Chapter 1095 — Hidden Dangers
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
"Benefits they cannot refuse..." Gao Yang could not help but murmur softly, a certain emotion stirring in his heart.
Through the first half of the session, he had been essentially building an atmosphere of crisis for this world—including Metzen Pernia's speech afterward, which had helped him achieve exactly that. The method was not sophisticated, yet at this moment it had to be used: only when facing external pressure together was there any chance of drawing the various powers into one body; a visible, tangible, and sustained natural calamity is often a crucial ingredient in forging an alliance, and the conduct of the delegates through the first half of the session had indeed proven this.
But external pressure alone was not enough—much of what Gao Yang had seen in this life and the last had taught him one thing: there will always be things in this world that defy logic, and when facing a common crisis, there will always be those who choose to fight each in their own corner amid the chaos, or even to attack one another; there will always be those who cling to suspicion and mutual isolation to protect their own little plot of land. It looks foolish, yet it is part of human nature—and if he wished to build a union that gathered the strength of all mortals, he had to face this "negative side of human nature." So he needed not only external pressure to squeeze the various powers together, but also sufficient internal benefits to ensure that these powers could remain stably united.
These included a Basic Act on World Trade that benefited everyone, an Act on the Promotion of Maritime Trade of profound significance to the nations along the circum-continental sea routes, numerous convention articles aimed at protecting the basic interests of weaker member states, and a Charter of the Common Union of Mortal Civilizations (the Common Union Charter for short). These were things Gao Yang had prepared specifically to attract those potential member states that harbored doubts about the Union's future and remained wavering—and judging by the delegates' reactions in the latter half of the session... the effect was good.
Anyone capable of appearing at today's session as the representative of a power might lack understanding of the doomsday crisis, but their nose for profit was certain to be keen; even faced with a pile of novel and curious articles and plans, a clever person would inevitably sniff out the scent of long-term gain.
An alliance bound together by profit is fragile—Gao Yang was well aware of this—but at the present stage... there seemed to be no better option.
Just then his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Amber's voice beside him: "It seems we have a guest."
Even before Amber spoke, Gao Yang had already sensed an aura approaching in the corridor, and shortly after Amber's words fell, the sound of a servant knocking came from the direction of the door. After a brief announcement, the door of the lounge opened, and a familiar figure appeared before Gao Yang.
Metzen Pernia.
The blue dragon lady, now the dragons' ambassador, straightened her expression the moment she entered and bowed to Gao Yang: "I pay my respects to you, great..."
Gao Heng hastened to cut her off the instant her voice fell: "Stop, stop, stop—there's no need for such formality. In private we are friends, are we not?"
"Great Emperor of Cecil—the phrase has to be finished; swallowing it back is even more uncomfortable," Metzen said, ignoring Gao Song's interruption and swiftly carrying that embarrassing honorific through to the end. Only then did she raise her head, and by the time she looked at Gao Song a relaxed, natural smile had already appeared on her face. "I'm not disturbing you too late at night, am I?"