Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Cloud Fog City was about fifteen square kilometers in area with more than 120 thousand people. Compared to China, it was smaller than the size of a small county but was considered large enough in the wide but unpopulous Siberian wilderness. Even the largest city was only slightly more than a million people.
Following the duke’s order to retreat, the city which was run by combining a modern organizational system and the disciple system began to bustle with movements.
Tasks like financial accounting, packing up supplies, staff evacuation had their own standard operating procedures as well as practical exercises, so most employees had begun busying themselves orderly.
Many veterans were at a loss. ‘This place where we’d worked for more than a decade, every single thing was developed by us. And now we have to abandon it? All the herb bases that we built with sweat and blood, we’re giving it away to people?’
Wang Qi was one of these people. He was thirty-six years old and had been exploring Russia with friends immediately after graduating.
Finally, he was recruited by the Cloud Fog City’s huge recruitment drive. After having his background checked, he had signed a strict confidential contract.
He had thought it was an international corporation trying to cultivate the land and applied having been attracted by the high salary they offered. He only started realizing what they were actually doing after a while, but it was easy to get onto a ship like that, yet it was difficult to get out of it.
It was his tenth year in the company. Due to the advantage Vitality Crops have over normal industries, his salary was not low. As a veteran technical worker, he was earning 21,000 USD per month, this was high even for salary-earners in the USA.
He was someone who had led an honest life with no bad hobbies, so he had saved a handsome amount of money.
He believed that he would be able to find a new job relatively easily after returning to China. Furthermore, with the techniques and methods he had learned through the years, he had confidence that he would never need to compete for a normal position with normal people ever again.
However, he had already gotten used to the comfortable life in that place, so he was neither looking forward to leaving nor willing to change his environments.
The city was a city for Extraordinaires, so the citizens were all employees and their family. All veterans had access to various cultivation methods. In here, he worked in the day and cultivated in the evening.
He was thirty-six years old but looked not a day over twenty-five. The few friends he came to Russia with were different from his lonesome self. During the recruitment drive in Cloud Fog City, due to missing home, they did not agree to the strict terms of the confidential contract.
After a few years of working in the Cloud Fog City, they had returned to China due to better opportunities to grow.
It was not until the huge change the previous year that the Cloud Fog City slowly loosened their grip on their supervision, and he had reconnected with his old friends through the internet.
After video-calling them, he noticed many of his friends started having gray hair with an older complexion. They all seemed to be doing quite well.
However, due to the high competitiveness inside the country and their strict quality control, they had to work extra hard to stand out. Some two or three old friends were still trying to survive and were single…
He, on the other hand, had just married a beautiful Japanese woman as his wife the September prior.
His wife was gentle and prudent. He did not have to do anything at home and just had to enjoy the warm treatments after work. His coworkers envied him, one was even trying to seek shelter at his home.
Many people had escaped Japan and tried to earn a living in the wild Siberia, especially females.
After the meteor incident the year prior, a huge monster had suddenly appeared and plunged the islands of Japan in a lockdown with a hazy fog. It had continued for half a year, with some news coming out of it in the initial stage and only intermittent old news at the current time.
His wife, Keiko Yamanashi 1 , said that the monster liked to eat men and complained that women tasted bad. When she attempted to escape, it had blocked her troupe of escapees. Among the ten of them, only the four women managed to survive the encounter and all six men were eaten.
Situations like this where a huge monster was terrorizing a country were not uncommon on Earth. The GASATO did not care, and most big countries had also folded their arms, having to deal with their own internal security with no extra manpower to help.
At the moment, he was staying in his wooden mansion, cleaning his things up with Keiko. In reality, it was only Keiko who was doing most of the cleaning.
Keiko had had experience in fleeing as well as facing a terrifying monster. In comparison, she did not seem that anxious and even comforted him that their lives could stabilize again in China.
Evidently, Wang Qi did not listen to a word that she said. He stood there, spaced out, and looked at the plum tree he planted himself in his yard. It was blossoming at the moment. The temperature was lower up north, so the flowers bloomed much later than usual.
Aside from that, there were also several plum blossom trees he had planted for Keiko which had just blossomed last year.
The wilderness of Siberia had violent weather changes, with summers being very warm but short while winters being bone-chilling and long-lasting. However, the whole Cloud Fog City was covered in a mysterious formation that concealment as well as insulating the warmth inside.
It allowed the city to keep a relatively constant temperature between summers and winters. In extreme winter, even when the temperature dropped to a freezing negative thirty to negative fifty degrees Celcius, the city could still be kept at zero degrees Celcius and above that was similar to the south of the Qin Mountains 2 where it was a decent place to live.
Setting up a large-coverage formation as wide as ten square kilometers would expend a massive amount of money and formation materials. It was slowly built over a decade.
However, a large-coverage formation like this was an invaluable treasure, it was no wonder Landlord Liu and the others were not willing to abandon it.
“My dear, why are you spacing out? Would you help me pack these, please?” Keiko was wrapping some of the necessities at the same time of caring for two of her foster children back in Japan and just could not handle it.
They were twelve years old and seven years old respectively, with the younger one called Sanori and the older one, Saki. It was a rare occasion that they did not need to go to school, so they were playing with their phones at home.
Wang Qi’s attention snapped back and said, “Right, yeah, coming. Sanori, Saki, stop playing and help your mother.”
“Yes, daaad,” answered Saki lazily. She did not get up and was still immersed in her phone.
“Yes, daddy.” Saki was more obedient as she put her phone down and waded over to help her foster mother.
He went to pack up his important documents, like his passport, recruitment contract, resident identity card in China, and his bank cards.
Even though he was still confused, he remembered clearly where he had kept his things.
“Keiko, do you remember where I kept my cultivation notebook?” asked Wang Qi.
“It should be in the attic on the second floor. You never let other people look at it, isn’t it?” Keiko stuffed a couple of expensive leather jackets into the suitcase and went into the kitchen to retrieve a huge ginseng. She placed it back into its case and concealed the case beneath the leather jackets.
After they had packed up all their most expensive possessions into two suitcases, Wang Qi and his wife picked up a suitcase each and took the hands of one of their children each, preparing to leave.
“Wang Qi, quick, it’s only us now among our team,” Captain Liu from his team called out to him as soon as he exited his courtyard.
“Yes, captain.” Following Captain Liu, Wang Qi boarded a bus that stopped nearby with his family.
The bus was filled with his neighbors. Everyone had been discussing what had transpired and what their plans were for the foreseeable future.
The bus had begun driving toward the east of the city. There was a gigantic airport that was used for supplies circulation between the city and fourteen herb bases in the countryside. It was more than enough to serve as an evacuation route.
Captain Liu was about fifty years old but looked around forty.
He was a compassionate man and comforted everyone as he boarded the bus. “Don’t worry, the bosses had a really robust background. He will be able to make arrangements for everyone once we returned to China. Don’t worry, the company will not abandon any one of us.”
The passengers were slightly relieved after hearing that. Humans had always been community-driven. Running with a group of people would always be better than running alone.
After some distance, Wang Qi’s younger foster daughter, Sanori, pointed outside and yelled, “Look! A dragon in the sky!”
Captain Liu was slightly taken aback, but he immediately opened the window and peered outside. A long, green dragon was soaring not that high above the city. It looked like it was larger than a Boeing 777, it had to be longer than three hundred meters.
“Captain, do we no longer have to leave?” Wang Qi looked out and verified the claim before a tiny hope drew in his heart.
He had thought about the news that his company had spread internally. ‘Guifang development, a huge success!’
It was a short video that his company had spent a huge amount of money on, as they asked the Venerable Dragon God to help by soaring through the sky plus a photo of Landlord Liu, Landlord Yun, and the Dragon God in human form. The higher-ups kept saying that it meant the company had moved up in their power level.
Speaking of which, as soon as he had circulated the photos on his Wechat group, his wife and daughters immediately cropped out the Dragon God and used him as their phones’ background. He was envious, as he had never had that treatment before…
Captain Liu frowned a little and said, “No matter what, we should follow the orders from above and prepare to evacuate at the airport.”
…
At that moment, Vigilante A had turned into his human form and landed on the plaza in front of the Cloud Fog City Hall.
The System said, “Wouldn’t it be easier to land directly on the flying sword? Why did you ask me to circle the city in dragon form?”
Fang Ning answered mysteriously, “You don’t know, do you? The appearance fee comes with the grandiosity of your appearance. Look at the celebrities, which one of them were not made up to every single detail? They even have a professional team to take care of their looks. Yes, Vigilante A is so handsome, he doesn’t need makeups, but the appearance fee they paid us was because of our strength. The green dragon form looks mightier, so people can see the value for their money.”
The System was enlightened, “Rich Host, you’re brilliant. If they can hire us with five billion USD, I do have to take note of my appearances, I shall play some background music to support my presentation…”
Fang Ning nodded satisfactorily, “Not bad, child. You could be taught well.”
The System did not talk back, because it was younger than one year old.
He was not surprised that the Cloud Fog City offered five billion in USD. With Vigilante A’s fame and power, he was worthy of that price.
The yearly maintenance fee of an American aircraft carrier was more than a billion USD, of which the System could easily destroy ten on its own with its combat power…
An Extraordinaire superpower like the Cloud Fog City had a tiny population but large landmass in its control. Its earnings from the Vitality industry was not less than those oil-exporting countries.
Their military expenditure was focused on individual combat power, so it was normal that they were able to afford that price.
According to the current situation, they were at the crossroads of their existence in the future. Once the Russian totem was manifested, the Pond-level Landlord Yun would not be able to fight it. That was why they had to ask for external assistance even if they had to scrape the bottom of their barrel.
At that point, Vigilante A who had shown his power, fame, and trustworthiness, was definitely on the list of their invitation.
Naturally, Fang Ning would not have known how much more dangerous the Cloud Fog City was currently under, to the point of mass evacuation.
…
In the city hall, Duke Yun looked less pale. After taking a few medications, he felt better even though he still could not draw on much of his power and could only pretend to be fine.
On his sides, a group of Extraordinaire bodyguards was standing by.
He turned toward his cousin sister and asked, “Xuan, how’s the evacuation?”
He could not leave. Only if he stayed there could he intimidate his enemies with his Pond-level aura and buy time for other people to retreat.
Otherwise, his old rivals would pounce on him the first opportunity they have to split and overtake his assets, not allowing him to have another chance to rise.
His biggest worry right now was that his rivals would be able to see through his pretense, or could not wait, and attack him without waiting for a better chance.
If that happened, he would have to abandon his blood and sweat of many years and escape with only a few people.
His cousin sister, Yun Xuan replied immediately, “Landlord Liu was overseeing it now. Our main issue now is our lack of large-sized interspatial equipment and much of our newly-acquired herbs were required to be transported in boxes and cargo planes. We also lack cargo planes and need to rent from China ASAP.
“The population of the city including the employees and their family is 123,443 people, so we need many planes to transport them. Fortunately, our harvest of the herbs had been good last year, so our connection with the large families in China had been established. They were trying to pull strings to lend us some military transport aircraft.”
“What a pack of hungry wolves,” said Duke Yun with a sigh. As a duke of a city, he could see their ploy clearly.
The manpower he had spent years cultivating and the planting technology he had developed were all coveted by others. He guessed that as soon as he returned to China, these rich houses would leap at him to split his resources.
It was a bad situation either way. However, in comparison, at least he could be a normal retired man.
At this point, a bodyguard dressed in black ran in to report, “Duke, the Venerable Dragon God is here.”
“That’s good news! He really is someone trustworthy.” Hearing that, he was ecstatic and tried to stand up, but he immediately felt nauseated and leaned back in his chair.
Before long, they heard a rhythmic, upbeat music ringing from outside the hall. They have yet to see anyone, but they all heard him.
The Extraordinaire bodyguards beside Yun Hui all looked confused. Not knowing what happened, they raised their alert.
Duke Yun was slightly stunned but immediately realized what happened and waved his hand, saying, “Sounds like the film soundtrack from the God of Gamblers. I hear Vigilante A would always have his own background music whenever something important was happening. It sounds like that was true. Stand down. Xuan, welcome Vigilante A with these guys.”
He was forty-six years old, naturally, he had experienced the era when Hong Kong and Taiwanese movies were wildly popular. He had heard this soundtrack before, and with his Pond-level power, he could easily recall the song due to his strengthened memory.
Heroes always have their own quirks, and some of them could be very weird. Compared to those, Vigilante A’s quirk was in an acceptable level.
Landlord Yun was barely older than twenty years of age and was a pretty lady. She could not identify the song, so she was really impressed with her cousin brother.
Not needing further instructions, she brought the bodyguards to the entrance of the city hall and stood in two rows to greet Vigilante A.
She had seen Vigilante A’s might. Whether the situation could be saved falls entirely on him.
They had invited more than one person, but only Vigilante A agreed to fight against the Russian totem Spirit Bear. As soon as the others heard about fighting the newly manifested totem of the Russian people, they had refused without being tempted by the reward.
That was why Yun Hui had decided to evacuate as soon as he had sustained a heavy injury and realized the Nine Forces had betrayed him. The power gap was too large. The Giant Spirit Bear was already powerful, how would he defend against it and nine Pond-level powerhouses simultaneously?
His original idea was to assemble many Pond-level powerhouses to take on the mighty Spirit Bear; however, it became many Pond-level powerhouses assembled by the enemy to take on him and Vigilante A…
He was happy that Vigilante A could make it in time, at least that would buy enough time for everyone to evacuate.
To him, the opponent’s strength was much higher than his own. Before the Spirit Bear arrived, none of the Nine Forces would dare to attack Cloud Fog City, so his biggest worry had been swept aside.
