Seized by the System

The great green insect looked upwards at the sky first, before it lowered its head to look towards the ground as exclaimed in shock, “Father Chong, why did you return as well? I thought you would only be coming home for new year’s. Is the matter that the Great Azure Dragon wanted that person to relay, which was the animation shown in the clouds just now, that serious?”

As it turned out, when Vigilante A had appeared at the edge of the sky, Bodhisattva Spirit King had already silently appeared on the bluestone plain.

Bodhisattva smiled a mirthless smile and replied, “Indeed. A sudden thought hit me just now, so I left the Demonic Realm and decided to come home to check things out. I never expected to receive a Wechat message from the Venerable Dragon God right after leaving the realm, so I rushed over before the Venerable One immediately.”

Right as his words faded, Vigilante A descended from the sky and was immediately pestered by the great green insect.

“Great Azure Dragon, quickly pay up the meals you owe me. If you drag things out any longer, I’m worried I’ll forget about them entirely.”

The great green insect completely ignored Father Chong and flew onto Vigilante A’s shoulders in a rush, before it tugged endlessly at the latter’s clothes.

“Oh, there was a total of four meals. However, I have some proper business to attend to first, so don’t worry,” deadpanned Vigilante A.

“Oh, so all those meals that you treated me to before don’t count as proper business…”

The great green insect was stunned at Vigilante A’s words before it flew off, its head bowed down in sorrow. It landed atop a platform somewhere in the bluestone plain, cheerless and gloomy.

Lu Er immediately rushed over to wait on it.

Although the Lord Insect Prime only had eating on its mind, it had an abundance of legs; simply hugging one meant that Lu Er no longer needed to use his imagination.

Despite the fact that Fang Ning did feel slightly apologetic towards the great green insect, he just did not have the ability to take the great green insect’s feelings into consideration right now. The System would never bat an eye at something like this either.

At this moment, Vigilante A, Bodhisattva Spirit King, and Gu Buwei all shared a glance before they flew up high into the sky.

The great green insect was originally lying face down on the platform but once it noticed that the trio had flown up, it flipped itself to face upwards and merely watched the three dots in the sky, entirely unwilling to follow them.

Lu Er immediately comforted, “The Venerable One has always been a man of his word, so I’m sure he won’t forget to treat you to a meal. He’ll definitely descend after he’s done with his business.”

“Oh, is that so? Then I’ll wait a bit longer for him,” said the great green insect listlessly.

Lu Er could not help but feel frustrated at the situation, but he just could not understand how that single sentence from the Venerable Dragon God could affect the Lord Insect Prime so much.

At the same time, the three heroes stood tall high in the air as cold wind gusted around them.

Who was Cao Wei, who was Liu Bei, and who was Sun Wu? ¹

A grand spectacle was about to unfold on a magnificent scale…

“Zhi Nan’s secular surname was Ji, and he used to be the prince of a small country in the desert. He was quite the handsome fellow, and was incredibly refined. A river god that resided in a small river that passed through the country harbored a crush on him for many years, so he had always been well taken care off.

“Nobody expected that more a decade later, the everchanging world caused the country to go into ruin. The desert covered the entire country and the river disappeared, the river god together with it. Thus, a romance between a human and a god ended just like that. Once Prince Ji finally understood what had happened, it was already too late to change things, so he could only leave to become a monk…”

Alright, the beginning of this magnificent spectacle was kicked off by Bodhisattva Spirit King spreading gossip…

Gu Buwei was expressionless, as was Vigilante A; it seemed that they had no interest in gossip.

However, Fang Ning was listening eagerly; the backstory of this Big Boss really was quite complicated.

After listening to everything, Fang Ning fell into deep thought.

Suddenly, Fang Ning had a guess; perhaps the thing that Zhi Nan actually wanted to do would be world-shaking and incredibly outrageous.

In an instant, Fang Ning’s imagination went wild as he jumped to various conclusions. He could not help but feel terribly afraid and shocked.

The System asked confusedly, “Mr. Rich Boss, you merely heard some gossip so why are your emotions fluctuating so crazily?

“Could it be that you went through something similar as well? Do you actually come from a ridiculous background? Maybe I should help you find your birth parents and you’ll gain some superb ability too, then we’ll be invincible.”

Fang Ning vomited blood at the System’s statement. The System had been influenced by him too much, this kind of nonsense sounded exactly like something Fang Ning would say…

He urgently replied, “That’s only something that happens to protagonists of novels, okay? I’m very normal. Other than the fact that I grew up alone, I don’t have some special backstory…”

At the same time, Fang Ning subdued his imagination and hid it deep away in his heart. He did not tell the System, since there was no point in doing so.

After listening to the Bodhisattva Spirit King, Gu Buwei calmly said, “Thank you for your advice, Bodhisattva, but how are we going to eliminate him?

“Even if the strengths of the Spirit Bear or the Celestial Bear surpass him, I’m afraid there’s still nothing they can do.”

Bodhisattva Spirit King shook his head with a smile and said, “Brother Gu, I think you’ve misunderstood me… I rushed back not because I want to eliminate him, but because I want to make an agreement with him.”

Gu Buwei furrowed his eyebrows as he said, “Bodhisattva, do explain.

Bodhisattva Spirit King then replied, “I want him to promise that one, he will not use Enchantment to have people give up their physical bodies to enter the Paradise Realm.

“Two, he must not forcefully interfere with the birth, aging, sickness, and death of living beings by letting any souls enter before they have died.

“Three, he must not force anyone into serving him as he can only accept voluntary servitude.”

Gu Buwei nodded his head after listening to Bodhisattva Spirit King, “That would work as well.”

Vigilante A uncertainly asked, “This demon is always running around everywhere, so I’m sure he’s preparing for something major. Why don’t the Bodhisattva and I cooperate to get rid of him?”

Bodhisattva smiled bitterly and shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but I cannot.”

Gu Buwei nodded his head as well, clearly understanding what Bodhisattva meant.

The System despondently said, “Mr. Rich Boss, you go speak to these pair of idiots, I have no idea what they’re saying…”

Fang Ning regained control of his body and Vigilante A nodded his head immediately.

The System exclaimed in shock, “You understand what they’re saying?”

Fang Ning deadpanned, “Easy, the one that descended is only a double of Zhi Nan, so what would destroying him do? He can just send another one down, and maybe Bodhisattva has other worries as well.”

“What a waste, and here I thought if the three of us pooled our strengths together, we would be able to defeat this demon lord. Just imagine the amount of experience points…”

“You’re in over your head, a Big Boss like this practically registered at the Heavenly Axiom. He isn’t like those monsters you usually farm on a daily basis and he would probably only die once the story progresses…”

“The way you’re explaining things only makes everything harder to understand. You know what, all three of you can keep discussing but I’m going off to practice…” muttered the System bitterly.

At this moment, Gu Buwei said, “Since Bodhisattva already said he would be making an agreement with him, there should be some certainty of success.”

Bodhisattva Spirit King shook his head and said, “That is not for certain, since it would merely be a time for me to convince him and hopefully make things work.”

Gu Buwei was stunned and Vigilante A was dumbfounded at the revelation.

No certainty for success, and yet the Bodhisattva was talking about something that went “one, two, three”. Everybody was a logical person here, so who was he acting so cool for?

As the trio continued their discussion, a voice sounded from somewhere up in the air.

“Hehe, Brother Mo, who would have expected that you would still gossip about somebody else’s private matters despite being the Bodhisattva…”

A long-haired man in a black robe that covered his entire body had appeared, and who else would it be other than Zhi Nan himself?

He was the most shameless one here, yet he had the guts to berate somebody else?

Only one thought emerged in Both Fang Ning and Gu Buwei’s minds.

“Mr. Ji, it has been a while, I hope you’ve been well.” Noticing the situation, Bodhisattva greeted with his palms together.

“Haha, all is well. Things have been exceptionally well especially after I came to this place too. The circle has finally come back around as it is my turn to flourish now,” said Zhi Nan with a smile.

The pair of them were actually close acquaintances? It was no wonder the Bodhisattva Spirit King knew so much about Zhi Nan’s past.

“I believe Mr. Ji has definitely heard everything I said just now, what do you think of it?”

The Bodhisattva Spirit King seemed to be quite courteous towards Demon Lord Zhi Nan.

“Is this Bodhisattva doing business in secret with that demon lord? Why isn’t he acting like before, where we would just get straight to beating a demon up together? Richie, you better not let them trick you,” warned the System.

“If I had to wait for you to remind me to stay alert towards somebody’s schemes, we would have been defeated long ago,” retorted Fang Ning ruthlessly.

“Uh…” Fang Ning had been rendered speechless.

“I disagree,” said Zhi Nan calmly.

“Uh…” The trio shared a wordless glance.

“Haha, you’re all stunned. I knew this demon lord can only be subdued through battle,” lilted the System.

“But isn’t the problem being that we can’t subdue him through fighting? Otherwise why did you think the Bodhisattva started bragging?”

“Oh, so Bodhisattva is the same type of human as you who starts bragging once they realize they can’t win the fight… Ah, I understand now.”

A brief moment later, Bodhisattva said with a dignified tone, “If that’s the case, are you planning on defying the sky again?” ²

Zhi Nan suddenly looked up at the sky, his disheveled hair going everywhere as he laughed, ” Hahaha, here you go with that again! There was a sky in the Upper Realm, but there is none in this one! ³

“That’s right, there is a Heavenly Axiom on Earth, but so what? It is merely commanding two tiny planets. Our Solar System is vast and immeasurable, and the land below my feet is merely another advantage for me because I’ve obtained the only entrance to this realm. I can settle down here and if the sky decides to subdue me again, I’ll just go somewhere else to make a fresh start…”

Hearing this, Gu Buwei came to a sudden realization and immediately interrupted, “So all that Demonic Energy I saw rising up into the sky was your doing!”

Zhi Nan regained his calm and replied, “As expected of one of the nine Demon Deities I had sensed, you are correct. That gust of Demonic Energy was released by me when I descended into this realm. It is currently travelling around the Solar System of this realm and looking for other planets that support life.

“A wide sea allows fish to leap about, a vast sky allows birds to fly! ⁴ Once the wind blows in my favor, who can stop me? Hahahaha!”

Right as he finished speaking, he started laughing maniacally once more.

Humans have always been like that; when in front of people they are close to, showing off increases drastically…

Fang Ning understood where the other party was coming from, but he still could not resist throwing a wet blanket at Zhi Nan.

“Demon Lord, I wonder if you’ve ever learnt human astronomy. Nothing can be confirmed for planets that are too far, but it’s been confirmed that the planets within a few light years do not support life. Do you know just how far a light year is?”

“9, 460, 730, 472, 580, 800 meters. Are you calling that a large number?” asked Zhi Nan calmly.

“Uh,” Fang Ning was instantly rendered speechless. He did not know if Zhi Nan had spoken the truth or not either, so he immediately had the System check online.

“That’s right… It’s written in some encyclopedia,” answered the System.

Fang Ning then replied, “Haha, it would seem that the Demon Lord has devoted quite the time and energy into research. How many years would it take for your Demonic Energy to travel such a distance?”

“No effort, really, I just found it while looking through some books,” retorted Zhi Nan proudly before he continued, “Such a distance may seem like an impossible feat given the current state of human technology.

“However, you seem to have forgotten that among the four people here, three other than you don’t care for the speed limit on light-speed, since we possess the Space Diversion ability…”

The System dejectedly said, “That’s bad, Mr. Rich Boss, you’ve been slapped twice…”

“Shut up, I have lost my entire face because of you, so there’s nothing for him to slap!” Fang Ning was angered beyond belief.

Although he did put it that way, he still had to regain his dignity…

He wracked his brain when inspiration hit him suddenly, to which he immediately retorted, “Haha, distance may not be a problem but you seem to have forgotten something. The Solar System is a materialistic one, and vitality has recovered to it as well. That vitality must’ve come from the Upper Realm.

“Since Earth is the only entrance, would there be vitality on other planets? Haha, I believe Daddy Axiom… no, the Heavenly Axiom of Earth would never let even a single bit of vitality leak out from here. If you want to start anew and be free from the restrictions of the Heavenly Axiom, I’m afraid it’s easier said than done…”

Hearing this, Zhi Nan’s face took on a ghastly expression.

It was obvious that Fang Ning had landed an attack right on his weak spot.

Gu Buwei and Bodhisattva Spirit King smiled at the retort but said nothing as they looked towards Vigilante A with admiration.

They could not be blamed for not thinking of that, since they were used to living in a world of cultivation, which meant that they had little understanding of science; they already had a fixed mindset, so there was no need for them to even think about science.

However, Fang Ning was different. He has read countless novels, which meant he had an active imagination that could come up with varying ideas, thus allowing him to immediately realize the lynchpin of everything.