Chapter 200: At Thirty, One Stands Firm

Six Gold powerhouses! This level of strength already surpassed the Revolutionary Army!

Damn it, where did six Gold powerhouses come from? Yan Moxie's mind raced, but he couldn't make sense of it. Gold powerhouses weren't cabbages you could find on any street corner.

To any empire, Gold powerhouses were true strategic weapons! Whichever country had more of them was fundamentally the stronger nation.

There was even a popular saying that a nation needed thirty Gold powerhouses to establish a foothold on the international stage and earn the right to be called an empire. This was called "standing firm at thirty."

By the same logic, if a nation boasted forty Gold powerhouses, nothing in the world could perplex it anymore. This was known as "having no doubts at forty."

"Knowing the mandate of heaven at fifty" meant that if a country possessed fifty Gold powerhouses at once, every other nation would realize who truly held the mandate of heaven!

"A pleasing ear at sixty" meant that with sixty Gold powerhouses, whatever that empire said, the other empires would find it incredibly pleasing to hear.

And "following one's desires without overstepping the bounds at seventy" was even easier to understand. With seventy Gold powerhouses, an empire had the capital to do exactly as it pleased, because no other empire would dare violate the rules it set.

While these were just popular jokes, they perfectly illustrated the sheer weight a Gold powerhouse carried!

That was why Yan Moxie was so shaken. Out in the open, six Gold powerhouses were enough to establish a small nation.

While Yan Moxie reeled from the shock, Taoist Priest Xuanqing spoke up again. "Hey, old man, don't space out! I'm about to explain our battle plan. Take this seriously!"

"Oh, right, right." Yan Moxie blinked, forcefully suppressing his chaotic thoughts to listen closely.

Taoist Priest Xuanqing let out a mischievous chuckle. "This operation is quite interesting. It's a trap our Seven Deadly Sins set specifically for Sikong Zhen. He's been looking for us, right? So we're beating him at his own game and letting him find us!"

"How will you let him find you? Just show yourselves and lure him out?"

Taoist Priest Xuanqing gave Yan Moxie a disdainful look. "Do you really think Sikong Zhen would fall for such a simple trick? Don't treat him like an idiot."

Yan Moxie clenched his fists. If he weren't so wary of Lust's tremendous strength, he would have beaten the living daylights out of this brat. The kid was absolutely infuriating.

"A truly brilliant plan always makes the enemy take the bait willingly. People will suspect a clue handed to them on a silver platter, but they'll never doubt a clue they exhausted themselves to find. Understand?"

"I don't," Yan Moxie replied. To glean more intel from Lust, he had to swallow his irritation and play the fool.

"Heh, I knew that old brain of yours wouldn't get it."

Yan Moxie's knuckles cracked as his fists clenched even tighter.

Taoist Priest Xuanqing looked incredibly smug. "I won't keep you in suspense. I'll just tell you straight. Sikong Zhen couldn't find a single trace of the Seven Deadly Sins, so he decided to rely on Transcendent Tier abilities. He planned to use Future Sight to track us down."

Future Sight!? Yan Moxie was alarmed. He hadn't expected the Chiyan Empire to hide such a terrifying method. If they used that against the Revolutionary Army, the rebels would be in grave danger.

He counted his blessings that the Revolutionary Army had never dared to assassinate any nobles before now. Thanks to that restraint, the Chiyan Empire had kept its focus squarely on its external enemy, the Blood Moon Empire.

"Unfortunately for him, our boss Pride saw right through it. Pride deliberately fed Sikong Zhen false visions of the future to draw him into our trap."

What!?

Yan Moxie could hardly believe his ears. As a Gold powerhouse and a vice-commander of the Revolutionary Army, he thought he had seen it all. Yet, Lust's words pushed the absolute limits of his imagination.

Even Future Sight can be seen through? They can even feed back false visions? How is that even possible?

Future Sight involved the domain of time itself. Did Pride possess the ability to tamper with time?

The more intel he gathered on the Seven Deadly Sins, the more utterly unfathomable Pride seemed.

"Your Excellency Lust, forgive me, but I don't quite understand," he said. "Can the future really be forged?"

Taoist Priest Xuanqing shot him a sideways glance. "Just because others can't doesn't mean our boss Pride can't. Stop asking for specifics. When the time comes, just watch my signal and act."

After the two left, Su Mu's figure materialized out of thin air. He walked over to the spot where Yan Moxie and Taoist Priest Xuanqing had fought and examined the scattered bloodstains on the ground.

It was the blood Yan Moxie had left behind after being injured.

But Su Mu wasn't the one who wanted to look at the blood—it was Bubai!

After feeding on an unlimited supply of Su Mu's spiritual power for some time, Bubai had grown remarkably. Its ability to communicate had also become much clearer, much like a toddler learning to speak.

Earlier, while watching the two fight within the dreamscape, Bubai had grown restless the moment Yan Moxie transformed into a shadow monster. Su Mu had been busy assisting Taoist Priest Xuanqing at the time, so he had ignored it.

When he asked Bubai about it later, the entity conveyed a very interesting message.

"Bubai, are you saying Yan Moxie is of the same race as you?" Su Mu asked.

Bubai immediately projected a wave of denial. Its chaotic consciousness intertwined with Su Mu's, and it took him quite a while to decipher what Bubai was trying to express.

"You mean you and Yan Moxie aren't of the same race—but your kin is the Shadow Demon?"

This time, Bubai affirmed his words.

Su Mu was slightly surprised. The Gold Law, Shadow Demon, was clearly just a Law. How could it be Bubai's kin? Although both of them utilized the power of shadows, how could a nightmare monster and a Law belong to the same race?

Bubai babbled excitedly to explain, but Su Mu couldn't understand it this time; the creature had rambled on in a long string of garbled thoughts.

Piecing together the few fragments he could understand, Su Mu gradually formed a theory, though he had no way to verify it for now.

"You want Yan Moxie's blood? Will it help you?"

Bubai stepped out from Su Mu's shadow, manifesting as a towering five-meter-tall shadow monster, and gave a firm nod.

"Alright, take it," Su Mu agreed with a nod.

Bubai immediately extended its shadowy hand. The moment its long, razor-sharp fingertips brushed the dark red bloodstains on the ground, they acted like a straw, siphoning up all the blood and absorbing it into its body.

Having consumed the blood, Bubai sank back into Su Mu's shadow, sending a mental message that it needed to slumber for a while.

...

...

Under Su Mu's manipulation, dark currents began to surge beneath the tranquil surface of Star City. Pulling the strings from behind the scenes, he wove a massive net that ensnared all three major factions: the Blood Clan, the Revolutionary Army, and the Chiyan Empire.

The Gold powerhouses representing each side had unwittingly walked straight into his trap, becoming nothing more than pawns on his chessboard.

Two days later.

"Lord Xueyuan, this is the Envy Mask I prepared for you, along with a tailcoat identical to those worn by the Seven Deadly Sins." Murong Yun respectfully offered the garments and the mask to Xueyuan.