Upon seeing Pan Ling rushing over, everyone spontaneously revealed amused smiles.

There was no way around it; she came right after we started talking about the "silly apprentice." Who else would we laugh at but you?

The foolish apprentice himself had no idea what was going on, but seeing the situation, he sensed something was wrong and subconsciously looked down at himself. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

Xu Shi suppressed his smile and asked as calmly as possible, "Is the meeting over? What was the result?"

"all the best."

When her master asked about serious matters, even though she had a lot of questions, Pan Ling could only put them aside and answer seriously.

"These two B-level city-states are nothing special, so I simply incorporated them into the alliance according to the previously established standards."

"Specifically, 'Mirror Lake County' possesses high-concentration liquid 'rust mist' veins similar to those in the Hualan Empire, and I've secured priority mining rights for a portion of it. The other, 'Flowing Cloud Kingdom,' is home to unique flora and fauna, and the locals' special abilities tend to be naturalistic… I've already spoken with Mr. Ning Wei and Qin Yiyan; they will be responsible for handling these aspects."

"As for the question of the 'protagonist,' according to the people who came to negotiate, no such existence has been found so far. However, they will keep a close eye on it and will report to us as soon as they find any signs."

She continued, "As for the people of 'Heavenly Principle'... we've always handled that ourselves; they don't need to worry about it too much."

Xu Shi nodded slightly.

A three-hour meeting, summarized in three sentences—truly, the essence is in the condensed form.

However, the foolish apprentice's report was spot on—they already had their own set of standards for recruiting new members into the alliance.

They value nothing more than these points: overall strength, resources, and the "protagonist".

Overall strength is naturally the most important criterion. Whether it is the overall strength of the "Ascended" or the individual SS "Ascended", this part can always well reflect the value of a region.

It's no exaggeration to say that once an SS exists in a region, it will basically be ranked among the top A-level city-states. Even if these people have eccentric personalities or are unwilling to get involved in alliances or diplomacy, they will generally not stand idly by if any major situation arises.

After all, according to their description, once "Heavenly Principles" does something, they cannot remain unscathed—this may not be credible to those who have not been exposed to these things, but the current "Star River" Federation is already quite large. One person may not represent anything, but what about ten people, or a hundred people?

If the situation wasn't really that serious, or if there wasn't such a potential crisis, why would those SS-rank or extremely powerful beings have agreed to form a group, right?

Xu Shi still remembers three years ago when he was just preparing to develop the alliance. It was indeed much more difficult back then than it is now. It is true that Yu Xingchuan led the team to be responsible for overseas diplomacy, but eight out of ten times he had to personally go out and present the facts and reason with them using the evidence he had collected.

Even so, many people remained suspicious, believing it to be a despicable tactic by outsiders... It wasn't until those "observers" of "heavenly justice" were exposed that these people realized they weren't just exaggerating.

But as the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If the foundation is solid, then breaking through barriers and presenting the complete world to everyone will become simpler and easier for people to accept.

Now everything is done by following procedures, and Xu Shi doesn't have to do everything personally anymore. For unimportant city-states, Assistant Pan can handle it. This can also be considered a kind of training for her.

Besides, it's not only SS-rank beings who are highly regarded by them—a year ago, they encountered a peculiar city-state, a self-contained world of high martial arts where everyone had the skills to cultivate and strong individuals were everywhere. Although there were no SS-rank beings, there were many A-rank and A+-rank "ascended beings," and even quite a few S-rank beings.

Finally, everyone gave the same rating for the area: A. This can't be described as an abundance of ants killing an elephant; rather, it's more like a pack of wolves that even lions and tigers have to be wary of.

Furthermore, there's the issue of resources. Joining the alliance means opening up the foreign trade system, which requires mutual exchange of resources. Otherwise, why would someone who has no connection with you help you? It's not like you're a relief center... This is probably a more detailed assessment under the rough division of ABC, and there are differences between regions with the same rating.

To give a simple example, the mineral resources of Nightsin City itself are not very abundant. Even after obtaining the high-concentration "Rust Mist" ore from the "Forsaken", the resource level still remains in the medium or even lower-middle range.

If it weren't for Boss Xu's pioneering spirit and the overall strength of Night Sin City, under a fair and just rating system, Night Sin City's overall level might have ranked lower among A-level city-states.

It can only be said that some people are born to be rich. There are quite a few resource-rich A-level city-states in recent years... Night Sin City now prefers to take the path of exchanging technology for resources, and then using resources to develop technology in a virtuous cycle. It's about playing to your strengths and avoiding your weaknesses, and there's nothing shameful about it.

Are there any regions that are not very strong but have abundant resources?

Of course, there are some.

But these city-states didn't fare so well—they were usually divided up by the A-rank city-states and left to their own devices.

What? You're asking what the leader of this alliance is doing?

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