Chapter 404: Chapter Not Found
404 - Author Not Found
Wei Yuan tried her best not to smile.
As just she had planned, Yuan Shaoqing and Liu Xuande competed to stay alive.
'Idiots. You just have to be creative with your words. These morons have been relying on their strength for too long that they forgot to cultivate their intelligence. Even Mao Xiaomiao is smarter than them!'
Still, Wei Yuan couldn't drag this for too long as Liu Xuande and Yuan Shaoqing might regain their senses and discover her trick. She hurried and concluded the deal.
"First, let me confirm this. Are you going to kill my husband!?"
Yuan Shaoqing and Liu Xuande shook their heads.
"No. I won't order you or Mao Miaomiao to do anything."
"We won't ask anything from you or Mao Miaomiao. Rest assured, young lady."
Getting the confirmation, Wei Yuan turned to Fang Yanxu and smiled, "You heard them."
...
Fang Yanxu clicked his tongue as these two leaders were too panicked to realize their mistake. He wanted to advise Yuan Shaoqing and Liu Xuande to be smart with their words, and the game could end right there.
For example, they could have forced them to swear with their dao oaths that they couldn't harm, plot, or do anything that might put Yuan Shaoqing and Liu Xuande at a disadvantage. Another way was to ask Miaomiao to surrender his soul, his family, and his city to them without a condition.
As for the revenge issue, both of them could have asked him for help since he had the authority to abuse the game rules and their reincarnation.
Most importantly, they could even have ignored Wei Yuan's order and indefinitely delay the death sentence! After all, she didn't state WHEN, WHERE, and HOW they should kill each other.
"A bunch of fools. How are these people so stupid? I gave them the best opportunity to kill Mao Miaomiao, but they throw it away! Haiz!"
Fang Yanxu's face twisted in anger. Before both Liu Xuande and Yuan Shaoqing began killing each other because of Wei Yuan's trick, he changed his verdict.
"As both sides can't make their choices, the bet of the fourth round is now invalid. Both sides may return to their place. I'm going to start the fifth round."
"..."
Liu Xuande had a bright smile on his face. He repeatedly bowed to the immortal, "Thank you for being lenient. I shall not forget your kindness."
Yuan Shaoqing also did the same, "My deepest apologies for disappointing you. Next time, we shall do better."
"It doesn't matter," Fang Yanxu waved his hands, shooing the two ambitious villains. "Now, I shall announce the rules of the fourth round."
...
Wei Yuan was pissed.
She did her best to exploit the chaos and the confusion. However, Fang Yanxu saved Yuan Shaoqing and Liu Xuande by abusing his authority.
Wei Yuan wanted to argue, but she couldn't come up with the right words since Fang Yanxu was the judge, the referee, and the organizer of this event.
He could simply enforce his rules by suppressing everybody here with his raw strength. She didn't dare to openly antagonize his judgment.
Had Fang Yanxu been a mortal like her, Wei Yuan would have attacked him and get this over with. Unfortunately, her strength, even with the chaos element, was no match against the immortal at the moment since there was a limit to her power.
Even if the chaos element had so many usages, it required massive energy consumption. If there was no source of Qi nearby, such as Miaomiao's inhuman Qi and the pylon tower nearby, she wouldn't be able to replenish her lost Qi. Then, the backlash would be too severe for her to handle.
Secondly, Chaos Element was not omnipotent. It might be able to twist nature at will, but it depended on the amount of sacrificed energy.
For example, the shockwaves and dragon flame from Miaomiao were not concentrated. The stray bullets were weaker than her total amount of Life Essence and Chaos Qi. Thus, she could twist the law and negate the power with Chaos Element while she absorbed Miaomiao's power to replenish hers.
As for Fang Yanxu, Wei Yuan needed more than just 200 trillion liters of essence that she had. She couldn't use a strand of Chaos Qi to kill gods.
In short, she needed to have a higher Qi than her target to tamper with the law.
And lastly, Wei Yuan lacked the Dao of Chaos, the Law of Chaos, and the Divine Providence of Chaos, aka the higher powers of a godly being, to display its full potential.
Only gods could use the true power of the chaos element. So far, Wei Yuan had only touched the tip of the iceberg. The rest of her power couldn't be used until she became a dao god.
Since Wei Yuan couldn't fight Fang Yanxu with her current power, she flew back to her friends, frustrated by her powerlessness.
As Wei Yuan regrouped with the yin slaves and the gang, Miaomiao came to her. He embraced her from behind.
"Thank you for saving my life, wifey."
Wei Yuan grumbled, "This is not the right time to be sweet. You have to fight one more time."
"I know. I just want to hug you."
"..."
Everyone gazed at Miaomiao and Wei Yuan with a warm smile. They felt better after seeing how lively this couple was.
Still, the happy time was cut short. Fang Yanxu finally chose to do the extreme.
"The next match will also be a single match. Per the agreements, Mao Miaomiao shall fight again as a representative from Siren City. As for his next opponent..."
Fang Yanxu burst into laughter as he pointed at the strongest fighter among Yuan Shaoqing's fighters.
"It shall be Huang Hansheng!"
...
Once again, Fang Yanxu rigged the match and forced Miaomiao, a 5th-stage cultivator, to fight in a life-and-death battle with the 9th-stage expert.
The previous match was already pushing the limit. Now, Fang Yanxu's action crossed the line.
Not only people from Siren City booed, but some of the neutral spectators, who could hear the voice, were also disgusted by the unfair booking.
These spectators were the leading figures of various clans, who were not associated with Yuan Shaoqing or other sides. They were the few survivors who managed to get to safety when Miaomiao and Guan Yunchang had fought earlier.
These elders heard everything. Like modern world bystanders, they had been using their phones and artifacts to record the entire event from the beginning. Now, after hearing the unreasonable matchup, they immediately sent their recorded clips to their clansmen, spreading the news to the other side of the continent.
It wouldn't be long before everyone in Aves Continent could witness the turning point of the war.
"Bullying a mortal? How disgraceful."
One of the neutral clan leading figures, Sima Fang, was a senior merchant, who was also a 6th-stage cultivator. He was the current patriarch of the Sima Clan, who sided with no one.
Sima Fang was an old man with no hair or beard left on his head. His small and thin stature didn't suit his current cultivation base as he looked like a harmless commoner. Combining with his kempt robes, no one would have recognized this old man as a cultivator unless they inspected the aura of this man.
Sima Fang couldn't stand Fang Yanxu's action anymore. Although he wanted to help Miaomiao and others, he was powerless at the moment.
After all, his clan had no nascent soul realm cultivator. He was the strongest member of his family.
"Haiz. Perhaps Siren City is destined to fall today. If Heaven wants it this way, there is nothing I can do. But if Siren City somehow survives today..."
Sima Fang bit his lower lips. Then, he gazed upon the dark cloud, the tribulation eyes, and the bright sky.
As Sima Fang was lamenting for the ill fate of the Siren City, a young man, who had been floating behind him, suddenly voiced out his frustration.
"Dammit! If only I were Yuan Shaoqing, I would have aborted this stupid game, apologized, and returned home! There's nothing to be gained from this pointless war! Why are those top clans so greedy? Can't they just be reasonable and coexist in peace!? If they keep this up, the demons from the Holy Land will eventually show up and kill us all!"
The man with a goatee and thick eyebrows wore white robes and a headwear as if he was a government official. However, he was just an ordinary 5th-stage cultivator from a scholar family.
Still, the eyebrow man had no sinister aura like the others. He was a rare cultivator, who had never used his power to fight or kill other people. He simply cultivated to adapt to this harsh world and prolong his lifespan.
The other man next to the guy also nodded in agreement.
The second guy had a similar pair of thick eyebrows, but he had no facial hair like the previous one as he was younger.
The two representatives from the Xun Clan also wished that Miaomiao could survive today. After all, they didn't like Yuan Shaoqing's way of governing the land.
The older guy, Xun Yu, clicked his tongue, "Yuan Shaoqing lacks righteousness, principle, and virtue of a clan leader. That immortal is also a hypocrite. At this rate, our continent will be suppressed dominated by those unreasonable muscle-head cultivators in the years to come!"
Xun You, the nephew of Xun Yu, feared for the worse, "Ah, once the continent become Yuan Shaoqing's backyard, there will be no law, order, or peace! I'd rather have that young man as the supreme ruler of our continent. Look at them! Look how unite they are despite being from different races. Isn't that what our mentor always taught us?"
"Indeed, Mao Miaomiao has the right mindset as a lord. But no way will that Mao Miaomiao survive today. That immortal is so desperate to kill him. He can't win!"
"Let's pray that Heaven won't abandon him."
"Who to pray? Immortals are evolved cultivators, and gods are evolved immortals. There is no such thing as miracle or gods, only man-made tricksters and false gods!"
Sima Fang knew these gentlemen. He turned around and approached them.
"Xun You, Xun Yu, are you cheering for Siren City and Mao Miaomiao, too?"
Both men gazed at their senior. They cupped their fists to show respect, "Ah, Senior Fang. Err, your face seems abnormally red. Are you angry?"
"Obviously, I'm pissed. You know that I hate hypocrites like that guy. Say, hypothetically, if Mao Miaomiao were to emerge victorious here, what would you two plan to do?"
Xun You grinned, "Right back at you, senior. I can tell that you want to form a friendly relationship with Siren City, but you never had a chance."
"I blame that on those greedy peddlers that ruined our reputation of us, merchants. Because of them, Siren City's guards reject to trade with my clan. Now, they won't trade with merchants that they don't know!"
"Haiya. I feel your pain. After the war, I visited the city to buy a bottle of elixir for an experiment, but those beastmen were selling a small bottle for 1,000 essence cores because of their grudge with Yuan Shaoqing. Now, even the black market is selling them at 50,000 EC per bottle! And you know what? From the intel my clan has gathered, the city is suffering from the overflowing elixir water and they have no place to store them! I want to talk to Mao Miaomiao or the person in charge, so we can buy those things in bulk and help them at the same time. But now, Yuan Shaoqing is going to take everything!"
"... We're powerless. No matter how much we curse him, nothing will change."
"Haiz."
The two scholars and the merchant elder's expression turned dark. They wholeheartedly prayed for a miracle, hoping for Siren City's survival.
...
= 100 Kilometers above Heavenly Goose Planet =
A petit angelic infant in an angel robe and a black-winged angel with a sheep-head helmet, wearing only two pieces of thin fabric to cover her 36D and her private part like bikinis, hovered over the planet while they were looking at their phones.
The infant pulled out a cigar and clipped the tip. He was about to fetch his lighter, but the woman seized the cigar from his mouth.
"Oi, Azazel. That's mine."
The sheep woman smacked the infant with her black feather wings. She kept the cigar in her cleavage, "Lord Uriel, Master Joshua said we must hurry or one of his business partners will be killed."
"I know. But can't I take a short break?"
"You can take a break after we rescue the guy. What's his name again?"
The infant took out another cigar and put it in his mouth. He scrolled down his phone to read the message of Macho Joshua.
"Mao Miaomiao? What kind of blasphemous name is this?"