LWGP - Chapter 202
Chapter 202: The Four Heavenly Kings
The Nevernight Patriarch smiled. "Ah Shu, you've always been frail, born with a hidden illness. This must have been hard on you."
The young man couldn't speak further, because his HP had been depleted. He collapsed and died.
The Patriarch pulled out his sword as a trusted subordinate came closer and said, "A shame about all that prophetic talent."
"His hidden illness was healing. That was too dangerous." The Patriarch wiped his sword, his eyes showing no pity for his adopted son. Having raised him for so long, it was only fitting that he make a contribution in the apocalypse as a form of repayment.
But he could never be allowed to threaten the safety and interests of the Patriarch and his true bloodline.
An adopted son could never be as close as one's own flesh and blood.
Giving him the right to use the two important items wasn't a matter of trust, but because activating them consumed a massive amount of spirit power, essentially crippling the user.
The Patriarch was calm and ruthless. When he received the system notification that ownership of the Undead Race kills had been transferred to him, he confirmed that his dangerous adopted son was dead. Only then did his suspicious nature allow him to relax. He then gave the order, "Go collect the spoils."
Tens of thousands of Nevernight experts hidden in the ravines instantly activated their Fixed Point Teleportation Talismans, following the Patriarch.
"Lord, which stop is first?"
"Butterfly Valley. That's where the most Undead are, and our partners are there too."
"I bet that two-faced bastard Zhou Yan has been hiding outside the mountain from the start, just waiting for Butterfly Valley to be flattened."
Go over to say hello and share the profits?
No, the deal was done. Now it was time for the dog-eat-dog part.
The people of the Nevernight organization teleported to the foot of Butterfly Valley, full of bravado, ready to strike at Zhou Yan and the others from Chongqing's Nine Palaces. But they didn't expect what they'd find as soon as they arrived.
The people from Chongqing's Nine Palaces were indeed at the foot of the mountain. As the light of teleportation faded, the two partners—once in their honeymoon phase but now ready for a divorce—came face to face.
At that moment… the people of Nevernight faced the people of Nine Palaces. For a brief instant, both sides were silent.
Zhou Yan was in a cage, his legs broken. Standing beside him were four great lords with terrifying auras.
Ning Kungui, Song Yin, the Shanghai Old Lady, and Wang Jiu.
The F4 Heavenly Kings of the Sichuan Alliance?
The Shanghai Old Lady said, "Surprising, isn't it? Exciting? That's right, that's the effect we were going for."
The Nevernight Patriarch: "…"
Based on the scene before him, the truth was obvious.
1. He had indeed successfully bombed the seven-star points, and the Undead Race had been wiped out.
2. But while the Undead were dead, none of the people from the Sichuan Alliance were. They must have left the seven-star designated areas—like Emei Mountain and Jiuzhaigou—before the explosion.
But he didn't understand. He really didn't understand.
How did these people detect the Seven Star Day Array? Even if they had, how did they time their departure from the seven-star locations so perfectly? Were they not in the mountains?
Impossible. His men had long-range surveillance outside areas like Jiuzhaigou, and they had indeed reported that there was fighting in the mountains, that the allied forces were there.
It seemed now that his surveillance spies were likely all dead and hadn't sent back any news. But considering the time, there was no way these people could have left the designated blast radius so quickly. Only a few minutes had passed since he had Ah Shu activate it.
It was nowhere near enough time.
Then there was only one possibility.
"You knew about the Seven Star Day Array all along. You pre-arranged for someone to be outside to teleport everyone. After learning the detonation time, you cleared everyone's negative statuses, got them out of combat, and pulled them away directly."
The Patriarch's mind was still sharp; he figured it out in seconds. But he didn't understand how he had been exposed, or how the other side had found out the exact time of the explosion.
He didn't know, but Zhou Yan had an idea. He stared at Wang Jiu. She must have seen through the illusion of the array in Butterfly Valley.
"How did you know when it would explode?" Zhou Yan's expression was grim as he asked the question the Patriarch also wanted to ask.
Wang Jiu's answer was to draw her blade.
Ask? Ask my ass!
In the Bashu Territory, Liu Wuren had demanded everyone make a clean cut. The Shanghai Old Lady directly replied that Gobi's Lao Wang had already made her move. The fight was on. That old bastard from Nevernight was pretty strong and was trying to escape. No more talking, no time. After the fight, they'd go back and have a mixer.
The old lady still hadn't forgotten about the mixer.
Liu Wuren: "…"
He really wasn't good at dealing with women, whether it was this white-haired, theatrical Shanghai Old Lady or Wang Jiu.
When it came to business, however, he preferred Wang Jiu's style. She was direct and never dragged things out. She didn't probe or test him; by the time she approached him, she had already determined he was a viable partner.
She told him to investigate, to confirm, and to contact her after he was certain.
He had, of course, investigated. The central government was full of experts with countless methods at their disposal. If she could confirm the viability of the Seven Star Day Array, so could they. Then, he personally went to investigate the assigned locations and saw the arrays…
Just as the system had asked Wang Jiu if she wanted to destroy the arrays, she had no such inclination, and neither did Liu Wuren.
It would be a shame not to use such a grand setup.
So he went back and contacted Wang Jiu, and they reached a tacit understanding. They could have created a second, smaller group chat, excluding the people from Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Nine Palaces, and then notified them of the departure time later.
But he and Wang Jiu rejected that approach because they couldn't be sure if there were other "allies" of the enemy among the remaining people. In other words, the other great lords were still objects of suspicion.
So they chose to arrange spies outside the assigned locations like Jiuzhaigou and Tianlong Temple, which also allowed them to counter-monitor Nevernight's surveillance teams.
To see if they were up to something, they just had to check if they were at the foot of the mountain.
The result was obvious. Nine Palaces and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain were quite cunning. They were all holed up at the foot of the mountain, not entering to fight, yet still complaining in the group chat about how dangerous it was. Truly a masterful performance.
In that case, there was no need to notify them. After all, they were already "safe."
Liu Wuren reviewed the plan he had "colluded" on with Wang Jiu, but it wasn't over yet.
Turning back, he looked ahead at Shen Wan, who was holding a peak purple-gold prophecy item.
He saw that her face was a little pale, likely from overexertion.
"Tired? How are you?"
Shen Wan saw her own reflection in a nearby mirror. Her brows furrowed slightly. "I'm fine. It's thanks to the Divine Light Spirit Pupils my superiors gave me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to predict the time they would make their move."
The timing was critical. Too early, and they risked being discovered. Too late, and their own group would be wiped out.
That's why Shen Wan's prophecy was so important.
Thankfully, it was a success.
Liu Wuren said, "You've worked hard."
But Shen Wan wasn't relaxed. She felt something was off. Looking down at the shimmering, mysteriously patterned Divine Light Spirit Pupils in her palm, she thought for a moment before saying to Liu Wuren, "That prophet is much stronger than I am. If I successfully predicted the time and allowed our people to escape, then he should have been able to predict the change in the outcome as well. There would be a time lag, but I think he should have had time to react. Yet now, seeing their entire group fall into the trap, I suspect that either the prophet had a falling out with them and wanted to set them up, or he's already been killed."
Shen Wan was cautious, and so was Liu Wuren. He gave her a treasure to restore her spirit. Such resources were extremely precious, several times more valuable than those that restored spirit power, and very rare. He had been consciously collecting them.
He could see that Shen Wan wanted to prophesize the other party's life or death. This would be punching above her weight, as her opponent was stronger. Even with a treasure that allowed her to challenge those of a higher level, it was very dangerous.
"You're too drained right now. Recover first."
Liu Wuren glanced at Shen Wan's pale face. Though he was usually reserved, the perceptive Shen Wan still caught a hint of his confusion—both were states of exhaustion, so why was her face red last night, but white today?
"Thank you." Shen Wan was calm and composed. She began consuming the recovery resources while also waiting for the outcome of the battle on Wang Jiu's side.
Perhaps she wouldn't need to risk a prophecy; the result would already be decided over on Wang Jiu's end.
At this moment, in Mianyang's Butterfly Valley, the mountain had been flattened. Ruins stretched out, the forests were razed, and dust filled the air. The smell of burning hung everywhere. Wang Jiu and the others had already made their move. Nevernight had many people, but the four great territories had more.
It came down to the same old saying—war is a contest of combat power.
Liu Wuren's style was steady; he liked to ensure his chances of victory were over eighty percent. Thus, the forces he arranged were on the scale of four great territories. Nevernight's forces couldn't exceed this scale, otherwise they would have just used brute force instead of resorting to a sneaky tactic like the Seven Star Day Array.
After all, the cost of that method plus the Bloodthirst skill was no less than eight hundred thousand goblin points—a massive investment.
So when the Nevernight group teleported over and saw the forces of Wang Jiu's four territories, their first instinct wasn't to fight, but to flee. Unfortunately for them, they had started this ruthless game, and Wang Jiu's side was ready to finish it even more ruthlessly.
Encirclement, strangulation, a frenzied slaughter.
The heads of Nevernight's people flew up and fell down, but if they were hit by a Bloodthirst skill, they wouldn't be getting up again. Unfortunately, the Patriarch was solely focused on saving his own skin. He paid no mind to the wails of his subordinates, intent only on escaping the encirclement of Wang Jiu and the other three.
"This old bastard is pretty strong. His average attributes are at twenty-five thousand. I wonder how many resources it took to feed him up to this point."
"Be careful, he's trying to escape!"
Normally, in the world of the game, an expert whose average attributes crushed those of four others wouldn't be left without even a chance to escape, even when surrounded.
But the four people the Patriarch faced were provincial-level great lords. Each great lord possessed a Lord's Scepter and a great lord's aura, and they were equipped with the strongest skills and resources. He was completely tied down.
Enraged, the Patriarch chose the weakest one to break through, planning to kill them first and break the four-way lock.
He targeted Wang Jiu.
"Careful!" The moment Song Yin saw the Patriarch charge toward Wang Jiu, he flashed over to help. Ning Kungui and the Shanghai Old Lady immediately prepared to strike from behind.
As for whether Wang Jiu lived or died, they weren't particularly opposed to her death. After all, though they were comrades-in-arms in name, there was no real affection between them.
So… Boom! When the Patriarch's sword struck Wang Jiu, his twenty-five thousand average attributes, amplified by critical damage and the Bloodthirst skill, actually shattered the level-nine barrier that even missiles couldn't break. The sword pierced into Wang Jiu's body.
Amidst a spray of blood and flesh, he broke through the encirclement, man and sword together. The Patriarch's killing intent was vicious as he charged out. Behind him, Song Yin pursued like a bolt of lightning. "Ah Jiu!" He unleashed his Wind Arcana from behind, his strongest single-target attack and an ultimate move—Dimensional Blade.
It landed instantly on the Patriarch's back. All the wind elemental energy in the space converged, and the defensive armor on his back groaned and cracked.
This strike was meant to stop him from killing Wang Jiu with a single blow. At the same time, the attacks from Ning Kungui and the Shanghai Old Lady also landed on the Patriarch's back.
They had all gone for broke, using their strongest attacks.
If this volley couldn't severely injure and keep him here, it would be very difficult to tie him down.
So they all unleashed their true, full power.
The result was good. In his desperation to kill Wang Jiu, the Patriarch had exposed his back. However, he didn't die. Though his armor shattered and he suffered heavy injuries, he wasn't killed, nor was his speed reduced. At the very least, he could now escape.
Before fleeing, he prepared to finish off Wang Jiu, but he suddenly noticed something—why hadn't Wang Jiu's HP dropped by much?
The Patriarch's scalp tingled. He abruptly met Wang Jiu's eyes.
She gave him a slight smile.
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