Countdown 143:01:02.
Nearly one o'clock in the morning.
On the Indian Ocean, a luxury yacht is rapidly approaching the port of Mumbai at 30 knots.
A dozen or so North American models are still partying on the deck, swaying their enchanting figures. Around them, more than a dozen male Time Travelers are frolicking.
The power of the Kingdom and the Future Organization has given them unimaginable wealth, enough for them to indulge in pleasure.
Unlike the low-key Eastern Time Travelers, even though Nine Provinces is now fabulously wealthy, it is completely militarized, and no one dares to be so unrestrained in front of He Jinqiu.
Not to mention Kunlun, a group of bachelors.
On the luxury yacht, a white female Time Traveler is wearing a simple suit.
She coldly watches all this, showing no intention of participating. The male models prepared for her by the Royal Organization sit trembling on either side of her, like two quails.
The woman is in her thirties, and the waistline of her suit accentuates her figure perfectly.The atmosphere on the yacht is cheerful.
But strangely, an ancient oil painting is placed on the deck. The painting depicts a British-style clock tower with a huge mechanical clock on it.
Looking closely, the clock hands in the painting, which should be fixed, are still slowly moving.
The clock tower and the recreational atmosphere seem to belong to different eras.
Until 0:59, an Asian male suddenly walks out of the clock tower, from the painting onto the deck.
Arthur, the acting leader of the Royal Organization, wears a skull ring. In the two eye sockets of the skull, a bright green venomous snake winds around, forming the ring and its setting.
Forbidden Artifact: The artist's oil painting.
A painting 80 centimeters wide and 180 centimeters high. This painting “revives” every day at exactly 12 o'clock at night until 1 o'clock in the morning.
The contained person can enter it. The flow of time inside the painting is 96 times faster than outside.
This Forbidden Artifact is often used for Cultivation. It allows Cultivators to gain an extra four days.
But if the contained person does not come out before 1 a.m., they will forever become a part of the painting.
Hundreds of people frozen in the painting are those who got lost inside.
Forbidden Artifact: Skull ring.
This ring set consists of a main ring and a sub-ring. They were created by a Metahuman with extreme control issues. In his lifetime, seven of his wives couldn't bear his controlling nature and committed suicide.
The host wearing the main ring can control the person wearing the sub-ring.
This is also why the Kingdom's leader, K, can control Arthur.
Arthur, with his wheat-colored skin bare to the waist, walks onto the deck and smiles at the others: “We're about to reach Mumbai. We'll take a private plane directly to Kathmandu, Nepal. Our target is there. Let's have fun. After landing, everyone must maintain a clean lifestyle and prepare for battle.”
He then looks at the white female Time Traveler and smiles: “Nikita, you seem a bit bored.”
Nikita scoffs twice: “It's because your entertainment is too low-level. I don't need this kind of pleasure from animal instincts. Give me all the information on the target. I want to study how to kill them.”
Arthur pulls a USB drive from his beach shorts pocket and throws it to Nikita, reminding her: “This is information provided by the Shendai Consortium and the Koshima Consortium, but don't believe it entirely.”
“Didn't you say that Shendai and Koshima have surrendered to us?” Nikita says coldly.
“That's only temporary,” Arthur explains with a smile: “These two Eastern Continent conglomerates just want to use us to weaken the power of other conglomerates and use us to achieve the unification of the East Continent Federation. Once they feel we are no longer useful, they will immediately bite back. Therefore, they would rather we and the Qing Family, Li Clan, and Chen Family Conglomerate fight to the death than have one-sided crushing or being crushed.”
“Then why cooperate with them?”
“Because they know nothing about our power,” Arthur says: “Once the door to this East Continent is opened for us, it can't be closed again. Once we secure half the land of the Federation, the Roosevelt family will immediately provide more support. Shendai and Koshima don't know what kind of entity they're cooperating with.”
“What's the point of killing those three people?” Nikita asks.
Arthur laughs: “Actually, Shendai hopes we will spare Shendai Yunluo's life. They seem to have other uses for him. The other two can be killed directly. Qing Chen, one of them, has a very high influence in the East Continent and is a core figure in the Qing Family Conglomerate. The previous major strike in Shendai and Koshima was orchestrated by him. Also, the Joker who caused chaos in Europe in Amsterdam was also him.”
“Why didn't you tell me he was the Joker at the beginning!” Nikita shows obvious interest upon hearing the name Joker.
At this time, North America doesn't know much about Shendai and Koshima, nor are they interested in knowing.
The low-key Kunlun is even less so, having no presence there.
Of the East Continent Time Travelers in North America, the most well-known are Joker and He Jinqiu.
Arthur laughs: “Nikita, I see a desire for conquest in your eyes, just like your name.”
The name Nikita itself represents conquest.
“How strong are they?” Nikita licks her lips and asks.
“The information from Shendai indicates that he is a B-Class Cultivator, an A-Class Awakened One, a Thunder type. The girl with him is a rare Force field type,” Arthur recalls: “Shendai Yunluo is an A-Class Yin-Yang Master with six powerful Shikigami.”
“What Forbidden Artifacts does he carry?” Nikita asks.
Arthur shakes his head: “Shendai and Koshima didn't say, only that he possesses a Forbidden Artifact that can freely change his appearance.”
Nikita scoffs coldly: “Such a powerful person couldn't possibly not have other Forbidden Artifacts? At least I know that if he is the Joker, the power of his Forbidden Artifact must be on him. Shendai and Koshima don't know this?”
Arthur laughs: “That's why I said to be careful of Shendai and Koshima.”
At this moment, the Black Sea luxury yacht has docked in Mumbai, and everyone changes clothes to prepare for landing.
At the port, a large logistics team is already waiting. It is the Royal Organization's advance force.
There is a very clear hierarchy within the Royal Organization.
The most ferocious Time Travelers have their own individual letter codes.
For example, the leader of the Royal Organization, Kg, code name K.
For example, Nikita, code name Z.
Arthur, the puppet, also has an independent code name, A.
Within the entire organization, the existence of all Time Travelers is to serve these Time Travelers with letter codes.
This time, the Royal Organization has sent A and Z, both A-Class, to kill Qing Chen.
From the Future Organization, there is also Mike, an A-Class expert, participating. Zheng Yuandong has interacted with this Mike before. His eyes can release death rays. The high-temperature rays move with his gaze and can burn down buildings.
Besides the Kingdom and the Future Organization, there is also Koshima's A-Class Li Yunze and another A-Class Time Traveler.
Shendai's A-Class Yin-Yang Master, Shendai Kongyu.
Six A-Class, Qing Chen has no reason to survive.
Nikita asks: “So, should Shendai Yunluo be killed?”
“No, as far as I know, the person in charge of Shendai is coveting his body,” Arthur laughs: “But what I want to do is talk to Shendai Yunluo and see if he has any thoughts of overthrowing the current Shendai Family. Instead of Shendai creating trouble for us, let's create some trouble for them.”
Nikita suddenly asks: “Actually, the Roosevelt family doesn't trust you very much, so you are eager to prove yourself to them. I think the Roosevelt family might be even more anxious than you because the Forbidden Zone area in North America is already too large, almost covering 80% of the land. According to everyone's estimates, perhaps in less than fifty years, it will be completely covered by the Forbidden Zone.”
Arthur smiles without answering.
At this time, someone calls via satellite phone. Arthur listens for a moment and then becomes serious.
After hanging up, Arthur says to Nikita: “Just now, the Future Organization found out that Qing Chen might not be A-Class, but a Demi-God! He is immune to the judgment of the Forbidden Artifact hypnosis receiver.”
“Demi-God?” Nikita is stunned: “If you're asking us to challenge a Demi-God, I suggest we leave on this yacht right now, immediately.”
Arthur shakes his head: “I always feel something is strange. With the talent of Arthur's body, plus the Forbidden Artifact artist's oil painting, he has only recently been promoted to A-Class. He was just an ordinary person when he became a Time Traveler. How could he reach S-class? I don't think he can be a Demi-God. If he were a Demi-God, he wouldn't have needed to leave when he attacked City 20. He could have killed more people.
Arthur continues: “If he's not a Demi-God, there are two possibilities now. One is that the Shendai Consortium is deceiving us. They hope we will come to find this Joker to die, so as to weaken our strength. The other possibility is that this Joker is not that powerful, but has bypassed the judgment of the Forbidden Artifact through other methods. However, Shendai hasn't achieved his goal through us yet. He still needs us and has no reason to kill us. So I am inclined to the latter judgment: he might just have something that counteracts the hypnosis receiver.”
Nikita asks: “But what if Joker is really a Demi-God? You're just a substitute. It doesn't matter if you die, but what about us?”
Arthur shakes his head: “Even if it's a substitute, it's the best substitute I can find. I would be heartbroken if he died.”
Arthur is also a little hesitant at this point. As Nikita said, everything he just said is speculation. No one knows whether Joker is really a Demi-God.
This is like Schrödinger's cat. Until it is dead, you can never be sure of Joker's strength.
“Let's observe again,” Arthur's voice gradually calms down: “Let's use lives to test it. This time, we not only have a large number of A-Class experts, but also many bottom-of-the-box Forbidden Artifacts. Even if he is a Demi-God, I want to try.”
Qing Chen pretending to be a Demi-God might allow him to temporarily survive his injuries, but the consequence is that his opponents will be unimaginably strong.
There are only so many A-Class experts in the Outer World. Now nearly half of them are about to arrive in Nepal to treat him as an ultimate Outer World boss.
This is certainly not what Qing Chen wants to see, but he has no choice.
He needs time.
On the one hand, he needs time to recover from his injuries. Only when he is at his peak can he play with these Time Travelers.
On the other hand, there is still a crisis in the Inner World. He cannot return with new injuries. He must take several others to continue hunting Chen Family soldiers to prevent the Fire Pit from being wiped out.
Therefore, it is not suitable to fight now.
He has to pretend to be a Demi-God, and he has to do it convincingly.
By the campfire in Luobqie Village, Qing Chen smiles at Xiao Zhang, the tour guide: “Dare to assassinate a Demi-God? Do you have nine lives?”
On the other side of the communication channel, someone heard Qing Chen admit this personally and felt a moment of suffocation.
Xiao Zhang, the tour guide, despairingly tears off his button and throws it into the campfire. The communication is cut off.
Next door, Shendai Yunluo and the women are singing and dancing, while the atmosphere on Qing Chen's side is calm. Except for him and Xiao Zhang, the tour guide, everyone else is asleep.
Qing Chen smiles and says: “Give me my receiver.”
Xiao Zhang, the tour guide: “…”
He dares not say anything and quickly hands over the receiver.
Qing Chen asks: “Do you have any other of my Forbidden Artifacts on you?”
Xiao Zhang, the tour guide: “None.”
Qing Chen is a little regretful: “Why didn't you bring more? You lack the proper respect for me.”
The receiver is still playing the news.