Seized by the System

In a secret meeting room inside the Land of Heritage, in the new headquarters of the Truth Department, on the 300th floor of the 365-story building.

A group of Elders, along with the Qiao siblings were gathered here.

Seeing as everyone had arrived, Ren Ruofeng spoke up first, “Captain Hong, you’re in charge of logistics, have you come up with the calculations for the distribution of the billion Dan unit of magical energy?”

Hong Yunjiao’s expression was heavy, as she spoke evenly, “I’ve made the arrangements from the market, and they’re all stored inside the ‘Magical Provenance’ in the Magical Energy Bank. We’ve spent a great amount of effort to deploy this magical energy, it’s very unlikely that we’ll be able to do it again in a short period of time.”

Hearing this, Ren Ruofeng let out a breath he had been holding and reassured her, “Don’t worry, it’s always hard the first time. Once the Population Inflating Plan is completed, we’ll be able to levy an Arcane Realm Refuge Adjustment Tax to be repaid in the form of magical energy. In the future, there’ll be a population of at least more than ten billion cultivators, and the magical energy produced in a day would be more than enough to pay it forward ten times.”

Qiao Zijiang’s eyes turned red at his words, but she said nothing.

Qiao Zishan, however, stood up and bowed to thank him, “On behalf of my deceased uncle, we thank all the Elders for their care.”

“Zishan need not be so humble,” Principal Xu waved his hand and said, “Anping died for the sake of the organization, this is official matters; reviving him is not a personal matter, you don’t have to thank us, if you must, thank the organization.”

Qiao Zishan nodded.

Had they not relied on an organization as large as the Truth Department but by themselves, they would not be able to gather such a large amount of magical energy without using three to five years at least.

This was not a problem of money, but the fact that there was very little magical energy stock left in the market even money could not buy. Only a large organization like China had the resources and connections capable of making arrangements to allocate the sum.

If they had to wait for another three or five years, even if they managed to resurrect their uncle, they would have missed the precious window of strategic cultivation; by that time, if all his other peers had moved on ahead of the game, and climbed the ranks, where would their uncle stand?

Ren Ruofeng then instructed him, “Gathering magical energy is just the first step. The next thing to do is for you and your siblings to seek the Venerable Dragon God’s help to search for Anping’s soul. They’ve fought side by side before and have a profound friendship. The Venerable Dragon God’s always valued the ties of brotherhood, he won’t refuse to help, I’ll leave this matter to you and your siblings. Once this is done, we’ll go to the Bodhisattva Spirit King and have him resurrect your uncle. Now is the time for him to lend us his power.”

“Yes, Elder Ren. Zishan will do as you say.” Qiao Zishan said solemnly.

That said, he still had a question left unanswered in his mind. If his uncle was resurrected, would he be able to regain his Cultivation Base quickly?

Or did they need to use that method of infusion? However, in doing so, would his past attainments still be maintained?

Nonetheless, he does not want to raise these questions now in order to avoid giving off the impression that he was too demanding in front of these Elders.

“Alright, there’s not a moment to lose, you should go now. The rest of us have other matters to discuss.” Ren Ruofeng said kindly.

Qiao Zishan immediately took his sister and left the meeting room. The only reason he had called them in was that he knew about their uncle’s resurrection.

After that, the siblings had no business in the rest of the meeting’s itinerary.

Once the two had left, Ren Ruofeng stood and walked to the window. Looking out, he let out a long, heavy sigh.

“Alright, don’t just keep sighing, it’s a waste of time; if you have something to say, then say it.” Hong Yunjiao said, getting impatient.

“Our beloved motherland has fallen to this point; if we cannot restore it to its former glory, then it is a disgrace to call ourselves the sons of the land!” Ren Ruofeng’s tone suddenly turned fierce.

Hong Yunjiao lowered her head and turned quiet at his outburst.

For a time, tension filled the meeting room.

Each person in the room embraced their conflicted thoughts. Even if they were the Elders at the top of the organization, there were still times when even they would hesitate.

Before, under the pressure of the gods, they had been forced to sign an agreement that would set the stone for them to migrate to a different planet thirty years later.

Despite this, everyone knew that it was just a temporary measure, they would never go through with it.

However, now they were being forced by a ground of invisible evil spirits to the point where they had to give up their lands outside.

Even though this was a strategy that they planned out a long time ago, to a certain extent, they also seemed to be one step closer to the unification of the entire human race.

Although in the original plan, they had only intended to move the population into the arcane realm, centralize management and reduce security expenditures but never intended to give up their land for good.

As only the vast, rich lands outside could provide the most valuable resources for cultivation.

They would be lucky if they were able to survive just on the hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land in the Land of Heritage, much less support future development.

Now, because of that Shadow King, a great deal of their property and resource bases were on the brink of suspension and forced relocation.

Humans could survive inside buildings, but lands needed to build estates and grow medicinal herbs could not be minimized just like that.

What’s more, the pressure brought about as a consequence of concentrating everything into this tiny piece of land in the Land of Heritage would be impossibly difficult to handle, even for an all-purpose bacteria.

That was why they could not give up their resource and industrial centers outside.

Therefore, the only ones left who could work outside were the spiritually-controlled mechs and a handful of powerful cultivators.

The Elders knew that this was the problem they were gathered here for today.

“Captain Hong, how many people are there that have reached the intermediate level of the “Cultivation of the Spirit”?” Ren Ruofeng turned out and posed the question that they had been expecting.

“According to statistics from the Red Queen, twelve million.” Hong Yunqiao promptly responded.

“Elder Xu, how is the production of the spiritually-controlled mechs?” He asked again.

“The core production line has been relocated inside the Land of Heritage, located north of the non-polluted industrial area. With sufficient raw materials, we can produce five thousand units per day.” Elder Xu answered gravely.

“Then begin training the operating personnel at once, then gradually replace the remaining personnel with them so that we will be able to reach full remote control operation status.” Ren Ruofeng said conclusively.

Everyone nodded in agreement. This was the best strategy they had at the moment.

After the discussion was over, Elder Hai momentarily sighed, “I just got wind that even the Venerable Dragon has moved all his subordinates inside the secret realm. To see the day that these evil spirits would become so rampant.”

“It can’t be helped. These evil spirits are different from all other enemies we’ve ever faced, they’re unscrupulous and have no reservations whatsoever. The scale of the battle is tipped in their favor, they can kill our people, our children, our family, but they don’t feel such emotions, they exist as beings of pure evil, no matter how many of them we kill, it will never be evened out.” Ren Ruofeng said as he shook his head.

“Indeed, no matter how strong the Venerable Dragon God is, he’s still no match for these unscrupulous beings. The best we can do is to ensure that our backs are covered first, only then we may focus all our energy on dealing with these vile spirits.”

This was the first that they have ever come across an enemy such as this, all those other devils they had encountered in the past now appeared paltry in comparison.

At least those devils were organized and had some form of basic civilization and were negotiable. They could even coexist with the seemingly dirty Greater Rat clan so long as both practiced the non-interference rule.

As for those high and mighty Gods who sat on their thrones high above and oppressed all others; well, at least, for the sake of their face, they would not kill indiscriminately without reason.

Only these new devils and demons held no fear whatsoever and thrived on spreading terror and fear; unfortunately, they were also formless and unpalpable, leaving their hands tied.

Currently, they could only retreat inside the arcane realm as a means of coping with the situation. Had they not been prepared for this, the current situation would have been a thousand times worse, and the world would have likely fallen into doomsday chaos by now.

“Is there really no other way?” Ren Ruofeng said.

Everyone was silent.

Suddenly, Elder Feng who had been out of the picture for a while now, the stubborn old man in charge of the cultivation abilities spoke up, “Perhaps the Gods will know what to do. The young ones, those young ones who’ve received God’s Missionary, they might be able to surprise us.”

…

“Venerable One, is there really no way to banish these evil spirits?”

Qiao Zijiang, who had finally calmed down after retrieving her uncle’s soul from the reincarnation ground in the Land of Sanguinity could not help but ask.

“There is a way. If someone could provide a large amount of high-quality pills or enough pure magical energy, I will be able to use the Spiritual Ascension and eliminate these evil spirits for good. However, this is incredibly costly, and not any organization can afford to pay the price.” Vigilante A said evenly.

“I see.” Qiao Zijiang kept his words close to heart and left together with Qiao Zishan and their uncle’s soul.

After the two had left, Fang Ning applauded, “How shrewd of you, Sir System. You were just talking about recouping and recuperating earlier, and now that the opportunity’s presented itself you immediately take advantage of it.”

“Oh, Big Billionaire Host, you know me so well. After all, someone else is paying, isn’t it, why not use them?” Sir System said gleefully.

“That’s true. Your way of getting things without paying anything is getting better.”

“That’s because the Host has taught me well.”

“Don’t, I’ve never taught you anything.”