“The situation was not complicated. The Soviet Union obtained a piece of the statue. As a major power in the world, they have long had the wish to become the only major power. So in the very least, they wouldn’t hand out the piece when they knew we were heading for the coast of the United States. They probably couldn’t wait for us to destroy North America.” Xuan said to Zheng who was sitting in front of him then took a bite from an apple.
Zheng froze for a moment with his eyes wide open as he stared at Xuan. He asked. “Have you never suspected the Soviet Union?”
Xuan finished off his seventh apple. He had already consumed four cucumbers and several colorful unknown fruits. It was like he had starved for a few days. He said. “It’s no use suspecting. No nation will succumb to a single digit number of people unless we displayed a strong enough force to make them do so. If we were to threaten them, they would probably deny having the statue piece or out right destroy it. And if we were to let them know of the super weapon we possess and show them its power, there’s a fifty percent chance they would coerce us into exchanging the piece for the weapon, because they know the statue is important to us and that we would not nuke where the statue is at. In this case, we would need to spend more time searching for the piece. So it’s better this way. We don’t suspect anyone and act as if we don’t know where the statue piece is. They don’t know how many Magic Cannons we have. They don’t know how many shots we can fire. Under the threat of being nuked, they had no choice but to hand out the statue piece unless they really didn’t have it. Surviving the indiscriminate nukes became their only choice.”
Xuan spread their movements through the Kuomintang after splitting up on the Pacific Ocean. An hour later, as he prepared to fire the third shot of the Magic Cannon at the central region of the United States, the message from the Soviet Union finally reached him. They had the last statue piece and in exchange they wanted the production method of the Sky Stick. Although the higher ups of the Soviet Union truly desired the Magic Cannon, they didn’t dare to express this rather unreasonable offer. So after deliberation, the Sky Stick became their first choice. It had impressive speed and convenience. Terrains would no longer be an obstacle and strategies wouldn’t be as limited. It wasn’t as powerful as the Magic Cannon as an intimidation tool but its value was on the same level.
“And? Did you give them the method?” Zheng asked.
Xuan nodded. “It doesn’t matter. They can’t craft a complete Sky Stick. A few of the parts can only be exchanged from God. Not even I have the ability to craft the parts. Furthermore, our Sky Sticks are modified to recharge with your Qi. I also gave them one as a sample. That’s why the two of them were riding the same Sky Stick.” Xuan pointed at ChengXiao and WangXia.
There were thirteen hours until the end of the seven day time limit. Xuan’s group actually flew around the world during this time. The high speed of the Sky Sticks brought them back to Shanxi, China, to the entrance of the tomb, before their time was up. Zheng had just destroyed another wave of the Yellow Turbans. Team China decided to rest for an hour. At the twelve hour mark, they would enter the tomb and it would be time for Zheng to fight.
“Such a long journey.” Zheng exclaimed as he looked over the people in front of him.
ChengXiao waved his hand and said. “It isn’t that long. Only seven days.”
“Yeah. Only seven days…” Zheng grinded his teeth. “I got tricked by someone and spent half a year in a dream world. Furthermore, it was on an uninhabited island with a bunch of kids. Even worse, I couldn’t wake up on my own. I am sure you will describe it as a long journey if you have the same experience!”
Xuan didn’t even try to explain himself upon hearing Zheng’s complaint. In fact, he had never explained any action that he took. He always kept the same expression, an expression that spoke – what can you do to me? It was exactly how he looked right now. Zheng almost wanted to bite a piece off him.
“I have told you many times! We are comrades! I am your comrade! Everyone is! I don’t care that you used to be alone, or that you don’t have feelings, or even a heart! We won’t abandon you when you need us. Nor would we expose you to dangers. So whenever you have a plan, tell us, okay? If you told me that I would enter a dream world and stay there for over half a year, I would have…” Zheng yelled.
He stopped as if he was thinking what would he have done.
Xuan sneered. “Do you ever want to get to the point where I have to leave my safety to you?”
The rest of the team was surprised then they imagined the situation. If Xuan ever got to a point where they had to protect him, then team China must be in a desperation. Now a simple question was presented to them. Would they want a Xuan that relied on the team like normal people but they would be in desperate situation, or would they want to rely on Xuan as usual where they get schemed. At least they could return to God’s dimension alive if it was the latter… Everyone shook their heads.
Zheng still wouldn’t give in and continued. “But you can still tell me your plans. Like you could let me know in advance the glasses would take me into the dream world!”
Xuan went to assemble the statue pieces. “If you can understand my plans and carry them out without being influenced by your emotions, I can let you know in advance. Yet, this is difficult. You won’t be Zheng if you could do it… Like this time. If I let you know of the side effect of the glasses, you would delay putting them on. I am certain you would say, we can wait until after we return to the dimension.”
“We can wait until after we return to the dimension!” Zheng said at the same time and then he was surprised. “Why couldn’t we?”
“Because of time.” Xuan sighed. “No one can be certain how much time you would spend in the dream world. The reason I chose to do it in this world is because we have time here. Even if you couldn’t wake up, we will defeat the god without you. There’s a chance we would fail but it’s lower than succeeding. On the other hand, if you enter the dream world in the dimension, what would happen if you don’t wake up after ten days? How were we going to bring you into the movie worlds? What if the next movie was a team battle? In each case, it would be more dangerous than our upcoming battle. So putting you into the dream world during this mission was the best decision.”
“You sound like you are right…” Zheng said. “But what about my feelings? Getting schemed out of nowhere, getting thrown onto an uninhabited island for half a year and seeing nothing but lolis and shotas! Do you think it’s fun?”
Xuan suddenly paused his hands and turned his head around. “Tsk.” He grinned without giving a sense of actual laughter. Then he turned his head back.
Zheng was calming down but that made him started to grind his teeth again.
“Our situation is… damn it!” Zheng yelled. “We have twelve days until the time is up. The next wave of Yellow Turbans are coming in an hour. Everyone has finished resting so we are entering the tomb and into the Sky Tower. We are going to meet the ancient bio-weapon, god! Let’s acquire the treasure our ancestors have left us and see the power of Cultivation!” He grabbed Tiger’s Soul and headed into the valley.
Thousands of Kuomintang troops were guarding inside the valley. This was Yan Xishan’s army. The officers had already received messages of what happened around the world. They purpose here was to help the immortals guard the tomb to prevent any chance that they would destroy the world.
Twelve hours left. Team China was on their way to the Sky Tower.
