Chapter 107 Only a chess piece
Putting his hand on the door, Xu Yi wanted to use force when a chill filled his heart and he withdrew his hand.
In that instant, he clearly felt a strange magic fluctuation coming from the door.
On this ordinary door, there was actually Magic Array!
If Xu Yi kept using force, the Magic Array would definitely have been activated.
Xu Yi felt into deep thought before stretching out his hand again.
His finger softly touched the door and Xu Yi felt a very faint magic coming from his finger. He investigated the Magic Array on the door bit by bit.
In order to research suitable magic machines, Xu Yi had reached a very high realm in terms of researching Magic Arrays, so he easily recognized that it was a Third Grade Wind Magic Array on the door, the Wind Burst Array.
Once this Magic Array was activated, it would send out intense air currents from the Magic Array.
Although a Third Grade Magic Array wasn’t strong, with the wind gusts being unable to take people’s lives, the gusts of wind would still be able to send people flying. Even if they didn’t die, they would still be injured.
After checking the door to the room, Xu Yi moved his finger from the door to the wall and investigated the faint magic energy traces on the wall.
In the end, he found that other than the door, there were actually Wind Burst Arrays placed on all four walls and the two windows!
This meant that in this room that wasn’t too big and didn’t seem that outstanding, it had actually been turned into a little jail cell!
Xu Yi took back his hand and slightly knit his brows.
The person who laid this trap didn’t seem to want to take his life, they just wanted to trap him here for a bit.
But this was the royal palace and wouldn’t others notice if he had been trapped here for a long time?
Xu Yi thought about this and instantly understood.
The other side should be trying to ruin his audience with the king.
Xu Yi had left the office at around four and had spent around half an hour on the way to the palace. Adding in the time he had spent waiting here, it was almost five which was Xu Yi’s time for his audience with the king.
Perhaps the person who prepared the trap didn’t want to get him stuck here, they just wanted to trap him for a while and make him unable to make it to his audience with the king on time.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi’s heart sunk.
With his current status, being able to obtain an audience with the king was very hard to get. If he missed this rare opportunity and showed up late to the meeting, he would without a doubt leave a bad impression on the king.
Even if Xu Yi could explain this, it wasn’t certain if he would have the chance to have another audience with the king. Even if he did, it wouldn’t mean that the king would trust him.
No matter what, if he missed this chance, it would be a very large hit to the plan that Xu Yi had in his heart.
Time was short and although Xu Yi had many questions in his heart, he didn’t have time to think it over. Taking a look at the gate that was shut, he gave a soft snort and slapped it.
Magic that was several times stronger than when he was investigating came out of his palm and instantly countless lines covered the door to the room.
The Wind Burst Array on the door was already covered by Xu Yi’s magic, but there wasn’t any signs of triggering. Instead, it was being erased bit by bit by Xu Yi’s magic.
After a while, a weak blue glow came from the door and then a breeze blew through the air, slightly moving Xu Yi’s hair.
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile. The Wind Burst Array on the door had already been broken by him and couldn’t be activated anymore.
After losing the obstruction of the Wind Burst Array, Xu Yi just needed to make a small change to the Wind Magic on the door and break the plug blocking the door.
With a “zhiya” sound, the door opened.
“Relying on a Third Grade Array to stop me, you really are looking down on me too much.” Xu Yi gave a soft snort. He kicked open the door.
When he wanted to walk out, several figures suddenly appeared outside the door and blocked Xu Yi off.
“Who is it? Daring to be this audacious in the palace! Catch him for me!”
With an angry roar, three large men wearing the uniform of palace guards charged at Xu Yi.
Seeing these three fierce men charging at him, Xu Yi hesitated a bit.
Breaking property wasn’t a problem, but if he moved against the palace guards, it would really cause trouble.
But he couldn’t hesitate at this time, as three guards were already in front of him. If he didn’t react, they would have caught him.
Xu Yi gave a sigh in his heart. He raised his hand and prepare to shoot out a spell.
“Stop!”
At that time, someone roared out.
The three guards had already grabbed Xu Yi when they heard this sound from behind them. They immediately stopped and not a single person moved.
Xu Yi was stunned and took two steps back, scattering the magic he had already gathered. He looked at where the sound came from and was also stunned.
The one who had suddenly appeared to stop the guards was actually Harvey.
Noticing that Xu Yi was looking at him, Harvey gave a nod of acknowledgement to Xu Yi before looking at the guard who seemed to be the commander and saying in a sharp voice, “What is going on here?”
The guard immediately gave a bow to Harvey and responded in a loud voice, “Reporting to the Lord Viscount, we were patrolling nearby when we rushed over after hearing strange sounds and then we saw……” The guard commander pointed at Xu Yi, “He came out of the room breaking the door. I don’t recognize this person and thought he was an assassin, so was prepared to capture him to interrogate him.”
Harvey knit his brows as he thought for a bit before waving his hand, “Alright, there is nothing for you here. You can leave.”
The guard commander hesitated a bit, “Lord Viscount, but he…..”
Harvey looked at him, “He is his majesty’s guest, do you need me to explain this to you?”
The guard commander trembled before he quickly straightened himself and shook his head.
“Then why aren’t you leaving yet? What are you standing like a fool for?” Harvey then shouted.
The guard commander looked at Xu Yi before leaving with the other guards.
When they left, Harvey came to Xu Yi’s side with a dark look and asked in a low voice, “Chairman Xu, what is going on here?”
Xu Yi thought about it before telling him everything that happened after he came to the palace.
After he finished listening to Xu Yi, Harvey knit his brows. It was clear that he didn’t understand, but he only thought about it for a bit before shaking his head and saying, “There’s no time to think about it now. Chairman Xu, it’ll be your audience with his majesty soon. Come with me, I’ll bring you to see his majesty.”
Xu Yi nodded and followed Harvey in another direction.
After walking in silence for a bit, Harvey looked to see if anyone was around before asking Xu Yi in a low voice, “Chairman Xu, when you see his majesty later, I ask you not to mention this matter.”
Xu Yi looked at him before giving a nod with a faint smile, “Be assured, I know how to separate important matters.”
Harvey gave a nod of praise, “Chairman Xu truly is a wise person. Let me tell you some good news, after his majesty saw the results of our experiments over these past few days, he was very satisfied with them and has great praise for your Frestech Chamber of Commerce. When you see him later, as long as what you demonstrate can satisfy him, he will definitely give you a rich reward.”
Xu Yi laughed, “Rewards don’t matter, it’s fine as long as his majesty can accept my proposal.”
“That’s depend on if chairman Xu can convince his majesty.” Harvey said with a smile.
After walking through another part of the palace, Harvey brought Xu Yi to a large garden before suddenly stopping.
“I can only bring you here. There will be another servant to bring you in later and then you’ll be able to see his majesty.” Harvey thought about it before warning in a low voice, “Remember, don’t say too much.”
Xu Yi looked at him and was a bit surprised that he was this nervous.
This was the royal palace, did Harvey think that what just happened could be hidden from the master of the royal palace?
Of course, Xu Yi didn’t ask the question in his heart and just gave a slight nod to show he understood.
Harvey then waved at a servant to the side and explained Xu Yi’s identity to him before hinting to Xu Yi to follow the servant.
When Xu Yi wanted to move forward, it was like he had suddenly remembered something and stopped.
After pausing for a bit, Xu Yi came to Harvey’s side and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, “Viscount Harvey, since his majesty has taken interest in the agricultural magic machines, the best method is to let nature take its course and not do anything extra. Otherwise if too many things are added, it would be hard to expect something happening.”
Harvey’s eyes shrunk slightly as his gaze looking at Xu Yi suddenly became sharp.
After looking at Xu Yi for a while, Harvey said in a voice that was much colder than before, “Chairman Xu, since you are an intelligent person, you should know that many things today are unrelated to you. You do not have the ability to meddle in them.”
Xu Yi smiled and thought that this Harvey really wasn’t deep enough. Just a casual poke by him and he had revealed his true colours already.
Of course, it was also likely that he disdained hiding things in front of Xu Yi. In the end, it was like he had said, with Xu Yi’s current identity and power, there were many things he couldn’t meddle in.
So even though he knew that the matter after he came into the palace was related to a battle between important people and he was just treated like a chess piece, he didn’t have any method to resist and couldn’t even express any opinion.
Of course, Xu Yi didn’t care that much about this. Anyway, the battle between important people weren’t too related to him and it was all good as long as he accomplished his goal.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi shook his head, throwing away all the thoughts that weren’t related to this matter and focusing his mind again.
If he treated establishing an industrial system as a war, then this meeting with the king was without a doubt an important campaign at the beginning of the war.
Chapter 108 I have some very valuable things
“Your majesty, this picture is the scene after a small Magic Harvester harvests the wheat.” Xu Yi spread a picture on the table, enthusiastically explaining this to the Lampuri Kingdom’s King Keynes Lampuri, “Look, the wheat in the field is very rich and if it was harvested with manpower, it would take three days to an entire week before it could be done. Then it would take another two days using a cow turned stone roller to peel it all. Finally it would take about a day to completely extract all the grains. Moreover, once the weather changes, it will greatly affect this process.”
“This entire process together takes around ten days to half a month and the effects aren’t good, therefore it would waste many grains of wheat and wheat that can’t be unshelled in time. But if we use our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s small Magic Harvester, this wheat field could be finished harvesting in just an hour. Look, after this wheat is taken from the front of this small Magic Harvester, it only takes the blink of an eye for it to turn into wheat grains spat out the back. The person in charge just needs to prepare the bag at the back of the harvester, look how much effort that saves!”
King Keynes Lampuri was forty eight years old this year and was in the prime of his life. He had a rectangular face and a serious expression, without any extra fat on his body. It could be seen that he paid great attention to exercising, clearly having a lot of energy.
Hearing Xu Yi’s eloquent speech, he only sometimes cut in to ask about a few details. Most of the time, he seriously listened to him and only stopped to reveal a thoughtful expression.
After seeing Xu Yi’s introduction of the small Magic Harvester coming to an end, King Heynes thought about it before suddenly asking, “Chairman Xu, you keep saying small. Does that mean that there is a bigger version of the Magic Harvester?”
Xu Yi was a bit surprised. He never thought that after the king listened to him for a while, he would first ask about this.
“Your majesty’s guesses aren’t wrong. Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce will soon promote medium Magic Harvesters and then will promote some large Magic Harvesters. Of course, in my plan, there will be many models of the Magic Harvester to deal with different requirements. This will not be limited to the specifications of small, medium, and large.”
King Heynes gave a slight nod, “Not bad, you can think of this which means that you didn’t just come up with the small Magic Harvester based on sudden inspiration. I thought that with your Frestech Chamber of Commerce making all kinds of novel magic machines without stopping, this small Magic Harvester was only a temporary thought for you. I was worried that you didn’t consider everything and was afraid that you were just coming here to sell me these things. Looking at it now, I’ve underestimated you.”
Xu Yi said in surprise, “Your majesty, hearing your tone, you already had a long term plan in place?”
“That’s right.” King Heynes revealed a faint smile, “I understand Count Sean and I didn’t doubt the description of his letter, so I didn’t doubt the powerful ability of the agricultural magic machines that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce produced. But I couldn’t confirm if your Frestech Chamber of Commerce had even more abilities. Like the different kinds of Magic Harvesters you mentioned earlier, although our Lampuri Kingdom mainly has plains, there are complicated terrain. It is impossible to use a single kind of Magic Harvester on all those different kinds of terrain. Moreover, if your agricultural magic machines could only work on the terrain near Banta City, it would have lost most of its value in being promoted.”
Xu Yi’s eyes lit up, “Your majesty, does this mean you have already agreed?”
King Heynes laughed, “If it can increase the harvest, why wouldn’t I agree? Actually when I decided to summon you, I already made the decision to promote these magic machines. The only problem was how to promote them.”
Aftering saying this, King Heynes stopped and looked at Xu Yi with a ghost of a smile.
Xu Yi immediately understood. The real discussion was coming.
“This……” Xu Yi was silent for a bit before saying with a smile, “Your majesty, I still insist on my basic conditions which is that the technology for the agricultural magic machines won’t be given to the agricultural department. If you must insist, perhaps I won’t be able to reject, but me and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce won’t participate in promoting the agricultural magic machines.”
Xu Yi nervously looked at the king after saying this.
He was very clear that in this half slave and half feudal society, there was no doubt of the king’s authority. If the king insisted on Xu Yi giving up the technology, Xu Yi couldn’t resist at all and could only hand it over.
But like this, it was equal to Xu Yi losing out on the large agricultural magic machine market and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce will suffer a large loss from this.
But the more important thing is that this would be a very bad start.
If the king forced Xu Yi to hand over the agricultural magic machine technology and if he took a liking to another magic machine from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, would he force Xu Yi to hand it over again?
In order to avoid any future problem, whether it was in front of Harvey or the king, he had to clearly express his rejection of this idea.
King Heynes looked at Xu Yi for a while before suddenly saying with a smile, “Chairman Xu, do you think I’m such a greedy person? Or do you think I’m a dumb person?”
Xu Yi was surprised before quickly shaking his head, “Of course not. You are the outstanding wise king of our Lampuri Kingdom, how could I feel you are greedy or dumb?”
“Since it is like this, why did you think that I would make you hand over the technology for the agricultural magic machines?” King Heynes then asked.
“This…...Did Viscount Harvey not represent your ideas?” Xu Yi mentioned Harvey’s proposal from the other day.
King Heynes narrowed his eyes before giving a snort and saying while waving his hand, “That is only his proposal, I didn’t have these plans. I can promise you now that no matter what magic machines your Frestech Chamber of Commerce develops, they will all belong to your Frestech Chamber of Commerce. I am not interested in the technology of your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, I only care about whether your agricultural magic machines can be used on the farmland of our Lampuri Kingdom and whether they can increase our kingdom’s harvest or not. Do you understand what I mean?”
Xu Yi was instantly overjoyed. With these words from the king, the stone in his heart finally fell down.
With the promise of the king, this was equivalent to receiving a protective charm. Xu Yi didn’t need to worry about someone using their authority or power to steal his technology anymore.
“That’s right, your majesty, while I have this opportunity, I have another suggestion.” Xu Yi decided to strike while the iron was hot, directly telling him of his patent protection plan.
Hearing Xu Yi explain his patent protection plan, King Heynes thought about it for a bit before giving a slight nod, “This idea isn’t bad. According to what you said, with this patent protection law, each company can protect their technology with the patent, so they won’t need to worry about others stealing their technology to use like before. Like this, those lazy companies would have to think of their own ways to make new technology?”
“Your majesty is truly wise.” Xu Yi couldn’t help praising.
This King Heynes could actually immediately see the greatest benefit of this patent protection law, he truly was the wisest king in the history of the Lampuri Kingdom.
Other than this function, the companies with the patents need to give up some protection fee. This way the kingdom can gain some income from this and the companies would be willing to hand it over.” Xu Yi added.
King Heynes looked at Xu Yi, “You mentioned this thing and you voluntarily added in the protection fee?”
Xu Yi stood straight and said with a righteous appearance, “Your majesty, if you want some harvest, you have to pay something! This is the consciousness a merchant should have!”
King Heynes laughed as he pointed at Xu Yi and said, “You’re reminding me that obtaining benefits from your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, I should give out an appropriate price?”
Xu Yi laughed, not saying anything and not denying it.
King Heynes laughed for a while before slowly stopping. He said with a nod, “You have to pay to obtain benefits. These words aren’t bad. But chairman Xu, I am not agreeing to your proposal from before, so I’m not agreeing to these conditions that you have set.”
“Why?” Xu Yi knit his brows, “Your majesty, I feel that the proposal I gave Viscount Harvey and Miss Seveni was perfect. Not only does it benefit both our Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the kingdom, it also includes all the problems that could come up when promoting these agricultural magic machines. This matter, it’ll be easily accomplished if we cooperate.”
“Your words are correct, but I don’t want this much trouble.” King Heynes took a document from beside him to hand to Xu Yi, “These are my thoughts, have a look.”
Xu Yi flipped through the document with wonder.
The proposal on the document was very simple. King Heynes was representing the Lampuri Kingdom to place a large order for agricultural magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce needed to finish these orders according to the requirements of the agricultural department while also providing technical training, post sale services, and other services.
Simply speaking, this proposal was a simple trade contract. Other than the buyer being the kingdom’s agricultural department, there wasn’t any official feeling to it at all.
Perhaps if it was put a bit more straightforward, the king was only discussing an ordinary piece of business with Xu Yi.
Of course, the scale was a bit big because the king’s first order was for ten thousand small Magic Harvesters.
Xu Yi looked over it carefully a few times and noticed a problem.
“Your majesty, the current market price for the small Magic Harvester is seventy gold coins and if you buy ten thousand at once, the price will be a high seven hundred thousand gold coins. Do…..you have this much money?”
Xu Yi had no choice but to doubt this. Based on the information Harvey had blurted out, the Lampuri Kingdom’s tax revenue last year was less than a million gold coins. How could it be possible for them to suddenly take out seven hundred thousand gold coins to buy these small Magic Harvesters?
King Heynes smiled and spread his hands, as he directly said, “No.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling depressed. He rubbed his nose and said with a bitter smile, “Your majesty, we are only a small company, we can’t do business on credit.”
King Heynes was amused by Xu Yi and gave a few laughs. He looked at Xu Yi with a teasing expression and said, “Although I don’t have money, I have some very valuable things. Chairman Xu, what do you want?”
Xu Yi’s eyes instantly lit up.