LWGP - Chapter 174
Chapter 174: Spy
Fang Cun was amused that day. After laughing, he fell into deep thought. Perhaps this was why he had come to make contact—to gauge Wang Jiu's intentions.
As for things like womanly compassion, he wouldn't believe it for a second.
"Zhengzhou has a large territory that's expanding very quickly. After all, Zhengzhou has a lot of people, while here in Luoyang…" Fang Cun suddenly stopped talking, because Wang Jiu was looking at him.
"Let's discuss the alliance another day."
Fang Cun narrowed his eyes, his tone subtle. "Lord of Gobi, do you have business to attend to?"
"I suppose so." Just as Wang Jiu finished speaking, the members of Gobi Territory present received a notification. Wang Jiu had declared war.
She had given everyone three days to adapt to the new rules, digest the resources they'd previously obtained, and organize their manors or subsidiary territories. Now that the time was up, it was natural to make a move. Of course, she hadn't declared war on Mo Jiang, but on a territory to the north.
After Wang Shu unlocked Elder A Gali's corpse, he transferred all the resources to Wang Jiu. Wang Jiu, in turn, stood up, dusted off her pants, and said, "I'm leaving first. See you later."
Once they were gone, the people from Mo Jiang felt something was amiss.
What did she mean by "see you later"?
Everyone looked at Fang Cun, who pressed his temples. It was a real headache.
When they returned to Mo Jiang, their expressions were even uglier than before.
Because in less than an hour, Gobi had already crushed three territories in the west, slaughtering everyone within and camping both the cities and the corpses.
The remaining territories were terrified. Without waiting for Wang Jiu to declare war on them, all the small and medium-sized territories in the west proactively surrendered, relocating their bases to become subsidiaries of Gobi.
After the west came the north. The northern territories didn't even have time to flee Luoyang. She took out the west in the morning and the north in the afternoon. By evening, the southern territories were facing a dilemma.
Fight, or flee?
"If we fight, we might not win. Gobi is too strong right now."
Everyone knew where they stood. They had clashed with Wang Shu's group during the day, and while their superior numbers had saved them from a total disaster, Gobi's most terrifying element had always been Wang Jiu.
Without Wang Jiu, Gobi wasn't truly Gobi.
"I watched the videos of the attacks on the northern and western territories. That Wang Jiu never needed a second strike to kill anyone. I'm guessing her average attributes have broken six thousand."
"Are you kidding? Did you see the BOSS corpse she threw to Wang Shu to loot this morning? A Golden BOSS, average attributes over six thousand. If her own average attributes hadn't broken 7,000, she definitely couldn't have taken it down alone."
"I fucking didn't even notice until you mentioned it! How are we supposed to fight this?"
"It's impossible. I heard she's on a four-mastery path and has a level 7 barrier (they were still unaware of Wang Jiu's level 9 barrier, as Luo Sheng and the others hadn't mentioned it), so human-wave tactics are useless against her. Dammit, how can a goddess be like the Old Demon of Black Mountain BOSS?"
"Uh, let me just mention, her disciple, that Fatty Wang, also has a level 7 barrier. I couldn't even damage him."
Xu Baiyan's words were the straw that broke the camel's back.
Everyone fell silent at once.
The weakest member of Wang Jiu's team, supposedly just there through connections, was this formidable. How were they supposed to cope with that?
After a long while, a middle-aged man holding a water cup sighed, "We can't fight. Our only options are to go to Zhengzhou, Xi'an, or Taiyuan."
Relocating a base was easier said than done. Without a high-level item to directly transfer everyone, they could only rely on simple transportation. This meant taking risks, and they also had to convince the residents of their territory.
They knew without a doubt that many people would leave the territory. While they, as territory lords, couldn't stomach becoming someone's subsidiary, for their residents, joining Wang Jiu would actually be a better option.
If not for the cost of leaving, many might have already left. After all, Wang Jiu's territory still had open spots.
After the discussion, everyone fell silent. Fang Cun, who had been silent, finally spoke up. "Tomorrow morning, I'll talk to Wang Jiu and see if we can sign a secondary alliance agreement."
A secondary alliance agreement meant they would follow her orders and act as her subordinates, but they wouldn't have to fully integrate into her territory.
Hearing this, everyone felt it was a viable option.
But would Wang Jiu agree?
While Mo Jiang was having a sleepless night, Gobi Territory was bustling with activity because many new people had joined.
Crushing territories was truly the best method of annexation, especially with Wang Jiu's tyrannical approach of destroying the resurrection points directly. Not a single fly was spared in the conquered territories; she was determined to fleece every last bit of value from new arrivals.
More people meant more money. After today's two campaigns in the north and west, the territory's funds, which Wang Jiu had just depleted, had already climbed back to eighty thousand gold and were continuing to increase at a terrifying rate.
Wang Jiu disliked gatherings. While it was noisy outside, she sat alone in the restaurant under the grape arbor. Not far away, Pan Jinlian was cooking, the scent of smoke wafting faintly. Wang Jiu, however, took out a file folder.
These past few days had been both idle and busy. With so much going on, she had forgotten about this folder.
Wei Yuan had given her a hint. Different eras?
She didn't know if they were people from the past, or…
As Wang Jiu pondered, she opened the file. Coincidentally, just as she did, a voice message popped up from Wang Shu. As she clicked to confirm opening the file in the system, she simultaneously accepted the voice message.
Wang Shu: "Master, Master, the whole roasted pig is ready. Do you want to come over? Sister Lin made the pita sauce herself."
Before Wang Jiu could reply, an audio file inside the folder began to play. The sound that emerged was… well… of the indescribable variety.
A man and woman, panting.
The sound could travel across the connection. Over by the previously lively bonfire, the group of people suddenly went quiet.
Wang Jiu also remained quiet, listening impassively until the audio file finished.
The atmosphere plunged into a bizarre silence.
The silence lasted until Pan Jinlian, carrying a dish, carefully placed it on the table. She peeked at Wang Jiu and said with a mixture of awe and timidity, "Master, this servant comes from a respectable family… I only know how to do laundry and cook. I truly don't know how to do anything else."
Wu Dalang: "I don't either."
Ximen Qing said, somewhat shyly, "I, on the other hand, could."
Wang Jiu glanced at them. The three NPCs were terrified and ran to another table to eat.
"No need. I have food here. You all go have fun on your own."
She had no intention of explaining, so everyone just pretended they hadn't heard anything.
After the voice call was hung up, Wang Shu quickly scanned the strange expressions on everyone's faces and secretly sent Wang Jiu a private message: "Master, actually, if you really have… needs, your disciple can find someone for you. What type do you like? I'll prepare them for you…"
He always remembered his master making no secret of her needs. It didn't seem like an act, but he didn't understand why she hadn't made a move yet, especially when so many had thrown themselves at her.
"No need."
"Master, you don't have to be polite."
"You have bad taste."
"…"
Wang Shu felt a bit depressed looking at the fragrant roasted pig. His master was really too hard to please.
However… Xie Lu suddenly spoke up. "That audio just now was a password. It's based on Morse code, but with a secondary layer of encryption. Typically, only spies use such methods."
Everyone was stunned. So, Lao Wang had just opened an audio file from a spy on a mission?
Lin Guiwan asked curiously, "Then what's the password?"
Xie Lu's expression was grave as he looked towards the lord's manor where Wang Jiu was.
"We have been defeated. We will return soon."
Wang Jiu entered this line of text as a password into the program that appeared after the audio file played. It unlocked, turning into a friend request.
The other party quickly accepted. A voice came through, hoarse and weary. "Hello, Second 1819."
It was a woman's voice.
It was cold and steady.
Wang Jiu thought for a moment, then replied, "2020, but I don't know which 'Second' I am yet."
The other party pondered for a moment. "No matter. You can't know right now either. Otherwise, I wouldn't have omitted the keyword, and the System would block it anyway. To avoid us both being punished, we can skip these sensitive topics."
The implication was that Wang Jiu couldn't ask either.
Just as she'd expected, there were restrictions, just like with Wei Yuan.
That confirmed they weren't from her current spatial dimension.
Wang Jiu didn't press the issue. "Is trading forbidden, then?"
The other party seemed surprised by Wang Jiu's directness. "You're not going to ask why I contacted you?"
"No matter where you're from, if you're returning, you'll need a place to stay. I don't mind taking people in, as long as you pay."
There seemed to be a lot of machinery on the other end; the sounds of machines could be heard. "You can interpret it that way for now. If we're talking about a trade, let's state what we each need. You first."
"First, I want to know the fastest way to find and reach the pioneer instance where a person was killed by a Bloodthirsty Beast. Second, a method for gathering a soul and a body."
The System could provide general guidance but not a specific list of items due to permission restrictions. Wang Jiu didn't dare gamble with her resources; she was pressed for time and couldn't afford any waste.
The other party thought for a moment and replied, "I don't know your current resource-gathering capabilities, so I'll give you a rough list based on my knowledge. You can look it over and consider. Can you wait a moment?"
Wang Jiu naturally agreed; it was time for her to eat anyway.
By the time Wang Jiu finished her meal, the other party's message arrived.
1:
First, if your three attributes have not yet broken thirty thousand and your spirit power has not reached fifty thousand, choose the conservative option: become a city lord and use your authority to have the System search for the instance's location and grant you entry.
Second, if you have already reached that level of strength, you can choose a TK-18 Boundary Breaking Scroll and a Temporal Calibrator to enter directly. This will allow you to protect yourself and withstand the physical damage from forcibly breaking the boundary, as this type of travel is not protected by the System. You could also choose a higher-tier instance space-jumping jade pendant. The space-jumping jewelry is actually a full set. I recommend the jade pendant because bracers and pendants focus more on defense than rings and necklaces, but the pendant is slightly more weighted toward agility than bracers. It has a sensitivity skill that can accelerate travel time, making it a more stable choice overall.
If the above items cannot be obtained in dungeons, or if no one is selling them in the auction house, you can also buy them from the Goblin Trader, but they are rare and require a high number of points.
Wang Jiu read the answer to her first question. It was quite detailed and even provided a plan based on her strength. For the second point, the resource guidance, the person had listed two sets of items—one for gathering the soul and one for the body. Each list contained over a dozen items, with no specific strength requirements. The resources were all laid out; obtaining them was a matter of capability.
"From left to right, the compatibility and applicability increase. It all depends on your ability. These are my suggestions."
After sending everything, she paused for a moment before adding, "To want to save someone as if saving yourself, willing to act without fear for your own life, shows that this person must be incredibly important to you. But you are likely just as important to them. So, prioritize your own safety and proceed with patience."
The woman on the other end of the connection could sense the extreme urgency to save someone hidden beneath her unknown contact's placid tone.
No matter what you do, if you're too hasty, you're prone to making mistakes.
Wang Jiu was surprised to be consoled but remained calm. "Oh, thank you. But if I were to ask what you mean by 'defeated,' would that be against the rules?"
The other end went quiet before a reply came through. "No. The outcome is already decided. The Eternal Night Race won."
Her tone was desolate and filled with helplessness.
Wang Jiu frowned. The Eternal Night Race again.
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