As Lux was feeling ashamed and distressed about being blocked, Litch had already made contact with several planets closer to Orange Clouds.
The closest one was Sharbi, which took about two days to reach by spaceship. The farthest one was Labust, which took about a week.
These planets were all independent nations. They weren’t as powerful as the United States of Bekra, which owned several residential and resource planets. But as Litch guessed, their attitudes were indeed more friendly.
These nations were very surprised when they learned that Litch approached them for food trade.
For a small nation with only one planet, the food crisis was more prominent.
Not all nations were good at planting or could cultivate high-yield varieties, nor could they master advanced agricultural technologies such as soilless cultivation.
Each planet represented its own independent civilization. They all belonged to the same technological civilization, but their development speed varied.
They had brilliance, but they also faced crises that were difficult to resolve on their own.
After coming into contact with these nations, Litch felt that his knowledge had been enriched. He had more insights into this mysterious and vast universe.
He couldn’t help feeling sympathy for these undeveloped nations that were controlled by others, which reminded him of Roland in the past.
Therefore, he was happy to cooperate with them and tried his best to achieve a win-win result.
The first nation he arrived at was the Sharbi Empire, which was also a nation ranked outside 170th in the rankings. it wasn’t weak, but it wasn’t strong either.
According to his understanding, the Sharbi Empire had recently suffered an insect plague that almost swept across half of the planet, resulting in a significant reduction in grain production this year. This was also an important reason why Litch chose Sharbi as his preferred partner after regrouping.
On the day that Litch arrived, the head of Sharbi held a grand welcome ceremony for him. Not only the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but even their emperor showed up in person.
This made Litch feel flattered, but he always kept his mission in mind. After all, he was trained by Her Highness Princess Val, so he didn’t show any inappropriate behavior.
The negotiations naturally went very smoothly. After all, Litch’s arrival could be said to have solved the urgent needs of the Sharbi Empire.
After this insect plague, it might take several years for the land of Sharbi to fully recover. In order to cope with the famine, they needed to purchase a large amount of food.
After tasting the Black Valley brought by Litch, the Sharbi Empire offered the highest purchase price it could afford with trepidation.
These black grains had obviously been improved. Not only were the grains fuller, but they obviously weren’t stale. Their nutritional value hadn’t been lost during the long-distance teleportation.
It could be said that the quality was very superior, and the taste was even better than the grains grown locally. The cooked rice porridge had a sweet taste.
So they offered a price slightly higher than the market price, but they weren’t confident that they could satisfy Litch.
After hearing the price, Litch’s face looked a bit strange. It wasn’t that he was dissatisfied with the price, but Sharbi seemed particularly sincere compared to the people from Saikon.
You know, the Roland Empire having very advanced preservation technology wasn’t a boast.
What better way to preserve food than to turn it into a card?
In fact, the goods he brought out were basically stored in the cards and would only be released when they were about to arrive.
It was unknown how many years Lilith had survived in the card, let alone the grains and vegetables that had only been left for a month or two.
However, it was thanks to the braves that they could turn so much food into cards.
The skill of card transformation consumed mental strength and magic power, but the mental strength requirement was higher. The more things turned into a card, the more mental strength consumed.
These braves were truly a group of geniuses!
They all learned card knowledge at around the same time, but the braves’ progress was very fast and many of them had become junior card masters.
Therefore, many tasks that required card transformation were given to them.
Of course, the most talented one was their emperor.
The emperor had a strong talent in the field of being a card master. Litch heard that he combined the card transformation skill with the power of an elementalist to finally create a more practical elemental card transformation skill.
After using this skill to turn things into cards, a card master wasn’t needed to release things. They only needed to use mental strength to control the elements attached to the cards to unlock the cards.
There was no requirement as to which type of elements it should be.
Therefore, now anyone who awakened the elementalist talent, whether they were a spiritualist or a warrior and regardless of their level, could use this card-based product.
Elemental control was the most basic thing, and the ability to control elements was the hallmark of an elementalist. Anyone could do this as long as they were an elementalist. This undoubtedly greatly increased the practicality of cards.
After all, as the concentration of elements increased, every citizen of Roland must practice meditation and body tempering. More and more people were awakening their talents.
It was just that the level generally wasn’t high now.
These days, the granaries of the Roland Empire generally used card-based storage. This not only eliminated the need to regularly replace old grain, but also greatly saved space and management costs.
The goods transported to Orange Clouds were all boxes of cards. One wooden box could often carry an entire warehouse of Black Valley, which was very convenient.
However, despite the abundance of good and special means of storage, it didn’t stop the people of Roland from frantically hoarding food. Warehouses for storing cards were built one after another.
After all, it had only been two years since the days of hunger. The sense of crisis that almost penetrated into people’s bones made them not dare to slack off.
The emperor didn’t regulate it. He only asked the government to purchase surplus goods from the people on a regular basis.
In fact, the food that Litch brought out to trade with other nations was long-stocked grain. The people of Sharbi thought they were better than those on the market, but he thought they were just average.
It was because he had long been accustomed to eating various improved and optimized ingredients.
For example, Black Valley. Thanks to the addition of the wood elementalists and the continuous teaching of planting and cultivation techniques by the braves who were very professional in agriculture, Black Valley had been updated and replaced countless times.
In addition to this, the agricultural experts cultivated new types of grains with various uses and flavors based on Black Valley, but these weren’t sold to the outside world.
Therefore, if the people of Saikon didn’t have such a bad attitude, Litch could’ve lowered the price and given a discount for the sake of Orange Clouds.
After all, no matter how it was sold, the Roland Empire wouldn’t lose money.
Now, listening to the people of Sharbi offering a high price with a nervous look on their faces, Litch suddenly felt fortunate in his heart.
Fortunately, he heard what Lieutenant Colonel Li Lai said before.
Facing the interstellar nations, he didn’t need to put himself in a low position. The Roland Empire could give him enough confidence!
Litch didn’t immediately agree but asked, “So, how much does your nation need?”
Sharbi’s negotiator wanted to say without thinking, “Of course, the more the better!”
However, seeing Litch’s calm face, he had to restrain his anxiety and said carefully, “A small cargo ship with a load capacity of 500 tons. The first transaction…”
He observed Litch’s face.
Considering that the Roland Empire was just a small nation with a population of less than 100 million, and was said to have been invaded by alien beasts all year round, he finally carefully gestured a number.
“At least 5,000 tons of Black Valley?”
According to the ratio of one catty per person per day, no, half a catty, then 5,000 tons of Black Valley was 10 million catties. This was enough for 20 million people to eat for one day.
This number was naturally far from enough.
But it was good enough to be able to buy food now. The Roland Empire had grain on hand and didn’t need to waste time transporting it. Naturally, he hoped to buy it all.
Litch frowned as if in a dilemma. Just as the negotiator of Sharbi thought he couldn’t offer so much, Litch said, “What do you mean? Your nation wants as much as possible?”
“Yes, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have 5,000 tons. Any amount of food will do!”
Litch nodded. “In that case, I won’t charge you any more. According to the market price, how about 500,000 tons?”
Sharbi’s negotiator was about to agree when his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
“You… what did you just say? Did I hear you incorrectly? 500,000 tons?”
Litch smiled slightly. “You heard it right. It is indeed 500,000 tons. It is on Orange Clouds. Do you want it?”
The negotiator of Sharbi felt like he was going crazy.
“Yes! Of course! We want them all!”
Thus, Litch’s first big order was completed smoothly.
The famine crisis on Sharbi was getting worse and the goods were urgently needed, so Litch didn’t go to other planets. Instead, he led Sharbi’s cargo ship back to Orange Clouds to load the goods.
In fact, it was more than 500,000 tons. Thanks to the fixed-point teleporter, there was as much food as needed. However, Litch didn’t dare to expose too much.
This move of his had already intimidated Sharbi’s people. They didn’t even think about robbing. Moreover, they became more obedient after Li Lai showed them the defense deployment of Orange Clouds.
The Sharbi Empire sent out medium to large cargo ships, ten of each. Even so, it took more than ten trips to transport all 500,000 tons back.
Fortunately, Orange Clouds was close or with a caravan of this size, the transportation cost would be much higher and they would have to worry about security issues such as star thieves.
It was such a blessing to have a sales point like Orange Clouds nearby!
After the 500,000 tons of Black Valley were transported, Litch took the opportunity to sell some fresh fruits and vegetables. They were naturally bought by the Sharbi people.
Of course, the quantity wasn’t comparable to the Black Valley but the fresh and delicious taste instantly captured the Sharbi people.
Once the transaction was almost over, Litch received a letter from the original people of Orange Clouds, conveying the apology of Saikon and a message seeking cooperation.
He found it quite novel and rejected them.
You want to apologize now, but what were you doing earlier?
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