"Faction leader Baron!" Xu Da exclaimed with a face full of smiles.

"So you finally made it, Xu Da. I can't wait to introduce you to some important figures in the Egyptian community," Baron greeted one of his oldest allies. "Come, let's walk and talk."

Xu Da followed Baron away from the teleportation room. "Excellent. You know, during my time on Earth, I tried to send one of my convoys to Rome. The convoy decided not to continue after reaching the Persian Gulf."

"Right, during your life, Egypt was controlled by the Roman Empire after the fall of Ptolemies. Just don't bring it up when we get to our destination. It is a sore point for them."

"Of course. Would you like to hear about the report?" Ban Chao asked.

"Yeah, give me the report."

"It has only been a year since you left the Chinese community, but our faction is doing quite well, as are our top brass. Guan Yu and Yue Fei are close to breaking into the top 200 elder positions."

"That is good news. I assume my rankings have fallen?"

"Naturally, but I believe that your standing will increase should this business venture turn into a long-term relationship between the two communities. Especially if it turns into something bigger."

"I see. Please continue with the report."

"This isn't about our faction, but our partnership with the all-female faction has ceased. They have terminated all relationships with everyone in the Chinese community."

"Have they given us a reason why?"

"No, they are now even more reclusive than before we started our partnership."

"I wonder why," Baron pondered, but he felt like he was starting to grasp the reason.

The rest of the report was all pretty standard stuff; business functions, registration numbers, new partnerships, etc. Finally, they arrived at the headquarters of the Ptolemy faction. After some introduction, Ptolemy brought Xu Da and Baron to one of his seldom-used buildings in the merchandise district.

Before this day, the Ptolemy faction had spent much time and resources advertising their new store. Given the success and legitimacy of the tournaments, many were eager to check it out. It would take another few days for the salespeople to learn the new merchandise.

On the day of launch, success was evident. So much so, they had to rent out a couple more buildings to house all the customers. However, Baron and Ban Chao knew that to rely on this initial success was foolish. They had a lot of publicity and popularity now, but there is no guarantee that it would last.

To combat this, they put their merchandise on a rotation of approximately two weeks. To keep things fresh, they had reached out to other factions in the Chinese community to provide a few blueprints for sale. Baron's faction would get a cut, while those that provided the blueprints would get the majority of it.

At the start, only two factions took up Baron's offer. One was the Sun Alliance lead by Sun Tzu, and the other was the Forever Pirates led by Madam Zheng. By doing things this way, they would be able to keep people coming back week after week. Once news of how lucrative this trade was, more factions signed up for the program.

Aside from a few spats with the new generation, everything went smoothly. This venture consumed much of Baron and Ban Chao's time. After all, this was their first time doing any of this. Even with the help of the Ptolemy faction, there were many matters to handle.

After some time, there was a growing sentiment against Baron's business. After all, even though the prices were fair, some people didn't have the means of purchasing them. So, Baron decided to implement another way of getting blueprints to the masses; through simulations. He sent out a message calling for a few strategists from his faction and others to practice in the Egyptian community.

Since the Death Match Tournament was so close, many top strategists would not waste their time on this endeavor. However, there were many elders and such who were interested in coming. Baron selected 20 people who he deemed worthy and used his connections to transport them over. Among them included Yue Fei and Li Xin from his faction, Zheng Jing and Zheng Zhi Long from the Forever Pirates, Li Guang from the Sun Alliance faction, Zhang Da Zhi of the Eternal Dragons, and others.

Baron set it up so that those who wished to earn a blueprint would have to fight one of the twenty strategists from Baron's faction. There were different tiers of strategists, and if someone managed to beat one, the challenger would be able to pick a blueprint corresponding to the one they defeated.

Everyone, after a small fee, would be able to challenge one person once. Additionally, they wouldn't be able to challenge any more after they defeated 3 of China's strategists. On the flip side, letting go of a few blueprints in exchange for learning opportunities for his allies was well worth it.

In the end, the Egyptians loved this system. A small fee for the chance to win it big and experience a different kind of warfare? Who could ask for more! The Chinese strategists themselves would be able to make quite a bit of bank if they kept on winning. Once again, some of the upper echelons of the Egyptian community came to partake. Aside from a few other spats with the new generation, everything was going well.

Though the strategists had to go back to China soon after, their presence boosted Baron's reputation to new heights. A few stayed longer than Baron had intended, but this entire plan was successful beyond belief. Similarly, this success translated to the Ptolemy faction becoming accepted by the rest of the community.

After another little while, the fateful day came. It was the hearing of what would happen to the new generation. Only a few were invited to attend in person, and the rest would have to watch the broadcasts. Only two people would be speaking; Ramesses II to deliver the verdict, and Ahmad Ismail Ali, leader of the new generation.

A few sentences of formality later, Ramesses began to get serious, "as many of you know, there has been a divide in our community for some time now. A very vocal minority of you would rather have the new generation in control of Egypt. I am here to tell you that we have decided not to go that route."

"Figures," Ahmad scoffed.

"We will not have our great history erased by someone like you."

"Listen, old man. I respect the hell out of our shared history. But you can't run this place like it was the superpower it used to be. If you want to win, if you want to be successful in the modern age! You should not let our previous glory cloud your judgment of the present," Ahmad put forth a rebuttal.

"Our past is what makes us who we are! If you neglect all that, then what are we? Nothing."

"If you think that you are nothing without your past, then there's no saving this community..." Ahmad took a deep breath before continuing, "I tried. I tried to do things your way. But even you must understand that what you have been doing before the Sun Tournament was an exercise in foolishness."

"Yes, we understand that now. That is why we are changing the way we do things. You can stay and help us if you want," Ramesses gave Ahmad one final chance to stay.

"No. The way you do things is too slow for me. I respect you, Ramesses, most of you," he turned to look around the room. "However, you all are just so set in your ways that there is no use in trying to convince you otherwise."

"So you have made your decision then?"

"Yes. My followers and I will leave this community. You can keep doing things the way you've always done them. I can't serve under anyone so incompetent, so unwilling to change. If you all haven't become so drunk on your previous supremacy and traveled a bit more, you will see what I mean."

"We will not tolerate this slander anymore. If you have nothing else to say, then take your followers and never come back!" Ramesses steeled his resolve.

Before responding, Ahmad looked right at Baron and pointed to him, "if you think this Chinaman and his friends can change anything with his cheap blueprints, then you are even more foolish than I thought."

"Enough, he has done more for our community in the two years that he has been here than your century here. He is a guest of the Ptolemy faction, and currently, he has higher standing than you. Plus, in the long-term, Baron is not a factor in our plans."

"Humph, the more you talk, the less I think of you, Ramesses." Without giving any chance to answer, Ahmad and his two right-hand men left the room.

Ramesses could only clench his fist and take a deep breath. The rest of the attendees turned to look from the leaving figures to Ramesses for any closing remarks.

"That is all, everyone. There is still much to do before the start of the Death Match Tournament. I should remind you that the top brass of the Egyptian community now no longer has any time to divert their attention to anything else."

Ramesses took an indirect jab at some of the high-ranking officials that participated in Baron's events. Those who the statement applied to didn't dare look at Ramesses.

After the hearing was over, Ramesses took Baron into a private meeting, just the two of them.

"Baron, what do you think of the Egyptian community?"

"No disrespect, but it seems a little chaotic at the moment."

"That it is. I wouldn't reveal this to just anyone, but given all of your contributions, I believe you deserve to know. Ahmad and the new generation is not just a powerful force, but I believe they have the power to rival our entire community given a few more years," Ramesses admitted.

"They are that powerful?"

"Unfortunately so."

"No wonder. This must have been a difficult decision."

"You have no idea. It took us years to finally decide to kick them out. Even so, their power is unrivaled here in Egypt. To lose that is painful. There's another reason that I've called for you. We would like you to train with us and also to trade blueprints."

"Is that an offer to train with the best of the reformed Egyptian community?"

"It most certainly is. A new perspective is direly needed. You seem to fit that mold pretty well."

"I plan on heading over to the Indian community soon, so I'm not sure how long I will be able to do this with you."

"Any amount of time will help us a lot, Baron, as long as you are up for it. Your accomplishments are quite impressive. We would hate to not learn from you, and I hope you feel the same way about us."

"I'll accept your offer. To train with some of the best of the ancient world is a great honor. When do we start?"

"I'm glad you feel the same way. Don't worry. We will begin soon."