Chapter 466: Making Promises? As If It’s Hard.

The Wind and Thunder Egg pulsed with a strong, powerful beat, transforming from its once-hollow appearance into something brimming with vitality.

According to the device’s readings, a brand-new lifeform that combined both wind and thunder was pulsing within.

It was the child of both the Wind God, who had yet to appear, and the Thunder God, who had yet to be born.

The true protagonist of this hollow world.

Fortunately, its protagonist halo hadn’t fully formed yet; it was just a chaotic mass of energy. This allowed Qi Suian to suppress it directly with his own protagonist halo, so he didn’t have to worry about any trouble for the time being.

"It’s good enough that it’s alive. As for hatching... it can forget about that for the rest of its life," Qi Suian murmured.

This wasn’t just because of the restrictions Qi Suian had imposed; there were also issues with the environment and timing.

With Qi Suian’s help, the Wind and Thunder Egg had become exceptionally advantaged. The prerequisite for it to hatch, at the very least, was the convergence of the powers of the Wind God and Thunder God to act as a catalyst.

Furthermore, it also needed an environment with sufficiently dense energy and for its protagonist halo to fully develop.

Achieving the catalyst alone—the first condition—was extremely difficult.

There was a Wind King, but no Wind God.

Qi Suian had considered helping the Profound Mechanism Wind King devour the other Wind Kings and become a Wind God on par with the Thunder God.

But he had no intention of hatching the Wind and Thunder Egg.

There was no use in hatching it; in fact, it would be a net loss.

He temporarily sealed the Wind and Thunder Egg away, greatly reducing its activity before placing it in a low-energy-density region for storage.

An energy concentration that was too high would make it overly active, and that wasn’t good news.

It was true that the Wind and Thunder Egg couldn’t hatch without the right conditions, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t grow stronger.

Now that its deficiencies had been filled, it would instinctively draw in external energy. But since it couldn’t hatch, this energy would all be converted into its potential and the egg’s own strength.

This meant that the later it hatched, the higher its potential would be—it might even surpass its parents, who didn’t even exist yet.

’Though, that’s just my theory. Most likely, there’s a cap, but that cap is just very hard to reach,’ Qi Suian mused.

After dealing with the Wind and Thunder Egg, Qi Suian took out a wisp of wind.

The wisp of wind didn’t flow away, but swirled quietly in his hand.

The wind was a gift from the Profound Mechanism Wind King, a part of the being itself.

It was akin to its flesh and blood, but different due to the Wind King’s unique form of life.

Normally, a Wind King’s wind *is* its flesh and blood. If Qi Suian could just capture a single wisp, it would be like obtaining a piece of its body.

However, because wind is inherently alive and flowing, Qi Suian had been unable to hold onto it.

Even if he used force, all he would get was lifeless, moving air—useless for research.

But this wisp was different. The Profound Mechanism Wind King had given it willingly, so there was no need to worry about any issues.

If he infused this wisp of wind into the body of his "second consciousness," its power would skyrocket, perhaps even enough to make it a preeminent Lord of Wind.

But Qi Suian hadn’t considered that at all. Instead, he began to study it in depth.

"So, you obtained this wisp of me just to observe me?" the Profound Mechanism Wind King’s voice emanated from the wind.

"That’s right. I want to understand the nature of a Wind King," Qi Suian stated frankly.

Qi Suian wasn’t surprised that the Profound Mechanism Wind King could communicate with him through the wisp. It was, after all, a part of the king. The entity’s very structure was wind.

So this wisp could be considered a miniature Profound Mechanism Wind King.

"A Wind King is wind. There’s nothing more to it. Your observations are a waste of time. You’d be better off using this time to kill more Thunder Spirits."

"The rewards I can give you are far more valuable than anything you could learn from observation," the Profound Mechanism Wind King offered as a friendly suggestion.

"It’s already in motion," Qi Suian replied casually. "Carrying out a large-scale hunt for Thunder Spirits requires extensive preparation."

"Take last time, for example. The reason I could easily eliminate several thousand Thunder Spirits wasn’t just due to my abilities and equipment, but also because I had enough time to carefully lay my groundwork."

"It’s a lengthy process. So, in the meantime, I need something to kill time."

Qi Suian wasn’t exactly brushing the Profound Mechanism Wind King off. He had simply reversed his priorities, a subtlety the Wind King wouldn’t be able to detect.

"Very well. I await your next results." The Profound Mechanism Wind King didn’t press him further, accepting his explanation.

"Enough about that. I want to know, how many Thunder Spirits are still on you?" Qi Suian asked.

’With the Wind and Thunder Egg taken care of, I need to start the next phase of my preparations: the two scapegoats, the Wind God and the Thunder God.’

’I don’t need to worry about the Thunder God; it’s already in the process of being born.’

’But the Wind God is a different story. I have to manually craft that one myself.’

’And to make the Profound Mechanism Wind King into the Wind God, the first step is to purge the Thunder Spirits from its body.’

"You want to take care of them all at once?" The Profound Mechanism Wind King sensed Qi Suian’s true intentions.

"That’s right," Qi Suian said, offering an excuse. "I was just thinking... if you were to absorb all the other Wind Kings and become a Wind God on par with the Thunder God, would the reward you give me be even greater?"

The Profound Mechanism Wind King fell silent for a long while before finally replying, "If you succeed, you will be my sole Divine Chosen."

As a Wind King, It was generous—especially to those who proved their worth.

"We can talk about being the ’sole chosen’ after the job is done. Right now, I need a specific number of Thunder Spirits." Qi Suian wasn’t about to fall for its empty promises.

Even though he knew the Profound Mechanism Wind King would likely make good on its promise if he succeeded, Qi Suian’s ambitions lay elsewhere.

In some ways, the Profound Mechanism Wind King was actually a great boss. It was a shame Qi Suian wasn’t just a simple employee; otherwise, it would have been a job for life.

As long as you were diligent and hardworking, it would take care of you for life.

Of course, that was all contingent on it actually becoming a Wind God. Otherwise, his real job was being a soldier in its war, and no matter how dedicated a soldier is, they can still end up dead.

"There are still quite a lot. I can give you a rough visualization." As the Profound Mechanism Wind King spoke, the wisp of wind Qi Suian was studying morphed into the shape of a fish.

This was a rough map of the Profound Mechanism Wind King’s body. Then, densely packed specks materialized across the fish’s form. Each speck represented a single Thunder Spirit.

The several thousand Thunder Spirits Qi Suian had already dealt with weren’t even a rounding error compared to the total number on the Profound Mechanism Wind King.

The vast number made Qi Suian’s focus sharpen.

’At least a million of them. But that also means the Profound Mechanism Wind King is composed of a million islands—a truly vast domain.’

This, however, created a problem: Qi Suian had no way to spread his fibrous bodies to every single one of the Profound Mechanism Wind King’s nodes in a short amount of time.

At the same time, the difficulty of Qi Suian’s plan to turn the Profound Mechanism Wind King into the Wind God skyrocketed.

’The other Wind Kings might not be any smaller than the Profound Mechanism Wind King.’

’On top of that, I’ll probably have to reassess the Thunder God’s power level.’

’A large body doesn’t guarantee strength, but something on the scale of a Wind King is bound to be terrifyingly powerful.’

The sheer scale was terrifying to behold.

"That many? I’m not sure we have that much time."

"At my current rate, I can’t possibly deal with millions of them, let alone the rival Wind Kings, who are likely just as massive."

’It was a daunting task, but Qi Suian prepared to bite the bullet and take it on.’

’There was actually a silver lining. Once this was all over, the power ceilings of the Wind God and Thunder God would be higher, meaning they could absorb more of the backlash for me.’

’And that meant my chances of success would be higher.’

"Don’t worry. As long as you can provide enough of your ’bugs,’ I have a way to deliver them to every single Thunder Spirit in a short amount of time."

"What you should be worried about is whether you can eliminate all these Thunder Spirits in time," the Profound Mechanism Wind King said, ignoring Qi Suian’s concern about rival Wind Kings and focusing solely on the Thunder Spirits.

As long as It could free itself from the weakening, parasitic drain of the Thunder Spirits, It was confident that Its own power was enough to devour all the other Wind Kings in short order.

It had been weakened by the thunderous Thunder Spirits that appeared with the birth of the Thunder God. As a result, It couldn’t take to the field itself and had to resort to a proxy war using Its Lords of Wind and Wind Spirits.

The Profound Mechanism Wind King wasn’t the only one in this predicament; all the Wind Kings were in the same boat.

However, if It were free of the thunderous Thunder Spirits, It would recover from its weakness. At that point, even if not at full strength, It could act personally, and devouring the other Wind Kings would be a simple matter.

As for the Thunder Spirits inside the other Wind Kings? That wasn’t a concern. A Wind King is wind. It didn’t need to swallow them whole; it only needed to devour the wind itself.

"No problem. I just need a place and some resources."

"Sacrifice a hundred or so islands for me, and the rest won’t be a problem," Qi Suian stated calmly.

’It’s just a matter of digestion and absorption. I’ll just release my fibrous bodies to consume a hundred or so islands, along with their Wind Spirits and Hurricane Beasts. Then I can assign ten fibrous bodies to each Thunder Spirit as locators.’

’The remaining ones can form a massive furnace. It’ll be a piece of cake.’

’If that’s still not enough, I can just shove the Wind and Thunder Egg in to act as an operational core. That should give me at least three to five more module slots.’

"Done. As long as you can eliminate all the Thunder Spirits on me, I will give you a thousand islands. It doesn’t matter if they all end up destroyed." The Profound Mechanism Wind King had just upped the offer by an order of magnitude.

Qi Suian’s face lit up. "You’ve got a deal!"

’This is a double blessing!’

’Not only did this solve the transportation problem, it also covered the costs. For me, this is pure profit.’

’As for being overwhelmed? That wasn’t a concern at all.’

’The simplest reason was that the Thunder Spirits wouldn’t arrive all at once, but in waves.’

’So there was no need to worry about the load.’

"How long will it take?" the Profound Mechanism Wind King asked, inquiring about the project’s timeline.

"Three days. How long will it take you to send the Thunder Spirits over?" Qi Suian countered with his own question about the timeline.

"The closest in ten minutes, the furthest in twenty-four hours." The Wind King’s answer was somewhat unexpected to Qi Suian.

’I thought it would take at least forty-eight hours, but it only needs a day. Looks like it wasn’t going all-out last time.’

"Alright. It’s settled then," Qi Suian agreed.