Chapter 012: Cooperation

“We’ll provide the personnel and invest half each. You’re responsible for recruitment and the location. As for the trained talents, it will be seven parts for us and three parts for you,” Edward said.
Hearing this, Du Fanhe immediately stood up, but soon the pressure in his stomach forced him to sit back down weakly.
“President Edward, isn’t this going too far? We’re investing half each and still responsible for recruitment and the location, yet the trained talents will be seven parts for you and three parts for me. Do you really think I can accept such terms?” Du Fan said, rubbing his stomach and groaning.
“So, what’s Duke Du Fan’s suggestion?” Edward asked carefully.
“President, as you know, our Siluo Province is extremely poor. So, if you want to set up a magic school with me, I can at most cover 30% of the investment, but I must get 70% of the trained talents!” Du Fan said.
“Du Fan! That’s too much!” Edward exclaimed loudly upon hearing this.
“Am I too much? I don’t think so,” Du Fan said coldly with a smile. “President, you should know that when recruiting students, most will come from my territory. Moreover, we’re giving up our land and our people! I’m only asking for 70% of the students. Am I too much?” Du Fan also spoke loudly.
“Du Fan! The talents belong to us! You must understand that aside from our guild, no one else on this continent has the strength to establish a professional magic academy!” Edward said loudly.
“Hmph, President Edward, don’t forget that the number of elves who are magicians is certainly not less than that of your magic guild,” Du Fan retorted with a snort.
“Elves may have many magicians, but Duke Du Fan, do you plan to train everyone as nature-themed magicians?” Edward said with a cold smile.
Seeing such terms, Edward could never agree. Du Fan quickly changed the subject.
“Well then, President Edward, which of my requests can’t you meet?” Du Fan asked with a smile.
“There’s no problem with us investing seven parts. After all, as you said, your Siluo Province isn’t very wealthy. But we definitely can’t divide the trained talents that way,” Edward said immediately, noticing Du Fan’s tone had softened.
“Ahaha, then according to your opinion, how should we divide the trained students?” Du Fan asked with a smile.

“At most 40% for you! No more!” Edward said.
“50-50, half for each of us! Otherwise, forget it!” Du Fan immediately replied.
“Okay! Half for each then!” Edward said firmly after hearing Du Fan’s response.
“Good, deal!” Du Fan said.
And so, a brand new magic school on the continent was decided upon in this way.
After deciding on the joint venture, Du Fan, amid Edward’s annoyed expression, plundered the Magic Guild thoroughly before leaving.
Back at home, the first thing Du Fan did was go to the basement, which Chenchen and Ringtone had already turned into a high-level laboratory on the continent.
This time, Du Fan went down together with Naixiu.
Upon seeing Naixiu, Ringtone froze for a moment, but when Naixiu saw her, she smiled and said to Du Fan, “Du Fan, this girl is quite pretty. How about taking her as your wife?”
Naixiu surely knew Ringtone’s feelings—after all, they were both women—given Ringtone’s flustered and shy expression upon seeing her.
Hearing Naixiu’s words, Ringtone’s face turned even redder.
“Du Fan, who is this? Why isn’t Chenchen back? Why is she here with you?” Ringtone asked curiously.
“Oh, I told you yesterday—Chenchen still has matters to attend to in the Siluo Province and can’t leave. By the way, this is the queen of the elves, Naixiu. Naixiu, this is Ringtone. Ringtone also has another identity—she’s the high priestess of the barbarians,” Du Fan said with a smile.
Hearing this, a hint of sadness appeared on Ringtone’s face.
Having been away from the tribe for so long, she really couldn’t bear to leave.
Seeing Ringtone’s expression, Du Fan said softly, “Ringtone, don’t worry. You’ll be able to return to the tribe soon. Naixiu’s strength is already enough to slay gods. Not to mention that Ganon is just a domain powerhouse—even if he were a god, he’ll fall next time!” He emphasized these words firmly.
“Is that true? Sister Naixiu, are you really that powerful?” Hearing Du Fan’s words, Ringtone’s attitude toward Naixiu immediately changed, and she started calling her sister right away.
All along, returning to the tribe—aside from eliminating Ganon—had been Ringtone’s greatest wish. Suddenly hearing that this wish was within reach filled her with joy.

Seeing Ringo’s expression, Nayshu suddenly felt a sense of pity. Perhaps her own longing for her parents was very similar to Ringo’s desire to return home.
Another thing was that, in Nayshu’s eyes, Ringo posed no threat to her—neither in appearance, skill, nor backing. She felt that Ringo couldn’t threaten her at all.
It wasn’t like Chenchen; from the moment they met, she had felt a sense of danger.
“Good sister, I promise you. Once we’re done here, if you want, we’ll avenge you and help you kill that Gan Nong you mentioned!” Nayshu said solemnly, stroking Ringo’s hair.
Of course, Nayshu also had another plan in mind—Du Fan had been incredibly brave that night! If she didn’t quickly find more people to help him, she might not have a peaceful life in the future.
“Ringo, I brought something with me today. Please take a look and see if we can cultivate it in large quantities under our conditions,” Du Fan said hurriedly, seeing the affectionate bond between the two women.
Du Fan naturally knew that two such women together would have endless topics to talk about.
“Oh, okay, Du Fan. What is it? Bring it in quickly,” Ringo replied promptly upon hearing him, then headed toward the laboratory.
Once inside the laboratory, Du Fan took out the materials for cultivating mutated fire lilies, along with live samples of the fire lilies. Ringo took these items and began studying them carefully right away.
Watching Ringo focus on her research, Nayshu and Du Fan wandered around the laboratory.
Having never seen a magic laboratory before, Nayshu was filled with curiosity.
“Du Fan, do human magicians really deal with these things?” Nayshu asked in amazement as she looked around the magic laboratory.
“That’s right. For a human magician, having an advanced laboratory is a source of pride. In such a laboratory, one can not only create high-quality magic weapons but also various magic scrolls and potions,” Du Fan explained to her.
“Why are these necessary? I remember that our elf magicians never deal with such things,” Nayshu said, even more puzzled.

Mages of the Natural School among the elves all live in the Elven Forest, a place filled with a primitive natural atmosphere. Moreover, elves are born mages with an exceptional sensitivity to magic related to nature. Coupled with their long lifespans, these factors mean that they simply do not need to build laboratories to enhance their magical skills.

However, human mages build magic laboratories for another reason as well.

“Naixiu, you don’t know that in human society, mastering magic requires a great deal of money—buying magic stones and various magical equipment all costs a lot. This is also why human mages prefer to join powerful factions; only wealthy noble families have enough money to commission mages to do what they want. Additionally, these mages produce various purified magical materials and finished magical products in their laboratories, which can be exchanged for large amounts of money to cover their daily expenses,” Du Fan explained.

As he spoke, Du Fan casually took out a magic scroll inscribed with the Flaming Blast spell. “For example, a scroll like this is worth only about a dozen gold coins when finished, but once created, its value can increase by dozens or even hundreds of times!” he said.

“Then it’s easy for mages to earn money, right?” Naixiu asked.

“Haha, you’re right. The higher the rank of the mage, the faster they can earn money. But Naixiu, you also need to know that high-ranking mages start as low-ranking mages who train step by step. A decent magic laboratory like this requires tens of thousands of gold coins to build. For a low-ranking mage, however, tens of thousands of gold coins is an astronomical amount!” Du Fan further explained.

As the two continued talking while walking, Ringtone approached.

“Du Fan, growing these Flaming Grasses isn’t a problem. The issue is the huge cost involved! Growing them requires a large amount of Fire Magic Stones. It’s estimated that growing just one pound of Flaming Grasses needs about 300,000 gold coins for Fire Magic Stones. Of course, growing large quantities of such grasses would require an even greater amount of Fire Magic Stones, which would surely drive up their price!” Ringtone said firmly.

Hearing this, Du Fan’s heart sank. It seemed that his idea of creating gunpowder in this world was difficult to realize. Suddenly, Du Fan remembered another question. “Ringtone, can such fireflowers be used to create an explosive substance?” he asked. “Given the massive amount of fire elements contained in fireflowers, as long as a small amount of fire energy is introduced to ignite them, it will definitely cause an explosion,” Ringtone replied confidently. Hearing this, Du Fan felt somewhat relieved. At least, there were substances in this world that could be used to make explosives. The problem now was how to cultivate these substances in large quantities. “Is there any other way?” Du Fan asked, looking at Ringtone. “Basically, there isn’t any other way. Of course, it’s not absolutely impossible. If we were to find another way to cultivate them, it probably wouldn’t be easy either,” Ringtone said. “Another method is to cultivate these fireflowers in large numbers, using time to increase their quantity. Although they don’t have the abundant fire elements from fire demon stones for absorption, there are still fire elements in the world. In theory, as long as these fireflowers keep growing, they can develop into the desired product. Once they do, their effects will be similar,” Ringtone explained.