Chapter 166 Xie Yao's Birthday

More than ten level-50 good pieces of equipment, all Dark Gold grade or above, would be worth at least a thousand gold on the market. In addition, there were sixty or seventy pieces of equipment that were decent enough to be worth quite a bit of money.

The equipment lost by the Ni Ren Tribe players was all picked up.

"How many people did we lose?" Nie Yan asked Knight's Elegy.

Knight's Elegy made a quick count and said, "About a thousand or so, most of them were killed by group-attack magic."

"How many jars of black powder were lost?" He had heard several explosions during the battle. Fortunately, most of the black powder was saved.

"Five jars were destroyed, and the rest are all gathered here." Knight's Elegy pointed to the black powder stacked among the crowd. He felt ashamed to face the Executive Guild Leader after losing so much.

These jars of black powder were neatly arranged there. Transporting these big guys was quite a chore. Each jar weighed about twenty pounds, and with the jar itself, it was almost thirty pounds. Even a strong warrior would run out of stamina after carrying one for a while, and they'd have to switch. It wasn't very convenient to have two people carry one.

"Only five jars, the loss isn't too great." Nie Yan counted and saw there were seventeen jars left. These seventeen jars of black powder would be enough until they could produce their own.

After a while, Sun, Brilliant Knife Light, and the others arrived, a total of thirty or so top-tier players. If they hadn't arrived, Warblade Bloodthirsty, the Mage Alliance, and the Sacred Guardians wouldn't have left so easily.

"We're late," Brilliant Knife Light said apologetically. When they were riding over, they had heard several deafening explosions in the distance. They were extremely nervous at the time, thinking all the black powder had been destroyed. Luckily, only a little bit was destroyed.

"Not too late," Nie Yan said with a smile. Five jars of black powder wasn't enough to cripple them.

Nie Yan and the others remained vigilant, staying put to guard the area. They had less than a thousand people left. It would be troublesome if they were ambushed again.

After a while, the remaining five thousand people arrived, and the escort team for the black powder suddenly became stronger. The team then slowly set off, heading towards Undying City Fortress.

Undying City Fortress had a teleportation array that could directly teleport them to Cripps Fortress. After more than an hour, Nie Yan and the others finally arrived at Undying City, and then teleported the black powder to Cripps Fortress.

Guo Huai brought in five Advanced Alchemists, one Advanced Apothecary, two Advanced Runemasters, and one Advanced Enchanter. He signed a non-disclosure agreement with them and specially opened a secret laboratory in Cripps, gathered the materials, and settled them in.

Nie Yan handed over the blueprints for the Level 1 Goblin Magical Cannon to them, and they immediately began working. It was estimated that the Ni Ren Tribe's first Goblin Magical Cannon would be born in six days.

Nie Yan checked the secret laboratory. It was located in the residential area behind the Ni Ren Tribe's guild headquarters, buried deep underground, with only a hidden entrance. The inside was very spacious, a magnificent hall with a good environment and all kinds of experimental equipment, with hundreds of materials sorted and categorized. Someone was assigned to replenish them every day. The nine advanced production class players were busy working.

After arranging all this, Nie Yan was relieved. He checked the time and it was almost time to log off.

Nie Yan took off his helmet and got up.

It was another morning. Today was Xie Yao's birthday, and her birthday banquet would be held at the Moro River Hotel under the Longyue Conglomerate, around two o'clock in the afternoon. Xie Yao's relatives would be attending. Nie Yan felt a little awkward, but he was calm. He would have to meet Xie Yao's parents, relatives, and friends eventually.

Nie Yan thought for a moment and went to a jeweler to select a necklace. It was very delicate.

He had already received his acceptance letter from the First Military Academy. Nie Yan could choose any of the two top-tier majors, a privilege only given to the top three students. In this life, he had finally fulfilled one of his father's dreams, and he had no regrets.

He went to his father's company and met with Chen Ge. The God of War Tribe was developing smoothly, having just made several of the Tuoba family's guilds suffer a little. They had already captured their first fortress and started their conquest from there.

The rise of the God of War Tribe was remarkable. Several other guilds had also risen in other cities, such as Sword of Purgatory and Light and Darkness Empire.

Nie Yan recalled the names of these guilds. Sword of Purgatory was a guild in Moonshine City, and it was still relatively weak. It would take at least a month for them to develop. As for the Light and Darkness Empire, it was a guild from Carol City in his previous life. Nie Yan thought his appearance had caused a butterfly effect, causing the guild to disappear into the river of history. He didn't expect the Light and Darkness Empire to have moved to Liefeng City and was developing even better than in his previous life.

History had taken a strange turn the moment Nie Yan appeared.

It seemed the Ni Ren Tribe's future wouldn't be lonely.

Nie Yan stayed at his father's company until a little after one in the afternoon, then drove to the Moro River Hotel.

The Moro River was the most famous hotel in Huahai, a six-star hotel. The one-hundred-and-sixty-seven-story building had a flowing design. Each floor of the building could rotate, automatically disassemble and assemble, changing the layout of the rooms, allowing guests to enjoy the scenery from all directions. Next to it was the most famous commercial street in the world. The Moro River, Moro, was taken from religious scripture, meaning dream. Each shop on the street had a unique shape, strange and varied, as if one had entered a magical world.

In such a place, every inch of land was worth its weight in gold. The Moro River Building alone was worth billions. The financial resources of the Longyue Conglomerate were amazing. The Nie family had only just risen, and their total assets were only a fraction of the Longyue Conglomerate's. Compared to such a large conglomerate, they were naturally dwarfed.

Nie Yan arrived at the entrance. After verifying his identity, a female server in a cheongsam walked up.

"Sir, please follow me." Her voice was very clear.

"Okay." Nie Yan nodded and followed her.

The female server led Nie Yan into the elevator, which went directly to the one hundred and thirty-first floor. After passing through a corridor covered in red carpet, he entered a hall. Although it was still early, the hall was already crowded with people, smiling and greeting each other. The men were in suits and ties, and the women were wearing gorgeous dresses. It was a gathering of the upper class and business elites from Huahai and even the entire Federation.

The spacious hall could definitely accommodate thousands of people. Nie Yan looked around and didn't recognize anyone, so he found a seat by the window and sat down.

He had never attended such a grand banquet. When his father was alive in his previous life, he was a playboy, and his father wouldn't bring him to formal banquets. After his father passed away, he had even less opportunity to attend such banquets.

Although he felt a little out of place, Nie Yan remained calm. He ordered a glass of juice and sat in the corner, relaxing and looking out the window. The beautiful sea view in the distance filled his eyes, the blue water and sky invigorating his spirit.

Looking into the hall, who knew how many of these well-dressed elite people were scumbags beneath their refined exteriors. There were many beautiful women here, each with a graceful figure, wearing low-cut, backless evening dresses, like a hundred flowers blooming, competing for attention.

One could often see a pot-bellied middle-aged man, arm in arm with a beautiful woman who was more than ten years younger than him, and couldn't help but sigh, "A fresh flower stuck in cow dung."

Nie Yan could understand why his classmates were heartbroken when they heard that Jiang Yingyu had married a rich businessman, regretting that they hadn't been born a few decades earlier.

He checked the time. It was almost two o'clock, Xie Yao should be arriving soon.

Nie Yan quietly drank his juice. The hall was filled with soft music, and the people chatting quieted down. They looked towards the front of the hall, where a beautiful girl appeared in their sight. She was wearing a white dress, and under the illumination of the lights, she was exquisite. The upper part of the dress was a little tight, highlighting her beautiful figure. It was an off-the-shoulder dress, revealing her delicate shoulders, collarbones, and fair arms, as if they were carved from white jade, without a single flaw.

She was elegant and moving, like a beautiful elf.

As soon as Xie Yao appeared, she became the focus of everyone's attention. Many couldn't help but sigh in admiration, making all the women present jealous. Xie Yao was only eighteen years old now, but if she were a few years older, she would definitely be charming and enchanting, captivating all living beings.

Xie Yao was holding a person's hand, a man, about forty years old, brave and upright, with a similar expression between his eyebrows as Xie Yao's, making it easy to guess that he was Xie Yao's father. Xie Yao's mother would appear later.

There were also some other people nearby, Xie Yao's relatives.

The people present congratulated her, and Xie Yao responded with a smile, appearing very polite. Her eyes were constantly scanning the crowd, searching for something, but she couldn't find it, revealing a hint of disappointment.

The banquet began.

Too many people were gathered around Xie Yao and her family. It wasn't appropriate for Nie Yan to join them now. He'd wait a little longer.

His gaze swept over each of the guests. In the distance, a figure by a window seat caught Nie Yan's attention. Nie Yan's body trembled, and he clenched the glass in his hand. The veins exposed on his arm showed the unrest in his heart at that moment.

That person was about forty years old, tall, giving a feeling of strength and grandeur. He was dressed casually, which seemed rather out of place compared to the people in suits and ties around him, but he had an imposing aura of his own. Two people stood next to him, wearing black suits, standing straight, the bodies hidden beneath the suits, like leopards ready to pounce at any moment. They were clearly battle-hardened guys. They were his two bodyguards.

This person was all too familiar to Nie Yan. The chairman of the Century Financial Group, Cao Xu!