God of Illusions

Chapter 417: Talk about Thunderstorms!

Translated by: pokka

Editor: Reckeva

“Alright then, I’ll keep your words in mind and wait for your good news. As for anything else, just tell me if you have any trouble, I will do my best as long as it’s something I can help with!” The crown prince happily agreed with a smile.

Whatever request you throw at me, I’ll take it!

“I’m very interested in the Thunderstorm Bandits. You should know quite some things about them,” said Bai Xiaofei casually as he gazed at the crown prince with a faint expectation.

“You mean the recent matter with the Bright Road Merchant House? Or is it something else?” The crown prince frowned and looked a bit troubled. However, he would answer because he still needed Bai Xiaofei’s help.

“Everything, I want to know everything you know as long as it is related to the Thunderstorm Bandits!”

Upon Bai Xiaofei’s request, the crown prince stopped for two full seconds before his eyes grew resolute.

“Wait a moment,” said the crown prince and walked into an inner room, then soon came out holding a box. “This contains every rumor related to the Thunderstorm Bandits ever since their debut until now. Everything that could be investigated is here.”

The crown prince opened the box, revealing thick notebooks inside.

“Paper?” Picking up one of them, Bai Xiaofei was a little surprised. Now that common puppet technology was so developed, paper had been gradually eliminated. The most visible example was that all the classes in Starnet now used common puppets while paper books were only available in the General History Shop.

“Can’t help it, this is a habit of the All-Knowing Pavilion. They refuse to use common puppets to record information. But don’t you underestimate these books, I only got them after paying a high price. Every single bit of information about this recently rising Thunderstorm Bandits is precious,” said the crown prince with confidence. His views might be biased, but the All-Knowing Pavilion would not be!

All-Knowing Pavilion: the only organization in the continent that made a living off selling news, excelled at collecting information. Basically nothing that happened in the continent escaped their eyes. The Rare Object Guide was one of their products.

However, the All-Knowing Pavilion was also self-aware, they knew very well that their kind of work would offend many. Therefore, they had formulated very strict systems that narrowly helped them get accepted by the major forces, and one of them was not to sell information of the weak to the strong. Moreover, even buyers were required to abide by this rule, or the All-Knowing Pavilion would retaliate to the end!

In other words, it was possible for the royal family of Ancient Yue to buy all of this information on the Thunderstorm Bandits, but not the Globe Merchant Group. As for why the Bright Road Merchant House didn’t buy it, this remained a puzzle.

“You should have had a plan in mind when you bought these.” After skimming two pages, Bai Xiaofei kept his elation in check and looked up at the prince.

“Keep reading them, I will tell you everything while you read.” The crown prince smiled.

When he had taken out the box, he had already intended to show all of his cards to Bai Xiaofei. This was the only capital he had to win over Bai Xiaofei’s full support.

“Not long ago, an executive of the Globe Merchant Group suddenly came to us and said that the Thunderstorm Bandits would soon come to Nabu. That person reminded us to buy these from the All-Knowing Pavilion and prepare for the Thunderstorm Bandits, and moreover promised us a huge gift if we could capture them.”

“My father didn’t believe them at first, but it didn’t take long for the Thunderstorm Bandits to arrive. While their target isn’t us but the Bright Road Merchant House, my father still worried that they would be unfavorable towards us, so he bought these things in the end. With this, we gained a basic understanding of the Thunderstorm Bandits. My father then decided to watch and wait because we can’t afford to mess with them.”

After that long speech, the crown prince paused. At the same time, Bai Xiaofei reached a page with their personnel list and information.

The so-called ‘mysterious’ was only relative. While the majority of people didn’t know what abilities the Thunderstorm Bandits held, it was nothing difficult for the All-Knowing Pavilion after so many heists.

However, there was no mention of Nie Qing in the records. This was probably the reason why she could successfully infiltrate the palace.

In another aspect, Bai Xiaofei could also see the Thunderstorm Bandits’ careful protection over their little sister. No wonder why they had wanted to come to her rescue at any risk, and it was no wonder that Fang Lei had been so harsh towards Bai Xiaofei back then.

It turned out that he had provoked the apple of their eye, the softest part of their hearts!

“You guys can’t even find a Grandmaster Rank puppet master in an entire country?” Bai Xiaofei asked with a hint of surprise as he closed the book.

According to the All-Knowing Pavilion’s information, the members of the Thunderstorm Bandits were all Master Rank, and the strongest – Fang Lei – was only at peak-grade of the Master Rank, yet they could scare the Ancient Yue royal clan to stay their hand with such few numbers.

“You think the rest of the continent is the same as Starnet Academy?” The crown prince smiled wryly. “For us small countries, it’s already hard for us to win over Master Rank puppet masters. Many don’t even have one. Those above the Master Rank all work for big empires or major organizations that offer them better development. Our small countries hold no attraction to them.”

Explaining a cruel fact, the crown prince sighed. There existed a vicious, unfair circle in the resource of talented people.

Strong organizations attracted more talents, and those talents would bring back more resources for their organizations, and these resources then attracted new talents. After several generations, it resulted in a situation in which the strong grew stronger and the weak grew weaker.

Unless a small organization could produce some elites of their own from scratch and level itself up to a certain height, this imbalance would never be broken. The Bright Road Merchant House had such an opportunity when they got their hands on the Skypatch Pill. Unfortunately, they didn’t make such a choice, or to be exact, Shang Youdao was too blinded by his so-called dream.

“In any case, it is good to have hope for the future. Complaining about everything, blaming everyone, and resigning to your fate won’t help you make any progress,” Bai Xiaofei concluded a great truth and grabbed the latest book. This one didn’t have as much content as the previous ones, but his eyes nearly popped out at what he read.

“What’s the matter?” the crown prince simply asked with tension in the air as Bai Xiaofei’s reaction didn’t escape his observation.

“Do you know the Skypatch Pill?” Bai Xiaofei turned to look at the prince with fire in his eyes.

“Of course, anyone should have heard of this legendary miracle pill.” The affirmative answer from the prince fueled the fanaticism in Bai Xiaofei’s eyes.

“Does it have any other effect besides giving the user the ability to manipulate elemental energy?”

The crown prince was stunned for two seconds by this question. As he pondered, his eyes suddenly lit up.

There is indeed!