Chapter 234: 234
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"What's wrong with Abraham, he's not replying to me! When we attack the city, he better not have eaten too many people. We want those skilled Extraordinaire workers as slaves!" The white man Manson stopped charging toward the Cloud Fog City.
Because they were fighting together, they naturally had a way to contact each other.
He had just recalled that within the nine, the black tortoise had always been the least cooperative, so he wanted to contact the black tortoise through spiritual sense. However, there had been no response at all.
He took his phone out and tried to ask one of the spies he had planted in the Cloud Fog City.
He had not been able to contact the spy as well, but he was not worried as he knew the Cloud Fog City would have locked down on outgoing electronic signals.
The spy was only a Mug-level so he could not get in touch through spiritual sense like with the other powerhouses.
To contact the spy, technology must be used, like e-mails, satellite phone calls, video conference, and telegraphs among others. However, all technology-based communications were susceptible to interception from well-developed methods as long as the interceptor was willing to spend money.
When Manson tried again, he finally was able to contact the spy.
The spy was planted in the Cloud Fog City two months prior to this and was paid a high price for his services. The earlier spies had all been captured by Yun Hui and enslaved. This one probably could not last that long as well, but fortunately, he was no longer needed after the siege.
This was the terrifying part of the new era. Without some special abilities, the spies would not have withstood any Pond-level powerhouse's aura, let alone the many different magical selection methods like the Heavenly Oath.
Sending the real powerhouses to do espionage work was still too big a price to pay for large organizations.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Manson. The Cloud Fog City had been putting outgoing communication on lockdown when they were evacuating. Only the local area network was accessible so I couldn't contact you any earlier. They had just started a live stream and unblocked public internet signals, so I immediately contacted you," explained the spy.
"Don't waste time explaining. Just tell me, what happened?" Manson urged as he had expected what was happening.
The spy continued, "Yun Hui hired the strongest Extraordinaire in China, the Venerable Dragon God. Now they are broadcasting the battles live on the screen in the square."
"What arrogance!" Hearing that, Manson was stunned.
'What would it mean for the Venerable Dragon God to broadcast a battle live?
'It meant he had the confidence to not embarrass himself in front of his audience and the confidence to pulverize us!
'Just like the others who dared to take part in the Dark Tournament, who would dare to accept the invitation without some trump card?'
At this point, the spy resumed, "Not only that, there's a commentator beside him, I can't figure out how they managed to broadcast. The commentator said the Venerable Dragon God is a Lake-level powerhouse, and that mere ponds couldn't affect an entire lake."
"What? He said that?" At this point, cold sweat formed on Manson's entire body.
The main reason that the Nine Forces betrayed the Cloud Fog City was based on the newest Dragon Clan's rating system. They were just Pond-levels, but the Russian totem Spirit Bear was at the peak of Lake-level powerhouses.
If they were to base on the previous rating system of Grade-A and Grade-S, they would still be willing to stand together as ten Grade-A fighters in opposition to a Grade-S fighter.
After all, the agreement that the Russians had forced them to agree upon was really stringent. They were heavily taxed, and it goes without saying that the wars that started because of tax had always been harsh, especially among the Western countries like the British Empire and the United States.
As soon as the Dragon Clan's rating system came out, they knew that ten Pond-level fighters had no chance again a Lake-level powerhouse without some powerful formations!
That was why they relented immediately. The tax meeting that had looked grim turned wonderful in their eyes.
'Yun Hui could actually find a Lake-level powerhouse to join him? No wonder he had the confidence to fight back.
'But how could this be? With the size of this world, how many Lake-levels could there be? He could actually find one to join him.'
Manson stopped himself from overthinking. He asked in disbelief, "Is this real? Yun Hui actually found someone of that caliber?"
The spy replied immediately, "Should be. I'd just seen Mr. Abraham appear with its true self and tried to defend using its Heavenly Armor, but it was swallowed whole as the green dragon dove from the air. There was not even a ripple..."
Beads of cold sweat formed throughout Manson's body. As the news was confirmed, his head drooped and he went into catatonic shock. Abraham was in the same Turtle Demon Tribe as N'gun and was similar in the talent to defensive abilities, but it lost so easily.
Right at this moment, a new message notification woke him from his dazed state. He checked the phone.
The spy said, "Oh, sir, the green dragon moved! It was diving toward—oh, no, sir—your imposing figure is on the big screen..."
Manson read the message. When he saw the last part, he was horrified. Looking up, he could see a massive green dragon plunging toward him...
After that, nothing. He only felt a darkness swept past him...
Manson's phone hit the ground weakly, but the spy was still sending messages to him.
"Sir? Sir, are you still there? The green dragon flew away."
"Mr. Manson? The commentator Anderson was laughing at you. He said you're the first guy who dared to be using your phone while facing the Dragon God and that your bravery is admirable. Not even he would have dared to do so before."
"I don't quite understand what he meant, but your instant messaging device is still online, so you must have escaped successfully. You're the strongest in the Siberian wilderness! The commentator must be pulling things out of his ass!"
On the empty plains, a special mobile phone's screen was still lit up as it laid alone in the thick undergrowth. Messages from the spy kept coming in still.
It was unknown why, but the green dragon did not swallow the phone.
It did not fit the System's personality. After all, it had always tried to milk things to their limits.
It would even catch thieves that are worth 50 points, so how would it let go of specially-built phones like this?
It was quiet all around. No tweeting of birds, no chirping of bugs, nothing.
The phone screen was lit continuously, showing the messages coming in.
"Mr. Manson, I'm stopping the connection temporarily. They are monitoring outgoing signals. I'll get back in touch with you as soon as I changed my IP address."
The spy stopped sending messages and the phone screen eventually darkened, having gone into screensaver mode.
Within ten minutes, seven other people convened at that spot.
They were all Pond-level powerhouses—the leaders of the seven other Forces.
"Manson's phone is here, but where is he?"
They were all puzzled. One of them beckoned at the phone and summoned the phone to him. Switching it on, they saw a password screen and a hint about unlocking with a fingerprint.
"Any of you guys know how to work this?"
Other people shook their heads. They were obsessed with cultivation, and they have hobbies, but no one had any experience in being a hacker.
A black man approached him. He frowned and took the phone as he extended a finger.
The finger turned white, contrasting sharply with his dark brown skin, and he pressed on the recognition device on the back of the phone.
Immediately, the screen brightened up, indicating the successful unlocking of the phone.
"Awesome! You really deserve your shapeshifter title, Black Wizard Sambu!" Everyone else praised him, but also raised their alertness toward him.
'He even managed to collect Manson's fingerprint, and with such accuracy! I should change my phone to unlock with just passcode...'
Some people had more to think about. 'Sambu is a black wizard, he must have collected things like hair and blood for curses and hexes...'
The previous screen appeared.
All seven of them stood together and read the message log between Manson and the spy, after which they were aghast.
The spy sent a new message. "Mr. Manson, I'm back. I'm still watching the live stream. Oh, there are many other people on the screen now, one, two, three, oh, seven of them. One of them is especially dark. The green dragon dove again!"
Shocked, Black Wizard Sambu turned into a cloud of black smog.
All other people tried to escape with their unique abilities as well.
However, it was already too late...
Since it had set a trap, how would the System let them get away?
No matter if they were in the form of a black smog, white fog, or whether they tried to escape through burrowing, through water, or through the air, they were all captured by the System.
A green dragon flew smugly in the air.
The System said, "Billionaire Host, you're a genius, they really took the bait."
Fang Ning stroked his non-existent beard on his spiritual body and said pompously, "Curiosity can kill the cat, but it can also kill seven Pond-level powerhouses. The disappearance of Abraham and Manson happened one after the other. If someone could find Manson's phone, the rest would definitely want to check it out."
The System said, "So you said. You're really clever, Mr. Rich Host. Three of the seven were like those rats and mastered the art of concealment, not even the System Map could show them. If it weren't for them congregating together, it would be hard to catch them."
Fang Ning was proud of himself. He thought, 'I was actually just hoping it would work, I didn't expect these ambitionists would be that careless.
'However, it's not entirely their fault. They don't have enough intel. If they knew there was a Lake-level powerhouse hiding behind the clouds, they would've run as far as they could, not leaping into the fire like they did.
'Luckily, Sir System had already raised the Faking Technique to Master-level. Unlike before, his dragon aura would no longer leak out and be noticed in his true dragon form.'
...
In front of the city hall of the Cloud Fog City, it was festive and celebratory.
On the large screen, Yun Hui was announcing the news.
"Everyone, the nine Pond-level powerhouses had all been defeated by the Venerable One. According to the scouts we sent out, the Nine Forces of Extraordinaires with a total of more than ten thousand strong were all in a state of chaos. It means that they have lost their commands! You can all relax now!"
Seeing the people cheering, the twelve landlords had different expressions each.
"I told you, the Venerable Dragon God is mighty enough to swallow those hypersonic cruise missile easily, we don't need to worry at all, but you were all being such worrywarts, that's just being paranoid!" Landlord Liu immediately reprimanded his rivals.
Before the live stream, the ten landlords' unease could be sensed even by normal Extraordinaires, let alone him. However, it was before a big battle, so he decided not to pick a fight and pretended not to notice.
Now that the danger was averted, he could not help but flaunt his foresight.
"Haha, Landlord Liu had had experience fighting alongside the Venerable One, so you have a gauge of how it would turn out. We were just worried, but I didn't expect them to be so weak," said someone in an attempt to prevent infighting.
"They were just Pond-level fighters, and the Venerable Dragon God is a Lake-level powerhouse, he really is a sight to behold. Killing the nine was as easy as retrieving something from his sack. However, the Russian totem Spirit Bear is a Lake-level like the Venerable One, would it be so easy for him facing it?" Another person was not entirely relieved.
They were not like other employees or their family, they knew the real threat had yet to come.
Landlord Liu did not have a reply to that. He answered with uncertainty after a moment passed, "It should be fine. Both of them have similar power levels so the Spirit Bear would not attack without caution. That way, we could at least come to a fair agreement. The Russians could go and annex the lands of the other people, they don't need to fight us to death."
The other landlords agreed. "That's right, I think the Russians would know how to navigate this."
...
However, the truth could not be further.
Thousands of kilometers away from the Cloud Fog City, a hundred-meter-tall bear was traversing quickly. The target in its direction seemed to be exactly the Cloud Fog City.
Trees, boulders, mountains, rivers, none of them could slow it even a little bit. The giant bear left a trail of deep pawprints in the wilderness.
Behind it was an army of about a hundred people. They were the Russian-organized Justice Cavalry.
They were all chosen from a traditional cathedral and were all on the path of the Divine.
At the same time, they trained in vitality cultivation to strengthen their body and nurture their spiritual sense as it could aid in cultivating their path.
They would not reject powers from the East, just as they embraced the gunpowder.
They had priests and knights in the army. Naturally, the title 'cavalry' was just a title, no one was actually riding a horse.
The only way to tell the two apart was that knights were in heavy armors, and priests were in robes.
"Let these Yellow Peril scums know how strong the Russians are! As the first superpower to manifest the totem, let these infidels know what the incorruptible divinity means!"
A knight wearing plate armor who looked like the captain led the army and constantly yelled words of encouragement at them.
"Lord Knight Ivan, please be careful. It was said that Yun Hui has connections to China, and who knows if he would be able to find a strong Chinese powerhouse to help? Spirit Bear is strong, but as we know, its limitation is plentiful," said an old priest.
Ivan scoffed and said, "All of China is under that Truth Department's control. As the authority, they wouldn't dare to send anyone to help just to risk a fall out with us. The most they could do is to help with the evacuation. We still have the largest number of nuclear weapons in the world. If we were forced to, we could just detonate them all. Don't even talk about building a new era, everyone can just start playing the Wasteland Mode. With that trump card in our hand, we would only need to deal with those private Extraordinaires that were not within the political structure."
The old priest was still hesitant. "The East has too strong a foundation. Even some of those private Extraordinaires were powerful. I heard there's someone named Gu Buwei who is as strong as Spirit Bear. They're not scared of our nuclear weapons, they could hide inside their arcane realm to avoid the explosion. In fact, I think they probably want us to bring out the nuclear weapons so they wouldn't be smitten by Heavenly Retribution when they resurface to reach for the throne."
Ivan frowned and said, "Father Bathurst, you have a point. Fortunately for us, Spirit Bear is not a living being and is not afraid of dying or some injury. Meanwhile, Gu Buwei is a human and will definitely take precaution to not sustain injury. If we make the bear appear as if it was gonna fight to death, he should be intimidated enough to run away."
The old priest nodded and sighed in relief. It was not easy to cultivate to that point, it would be the most logical to flee in that situation.
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"What's wrong with Abraham, he's not replying to me! When we attack the city, he better not have eaten too many people. We want those skilled Extraordinaire workers as slaves!" The white man Manson stopped charging toward the Cloud Fog City.
Because they were fighting together, they naturally had a way to contact each other.
He had just recalled that within the nine, the black tortoise had always been the least cooperative, so he wanted to contact the black tortoise through spiritual sense. However, there had been no response at all.
He took his phone out and tried to ask one of the spies he had planted in the Cloud Fog City.
He had not been able to contact the spy as well, but he was not worried as he knew the Cloud Fog City would have locked down on outgoing electronic signals.
The spy was only a Mug-level so he could not get in touch through spiritual sense like with the other powerhouses.
To contact the spy, technology must be used, like e-mails, satellite phone calls, video conference, and telegraphs among others. However, all technology-based communications were susceptible to interception from well-developed methods as long as the interceptor was willing to spend money.
When Manson tried again, he finally was able to contact the spy.
The spy was planted in the Cloud Fog City two months prior to this and was paid a high price for his services. The earlier spies had all been captured by Yun Hui and enslaved. This one probably could not last that long as well, but fortunately, he was no longer needed after the siege.
This was the terrifying part of the new era. Without some special abilities, the spies would not have withstood any Pond-level powerhouse's aura, let alone the many different magical selection methods like the Heavenly Oath.
Sending the real powerhouses to do espionage work was still too big a price to pay for large organizations.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Manson. The Cloud Fog City had been putting outgoing communication on lockdown when they were evacuating. Only the local area network was accessible so I couldn't contact you any earlier. They had just started a live stream and unblocked public internet signals, so I immediately contacted you," explained the spy.
"Don't waste time explaining. Just tell me, what happened?" Manson urged as he had expected what was happening.
The spy continued, "Yun Hui hired the strongest Extraordinaire in China, the Venerable Dragon God. Now they are broadcasting the battles live on the screen in the square."
"What arrogance!" Hearing that, Manson was stunned.
'What would it mean for the Venerable Dragon God to broadcast a battle live?
'It meant he had the confidence to not embarrass himself in front of his audience and the confidence to pulverize us!
'Just like the others who dared to take part in the Dark Tournament, who would dare to accept the invitation without some trump card?'
At this point, the spy resumed, "Not only that, there's a commentator beside him, I can't figure out how they managed to broadcast. The commentator said the Venerable Dragon God is a Lake-level powerhouse, and that mere ponds couldn't affect an entire lake."
"What? He said that?" At this point, cold sweat formed on Manson's entire body.
The main reason that the Nine Forces betrayed the Cloud Fog City was based on the newest Dragon Clan's rating system. They were just Pond-levels, but the Russian totem Spirit Bear was at the peak of Lake-level powerhouses.
If they were to base on the previous rating system of Grade-A and Grade-S, they would still be willing to stand together as ten Grade-A fighters in opposition to a Grade-S fighter.
After all, the agreement that the Russians had forced them to agree upon was really stringent. They were heavily taxed, and it goes without saying that the wars that started because of tax had always been harsh, especially among the Western countries like the British Empire and the United States.
As soon as the Dragon Clan's rating system came out, they knew that ten Pond-level fighters had no chance again a Lake-level powerhouse without some powerful formations!
That was why they relented immediately. The tax meeting that had looked grim turned wonderful in their eyes.
'Yun Hui could actually find a Lake-level powerhouse to join him? No wonder he had the confidence to fight back.
'But how could this be? With the size of this world, how many Lake-levels could there be? He could actually find one to join him.'
Manson stopped himself from overthinking. He asked in disbelief, "Is this real? Yun Hui actually found someone of that caliber?"
The spy replied immediately, "Should be. I'd just seen Mr. Abraham appear with its true self and tried to defend using its Heavenly Armor, but it was swallowed whole as the green dragon dove from the air. There was not even a ripple..."
Beads of cold sweat formed throughout Manson's body. As the news was confirmed, his head drooped and he went into catatonic shock. Abraham was in the same Turtle Demon Tribe as N'gun and was similar in the talent to defensive abilities, but it lost so easily.
Right at this moment, a new message notification woke him from his dazed state. He checked the phone.
The spy said, "Oh, sir, the green dragon moved! It was diving toward—oh, no, sir—your imposing figure is on the big screen..."
Manson read the message. When he saw the last part, he was horrified. Looking up, he could see a massive green dragon plunging toward him...
After that, nothing. He only felt a darkness swept past him...
Manson's phone hit the ground weakly, but the spy was still sending messages to him.
"Sir? Sir, are you still there? The green dragon flew away."
"Mr. Manson? The commentator Anderson was laughing at you. He said you're the first guy who dared to be using your phone while facing the Dragon God and that your bravery is admirable. Not even he would have dared to do so before."
"I don't quite understand what he meant, but your instant messaging device is still online, so you must have escaped successfully. You're the strongest in the Siberian wilderness! The commentator must be pulling things out of his ass!"
On the empty plains, a special mobile phone's screen was still lit up as it laid alone in the thick undergrowth. Messages from the spy kept coming in still.
It was unknown why, but the green dragon did not swallow the phone.
It did not fit the System's personality. After all, it had always tried to milk things to their limits.
It would even catch thieves that are worth 50 points, so how would it let go of specially-built phones like this?
It was quiet all around. No tweeting of birds, no chirping of bugs, nothing.
The phone screen was lit continuously, showing the messages coming in.
"Mr. Manson, I'm stopping the connection temporarily. They are monitoring outgoing signals. I'll get back in touch with you as soon as I changed my IP address."
The spy stopped sending messages and the phone screen eventually darkened, having gone into screensaver mode.
Within ten minutes, seven other people convened at that spot.
They were all Pond-level powerhouses—the leaders of the seven other Forces.
"Manson's phone is here, but where is he?"
They were all puzzled. One of them beckoned at the phone and summoned the phone to him. Switching it on, they saw a password screen and a hint about unlocking with a fingerprint.
"Any of you guys know how to work this?"
Other people shook their heads. They were obsessed with cultivation, and they have hobbies, but no one had any experience in being a hacker.
A black man approached him. He frowned and took the phone as he extended a finger.
The finger turned white, contrasting sharply with his dark brown skin, and he pressed on the recognition device on the back of the phone.
Immediately, the screen brightened up, indicating the successful unlocking of the phone.
"Awesome! You really deserve your shapeshifter title, Black Wizard Sambu!" Everyone else praised him, but also raised their alertness toward him.
'He even managed to collect Manson's fingerprint, and with such accuracy! I should change my phone to unlock with just passcode...'
Some people had more to think about. 'Sambu is a black wizard, he must have collected things like hair and blood for curses and hexes...'
The previous screen appeared.
All seven of them stood together and read the message log between Manson and the spy, after which they were aghast.
The spy sent a new message. "Mr. Manson, I'm back. I'm still watching the live stream. Oh, there are many other people on the screen now, one, two, three, oh, seven of them. One of them is especially dark. The green dragon dove again!"
Shocked, Black Wizard Sambu turned into a cloud of black smog.
All other people tried to escape with their unique abilities as well.
However, it was already too late...
Since it had set a trap, how would the System let them get away?
No matter if they were in the form of a black smog, white fog, or whether they tried to escape through burrowing, through water, or through the air, they were all captured by the System.
A green dragon flew smugly in the air.
The System said, "Billionaire Host, you're a genius, they really took the bait."
Fang Ning stroked his non-existent beard on his spiritual body and said pompously, "Curiosity can kill the cat, but it can also kill seven Pond-level powerhouses. The disappearance of Abraham and Manson happened one after the other. If someone could find Manson's phone, the rest would definitely want to check it out."
The System said, "So you said. You're really clever, Mr. Rich Host. Three of the seven were like those rats and mastered the art of concealment, not even the System Map could show them. If it weren't for them congregating together, it would be hard to catch them."
Fang Ning was proud of himself. He thought, 'I was actually just hoping it would work, I didn't expect these ambitionists would be that careless.
'However, it's not entirely their fault. They don't have enough intel. If they knew there was a Lake-level powerhouse hiding behind the clouds, they would've run as far as they could, not leaping into the fire like they did.
'Luckily, Sir System had already raised the Faking Technique to Master-level. Unlike before, his dragon aura would no longer leak out and be noticed in his true dragon form.'
...
In front of the city hall of the Cloud Fog City, it was festive and celebratory.
On the large screen, Yun Hui was announcing the news.
"Everyone, the nine Pond-level powerhouses had all been defeated by the Venerable One. According to the scouts we sent out, the Nine Forces of Extraordinaires with a total of more than ten thousand strong were all in a state of chaos. It means that they have lost their commands! You can all relax now!"
Seeing the people cheering, the twelve landlords had different expressions each.
"I told you, the Venerable Dragon God is mighty enough to swallow those hypersonic cruise missile easily, we don't need to worry at all, but you were all being such worrywarts, that's just being paranoid!" Landlord Liu immediately reprimanded his rivals.
Before the live stream, the ten landlords' unease could be sensed even by normal Extraordinaires, let alone him. However, it was before a big battle, so he decided not to pick a fight and pretended not to notice.
Now that the danger was averted, he could not help but flaunt his foresight.
"Haha, Landlord Liu had had experience fighting alongside the Venerable One, so you have a gauge of how it would turn out. We were just worried, but I didn't expect them to be so weak," said someone in an attempt to prevent infighting.
"They were just Pond-level fighters, and the Venerable Dragon God is a Lake-level powerhouse, he really is a sight to behold. Killing the nine was as easy as retrieving something from his sack. However, the Russian totem Spirit Bear is a Lake-level like the Venerable One, would it be so easy for him facing it?" Another person was not entirely relieved.
They were not like other employees or their family, they knew the real threat had yet to come.
Landlord Liu did not have a reply to that. He answered with uncertainty after a moment passed, "It should be fine. Both of them have similar power levels so the Spirit Bear would not attack without caution. That way, we could at least come to a fair agreement. The Russians could go and annex the lands of the other people, they don't need to fight us to death."
The other landlords agreed. "That's right, I think the Russians would know how to navigate this."
...
However, the truth could not be further.
Thousands of kilometers away from the Cloud Fog City, a hundred-meter-tall bear was traversing quickly. The target in its direction seemed to be exactly the Cloud Fog City.
Trees, boulders, mountains, rivers, none of them could slow it even a little bit. The giant bear left a trail of deep pawprints in the wilderness.
Behind it was an army of about a hundred people. They were the Russian-organized Justice Cavalry.
They were all chosen from a traditional cathedral and were all on the path of the Divine.
At the same time, they trained in vitality cultivation to strengthen their body and nurture their spiritual sense as it could aid in cultivating their path.
They would not reject powers from the East, just as they embraced the gunpowder.
They had priests and knights in the army. Naturally, the title 'cavalry' was just a title, no one was actually riding a horse.
The only way to tell the two apart was that knights were in heavy armors, and priests were in robes.
"Let these Yellow Peril scums know how strong the Russians are! As the first superpower to manifest the totem, let these infidels know what the incorruptible divinity means!"
A knight wearing plate armor who looked like the captain led the army and constantly yelled words of encouragement at them.
"Lord Knight Ivan, please be careful. It was said that Yun Hui has connections to China, and who knows if he would be able to find a strong Chinese powerhouse to help? Spirit Bear is strong, but as we know, its limitation is plentiful," said an old priest.
Ivan scoffed and said, "All of China is under that Truth Department's control. As the authority, they wouldn't dare to send anyone to help just to risk a fall out with us. The most they could do is to help with the evacuation. We still have the largest number of nuclear weapons in the world. If we were forced to, we could just detonate them all. Don't even talk about building a new era, everyone can just start playing the Wasteland Mode. With that trump card in our hand, we would only need to deal with those private Extraordinaires that were not within the political structure."
The old priest was still hesitant. "The East has too strong a foundation. Even some of those private Extraordinaires were powerful. I heard there's someone named Gu Buwei who is as strong as Spirit Bear. They're not scared of our nuclear weapons, they could hide inside their arcane realm to avoid the explosion. In fact, I think they probably want us to bring out the nuclear weapons so they wouldn't be smitten by Heavenly Retribution when they resurface to reach for the throne."
Ivan frowned and said, "Father Bathurst, you have a point. Fortunately for us, Spirit Bear is not a living being and is not afraid of dying or some injury. Meanwhile, Gu Buwei is a human and will definitely take precaution to not sustain injury. If we make the bear appear as if it was gonna fight to death, he should be intimidated enough to run away."
The old priest nodded and sighed in relief. It was not easy to cultivate to that point, it would be the most logical to flee in that situation.
"What's wrong with Abraham, he's not replying to me! When we attack the city, he better not have eaten too many people. We want those skilled Extraordinaire workers as slaves!" The white man Manson stopped charging toward the Cloud Fog City.Because they were fighting together, they naturally had a way to contact each other.He had just recalled that within the nine, the black tortoise had always been the least cooperative, so he wanted to contact the black tortoise through spiritual sense. However, there had been no response at all.He took his phone out and tried to ask one of the spies he had planted in the Cloud Fog City.He had not been able to contact the spy as well, but he was not worried as he knew the Cloud Fog City would have locked down on outgoing electronic signals.The spy was only a Mug-level so he could not get in touch through spiritual sense like with the other powerhouses.To contact the spy, technology must be used, like e-mails, satellite phone calls, video conference, and telegraphs among others. However, all technology-based communications were susceptible to interception from well-developed methods as long as the interceptor was willing to spend money.When Manson tried again, he finally was able to contact the spy.The spy was planted in the Cloud Fog City two months prior to this and was paid a high price for his services. The earlier spies had all been captured by Yun Hui and enslaved. This one probably could not last that long as well, but fortunately, he was no longer needed after the siege.This was the terrifying part of the new era. Without some special abilities, the spies would not have withstood any Pond-level powerhouse's aura, let alone the many different magical selection methods like the Heavenly Oath.Sending the real powerhouses to do espionage work was still too big a price to pay for large organizations."I'm sorry, Mr. Manson. The Cloud Fog City had been putting outgoing communication on lockdown when they were evacuating. Only the local area network was accessible so I couldn't contact you any earlier. They had just started a live stream and unblocked public internet signals, so I immediately contacted you," explained the spy."Don't waste time explaining. Just tell me, what happened?" Manson urged as he had expected what was happening.The spy continued, "Yun Hui hired the strongest Extraordinaire in China, the Venerable Dragon God. Now they are broadcasting the battles live on the screen in the square.""What arrogance!" Hearing that, Manson was stunned.'What would it mean for the Venerable Dragon God to broadcast a battle live?'It meant he had the confidence to not embarrass himself in front of his audience and the confidence to pulverize us!'Just like the others who dared to take part in the Dark Tournament, who would dare to accept the invitation without some trump card?'At this point, the spy resumed, "Not only that, there's a commentator beside him, I can't figure out how they managed to broadcast. The commentator said the Venerable Dragon God is a Lake-level powerhouse, and that mere ponds couldn't affect an entire lake.""What? He said that?" At this point, cold sweat formed on Manson's entire body.The main reason that the Nine Forces betrayed the Cloud Fog City was based on the newest Dragon Clan's rating system. They were just Pond-levels, but the Russian totem Spirit Bear was at the peak of Lake-level powerhouses.If they were to base on the previous rating system of Grade-A and Grade-S, they would still be willing to stand together as ten Grade-A fighters in opposition to a Grade-S fighter.After all, the agreement that the Russians had forced them to agree upon was really stringent. They were heavily taxed, and it goes without saying that the wars that started because of tax had always been harsh, especially among the Western countries like the British Empire and the United States.As soon as the Dragon Clan's rating system came out, they knew that ten Pond-level fighters had no chance again a Lake-level powerhouse without some powerful formations!That was why they relented immediately. The tax meeting that had looked grim turned wonderful in their eyes.'Yun Hui could actually find a Lake-level powerhouse to join him? No wonder he had the confidence to fight back.'But how could this be? With the size of this world, how many Lake-levels could there be? He could actually find one to join him.'Manson stopped himself from overthinking. He asked in disbelief, "Is this real? Yun Hui actually found someone of that caliber?"The spy replied immediately, "Should be. I'd just seen Mr. Abraham appear with its true self and tried to defend using its Heavenly Armor, but it was swallowed whole as the green dragon dove from the air. There was not even a ripple..."Beads of cold sweat formed throughout Manson's body. As the news was confirmed, his head drooped and he went into catatonic shock. Abraham was in the same Turtle Demon Tribe as N'gun and was similar in the talent to defensive abilities, but it lost so easily.Right at this moment, a new message notification woke him from his dazed state. He checked the phone.The spy said, "Oh, sir, the green dragon moved! It was diving towardoh, no, siryour imposing figure is on the big screen..."Manson read the message. When he saw the last part, he was horrified. Looking up, he could see a massive green dragon plunging toward him...After that, nothing. He only felt a darkness swept past him...Manson's phone hit the ground weakly, but the spy was still sending messages to him."Sir? Sir, are you still there? The green dragon flew away.""Mr. Manson? The commentator Anderson was laughing at you. He said you're the first guy who dared to be using your phone while facing the Dragon God and that your bravery is admirable. Not even he would have dared to do so before.""I don't quite understand what he meant, but your instant messaging device is still online, so you must have escaped successfully. You're the strongest in the Siberian wilderness! The commentator must be pulling things out of his ass!"On the empty plains, a special mobile phone's screen was still lit up as it laid alone in the thick undergrowth. Messages from the spy kept coming in still.It was unknown why, but the green dragon did not swallow the phone.It did not fit the System's personality. After all, it had always tried to milk things to their limits.It would even catch thieves that are worth 50 points, so how would it let go of specially-built phones like this?It was quiet all around. No tweeting of birds, no chirping of bugs, nothing.The phone screen was lit continuously, showing the messages coming in."Mr. Manson, I'm stopping the connection temporarily. They are monitoring outgoing signals. I'll get back in touch with you as soon as I changed my IP address."The spy stopped sending messages and the phone screen eventually darkened, having gone into screensaver mode.Within ten minutes, seven other people convened at that spot.They were all Pond-level powerhousesthe leaders of the seven other Forces."Manson's phone is here, but where is he?"They were all puzzled. One of them beckoned at the phone and summoned the phone to him. Switching it on, they saw a password screen and a hint about unlocking with a fingerprint."Any of you guys know how to work this?"Other people shook their heads. They were obsessed with cultivation, and they have hobbies, but no one had any experience in being a hacker.A black man approached him. He frowned and took the phone as he extended a finger.The finger turned white, contrasting sharply with his dark brown skin, and he pressed on the recognition device on the back of the phone.Immediately, the screen brightened up, indicating the successful unlocking of the phone."Awesome! You really deserve your shapeshifter title, Black Wizard Sambu!" Everyone else praised him, but also raised their alertness toward him.'He even managed to collect Manson's fingerprint, and with such accuracy! I should change my phone to unlock with just passcode...'Some people had more to think about. 'Sambu is a black wizard, he must have collected things like hair and blood for curses and hexes...'The previous screen appeared.All seven of them stood together and read the message log between Manson and the spy, after which they were aghast.The spy sent a new message. "Mr. Manson, I'm back. I'm still watching the live stream. Oh, there are many other people on the screen now, one, two, three, oh, seven of them. One of them is especially dark. The green dragon dove again!"Shocked, Black Wizard Sambu turned into a cloud of black smog.All other people tried to escape with their unique abilities as well.However, it was already too late...Since it had set a trap, how would the System let them get away?No matter if they were in the form of a black smog, white fog, or whether they tried to escape through burrowing, through water, or through the air, they were all captured by the System.A green dragon flew smugly in the air.The System said, "Billionaire Host, you're a genius, they really took the bait."Fang Ning stroked his non-existent beard on his spiritual body and said pompously, "Curiosity can kill the cat, but it can also kill seven Pond-level powerhouses. The disappearance of Abraham and Manson happened one after the other. If someone could find Manson's phone, the rest would definitely want to check it out."The System said, "So you said. You're really clever, Mr. Rich Host. Three of the seven were like those rats and mastered the art of concealment, not even the System Map could show them. If it weren't for them congregating together, it would be hard to catch them."Fang Ning was proud of himself. He thought, 'I was actually just hoping it would work, I didn't expect these ambitionists would be that careless.'However, it's not entirely their fault. They don't have enough intel. If they knew there was a Lake-level powerhouse hiding behind the clouds, they would've run as far as they could, not leaping into the fire like they did.'Luckily, Sir System had already raised the Faking Technique to Master-level. Unlike before, his dragon aura would no longer leak out and be noticed in his true dragon form.'...In front of the city hall of the Cloud Fog City, it was festive and celebratory.On the large screen, Yun Hui was announcing the news."Everyone, the nine Pond-level powerhouses had all been defeated by the Venerable One. According to the scouts we sent out, the Nine Forces of Extraordinaires with a total of more than ten thousand strong were all in a state of chaos. It means that they have lost their commands! You can all relax now!"Seeing the people cheering, the twelve landlords had different expressions each."I told you, the Venerable Dragon God is mighty enough to swallow those hypersonic cruise missile easily, we don't need to worry at all, but you were all being such worrywarts, that's just being paranoid!" Landlord Liu immediately reprimanded his rivals.Before the live stream, the ten landlords' unease could be sensed even by normal Extraordinaires, let alone him. However, it was before a big battle, so he decided not to pick a fight and pretended not to notice.Now that the danger was averted, he could not help but flaunt his foresight."Haha, Landlord Liu had had experience fighting alongside the Venerable One, so you have a gauge of how it would turn out. We were just worried, but I didn't expect them to be so weak," said someone in an attempt to prevent infighting."They were just Pond-level fighters, and the Venerable Dragon God is a Lake-level powerhouse, he really is a sight to behold. Killing the nine was as easy as retrieving something from his sack. However, the Russian totem Spirit Bear is a Lake-level like the Venerable One, would it be so easy for him facing it?" Another person was not entirely relieved.They were not like other employees or their family, they knew the real threat had yet to come.Landlord Liu did not have a reply to that. He answered with uncertainty after a moment passed, "It should be fine. Both of them have similar power levels so the Spirit Bear would not attack without caution. That way, we could at least come to a fair agreement. The Russians could go and annex the lands of the other people, they don't need to fight us to death."The other landlords agreed. "That's right, I think the Russians would know how to navigate this."...However, the truth could not be further.Thousands of kilometers away from the Cloud Fog City, a hundred-meter-tall bear was traversing quickly. The target in its direction seemed to be exactly the Cloud Fog City.Trees, boulders, mountains, rivers, none of them could slow it even a little bit. The giant bear left a trail of deep pawprints in the wilderness.Behind it was an army of about a hundred people. They were the Russian-organized Justice Cavalry.They were all chosen from a traditional cathedral and were all on the path of the Divine.At the same time, they trained in vitality cultivation to strengthen their body and nurture their spiritual sense as it could aid in cultivating their path.They would not reject powers from the East, just as they embraced the gunpowder.They had priests and knights in the army. Naturally, the title 'cavalry' was just a title, no one was actually riding a horse.The only way to tell the two apart was that knights were in heavy armors, and priests were in robes."Let these Yellow Peril scums know how strong the Russians are! As the first superpower to manifest the totem, let these infidels know what the incorruptible divinity means!"A knight wearing plate armor who looked like the captain led the army and constantly yelled words of encouragement at them."Lord Knight Ivan, please be careful. It was said that Yun Hui has connections to China, and who knows if he would be able to find a strong Chinese powerhouse to help? Spirit Bear is strong, but as we know, its limitation is plentiful," said an old priest.Ivan scoffed and said, "All of China is under that Truth Department's control. As the authority, they wouldn't dare to send anyone to help just to risk a fall out with us. The most they could do is to help with the evacuation. We still have the largest number of nuclear weapons in the world. If we were forced to, we could just detonate them all. Don't even talk about building a new era, everyone can just start playing the Wasteland Mode. With that trump card in our hand, we would only need to deal with those private Extraordinaires that were not within the political structure."The old priest was still hesitant. "The East has too strong a foundation. Even some of those private Extraordinaires were powerful. I heard there's someone named Gu Buwei who is as strong as Spirit Bear. They're not scared of our nuclear weapons, they could hide inside their arcane realm to avoid the explosion. In fact, I think they probably want us to bring out the nuclear weapons so they wouldn't be smitten by Heavenly Retribution when they resurface to reach for the throne."Ivan frowned and said, "Father Bathurst, you have a point. Fortunately for us, Spirit Bear is not a living being and is not afraid of dying or some injury. Meanwhile, Gu Buwei is a human and will definitely take precaution to not sustain injury. If we make the bear appear as if it was gonna fight to death, he should be intimidated enough to run away."The old priest nodded and sighed in relief. It was not easy to cultivate to that point, it would be the most logical to flee in that situation.
