A World Worth Protecting

Everyone else had only extended a short greeting to the sect’s patriarch. As their awe-filled greetings ended, Wang Baole’s voice became a sudden loudness that appeared to have come out of nowhere, thundering throughout the hall and drawing everyone’s attention immediately.

The thousands of cultivators in the hall were momentarily stunned. They swiveled their heads towards Wang Baole instinctively and stared, as did the commanders atop the altar. What Wang Baole had done had been utterly out of the blue. It was also clearly an attempt at ingratiating himself with the patriarch. Regardless, it was unconventional, and a refreshing change, and furthermore had incorporated brilliant wordplay on the sect’s name. It even included blessings for the patriarch’s ascent into the Eternal Star realm.

The fine details elevated what should have been coarse boot-licking into fine art. The entire hall fell silent. It took a moment, as well as the awareness of the patriarch’s presence, for everyone present to recover and set aside their initial shock. That didn’t mean that all kinds of thoughts weren’t rushing through everyone’s minds, like a hurricane ravaging the lands.

Such talent!

Who is this guy? Sucking up to the patriarch so shamelessly and so openly, and before so many people. He must be some freak of nature!

That’s some really shameless boot-licking. This guy must have no shame at all… In fact, the more shameless a man is, the more we should be wary of him!

The people in the audience weren’t the only ones thinking that way. Strange looks had settled on the faces of the ten commanders currently standing on the altar. Wang Baole was the only one who remained unfazed by it all. He appeared calm and collected as he leaned closer to Duo Youzi, who looked like he was on the verge of tears.

Duo Youzi was howling in secret. He didn’t want to draw any attention to himself at all. He didn’t want anyone to realize that the person sitting next to Long the Mad was him. But there was nothing he could do to stop that from happening.

Amidst the deathly silent hall, while sitting atop the top level of the altar, the patriarch of the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect finally gave Wang Baole a brief glance. He laughed, mildly startled by Wang Baole’s earlier actions. He hadn’t come across Long Nanzi in the past. Should he wish to know more about the man, though, he could easily do so. It would be a piece of cake to get his hands on every piece of information on everyone in the hall.

It took but a moment for him to find out who this boot-licker was. The thought of Long Nanzi’s fight with the Ink Dragon Legion made his lips twitch upwards into a slight smile. Long Nanzi’s exaggerated flattery had its effects. Without it, he wouldn’t have paid any attention to Long Nanzi at all, and any reward given to him for his service would have been a symbolic gesture and something that he had gotten the commander of the first army to take care of.

The reward would have been some tokens of appreciation. However, the situation had changed now. The patriarch was in a merry mood now, so he decided to take the matter into his own hands, sending a voice transmission to Fairy Ling You of the tenth army.

Fairy Ling You had been assessing Wang Baole with an unfriendly stare when she received the patriarch’s voice transmission. The look on her face remained unchanged after she heard the contents of the voice transmission. However, there was an additional hint of annoyance in her cold eyes when she stared at Wang Baole. She couldn’t turn down the patriarch’s orders in any case, which was why she replied in the affirmative.

Having passed down his instructions to his subordinate, the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect patriarch turned his attention away from Wang Baole. With a smile on his face, he began his chairing of the assembly. The final day of the general assembly consisted of him listening to the commanders of his ten armies report to him the various requests and problems they had consolidated and distilled from the past weeks, as well as details of the work that they had done.

Everyone turned serious again as they focused their attention on the assembly proceedings. The commanders of the first ten armies began their reporting. Time passed slowly, but Wang Baole set aside his earlier casual attitude and sat up straight instead, a serious look in his eyes.

It was evening when Fairy Ling You completed her report. That marked the end of the sect’s month-long general assembly. The patriarch departed, and the commanders of the ten armies began biding their farewells before taking their leave. Fairy Ling You was the only one with a slight frown marring her brow prior to her departure. She gazed at the spot where Wang Baole was seated, then finally spoke with annoyance in her voice.

“Long Nanzi, come with me. I need to speak to you.”

A collective loud gasp could be heard in the hall immediately after she had said that. Countless looks of shock and envy were once again directed at Wang Baole. This was all because of Fairy Ling You’s reputation in the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect. Be it the level of her cultivation or her beauty, she was ranked first out of all female cultivators in the sect!

She was the ideal partner whom countless cultivators dreamed of and lusted after. Her esteemed rank in the sect, her level of cultivation, and her personality meant that she hardly ever initiated conversation with other cultivators in the sect. She treated other disciples in the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect like they were invisible. But now, she had just singled Wang Baole out.

That caught everyone’s attention and had everyone wondering the reasons behind her sudden singling out of Wang Baole. Even Duo Youzi’s eyes had widened upon hearing what she had said. Envy churned in his guts and left a bitter taste in his mouth as he watched Wang Baole step forward excitedly and chase after Fairy Ling You.

The damn boot-licker! Duo Youzi cursed in his heart and watched as Wang Baole reached Fairy Ling You’s side. With a wave of her sleeve, she led Wang Baole away and flew off. His guts started burning with jealousy, and he wasn’t the only cultivator who felt that way. They began making their way out of the hall.

While the crowd dispersed from the assembly venue, Fairy Ling You was flying ahead of Wang Baole in the skies above the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect, an icy expression on her face. She was silent for the entire journey. Wang Baole realized that this was her trying to take him down a notch. He didn’t know why she had ordered him to follow her, but he guessed it must have something to do with the reward he had been expecting.

Her hostile attitude was a clue. Others might not have realized it immediately, but Wang Baole wasn’t other people. He had held a high ranking position in the Federation and had done the same to many others in the past, so he obviously knew what was going on here.

Could it be that the Planet realm patriarch didn’t just reward me with a disciple’s status in the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect but has also arranged for me to be placed in the tenth army—an army that is the newest rising star in the sect? Wang Baole thought, pleasantly surprised. If that were truly the case, it would mean that he was off to a great start.

They approached their destination steadily as Wang Baole was lost in his thoughts. At this point, Fairy Ling You seemed to think that she had given him enough of a cold shoulder and finally spoke to him. Nevertheless, her tone of voice remained frosty, her words lined with ice. This might have something to do with her personality.

“From today onwards, you’re going to be a member of the Ice Phoenix Legion!” Having said that, Fairy Ling You stepped through and disappeared behind the gates of the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect.

Wang Baole’s eyes flashed, and he hurried after her. As he entered, his vision blurred momentarily. When he could see clearly again, he found himself in another location on the twin peaks.

He was in a desert, a vast expanse of ever-changing sand-scape with no end in sight. The twin peaks of the mountain stood towering in the desert, like two sharp swords pointing skyward. It was a majestic sight. In the distance was Fairy Ling You, her black armor glistening under the brilliant sun. An overwhelming power surged from her person. Wang Baole watched as the color of the skies shifted in response to the sudden power, and her armor transformed into a giant that towered ten thousand feet tall!

The giant exuded an overpowering aura, its sudden appearance summoning a sandstorm in the desert. In that instant, it was as if the desert had transformed into a tumultuous sea, waves of sand surging and crashing down, and violent splashes of sand flowing outward. Wang Baole scarcely had any time to react when the black armor reached out with its right hand and made a grab for him.

Alarm flashed across Wang Baole’s face, and while his instincts screamed at him to dodge, he shoved them down violently. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and allowed the hand to capture him. Fairy Ling You’s frosty voice sounded in his ear.

“So, you didn’t fight back then? It seems like you’re not that stupid after all. My army’s headquarters isn’t here, it’s on the seventh satellite orbiting the planet!”

As she spoke, the black-armored giant made a sudden charge, its heavy feet leaving craters in the ground as it leaped and raced straight for the skies. Its swift run sent it through the planet’s atmosphere in an instant. In the next moment, it appeared in space. Without a pause in its step, it took another step that landed it on one of the satellites surrounding the Sovereign Planet. It was the satellite farthest from the Sovereign Planet, the seventh satellite!

Seven satellites orbited around the Sovereign Planet, with the seventh being furthest away from the planet. Wang Baole estimated the distance separating this satellite from the Sovereign Planet to be six times that of the distance between the Federation and Earth’s moon. The satellite was approximately twice the size of Earth’s moon, and its appearance was rather unique—one half of the satellite was purple in color and the other half white. Between the two halves was a huge ravine that separated them clearly.

It was obvious that this couldn’t be a naturally occurring formation. The chances of it being man-made were higher.

Just as Wang Baole was narrowing his eyes and lost in deep thought, the black-armored giant took another step and raced towards the white-colored region of the satellite. Wang Baole could see the land more clearly as they approached the ground. He saw countless buildings lined neatly on the white-colored region, like foot soldiers in the army. They stood in neat circular rows, and in the center, there was a humongous statue of a green bird!

This was… the tenth army under the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect—the Ice Phoenix Legion!