Chapter 1816 - 951: Fish in the River (2)
Chapter 1816: Chapter 951: Fish in the River (2)
The Parents’ Meeting continues to advance, crossing mountains and rivers, leaving desolation in its path.
On the mountain road, Xiao Qi asked, "Hey, since that old man is so formidable, he should have other tricks up his sleeve, right?"
"I don’t know, he probably does, but I don’t know where they’re hidden," Luo Wanya replied. "The old man is definitely busy planning everything right now."
At this moment.
In City No. 5, within the Ginkgo Manor.
Ke Rouli, dressed in white formal attire, holding a tablet, walked into the office in high heels. A Key of Gate was open here, with a wire connected from the opposite side of the gate, reaching all the way to a Virtual Warehouse.
She knocked on the edge of the Virtual Warehouse with her finger. "Old man, the mission at E1333 is completed."
The old man sat up from inside. "Completed? Speed up the progress at E1001."
Ke Rouli nodded. "Understood. By the way, there’s a strategy guide here, a clue to clearing the 17th Multidimensional World, but the publisher hasn’t cleared it themselves."
"Alright, let me see," the old man took the tablet and began reading with full concentration...
Ke Rouli hesitated for a long time. "The situation at City No. 10 isn’t very good. The Parents’ Meeting suffered a subtle loss this time, shouldn’t we do something more?"
The old man responded without looking up, "No need to do anything. At this moment, there are people watching closely, and Qing’s Family’s military deployment cannot be moved. Rest assured, I’ve already done everything I needed to. The rest is for Qing Chen to do."
Upon finishing, the old man quickly read through the strategy and lay back inside the Virtual Warehouse again.
...
...
The Heaven Ship sky fortress rapidly moved southwest, already climbing to a height of 12,000 meters without the slightest turbulence.
Qing Chen sat in the command seat while Chen Yu stood; he sat with an open demeanor.
In front of him were the officers of Chen Clan, looking obedient like quails.
"Everyone fought hard in the recent battle, taking down an aerial fortress, and over a hundred floating airships, ultimately retreating safely," Qing Chen said with a smile.
The commander felt bitter; you didn’t care at all about the fallen God Ship, did you? Is this what you call retreating safely, as long as it wasn’t your own, you didn’t care...
They sneaked a glance at Chen Yu, only to see him looking out the window like a puppet.
At this moment, an airship marked with a ginkgo leaf emblem flew in from the southwest. The aerial fortress’s personnel opened the entry passage, and the top deck of the fortress suddenly opened, a giant alloy screen retracting to both sides to allow the airship to land on the internal helipad.
The alloy screen closed again, blocking out the sunlight.
Qing Ji, Black Spider, Zero, and One walked down from the airship, guided by Chen Clan soldiers into the fortress, uniting with Qing Chen.
In the next moment, Qing Ji opened the Door of Shadow, and inside, one by one, officers and soldiers of Qing’s Family troops walked out, seamlessly taking control of the fortress as if they had long been prepared.
Officers and soldiers exited one by one, familiarly taking their operation posts.
Qing Chen was momentarily stunned. "A fortress with onboard soldiers and officers would have at least three thousand people, you can assemble a team so quickly?"
"They’ve been waiting," Qing Ji said casually. "They are all rotated members from Scepter No., isolated and on standby in City No. 8 for months. Rest assured, they’ve all been recharged, also synchronized mentally by the giant."
A middle-aged officer came to Qing Chen, smiled, and said, "Boss, I’m Qing Wan, the one responsible for guiding the Divine Scepter Skybased Weapons in the past."
"Oh, so you’re the one who bombed Prison No. 18...," Qing Chen suddenly waved everyone else away, lowering his voice. "Wait a minute, when did you start standing by in City No. 8?"
"Just in the second week after bombing Prison No. 18," Qing Wan said.
Qing Chen suddenly understood what the Taboo ACE-002 Heaven & Earth Chessboard was really useful for.
The Shadow Troop waiting in the wilderness for the Parents’ Meeting, the fortress soldiers ready to take over Heaven Ship, everything had been prepared long in advance.
Someone back then already foresaw the future.
No wonder the old man went to such great lengths to cover the retrieval of the Heaven & Earth Chessboard from Prison No. 18.
Qing Chen looked at Qing Ji, "What else has the old man prepared?"
"Don’t know," Qing Ji shook his head. "Everything is confidential, every part doing its own task, without knowing what others are doing."
"Understood," Qing Chen nodded.
The old man was preventing anyone from predicting many things through his actions, thus changing already determined outcomes.
No wonder, during the previous internal turmoil of Qing’s Family, the other side remained silent.
The other side wasn’t idle but rather had more important matters than handling the turmoil.
Qing Chen muttered to himself, "I’ve always wondered how you found Deer Island’s Li Bingxi’s first wife so timely and prevented her resurrection, considering Li Bingxi should have been extremely cautious."
Qing Ji said, "The old man marked an area for us to search. It’s a shame, if we had been a bit earlier, we could have directly killed the old woman and taken Li Bingxi’s life immediately."
At that time, outside Taboo Land No. 002, Qing Zhun became a divine spirit for a minute, killing Li Bingxi and Chen Yu. Both demigods had backup plans, and Li Bingxi carried the "Heart Lock," ensuring his resurrection by sacrificing his wife’s life once he died.
But he failed.
It’s likely that Li Bingxi never imagined how Qing’s Family found his secretly hidden wife.
Qing Chen recalled when he was caught and sent to Base A02, the old man knew exactly where he’d drift out from the underground river and was aware that even after being captured, he’d survive and emerge as the leader with the highest prestige within Qing’s Family.
Qing Chen asked Qing Ji, "Did the old man know that a rat swarm would occur in City No. 10?"
"Yes," Qing Ji said.
Qing Chen asked, "Why not save them earlier? That’s millions of lives!"
Qing Ji looked at him and said, "First, the old man didn’t know where Jindai Chika’s body was hidden. Second, you gained control over a city and nurtured millions of Parent Association Members through it. If nothing had happened, you wouldn’t have managed to accomplish many things."
"That’s quite ruthless," Qing Chen sighed. "You had the chance to blast open the city walls and let people escape."
"No, if we did that, the rat swarm without metal storm restraining them would flood into the wilderness. Without the West Continent, we couldn’t face it," Qing Ji said seriously. "It would have been a disaster for humanity. The rat swarm would first enter the wilderness, indiscriminately feeding on all organisms. Once reaching a certain scale, they would devour City No. 18 and continuously expand, and within three months, the Federation would disappear from the world."
Qing Chen suddenly realized a fact: the old man was somewhat more formidable than the Drama Master because the Drama Master only saw certain fragments while the old man could see more possibilities through variables!
So, did everything happening now stem from the old man’s choices?
Qing Chen stopped pondering and called Black Spider, "Will the Storm return to Storm City before the expedition?"
"No," Black Spider shook his head. "It will stay at Central Royal City."
Qing Chen then asked Qing Ji, "Can the Door of Shadow open directly to Central Royal City?"
"No, I haven’t been there," Qing Ji shook his head.
At this moment, Black Spider said, "Give me a Golden Eye of Truth, let me try; maybe I can directly open a Key of Gate there."
Zero suddenly asked curiously, "Victor Avenue No. 78?"
Black Spider was stunned, "How do you know? Who are you?!"
Zero smiled but did not answer.