Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

North of Tianjing City, Hong Family estate, Forest Capital.

Hong Dali’s father, Hong Weiguo, together with the Old Elder of the Hong Family, Hong Tu, Second elder Hong Wei and Third Elder Hong Ying sat in a small conference room. They were currently studying into the matter regarding the encounter between the young master of Jaban State’s Toyoda Conglomerate, Ko Gohon and Hong Dali.

“Dad, about this encounter between Ko Gohon and our Dali, what are your views?” Hong Weiguo frowned as he stared at a file on the table. “Back then, the Toyoda Conglomerate and our family could be said to have a deep-seated hatred. He’s definitely not finding Dali for something good.”

“The feud between our Hong Family and the Toyoda clan didn’t surface recently.” Hong Tu sighed. “Back then, because of them, the three genius generals of our Hong Family died in the battlefield and directly caused us to leave from our central position in Heavenly State’s military. Ko Gohon definitely isn’t harboring good intentions by coming here now. However, now is the era of peace. He won’t dare to do anything openly. This time, he’s probably aiming to attack our Hong Family financially.”

“This bunch of little devils.” Second Elder Hong Wei, who was always smiling, gritted his teeth fiercely at the mention of Toyoda Conglomerate. “Back then, if you didn’t have Wang Daoming by your side, you’d probably have died long ago too! Now that Ko Gohon has arrived, we have to teach him a lesson no matter what!”

Hong Weiguo was also rather familiar with the deep hatred between the two families.

As the main pillar enterprise in Jaban State, Toyoda Conglomerate could be said to hold great authority in Jaban State. Back then, Jaban State invaded Heavenly State. Both parties fought a violent battle for a full 6 years, and eventually, though it lost and retreated back to its own country, Heavenly State’s side had suffered drastic losses as well.

The Hong and Wu families were the families of the founding fathers of the state. The Wu Family lost a military rank, and the young military officers under them had also suffered from a lot of casualties and deaths. For Hong Tu’s side, only he and Hong Wei survived. Hong Tu survived because of Wang Daoming’s protection, while Hong Wei was still young back then. However, though the two of them survived, their three older brothers all died in the war.

As for the Wu Family, they weren’t any better. Most of the people of the younger generation had practically died, and only a single offspring was left. Fortunately, after all, they had still built their roots here, so Heavenly State was quite generous in their treatment of the Wu Family. After tens of years of development, it had managed to survive.

Thus, it was imaginable how deep the hatred was between both parties.

On the surface, Ko Gohon came to look for Hong Dali to fight with him against the title of “Young Master,” but in fact, it was probably just an excuse to find trouble.

“En, Ko Gohon definitely isn’t harboring good intentions by finding Dali. This is definitely the case.” Hong Weiguo touched his chin. “The problem is that we don’t know how exactly he will execute his plans. In this day and age, if he doesn’t use any violent tricks, then we can’t implement any measures against him. If it’s regarding the business aspect, I’m afraid Dali…”

“It’s hard to predict about business matters,” Hong Tu slowly said. “Toyoda Conglomerate has a total asset of over 200 billion USD. If they really want to do anything, they can just train a puppet and secretly make investments into it. This is enough of a worry. This time Ko Gohon has definitely come because of this matter.”

“They have solid and strong funds.” Hong Weiguo rubbed his temples. “This Toyoda Conglomerate has always hidden behind the scenes, and its foundations hadn’t been shaken much. Back then, during that war, many of their people died as well, but only a few of them, about one or two, were real core members. Throughout the years, their financial development has been rapid. A total asset of 200 billion USD is truly not easy to tackle.”

“I don’t know if Dali is able to handle this.” Hong Wei sighed. “The opponent this time is not ordinary, and most importantly, they have solid and substantial funds. Moreover, I’ve heard that this Ko Gohon is also a very decisive person.”

“Yes, it’s not easy to deal with this.” Hong Ying worriedly said, “Why is Dali encountering such a thing? It’s quite good that he’s happily squandering usually, but there just have to be people who find trouble with him.”

“A tree that grows too tall will definitely be blown down by the wind.” Hong Tu, instead, grinned and said, “This proves that Dali is outstanding enough.”

“Elders,” Speaking up to this point, there was someone who came to report. “There’s a Bureau Chief waiting outside to meet you.”

“Oh?” Upon hearing that the Bureau Chief had come, Old Elder’s eyes instantly lit up as he hurriedly said, “Quickly invite him in!”

Very soon, the Bureau Chief’s laughter traveled into the room. “Hello, my three seniors. I’ve come uninvited, please forgive me for that.”

“Haha, you don’t have to be so polite.” Hong Tu stood up and welcomed him. He sized up the Bureau Chief first, then laughed heartily and said, “It’s Wu Di from the Wu Family, right? Back then when I saw you, you were still a baby. Now you’ve become the Bureau Chief already, hehe.”

Upon hearing this, Hong Weiguo was instantly shocked. He’d previously only knew that this Bureau Chief was the leader of the National Security Bureau, but he’d never thought that he would be the offspring of the family’s old friend. Had his father, Hong Tu, not pointed out his status, he would still be unaware of it.

The two founding families of Heavenly State, Hong Family and Wu Family, had a rather good relationship.

“Old Elder, you’re too kind. I’m still your junior, after all. Hehe.” The Bureau Chief, Wu Di, took a sit and slowly said, “Initially, because I was afraid that it would attract rumors and gossips behind my back, I hadn’t come to visit. But now there was a change in the situation, I had to make a trip here. Old Elder, please keep it a secret.”

“Understood, understood.” Hong Tu nodded.

News of the two founding families meeting in private would unavoidably cause those from above to guard against them. If there was suddenly a serious accusation being pinned on them, that would be big trouble. Thus, Wu Di had taken quite a huge risk to come here, which indicated the severity of the matter this time.

“Ko Gohon has already arrived in Tianjing, I believe you all know about this.” The Bureau Chief, Wu Di slowly said, “Those from above are very concerned about this issue. Or else, I wouldn’t dare to come just like that.”

“Why, is there any latest news again?” Hong Tu said in shock.

Ko Gohon coming to Heavenly State was already something that gave them quite a headache. This time, who knows what trouble he’d stirred up again.

“Yes.” Wu Di frowned. “According to the latest information, Ko Gohon is preparing 10 billion USD this time to destroy all the successful things that Hong Dali had started up here. Apart from the Big Turtle the Black Tortoise, which he doesn’t dare to touch, the other things that Dali had started up are all included in his plan. Moreover, CEO Tarō Gohon has personally expressed that if the money isn’t enough, he can transfer more.”

“It can’t be, right!” Upon hearing this, Hong Weiguo was totally stunned. “Such a large amount? It’s unlikely that they’d go so far just because of Dali, right?”

“Initially, I didn’t understand too.” Wu Di despondently said, “Actually, Dali is just a little prodigal. It’s unlikely that they’d go to such an extent just because of him. But afterward, after referring to the traces and clues as well as their usual style of doing things, I finally understood.

“Dali could become the Rookie King of the Year in the family just by squandering. Thus, from this, they discovered Dali’s huge potential. In order to avoid any future potential trouble because of him, they decided to entirely crush Dali’s confidence and make him turn into a true prodigal—the type that can only spend but cannot earn money.”

Upon hearing Wu Di’s words, Hong Weiguo and the rest were all stunned.

They never expected that the other party would dare to invest so much money into doing this.

But upon further thought, it made sense too. Hong Dali could earn more money the more he randomly squandered, and in the future, if he really wanted to focus on doing business, that would be worrying. Thus, Ko Gohon’s purpose of coming this time was very simple—attack and beat Hong Dali in all aspects and totally crush Hong Dali’s confidence, turning him into a true prodigal who only knew how to spend money but didn’t know how to earn money, eliminating all potential threats.

That was similar to the storyline in novels. The protagonist was a genius, and he advanced at a very fast speed in his life. If it was the typical flow of events, then he should climb higher and higher, step by step. But Tarō Gohon of the Gohon family didn’t think that way. After he got to know all the things that Hong Dali had done, he viewed Hong Dali as a rather threatening person. Thus, when Hong Dali just reached level 10, they planned to send out a level 100 expert to directly crush Hong Dali to death.

Crushing the opponent to death before the opponent had truly grown up and advanced, that was truly a wise decision.

“This is really…” Hong Tu frowned. “Back then, during that war, I’d already realized that this Toyoda Conglomerate likes to stifle and crush the young geniuses at the enemy’s side to death very much. The three older brothers of mine were the perfect example, and now they want to do the same thing again.”

“Yes, initially, I thought that this was only child’s play between young people.” Wu Di sighed. “Afterwards, upon hearing that there was such a big movement over there, I then felt that something was amiss and hurried here to inform all of you.”

“Then how should we deal with this?” Hong Weiguo said with a deep voice. “Oh right, what did those from above say?”

“Those from above express their fullest support.” Wu Di said, “As long as it doesn’t involve matters regarding principles, we’ll give our support in the policy aspects regarding all matters of Hong Dali’s. As long as he needs it, he will be allowed to do all the necessary procedures.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” Hong Weiguo heaved a sigh of relief.

As the helmsman of Sangle Company, Hong Weiguo naturally knew very well that if the nation didn’t give the go-ahead in something, the impact would definitely be serious. Many a time, everything might seem smooth in the beginning, but then time would be dragged through going through the procedures of inspections, documents for approval and so on, which would more often than not turn it from good to bad.

If Hong Dali had any good ideas and he made preparations for it to be executed, but eventually those from the above made all excuses not to approve it, then when the plan had finally been approved, the best timing would already have passed.

For instance, if Hong Dali wanted to purchase a piece of land, but eventually all the various documents for approval dragged it to one or two years, by then, the price of this piece of land would already have increased greatly. Then why still buy it…

Now that the Bureau Chief had said this, then naturally everything would be easier to be carried out, and at least they would have enough confidence.

“Since I’ve already passed on this message to you, it’s time for me to leave.” After he finished speaking, Wu Di stood up. “Remember not to take this matter lightly. Initially, I didn’t really care much about it too. After all, it’s between young people. But afterward, the situation had undergone too drastic a change, so I hope that everyone will take this seriously. As long as we don’t need to directly intervene, we’ll definitely give Hong Dali our fullest support.”

“En, we understand.” Hong Tu got up and sent his guest off. “It’s a special matter, I’ll not keep you any longer. In the future, we’ll get in contact again if there’s anything else.”

“En, keep in contact.”