The wooden carved door of the castle's reception room was opened from the inside, and the first person to come out was the Earl's butler Pinto. As he extended his hand to lead the way, Xiao Chen, Li Jia and several specialists from the business team filed out. Next to them came more than a dozen businessmen dressed differently but mostly in luxurious clothes.
The interior of the castle was as cold and dark as usual, with light only coming through the narrow windows on the floor and walls. But the movements and whispers between these people were filled with a warm atmosphere, and the heat from the living room warmed up the stone house.
As everyone walked to the door after exchanging greetings, a chubby businessman saluted Xiao Chen and said, "Dear Sir Xiao Chen, the negotiation method you arranged is really eye-opening for us. We never thought that we could confirm so many 'cooperation projects' in such a short time."
He patted the bound printed paper in his hand, looked around at his colleagues, and said, "I will keep this 'bid' as a treasure. Only the miracle of magic can make a document so exquisite and beautiful. Of course, what is even more amazing is the content inside. It can make a complicated business so clear and organized. I think the elders of the Chamber of Commerce in the Free City will be stunned by this document. I will go back and broaden their horizons. Business can actually be done this way!"
Most of the people around him nodded and agreed with what he said.
Xiao Chen took the other person's hand and shook it vigorously. In the other person's flattered eyes, he said: "I am very happy that everyone recognizes us. Although this is the first time I meet you all, I have a hunch that our cooperation can go smoothly and last for a long time. This is a magician's intuition. However, everyone can relax a little more. You can talk about any problems. Don't be afraid of me. We magicians don't eat people."
The merchants all laughed in unison. The one in the lead looked at his hands nervously and said, "If I tell others that a magician took the initiative to shake hands with me, they will definitely laugh at me and say I'm talking nonsense."
"This is the point I want to emphasize. We are not only here to do business with you, but also to make friends with you. You don't have to regard us as superior aliens, but you should regard me as a partner with whom you can communicate."
Xiao Chen snapped his fingers, and a cluster of flames appeared on his hands. The flames grew bigger and bigger, and finally exploded with a bang into scattered sparks. "We have some extraordinary powers in the field of magic, and you also have extraordinary powers in the field of gold coins. In the final analysis, we are all the same kind of people."
The people around laughed even louder. A businessman said, "Then you are a master in two fields."
"There is another area." Xiao Chen raised a finger, "I am also very knowledgeable about food."
He shook hands with them one by one and invited them: "Tonight, we have borrowed the Earl's castle to prepare a celebratory dinner for everyone. Please be sure to come..."
After the crowd dispersed, Xiao Chen said to Pinto: "I am surprised by the Earl's business influence. I didn't expect that his tentacles are all over the Empire in the north and the Free Cities in the south."
"These merchants are not all branches of our family. They just have long-term trading relations with the Arias family," Pinto explained.
Xiao Chen smiled and said, "I know how business networks form power. Even if these people are not members of the family, the dense chain of interests has tied them together with you. Moreover, I believe this is only part of your power."
Pinto smiled noncommittally, "I am glad that you recognize the ability of the Arias family. However, please allow me to remind you that as a mage, you may be more... "
"High above?"
"Yes, after all, mages and nobles are the head of the world, craftsmen are the hands of the world, farmers are the body of the world, and merchants are just the feet of the world."
"Then where is the king? Where is the god?"
"The king is within the nobility, and the gods are outside the world."
"Hmm, very interesting model." Xiao Chen patted Pinto's shoulder, "Maybe I would like my place in it, but the merchants might not like theirs."
Xiao Chen returned to his room and took off his cumbersome wizard robe, leaving only a short-sleeved sweatshirt. The thin sweatshirt could no longer cover the lines of his muscles. Whether it was his chest, abdomen, or arms, he had changed his previous thin appearance, and there were pieces of firm flesh lumps slightly bulging. Since his body was transformed by the white light in the underground palace, Xiao Chen has become stronger and stronger. It was late autumn, and he didn't feel cold in the stone house.
Lying on the hard wooden bed, Xiao Chen crossed his hands on his chest, looking at the rough stone roof, thinking about the details of the previous negotiations. Although he was talking and laughing all the way, only he knew how hard it was to fight against these cunning businessmen.
The business team actually added a lot of clauses that were beneficial to them in the agreement, but these rules and regulations organized in modern terms were found out one by one after the other party fully understood the meaning of those words. Whether it was the ownership of equity or the calculation of interest, as long as the reason was explained clearly, those businessmen were always able to quickly learn without a teacher, and even put forward some counter-arguments. Xiao Chen knew that this was a keen sense cultivated after dealing with money for a long time, and the teachers and students of finance, law, and economics in the business team were just rookies holding books in front of these old hands.
You really can't underestimate the people in this world.
At this time, Xiao Chen's heart moved, and his mental power sensed that someone was walking back and forth outside the door of the room. One of the manifestations of mental power materialization is that he is like a human radar, able to roughly sense the movements within a range of more than ten meters around him.
The guy seemed very hesitant. He stood at the door several times and wanted to knock, but turned away and continued to walk around outside the door. Xiao Chen waited for a while and finally lost his patience. He jumped out of bed, put on a shirt, walked to the door, and when the man walked to the door again, he opened the door.
"I knew that you were the only one who was so conflicted. Have you wandered enough? Come in and talk." Xiao Chen shook his head and pulled Li Jia in.
Li Jia walked in awkwardly, his hands folded across his chest, his back hunched, like a little boy who had done something bad. After he entered the door, he continued to walk around, giving people a very uneasy feeling.
Xiao Chen pulled open a chair next to the small table by the window and said, "Sit down, sit down and talk!"
Li Jia chuckled twice, took out a ring from his pocket and handed it to Xiao Chen. It was the secret inheritance ring that Xiao Chen always wore on his hand.
"I've been trying for three days. There's no response at all. I can activate the mental whipping magic inside, but I can't feel any inheritance information. I guess I don't have the qualifications to inherit that magic."
Xiao Chen put the ring back on his hand, thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it's just that the power responsible for passing on magic has been used up. To put it bluntly, the most powerful thing about this ring is that it can directly imprint the structure of magic in your mind. If you learn magic by reading the records of ancient magicians, this step is extremely difficult. Those ancient magicians never took art classes, and many of them were soul painters. It would be great if we had an alternative method."
Li Jia nodded in agreement. In order to teach him the wind blade technique, Serinda demonstrated it many times with her hands and feet. Only then could he clearly imagine the rune structure in his mind. He said, "Recording magic is a difficult problem. Some magic books collected by Serinda's family all use illustrations to explain magic. A magic that can be activated in one second has to be broken down into dozens of pictures to explain it clearly. The pictures change one by one, making it like a comic book."
"Haha, comic books... Hey!" Xiao Chen suddenly stood up when he heard this and looked at Li Jia in a daze.
"What's wrong?"
"You mean a series of paintings connected together?"
"yes."
"Isn't that a cartoon?"
"But we have to look at it from all angles, because those magical structures are three-dimensional..." Li Jia didn't react for a moment.
"Then let's use 3D animation!" Xiao Chen suddenly became excited, slamming his palms with his fists, "We are so stupid, why didn't we think of using animation software to do this? Go back to school and get a computer to try, I think this can work!"
"Are you planning to use 3D animation software to create a dynamic magic structure model?" Li Jia couldn't help but stand up.
"Why not?" Xiao Chen said hurriedly, his eyes sparkling. "The essence of magic is a three-dimensional rune structure composed of mental power, which moves constantly during the casting of a spell. So whether it is oral, demonstrated, or read in a book, it is difficult to explain the process clearly, which is the most difficult part of teaching magic. However, this is not a problem at all for 3D animation! After modeling, set the motion path, and then move the mouse to rotate it at will, right? In this way, can't each of us reproduce the magic we have learned on the computer for others to learn?"
"You have a very wild imagination." Li Jia was speechless. "But, it seems to be the case. Oh my god, this can be done! This can be done!
"Right, right!" Xiao Chen grabbed Li Jia's shoulders and shook him, "Now we are awesome!"
“Why do I have a feeling that what you are about to do now will definitely subvert something and may even affect the entire world?”
"The vision of modern people makes it impossible for us to be content with mediocrity." Xiao Chen smiled smugly. He walked around the room several times, going over the feasibility of this matter over and over in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him.
It took him a while to calm himself down, and he told Li Jia, "Okay, okay, we have to go back to school to try this, don't tell anyone else now."
"People from our own team don't say anything either?" Li Jia asked.
"Don't tell others about it before it's done, so that others won't be disappointed."
"All right."
"Oh, by the way, what did you want to talk to me about today?"
"Oh, oh." Li Jia took out a scroll made of thick leather. He spread it out on the small table. It was 30 centimeters square. It was covered with dense patterns made of runes. If such a scroll is used to stimulate, it can release a magic spell completely. If it is not used, it can be used to study and understand, and it can also feel the three-dimensional magic rune structure in the spiritual world. It is much easier to learn magic by consuming such a precious scroll than by recording it in text.
"I learned the art of flying from this scroll. This scroll has a lot of energy, and I'm not a slow learner. So, I think you might be able to use it to learn it again."
"Selinda spent a lot of money." Xiao Chen held the scroll in his hand and examined it. The workmanship was delicate and the brushstrokes were beautiful. It must be the work of a master. After putting the scroll away, Xiao Chen turned his eyes and said, "No, this is not the reason why you hesitated at my door. Don't play tricks on me. What do you want to say?"
"Hey, I know I can't hide it from you. This..." Li Jia hesitated for a long time before moving closer to Xiao Chen and whispered, "Can you lend me the Scroll of Sea of Consciousness for a while?"