Chapter 142: Encountering the Immortal Intoxicated Once More (Humbly Seeking Your Subscription)

Although his own plan might provoke the Black Dragon Society, Lin Fan believed that dead men tell no tales. As long as he acted with enough discretion, it wouldn't be so easy for the Black Dragon Society to investigate the matter. Still, the risks involved were undoubtedly high, so he needed to think this plan through very carefully. Lin Fan thought to himself.

Seeing Lin Fan sitting in his chair with a thoughtful expression, Elder Tang and Uncle Wu exchanged glances and burst into hearty laughter. They knew that Lin Fan had no intention of selling the firearms to the Black Dragon Society, yet he had agreed to their request anyway, which clearly meant he was brewing some malicious scheme in his mind. Being old and wise, even though they did not know Lin Fan's exact plan, they could guess a fair bit of it: Lin Fan would definitely find every possible way to prevent the Black Dragon Society from getting their hands on this batch of weapons, leaving them empty-handed and losing both their money and the goods.

"Kid, you surely don't intend to actually sell the weapons to the Black Dragon Society, do you?" Elder Tang asked with a smile.

Catching the hint of a smile at the corner of Elder Tang's mouth, Lin Fan knew he was teasing him, and immediately replied, "Grandpa Tang, how could that be? If the Black Dragon Society were to plunge our country into a bloodbath using this batch of weapons, we would become eternal sinners through the ages."

Judging by Lin Fan's reaction to the matter today, Elder Tang nodded inwardly, knowing he had not misjudged the young man. "Just like you, Grandpa also loathes the Japanese. That tiny speck of a country actually dared to attempt an invasion of our homeland back then. If only old man I had been born a few years later, I would have only caught up with the War of Liberation; had I been born during the War of Resistance, I would have gone to the battlefield to slaughter those Japanese devils no matter what! Later on, after the War of Liberation was won, old man I started hanging out in the underworld. Back then, those Japanese devils were still relying on certain enterprises to run amok in China, and back in those days, Little Wu and I killed a fair share of those Japanese devils..." As he spoke of his past, Lin Fan could tell that Elder Tang was immensely proud.

Lin Fan had never expected that Elder Tang had participated in the War of Liberation before entering the underworld, which made him respect the old man even more from the bottom of his heart. No wonder his uncle had said Elder Tang held a very prestigious position in China's high-level circles. Indeed, Elder Tang was born right around the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and by the time he grew up, that war had already come to an end. Lin Fan knew that only those who had walked through that era could truly comprehend the hardships of life back then and the cruel butchery committed by the Japanese invaders, harboring an unspeakable, overwhelming hatred for them.

"Grandpa Tang, what kind of grievance is there between the Black Dragon Society and the Russian arms dealers that prompted the latter to issue an arms embargo against Japan?" Lin Fan asked with a hint of curiosity.

Elder Tang was slightly taken aback, evidently not expecting that Lin Fan was unaware of this matter. Since the conflict between Japan and the Russian arms dealers was known to almost the entire global underworld, there was no reason for Lin Fan, as the leader of the Dragon Soul mercenaries, to be in the dark. Though surprised, the old man nevertheless recounted everything he knew to Lin Fan without leaving out a single detail.

"Four years ago, Russian arms dealers sold a tremendously valuable batch of weapons to a small African nation, but the Black Dragon Society rudely interfered and hijacked both the money and the cargo. In the wake of that incident, almost all the Black Dragon Society members residing in Russia were slaughtered, and the Russian arms dealers issued a public declaration imposing an arms embargo on Japan. From that day forward, they vowed never to sell a single bullet to Japan, and warned that any other faction daring to sell weapons to the Japanese would likewise have all business relations with them severed," Elder Tang stated.

Four years ago—no wonder he hadn't known about such a massive event, Lin Fan thought to himself. Four years ago, Lin Fan had just been brought back to Dragon Soul by Han Feng, so he wasn't very familiar with these affairs. Now, hearing the old man explain it, Lin Fan felt that these Japanese individuals simply refused to mend their ways and still dared to stir up trouble across the world. It seemed he would have to teach them a harsh lesson this time.

"As the world's largest arms smuggling syndicate, the influence of the Russian arms dealers is undoubtedly immense, and virtually no one is willing to sell weapons to the Japanese anymore. Fortunately, Japan still has the United States backing them up, but in recent years, the U.S. has grown increasingly dissatisfied with Japan's disobedient behavior, constantly reducing the volume of arms supplied to them while multiplying the prices several times over. Left with no other choice, the Japanese government has been pulling strings to acquire weapons through alternative channels. However, the Russian arms dealers alone control over sixty percent of the world's arms smuggling, and other factions naturally stand on their side." The old man explained calmly to Lin Fan, and then added immediately, "I truly have no idea how these Japanese people found out that I share a life-and-death friendship with the supreme leader of the Russian arms dealers."

"Konovski?" Lin Fan asked. In the world of arms smuggling, the only person with such immense influence who was also from Russia was Konovski; Lin Fan simply couldn't think of anyone else.

Elder Tang nodded with a smile. He knew that since Dragon Soul reigned supreme in the mercenary world, it was impossible for them not to have their own arms supplier, making it completely normal for them to be acquainted with the head of the Russian arms dealers. "Kid, it seems you do have some ties with Konovski after all," Elder Tang remarked.

"It's merely business interactions. Compared to the bond you share with him, ours falls short by more than just a little," Lin Fan replied with a smile. He was speaking the truth; the relationship between Dragon Soul and the Russian arms dealers was built entirely on mutual interests. Once those interests vanished, the relationship would naturally dissolve as well, making it completely incomparable to the life-and-death friendship between Elder Tang and Konovski.

While speaking, Lin Fan was also secretly astonished by just how vast Elder Tang's network of connections was, to the extent that he shared a life-and-death bond with the world's biggest arms dealer. "Grandpa Tang, how did you come to know the leader of the Russian arms dealers?" Lin Fan asked.

"We can talk about that later. Come, come, come, try this tea and see how it tastes. I just had the servants prepare it," Elder Tang said, not directly answering Lin Fan's question, and instead instructed the servant to replace the tea on Lin Fan's table.

Lin Fan picked up the teacup in front of him and wore a bitter smile. The moment the servant had walked in earlier, he had already caught the unforgettable fragrance of the tea. Now, seeing the tender green tea leaves floating on the surface of the water in his cup, the name of the tea practically slipped past his lips: "Immortal's Intoxication."

Elder Tang and Uncle Wu, who were currently sipping their own Immortal's Intoxication, suddenly froze, the smiles on their faces stiffening instantly. They had intended to use the legendary tea to whew Lin Fan's curiosity, yet they never expected that Lin Fan would identify the tea simply by sight without even taking a single sip.

The two men exchanged glances and burst into loud laughter. Inwardly, Lin Fan could only shake his head with a wry, helpless smile. What on earth was this? Jin Zhengyang owned Immortal's Intoxication, and Elder Tang casually pulled out Immortal's Intoxication as well. It seemed his career as a mercenary leader was a bit too pathetic if he couldn't even manage to drink a decent cup of tea...