Chapter 339: Ninglan Qiuyu’s Calculation
“Yes… a seed.”
Ninglan Qiuyun’s voice slowly confirmed Ninglan Qiuyu’s doubts.
At this moment, Ninglan Qiuyu instinctively stepped forward in front of the seed. He reached out his hand to gently cradle the white crystal artifact, which resembled a work of art. Ninglan Qiuyun did not stop him, allowing him to approach.
As Ninglan Qiuyu’s fingers made contact with the intricately carved white crystal, the world in his eyes changed. The seed, which had appeared lifeless before, suddenly seemed to burst forth with vitality. Golden light erupted from the seed, and the flashing power made it difficult for Ninglan Qiuyu to keep his eyes open.
At that moment, he felt as if the white crystal he was holding was merging with him, and he sensed the pulse emanating from the seed.
Incredulously squinting at what he held, he watched as a bl**d-red thread wove the golden power into a chain that pierced directly through his chest.
In that instant, his mind finally cleared. Regret surged within him, but before this emotion could fully develop, a large hand suddenly slapped down on his shoulder.
“Ah—”
At that moment, Ninglan Qiuyu let out a low growl of fear as if awakening from a dream, and he began to breathe heavily.
He looked down at his unscathed chest, then at the seed before him, seemingly devoid of any golden chains or red threads.
Everything felt like a hallucination.
“Just now…”
“It was merely an illusion. From now on, you will be the City Lord of Ninglan New City.”
“What do you mean? You bring me here for no reason, let me touch something and then say I’m the City Lord! What do you mean by that?” At this moment, Ninglan Qiuyu’s emotions erupted, as he had just thought he might have died!
“It’s just the literal meaning. I was once like you, not understanding what this represented. I only followed my father’s instructions; when I felt lost or unsure, I came here to meditate deeply, and many questions could be resolved.”
“You could perhaps understand it as an extraordinary item. No one knows who created it, and no scholar can comprehend its extraordinary principles, but that faint golden thread might be the fortune spoken of by those dream demons.”
“Golden… thread? Fortune!” Ninglan Qiuyu felt confused, but as his peripheral vision turned toward the seed, he noticed that the golden power had manifested into threads, already wrapping around his wrist.
This frightened him into quickly withdrawing his right hand; when he looked again, there was nothing there.
Suddenly, a chill ran down Ninglan Qiuyu’s back. What was this bizarre item, and why did such a presence exist underground in Ninglan Township Fort?
He realized that this was the first time he couldn’t understand his father or Ninglan New City. Why had things turned out this way?
But when he glanced back at his father, the once robust figure had become gaunt. Even though he had noticed his father’s weight loss when he first saw him, he hadn’t paid it much attention, but now he couldn’t ignore it—this had happened in the blink of an eye!
“You!”
“So it turns out… he passed on the position of City Lord with such determination…” At this moment, Ninglan Qiuyun sighed, but his voice had become faint, and the next moment he collapsed straight down.
Thus, the City Lord, who had dedicated his life to Ninglan New City, fell.
Ninglan Qiuyu did not even instinctively reach out to support him.
Everything around seemed to freeze into silence.
“That old man is dead?”
Until a bewitching female voice echoed within the cramped chamber.
Then, a figure separated from Ninglan Qiuyu’s body, floating out of the dream world to materialize before him.
“Dead. Help me see what exactly this is.” Ninglan Qiuyu said in a flat tone. Although he crouched down to check the other’s breath, he instinctively distanced himself from the white crystal and the seed.
“This? Hehe… just an extraordinary item.” The dream demon casually explained to Ninglan Qiuyu. However, a flicker of surprise and joy crossed her eyes, which she skillfully masked.
“Extraordinary item? What does that mean? It won’t harm me, right?” he asked with a frown.
“I don’t know much about extraordinary items, just that most are miraculous creations that cannot be replicated.”
“Miraculous creations? Then this must be very valuable?” At this moment, a glimmer of light flickered in Ninglan Qiuyu’s eyes as he asked.
“Indeed very valuable, but you also need a life to use it. So what? Just now, you seemed quite disgusted with this item, but now your eyes are shining with interest?”
“A life to use it? So this is indeed a very sinister thing…”
Hearing her description, Ninglan Qiuyu calmed down. However, he didn’t fully believe what she said, because he was well aware that he was not in control here. Every action and choice he made was part of a gamble against her.
“Yes, extraordinary items typically have very unique abilities, but using them comes at a cost. The weaker your own strength, the greater the price you need to pay. Do you want to give it a try?”
“Tsk…” Ninglan Qiuyu frowned and clicked his tongue. He would not test this thing with his own life; his life was more precious than anyone else’s!
“Don’t be so disdainful. Didn’t you just use it? It seems to have already established some kind of connection with you.”
“What? That old man was calculating against me even in d*ath?” Immediately, Ninglan Qiuyu’s expression of disdain deepened as he glanced at the fallen figure on the ground.
“Do you know what the cost of this extraordinary item is?”
“You want to know? Then you’ll have to beg me~” At this moment, the dream demon acted as if she would only tell him if he humbled himself to ask her, but in the end, she was met with Ninglan Qiuyu’s indifference.
“Beg you? That’s unnecessary.”
“Alright~ Honestly, you don’t understand romance at all. It’s just a cost; hasn’t someone already paid it for you?” As the dream demon spoke, her gaze fell on the ground.
“I see. Then since the cost has been paid, what is its effect?”
“I don’t know~ I’m not an expert in that area, so how could I know about it? But I suggest it’s best for you to get rid of this thing. It might… just serve to make you a disposable to continue the legacy of Ninglan New City?”
“You should know that apart from the first generation, all the other City Lords of Ninglan New City have been short-lived, right? If you don’t want to follow your father’s path and d*e suddenly in your prime, you understand~”
“You don’t need to remind me.”
Ninglan Qiuyu closed his eyes and then opened them again, realizing that his hallucinations seemed to be getting worse. He once again saw the golden threads wrapped around him, but when he tried to look closely, he saw nothing.
This had to be the influence of this so-called extraordinary item; he needed to leave here.
The further, the better!
“Oh? Are you going to lock this good thing in here?” The dream demon observed Ninglan Qiuyu leaving, even directly locking the door behind him, and curiously asked.
“Or would you prefer I carry this thing with me?”
“Fair point, but you’ve gained quite a lot this trip. I didn’t expect your adoptive father to support you to such an extent. You should know he almost cleared out all the dream demons we had embedded in Ninglan Township Fort. What a terrifying guy.”
“He cleared them all?”
“Yes~ It’s quite troubling. If we rely solely on the remaining dream demons to ambush those outsiders, it may not meet your expectations.”
“I know what you mean, but how has the matter I tasked you with gone? I told Ninglan Qiuyue to move most of the combat strength from the Underground City to the surface; don’t tell me you couldn’t even take a vacant Underground City?”
“Relax, after your good sister guided me, the remaining dream demons went down. Don’t say we didn’t put in any effort.”
“I hope you don’t mess it up.”
Ninglan Qiuyu scoffed, then turned to leave. He needed to prepare for some upcoming matters.
Since it had been confirmed that the previous City Lord had died, he also needed to start arranging the transfer of the City Lord’s authority and prepare for the inauguration speech to explain the situation to the citizens of the city, and so on.
But before that, he needed to take control of a place.
The Underground City.
Now that he had become the true City Lord, how could he allow the Underground City to function independently?
He had to complete the control of the Underground City as quickly as possible to deal with the upcoming Beast Tide crisis.
Not just the Beast Tide, but also to thoroughly eliminate the outsiders. The outsiders were a common enemy between him and the dream demons. Even during this coup d’état, the outsiders had contributed a lot, but they remained outsiders, and the root of all problems could not be separated from them. He was not the type to hesitate to discard something once it had outlived its usefulness.
At this moment, he just had to wait for the people of the Underground City to send out a distress signal, and then he could justifiably lead the people to truly liberate the Underground City. From then on, the Underground City would no longer be a completely isolated entity from the surface.
One must know that the sense of existence of the Underground City was extremely low; some people might live their entire lives in Ninglan New City without even knowing that there was an Underground City.
When Ninglan Qiuyu first heard about the Underground City, he couldn’t believe that his father, the City Lord, would sometimes speak politely to others. His father was a ruler of a city!
The attitude of those in charge of the Underground City, the scholars… he would forever remember that demeanor. What made them superior?
He had personally been to the Underground City, and what he saw told him that those people were no different from them. It was only because they held the highest-end extraordinary techniques and unmatched combat power that they controlled the lifeblood of Ninglan New City!
Since he had become a City Lord, how could such combat power, such extraordinary skills, be subject to anyone else’s control?
Absolutely not!
Therefore, since some things had already been decided, he would naturally show no mercy. At this moment, regardless of the means, it only mattered who would ultimately benefit.
When he reached the Underground City, he would use the so-called anchoring item he possessed, along with the collected soul materials from this battle, to summon the dream demons and have them fight underground.
Just in case the fighting got too extensive, it wouldn’t concern the surfaced Ninglan New City. Later, he could excuse it as helping with the reconstruction work of the Underground City, effectively reshuffling it to be better controlled.
When he emerged from the underground passage, he encountered flustered City Guards. After all, they had just occupied Ninglan Township Fort, and then their leader had disappeared—this was a significant issue.
“Alright, notify the others that I’m fine. Has anything else happened while I was gone?” Ninglan Qiuyu spoke, then returned with the City Guards to take charge of the situation.
“Yes, Miss Ninglan Qiuyue has come by looking for you again, appearing very anxious.”
“Anxious?” Ninglan Qiuyu feigned confusion and asked, “Did she say anything?”
“We are not entirely clear. Miss Ninglan Qiuyue didn’t divulge that to us lesser folks.”
“Where is she? I’m going to find her.” As he spoke, Ninglan Qiuyu assumed he was going to search for her.
When he found Ninglan Qiuyue, she appeared extremely anxious.
“Ninglan Qiuyue, I heard something happened here.”
“The Underground City! Something happened in the Underground City; dream demons have invaded there!” Ninglan Qiuyue said urgently upon seeing him.
“What? Are you sure? Do you mean those dream demons retreated to the Underground City?”
“I’m not quite sure. The connection between the Underground City and the surface has been cut off.” At this moment, Ninglan Qiuyue was also very anxious, but her contact with the Underground City was limited; the only person she was familiar with from her side was the captain of the Ground Patrol Team, but he had also been brought up.
Now that communications were cut off, it was highly likely that the dream demons were responsible, coupled with the approaching energy tide outside and the fluctuations of earth vein energy, which greatly hindered wireless communication. They had no idea what was happening underground.
“Then let’s mobilize troops to support the Underground City.”
“Eh?” This time, it was Ninglan Qiuyue who was surprised. She hadn’t expected Ninglan Qiuyu to make such a decisive decision. She had prepared to return with the Ground Patrol Team alone, as she was the one who brought them up. Given what happened in the Underground City, she also couldn’t distance herself from it.
“You’re surprised?”
“I thought you would care more about the position of City Lord.”
“Is that how I appear to you?”
“Of course.”
“Hehe… the Underground City is also a part of Ninglan New City. As the new City Lord, I naturally have the duty to help them solve their difficulties.”
“I see that’s not how you really feel…” Ninglan Qiuyue murmured.
“What does it matter how I feel? What matters is that the Underground City needs people to support them right now. I’ll mobilize the City Guards and the rebels on this side. I see you’ve been chatting quite well with those outsiders; could you handle the matters on their end? After all, clearing the dream demons still requires their cooperation.”
“I hope you won’t cause any trouble.”
Ninglan Qiuyu watched his sister’s retreating figure, but he couldn’t suppress the joy in his heart. He transferred all the contradictions and conflicts to the Underground City. Even in the worst-case scenario, it wouldn’t affect his rule.
As for those outsiders, getting rid of a few strong ones would be easy. The remaining weaklings were all relying on his protection; it would be a piece of cake to clean up those small fries.
And it was best if those dream demons and outsiders ended up seriously injuring each other. He held the anchoring item for the dream demons; without this crucial component, no one could sacrifice to obtain soul materials, and the dream demons wouldn’t be replenished. In fact, dealing with the dream demons was the easiest thing for him.
By then, the entire Underground City would become a sealed battlefield. But that was the worst-case scenario, and it would require the City Defense Army to weather the upcoming Beast Tide, which undoubtedly posed great risks. The extraordinary equipment brought up by Ninglan Qiuyue didn’t meet the standard military needs for the City Defense Army to resist the Beast Tide.
But… as long as Ninglan New City got through this crisis, it would usher in a new era.
An era controlled by him; just the thought of it excited him!
