Liu Qian seemed long accustomed to the wars between the two nations, so it was not surprising.
Chen Feng asked, "How have the victories and defeats between the two countries fared over these years?"
After thinking for a moment, Liu Qian replied
"There have been both wins and losses. The last war was ten years ago. At that time, our Yue Kingdom's army invaded the Ning Kingdom and even occupied three major cities, but we were driven back by the Ning Kingdom not long after."
Chen Feng did not speak, but instead fell into deep thought.
He always felt that the war between these two nations was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
According to what Liu Qian said, the wars between the two countries had lasted for countless years, yet neither Yue nor Ning had ever penetrated too deeply into the other's heartland.
They were always driven back after occupying only a few major cities.
Even if the strength of the two nations was comparable, it was impossible to maintain such a balance for so many years.
"Sect Master, there is no need to worry. The Ning Kingdom's army generally will not invade from our side. The geographical location of our Hengduan Mountains is unique; it is surrounded by great mountains, which are not suitable for the movement of large armies."
Thinking that Chen Feng was worried about the war involving the Xingfeng Sect, Liu Qian offered an explanation.
"Mhm. Send someone to keep an eye on the war situation. I am going into seclusion."
Chen Feng prepared to return to the modern world.
Although ten days had passed in the Scroll World, only two days had passed in the modern world.
By now, Jack should have sold off a portion of the gold.
By the time Chen Feng returned to the modern world, it was already nighttime.
He appeared in a sugarcane field on the outskirts of Shan State.
In the Golden Triangle, besides special "plants," sugarcane fields were the most common sight.
The climate here was also suitable for growing such things.
Chen Feng looked at the highway; the surroundings were quiet, without a single car in sight.
At this moment, Chen Feng felt that his cultivation was still too weak. When he entered a transcendent state, he could only fly at low altitudes for a maximum of three minutes.
He was simply too far behind those cultivators who could fly through the heavens and earth.
Just as Chen Feng was about to call Jack to arrange a pickup, a van drove up from the distance.
The van stopped in front of Chen Feng.
The driver waved at him and said, "Hey, want a ride? It's only fifty to get to Shan State urban area."
The man spoke in broken Chinese and appeared to be in his fifties.
Chen Feng nodded slightly and then got into the car.
The driver immediately greeted him with a beaming smile
"Young man, why are you out in a sugarcane field all by yourself in the middle of the night? You don't look like a farmer."
Facing the driver's inquiry, Chen Feng merely replied indifferently, "Just here for fun."
Seeing that Chen Feng did not seem to have much interest in conversation, the driver took the initiative to chat further.
He mostly talked about trivial daily matters, clearly attempting to distract Chen Feng.
In truth, Chen Feng had already noticed that the road the driver was taking him on was not toward the urban area of Shan State, but a remote backroad.
However, Chen Feng did not choose to get out; he possessed the confidence that comes with great skill.
In the modern world, aside from fully armed militaries, the threat posed by others to him was very low.
He also wanted to see where this driver intended to take him.
He wanted to see just how dark this place called the Golden Triangle truly was.
The Golden Triangle was a very suitable place for him to establish an armed force.
In Chen Feng's heart, a rough blueprint of a plan had already formed.
That was to end the long-standing chaos of the Golden Triangle and unify the region himself.
Setting aside the idea of founding a nation and declaring himself emperor, he at least wanted his influence to be significant on the international stage.
If you are just a company or an individual, it is impossible to purchase missiles, fighter jets, and other superweapons from the world's great powers.
But if you rule a region and have international recognition, things are different.
For example, Pakistan and some small African nations with friendly relations with Dragon Country have populations of less than a few hundred thousand, yet they can still purchase weapons from Dragon Country.
Chen Feng's idea was simple: since he couldn't obtain powerful weapons directly, he would buy them from a state.
Furthermore, since many people from Dragon Country were scammed into the Golden Triangle every year, if he could solve this issue, it wouldn't be a problem for the official Dragon Country authorities to provide some weapon assistance.
Chen Feng's general strategy was to develop his own industrial chain domestically to acquire massive amounts of capital, and then use that capital to develop his own armed forces in the Golden Triangle.
Subsequently, he would use the armed forces to obtain munitions to be sent to the Scroll World, and finally use the resources obtained from the Scroll World to strengthen his domestic industrial chain.
This would form a closed loop.
However, implementing his blueprint would take a long time.
The most pressing matter now was to solve the issue of his cultivation speed. If he lacked sufficient strength, none of these plans could be realized.
Only power that transcended the mundane could allow him to develop without restraint.
...
After driving on the pitch-black road for about ten minutes, the vehicle stopped.
Three trucks appeared on a dirt road not far away.
The truck beds were printed with faded advertisements for a certain brand of popsicle, making them look like quite old vehicles.
They were likely the old-style trucks that were popular in China in the early 2000s.
In a place like the Golden Triangle, the level of development was roughly equivalent to China in the early 2000s.
The van stopped not far from the trucks, and the driver said with a smile
"Young man, wait for me a moment. I ran into some acquaintances; I'm going to go have a quick chat."
Without waiting for Chen Feng's reply, the driver got out of the car and began chatting with several dark-skinned men standing by the trucks.
Although the locals in the Golden Triangle had Asian features, due to years of intense sun exposure and the tropical climate, their skin was very dark, making them easy to distinguish.
Even though the car doors were closed, Chen Feng's hearing allowed him to catch their conversation.
"Just one? Two thousand at most!" one of the dark-skinned men said with a look of disdain.
The driver said with a sycophantic smile
"This is high-quality goods. He's clean and looks like he comes from a wealthy family. Just let him make a phone call home, and getting a few hundred thousand won't be a problem."
The driver continued his sales pitch, clearly treating Chen Feng as merchandise.
At this moment, Chen Feng understood; he had run into a "pig slaughterer."
"Pig slaughtering" was a very common occurrence in Southeast Asia.
It usually involved meeting someone on the road who offered a ride or helped you find a job; if you followed these people, the only possible outcome was being sold as cargo.
There were many ways to be "sold," depending on the identity of the "piglet."
For instance, if you were male and your family could not afford to ransom you, you would be sent to a telecommunications fraud park to work in scams.
However, there was a threshold for fraud; if your performance did not meet the quota, you would be resold to drug lord families to grow "special" plants.
If you couldn't even grow the "special" plants well, they would squeeze out the last bit of value from the piglet by harvesting their kidneys.
As for women, they were basically sent to various entertainment venues to work as hostesses.
In any case, once you became a "piglet," your life was effectively over.
(End of Chapter)