Chapter 986 - 38: Everyone Has a Bright Future

Chapter 986: Chapter 38: Everyone Has a Bright Future

The Martial Arts King calmly withdrew her gaze. She neither probed further nor asked the man before her for his name; her eyes simply swept idly around them as she asked in an indifferent tone:

"How long have you been here?"

"Well, about a month or so..."

Gu Mo reined in his thoughts, casually smiled, and answered with great composure, "I only came over not long ago. You could say it was pure coincidence..."

"About a month or so..."

The Martial Arts King immediately grew pensive.

Holding up her umbrella as she pondered, she looked under the sunlight like a painting come to life, though she herself seemed completely unaware of it. After a moment, this Rakshasa King who had ruled the Central Plains Kingdom for more than two hundred years turned her gaze and carefully sized up the man before her, thinking over what was special about him.

Yet she did not think too deeply, perhaps because someone’s concealment was simply too flawless, or perhaps because even a Godslayer could not avoid falling into the ruts of habitual thinking. Luo Hao never even considered that she might have run into the very person at the heart of it all; she just subconsciously assumed this was merely an Alchemist she happened to encounter in a foreign land.

Perhaps he would not necessarily pledge himself to her, but nominally he would still count as one of those under her rule.

More or less like that, Miss Luo Hao instinctively held to such a perception and conclusion. This was not arrogance or conceit; things had simply always been this way.

As a Godslayer who had existed for more than two centuries, the Martial Arts King of Jiangnan had always been the absolute authority of the Eastern World.

Among Martial Artists and Magic Masters who had studied Chinese Martial Arts, thirty percent had entered her fold, swearing absolute obedience to the Sect Leader. As for the other seventy percent, although they had not vowed fealty, in name they were also under her command... just like the Southern European Magic Realm to which Erica belonged.

Perhaps not every Magic Association openly declared allegiance to that King of Swords;

However.

So long as it was a Magic Association within Southern Europe, it was bound to submit to the authority of that shared king.

That’s basically how things were, and Luo Hao Sect Leader was naturally no exception. She simply used her habitual, long-established common sense to judge, then arrived at the same conclusion as always. She gazed calmly at the Alchemist before her, weighing him in her heart, and slowly a plan began to form.

——If it’s right at about a month, then that should coincide with the time not long ago when the Netherworld first showed signs of disturbance...

——It was also when those long-famous masters, each gifted with the talent to map out the cosmos, all known for their skill in calculating Celestial Secrets, came one after another to report the same matter to her...

That matter was deeply shocking, in every sense of the word.

For so-called Spiritual Vision is the ability to extract memories from the void, drawn out of the Netherworld’s "realm of life and undying."

Ordinary people assume that those with Spiritual Vision can foresee the future, but strictly speaking, this ability actually draws on Inspiration to read what is happening in the present, then unconsciously predicts what might happen in the future.

It wasn’t just Banriya Yuri; all other Spiritual Vision ability users were the same. Spiritual Vision, Divination, Thousand-Mile Eye, and so on—these abilities that seem different yet echo one another all share a very similar underlying essence and logic. So it was not only Banriya Yuri who received Divine Revelation; many other Spiritual Vision users were likewise triggered by the Netherworld.

——This is Divine Revelation.

Thus, so many people were able to sense the omens in advance, to foresee the grand trend, like cicadas that feel the autumn wind’s stirring before it blows.

One can only say that the arrival of some unexpected factor truly caused a violent upheaval in the world-line.

If not, it would never have piqued Luo Hao Sect Leader’s interest, making her stir from stillness and, in a rare move, choose to go out. After all, she was someone who usually spent years in secluded cultivation in the mountains; if it did not concern the Gods, it was difficult to draw her attention, to make her cast her gaze toward it.

From this alone one could see how grave the matter was; even she had no choice but to treat it seriously.

Clad in white hanfu, she seemed on the surface merely a beautiful young girl playing a role, yet in truth she was the Sect Leader of the most terrifying Demon King in this world. Narrowing her eyes, she studied the young man opposite her. "Since you’ve been here for a month, have you noticed anything unusual happening?"

"What is the Sect Leader referring to?"

Gu Mo asked back with a smiling squint, looking completely at ease.

"Naturally anything related to the Defiant Gods, or to other Demon Kings... If you know of anything, then tell me all of it."

The Sect Leader answered calmly, not particularly bothered by his demeanor. Though such a demeanor was very rare, it was not unheard of. After all, there were always some people whose spine was iron, or who were naturally thick-skinned, or who simply had big hearts, and such men would feel no fear or timidity even before her.

Frankly speaking, Luo Hao Sect Leader actually appreciated such people more——

Those types who go weak-kneed and terrified the instant they see her, their spirit utterly broken—such people will be like that their whole lives. How could you expect them to accomplish anything remarkable?

She herself had come from the ranks of ordinary Martial Artists, rising through countless battles, forged in a thousand trials. Her opponents had evolved from mere humans into those beings close to gods and saints, and she herself had surpassed the usual sense of a Martial Dao overlord to become a Demon King in tune with Heaven’s will.

Thus, in this regard, she naturally had her own unique view and firm conviction.

Since it was not deliberate provocation or insult, Luo Hao Sect Leader naturally would not fly into a rage over something so trivial. Her eyes simply shone bright as she watched the man intently, her sword-sharp gaze locking onto his vital aura.

At the same time she closely observed every subtle shift in his expression and gaze, and even the fluctuations in his heartbeat and breathing were under her grasp—more precise and exact than any instrument.

Since this man had already been here for some time, and the timing matched perfectly——

Then it was entirely possible he might have discovered something, wasn’t it?

Only, since this touched on top-secret information, if he had any personal agenda and was unwilling to disclose it, if he chose to hide something, that would be perfectly normal... except, there was no way he could hide it from her eyes. In that instant, the Demon King Girl in white hanfu turned into a humanoid lie detector, fixing her gaze firmly on Gu Mo.

"Well..."

Gu Mo’s gaze flickered for a moment, but it was only a split-second pause before he once again put on a casual smile. "Something small really did happen recently. Just yesterday, this city suffered a lot of destruction. A Divine Beast that looked like a Wild Boar descended..."

"Hm? A Divine Beast descended?"

The Sect Leader raised her eyebrows. She shifted her gaze away and sized up the distant skyline and skyscrapers.

There were no traces of damage, no lingering air of disaster. People were living their lives as usual, as if there wasn’t a single problem at all... In short, there was absolutely no way to tell that this city had recently suffered any sort of destruction.

Luo Hao Sect Leader’s gaze showed no confusion; she simply looked back calmly and quietly fixed her eyes on him.

"It absolutely happened like that. I saw it with my own eyes at the time, Your Excellency Sect Leader..."

The young man awkwardly伸出 a long forefinger and lightly scratched his cheek, but still said solemnly, "I was right there at the scene. The destructive power of that Divine Beast was extremely terrifying. Just its trampling alone could trigger earthquakes, bring skyscrapers crashing down, and split the earth open..."

"However, it wasn’t able to rampage for long. Afterwards, a tornado flew in to battle it and finally defeated it... Then came a strange Spell that fixed the entire space of the incident area in place, erased people’s memories, and restored all traces of destruction."

He said all that in one breath, then spread his hands. "I don’t know what that Power was, but it must have been an extremely powerful Spell. I’ve never seen anything like it, so I didn’t dare get close to take a look..."

"..."

"..."

A brief silence.

"To accomplish something like that already touches upon the realm of Authority." The Sect Leader nodded slightly, her eyes faintly glinting as she gave her acknowledgment. Perhaps another one of her kind had come? Then who would it be? Someone with such Authority didn’t quite match up.

At least among those old friends and old rivals she knew of, none really fit the bill—unless at some point, they had secretly gained additional Authority.

Of course, that sort of thing usually couldn’t be hidden.

So Luo Hao Sect Leader was more inclined to believe that perhaps another Defiant God had arrived and stepped in to put a stop to this disaster?

—Anyway, all of these were possible.

"I more or less understand now..." The girl in white hanfu said lightly, but instead of turning on her heel and leaving in dashing fashion, she continued to stare at the young man opposite her with a look of interest. "You’re very clever. Everything you said is the truth. If I go and verify this information, I’ll probably find that all of it is correct..."

Of course it was correct.

Although only a very small number of people had been drawn into the incident, once Banriya Yuri brought back the exchanged intelligence, the nature of this matter was already settled...

Thus, when this Luo Hao Sect Leader went to investigate and verify the matter, she would indeed discover that things were exactly as he had described.

However, she was not someone so easy to fool—

"But you only told part of it, and chose to conceal another part..." In a flat tone, the Demon King Girl easily saw through this young man’s little scheme—or rather, she believed she had seen through it.

The other party did indeed have courage and guts. Clearly just an Alchemist from China, yet even when facing herself—the nominal overlord of all Alchemists and Martial Artists—he still had his own ideas and tried to hide things from her... Unfortunately, he had misjudged the gap between the two of them.

No matter how talented, no matter how long one cultivated, it was still impossible to surpass. That was why she was called a king.

If it were about deceiving a Godslayer, that might be doable, but it would require a great deal of preparation and luck. At the very least, this Alchemist couldn’t do it. He was incapable of that.

"..."

"..."

The air seemed to grow still.

The young man’s gaze struggled a bit, but in the end he could only let out a bitter smile. "Your Excellency Sect Leader’s gaze is flawless. I... I just wanted a chance..."

......

... 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

A moment later.

Luo Hao Sect Leader, having obtained the information she wanted, left satisfied. With a flash of Divine Foot Technique, she vanished without a trace.

In the secluded alley, only the young man with a troubled face was left... But after just a single second—almost at the exact instant that the graceful figure in white hanfu disappeared—he abruptly smoothed out his expression. There was no trace at all of that earlier sorrow and helplessness.

That bitterness, that unwillingness, that troubled look...

All of it was acting!

Even Luo Hao Sect Leader’s belief that she had seen through his routine was something he had deliberately engineered. Only in this way could this esteemed Sect Leader fully trust the information he had tossed out. She believed that the Lie had been exposed by her, and that what was left was naturally the truth—completely unaware that this was the God of Lies and Schemes nesting Lies within Lies.

So, just let Your Excellency Sect Leader go keep watch on Athena—

In this way, Miss Luo Hao would muddle-headedly head in the wrong direction, and Miss Athena would likewise muddle-headedly take a brutal beating. As for himself, he would end up nice and relaxed, effortlessly completing his strategy of diverting disaster elsewhere...

"Everyone has a bright future ahead."

Cradling a warm teacup, Gu Mo let out a leisurely sigh beneath the sunshade.