133: Chapter 133 The Empire is Dead, Business Lives On

As it turned out, Levi's insight into human nature was chillingly accurate.

Three days later, the first grain auction was held in Silvermoon City's largest city hall.

The speculative baron whom Ella had first targeted was like a shark scenting blood; he was the first to charge in, snapping up the largest share at a price far exceeding market expectations.

The rest of the merchants were infected by this greedy frenzy and followed suit, terrified of falling behind in this carving-up feast.

In just one morning, grain prices were pushed to an unprecedented peak.

The merchants who secured their shares had complex expressions of pain mixed with excitement, as if they could already see gold coins piling up like mountains in their future warehouses.

As for Baron Valerius, he did not receive an invitation.

He could only sit like a ghost abandoned by the era, perched in the highest tower of his castle, gazing from a distance through a narrow window at the hustle and bustle of Silvermoon City.

He could imagine the coarse laughter of those upstart merchants and the crisp clinking of gold coins on the counting tables.

None of it had anything to do with him.

A week later, the second auction took place as scheduled.

This time, it wasn't just grain being auctioned; there were also confiscated mines, timber yards, and even the transit rights to several key trade routes.

The The Foundation used a cold and efficient method to carve the corpses of the old Northern nobility into tempting pieces of fat and toss them onto the market.

In Baron Valerius's territory, stewards began reporting to him that the family's Snow-Top Wheat was starting to mold in the warehouses because they couldn't find new buyers.

His eldest son, studying in the Imperial Capital, wrote a letter cryptically complaining that his allowance was no longer enough to maintain his dignity in the circles of top-tier nobility.

His second son also stopped his swordsmanship training because he could no longer afford the expensive hourly rates of a high-level Battle Qi instructor.

Pressure, like an invisible noose, tightened around the neck of this old-line noble loop by loop, leaving him breathless.

When Levi sent Evelyn to present an "Equity Conversion Agreement" to him, the wrinkled face of Baron Valerius no longer held any of the stubbornness or glory belonging to the old nobility.

He sat in silence for an entire night, and the next morning, with a trembling hand, he signed his name at the end of the agreement.

This name was like the first domino to fall.

Over the following half-month, all the old nobles in the North who were still on the fence seemed to have made an appointment, lining up to visit Blackstone Territory's temporary office in Silvermoon City—which was Ella's mansion.

They had once been proud feudal lords, the absolute rulers of their respective territories.

But now, they were like a group of startup founders waiting for an IPO bell to ring, crowding into the drawing room that once belonged to Ella, arguing until they were red in the face over how much The Foundation shares their family's land, minerals, and population could be converted into.

Ella sat behind a screen, quietly listening to it all.

She heard those barons and counts, who were just yesterday speaking grandly of "Imperial Glory" and "Family Heritage," now skillfully using new terms spread by Levi like "P/E ratio," "asset valuation," and "dividend rights," not hesitating to attack and expose each other's flaws for a fraction of a percent of equity.

Without shedding a drop of blood and without even appearing in person, Levi had tamed a pack of unruly Northern lions into a pack of hyenas snarling over scraps in a conference room.

In the evening, after the last "new shareholder" left satisfied yet slightly uneasy, Ella finally couldn't help but walk into Levi's study.

Levi was standing before a massive sand table, holding several thin threads of different colors, seemingly planning something.

"You've won," Ella's voice carried a hint of indescribable exhaustion. "The entire North has now become your... company. What's next? Are you planning to have the Byron Family crest replace my father's Radiant Gryphon on the walls of Silvermoon City?"

She asked the greatest doubt in her heart, which was also her greatest fear.

With this kind of method that subverted everything, the ultimate goal must surely be supreme power.

Levi didn't look back; he simply drew a red line representing logistics from the location of Blackstone Territory all the way to the iron-mining regions in the far east of the North.

"Your Highness, your vision is too narrow," his voice sounded calm in the empty sand table room. "Rule? A fragile title maintained by decrees and violence while sitting on a cold throne? That's too inefficient and too boring."

He turned around and gestured for Ella to come closer.

Ella hesitated for a moment but still walked to the edge of the sand table.

Only then did she realize that on this exquisitely detailed sand table of the North, there wasn't a single piece representing troop movements, no fortresses, and no defensive lines.

There were only dense networks of lines.

Red lines represented transportation routes for grain and ore, blue lines represented capital flow networks, and gold lines represented information transmission channels.

These lines were like a giant spiderweb covering every inch of the North, eventually converging in one place—Blackstone Territory.

"What I want isn't rule, but monopoly." Levi's fingers lightly brushed over those colored lines as if stroking a perfect work of art. "When I control everyone's livelihood in the North, everyone's wealth, everyone's source of information, and even the future of their descendants, does it still matter who sits on that throne?"

"A king's command might make a noble lose his head. But my data analysis can decide whether that noble should plant wheat or raise sheep next year, determine if his son can marry the woman he loves, and decide if his family crest will still shine a hundred years from now or be auctioned off due to bankruptcy in ten."

"This," Levi said word by word, his gaze falling on Ella's shocked face, "is true power."

Ella felt a bone-chilling cold rise from her spine.

Looking at the man before her, she realized for the first time that she might be facing an existence more terrifying than a demon from the abyss.

Just then, a hurried set of footsteps came from outside the door, and a Royal Gryphon Messenger, led by an attendant, walked in quickly with a solemn expression.

He knelt on one knee, holding high a parchment scroll sealed with wax and the Radiant Family crest.

"An emergency decree from the Imperial Capital!"

The air instantly froze.

The smile on Levi's face remained unchanged as he reached out to take the decree.

He tore open the wax seal, unfurled the parchment, and his eyes quickly scanned the harsh language written in the Common Tongue.

Reprimands, orders, the dissolution of the The Foundation, the surrender of all assets, Ella's immediate return to the capital... and finally, a cold threat—otherwise, the Byron Family would be considered an enemy of the Empire.

Every word carried the Emperor's fury and unquestionable majesty.

The next morning, the The Foundation's first General Meeting of Shareholders was held in the Silvermoon City Council Hall.

All the newly joined Northern nobles attended in full dress, their faces filled with anticipation for the future and a hint of anxiety.

They thought the meeting was to discuss the first quarter's dividend plan.

Levi stepped onto the podium without saying a word.

He simply had Evelyn distribute two documents to everyone.

One was a copy of His Majesty the Emperor's decree.

The other was the The Foundation's financial statement from its first half-month of operation, along with a list of back taxes they would need to pay to the Imperial center according to the old Imperial tax laws if the The Foundation were to be dissolved.

At first, when the nobles saw the Emperor's decree, their faces turned pale, and a chorus of suppressed gasps and whispers filled the hall.

Fear spread like a plague.

But when they saw the second document, their fear was quickly replaced by another, more intense emotion.

On the financial statement, the figures representing profit sparkled like gold; they were massive gains the likes of which they hadn't seen in the past decade.

And that list of tax amounts was like a series of daggers, precisely stabbing into each of their hearts.

They realized with horror that under the The Foundation's model, they had avoided a vast amount of exorbitant taxes and levies that would have otherwise been paid to the Empire through various legal "cost operations" and "tax planning."

If they returned to the old ways, they would not only lose future windfall profits but would also have to pull a large sum of money from their already shriveled pockets to fill the Empire's coffers.

This was as good as taking their lives!

"Dissolve the The Foundation? Has the Emperor gone mad!" a young baron cried out; he had just received a loan through the The Foundation and was preparing to expand the winery business in his territory.

"This is trying to kill us! I'd rather fight the barbarians in the south than give a single copper to those bloodsucking tax collectors!"

"We can't just sit here and wait for death!"

The hall instantly erupted into chaos; the fear on the nobles' faces was ignited by greed and anger, and the commotion grew louder, like a pack of beasts about to have their food stolen.

Levi remained silent, just quietly watching it all, watching the fire he had personally lit.

Just as the commotion was about to turn into an uncontrollable riot, Ella, who had been sitting beside Levi, slowly stood up.

She wore a purple gown symbolizing her royal status, her expression calm yet carrying an unprecedented determination.

She walked to the front of the stage and took the original copy of the Emperor's decree from Levi's hand.

The eyes of the entire room instantly focused on her.

"Everyone," her voice wasn't loud, but it clearly cut through all the noise.

"As a Princess of the Empire and the overseer of the Northern Army Aftermath Foundation," she raised the decree, her violet eyes scanning everyone present, "I believe this decree was issued based on incorrect and seriously distorted intelligence."

She paused, every word carrying weight.

"In my name, I will formally send a reply back to the Imperial Capital. I will tell my father, His Majesty the Emperor, that for the stability and prosperity of the North, I, Ella Radiance, will temporarily remain here. At the same time, I will request that he dispatch a high-level investigation team to the North to 'verify' in person the 'immense contributions' the The Foundation has made to the reconstruction of the Empire's frontier."

Having said that, she turned around, picked up a charcoal pencil and a blank piece of parchment from the table, and began to write the reply that would shake the entire northern frontier of the Empire under the gaze of all the nobles.

Every stroke of her pen seemed to declare the start of a war.

An open betrayal of the Empire in the name of "loyalty."

A deathly silence fell over the conference room, leaving only the scratching sound of the charcoal pencil moving across the parchment.