chapter 158

At the front of the city walls.

Eternal Night sat on an elevated seat, calmly observing the battle’s progress. Beside him, Kelesda was reporting on the current situation.

“So this caterpillar was still able to escape from you, right?” Eternal Night summarized indifferently.

Those who knew him, however, understood that the calmer Eternal Night appeared, the angrier he actually was.

Kelesda helplessly replied, “He is even stronger than I had anticipated. Even now, I have no idea how he was able to escape from my Depth Echo technique’s influence. Thankfully, he isn’t able to completely evade my detection. I can sense that he’s still in Sky City, but I can’t pinpoint his exact location anymore.”

Eternal Night drummed his finger against his armrest. “Our opponent is much trickier and much more cautious than we could have ever imagined. He seems insane, but he has seemingly carefully calculated everything. He isn’t attacking randomly either……”

“Your Majesty means……”

“Night God Verdant, how many stores did he try to rob?”

“Your Majesty, he robbed seventeen in total.”

“Were these seventeen all next to each other?”

“No, Your Majesty. There were a few stores that Halcyon Wing Streak ran past and ignored,” Night God Sun reported.

“Prepare a list of all the losses that the stores suffered.”

“We’re preparing it right now. It will be ready very soon.” Night God Verdant had been serving Eternal Night for a long time and knew all of his habits, especially the ones concerning a mistake. Thus, he dared not make even a small mistake.

“Also, go and try to figure out some things about those stores that weren’t robbed. Prepare that information for me as well.”

“Yes, sir.”

Not long after, a scroll containing information on all of the stores in the high-class area was handed over.

Eternal Night took the scroll and inspected it carefully.

He perused it quite carefully and slowly.

After reading it through, he fell into thought for some time before saying, “This person was after Origin Crystals.”

From just analyzing the situation of the high-class area, Eternal Night was able to figure out Su Chen’s goal. Of course, Su Chen’s goal truly was to steal all of the Origin Crystals, but Kelesda was nonetheless still impressed with Eternal Night’s ability to discern the truth from a chaotic situation.

“Your Majesty’s wisdom is as boundless as the sea,” Kelesda said.

“Our opponent’s skill isn’t weak either,” Eternal Night commented, his gaze still focused on the battle.

He hadn’t forgotten that the battle was still ongoing.

Kelesda said with some suspicion, “Origin Crystals…… Why would he want Origin Crystals? And once he got the Origin Crystals, he was able to extricate himself from Depth Echo’s effects. Is there a connection between the two?”

Because of Kelesda’s innate talent as a bandit, he had very quickly discovered the link between Su Chen obtaining the Origin Crystals and the nullification of his Depth Echo technique.

Eternal Night’s focus, however, was not on that aspect.

To him, that was already a problem of the past. What he needed to do now was plan and accommodate for the future.

He said, “I’m more interested in why it took him this long to make a move.”

Kelesda was taken aback. “He was probably waiting for the Desolate Beast to attack Sky City, as all of our stronger combatants would be preoccupied. It’s the perfect opportunity to strike.”

“So then why didn’t he make a move yesterday? The Thousand Poisons Toad started attacking the city yesterday,” Eternal Night rebutted.

Kelesda was taken aback.

It made sense that Su Chen was waiting for the Desolate Beast’s attack to make a move. In fact, that was actually a part of Su Chen’s plan.

But then why hadn’t he made a move yesterday?

Eternal Night was the one to answer his own question. “Because he was observing.”

“Observing?” Kelesda fell deep into thought when he heard Eternal Night’s words.

Kelesda had also managed a large organization for a long time. He quickly realized something, and a fierce expression appeared in his eyes. “This guy wants to do something to Sky City!”

Su Chen was merely observing to try and locate an even better opportunity for himself.

Because of Kelesda’s incomplete antidote, the Thousand Poisons Toad’s most powerful attacks weren’t entirely effective. As a result, its strength had been greatly reduced.

Sky City was originally going to be facing a mere weakened Desolate Beast, so their chances of victory were almost guaranteed. All they needed to focus on now was minimizing the price that they had to pay to win this battle.

But Su Chen’s presence had changed things drastically.

The Thousand Poisons Toad was an external opponent, while Su Chen was an internal one.

Su Chen wouldn’t be Su Chen if he didn’t try to stir up some trouble within the city.

Many of the powerful cities throughout history hadn’t been defeated by a siege but rather been sold out and backstabbed by a resident living in that city.

Su Chen was like a dagger aimed and prepped to strike the enemy’s stomach. As long as he timed things correctly, he would become a serious problem.

For instance, if he shut down Sky City’s defensive barrier by destroying the Arcana Towers, then the Thousand Poisons Toad would have a golden opportunity to attack the city itself. And if that let it enter the city, then the Harpies would be suddenly thrust into dire straits.

However, Su Chen couldn’t possibly achieve that.

The problem with Su Chen was that his presence wasn’t a secret.

Since the people within the city were aware of his presence, then his potential destructiveness had roughly been halved.

Su Chen might not be a traitor, but he served the same general function. Because Kelesda and Sky City were both prepared for him, all the strategic locations were closely guarded, including the Perpetual Daylight Palace, the Arcana Towers, and the Thunder God Cannon. Any single high-tier restrictive Origin Formation at each location made it impossible for Su Chen to use Light Shaking Phantom to access it.

However, the Harpies couldn’t possibly blanket the city with high-tier Origin Formations. Eternal Night could only place them in specific areas, so common areas couldn’t possibly be covered.

This had given Su Chen an opportunity.

Things were often more closely related than they appeared. Some things might not seem important at first, but when they were removed from the equation, you would suddenly discover that they had actually played an important role.

Right now, Sky City was the center of a multidirectional battle. There were quite a few defenders present, meaning that a total collapse of the city would be quite hard to orchestrate. This also meant that, logistically, almost every citizen of Sky City had been conscripted. Even the Harpies who weren’t fighting on the front lines weren’t just waiting around idly. They were producing the arrows, crystals, medicines, and Origin Tools necessary for the soldiers’ battles on the front lines.

So why would Su Chen wait to watch the battle yesterday?

Obviously, it was to figure out which area of Sky City was the most important while also being the least well-defended.

His first move was to steal all of these Origin Crystals to use as sacrifices for the Origin Bone Scepter. Then, he had begun to develop a plan of attack for Sky City itself.

When Kelesda realized this, he was stunned. “Your Majesty, where do you think he’s going to strike next?”

Eternal Night’s gaze sank as he dully replied, “There’s too many possibilities.”

A powerful front line needed the support of the back lines on multiple fronts, which made it difficult to make a prediction on Su Chen’s target.

There were simply too many possibilities for even Eternal Night to narrow down.

“However, I am sure that his targets are all in line with what he wants to do. This is very safe for him, and it is an incredibly frustrating problem for us,” Eternal Night elaborated.

At that moment, a person hurried over and reported, “Your Majesty, the Red Rain Workshop was ransacked just now!”

“The Red Rain Workshop?” Eternal Night thought for a moment before speaking, “Mist Blue Shadow.”

“Present, sir!” a Harpy stepped up.

Eternal Night asked, “You are the chief logistics officer. Does the Red Rain Workshop supply us with anything vital?”

“Yes!” Mist Blue Shadow immediately replied. “They are responsible for providing us with Blazing Powder.”

Sky City’s workshops were all currently producing the necessary supplies for battle. The fact that Mist Blue Shadow was able to immediately describe the service that the workshop was providing their army with clearly indicated how much thought he had put into this setup.

“Blazing Powder?” Eternal Night squinted. “If I remember correctly, that’s an ingredient that’s needed to cast the Sun-Shattering Cannons.”

“That’s right.” Mist Blue Shadow nodded.

“Sun-Shattering Cannons…… Why the Sun-Shattering Cannons……” Eternal Night drummed his finger against his armrest as he fell deep into thought.

The robbery of the upscale region hadn’t given him much pause, and neither did the nullification of Kelesda’s Depth Echo. However, the destruction of this workshop, which was responsible for producing Blazing Powder, had caused Eternal Night to sink into contemplation.

It was as if he had run into a tough question that he simply couldn’t answer no matter how hard he ruminated on the situation.

While Eternal Night was still turning over these questions in his head, a massive blue wolf was standing outside of the other side of Sky City, shrouded in a cloud of fog. It stared intently at Sky City but remained motionless.

The battle off in the distance was incredibly brutal, but the wolf’s eyes were completely clear and placid.

“Hey, see, our ancestor is really quite impressive! He poisoned another few hundred Harpies to death just now. The Harpies are going to lose another six or seven thousand soldiers today,” a golden bird excitedly chirped as it flew towards the wolf, landing on the ground near the wolf.

“If that’s the best praise that you can offer, then this useless guy’ll be a failure,” the wolf said in the human tongue with a sardonic smile.

“Failed? Useless?” The golden bird was stunned. “Your Majesty Deep Blue Flame, how can you speak of our ancestor in that way? How is he a failure or useless? If he were to find out……”

“He won’t,” the massive wolf said carelessly. “Given his intelligence, he might not even understand what I said even if I had said that right to his face.”

A trace of disdain appeared in Deep Blue Flame’s eyes.

Ancient beasts might be incredibly strong, but their intelligence was just too lacking. As such, even though Deep Blue Flame was far weaker than the Thousand Poisons Toad, he still referred to it with a superior attitude.

“Also, he’s about to die. Even if he could understand me, he probably wouldn’t care,” Deep Blue Flame replied calmly. “Right now, all that I can hope for is that he will fulfill its duty and destroy Sky City. But it seems like even that won’t be possible. I don’t think that the Thousand Poisons Toad will be able to hold on for any longer than tomorrow night at the latest.”

The Desolate Beast could have lived for a long time, but the intense battle had carved away at its energy stores, and its vitality was rapidly declining. Since Deep Blue Flame was also a Beast, he could see the toad’s circumstances incredibly clearly.

The Thousand Poisons Toad would be able to last for at most two more days.

“In other words……”

“Thirty thousand Harpies will be the extent of how many that ancestor of ours can kill. Isn’t that laughable? Any other Desolate Beast would have already covered the ground in veritable rivers of blood. Even when the Intelligent Races allied together, they had to pay the price of a few hundred thousand lives to obtain victory. Thirty thousand Harpies is probably the upper limit of how many will die for this ancestor of ours,” Deep Blue Flame sighed.

“It can’t be. The old ancestor…… is that awful?” The golden bird didn’t dare to believe its ears.

Deep Blue Flame shook his head. “It’s not that our ancestor is that awful. Rather, it’s that his opponents have a partial antidote, greatly limiting its most powerful abilities. Second of all, the environment has severely weakened it. It seems that the world is becoming more and more inhospitable to Desolate Beasts. Third of all…… it won’t be able to enter the city.”

“The city?” the little golden bird asked in shock.

“Yes, the city!” Deep Blue Flame replied. “The Harpies are relying on the city’s powerful defenses to keep our ancestor at bay. As soon as those defenses are destroyed, the Harpies would be forced to pay an incredible price even if the defenses aren’t down for very long.”

“Your Majesty, then is it still possible for him to enter the city?”

“It’s very difficult, but we still have an opportunity,” Deep Blue Flame said as he stared intently at the faraway city.