Chapter 455: Sudden Wealth

With the acquisition of Atlantic Intercontinental Bank, Li Mochen no longer lacked funds. Sunrise Electric Retail Company could now expand recklessly along the East and West Coasts; if money ran short, he could simply borrow from this bank.

But what he currently lacked was black gold—though this dirty money couldn't see the light, it had its own advantages: it could evade the oversight of law enforcement agencies at all levels in America.

For example, if one day Li Mochen were to wage war against the Benedict family again, mobilizing the Teutonic Cross or hiring mercenaries and assassins to strike his enemies, such funds could never go through the accounts of Sunrise Electric Retail or Sunrise Security Company.

He would have to use a shield outside regulatory oversight to avoid leaving hard evidence of hiring killers that the FBI and other agencies could seize.

But before this, to raise funds for the goods smuggled to the continent of Antolia and for the war with the Dragon Witch Cult, Li Mochen had already drained the secret funds he controlled dry.

If not for the loan promised by Anthony, he would have had no money to sustain the war against the Dragon Witch Cult, and might not even be able to pay wages next month.

And this huge sum provided by Michelle not only solved his immediate crisis but also fully restored his strength, even surpassing before.

The figure of 4.5 billion shields was much higher than he had estimated. According to Michelle, the buyer he found had discovered extremely rare top-tier magical materials worth billions of shields on those armed merchant ships. By custom, Li Mochen was entitled to a thirty percent share.

These goods were hidden in secret compartments on each ship, so Li Mochen hadn't found them at the time.

After Michelle's reminder, Li Mochen indeed found a stash of magical materials worth about 700 million shields in a secret room on the Battle Axe.

This made him quite regretful; if he had known, he should have spent more time searching those ships more thoroughly.

Nevertheless, Li Mochen was quite grateful to this future 'father-in-law.' Or perhaps his intention to support him was all too obvious.

Anyone else taking over these ships wouldn't have paid so readily; they would have waited until all ships and goods were sold off.

But Michelle directly transferred 1 billion shields, and then thoughtfully set up over forty secret accounts for him at two Swiss banks and several offshore financial companies, depositing the remaining money into them.

He also went out of his way to introduce several outstanding financial experts to Li Mochen for Atlantic Intercontinental Bank.

The fixed assets transferred to him by the Benedict family couldn't be tampered with, but Atlantic Intercontinental Bank was a different story.

At this time, if the bank's management harbored ill intentions, they could carefully fabricate a contract to cause losses of hundreds of millions or even billions of shields, transferring assets out.

Li Mochen had already sent his personal accountant, Huangfu Enda, to the bank, but his energy was limited, and his ability insufficient to help him control the funds of this large bank. He would have to hire some specialists to help him oversee every link in the bank.

The Craig Community Bank he had acquired earlier also had a few good management talents, whom he had already transferred over, but that was far from enough.

Li Mochen would have to take full control of this bank, which required a purge to completely eliminate the Benedict family's influence.

Just as Li Mochen was completing his initial layout for Atlantic Intercontinental Bank through remote control, the Alliance Wing fleet of over seventy ships, under the command of Commodore Wallace Clayton, finally entered the Calamity Sea.

This was a sea filled with large amounts of drifting ice, along with magnetic storms of vast scope and intense strength, where massive amounts of ice sand and ice chunks raged wildly under the howling wind.

After entering this sea, not only did most communication methods become unusable, but their ships were also in constant danger of being destroyed. The many high-level magical professionals hired by the fleet began to show their value.

These people used various weapons to shatter large ice blocks that might collide with the fleet in advance. The magic stones prepared on each ship could keep their magical arrays fully activated during the crossing of the Calamity Sea, helping them withstand the scattered ice sand.

The newly joined battleship Battle Axe replaced the icebreaker they had originally prepared, sailing at the front of the fleet with an indomitable momentum to clear the way.

Under Commodore Wallace Clayton's command, the fleet operated smoothly. This sea, prone to disasters, posed no obstacle to them.

Li Mochen didn't pay much attention; he freed up a lot of time to accompany Angela and Hazel.

In fact, at this point, it didn't matter whether he came to the continent of Antolia or not. Commodore Wallace Clayton's ability was enough to take care of the fleet. As for the local powers in Antolia, after the fall of the Battle Axe pirate group, presumably no one would dare to provoke him.

The fleet itself was quite strong, and the presence of Robert E. Fong was enough to deter all parties. Anyone intending to oppose him had to seriously consider the consequences of being retaliated against by the 'Blood-Eyed Angel.'

The main reason Li Mochen came back was to accompany the two girls, to experience the flying sand and rolling stones of the Calamity Sea, its magnificent vastness, and to see scenery completely different from America.

He had always felt apologetic toward Angela. The girl's insistence on coming with him to Antolia was clear to Li Mochen, and he secretly delighted in it.

But during the voyage, Li Mochen had spent most of his time preparing for war, with no leisure to accompany her. If he didn't take some time now to make an effort, this girl—whom both he and the original host liked—would eventually fly away from his embrace.

As for Hazel, Li Mochen wanted to use this opportunity to let his sister, who was obsessed with training every day, relax.

Perhaps because he hadn't let her participate in this battle at all, the girl felt her strength was insufficient and that she hadn't helped Li Mochen, so she became even more diligent in her cultivation, almost to the point of self-harm.

This made Li Mochen feel helpless and heartbroken, so he tried every way to relieve her stress.

So these past few days, the two girls had a lot of fun. But what they didn't know was that after Li Mochen's fusion progress with the original Li Mochen reached 70%, he had gained the ability to split his attention in two.

—A true 'split attention,' dividing his spirit into two parts. One part accompanied them, while the other could busy itself with other affairs.

In the Primordial Dome Realm, Li Mochen had mastered no fewer than a hundred methods of consciousness division, but those couldn't be considered true 'consciousness division.' In the language of this world, the term 'multi-threaded processing' was more appropriate.

But those divided 'threads' lacked autonomous consciousness. Now, however, he could truly split into two cores, engaging in completely different thinking.