Vol 22 Chapter 1-2
In his analysis, Honglu had voiced out the truth behind the scenes. Although they were just his inferences, the reasoning was practically seamless. Although it had some inadequacies, this analysis should be close to the truth based on its sense of completeness. At the very least, there weren't any loopholes too large to be found.
For a time, everyone felt slightly blank. After all, the analysis mentioned the Saint’s and Cultivator’s trap, which differed too much from the final battle they had originally thought of. They were stuck on this boat when they obtained this information, and returning to the real world had become incomparably difficult. Also, returning to the real world would require increasing their own strength, as well as pulling people in to join them as Honglu said. The Saint’s and Cultivator’s scheme was indeed good, to have them improve their own power and humanity's overall power at the same time.
“Alright, everyone stop thinking about it.” Zheng suddenly opened his mouth. “Now’s not the time for this. Whatever the final battle represents, it’s still a true final battle for us. We’ll only have a so-called future if we win and defeat team Devil, reaching the apex of this realm. Thinking of the future is pointless if we lose. So, why not think about the final battle instead of thinking about the Saint’s and Cultivator’s trap, as well as whether we can return to the real world. Whatever the case, this battle is a true final battle for us!”
Zheng hadn’t put it badly, as team China had indeed reached an extremely high level of power. Looking through the entire realm, there weren't more than three teams that could resist team China. Amongst them was team Devil, titled the strongest team in the realm. If team China could beat team Devil in the final battle, teams that could rival team China practically didn't exist considering Zheng’s power and Xuan’s intelligence. Thus, this battle really did mean a final battle to team China.
When everyone had left, Zheng pulled Honglu aside. The little boy froze, but still obediently stayed behind. When everyone had cleared out, Zheng finally said, “When I returned here just now, I checked the next battle over at God. It’s a team battle with team East Sea in The Perfect Storm, a disaster film. It’s nothing much, except… God’s notification was rather dreadful. This is the second last movie. God clearly stated that the final battle is next.”
Honglu froze. He wasn't in a hurry to leave, but found a chair to sit on. He contemplated as he said, “That’s normal. It’s not far from what we predicted. The final battle will come two or three movies from then. There was Eragon, for our young dragon to mature, and now team East Sea, which can let our sleeping members wake up. God has indeed already determined the participants for the final battle, which are any teams that reach a certain standard of power. They’ll be the top teams to participate in the final battle. All the top teams will meet movies like Eragon, which will allow them to perfect their combat power. This completely matches up with what we hypothesized.”
“Correct,” Zheng nodded. He said, “Did you know? It’s precisely because it’s in line with what you two hypothesized that your analysis today shocked me. When I checked the next movie after my repair was complete, I also checked for exchanges with a certain special use at the same time. That item, called the Shielding Runestone, indeed exists. It can allow a ‘safe’ return to the real world for a period of time, determined by the quantity of energy within the Runestone. The Runestone can store high class energies like Refined Qi, Magic, Immortal Spiritual Energy and Divine Energy. Understand what I mean? That word ‘safe’ is especially suspicious and together with your analysis just now, makes it very likely we’ve entered the Saint’s and Cultivator’s trap. The real world is a place of death for us!”
Honglu too, bitterly laughed. He shook his head, not knowing what he should say. He could only sigh, and this little boy proceeded to silently leave the room.
Zheng also sighed. He suddenly retrieved the badge storing the black dragon. As he handed it to Honglu, he said, “I’ll hand over the Tamer Medallion to you. It can summon the black dragon inside. It's been raised by us since young, so it’ll naturally battle for us after coming out. The little doggy is quite smart. I’ll give it to you for protection. If Xuan faces his clone from team Devil in the final battle, the key to victory will likely be you. Use it to increase your power.
Honglu didn’t decline. He kept the medallion, then smiled. “Any other treasures? Take them all out. The final battle is approaching. You and Xuan seem to be hiding something else.”
Zheng froze briefly, then smiled bitterly as he shook his head, saying, “I may not have much else, but my points are over forty thousand and I have a rank S and two rank A rewards. I think I can help exchange some nice things for everybody, and at least give the weaker members an upgrade. Wait for tomorrow. After everyone has rested, we’ll discuss how to use my points and ranked rewards.”
Honglu nodded. He was very satisfied with this leader, Zheng. Although he was lacking in terms of his ruthless decisiveness, his other aspects were perfect. However, when had Zheng actually secretly save so much points and ranked rewards?
(That’s right, his path of advancement has already been fixed. Any further enhancements are just biting off more than he can chew, which is why he should just focus on his mastering his control and collision of Refined Qi and Magic. So that’s why his points and ranked rewards are so great after a few continuous movies, a team battle, and the side quest for Eragon’s Abyss. Speaking of which, I really need to plan it well for the rank S and two rank A ranked rewards…)
Honglu chuckled as he walked. In truth, he really wanted to advanced his Weave magic to the utmost in his heart. If he could use Level 9 magic, there was a Level 9 spell named Wail of the Banshee. Within the range of this howl, all living things had a high probability of instantaneous death. It was an existence slightly ridiculous even among rank S enhancements. However, it was indeed because it was a ridiculous enhancement that the burden from usage must be extremely high, which is why Honglu hadn’t decided whether to exchange it.
(If I don’t exchange Wail of the Banshee, the enhancements that can benefit team China’s strength the most is Tengyi’s and Liu Yi’s. Tengyi’s hypnosis is indeed weak in the earlier stages. But once it’s exchanged and becomes successful, someone like him who can sense brain waves and can hypnotise will be just as strong as that monster from Nightmare on Elm Street. No, perhaps this may even be that monster’s enhancement. As for Liu Yu, if we exchanged a Divine card like Obelisk the Tormentor, his battle power can immediately rise to Zero’s level at minimum. These two’s exchanges are the most worthwhile…)
Honglu pondered as he walked. Gradually, he had already gone very far away, before Zheng turned to smile at Lori. The young girl smiled back...
The second day, everyone gathered in Zheng’s room once again. Of course, this excluded that fellow Xuan. When the final person reached, Zheng let out everything about the next movie and it being the second last battle, as well as all his points and ranked rewards.
“Apart from me keeping ten thousand points, the rest can all be used to enhance everyone else. Everyone else should also have some points and ranked rewards of their own, right?” Zheng smiled at everyone.
Naturally ignoring Independence Day, Eragon’s side quest had given each person 5000 points and a rank B reward. Together with what each person had saved already, everyone should have a tidy sum of points and ranked rewards.
Zero, Yingkong and Wangxia nodded silently. Cheng Xiao and the rest started to snigger, especially Liu Yi, who complacently took out a card. “This is a new card I exchanged yesterday, Red Eyes Black Dragon(Fake), which needed a rank B reward. Although it’s not as good as the rank AA Real Red Eyes Black Dragon, it’s still very strong and can be summoned for ten minutes. However, it’s only ten metres long…”
Zheng sighed. It wasn't good of him to scold Liu Yi, since the movie he had joined the team had been extremely difficult. He himself had died inside, and he had created Chaos, Genesis Splitter upon his revival, so he hadn’t concerned himself too much with the other member’s enhancements. After all, the veterans all knew their own path of improvement, with only the two newbies not being very certain.
“Ask me before you exchange items next time. The leader privileges allow me to do a quick search of exchangeable items from God. Your Red Eyes Black Dragon card is at best just a monster summoning card. I’m not saying it’s not strong, but there are obviously cards much stronger than it in existence. I now have large amounts of points and ranked rewards to use, so you exchanging this card is repetitive. Right, summoning cards uses your psyche force?” Zheng asked, frowning.
Liu Yi was slightly worried as he looked at the surrounding people. He nodded lightly, and looked to have been scared by Zheng.
Zheng patted his head. “Don’t worry. It's nothing major, just a repetition of exchanges. If this card uses your psyche force to summon, it won’t be a case of becoming more powerful with greater quantity. If you can summon one extremely strong card, it’s definitely better than depleting your psyche force summoning a hundred trash monsters. Understood?”
“I perused through your summon cards. The strongest three summoned monsters are Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor and The Winged Dragon of Ra. Slifer needs to devour the other monsters you summon. The Winged Dragon will amalgamate all the monsters you summon. These two summons are stronger the stronger you are. For now, there won’t be that many points and ranked rewards to let you become so strong. Thus, Obelisk the Tormentor is the most suitable for you to summon in comparison.”
After Zheng had finished speaking to Liu Yu, he turned to Juntian. This white-collar newbie looked serious, completely unlike his initial arrogance and wilfulness. He asked, “Juntian, did you exchange any enhancements?”
Juntian froze momentarily, bitterly smiling as he shook his head. “I took a fancy to a certain enhancement with only two types, initial and late stage. The initial stage needs a rank A reward, while the late stage needs two rank A rewards, which is altogether a rank S reward. I don’t have that much points and ranked rewards to enhance myself. So, I was planning to enhance myself after the team battle before the final battle.”
Zheng nodded inwardly. He thought internally that this fellow was quite sharp. Considering the current team China’s battle strength, other teams, apart from team Devil, team Celestial and certain members of some slaver teams with exceedingly high enhancements, wouldn’t have a chance to kill the protected members of team China. Thus, it was understandable that he had kept his points and ranked rewards to get an even higher grade enhancement.
“Right, what enhancement are you thinking of strengthening?” Zheng curiously asked immediately.
“Marble Phantasm. The name sounds pretty strange, but it allows you to materialize anything you’ve seen before using the outline in your mind. You can also perfectly use it. If I could materialize the ancient bell Xuan used to block your attack that time, I wouldn’t be afraid of entering movies.” Juntian laughed.
“If we could perfectly use the Bell of the East Emperor, I myself wouldn't be afraid of entering movies.” Zheng briefly bantered, before looking at Imhotep.
“Imhotep, although your physique is more unique, you can still get the various enhancements from God, especially the Suna Suna no Mi. It’s compatible with your invulnerable sandform body. It’ll be extremely strong, with even the sole weakness, water, gone. Unless they use pure force to forcefully wreck your body, your body will be practically indestructible. Anck-Su-Namun, your physique is actually very good, with various combat techniques. Why not enhance something similar to Qi based martial arts?”
Zheng exercised his leader privileges, searching through God continuously and explaining to everyone their enhancements and paths. In the end, he said, “The basic situation is like that. Ugh, take it as I didn’t just say that. Anyways, it’ll still be hard-pressed enhancing everyone with the points now, so we’ll do the enhancement after the battle with team East Sea, together with the sleeping few…”
“Then… the final battle comes!”
As Zheng finished speaking, Xuan coincidentally walked out from his room. The fellow was holding a crystal, shining with a gentle light. It was obviously the Cultivation manuals Zheng got from The Mummy world.