Chapter 156: Crazed
Su Chen’s guess was that Kelesda was most likely being held in reserve to deal with him.
Given Eternal Night’s shrewdness and ruthless decision making habits, there was no way that he would leave Su Chen unattended.
This was further proof that Eternal Night was probably closely watching all of Su Chen’s movements.
The main reasons why Su Chen hadn’t made a move yet was because he wasn’t sure what the best way of dealing with the Light Shaking Phantom was, and he was also waiting for Zhu Xianyao’s arrival.
When he thought of this, Su Chen’s face broke out into a smile before he turned around and left — this battle had revealed most of Sky City’s and the Thousand Poisons Toad’s strength. With this information in hand, he now had an idea of what to do next.
The next day, the Thousand Poisons Toad returned.
After a night’s rest, the wounds that the Desolate Beast had sustained had recovered significantly.
Even though the Harpies had known that this would happen, there was nothing they could do about it. They had only managed to survive the previous day’s battle due to the city’s powerful defenses. If they were to leave the city, they would be immediately thrust into a much worse situation. They would be courting death if they had tried to give chase.
Even though this allowed the Thousand Poisons Toad to recover some of its wounds, the influence of the environment had also caused its strength to decline.
Despite this decrease in strength, however, the Desolate Beast had gotten smarter about its approach.
This time, the Thousand Poisons Toad didn’t plan on brute forcing its way into the city. Rather, it constantly sent swarm after swarm of poisonous mosquitoes to attack the city.
The Thousand Poisons Toad’s specialty was, of course, poison. If it weren’t for Kelesda’s antidote, Sky City might not have been able to withstand this endless barrage from the Desolate Beast. Even now, the swarms of mosquitoes would constantly change up their area of focus, making it difficult for the barrier to effectively block them and prevent them from entering the city.
And anywhere the mosquitoes snuck into the city, they left behind a trail of Harpy soldiers’ corpses on the ground.
The battle became all the more intense as a result. Harpies were dying left and right. However, they were not afraid of death, and they continued to charge forwards relentlessly, using their lives to stem the flood of the mosquitoes. Even if all their life could do was slow down the advance of those mosquitoes slightly, they felt that their sacrifice was not in vain.
This was the true nature of war.
At the beginning of the battle, the two parties had been at their strongest. But as the battle dragged on, factors other than pure strength began to play a pivotal role, such as tactics and willpower.
However, to Su Chen, this battle was no longer worthy of his attention.
At least, not at the moment.
He was about to do something for himself next.
In a more upscale sector of Sky City.
The upscale sector was not officially designated as such, but it came from a tacit societal understanding, as most of the wealthy Harpies and nobles in Sky Country lived in this area.
The former Halcyon Wing Clan hadn’t even had the right to enter this place.
Yes, former.
They had been officially wiped out yesterday by the Thousand Poisons Toad’s advance.
While Su Chen was walking over, the Harpies responsible for keeping an eye on him also noticed his movements.
They immediately notified their superiors.
Eternal Night’s subordinate, Night God Verdant, was responsible for keeping an eye on Su Chen. He was a part of the same clan as Night God Sun, who had died in Jade Clearmist’s secret realm, but they weren’t considered to have been particularly close.
Night God Verdant was also surprised when he heard that “Halcyon Wing Streak” was headed for the upscale sector of Sky City.
After the high level discussion with his advisors, Eternal Night had made many preparations to defend against “Halcyon Wing Streak’s” possible actions. His purview included the Perpetual Daylight Palace, imperial treasury, and a few other strategic locations in Sky City. He was eagerly awaiting Halcyon Wing Streak to make a move on them.
Because the Thousand Poisons Toad was currently besieging the city, any of Su Chen’s destructive efforts could have especially tremendous negative effects.
But unexpectedly, “Halcyon Wing Streak” had chosen to avoid these strategically important locations and was instead headed for the wealthy sector of the city. Just what was he trying to do?
The mission that Night God Verdant had been given was to carefully watch Su Chen. If he ever stepped foot into one of the aforementioned strategically important areas, he was to immediately activate the restrictions and cut Su Chen off to capture him. However, his target had remained put for some time, so Night God Verdant hadn’t paid him much mind.
Now, however, his target was not headed for a restricted area, and neither was he trying to leave Sky City. What should Night God Verdant do?
Without a command from His Majesty, Night God Sun could feel a headache coming on.
A few of Night God Verdant’s subordinates were staring at him. After a moment of thought, Night God Sun gritted his teeth and said, “His Majesty made it abundantly clear to not touch him as long as he doesn’t enter any restricted areas or try to leave Sky City…… Let’s see what he’s up to first.”
The answer very quickly arrived.
Night God Verdant was informed that “Halcyon Wing Streak” had entered a shop.
A shop?
What was he planning on doing there?
Night God Sun was still wondering when a subordinate hurriedly reported to him. “Reporting in, sir…… He’s robbed New Moon Store!”
Robbed?
Night God Verdant was stunned.
Why would this guy choose this moment to start robbing stores?
New Moon Store was a famous store within Harpy territory. It held a large amount of treasures, even for a high-class store. There were also quite a few Origin Tools, Origin Crystals, and other objects inside. Even though there weren’t any divine-class tools inside the store, there weren’t many of them to begin with!
But even if there were no divine tools or treasures, a shop like this would at least have a few special treasures, right?
Just because the store wasn’t as rich as the Mother Goddess Sect didn’t mean that there would be nothing of value for Su Chen to take.
But now, the store wasn’t even able to sell off its wares out one by one before a thief came along and stole them all. The thief probably didn’t even care about how much profit he had made just now.
More importantly, this thief didn’t seem to be satisfied with robbing just a single store. He then proceeded to move onto the next store. He was moving as if he was planning on robbing his way through everything in sight.
Night God Verdant was taken aback by “Halcyon Wing Streak’s” actions. He hurriedly asked, “He successfully robbed New Moon Store and got off scot-free? He didn’t encounter any resistance? Last time I checked, New Moon Store should actually have some Tenth Ring Arcana Masters as guards, right?”
“They do have some, but weren’t they all summoned to the front lines? At the moment, we are the only Eighth-Ring and above Arcana Masters in the immediate area,” the subordinate replied.
Only then did Night God Verdant remember that His Majesty had ordered that anyone stronger than a certain level had to report to the front lines. Thus, at this point, there weren’t many cultivators left, not to mention high-tier Arcana Masters. And even then, the few still hanging around weren’t really much of a match for Su Chen. They were only meant to maintain some semblance of order in the city and wouldn’t be of much use in a real fight.
This explained why it felt like the high-class area was completely empty — it really was empty!
“What should we do now, Sir Night God?”
After a moment’s thought, Night God Verdant said, “This fake Halcyon Wing Streak is an incredibly important person of interest. I cannot make a decision until I reconvene with His Majesty. Don’t pay him any mind for now.”
As he spoke, he hurried off to meet with Eternal Night.
Su Chen continued to freely plunder the place happily.
Yes, he was looting the place, and he was doing so with reckless abandon.
The Desolate Beast’s attack gave Su Chen a great opportunity.
Eternal Night could increase the security in the imperial palace, treasury, and other various strategically important locations. However, could he also afford to do it in areas that belonged to commoners?
In a battle, it was always important to strike the opponent in their blind spot.
Naturally, this high-class area was one of Eternal Night’s blind spots.
Of course, Su Chen’s plan was to obtain benefits for himself even while prodding at the opponent’s weak spots. Merely causing destruction wasn’t actually that valuable to Su Chen. Otherwise, he would basically be the same as Kelesda — a terrorist.
Su Chen had chosen to rob the high-class region for other practical reasons as well.
Right now, Su Chen’s greatest problem was that Kelesda had a lock on his position and knew where he was at all times.
Without the Light Shaking Phantom technique , Su Chen probably would have already died many times over.
Even so, since Kelesda could lock onto his position, then problems were bound to rise up.
Once the Harpies decided to make a move on him, such as capturing Zhu Xianyao or if they found a way to restrict the effectiveness of his Light Shaking Phantom, then they would come looking for him.
Yes, it was a fact that they were going to butt heads sooner or later.
But as described previously, Su Chen wasn’t planning on just sitting around and waiting for them to capture him.
If his opponents were willing to come searching for him on their own, then that meant that the initiative had somehow fallen into their hands, and that they were in control of the rhythm.
If Su Chen wanted to escape from this kind of situation, he needed to first figure out how to escape from Kelesda’s lock on his position.
And the best way to figure out how to resolve this issue actually was quite simple — by making a sacrifice.
He would use a sacrifice to figure out how Kelesda was locking onto his position.
This was the simplest and most effective method. Su Chen hadn’t done so before simply because he didn’t have enough Origin Crystals. But now that he was in Sky City, Su Chen found that he was basically surrounded with resources.
The diplomat had bought a bunch of Origin Crystals for him, but since the prediction involved a forbidden-tier Arcana Master’s secrets, Su Chen needed to think of a way to get his hands on some more.
And the easiest way to accomplish that was to simply take them!
The upper-class area was populated by nobles, so all of the stores there naturally contained a wide variety of resources.
Resources were equivalent to wealth, and wealth was equivalent to strength!
Being greedy was a necessity in this world, since it was possible to convert wealth into personal strength.
Su Chen didn’t hesitate to begin his robbing spree.
Even though he only needed Origin Crystals, Su Chen didn’t mind picking up other good items that he found along the way. In any case, he had a mountain of Origin Rings, since he had once used them to supply the entire Heavenly Might Battalion for a considerable amount of time. By comparison, the amount of treasures kept within these stores was trivial.
Su Chen sauntered in and out of the different stores. He wasted no time in plundering each one of them.
Fata Morgana was used to determine where the hidden treasures were located, Flowing Gold Blade to crush any form of resistance, Air Tentacles to quickly grab the treasures — Su Chen’s abilities seemed to be quite effective when used for thievery.
Su Chen didn’t stop to even catch his breath as he ran through all the stores. His efficiency was incredibly high.
The few Arcana Masters still present and able to defend the stores did their best to stop Su Chen, but his eyes only saw green at this point. Their actions were completely useless.
Su Chen rampaged through the city like a malevolent hurricane.
He left behind a cloud of dust in his wake as he robbed them blind, taking everything that he could find. It was as if there was someone chasing after him.
That wasn’t far from the truth, actually, since those Harpies would never give him too much time.
When Eternal Night heard Night God Verdant’s report, a suspicious expression appeared in his eyes. “He’s robbing the high-class area?”
“Yes. He’s currently sweeping his way through the area. He doesn’t seem to be sparing anything in his path,” Night God Verdant replied.
“Didn’t I tell you? This guy is a terrible bandit! He steals things anywhere he goes! Jade Clearmist’s treasure stores, Fate’s Hands’ headquarters, Spiritual Light Institute, and then the Mother Goddess Sect — he has no mercy!” Kelesda cursed through gritted teeth.
Eternal Night seemed completely indifferent. “We will recover the riches we have lost at some point. As long as he hasn’t left the city yet, everything is negotiable. However, his vicious, ruthless attitude is quite rare. Is it really just greed? Or does he have another goal?”
After a moment’s thought, Eternal Night said, “Kaderville, you should go and pay him a visit. But don’t forget to not expose your identity.”
“He already knows my identity,” Kelesda said.
“It’s enough as long as you don’t admit it,” Eternal Night replied.
