"Yes." Brandt nodded, carefully examining you with his aged and clouded eyes before saying, "Should I call you Liston, or should I call you the ’Ghost Captain’?"
Mu You furrowed his brows, not expecting the other party to directly call out his identity, and from his tone, it seemed that he had known his real identity for a long time.
Nevertheless, Mu You was not perturbed. Since the other party had courteously invited him for a private meeting, it was certainly not to put him in a difficult position.
"It doesn’t matter, both are the same," you answer.
"Then I’ll still call you Liston, it’s easier on the tongue." Brandt invites you to sit at the stone table, smiles and says, "You don’t have to be nervous. In fact, I knew you weren’t Liston since the Clan Meeting. Liston was my most capable subordinate back in the day. I knew a lot about him. Liston chose to go into hibernation because he was cursed and had entered a slow process of dying. He once devoured a ’hibernation’ talent, which allowed him to gradually wash away all the talents and curses he had devoured by deep sleeping. This was his only path to survival at the time, but this process would require nearly ten thousand years. Only a thousand years have passed, it is not yet time for him to awaken, so as soon as you appeared, I knew that you could not be him. The only possibility was that you were the Fool who borrowed his body for resurrection. Your identity became clear after hearing your remarks at the Clan Meeting."
"I see," you nod. The other party explained why he recognized you, which reassured you.
"In fact, I have been watching you these last few days, as well as the developments in the Fool’s World. It seems that your situation doesn’t look good. You are in a disadvantageous position in the competition for the City of Eternal Night, especially after what just transpired which seems to have greatly boosted the other party’s advantage. Is that the case?" Brandt looks at you and asks.
It turned out the other party had eyes and ears on Earth too! He knew about the posts just uploaded on the forum, which indicated that the intelligence network was built quite extensively.
This meant that the old man had known about the content that Tide had spoken about at the Clan Meeting. He might have even considered allying with the werewolves, which was one of his thoughts at the time. That’s why he didn’t expose Tide, but rather used Tide’s words to express this idea.
Mu You breathed a sigh of relief and began to type in the input box.
"It’s merely a superficial advantage," you reply.
"And what about the actual situation?" Brandt asked.
"In reality, as you have seen, despite having a city’s worth of werewolves under their control, Crimson Dawn was utterly helpless against me. On the other hand, they’ve virtually exposed all their trump cards, while mine remain concealed," you reply.
Brandt pondered for a few seconds after hearing your words but didn’t inquire about your hidden trump cards. Instead, he asked, "In your opinion, what’s the most optimum choice for the Blood Clan at present?"
"Obviously, to cooperate with me, defeat Crimson Dawn, I’ll seize the City Lord position, and you’ll gain a high-quality gathering area. It’s a mutually beneficial situation," you reply.
"Oh? Why not cooperate with Crimson Dawn?" Brant looked at you with interest and added, "Don’t tell me that the Blood Clan and the Wolf Clan are enemies. There are no permanent enemies in this world, only permanent interests. At our level of identity, we need to focus more on the essence of the problem. The current Wolf King is nominally a werewolf, but in essence, he’s a Fool. And this is a very delicate identity. If we cooperate with Crimson Dawn, it may provide an opportunity to eradicate the hatred between the Blood Clan and the Wolf Clan."
"That’s because you can’t do it. If you could, an agreement would have been reached during the Clan Meeting," you reply.
"As a matter of fact, you’ve gravely underestimated the hatred your people bear for the werewolves. The probing at the Clan Meeting has proven that unless the Blood Clan reaches the end of the line, they might attach themselves to the Wolf Clan. At any other time, as long as there’s even a tiny bit of choice, there’s no basis for cooperation between you two!"
"It seems you see it quite clearly," Brandt gave a bitter smile. The probing at the Clan Meeting made him realize that an alliance between the two would face strong opposition from within the Clan, possibly even leading to a split within the Blood Clan. Submitting to the werewolves could only be considered when there was no other choice left.
"What about you then?" Brandt looked at you again. "What sort of capital do you have to ensure that our cooperation with you will definitely be more beneficial than cooperating with Crimson Dawn?"
"It’s simple. I already have a Sky City while Crimson Dawn doesn’t; this is my greatest advantage," you reply.
The implication of already owning a Sky City is that, regardless of whether the Blood Clan’s investment is successful or not, they can at least secure a Sky City as a residence.
Though Dawn City might not conveniently meet the bloodsuckers’ needs like City of Eternal Night---having to be careful of the sunlight for half the day---at least it provides a safe gathering place.
This is a condition that Crimson Dawn can’t offer. It’s also the most important thing for the Blood Clan’s leader: if they support Crimson Dawn and fail to win the city, the Blood Clan will be left with nothing. If they support the Ghost Captain, win or lose, at least the Blood Clan will have a Plan B.
Your answer makes Brandt’s eyes light up, and he nodded with satisfaction.
"In that case, let’s have a frank discussion now," Brandt invites you to a discussion on ’deepening cooperation’. Do you accept?
Mu You exhaled. This old man had invited him here knowing his identity, which meant he was ready to cooperate with him.
The reason he said so much was probably because he had doubts and wanted him to help solidify his conviction.
Over the next two hours, Mu You and the old man discussed the details of their cooperation.
After some back-and-forth, the specifics of the cooperation were finally agreed upon.
From Brandt’s side, he could advance the three drops of Ancestor’s Blood to Mu You to enhance his combat power, and also grant Mu You the power to mobilize the vampires of the different families. However, all orders needed to be reported to Brandt first, and he would issue them personally.
As for Mu You, he needed to ensure that a separate gathering place for the Blood Clan in the City of Eternal Night would be secured after conquering it, where the Blood Clan would have the same rights as the Fools’ residents.
In addition, if they failed to seize the City, the Blood Clan would collectively migrate to Dawn City, with conditions similar to those in the City of Eternal Night.