Chapter 1 Nie Yan and Xie Yao

Nie Yan and Xie Yao strolled around Hua Hai for a while. The city scenery of Hua Hai was quite good, and more importantly, they were both very familiar with the place and had a special affection for the city.

Nie Yan drove, occasionally glancing at Xie Yao. Bathed in the night, Xie Yao in her long white dress looked all the more radiant, like an elf of the night.

"My dad called and said my grandfather wants you to visit their villa in Xiangdong when you have time." Xie Yao looked at Nie Yan, a captivating blush on her cheeks.

Nie Yan was silent for a moment, then said, "Let's wait a little longer." He didn't want to go to Xie Yao's house now. If he went now, he would inevitably have to see the faces of Xie Yi and the others.

"Okay, I'll tell my father." Xie Yao understood Nie Yan's thoughts and nodded.

They enjoyed the peaceful time together. Xie Yao had to go back to accompany her parents, and Nie Yan still had many things to do in the game. As it approached the time to go online, Nie Yan and Xie Yao parted ways and returned home.

Nie Yan returned home, ate something, and then entered the game.

After a day of stagnation, the gears of *Faith* began to turn again.

If he wanted to construct the territory on a large scale, the money he needed to spend would be astronomical. Nie Yan checked the accounts of the Ni Ren Tribe guild. There were about 2.2 million gold coins left. The Xingkong Pharmacy had nearly 2 million gold coins in its accounts, and the Assassin League had 2 million gold coins. In addition, Nie Yan had nearly 3 million gold coins accumulated in his personal warehouse, which was the income from various auction houses and shops.

However, this money was far from enough to build a territory because a territory could be developed from small to large into a large city like Calore. In addition, he could freely build any fortress in suitable locations, and each construction project would be a huge expense.

What Nie Yan yearned for most was that in the territory, he could formulate his own laws and tax rates, and he could freely recruit NPCs to become his mercenaries. If he was willing to pay enough, he could even recruit very powerful high-level elites.

If he had a powerful NPC legion, then the foundation of the Ni Ren Tribe would be solid, and he could attack Angel Corps at any time.

There were too many places where he needed to spend money to build the territory. Where would the money come from?

The Mist Dispelling Scrolls and the gems he had acquired last time were almost sold out. The Ni Ren Tribe had made a lot of money from them, but he needed more ways to make money!

Nie Yan had a concept in mind. The money that could be earned by ordinary methods was quite limited. Tens or hundreds of thousands of gold coins were just a drop in the bucket for the Ni Ren Tribe.

If he was going to play, he was going to play big!

Nie Yan thought of a very ruthless method in the real world, which was dumping and monopoly! The British Empire used this method to achieve the legend of the empire on which the sun never sets.

When a country's production capacity reached a certain level, and it wanted its products to completely occupy the commerce of another country, it would often adopt some measures, which were dumping and monopoly. First, it would fill the market of that country with a large number of low-priced goods, suppressing the price of the goods and making it impossible for the enterprises in the other country that produced those goods to make money. As a result, the enterprises in that country that produced the goods would close down one after another. After they formed a monopoly on the goods in the other country, they would slowly raise the price, thereby generating huge profits.

Nie Yan's goal was set. From now on, he would completely control the potion markets of the Satreen Empire and the Glinland Empire! The most powerful commercial force that Nie Yan could use was the Xingkong Pharmacy.

Currently, there were a total of three grandmaster-level apothecaries in the Glinland Empire and the Satreen Empire, all of whom were in the Xingkong Pharmacy, but they hadn't reached that level on their own. They had equipped themselves with the Su Yuan Necklace (Wish Necklace). Some time ago, Nie Yan had people search everywhere and obtained eleven sets of materials for the Su Yuan Necklace, producing three Su Yuan Necklaces that increased apothecary skill levels by +1. In addition, twenty-one of the twenty-six master-level apothecaries were in the Xingkong Pharmacy, and nearly 90% of the more than five thousand grand apothecaries were also in the Xingkong Pharmacy. In addition, there were a large number of high-level apothecaries and intermediate apothecaries.

After Nie Yan's management for so long, the production capacity of the Xingkong Pharmacy was quite amazing, occupying nearly 60% of the market share of the Glinland Empire and the Satreen Empire. Although the Ni Ren Tribe had mastered part of the pricing power of the potions, the remaining 40% of the apothecaries were also a force to be reckoned with. Every time the Ni Ren Tribe just raised the price of a certain potion and wanted to increase some profits, many apothecaries would immediately swarm to produce that potion, and the price of that potion would immediately be suppressed. So the Xingkong Pharmacy had not yet formed a real monopoly. The most important thing in a real monopoly was mastering the pricing power!

Nie Yan estimated that if the Xingkong Pharmacy could occupy more than 90% of the market, the profit could be increased by at least five times. This was the terrible thing about a monopoly.

Dumping was a means to swallow the 30% market share, but dumping required a strong financial backing!

Currently, the Ni Ren Tribe had a total of 9 million gold coins in working capital. The net profit of the Xingkong Pharmacy, guild fortresses, major shops, major auction houses, the Assassin League and other projects, after deducting guild expenses and other expenses, could reach about 1 million gold coins per day. If all of this powerful financial power was utilized, the power would be very terrifying.

Perhaps in the short term, he would not be able to earn a lot of money, but if the monopoly was really formed, the money he earned in the future would be enough to cope with the huge expenses of building the territory.

Nie Yan already had a very perfect plan in mind. He quickly called Guo Huai over and prepared to fully implement it.

After receiving Nie Yan's message, Guo Huai hurried over.

"What's the matter you called me over for?" Guo Huai asked.

Nie Yan roughly explained the plan in his mind. The more Guo Huai listened, the more shocked he became. He exclaimed, "This plan is too brilliant. If it can really succeed, then we'll be the only Xingkong Pharmacy left in the Glinland Empire and the Satreen Empire!" Guo Huai couldn't imagine how huge the profits would be if a monopoly was really formed. Moreover, even if the plan failed, the Ni Ren Tribe would only make profits and not lose money. Whether it was short-term or long-term, it would be of great help to the Ni Ren Tribe.

Guo Huai suddenly thought of something and said, "But we have to be careful of guilds like Angel Corps. They may also want to get a piece of the pie and may use their financial resources to intercept us."

"Even if they successfully intercept us, we can still earn what we should earn. As long as we do a good job of keeping it secret in advance and take it one step at a time, it will be too late when they react." Nie Yan said confidently.

"Okay, you arrange the task, and I'll do it immediately."

"Let's implement the first step now. First, find some trusted aides and spread them to the major cities, and start acquiring herbs in an all-round way. The actions must be concealed and try not to attract attention. In addition, we have to mobilize a large amount of funds. It's far from enough to rely on the nine million we have on hand. We have to mobilize all the players of the Ni Ren Tribe and the subordinate branch guilds, and everyone will pool money together, giving them a 30% interest rate for one month." Nie Yan said. In reality, a 30% interest rate was no different from usury, but in *Faith*, this interest rate was relatively normal because the devaluation of gold coins in the game was more serious. Under normal circumstances, the interest rate for ordinary lending was about 20%.

"How much money do you want to borrow?" Guo Huai asked.

"The more the better! The more money we borrow, the better the effect. At least 30 million gold coins or more." Nie Yan said. With the wealth of the Ni Ren Tribe and the players in the subordinate branch guilds, 30 million gold coins was not much for them.

Guo Huai opened his mouth and said, "Isn't this method a bit too aggressive? If the plan fails, or we don't earn that much money, we'll have to tighten our belts for a while in the future."

"Go ahead and do it, I have a sense of proportion." Nie Yan's attitude was very firm.

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Guo Huai immediately began to mobilize manpower. About a hundred trusted aides, all of whom were trusted subordinates that Guo Huai knew in reality. Each of them took nearly seventy to eighty thousand gold coins and began to rush to the major cities.

Nie Yan's plan was actually very simple. *Faith* was an intelligent system. The number of herbs it produced every day was fixed, and relatively speaking, it was still relatively scarce. Every day, a part of them was collected by players and put on the market to be bought by apothecaries, and then made into various potions and sold to players. The number of herbs was limited. Basically, every player had to consume a large number of potions when farming monsters to level up or when going to instances. So the potions on the market were generally maintained in a state of supply and demand balance.

The supply of herbs on the market was originally not much. Once Nie Yan's funds entered on a large scale and began to hoard a large number of herbs, this supply and demand balance would be broken. When Nie Yan's acquisition of herbs reached a certain level, the herbs would become even scarcer, and their prices would be greatly pushed up. At that time, the large number of herbs hoarded by Nie Yan would suddenly become valuable.

This was not the end. The price of herbs would inevitably push up the price of potions, because apothecaries wanted to make money, so they would add some processing fees on top of the raw material costs, which was the money they earned. If Nie Yan used the herbs he had acquired at low prices before to produce potions on a large scale at this time, and sold the potions at a price that was basically the same as the price of raw materials on the market, the situation on the market would suddenly become subtle. The herbs used by the Xingkong Pharmacy to produce potions were all low-priced herbs bought before, so it was still profitable. However, the apothecaries outside, because they had not hoarded herbs in advance, would not make money or even lose money if the prices of the potions they sold were the same as those of the Xingkong Pharmacy. After a long time, the apothecaries outside the Xingkong Pharmacy would definitely not be able to hold on. Nie Yan would then release the news at the right time and recruit apothecaries with high salaries. Those apothecaries who had no way out would naturally gather towards the Xingkong Pharmacy. If the free apothecaries on the market all joined the Xingkong Pharmacy, then Nie Yan's goal of monopolizing the potion market would be achieved.