began calling out, sending people out with the news impatiently. He truly seized every second.

Everyone behaved like that, as the Darkstar World was a place of great benefits to all of their clans. Some of the benefits it could offer were even irreplaceable. It was possible to say that within all the places they knew so far, only the Darkstar World could offer these benefits.

As a result, in order to protect their clan’s interests, the prodigies all carried out their duties extremely carefully.

Very soon, the Pantheon Divine Hall had been emptied out, only leaving behind the prodigy of the Jade Pill sect and a few of his attendants.

The prodigy of the Jade Pill sect’s face had become terrifyingly sunken as his gaze was gloomy. His refusal to accept this had become so intense that it was as vast and deep as the ocean.

The prodigy from the Jade Pill sect was not the only one who experienced this. Lei Yun of the Heavenly Lightning clan also moped about alone in his divine hall. He felt indignant.

“Why? Why are the other clans allowed to use divine crystals, while our Heavenly Lightning clan has to use precious pieces of jade with the Laws of Time that even our clan does not possess? This isn’t fair. This isn’t fair.” Lei Yun paced around in the divine hall. He was highly irritable.

“The fifth hall master has gone too far. If worst comes to worst, if push comes to shove, our Heavenly Lightning clan will just stop depending on the fifth divine hall. Isn’t the Darkstar race suffering from a shortage of divine crystals right now? If you really p.i.s.s us off, our Heavenly Lightning clan will just use divine crystals to befriend the first divine hall. I refuse to believe the fifth or seventh divine halls are bold enough to even touch a hair on us once we have the first divine hall’s protection,” Lei Yun said in some exasperation.

“Young master, please be careful with what you say. Please be careful. The fifth hall master is probably still closeby. If the fifth hall master hears what you say, we can basically give up on remaining among the Darkstar race altogether.” The expression of a nearby old man who seemed to be a caretaker changed and immediately warned Lei Yun. His face was filled with lingering fear. “And, young master, have you ever considered we won’t have this option even if we want to befriend the first divine hall? The ten divine halls of the Darkstar race have always been existences we’ve struggled to befriend, as they completely look down on us. If it were not for the fact that we can provide them with some special resources from the Saints’ World and the fact that we can provide a continuous supply of Life-devouring Beast corpses to them, they probably would have never allowed us to exist in the Darkstar World.”

“And, we have no idea what kind of person the first hall master is. But that’s different with the fifth hall master. At the very least, we can tell with a single glance that the fifth hall master has always been s.h.i.+elding our Hundred Saint City to a certain degree if we look at the conflict between the fifth divine hall and the seventh and sixth divine halls. As a result, I personally believe the fifth hall master is instead a little more trustworthy.”

Lei Yun gradually calmed down after hearing the old man’s explanation.

The old man continued, “There’s something else that the young master may not have considered. Although the items the fifth hall master demands from our Heavenly Lightning clan is much more valuable than his demands to the other clans, we’ll obtain the protection of the fifth hall master forever once we do present him with thirty pieces of jade with the Laws of Time. In other words, our Heavenly Lightning clan will be completely worry-free in the territory of the Darkstar race as long as we don’t provoke the divine halls. There’ll be no need for us to remain in constant fear and carry out everything cautiously like in the past.”

“As for the organisations who exchange divine crystals for protection, they have a time limit. Right now, the Darkstar race is in desperate need of divine crystals, which is why divine crystals can be exchanged for temporary peace. However, once this shortage of divine crystals pa.s.ses, the fifth divine hall can abandon them at any time.”

The old man’s a.n.a.lysis opened Lei Yun’s mind. All of his dissatisfaction vanished as he laughed aloud. “That’s right. The Darkstar race has required divine crystals in the past, but never have they required such a large quant.i.ty like recently. Once this period pa.s.ses, the Darkstar race’s demand will obviously go back to normal. By then, even if they produce ten billion supreme grade divine crystals for the Darkstar race to exchange for, the Darkstar race might not necessarily want it. After all, the rate at which the Darkstar race depletes divine crystals is like a drop in the ocean when compared to our Saints’ World. Even if they have tens of billions of divine crystals, they won’t be able to use all of it, and as time goes on, the energy in the divine crystals will only leak away for nothing.”

“By then, I’d like to see how they handle the seventh divine hall’s hatred and fury without the fifth divine hall’s protection. However, our Heavenly Lightning clan will be different. Although it seems like we’re getting the short end of the stick right now, it’ll remove a problem for us forever in the long run.” Lei Yun changed the topic and said sternly to the old man, “Elder Shu, please make a trip personally and pa.s.s the fifth hall master’s words onto the clan. It’ll be completely up to the clan next on whether we can offer up another thirty pieces of jade.”

For a moment, the entrance and exit to the tunnel between the two worlds was crowded with people. People bustled as they went in and out, transferring messages around.

“What? The Darkstar race actually dares to demand a protection fee from us? How dare they! How dare they! They’re a measly race without even a single Chaotic Prime, so how dare they try to extort our peak clans.”

Very soon, the news from the Hundred Saint City reached the Darkstar City in the ruins of the Spirits’ World. Great elders of many peak organisations personally watched over the place, all Chaotic Primes.

When these revered great elders heard the news from the Darkstar World, they all flew into a fury.

Two billion supreme grade divine crystals for a century of protection, five billion supreme grade divine crystals for five centuries of protection. This was basically extortion, and the targets they were trying to extort were these peak organisations who stood at the apex of the Saints’ World.

Their clans were so prosperous and powerful, yet they were now met with forceful demands for protection fees from a measly race that did not even have a Chaotic Prime. The whole matter was so absurd that they had never seen anything like it during all the years they had lived.

Some people exploded with rage, radiating with anger, while others became amused by the extortions of this puny race.

“What do we do? What are we supposed to do about an extortion like this from the Darkstar race? Are we, a mighty peak clan who stands at the apex of a world, supposed to compromise with the Darkstar race?”

“Sigh, what else can we do? There’s a limit on the entrance to the World of the Forsaken Beast, which prevents the likes of us from entering, so there’s nothing we can do about the Darkstar race. The Darkstar race also provides benefits that we cannot part with, so what else can we do apart from compromise?”

“Five billion supreme grade divine crystals for five centuries of peace. That is a billion divine crystals for a century of peace on average. We’ll give it to them. We’ll give it to them. What else are we supposed to do?”

“Yeah. A billion divine crystals for a century is actually just a drop in the ocean compared to what we obtain from the Darkstar World. After all, divine crystals are a renewable resource in our Saints’ World. There is an endless supply, while some of the rare materials from the Darkstar World only appear in the Darkstar World. We can’t afford to miss out on them.”

“But time is simply too tight. They’ve actually only given us three days. Five billion supreme grade divine crystals is not a small sum. I’ll have to return to the clan to arrange for this, but the round trip alone will take more than three days.”

“Forget it. We won’t make it in time if we return to our clans. Let’s just borrow some from other organisations.”

“There seems to only be fifty places. d.a.m.n, we need to gather five billion supreme grade divine crystals as quickly as possible.”

As a result, for the next period, the great elders of many major organisations personally set out, either borrowing or exchanging for divine crystals from the various organisations on the Darstar Continent. They began to gather divine crystals en ma.s.se.

This directly resulted in virtually all the divine crystals in possession of the various organisations on the entire Darkstar Continent ending up in their pockets. It directly led to an extreme shortage of divine crystals on the Darkstar Continent, such that many cultivators did not even have enough to use for themselves.

However, basically all the organisations behind the Hundred Saint City were trying to gather five billion divine crystals, so after collecting all the divine crystals on the Darkstar Continent, it still was not enough. As a result, the great elders either set out in person or sent out Infinite Prime elders to the four other continents in the ruins of the Spirits’ World, leading to a great scramble for divine crystals.