Chapter 164
Chapter 164: Like: Part 1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As Lin Sheng came out from the temple ruin alone, plumes of black smoke dissipated from the courtyard behind him .
He flung his backpack on his back and looked up at the sky . The clouds were puffs of white in acres of blue extending beyond the horizon . The dense woods before his eyes pervaded a musty, moist, and herbaceous scent . The air was refreshing yet bone-chilling cold .
“Khadula should be able to buy me some time and kept Redwin from doing anything stupid . ” Lin Sheng knew that stability was Redwin’ priority, and they imposed night curfew to conserve their resources while in conflict with Xilin . From now on, it depended on how well Khadula held up against Redwin’s Darksiders .
Lin Sheng was not sure of the combat strength of Khadula . After years of holing up in the vault, no one knew his actual condition . Even Lin Sheng had only killed him with tricks and the divine ax; it was not real combat .
“Let’s see how it goes . ” He let out a sigh .
The blue-haired female Redwin military officer who came in an armored vehicle that day had made a deep impression on him . He did not want to be in a confrontation with the Defense Affairs Division of Redwin . Otherwise, Yan Mingsha, the female military officer, who bulged into the Ironfist Society, would have been dead .
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“Things changed too quickly and too unexpectedly . ” Lin Sheng tightly clutched his backpack and bolted down the mountains . The damp forest floor felt soft and cold under his feet . The pounding of Lin Sheng’s feet on the ground occasionally scared away the birds that chirped like melodious choruses on the trees .
Had he not been in the summoning ceremony, Lin Sheng would still feel like any typical high schooler who came jungle trekking in the mountains . The stark contrast of the ordinary forest and the mythic reality was surreal .
Once out of the woods, Lin Sheng headed straight back to the Ironfist Society on his bicycle . Since the summoning of Khadula was a success, so too the others, it was time to create a smokescreen . It was a wise move to using Khadula’s identity as cover while keeping himself stay under the radar .
The clinking of the coffee mug and spoon jolted Elba out of her thought . The coffee in the Defense Affairs Division was bland and lack of unique aroma . It was a typical characteristic of on-the-shelf coffee .
“Run-of-the-mill… absolutely terrible…” Elba hissed, tidying her long blue hair and getting to her feet . “Vice Minister Stitz, have you found the rats of the Heart of the Ocean?” She picked up the phone on the table and asked impatiently .
The empire needed more suppressive-level forces to break through the stalemate . Instead of biding her time here only to guard against the bugs of the Heart of the Ocean, she would rather fight in the frontline and win herself some recognitions .
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The person on the other end was silent for a second . “Apologize, Minister . The Heart of the Ocean had many hidden strongholds along its long coastline . Especially at the shallow water where large-scale search operation is difficult . ” Stitz got his knickers in a twist .
The Heaven’s Spire was divided into six wings; the more the wings, the higher the position and power . Elba, nicknamed the Pale Viper, was a four-winged Darksider who was powerful enough to rule an area as large as a province . But that was not the reason for Stitz’s headache . Elba was restless . She was not content just to stay at the rear of the battlefield . She wanted to prove herself in action in the frontline . This was the reason why everyone in the Defense Affairs Division was in trepidation . People were afraid of agitating Elba, who was already a grumpy bull .
“Minister, you might want to check out things that have happened in Anduin recently, if you feel bored,” Stitz said as he recalled the information he had just received . “Several Darksiders from the Starfury Clan of the spire had landed near the shallow water of Huaisha . Our intelligence shows that the Darksiders have entered the city, but we still couldn’t make out their intention . ”
“The Starfury Clan?” Elba scratched her chin thoughtfully . “That’s interesting . It might be a good one to kill time . Anything else?”
Stitz cursed quietly, frustrated at serving a boss with her temperament as high as her ability . He had sacrificed his polo session every afternoon just to keep his hard-to-please boss occupied . He was either on official duty or on grappling with the whimsical ideas of Elba, for fear that she might cause unnecessary trouble outside . Then a thought suddenly came to his mind .
“By the way, as the situation in Huaisha is becoming more volatile, the intelligence has begun to train their eye at an organization called the Ironfist Society . My aide-de-camp used to work on a mission in pursuing Utiya there and had a brush with the Ironfist Society, the attitude of which was inexplicably unyielding . ”
“And then?” Elba’s interest was aroused . Although there were at least a couple of disturbances that occurred in the colony every day, most of it was the work of an underground organization called The Revivalists in Xilin . The members of the Revivalists were elusive and rarely in direct confrontation with the Defense Affairs Division, which no one would ever wish to challenge .
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“We have gone there to investigate and found that the Ironfist Society has nothing to do with the Revivalists nor the Heart of the Ocean . It’s an unknown group,” Stitz said as he sorted the information in his mind . “Unlike Yinlan Chamber of Commerce, the Ironfist Society claims to have a headquarters . They even have locked horns with a military officer of the Azure Heart earlier . Their political leaning is unknown…” He paused for a second with his brows knitted together . “They also master a kind of strange dark-energy cultivation technique that uses a special symbol to meditate and gain abilities that transcend human limit . ”
Elba cocked an eyebrow in curiosity . “How powerful are they?”
“Not bad… enough to make an average martial art practitioner a level-three Darksider within a month . There is more to this Ironfist Society than meets the eye . ” Stitz continued . “Based on intelligence, my take is that the Ironfist Society has a relatively complete set of cultivation systems, of which the experience and skills displayed are rather mature . Not something developed recently . ”
“And then?” Elba could not help asking .
“This means they have a background that is much more powerful than what we already know . I didn’t intervene earlier because Olro had stepped into the picture,” Stitz said frankly .
“You wanted to avoid a dispute?” Elba could see his concern .
As Xilin has fallen into disarray, foreign powers began to intervene, wanting a slice of the action . It was just that Redwin was the first to come to the party . But Olro was no slouch either . It was said that they had quietly made a move . The biggest concern was whether the Ironfist Society had any alliance with Olro . If this were true, it would be bad news to the frontline forces of Redwin .
“Of course, Minister…” Stitz nodded . “Lin Sheng, the president of Ironfist Society, was only an ordinary high schooler . He magically moved up in the world and rose to become a Darksider . I don’t believe that he has no one teaching him anything if you ask me . ”
Elba rubbed her chin impatiently .
First came the Heart of the Ocean, the Revivalists, the Yinlan Chamber of Commerce, and now the Ironfist Society . The emergence of so many rats in this shithole was puzzling .
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