To be honest, Quentin was not pleased that the news of the awakening potions had spread far and wide.
Originally, only they knew about the potions, allowing them to slowly collect corpse cores in exchange for awakening potions to enhance their strength.
However, this situation only lasted a few days.
After Fiona decided to expand into the southern suburbs, the information spread rapidly among the survivors venturing outside, leading to significant chaos in the initial days and placing considerable pressure on Quentin and his team, who were responsible for defending the perimeter of the Azure Isle shore service area.
As for the security of Azure Isle, Quentin had heard that some people wanted to approach the island by sea, but those attempts had all failed, as if the individuals had vanished into the sea.
It was only when Quentin came to trade seafood that he learned from Xavier that there was a massive shark patrolling the waters around Azure Isle.
Anyone who tried to approach the island without permission ended up as food for the shark.
Fortunately, the turmoil ended quickly after Fiona's decisive action.
This allowed Quentin to witness the ruthless nature and immense strength of the Azure Isle's acting leader.
Fiona's two bone spikes, akin to flying swords, were deadly within a hundred meters, making it nearly impossible to defend against them.
Despite the widespread knowledge of the awakening potions, which led to their high demand and limited daily availability, Quentin and his team still benefited.
Fiona promised them unrestricted purchasing rights and recommended some unaffiliated individuals to them.
As a result, Quentin recruited several talents and strengthened their settlement.
"Indeed, there have been many changes around here recently. Like today, so many new faces I don't recognize!" Elijah said to Quentin.
Then, turning to the crowd, he smiled and introduced himself, "Hello everyone, nice to meet you. My name is Elijah. I am the owner of this place. I was away for a while, and Ms. Fiona helped manage things. I have heard about some recent events..."
The crowd looked at the man speaking confidently in front of them and felt he was quite ordinary, not seeing anything particularly special about him.
Some people wondered how such a man could command the respect of someone as exceptional as Fiona.
However, as Elijah continued speaking, they began to feel an increasing sense of pressure, as if an invisible force was pressing down on their shoulders, compelling them to kneel and submit.
The pressure intensified when Elijah spoke about the recent unrest, making him appear as an ancient, fearsome beast capable of killing with a mere breath.
Those with weaker nerves even collapsed to the ground.
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On the other hand, Fiona's strength was evident to everyone, and as a woman, she could both intimidate with her prowess and soothe with her warm demeanor and flattering words.
This made her capable of both commanding respect and providing comfort to those under her influence.
Of course, Fiona's methods for controlling these "allied" settlements extended beyond just Elijah's "Seed of Consciousness" and the limited sale of awakening potions.
Various resources and knowledge exchanges were also used as supplementary means, with Fiona excelling in these.
For example, body refinement and combat skills training!
These were only available to the subordinates of allied settlements with Azure Isle.
Charlotte was the instructor, and Emily was the assistant.
The first batch of training had already been conducted, including new awakened individuals from Quentin's team and the five newly allied teams.
Although the number of trainees was small, the results were significant.
The awakened individuals experienced the benefits and thus were very obedient. However, this training was not free.
Since the knowledge from these training sessions could be taught privately later, it was impossible to restrict, so a tuition fee was charged.
Learning body refinement required 50 corpse cores, and learning combat skills required another 50 corpse cores.
Together, it was equivalent to purchasing an additional awakening potion.
Even so, Charlotte did not teach just anyone. Currently, only awakened individuals were accepted.
Ordinary people who wanted to learn needed to first buy an awakening potion and become awakened themselves.
Those who were not from Azure Isle but wanted to learn could also do so, as the second-tier advancement potions were waiting for them, making them potential clients.
The key was that these wild awakened individuals were mostly leaders of these settlements.
Fiona was waiting for them to experience the benefits and then buy second-tier awakening potions, at which point she would implant the Seed of Consciousness in them.
To facilitate this, Fiona offered installment payments for those who couldn't gather enough corpse cores immediately.
The goal was to control these leaders and, through them, fully control the settlements.